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Legacy is like casual… except competitive. I know that sounds somewhat like an oxymoron, but it’s very true. Let me explain.
There are many more current cards that get utilized quite often as well; Tarmogoyf, Tombstalker, Thoughtsieze, Magus of the Moon, Ponder, and Life from the Loam jump to mind. There was even at least one Faeries deck that made it to day two of the Chicago Legacy Grand Prix. But most importantly it’s fun like casual because you never really know what to expect, unlike Standard and to some degree, Extended. Legacy differs from casual in a couple very obvious ways. It is a format defined mostly by two drops and heavily influenced by zero and one drops as well. Secondly, it is a format where the graveyard will fill up quickly and is often manipulated to ridiculous effect. Lastly, are the crazy-expensive, but unbreakable, land bases. I don’t mean your opponent can’t mess up your land base, because almost every deck runs three to four Wastelands to take care of all the dual lands floating around. I mean as a competent player you should be able to make a very solid and reliable base for any crazy shenanigans you want. I would like to take a look at a couple popular Legacy decks and see how we can make them a little more casual. That does not necessarily mean cheaper, although generally you can cut cost by replacing dual lands with the Ravnica shock lands or Shards of Alara shard lands, but that comes with a hefty draw back. The first two decks utilize Standstill, a very powerful uncommon from Odyssey. Standstill is great draw spell when used properly and fits wonderfully in decks that play longer games and don’t need to play spells every turn. One thing to note about Standstill, when an opponent plays a spell you must wait to counter that spell until you have drawn the cards from Standstill, otherwise you will trigger it, for a second time, and they will draw instead of you.
This first deck is very interesting to me because it seems to have replaced Gobbos, which I always hated, as the dominant aggro deck in the format. One thing that I really like is how it uses Aether Vial to work around your own Standstills. The other reason I chose to list this deck is because it uses several cards that are available to players who have not been playing for a long time and there are no dual or fetch lands. The game plan for this deck is to play a Vial and leave it at two or three to flash your Merfolk in and not break your Standstill. The more Lord of Atlantis and Merrow Reejery you have, the meaner your fish get. Wake Thrasher is just a nice big beat stick. To back up your aquatic army is the usual high-power control suite: Force of Will, Daze, and Stifle.
Another version, which placed slightly higher in the GP, replaces the Relics and Wake Thrashers with 4 Tarmogoyfs and 1 land. The land base is obviously different as it has to incorporate green, but I like this list better for casual. You only need to make a few modifications for this to be more casual oriented. Replace the Cursecatchers with one of the many 1 drop merfolk that turn lands into Islands so your guys have free reign on your opponents face. Remove the Relics, as they are only useful in an environment full of graveyard manipulation, and Stifles, main decked to stop storm and fetch lands. Your play group will largely dictate what you put in those slots. My recommendation is two Umezawa’s Jitte and three Counterspell. I might even cut an Island for a Mirrorweave just for an even faster win or a favorable trade in combat. Other options that may compliment your personal style better are Psionic Blast, Sword of Fire and Ice, and Sword of Light and Shadow. Of course, you could always go with more draw in the form of Ponder, Fact or Fiction, or Brainstorm instead of equipment/burn, but the Standstills and Adepts should do just fine for draw. If your group doesn’t use a lot of non-basic lands I would replace the Wastelands with a fourth Mutavault and three Terramorphic Expanses to thin the deck. Our next deck, Landstill, uses many of my favorite cards, Swords to Plowshares, Mishra’s Factory, Path to Exile, Crucible of Worlds, and even a Planeswalker. It’s one of the more dominant control decks in the format right now, which is a little odd since it doesn’t run the overpowered Counterbalance/Sensei’s Divining Top combo maindeck. It does, however, use Standstill, which is appropriate considering the lack of non-reactive spells it plays. It relies on manlands, like Mishra’s Factory and Faerie Conclave, to pull out the big W, but now has some support from a Plainswalker. The strategy is simple; draw answers to your opponent’s threats and swing with your Factories. Brainstorm is a wonderful tool here. It lets you hide important cards on top of your deck against discard, shuffle bad cards out of your hand when used in conjunction with a fetch land, and hopefully draw a counter in emergencies.
Humility is great, but it makes judges head’s explode and even caused Chuck Norris to have an aneurism. Its complexity comes from the layers rules. That being said, Mishra’s Factory, activated after Humility is in play, will still be a 2/2 creature but will not be able to tap for mana. I can’t explain it very well so ask a judge.
Engineered Explosives and Spell Snare are powerhouses in Legacy but found lacking in casual. I would consider two more Disks in place of Engineered Explosives and Counterspell number four along with Mana Leak for the Snares. If you don’t feel the need to repeatedly destroy the world, draw more cards instead. If your meta has enough non-basic lands running around to make good use of 4 Wastelands, definitely keep them, and just Wasteland EVERYTHING, otherwise get rid of them. Faerie Conclave can be substituted for the Volcanic Islands, as there’s no need for red without a sideboard, and two of the Wastelands. Mutavault would make a nice replacement for the other 2 Wastelands. Elspeth is a very recent addition and I think it works wonders for a deck that use to play an extremely slow game. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still in for a long game, but Elspeth helps out quite nicely. Lastly, I would like to share a combo deck. I personally despise combo more than any other type of deck, but I saw a question about this particular deck in the forums and thought I would share it. It has the potential to win on turn zero, but is rather unstable and therefore does not usually do well in major Legacy tournaments anymore.
The object is to get enough mana to find, play, and activate Goblin Charbelcher as soon as possible OR play enough spells to storm up a nice big Empty The Warrens. The Serum Powder is so you still draw seven when you mulligan, which you will have to do quite often. The Infernal Tutor works wonderfully with Lion’s Eye Diamond. Play the Tutor, break your Diamonds, then find whatever you want. I’ll let you guys figure out the rest of the intricacies yourself, mostly because I don’t know them myself. Until next time, keep playing Legacy… uh… I mean casual Legacy.
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Most
people agree that when playing casually you can use any card that you have
access to, often with some restrictions similar to the Vintage or Legacy
banned/restricted lists. Casual players generally do not have the money for
Power Nine – Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Timetwister, and the
original Moxen - and therefore, just like Legacy, there is a nice big black hole
in the meta where power could be. You still have access to all sorts of cards
that older players love but have rotated out of Extended like Swords to
Plowshares, Mishra’s Factory, and the most expensive uncommon that I can think
of, Force of Will. 
Fish.
Landstill.
2
Land Belcher.