Legacy 12-Post by Nicholus Llanos

Buy This Deck

Candelabra of Tawnos is a sweet card and seeing it get used in 12 Post makes me happy. The Mythic Society runs paper Legacy tournaments via Discord (using MTGMelee), and I saw a neat list from the tournament a few days ago. Let’s take a look at Colorless 12 Post.

Get out as many copies of Cloudpost and Glimmerpost as possible, thanks to Vesuva. Use those plus artifact mana to slam haymaker after haymaker, culminating in an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

This deck eschews any colored spells in order to play the max amount of utility lands and double-mana lands, with Wastelands alongside Eldrazi Temples and Eye of Ugin. This is the deck that does the most powerful things in the format if left unchecked, and by design it’s hard to interact with. Counterspells don’t do much, removal doesn’t do much and only land destruction or killing it quickly works reliably.

This deck is called 12 Post for a reason, and these are the centerpieces of the deck. The mana they make scales up absurdly quickly, and with just three lands you can all of a sudden have nine mana. 

Chalice of the Void is one of the most important cards in the deck. It’s your first line of defense against all those pesky fast decks that are trying to kill you before you get your mana engine online. Playing a Chalice on one is the easiest way to destroy decks like Delver or Storm, and it’s your most potent piece of disruption as a result (while also being one of the cheapest cards in your deck).

These are the other key pieces of your mana engine. They all ramp you by large amounts, and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim even fetches utility lands. I wouldn’t be opposed to trying one copy of Cascading Cataracts to make Golos’s ability work, but this deck may not need more late-game power.

These are your finishers. Walking Ballista is excellent because it works at both two and 20 mana, while Thought-Knot Seer is pretty cheap at just four mana. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Emrakul are the heavy hitters and what this deck is feared for, as it can cast them much earlier than you might imagine.

This deck wants a turn one Cloudpost more than anything else, and hands without any Posts are usually somewhat dubious. Eldrazi Temple, Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors can help make up for a lack of Postage, but are certainly not preferable to just playing Cloudpost early.

Keep. This is what you’re in for with this deck, and having triple Post plus Candelabra is a big game. You even have Wastelands to, well, waste their time until you draw something big.

Mulligan. Having City of Traitors be your second land drop is just too awkward, and this hand stalls and dies way too easily. I would keep it with a Chalice or Dynamo for example, but as is, I don’t like it.

Keep. It’s awkward that you can’t play Chalice on turn one, and if you want to play turn two Seer, you’re waiting until turn three on the Chalice. Still, it’s got two early pieces of disruption and a Cloudpost, which is a good enough start.

• Get used to doing Candelabra math – it’s not complicated, but adding up how much mana you have is important.
• Chalice for one is the first stop, but subsequent ones can be for varying amounts (and this deck generates enough mana for them).
• Try to avoid playing City of Traitors unless you have to. The nightmare scenario is playing it to make a play and then getting it countered and losing two mana sources long-term.

This deck delivers one thing, and it’s gigantic Eldrazi, on time, every time. It’s a wild ride, and if you play it, here’s to having a turn one Cloudpost every game.