Legacy Survival deck

Survival is a somewhat comboish aggressive deck utilizing the namesake Survival of the Fittest.

The plan is to play Survival of the Fittest and discard a creature to search out another, usually Squee, Goblin Nabob which let's the player repeatedly use Survival and with that gain a large card advantage, tutoring for an additional card each turn for. However, this also enables the player to search for a variety of creatures to combat specific situations such as Qasali Pridemage to deal with opposing enchantments or artifacts, Vendilion Clique to mess with the opponents hand or Eternal Witness when in need to get a card from the graveyard back. There is also a small Reanimator component in searching out for example Iona, Shield of Emeria or another legendary creature and discarding it to find Loyal Retainers, then playing and sacrificing the Retainers to return that Legend to play.

The rest of the creatures just bring acceleration (Noble Hierarch) or massive beats in Tarmogoyf</c> and Rhox War Monk</c>.

The rest of the deck consists of cards to find the Survival such as Ponder</c> and Brainstorm</c> (with a number of fetch lands), or protect from opponents threats such as Swords to Plowshares</c>, Daze</c> and Force of Will</c>.

Variants on Survival including a G/W build, a U/G build and a graveyard combo deck using Necrotic Ooze</c>, Triskelion</c> and Phyrexian Devourer</c> were dominant during the autumn of 2010 before Survival of the Fittest</c> was banned in Legacy in December of that year, killing the archetype. The rise in dominance of Survival decks was partially attributed to the printing of Vengevine</c>.

<d title="Survival - Nicola Landoni - Grand Prix Madrid 2010"> Creatures 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Rhox War Monk 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob 1 Vendilion Clique 1 Eternal Witness 1 Rafiq of the Many 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria 1 Loyal Retainers 1 Qasali Pridemage

Additional Spells 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Ponder 4 Brainstorm 3 Daze 4 Force of Will 4 Survival of the Fittest

Lands 1 Flooded Strand 4 Misty Rainforest 3 Windswept Heath 1 Forest 1 Island 1 Plains 2 Savannah 1 Taiga 3 Tropical Island 1 Tundra 1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard 1 Ethersworn Canonist 3 Firespout 2 Gaddock Teeg 2 Krosan Grip 1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress 2 Relic of Progenitus 3 Spell Pierce 1 Tormod's Crypt</d>