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What is Death & Taxes?
Death & Taxes (D&T) is a deck based loosely on the Legacy deck by the same name. It is a white based deck (originally strictly mono-white) that plays small creatures who provide some element of control on the battlefield. At its most basic form, the general idea is to out tempo the opponent through virtual card advantage, evasive/efficient beats, and creating dead cards in their hand utilizing taxes and an aggressive land destruction plan. Keep in mind this deck is a meta deck at heart, its power stems from that, not the intrinsic power of the cards themselves. BEFORE SELECTING THIS DECK
I want to put this warning out there right at the beginning so that you do not misunderstand this deck. This is not the legacy Death and Taxes deck. It’s game plan significantly differs from legacy death and taxes. Attempting to apply the same strategy you see there, here, will lead to many lost matches. Swords are not good in modern. They open you up for a two for one that this deck cannot afford, they are dead top decks, they have anti-synergy with thalia, you cannot cheat them into play, and the fact that they one offs means you are shooting yourself in the foot on top of everything else.
This leads me to the next card I never want to see in a modern list: Phyrexian Revoker. Creatures and creature removal are far more wide spread in modern than legacy, as well as the targets for revoker simply not being as crucial. Do not play this card, no matter how well it supposedly performs for you there are better cards for this slot.
Now this isn’t to say there aren’t other poor choices for your 75 (there are many, and they will/have been posted here frequently) but these two lead to the most insidious mindset. It’s not regular bad deck building like continuing to run stonecloaker and justifying it as flash graveyard hate (C’mon guys it’s narrow and extraordinarily inefficient for what it does, pay the extra 1 for your restos cheapskates and pack two rest in peace in your board so you don’t have to run bad hate like this.), it’s attempting to apply legacy lessons to modern, which just doesn’t work. They’re warped in two very different directions.If you can’t adjust to the modern meta, and instead try and mimic the legacy deck as close as possible because it’s a power house there, you are going to fail. You are going to fail because you did not take to heart that this is a meta deck, and it’s only as good as your knowledge of the current meta.
DO NOT NET DECK LISTS. BY THE TIME YOU FIND THEM THEY ARE OUTDATED. BUILD WITH CARE
How is Death & Taxes different from Hatebears?
This is a complicated question to answer, but in short the main difference is the reliance that D&T has on flicker & blink effects. D&T also uses white heavier (in general), and rarely uses mana dorks. Generally key signs that the list is death and taxes and not hatebears is A. It runs 4 Flickerwisp B. It does NOT run Thrun, The Last Troll or TYPICALLY 4 Loxodon Smiter. Over all, Death and taxes is more concerned with interacting with the opponent than preventing interaction with themselves.
Table of Contents:
The History
The Bare Bones
Tricks, and how the Deck Plays Out
Board Matchup Data
1. The History, the Strategy, and the Key Cards
Death and Taxes started developing as a legacy deck when Time Spiral came out, and with it, the printing of mangara of corondor. The idea for the deck came from the interaction of mangara with another, older card; karakas. As exiling mangara wasn't part of his activation, you could activate karakas in response to tapping him, and return him to your hand before he exiled himself. Unfortunately your opponent couldn't say the same for his permanent you targeted. Aether vial also came in handy, because you could use this interaction, then put him right back onto the battlefield at the end of the turn, ready to repeat the same process next turn.
This was the basis for the deck; then came the add-ons. The name "Death and Taxes" comes originally from a joke about the legacy deck stating "All that is certain in life is death, taxes (and White Weenie)". It does not come from, as many believe, all the taxing effects being the "tax" and the swords being the "Death". Keeping these parts in mind however is useful for analysis of the deck and explaining the stark difference between the legacy form and the modern form.
Then, Eventide happened, and so did flickerwisp. D&T was already a pretty strong deck, generally mono-white. But 'wisp had a better idea: make it stronger. Flickerwisp flew into D&T lists fairly fast, due to all of the interactions it could do just by itself, let alone with aether vial... not to mention it could pound for 3 in the air. It also allowed mangara to operate and come back for more without karakas, but just for one turn. If aether vial was out, the user would use mangara and flash 'wisp onto the battlefield in response, bringing mangara back to fight once more at the end of the turn.
As the years progressed, Death and Taxes became more and more powerful, and almost all lists were mono-white. D+T recognized the power of stoneforge mystic even before it made it big in standard, using it to grab sword of fire and ice, sword of light and shadow, and umezawa's jitte. Putting one of those on a serra avenger caused the "death" part of it to come even more naturally, while still messing with the opponent's cards to make him/her unable to do much but sit and watch in horror.
Now it has made it to modern, by its creator (me), with help from many of the below posters. The main thing that is missing is karakas, but the deck can still function without it. Mangara is still a vindicate with legs, and flickerwisp can still repeat his ability. Other key cards from the legacy version are gone as well, such as wasteland, rishadan port, mother of runes, swords to plowshares and umezawa's jitte, but in retrospect that isn't much compared to a lot of other decks trying to move from legacy into modern. A big misconception about this deck though is that it is truly white weenie. It started that way with the original legacy list, but now it is far more interested in disruptive elements and value. A key thing to remember here is to never run a beater just to run a beater in this list.
2. Bare Bones
At their most basic all D&T decks have a few things in common that really define the deck and differentiate it from hatebears. I will go into other card choices, but these are the cards that are essential for every D&T deck.
Aether Vial: Vial is one of the few cards that Legacy and Modern versions of the deck have in common. It allows the player to put creatures into play without tapping mana and as if they had flash. Additionally since you are not casting the creatures they cannot be countered. Vial is the reason that this deck can afford to sacrifice it's lands and still keep playing. Additionally, this is what allows the deck to make it’s bread and butter flickerwisp plays that really define it. This is an auto 4x in the deck.
Leonin Arbiter: Since fetchlands are the most ubiquitous lands in Modern, Arbiter becomes a major tax on your opponent. Arbiter is an auto 4x in the deck, and is one of the best turn two plays the deck has.
Aven Mindcensor: This is always a one off, frequently a two off in the deck. It lends redundancy to the arbiter fetch hate, while having a better body and flash.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: Not part of the orginal build, this card has become one of the most important taxes that the deck runs in Modern. On top of that it has first strike, which is surprisingly effective at messing up your opponent's game plan. It is Legendary, but since it is such a burden for most other decks it will get hit with removal like nothing else in D&T, so this is an auto 3x (with one more in the side).
Flickerwisp Here is the card that defines the deck. I cannot possibly stress this enough when I say, never, ever, cut a single copy from your maindeck. No matter how you adjust this deck, this should at ALL TIMES remain a four of. It would take too long to explain exactly everything this card does (there are a lot of corner plays) but it makes value plays with etb effects, can reset planeswalkers, kills tokens, clears away blockers and attacks, removes counters, end of turn targeting an opponent’s land can remove it for the next turn… the possibilities are endless all this on top of a 3/1 flier body.
Path to Exile: Because we depend so highly on Thalia we have to keep our non-creatures to an absolute minimum, but PTE with a cmc of W easily fits. It is arguably the best removal card in Modern, and becomes even more amazing when we have Leonin Arbiter in play.
