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Everyone hates taxes - that is, unless you're the one collecting them. This is my take on the Legacy archetype Death & Taxes.
First Principles
At its core, D&T is a deck that wants to win by chipping away with little white creatures. However, to call it a "White Weenie" deck is not accurate. As a format, Legacy is far to explosive and powerful for White Weenie to really work. Thus, the deck plays numerous lock pieces with one of two goals in mind:
- Use the appropriate lock pieces to completely shut out the opponent from enacting their game-plan.
- Land a threat and use effects like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to slow the game down just enough to allow you to kill the opponent.
Therefore, the D&T pilot must be equal parts Control and Aggro player - knowing when to try and contain the opponent and then recognizing the time to shift gears and push to close out the game.
It is for this reason that D&T looks primarily for locks that are also creatures as opposed to artifacts or enchantments (some exceptions certainly apply). By coupling Power/Toughness values with troublesome lock pieces you are able to condense both your aggressive and controlling elements into sleek little packages.
Additionally, one of D&T's strongest tax-effects, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben incentivizes you to play as few non-creature spells as possible.
The creatures that D&T will generally fall into two categories:
- Efficient, sticky (read: resiliant) beater that will allow you to win the game reasonably quickly once you've slowed the game down. Some great examples are Mirran Crusader, Serra Avenger or Brimaz, King of Oreskos to name a few. Creatures that fall into this category need a reasonable amount of power to provide a quick clock on the unfair decks but also should be problematic to remove, granting an advantage against fair decks as well.
- Bothersome critters that make life difficult for the opponent without necessarily getting into the red zone. These creatures are our first line of defense against the unfair decks of the format and will typically focus on making the opponent's spells more expensive, preventing them from searching their library or from activating certain cards' abilities.
At this point it becomes prudent to start discussing creature and spell choices on an individual basis.
The Main Board
The Tax Collectors
Mother of Runes
Mother of Runes, while seemingly innocuous is a real pain to deal with. Once you untap with Mom, your opponent now needs 2 removal spells to kill any creature since the first one will be effectively counter by a Mom activation ( Warping Wail notwithstanding). This ability is huge as it is one of the main ways that D&T can keep pace with other fair decks who have much better card advantage engines.
Additionally, Mother of Runes can grant you creatures the ability to chump block endlessly or to attack past blockers. The latter can be a life saver particularly when you're looking to connect for a Sword of Fire and Ice
or Umezawa's Jitte trigger.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is in many ways the glue that holds this deck together. The fact that she has First Strike makes her pretty bothersome in combat and downright nasty once she's holding Umezawa's Jitte. Additionally, her taxing effect makes life miserable for anyone trying to cast noncreature spells.
While the Legendary super-type is typically seen as a drawback, it can sometimes be a blessing. Using a Karakas you can protect your Thalia from opponents removal - though it does mean that your opponent can use their Karakas to bounce your Thalia.
Stoneforge Mystic
Stoneforge Mystic's ability to tutor for overpowered equiment grants D&T the ability to play a very conservative game at times. Rather than needing to overextend by playing numerous creatures, you can suit up one creature and turn it into a fearsome win-con. Granted one of the strengths of the deck is being able to build up board presence while choking the opponent's resources, but against certain adversaries (such as Miracles) the ability to deploy single meaningful threats is huge.
Stoneforge also represents the primary form of card advantage to be had in D&T - Sword of Fire and Ice.
Phyrexian Revoker
Phyrexian Revoker is one of the more skill-testing cards in D&T as it demands you to understand your opponents deck to make the optimal name when resolving the Revoker. Having a good working knowledge of what cards you simply can't beat in each match up is key to playing Revoker effectively.
The fact that Phyrexian Revoker is colorless is also a huge boon in the D&T mirror match as Mother of Runes cannot grant protection from it.
It should be noted that Revoker cannot name land cards, thus you'll often see Pithing Needle in the SB for problematic lands. The little phyrexian can shut down mana abilities though, which is something Needle can't do.
Serra Avenger
Serra Avenger is one of the few creatures in D&T that has no relevant rules text, outside of a couple of keywords. As mentioned earlier, D&T does need the ability to close out a game in short order lest the opponent dig out from all the taxes. The fact that Avenger can fly over most creatures makes her a fantastic wielder of equipment and her Vigilance means that you can pressure the opponent while leaving the shields up.
While you can't cast Serra Avenger until turn 4 or later, you can use Aether Vial to field her as soon as turn 3.
Flickerwisp
Flickerwisp is probably the card that is least understood and most underappreciated in D&T until you start playing with it. While unexciting the mere fact that Flickerwisp has Flying mean it can block and trade with Delver of Secrets
or fly over blockers to trigger Sword of Fire and Ice.
Coupled with an Aether Vial, Wisp represents an instant speed way to blink an attacker/blocker out of the way or save another critter from a removal spell.
You can blink out a Stoneforge Mystic to grab another trinket or reset your Batterskull if the germ token has perished. Oh no, opponent has Batterskull? Well you can get rid of their token too!
