There is something slightly poetic about [card]Dark Depths[/card] dominating Legacy events while the Midwest is trapped in a seemingly never-ending “polar vortex.” Today I’d like to look at a pile of different [card]Dark Depths[/card]-powered combo decks that have been seeing success in Legacy recently.

Maverick Depths

The first time a Dark Depths deck posted successful results at a high-profile event was actually at the end of 2013. It was a Maverick-style deck that splashed red for [card]Punishing Fire[/card] and played singleton copies of [card]Dark Depths[/card] and [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card] in its [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] package:

[deck title= Maverick Depths]

[Lands]
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wasteland
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian’s Stage
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
[/Lands]

[Creatures]
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
4 Punishing Fire
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 Life from the Loam
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
[/Spells]

[Sideboard]
1 Stony Silence
1 Pithing Needle
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Engineered Plague
1 Slaughter Games
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Bojuka Bog
[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Unlike most Legacy decks, this list is extremely conservative with its mana sources. Six mana dorks, in addition to four [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card], allow it to produce three mana on the second turn fairly often. [card]Punishing Fire[/card], a full set of [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card], a pair of [card]Umezawa’s Jitte[/card], and Knight being able to fetch up a combo finish give this Maverick-style deck a powerful fair Magic matchup.

I would be slightly worried piloting this deck in a field of unfair decks, though. If a combo player is fetching to blank your [card]Wasteland[/card]s, then a singleton [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card] and four copies of [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card] to find him are your only ways to interact with unfair Magic during the first game.

Thankfully, the sideboard is packed full of hate cards that [card]Enlightened Tutor[/card] is able to find. Speaking from experience, planning to win every game two and three against combo decks in Legacy is not a good plan. Sometimes you just die, no matter how many hate cards you happen to have.

If I knew I was going to play fair Magic for 90% or more of my rounds, I would play the above decklist in a heartbeat. However, in the diverse field Legacy tends to be, I would strongly consider cutting the red and playing [card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card] in the [card]Punishing Fire[/card] slots. If you really feel the need for more removal beyond [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card], you can always add another black source or two and play a few [card]Abrupt Decay[/card].

Jund and Junk Depths

Flash forward to 2014. At the first Legacy Open of the year, we see not just one, but two [card]Dark Depths[/card]-based combo decks wreck their way into the top eight. First up, we have a Junk-colored list that I personally helped develop:

[deck title= Junk Depths]

[Creatures]
2 Dark Confidant
1 Deathrite Shaman
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Vampire Hexmage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor
[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]
2 Liliana of the Veil
[/Planeswalkers]

[Lands]
1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Barren Moor
3 Bayou
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Marsh Flats
1 Savannah
2 Scrubland
1 Thespian’s Stage
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Dark Depths
[/Lands]

[Spells]
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mox Diamond
2 Sylvan Library
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Green Sun’s Zenith
2 Life from the Loam
4 Living Wish
[/Spells]

[Sideboard]
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Peacekeeper
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Diabolic Edict
2 Golgari Charm
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Wasteland
1 Dark Depths
[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

This is a toolbox deck that play a powerful game of fair Magic, all while threatening a combo finish at a moment’s notice. Sometimes you create a turn-two 20/20 with a Hexmage, sometimes you grind out a long game with [card]Life from the Loam[/card] plus [card]Wasteland[/card], and sometimes you simply play your [card]Dark Confidant[/card], [card]Sylvan Library[/card], and [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] and beat them down with creatures.

I think it is fair to say that this deck is easily the most flexible of the [card]Dark Depths[/card] decks I will highlight here today. Your mana base provides utility with [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card], your green creatures provide utility with [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card], and most of your sideboard turns [card]Living Wish[/card] into a silver bullet for a variety of different situations. Maindeck [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card], in addition to [card]Chalice of the Void[/card], ensures that you are not soft to other combo decks in game one.

Next up, we have a Jund-colored [card]Dark Depths[/card] deck innovated by Kennen Haas:

[deck title= Jund Depths]

[Creatures]
1 Nether Spirit
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]
4 Liliana of the Veil
[/Planeswalkers]

[Lands]
1 Badlands
2 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Maze of Ith
1 Taiga
3 Thespian’s Stage
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Karakas
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Dark Depths
[/Lands]

[Spells]
4 Mox Diamond
2 Crop Rotation
4 Entomb
1 Punishing Fire
4 Faithless Looting
4 Life from the Loam
1 Raven’s Crime
4 Smallpox
[/Spells]

[Sideboard]
3 Pithing Needle
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Phyrexian Ingester
1 Exploration
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Coffin Purge
1 Crop Rotation
1 Punishing Fire
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Innocent Blood
1 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

For those of you who think this deck might just be a fluke, 74 of Kennen’s 75 top 8ed two weekends later at the Columbus SCG open. After speaking with Kennen a bit, he agreed that there are two weak points for his Jund list—combo decks and [card]Rest in Peace[/card]. Thankfully, both of these things are fairly easy to solve working in the colors that Kennen’s deck plays.