Ghost Quarter: This is another absolute must for a four of in the deck. It handles pesky man lands like inkmoth nexus , celestial collonade , and creeping tarpit, as well as having synergy with ghost quarters to create a stripmine effect.
Whenever adding cards after this core, keep in mind a few things; they should be tailored to the meta. This deck cares much more about everyone else’s list more than its own. The cards it employs should be as broad as possible, maximizing the net of hate cards cast. This means playing cards like dryad militant over cards like spirit of the labyrinth since draw in modern is much weaker and hating on goyf and delve cards are more relevant at the moment. Also keep in mind that D&T is less interested in efficient beaters than it is the total package of the creature itself. The deck list should work seamlessly together, each part interlocking with each other part. This deck has no filter, no draw, so a smooth, interchangeable maindeck is key.
Lastly, there are three big "rules" you have to consider when building this deck:
1. One of the biggest ways that D&T diverges from other decks is in the area of "curve", and the card that shapes this is Aether Vial. Since Vial (unlike a mana pool) can only bring into play a creature with exactly the same cmc as it has counters on it, you want to really push the best value you have. If you spread out your cmc's too much then you create akward turns wherein it is not clear whether it is best to add a counter or keep it where it is, whereas if you lump them together it is pretty clear. We have found that the most valuable cmc (while still being quick enough to achieve) is three, so that is where most of our creatures sit. This means that we generally run 4 one-drop creatures, 7-8 two-drop creatures, and the rest (see exception below) are three drops. All in all you want to be running between 27-29 creatures, giving you 2 possible flex spots for non-creature slots in the list. A common suggestion for this would be additional removal such as dismember or sunlance, meta depending.
2. Due to the fact that this deck's mana denial strategy relies heavily on sacrificing our own lands it can be hard to aggressively control your opponent and maintain more than 3 lands in play most of the game. As a result, and also due to our need to run mostly 3 cmc creatures, this deck does not handle four-drops well at all. It is the effective ceiling of the deck, unless a creature is so vital to every game by making more potent the themes of the deck. So far the only card that I feel fits this requirement is Restoration Angel. People try and try to force others in, but their added value does not balance out their ability to drag down your games. (If running the GW version, due to dorks you should be able to run a 5th 4 drop here, probably the best suggestion being Linvala, Keeper of Silence.
3. 23 land. Time and time again people have strayed from this number only to come back to it as the ideal number. 22 Land is POSSIBLE in the GW list but I would still implore you to stick to 23.
Here is a standard example of a Mono-White Death and Taxes list.
The deck is really fun to play with, but takes skill and thinking to master. You cannot over extend, but you also have to keep up the pressure. You need to know the meta game really well, and be able to read your opponent's line of play really well to know what to drop when. Not a great deck for people who like to play more a more relaxed game, as there is very little that is auto-pilot about D&T. I also think that it is important to understand your role very well at any given time in the game, and to do that I cannot recommend enough the articles that every reasonably competitive magic player should read every year or so- Who's the Beatdown, by Mike Long and One Word by Jim Davis. If you don’t understand the basic concepts laid out in these two articles, you are not going to get anywhere with this deck. It’s all about having a hyper awareness of the opponent’s game plans, and adjusting your own to compensate with for it. This deck is in no way forgiving for flawed sequencing.
For people who like to put funny looks on their opponents' faces, a bonus is added that I dub "shenanigans". These are complex plays that are not always believed or understood with newer players and require a good handle on "the stack" and how thing go on it and resolve off of it. It is not really critical that you know these shenanigan by heart in order to play the deck- as a matter of fact they should not be relied on strictly speaking, but if the stars align and you have the chance to pull them off then they can be quite a big tempo boost. All of these were written by the previous thread runner, and I can't thank him enough for doing it. I am a bit wordy and can be a combo moron. One note I would like to add is that be very careful about trying shenanigan with exile cards (like Oblivion Ring) that have been printed since M14. Many of them have a new wording that makes shenanigans not work, so unless you verify with a someone who knows the rule well stick to the older versions mentioned in this primer.
First off, you need to be aware of the sheer power of flickerwisp. Here is a list compiled of the many tricks you can perform with him/her/it.
Hardcasting Tricks:
1. Hardcast it to untap one of your creatures after combat.
2. Hardcast it on your own land to untap it, making it cost one less mana basically.
3. Hardcast it to remove a blocker.
4. Hardcast it targeting an opposing Aether Vial, Engineered Explosives, Chalice of the Void, etc. to remove all counters from it.
5. Hardcast it targeting your Oblivion Ring or phyrexian revoker to switch targets (when it comes back).
6. Hardcast it targeting your Jötun Grunt to remove it's age counters.
7. Hardcast it targeting another flickerwisp you own so that when the second comes back, it removes something for the entire next turn. (unnecessary if you have a vial out though, see vial tricks: #2)
8. Hardcast it to remove tokens permanently
9. Hardcast it to reset Planeswalkers (Though vial end of your turn so they can't use its ability on their turn works better)
Vial Tricks:
1. Any of the tricks above also works here.
2. Vial it in on your end step to remove one of their lands (or another permanent) for their whole turn (works better with a mana-denial strategy).
3. Vial it in to stop an attacking creature.
4. Vial it in response to their removal spell to save your creature.
5. Vial it in to save your chump blocker.
5b. Vial it in to save Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or a first strike creature after it has already done its damage.
6. The most important (and most complicated) interaction. Vial it in to abuse the hell out of Mangara of Corondor, Oblivion Ring, Tidehollow Sculler, Journey to Nowhere, etc. Here's how (with oblivion ring as an example):
a. Cast Oblivion Ring.
b. With it's exile trigger on the stack (targeting, say, a Tarmogoyf), activate Aether Vial.
e. Oblivion Ring's second ability resolves, returning the Tarmogoyf to the battlefield, which, of course never left in the first place - so nothing happens.
stack = 1. exile SGC
f. Oblivion Ring's first ability then resolves, exiling Tarmogoyf permanently (since the return trigger already resolved).
g. At the beginning of your end step, Flickerwisp's delayed trigger returns Oblivion Ring to the battlefield, exiling another nonland permanent as normal.
This also works for the other stuff mentioned above.
Board Match up Data
This data is based on reported match up results from this board over the years. Keep in mind that the banlist and meta has shifted continuously over this time period, but useful information can still be gleaned from people’s past successes and failures. I would implore anyone trying to take their play to the next level to look at this data themselves. It is a lot, and it can be difficult to digest, but if you take the time to study it a little it will allow you to see the bigger picture of what the deck is about. Raw Data
I was lucky enough to get some page one real estate, so I'm going to put it to good use by adding miscellaneous resources to this post.
"Why aren't we running swords?"
Newcomers come in here and ask that every other page, so here's a write-up on that from someone who really, really wanted swords to work in this deck.
Four reasons to not run swords in the main deck:
1) The best part about the swords is the protection. That means you won't always hit the right color(s) if you have it mainboard. SoLaS against UR? Hunk of junk, too expensive for the +2/+2 and situational bonuses. If a card wins you certain matchup and doesn't pull its weight in others, that makes it a SB card. Sword of Light and Shadow, for example, is a great SB card against BW tokens.