Perhaps you've let Aether Vial tick up to 3 counters but you really want to be able to start vialing in 2 drops to get around countermagic. Wisp has you covered.
Is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben stoping you from casting that Umezawa's Jitte in your hand? Wisp to the rescue!
If it isn't abundantly clear, Flickerwisp has about a-million-and-one uses. Let's not forget that you can always just cast Wisp and blink out one of your own lands, effectively granting you a 3/1 flyer for so that you can leave up Swords to Plowshares.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos
Brimaz, King of Oreskos is similar to Serra Avenger in serving as one of D&T's primary beaters. However, left unchecked Brimaz can quickly spiral out of control.
He also helps to alleviate the True-Name Nemesis problem. Brimaz, King of Oreskos can attack into a TNN, not die and still generate offense via the tokens he creates. This offense will add up and gives D&T a chance, albeit small to race TNN.
Brimaz has the added benefit of being the only creature in the deck to surviea Lightning Bolt - a fact that goes a long way in certain match ups.
Being Legendary, Brimaz is granted the same Karakas dynamic as Thalia.
Vryn Wingmare
For awhile I was so impressed with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that I was jamming 3 copies of Vryn Wingmare. Wingmare definitely has its merits:
- It has *Flying* which, as we've seen is great for D&T.
- It represents a non-Legendary form of Thalia's tax effect. Thus they can stack by having multiple copies on the field.
While these are both excellent attributes, Wingmare is still just a 2/1 for who often enters the fray too late to effectively tax anyone. For that reason I've resorted to playing 1 copy.
Mirran Crusader
Abrupt Decay got you down? Just join the crusades and slam a Mirran Crusader. He's here to make life miserable for anyone playing symbol:b/g.
Against other non-Golgari opponents, his Double Strike makes Umezawa's Jitte just about the scariest piece of equipment in the Multiverse.
Property Taxes
The lands that D&T plays are just as important as the spells. Considering how limited the forms of card advantage are to D&T, every card, lands included must pull its weight.
- Step 1: Get Vial into play and start pumping out creatures.
- Step 2: Play Port and go to town on the opponents lands since your mana is freed up by vial.
- Step 3: Profit? (yeah, I wish...)
One thing to consider while playing Rishadan Port (or Wasteland for that matter); do not play it until the turn that you plan on activating it. Obviously, this can be ignored if have no other lands in hand and need the mana production. By showing your opponent the tax-land before using it you are giving the knowledge and time to prepare and better play around your mana-denial.
One of the other great uses for Wasteland is being able to waste your own Rishadan Port s when your Burn opponent plays Price of Progress. Obviously this is not the ideal scenario, but it sure as hell beats taking a huge chunk of life from Price.
Karakas also provides a way to deal Lands' wincon, the Marit Lage token (produced by Dark Depths).
Knick-Knacks and Spells
Additionally, AetherVial elevates Flickerwisp from a decent evasive body to a swiss army knife powerhouse. Being able to Vial in a Wisp and temporarily stone rain your opponent or save another creature from a removal spell is sweet!
, Umezawa's Jitte and Batterskull. The Side Board
I would like to speak to the more general choice of playing with or without an Enlightened Side Board (one utilizing Enlightened Tutor). Since a reasonable number of quality hate cards are either artifacts or enchantments, you can assemble a pretty impressive array of silver bullets while actually shaving SB spots. For instance, consider playing 3 copies of Enlightened Tutor, 1 Rest in Peace, 1 Ethersworn Canonist, 1 Absolute Law and 1 Pithing Needle. This configuration effectively gives you 4 copies of each of the different silver bullets (the equivalent of 16 cards) but only takes up 7 SB slots.
Now I must admit that I've never played an Enlightened SB but the idea is quite intriguing and I would be remiss to not mention it here. I'm currently toying around with the following Enlightened Side Board:
Match-Ups
Thanks for stopping by and showing interest in one of the best formats around! +1's are always appreciated!
This page is still a work in progress, but rest assured I'll be filling in more sections as I find the time.
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Revision 11 See all
(7 years ago)
| -2 | Containment Priest | side |
| +1 | Fiend Hunter | side |
| +1 | Flickerwisp | main |
| +2 | Gideon, Ally of Zendikar | side |
| +1 | Mangara of Corondor | main |
| +1 | Mishra's Factory | main |
| -1 | Mother of Runes | main |
| +2 | Path to Exile | side |
| +1 | Pithing Needle | side |
| -1 | Plains | main |
| +1 | Recruiter of the Guard | main |
| +1 | Sanctum Prelate | main |
| +1 | Sword of War and Peace | side |
| Date added | 8 years |
| Last updated | 7 years |
| Legality | This deck is Legacy legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 4 - 3 Mythic Rares 32 - 11 Rares 15 - 1 Uncommons |
| Cards | 61 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.13 |
| Tokens | Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B |
| Folders | Fun decks |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
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