For combo decks, the fix is as easy as playing some targeted discard ([card]Thoughtseize[/card] is wonderful) or a few more copies of [card]Sphere of Resistance[/card] in the sideboard (the Jund deck doesn’t really play any creatures, so Sphere is strictly better than [card]Thorn of Amethyst[/card]). Dealing with [card]Rest in Peace[/card] is even more straight forward—play a few [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]! [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] really was R&D’s gift to Legacy—the card solves all sorts of problems.

The glue that holds this Jund deck together is its playset of [card]Demonic Tutor[/card], err, I mean [card]Entomb[/card]. The card is capable of finding a copy of [card]Life from the Loam[/card], whatever land you need, [card]Punishing Fire[/card], [card]Nether Spirit[/card], or even [card]Squee, Goblin Nabob[/card], and at instant speed, too. The sideboard even includes a few clutch one-ofs to tutor for at a moment’s notice.

GR Lands Combo

Then, as if three different Dark Depths decklists wasn’t enough, in Baltimore this past weekend, yet another Dark Depths combo deck won the entire event. In the hands of Kurt Speiss, a green-red “all in” lands combo deck took first:

[deck title= GR Lands Combo]

[Lands]
1 Forest
1 Glacial Chasm
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Maze of Ith
4 Rishadan Port
2 Taiga
4 Thespian’s Stage
3 Tranquil Thicket
4 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Karakas
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Dark Depths
[/Lands]

[Spells]
4 Mox Diamond
4 Exploration
2 Manabond
3 Crop Rotation
4 Punishing Fire
4 Gamble
4 Life from the Loam
[/Spells]

[Sideboard]
1 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Primeval Titan
1 Crop Rotation
3 Krosan Grip
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Dark Depths
[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Kurt’s decklist is closest thing to traditional lands that I’ve talked about today. The deck features a full four copies of each of [card]Rishadan Port[/card], [card]Wasteland[/card], and [card]Maze of Ith[/card], powered out by [card]Exploration[/card] and even [card]Manabond[/card]. Kurt’s deck is just as capable of massive mana disruption as it is fast combo starts. Speaking of combos, if Kurt feels the need to have more than four copies of [card]Maze of Ith[/card] on the table, he also plays a full four copies of [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card] in his main deck.

Just because this is a lands shell doesn’t mean it doesn’t rely on a few spells to go about winning the game. Similar to how the Jund deck plays [card]Entomb[/card] and the Junk deck utilizes [card]Living Wish[/card], Kurt has chosen to go with [card]Gamble[/card] as his tutor effect of choice. Considering most of the time he won’t care if the card he finds is in his hand or graveyard, this is a fantastic effect to play.

Kurt has opted to have his maindeck set up to beat creature decks with a combination of [card]Punishing Fire[/card] and [card]Glacial Chasm[/card]. To combat combo decks, we find a full set of [card]Sphere of Resistance[/card] in addition to two copies [card]Thorn of Amethyst[/card] in the sideboard. There are also several copies of [card]Krosan Grip[/card] to deal with the occasional [card]Rest in Peace[/card].

I suppose with [card]Manabond[/card] in the maindeck, Kurt also has the option to just make a 20/20 on turn one, allowing him to outright kill his opponent on turn two.

In fact, I would say the only thing I’m really afraid of when playing Kurt’s list is a [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] or two. Taking out his [card]Dark Depths[/card] leaves him with [card]Punishing Fire[/card] as the only way to close out a game—if they extract that as well, then I guess you just have to hope to deck them.

Wrap Up

I think it is really interesting that [card]Thespian’s Stage[/card] has been legacy legal for nearly a year now, but it has only been the last couple months that we’ve seen it making waves at events. Maybe the printing of a certain unblockable, hexproof 3/1 is just what the format needed to generate some innovation.

These combo decks are exceptionally powerful because they are difficult to interact with. Counter magic is bad. Discard spells are bad. Wasteland only buys you a turn or two, and they’ll just Loam back their combo pieces…

What is your opinion on these various [card]Dark Depths[/card] combo decks that have been popping up? Are they just a Legacy fad or are they here to stay? Let me know in the comments below.

~Jeff Hoogland