2) Swords shine in the matchups that go long. Almost all those matchups are control matchups withloads of removal, and if you play sword, wait a turn (because we rarely have 5-6 mana - if we did we'd play Baneslayer) and equip it next turn, they will play removal on the equip target and you will have accomplished way too little progress in those two turns when we could have played two creatures and a Path. Those matchups also have counters for the sword, and Cryptic Command bounces it every time, particularly after we've spent five mana on cast+equip.
3) If we're in a huge pickle and have got no creatures, and top deck a sword, it might as well be a Darksteel Relic. This makes swords somewhat win-more, even if they surely often are "win a lot more".
4) Swords of non-pro-red don't get our x/1 creatures out of Bolt range, and we're running a LOT of x/1 creatures, possibly more than any other deck in the meta. More than half of our creatures can still be bolted with a non-pro-red sword equipped, which means that only half our creatures are good equip targets for Swords of non-pro-red. The sad part about it is that this includes Sword of Light and Shadow, which is the sword with the far and beyond most relevant abilities for our deck.
"Why green is good: Noble Hierarch & Co."
In my opinion there are six compelling reason to go green:
Noble Hierarch
I used to play mono white, and I also used to "feel" that Noble Hierarch didn't belong in D&T. When I went GW, it was to splash for Qasali Pridemage. I posted about how I thought that a mana dork would dilute the game plan, since it doesn't hate on anything, and make the deck more dumb beaterish. I wrote that I thought she belonged in Hatebears only. Then I tried her out and had to admit to all the GW players in here that I hadn't had the faintest idea what I was talking about.
In no particular order, and I'm sure these points blend into each other somewhat, here's a breakdown on Hierarch:
1) Tempo. Compare Hierarch to Thalia. Thalia, when she does her finest work, she essensially makes our opponent play one turn slower. Hierarch is the reverse of that, she makes us play a turn faster, which is relatively speaking kind of like slowing down the opponent.
2) Land independency. If you've got dorks, you can Quarter/Tec Edge more aggressively. When we've got one more mana source than our opponent, it makes Qhost QUartering less symmetrical. Wastelanding should be in our favor anyway since we're running a low curve, but if it leaves us with three mana sources and them with two, the effect is amplified.
3) The explosive turn three plays. They're not THE reason to play Hierarch, but it's an upside. T2 Aven Mindcensor in respons to a fetch crack doesn't happen that often, but it's effortless and can be pretty devastating. T2 Arbiter+Qhost Quarter happens more often, and it's awesome, especially because it leaves us with one mana more than them (as described above). The best one might still be T2 Blade Splicer, T3 attack with a 4/4 first strike golem (which often forces them to chump block with whatever they have out) and then play Flickerwisp/Restoration Angel on the Splicer to get another Golem. This is now end of turn three, and your side of the table looks like this: a Hierarch, two Golems, a 3/* flier and a Blade Splicer (which is actually relevant to the board state on her own because of the latent threat of more Golems). And all this is from three cards, so you've probably still got juice left. This play happens quite often, more often than T2 Arbiter+Quarter because of Wisp/Resto redundancy. It's not always the right move to do the explosive beatdown thing, so consider your course of action carefully, but it sure wins a lot of games.
4) Exalted. I'm sure we all know how valuable exalted is in this deck, so I'll leave that alone unless someone asks. Let me just say that I've had games where I've actually been happy to top deck a Hierarch because +1/+1 on my attacker for G has been just what I needed to break through.
5) Vial redundancy. It's a turn 1 play when you don't draw Vial. Got both? No problem, just play Vial and vial Hierarch in for free on turn 2. That said, I've actually had the occasional hand/matchup situation where the correct play is to play Hierarch first and not Vial, but that's very, very rare.
Qasali Pridemage
I like two in my main. Getting artifact/enchantment hate on a good creature frees up sideboard slots. I cannot stress how important that is. This is a deck that always struggles to find room for enough meta hate in the sideboard, and dropping those Sundering Growths or similar lets you hate on a whole other deck in the meta.
Exalted is incredibly good in this deck. Two-three exalted triggers is nice, of course, but our creatures are so often just too small that the first +1/+1 can make all the difference in the world. Attacking with a 4/2 Flickerwisp puts your opponent on a faster clock and trades with a flashed in Restoration Angel, attacking with a 4/5 Restoration Angel goes through their Restoration Angels (they are everywhere), Celestial Colonnades (also everywhere) and Linvalas, attacking with a 4/4 Golem takes down pretty much anything short of a decent Goyf and gives your opponent that though choice of whether to chump block or take a fifth of his life total... etc etc. I find these reasons to run Qasali Pridemage so compelling that I found a way to squeeze him into an otherwise mono white list.
Scavenging Ooze
Doesn't really free up sideboard slots in the graveyard hate department like Qasali Pridemage does in the ench/art destruction department, but he gives you some graveyard hate in game 1, so that's nice. He's also a great beater that gains you life, so you can't really ask for more. I like two, most people run three at the expense of Pridemage.
Gavony Township
It's a five mana late game boost that isn't a dead card when we're starved for mana. That's rare. Most lists run one or two, I like to run one and substitute the second one with a Tec Edge because I despise Celestial Collonade that much.
Choke
Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. There are a lot of blue decks out there that don't run enough Islands for this to matter much, so pay close attention before you board it in.
Creeping Corrosion
White has plenty of good ways to hate on affinity, but none of them scream "I WIN!" like this thing right here. They have no answer other than not overextending, and affinity does not like to hold back. Thalia is no problem, I side her out against Affinity anyway.
"How to we play against Scapeshift?"
Scapeshift.
It's a very good deck, but I don't think it's a terrible matchup for us. We're aggressive and we have quite a bit of relevant hate in both main and side. I'm no expert, but I have a few pointers:
What makes the deck hard to play against is the constant conflict between rushing in to win before they combo off, and not overextending into an Anger of the Gods or Pyroclasm. Try to find a good balance. It's a lot safer to overextend in G1 than G2/G3. Most lists don't run wipes mainboard, but any half decent Scapeshift player will side in Anger of the Gods, which means that you should side in Burrenton Forge-Tender if you've got him in your side (and if you see a lot of Scapeshift, you should).
The other very hard thing is to decide if you're going to save your Aven Mindcensor for responding to Scapeshift, or if you're going to play it early so that you can Qhost Quarter aggressively and deny them tutoring with Search for Tomorrow and Sakura-Tribe Elder. There is no right or wrong choice here. If you play Aven Mindcensor early, do it in response to one of those cards. Their usual MO is to block with Sakura-Tribe Elder, then sacrifice him before damage.
Good cards are the search haters, Thalia, Tectonic Edge, Eidolon of Rethoric and Spellskite, and any x/4 creatures. Loxodon Smiter and Thrun are not popular cards in this thread, but they're both incredible in this matchup, they have almost no way of dealing with him and his clock is scary. Brimaz is also good, so is Restoration Angel. Linvala works against late Sakura-Tribe Elders and she beats face, so leave her in.
They're playing Cryptic Command, so try to keep them off triple blue for as long as possible. In G2 you might want to keep them off double red for Anger of the Gods.
