Archived Analysis

A snapshot of Legacy from January 7, 2026.

Legacy: Bans dismantle dominant combo engines.
Analysis from January 7, 2026

The Legacy format sits in a tricky spot this week, evidenced by a middling Final Health Index of 54.3. While the Archetype Distribution Score is robust at 90.7, indicating a wide range of strategies are currently playable, the actual health of the community is concerning. This is because participation trends are extremely weak, with Event Growth at a minuscule 1.4 and Player Growth barely better at 3.2. Despite these foundational issues, the B&R Health Score is extremely strong at 91.0, suggesting recent format intervention has been well-received by the metrics.

Looking closely at the numbers reveals significant shifts in strategy dominance. Aggro now leads the super-archetype breakdown at 49.4%, up substantially from the historical average of 43.6%. This comes largely at the expense of Combo, which has fallen to 28% after historically occupying 38.3% of the meta. The Metagame Diversity Score remains high at 73.7. However, the participation cliff is alarming: Paper participation is declining by 37.8% monthly, and the total event count plummeted from 184 in November to only 21 in December, signaling severe drops in engagement over the holiday period.

The metagame is clearly focused on Dimir Tempo, which leads the pack with a commanding 13.6% share. The second tier is tightly grouped, featuring UR Aggro and Artifacts Blue both at 7%, followed closely by Eldrazi Aggro at 6%. Death & Taxes holds a respectable 5%. With Aggro strategies comprising nearly half of the entire metagame at 49.4%, the theme is clear: speed and efficiency are key to tournament success right now.

The recent B&R actions were decisive, banning both Entomb and Nadu, Winged Wisdom. This directly addresses the community turbulence where discussions were dominated by *Nadu, the Wily Witness*. Prior to the announcement, the community noted that this card had "fundamentally reshaped the top tiers," prompting established pilots to lean into maindeck *Subtlety* just to disrupt the combo engine. The AI analysis summary confirms the intent: these bans simultaneously dismantle the dominant Reanimator shell and eliminate a problematic power-level outlier, ensuring an immediate boost to format health.

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Archived on: 1/7/2026, 3:12:15 PM