its a very good deck to get into legacy with, if you on a budget.

at a bigger budget id recommend goblins, its better than dredge, gives you more staples (wastelands, vials, possibly rishadan ports) but does cost significantly more.

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Originally posted by caquaa:
dredge might take a hit as well w/ Surgical extraction. Its not so much that any color can play it, but that any player can play it w/o mana cost. Being able to tap out at will and still have answer seems like some other powerful card we know... it costs 1 more life and 1 less blue card. I wouldn't pick up dredge w/ such an easy hate card being made available (as if there wasn't enough). The best dredge players will be able to play around the hate, but is that what you really want to be doing?

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Extraction really isn't *that* good against Dredge, compared to something that costs 0 and lets you tap out on your turn to still use it. (Tormod's Crypt)

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Originally posted by michaelsean09:
Like everyone else I'm interested in getting involved in legacy. I am wondering what is considered tier 1 in legacy. I've been mainly looking at dredge. Is this a tier 1 deck or will I need to go another route? I am mainly concerned that I will spend the money on a deck and then not be anywhere near competitive. Thanks for the help!

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Rumor is that the next couple sets are supposed to bring some graveyard goodies -- this could either make the deck sweet or introduce a new slew of hate cards.

i disagree that merfolk can be considered a budget deck. Even the monoblue version will run you 600 dollars.

4 force of will
4 waste land
4 ęther vial
2 jitte

etc

i would say that what type of player should effect your choice the most.
if you like playing combo dredge is a fine deck to get into legacy with but it and the better combo decks don't share many cards, and your games 2 and 3's aren't very good.
if you like control then merfolk is a fine deck and although Forces are pricy they make up for it with how many decks they are good in.
if you like aggro i would advise affinity, like dredge if people have hate the games get much harder but i find less people board for it, and the cards don't go in other decks. goblins is also a fine aggro deck but i find affinity more fun.

I would say the choice of what deck to get into legacy with depends more on your budget, your ability to find players with experience in the deck you're considering and what cards you have left over from Standard. For example, I wanted to play ANT for a long time, but didn't have anyone locally who knew how to play this complicated deck, so I went with a deck I considered just as good, but with a different strategy.

Usually my map of decks for a new player still apprehensive about spending a lot of money on the format is as follows:

Dredge -> Merfolk -> Some control or combo deck -> Counterbalance -> Other

You get dredge because it's a very inexpensive deck to start with, to learn the format and see what strategies are good. It only costs around $50 with the LEDless version.

Next, you step into Merfolk. Goblins is also a fine choice at this point, but Merfolk has more cards that are used in other decks (Wastelands, Forces, AEther Vials, Dazes, Jittes... vs Wastelands and Vials) and is a better contender in the current meta. The deck can teach you a lot about play, such as how to make profitable attacks and when to go all-in on your control spells. It's definitely a great learner's deck.

Next you have a choice to make- either a control or a combo deck. Your choice will likely be based on what you still need to learn. Combo is excellent for learning how to make decisions on the fly and deal with triggers and remembering all the steps you need to make. However, control is a more consistent choice, and will teach you how to better read your opponent and react to their strategy. Both are valid decisions. If you're going the combo route, ANT and High Tide are the big players right now, followed distantly by Show and Tell + Natural Order decks and (even farther behind) Elf Ball variants. Control decks include Eva Green, BGW Junk, one of the Stoneforge Mystic deck variants (Wx, usually WB or WG), "Death and Taxes" (Wx with Mangara + Karakas) or mono-blue control (uses Powder Keg and awkward cards)

All roads, though, lead to the best deck in the format: Counterbalance. It is currently a $1,000+ deck, and is growing in cost. The best variant of this deck right now is 4c CB, made famous by Tom Martel of Team ChannelFireball when he piloted it to second place at GP Columbus last year. It is UWgr with Firespout, Jace 2.0, Goyf, Swords to Plowshares and Vendilion Clique. Some lists cut the Cliques because they're suboptimal; one of my team's players is running the Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows combo in his current list.

After this, if you decide you want to play another deck, you would go to learn it. Obviously, the deck you play is based on your assessment of the current meta. Right now I'm playing a modified version of Brad Nelson's BGW Junk list from the GP, but I'm planning to build another deck because the meta shifted in favor of either a faster combo deck or a better control deck.

To me, this is the optimal path of a new player. Each step teaches you important lessons and gives you cards that will likely be used in the next step. The entire process builds on itself over time. My own development was Aluren -> Merfolk (a deck for which I've become known fairly well in my circle; see my signature) -> Dredge (to learn to track upkeep triggers) -> Zoo (to learn how to attack profitably with merfolk) -> Junk -> ?. The sudden change from blue decks to non-blue aggressive decks was due to frustration of my inability to grasp non-control strategies. So, I forced myself to do something else. It has helped my growth as a Legacy player, and I hope a path similar to the one I've posted helps you.