Thalia taxes cards with suspend. They will have to pay 1 to cast Search for Tomorrow during their upkeep. Don't let players miss/"miss" this. If I'm not mistaken, you can vial in Thalia in response to the suspend trigger (not the actual spell) and make them pay a surprise mana, which can trip up their turn.
The Spellskite trick: If they Scapeshift at 7 lands and you have a Spellskite out when the six Valakut damage triggers are on the stack, you can pay 12 life and activate Spellskite six times, one targeting each of the Valakut triggers. The second one will kill Spellskite and the rest fizzles. A Scapeshift newbie might not know this. Try to read your opponent. Experienced players will simply answer it or go to 8 lands and Scapeshift for 36 with two Valakuts, which is too many triggers to Spellskite away unless you have a lot of life. At the very least, Spellskites either demands an answer or buys you that extra one or two turns it takes them to find that eight land, and those turns could be the extra turns you need to win, so play Spellskite either way.
Try to stay above 18 life. If you have 19 or more life, they will have to go to 8 lands to kill you with Scapeshift. Note that if you have 19-21 life, they will often bolt you, then play Scapeshift for 7 lands, so staying above 21 is even better.
Eidolon of the Rhetoric is relevant because it removes their ability to play Scapeshift and then also respond to vialed/flashed in hate. An Eidolon on the board means that a flashed in Aven Mindcensor in response to Scapeshift gives you a game win, and sometimes the same is true with a vialed in Spellskite if they Scapeshift at 7 lands and you have enough life (see above). If you survive a Scapeshift, there's not much they can do other than hope for enough bolts.
Be very careful with siding out all your Path to Exiles, Qasali Pridemages etc. Scapeshift players know that creature removal is completely dead against them in G1, and since they can rightly expect their opponents to side out all their removal, some side in nasty threats like Batterskull, Inferno Titan and Obstinate Baloth and smash face.
"Any advice to a player on a budget?" Remember that budget discussions are kind of a no-no in this sub-forum, so I recommend keeping that to a minimum.
If you're on a budget, I recommend that you try to make the best out of mono white. Mono white is perfectly playable and almost every bit as fun to play as GW (or other variants). GW is definitely more competitive, but it's a LOT more expensive than mono white. Twelve dual lands, Townships and Oozes add upp very fast, and Noble Hierarch? Forget about it, that thing is bling-bling. With mono white you do get to know the deck and gain experience with it (it's actually a very a hard deck to pilot, which makes it more rewarding to play over time), and if you've played it for months and love it to bits you might consider pouring some money into it. You can even upgrade to GW baby steps like this:
Mono white
Mono white with two-three Horizon Canopys
W(g) with two Pridemages, a Gavony Township, a set of fastlands and the Canopys
Full on GW except with two-three Birds of Paradise instead of four Hierarchs
Full on turbocharged GW
I did this except I skipped the Birds part, and I loved every single build.
Llamaza has another good strategy for going from mono white to GW here.
Full guide to W(g) Death & Taxes
How and why to play Qasali Pridemage in an otherwise mono white list, like the list in the primer. This guide contains some land statistics and reasonings behind card choices, so it's a lot longer than you'd expect. Here's a link the whole thing.
Be my guest! I intend to keep this properly updated, if I have some error here or if there's definitely some sort of crucial information it's lacking, let me know! Mostly I am trying to keep it to important general info though, I worry about it getting too crowded since I have so much to say about the deck haha
I'd be more than happy to start the discussion off with a niche matchup. I favour the Time Warp deck in modern currently and have been working on maximizing it's capabilities in this format. Obviously things such as Gaddock Teeg are troublesome if not answered or bounced, but I've found that we are able to work around that with Boomerang and friends.
How often do you find that Gaddock Teeg is run in the deck? With so many low CMC removal in the format, is it something that you guys have shied away from? Is this deck completely different than the W(g) D&T or is that deck just a different variation? Thanks! (:
Oh, and I guess the overall arching question: Have you found that running moreso White favoured than both White and Green has been optimal for most matchups?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Decks:
Modern
Modern Warp / UR Control / UR Storm / Naya Breachshift / ElectroBalance
Legacy
Solidarity / Lands / Sneak and Show / Grixis Delver / Reanimator / Belcher / Storm / Dredge
I'd be more than happy to start the discussion off with a niche matchup. I favour the Time Warp deck in modern currently and have been working on maximizing it's capabilities in this format. Obviously things such as Gaddock Teeg are troublesome if not answered or bounced, but I've found that we are able to work around that with Boomerang and friends.
How often do you find that Gaddock Teeg is run in the deck? With so many low CMC removal in the format, is it something that you guys have shied away from? Is this deck completely different than the W(g) D&T or is that deck just a different variation? Thanks! (:
Oh, and I guess the overall arching question: Have you found that running moreso White favoured than both White and Green has been optimal for most matchups?
Teeg has certainly lost popularity I feel in favor of choke. He was previously often used to answer cryptic commands and twin, but choke is just such a better answer when UWR or Twin is simply going to bolt it. I don't know if I fully understand your question about the W(g) version, but I tend to lump all the WG versions into one category (for simplicity's sake). There is a lot of variation there though, such as running Quasali or not. I went with Nutzlos's version simply because it's shown itself time and time again to be a solid deck.
I feel White and Green to be favored more in most match ups. White really only gets the leg up against blood moon decks, but green still has outs there even. White (in my opinion) is 2 or so cards short of being a real quality deck. Not having Mom or stoneforge in modern really hurts the mono white version.
I'd be more than happy to start the discussion off with a niche matchup. I favour the Time Warp deck in modern currently and have been working on maximizing it's capabilities in this format. Obviously things such as Gaddock Teeg are troublesome if not answered or bounced, but I've found that we are able to work around that with Boomerang and friends.
How often do you find that Gaddock Teeg is run in the deck? With so many low CMC removal in the format, is it something that you guys have shied away from? Is this deck completely different than the W(g) D&T or is that deck just a different variation? Thanks! (:
Oh, and I guess the overall arching question: Have you found that running moreso White favoured than both White and Green has been optimal for most matchups?
Teeg has certainly lost popularity I feel in favor of choke. He was previously often used to answer cryptic commands and twin, but choke is just such a better answer when UWR or Twin is simply going to bolt it. I don't know if I fully understand your question about the W(g) version, but I tend to lump all the WG versions into one category (for simplicity's sake). There is a lot of variation there though, such as running Quasali or not. I went with Nutzlos's version simply because it's shown itself time and time again to be a solid deck.
I feel White and Green to be favored more in most match ups. White really only gets the leg up against blood moon decks, but green still has outs there even. White (in my opinion) is 2 or so cards short of being a real quality deck. Not having Mom or stoneforge in modern really hurts the mono white version.
