Spoiler Highlight: Matoya, Archon Elder in Legacy!

Greetings, Legacy community! In this article, let's talk about Final Fantasy! The spoiler season is well underway, so it's a good time to discuss how a few cards from this set that could impact Legacy. More specifically, today we'll talk about Warlocks:

Matoya, Archon Elder

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Legacy is naturally a powerful format, which is why WotC puts a lot of effort into keeping it under control. One of the ways they do this is by restricting low-cost card draw engines.

That's why there are many cantrips in Legacy, but, when a few cards that actually give you a lot of card advantage start standing out, WotC ends up banning them, like Dreadhorde Arcanist or Expressive Iteration.

Matoya is a recursive card draw engine that requires very little investment, as Legacy lists usually already play a good number of Scry or Surveil cards. So, hypothetically, we wouldn't have to stray too far from our main game plan to play Matoya. Let's see how she would work when paired with a few familiar favorites:

• Dragon's Rage Channeler: With Matoya and this card in play, whenever you play a spell, you'll draw a card, and that's without considering Surveil in this equation;

• Preordain: For 1 mana, you'll draw 2 cards;

• Fetch Lands into Surveil Lands: You filter the cards you'll draw, find colored mana, and also recover a card for 0 mana;

• Kaito, Bane of Nightmares: You'll draw a card with Matoya because of its (0) Loyalty ability, and will also eventually draw a card with this same ability as well.

• Simulacrum Synthesizer: You'll make it up for putting this artifact in play by drawing a card.

• If you really want to create a lot of value with Matoya, you can set up cards like Opt, Serum Visions, and Fading Hope, for instance.

Now, 3 mana for a 1/4 is usually not the best way to spend your mana in Legacy, so our dear blue Warlock isn't a simple "plug n' play" card, which you can just add to your deck and profit from it. You'll have to find some space to play it, and some decks just don't have that space.

Aggressive decks, for instance, aren't interested in this weak body considering how much it costs, at least not in the main deck. Matoya is an interesting option for tempo mirrors, particularly when they turn into a battle of resources, as that's when it will make a difference - in matches you can only win inch by inch. Its 4 life means it can dodge Lightning Bolt, and the fact it costs 3 mana means your opponent will have to use Fatal Push's Revolt to kill it.

A card that gained space in Control decks because it draws cards in a similar way is Up the Beanstalk. This card, in fact, is one of the main reasons why Bant versions often pulled ahead of Jeskai versions of these archetypes. Matoya is a way to draw cards in decks that don't want to use green mana.

And, of course, I have to say this every time: it is a blue card, and you know what this means in Legacy... You can exile it to play Force of Will.

As we mentioned before, Matoya might not be aggressive and will probably not find space in the main deck of blue tempo lists, but it can be a way to create extra value in mirrors. These matchups typically turn into a battle of resources, that is, whoever can create more resources usually wins, and that's why we often remove Force of Will post-side. You can easily just add Matoya in its place.

The example below plays a few more cards with Scry/Surveil than usual to accommodate Matoya:

Jeskai Control can also benefit from a card draw engine tied to cantrips and Fetch lands. Unlike regular lists, this one also plays Preordains to keep drawing cards with Matoya.

Or, you can also lean heavily into card draw and play this Azorius version that is obsessed with creating value with Matoya! It plays lots and lots of Surveil and Scry so you can, once your Warlock is in play, draw an avalanche of cards in a row.

I confess so far I haven't been able to find many cards for Legacy in Final Fantasy. Maybe it's because I was used to Modern-focused Universes Beyond sets, and those, in general, were more powerful. Maybe The Lord of the Rings spoiled us...

In any case, as this is a Standard-legal set, it does affect Legacy a bit less, and we have to get used to that. Still, Matoya seems quite interesting, as it creates a solid flow of cards and is in the color that can get the most out of its effect. We'll have to wait and see if it finds a home.

What did you think of this card? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!