Fair enough. Choke can indeed be a nasty beast (and hard for Twin to answer if timed right with the casting of it). I was just trying to figure out what kinds of silver bullets are out there from various decks that need to be answered. I built D&T in Modern for a brief period (since I had the Vintage White Trash deck) but agreed with your assessment that it needs that little bit of something more to truly shine. I constantly scan spoilers when new cards are coming out thought to see if it's time to sleeve the deck up again (:
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Decks:
Modern
Modern Warp / UR Control / UR Storm / Naya Breachshift / ElectroBalance
Legacy
Solidarity / Lands / Sneak and Show / Grixis Delver / Reanimator / Belcher / Storm / Dredge
I'd be more than happy to start the discussion off with a niche matchup. I favour the Time Warp deck in modern currently and have been working on maximizing it's capabilities in this format. Obviously things such as Gaddock Teeg are troublesome if not answered or bounced, but I've found that we are able to work around that with Boomerang and friends.
How often do you find that Gaddock Teeg is run in the deck? With so many low CMC removal in the format, is it something that you guys have shied away from? Is this deck completely different than the W(g) D&T or is that deck just a different variation? Thanks! (:
Oh, and I guess the overall arching question: Have you found that running moreso White favoured than both White and Green has been optimal for most matchups?
Teeg has certainly lost popularity I feel in favor of choke. He was previously often used to answer cryptic commands and twin, but choke is just such a better answer when UWR or Twin is simply going to bolt it. I don't know if I fully understand your question about the W(g) version, but I tend to lump all the WG versions into one category (for simplicity's sake). There is a lot of variation there though, such as running Quasali or not. I went with Nutzlos's version simply because it's shown itself time and time again to be a solid deck.
I feel White and Green to be favored more in most match ups. White really only gets the leg up against blood moon decks, but green still has outs there even. White (in my opinion) is 2 or so cards short of being a real quality deck. Not having Mom or stoneforge in modern really hurts the mono white version.
Fair enough. Choke can indeed be a nasty beast (and hard for Twin to answer if timed right with the casting of it). I was just trying to figure out what kinds of silver bullets are out there from various decks that need to be answered. I built D&T in Modern for a brief period (since I had the Vintage White Trash deck) but agreed with your assessment that it needs that little bit of something more to truly shine. I constantly scan spoilers when new cards are coming out thought to see if it's time to sleeve the deck up again (:
Well im glad it has your interest WB death and taxes is my baby haha. It's probably the only reason it's up there. I will eventually try and clean up the entries a little more, expand here and there. There are certainly note worthy cards I don't have mentioned there, and I would like to do so in order to stream line conversation. Just thank god it's done so now the droves of people looking for a relevant, basic mono white build have a good reference other than the out dated mess that used to be up there hahaha.
Just a small typo: you put the souls sister match up both in bad and terrible Also no love for the red haha (not saying red is legit, just that I like it )
Congratulation to the writers. Good job.
Thanks! I added it to terrible without seeing it was already in bad haha. A minor disagreement with the original author.
I will eventually try and clean up the entries a little more, expand here and there. There are certainly note worthy cards I don't have mentioned there, and I would like to do so in order to stream line conversation. Just thank god it's done so now the droves of people looking for a relevant, basic mono white build have a good reference other than the out dated mess that used to be up there hahaha.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Decks:
Modern
Modern Warp / UR Control / UR Storm / Naya Breachshift / ElectroBalance
Legacy
Solidarity / Lands / Sneak and Show / Grixis Delver / Reanimator / Belcher / Storm / Dredge
Old primer was no longer being maintained, nor did it contain crucial information such as an acceptable basic deck list for those trying to get into the deck. Essentially, the primer could no long fulfil it's duties. It still advocated the use of mangara and stonecloakers as the standard to give you an idea of how dated it was.
Old primer was no longer being maintained, nor did it contain crucial information such as an acceptable basic deck list for those trying to get into the deck. Essentially, the primer could no long fulfil it's duties. It still advocated the use of mangara and stonecloakers as the standard to give you an idea of how dated it was.
Old primer was no longer being maintained, nor did it contain crucial information such as an acceptable basic deck list for those trying to get into the deck. Essentially, the primer could no long fulfil it's duties. It still advocated the use of mangara and stonecloakers as the standard to give you an idea of how dated it was.
Hmm... Alright. Thanks for the answer.
I hope that was satisfactory, if you have any suggestions for the primer or find any errors let me know!
Thank you guys for the old thread. I was following it for a month or two while putting together the deck. It had great discussion about every possible card you could run in this deck, matchups, etc. The new primer looks excellent as well.
I've finally got the deck constructed and it's so fun to play. It has tons of lines of play, game against most decks, and even the ability to cheese some wins with heavy Ghost Quarter draws or great Vial curves. Here's what I've built:
The weirdest part of the list above is no Restoration Angel. It's partially a money decision, but I'm kind of enjoying this version. With no 4 cmc cards, I feel capable of playing 22 lands. Kor Skyfisher does an okay Resto impression. My meta has a bunch of beatdown decks like Merfolk and Zoo, which is why the MD Dismembers and -1 Thalia. The Javelineers have been surprisingly effective against a slew of decks. I'm pretty happy with the main deck.
The sideboard I'm less sure about. The Firewalkers, RIP, Gods Willing and Aegis of the Gods have all been only okay. Does the deck look like it has any gaping holes that could be covered by different sideboard cards?
Thank you guys for the old thread. I was following it for a month or two while putting together the deck. It had great discussion about every possible card you could run in this deck, matchups, etc. The new primer looks excellent as well.
I've finally got the deck constructed and it's so fun to play. It has tons of lines of play, game against most decks, and even the ability to cheese some wins with heavy Ghost Quarter draws or great Vial curves. Here's what I've built:
The weirdest part of the list above is no Restoration Angel. It's partially a money decision, but I'm kind of enjoying this version. With no 4 cmc cards, I feel capable of playing 22 lands. Kor Skyfisher does an okay Resto impression. My meta has a bunch of beatdown decks like Merfolk and Zoo, which is why the MD Dismembers and -1 Thalia. The Javelineers have been surprisingly effective against a slew of decks. I'm pretty happy with the main deck.
The sideboard I'm less sure about. The Firewalkers, RIP, Gods Willing and Aegis of the Gods have all been only okay. Does the deck look like it has any gaping holes that could be covered by different sideboard cards?
If your happy with skyhooks and javiloneers, the only suggestion I would make is cut aegis, fire walker and gods willing to put 2 auriok champion, an additional spellskite, and perhaps a mark of asylum there. Ethersworn canonist should be eidolon of rhetoric as well. I like the list though, I imagines it's quite solid! There are some non budget options you could do, but I'd try and replace a javiloneer with a resto first. I ran four wisp one resto a long time and was quite happy!
I hope that was satisfactory, if you have any suggestions for the primer or find any errors let me know!
It was.
I used to be more involved with the previous primer and was just curious. There are pieces out of it, old decklists and such, that I will have to find in the archive to save.
I haven't had a chance to play Modern as much and have been dabbling in 8rack when I do, but this is the deck that got me into Modern (and then Legacy) so I'm sure I'll pop in from time to time.
To actually contribute: one thing I always liked previously, to help close out games and to give survivability through sweepers was a replacement of Tectonic Edge for Mutavault (I splashed green). Edge always seemed lack luster and slow to fully mesh with the tax element of the deck; and Mutavault provides the aggression that I always felt the deck was missing while also having synergy with Blade Splicer, as you have already noted.
I hope that was satisfactory, if you have any suggestions for the primer or find any errors let me know!
It was.
I used to be more involved with the previous primer and was just curious. There are pieces out of it, old decklists and such, that I will have to find in the archive to save.
I haven't had a chance to play Modern as much and have been dabbling in 8rack when I do, but this is the deck that got me into Modern (and then Legacy) so I'm sure I'll pop in from time to time.
To actually contribute: one thing I always liked previously, to help close out games and to give survivability through sweepers was a replacement of Tectonic Edge for Mutavault (I splashed green). Edge always seemed lack luster and slow to fully mesh with the tax element of the deck; and Mutavault provides the aggression that I always felt the deck was missing while also having synergy with Blade Splicer, as you have already noted.
I did save the old featured lists as a throw back to the old primer I like muta in the mono white list as well, tec edge just hits a little late. I just hesitate to recommend it in the current meta since tec edge helps a lot against scapeshift which is rising in popularity, and it's key in the mono green devotion match up I've been seeing a lot of. I am considering sticking them in my BW list though as a buff to the rats though, and the splicer synergy.
What is Death & Taxes?
Death & Taxes (D&T) is a deck based loosely on the Legacy deck by the same name. It is a white based deck (originally strictly mono-white) that plays small creatures who provide some element of control on the battlefield. At its most basic form, the general idea is to out tempo the opponent through virtual card advantage, evasive/efficient beats, and creating dead cards in their hand utilizing taxes and an aggressive land destruction plan. Keep in mind this deck is a meta deck at heart, its power stems from that, not the intrinsic power of the cards themselves.
BEFORE SELECTING THIS DECK
I want to put this warning out there right at the beginning so that you do not misunderstand this deck. This is not the legacy Death and Taxes deck. It’s game plan significantly differs from legacy death and taxes. Attempting to apply the same strategy you see there, here, will lead to many lost matches. Swords are not good in modern. They open you up for a two for one that this deck cannot afford, they are dead top decks, they have anti-synergy with thalia, you cannot cheat them into play, and the fact that they one offs means you are shooting yourself in the foot on top of everything else.
This leads me to the next card I never want to see in a modern list: Phyrexian Revoker. Creatures and creature removal are far more wide spread in modern than legacy, as well as the targets for revoker simply not being as crucial. Do not play this card, no matter how well it supposedly performs for you there are better cards for this slot.
Now this isn’t to say there aren’t other poor choices for your 75 (there are many, and they will/have been posted here frequently) but these two lead to the most insidious mindset. It’s not regular bad deck building like continuing to run stonecloaker and justifying it as flash graveyard hate (C’mon guys it’s narrow and extraordinarily inefficient for what it does, pay the extra 1 for your restos cheapskates and pack two rest in peace in your board so you don’t have to run bad hate like this.), it’s attempting to apply legacy lessons to modern, which just doesn’t work. They’re warped in two very different directions.If you can’t adjust to the modern meta, and instead try and mimic the legacy deck as close as possible because it’s a power house there, you are going to fail. You are going to fail because you did not take to heart that this is a meta deck, and it’s only as good as your knowledge of the current meta.
How is Death & Taxes different from Hatebears?
This is a complicated question to answer, but in short the main difference is the reliance that D&T has on flicker & blink effects. D&T also uses white heavier (in general), and rarely uses mana dorks. Generally key signs that the list is death and taxes and not hatebears is A. It runs 4 Flickerwisp B. It does NOT run Thrun, The Last Troll or TYPICALLY 4 Loxodon Smiter. Over all, Death and taxes is more concerned with interacting with the opponent than preventing interaction with themselves.
Death and Taxes started developing as a legacy deck when Time Spiral came out, and with it, the printing of mangara of corondor. The idea for the deck came from the interaction of mangara with another, older card; karakas. As exiling mangara wasn't part of his activation, you could activate karakas in response to tapping him, and return him to your hand before he exiled himself. Unfortunately your opponent couldn't say the same for his permanent you targeted. Aether vial also came in handy, because you could use this interaction, then put him right back onto the battlefield at the end of the turn, ready to repeat the same process next turn.
This was the basis for the deck; then came the add-ons. The name "Death and Taxes" comes originally from a joke about the legacy deck stating "All that is certain in life is death, taxes (and White Weenie)". It does not come from, as many believe, all the taxing effects being the "tax" and the swords being the "Death". Keeping these parts in mind however is useful for analysis of the deck and explaining the stark difference between the legacy form and the modern form.
Then, Eventide happened, and so did flickerwisp. D&T was already a pretty strong deck, generally mono-white. But 'wisp had a better idea: make it stronger. Flickerwisp flew into D&T lists fairly fast, due to all of the interactions it could do just by itself, let alone with aether vial... not to mention it could pound for 3 in the air. It also allowed mangara to operate and come back for more without karakas, but just for one turn. If aether vial was out, the user would use mangara and flash 'wisp onto the battlefield in response, bringing mangara back to fight once more at the end of the turn.
As the years progressed, Death and Taxes became more and more powerful, and almost all lists were mono-white. D+T recognized the power of stoneforge mystic even before it made it big in standard, using it to grab sword of fire and ice, sword of light and shadow, and umezawa's jitte. Putting one of those on a serra avenger caused the "death" part of it to come even more naturally, while still messing with the opponent's cards to make him/her unable to do much but sit and watch in horror.
Now it has made it to modern, by its creator (me), with help from many of the below posters. The main thing that is missing is karakas, but the deck can still function without it. Mangara is still a vindicate with legs, and flickerwisp can still repeat his ability. Other key cards from the legacy version are gone as well, such as wasteland, rishadan port, mother of runes, swords to plowshares and umezawa's jitte, but in retrospect that isn't much compared to a lot of other decks trying to move from legacy into modern. A big misconception about this deck though is that it is truly white weenie. It started that way with the original legacy list, but now it is far more interested in disruptive elements and value. A key thing to remember here is to never run a beater just to run a beater in this list.
2. Bare Bones
At their most basic all D&T decks have a few things in common that really define the deck and differentiate it from hatebears. I will go into other card choices, but these are the cards that are essential for every D&T deck.
Whenever adding cards after this core, keep in mind a few things; they should be tailored to the meta. This deck cares much more about everyone else’s list more than its own. The cards it employs should be as broad as possible, maximizing the net of hate cards cast. This means playing cards like dryad militant over cards like spirit of the labyrinth since draw in modern is much weaker and hating on goyf and delve cards are more relevant at the moment. Also keep in mind that D&T is less interested in efficient beaters than it is the total package of the creature itself. The deck list should work seamlessly together, each part interlocking with each other part. This deck has no filter, no draw, so a smooth, interchangeable maindeck is key.
Lastly, there are three big "rules" you have to consider when building this deck:
1. One of the biggest ways that D&T diverges from other decks is in the area of "curve", and the card that shapes this is Aether Vial. Since Vial (unlike a mana pool) can only bring into play a creature with exactly the same cmc as it has counters on it, you want to really push the best value you have. If you spread out your cmc's too much then you create akward turns wherein it is not clear whether it is best to add a counter or keep it where it is, whereas if you lump them together it is pretty clear. We have found that the most valuable cmc (while still being quick enough to achieve) is three, so that is where most of our creatures sit. This means that we generally run 4 one-drop creatures, 7-8 two-drop creatures, and the rest (see exception below) are three drops. All in all you want to be running between 27-29 creatures, giving you 2 possible flex spots for non-creature slots in the list. A common suggestion for this would be additional removal such as dismember or sunlance, meta depending.
2. Due to the fact that this deck's mana denial strategy relies heavily on sacrificing our own lands it can be hard to aggressively control your opponent and maintain more than 3 lands in play most of the game. As a result, and also due to our need to run mostly 3 cmc creatures, this deck does not handle four-drops well at all. It is the effective ceiling of the deck, unless a creature is so vital to every game by making more potent the themes of the deck. So far the only card that I feel fits this requirement is Restoration Angel. People try and try to force others in, but their added value does not balance out their ability to drag down your games. (If running the GW version, due to dorks you should be able to run a 5th 4 drop here, probably the best suggestion being Linvala, Keeper of Silence.
3. 23 land. Time and time again people have strayed from this number only to come back to it as the ideal number. 22 Land is POSSIBLE in the GW list but I would still implore you to stick to 23.
Here is a standard example of a Mono-White Death and Taxes list.
13 Plains
1 Eiganjo castle
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Ghost Quarter
Creatures 29
4 Dryad Militant
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Flickerwisp
1 Vryn Wingmare
3 Blade Splicer
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Brimaz, King of Orezkos
3 Restoration Angel
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
2x Sundering Growth
2x Kor Firewalker
1x Mark of Asylum
2x Spellskite
3x Stony Silence
3x Rest in Peace
2x MIrran Crusader
The deck is really fun to play with, but takes skill and thinking to master. You cannot over extend, but you also have to keep up the pressure. You need to know the meta game really well, and be able to read your opponent's line of play really well to know what to drop when. Not a great deck for people who like to play more a more relaxed game, as there is very little that is auto-pilot about D&T. I also think that it is important to understand your role very well at any given time in the game, and to do that I cannot recommend enough the articles that every reasonably competitive magic player should read every year or so- Who's the Beatdown, by Mike Long and One Word by Jim Davis. If you don’t understand the basic concepts laid out in these two articles, you are not going to get anywhere with this deck. It’s all about having a hyper awareness of the opponent’s game plans, and adjusting your own to compensate with for it. This deck is in no way forgiving for flawed sequencing.
For people who like to put funny looks on their opponents' faces, a bonus is added that I dub "shenanigans". These are complex plays that are not always believed or understood with newer players and require a good handle on "the stack" and how thing go on it and resolve off of it. It is not really critical that you know these shenanigan by heart in order to play the deck- as a matter of fact they should not be relied on strictly speaking, but if the stars align and you have the chance to pull them off then they can be quite a big tempo boost. All of these were written by the previous thread runner, and I can't thank him enough for doing it. I am a bit wordy and can be a combo moron. One note I would like to add is that be very careful about trying shenanigan with exile cards (like Oblivion Ring) that have been printed since M14. Many of them have a new wording that makes shenanigans not work, so unless you verify with a someone who knows the rule well stick to the older versions mentioned in this primer.
First off, you need to be aware of the sheer power of flickerwisp. Here is a list compiled of the many tricks you can perform with him/her/it.
Hardcasting Tricks:
1. Hardcast it to untap one of your creatures after combat.
2. Hardcast it on your own land to untap it, making it cost one less mana basically.
3. Hardcast it to remove a blocker.
4. Hardcast it targeting an opposing Aether Vial, Engineered Explosives, Chalice of the Void, etc. to remove all counters from it.
5. Hardcast it targeting your Oblivion Ring or phyrexian revoker to switch targets (when it comes back).
6. Hardcast it targeting your Jötun Grunt to remove it's age counters.
7. Hardcast it targeting another flickerwisp you own so that when the second comes back, it removes something for the entire next turn. (unnecessary if you have a vial out though, see vial tricks: #2)
8. Hardcast it to remove tokens permanently
9. Hardcast it to reset Planeswalkers (Though vial end of your turn so they can't use its ability on their turn works better)
Vial Tricks:
1. Any of the tricks above also works here.
2. Vial it in on your end step to remove one of their lands (or another permanent) for their whole turn (works better with a mana-denial strategy).
3. Vial it in to stop an attacking creature.
4. Vial it in response to their removal spell to save your creature.
5. Vial it in to save your chump blocker.
5b. Vial it in to save Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or a first strike creature after it has already done its damage.
6. The most important (and most complicated) interaction. Vial it in to abuse the hell out of Mangara of Corondor, Oblivion Ring, Tidehollow Sculler, Journey to Nowhere, etc. Here's how (with oblivion ring as an example):
a. Cast Oblivion Ring.
b. With it's exile trigger on the stack (targeting, say, a Tarmogoyf), activate Aether Vial.
stack = 1. exile SGC (O-ring trigger) 2. Vial activation
c. Vial resolves. Vial in the Flickerwisp. Put its ability on the stack targeting your own Oblivion Ring.
stack = 1. exile GoyfC 2. exile O-ring (wisp trigger)
d. Flickerwisp's ability resolves exiling Oblivion Ring. Oblivion Ring's second ability goes on the stack.
stack = 1. exile Goyf 2. return Goyf (O-ring trigger)
e. Oblivion Ring's second ability resolves, returning the Tarmogoyf to the battlefield, which, of course never left in the first place - so nothing happens.
stack = 1. exile SGC
f. Oblivion Ring's first ability then resolves, exiling Tarmogoyf permanently (since the return trigger already resolved).
g. At the beginning of your end step, Flickerwisp's delayed trigger returns Oblivion Ring to the battlefield, exiling another nonland permanent as normal.
This also works for the other stuff mentioned above.
This data is based on reported match up results from this board over the years. Keep in mind that the banlist and meta has shifted continuously over this time period, but useful information can still be gleaned from people’s past successes and failures. I would implore anyone trying to take their play to the next level to look at this data themselves. It is a lot, and it can be difficult to digest, but if you take the time to study it a little it will allow you to see the bigger picture of what the deck is about.
Raw Data
"Why aren't we running swords?"
Newcomers come in here and ask that every other page, so here's a write-up on that from someone who really, really wanted swords to work in this deck.
1) The best part about the swords is the protection. That means you won't always hit the right color(s) if you have it mainboard. SoLaS against UR? Hunk of junk, too expensive for the +2/+2 and situational bonuses. If a card wins you certain matchup and doesn't pull its weight in others, that makes it a SB card. Sword of Light and Shadow, for example, is a great SB card against BW tokens.
2) Swords shine in the matchups that go long. Almost all those matchups are control matchups withloads of removal, and if you play sword, wait a turn (because we rarely have 5-6 mana - if we did we'd play Baneslayer) and equip it next turn, they will play removal on the equip target and you will have accomplished way too little progress in those two turns when we could have played two creatures and a Path. Those matchups also have counters for the sword, and Cryptic Command bounces it every time, particularly after we've spent five mana on cast+equip.
3) If we're in a huge pickle and have got no creatures, and top deck a sword, it might as well be a Darksteel Relic. This makes swords somewhat win-more, even if they surely often are "win a lot more".
4) Swords of non-pro-red don't get our x/1 creatures out of Bolt range, and we're running a LOT of x/1 creatures, possibly more than any other deck in the meta. More than half of our creatures can still be bolted with a non-pro-red sword equipped, which means that only half our creatures are good equip targets for Swords of non-pro-red. The sad part about it is that this includes Sword of Light and Shadow, which is the sword with the far and beyond most relevant abilities for our deck.
"Why green is good: Noble Hierarch & Co."
Noble Hierarch
I used to play mono white, and I also used to "feel" that Noble Hierarch didn't belong in D&T. When I went GW, it was to splash for Qasali Pridemage. I posted about how I thought that a mana dork would dilute the game plan, since it doesn't hate on anything, and make the deck more dumb beaterish. I wrote that I thought she belonged in Hatebears only. Then I tried her out and had to admit to all the GW players in here that I hadn't had the faintest idea what I was talking about.
In no particular order, and I'm sure these points blend into each other somewhat, here's a breakdown on Hierarch:
1) Tempo. Compare Hierarch to Thalia. Thalia, when she does her finest work, she essensially makes our opponent play one turn slower. Hierarch is the reverse of that, she makes us play a turn faster, which is relatively speaking kind of like slowing down the opponent.
2) Land independency. If you've got dorks, you can Quarter/Tec Edge more aggressively. When we've got one more mana source than our opponent, it makes Qhost QUartering less symmetrical. Wastelanding should be in our favor anyway since we're running a low curve, but if it leaves us with three mana sources and them with two, the effect is amplified.
3) The explosive turn three plays. They're not THE reason to play Hierarch, but it's an upside. T2 Aven Mindcensor in respons to a fetch crack doesn't happen that often, but it's effortless and can be pretty devastating. T2 Arbiter+Qhost Quarter happens more often, and it's awesome, especially because it leaves us with one mana more than them (as described above). The best one might still be T2 Blade Splicer, T3 attack with a 4/4 first strike golem (which often forces them to chump block with whatever they have out) and then play Flickerwisp/Restoration Angel on the Splicer to get another Golem. This is now end of turn three, and your side of the table looks like this: a Hierarch, two Golems, a 3/* flier and a Blade Splicer (which is actually relevant to the board state on her own because of the latent threat of more Golems). And all this is from three cards, so you've probably still got juice left. This play happens quite often, more often than T2 Arbiter+Quarter because of Wisp/Resto redundancy. It's not always the right move to do the explosive beatdown thing, so consider your course of action carefully, but it sure wins a lot of games.
4) Exalted. I'm sure we all know how valuable exalted is in this deck, so I'll leave that alone unless someone asks. Let me just say that I've had games where I've actually been happy to top deck a Hierarch because +1/+1 on my attacker for G has been just what I needed to break through.
5) Vial redundancy. It's a turn 1 play when you don't draw Vial. Got both? No problem, just play Vial and vial Hierarch in for free on turn 2. That said, I've actually had the occasional hand/matchup situation where the correct play is to play Hierarch first and not Vial, but that's very, very rare.
Qasali Pridemage
I like two in my main. Getting artifact/enchantment hate on a good creature frees up sideboard slots. I cannot stress how important that is. This is a deck that always struggles to find room for enough meta hate in the sideboard, and dropping those Sundering Growths or similar lets you hate on a whole other deck in the meta.
Exalted is incredibly good in this deck. Two-three exalted triggers is nice, of course, but our creatures are so often just too small that the first +1/+1 can make all the difference in the world. Attacking with a 4/2 Flickerwisp puts your opponent on a faster clock and trades with a flashed in Restoration Angel, attacking with a 4/5 Restoration Angel goes through their Restoration Angels (they are everywhere), Celestial Colonnades (also everywhere) and Linvalas, attacking with a 4/4 Golem takes down pretty much anything short of a decent Goyf and gives your opponent that though choice of whether to chump block or take a fifth of his life total... etc etc. I find these reasons to run Qasali Pridemage so compelling that I found a way to squeeze him into an otherwise mono white list.
Scavenging Ooze
Doesn't really free up sideboard slots in the graveyard hate department like Qasali Pridemage does in the ench/art destruction department, but he gives you some graveyard hate in game 1, so that's nice. He's also a great beater that gains you life, so you can't really ask for more. I like two, most people run three at the expense of Pridemage.
Gavony Township
It's a five mana late game boost that isn't a dead card when we're starved for mana. That's rare. Most lists run one or two, I like to run one and substitute the second one with a Tec Edge because I despise Celestial Collonade that much.
Choke
Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. There are a lot of blue decks out there that don't run enough Islands for this to matter much, so pay close attention before you board it in.
Creeping Corrosion
White has plenty of good ways to hate on affinity, but none of them scream "I WIN!" like this thing right here. They have no answer other than not overextending, and affinity does not like to hold back. Thalia is no problem, I side her out against Affinity anyway.
"How to we play against Scapeshift?"
It's a very good deck, but I don't think it's a terrible matchup for us. We're aggressive and we have quite a bit of relevant hate in both main and side. I'm no expert, but I have a few pointers:
"Any advice to a player on a budget?"
Remember that budget discussions are kind of a no-no in this sub-forum, so I recommend keeping that to a minimum.
Mono white
Mono white with two-three Horizon Canopys
W(g) with two Pridemages, a Gavony Township, a set of fastlands and the Canopys
Full on GW except with two-three Birds of Paradise instead of four Hierarchs
Full on turbocharged GW
I did this except I skipped the Birds part, and I loved every single build.
Llamaza has another good strategy for going from mono white to GW here.
Full guide to W(g) Death & Taxes
How and why to play Qasali Pridemage in an otherwise mono white list, like the list in the primer. This guide contains some land statistics and reasonings behind card choices, so it's a lot longer than you'd expect. Here's a link the whole thing.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
I'd be more than happy to start the discussion off with a niche matchup. I favour the Time Warp deck in modern currently and have been working on maximizing it's capabilities in this format. Obviously things such as Gaddock Teeg are troublesome if not answered or bounced, but I've found that we are able to work around that with Boomerang and friends.
How often do you find that Gaddock Teeg is run in the deck? With so many low CMC removal in the format, is it something that you guys have shied away from? Is this deck completely different than the W(g) D&T or is that deck just a different variation? Thanks! (:
Oh, and I guess the overall arching question: Have you found that running moreso White favoured than both White and Green has been optimal for most matchups?
Modern Warp / UR Control / UR Storm / Naya Breachshift / ElectroBalance
Solidarity / Lands / Sneak and Show / Grixis Delver / Reanimator / Belcher / Storm / Dredge
Teeg has certainly lost popularity I feel in favor of choke. He was previously often used to answer cryptic commands and twin, but choke is just such a better answer when UWR or Twin is simply going to bolt it. I don't know if I fully understand your question about the W(g) version, but I tend to lump all the WG versions into one category (for simplicity's sake). There is a lot of variation there though, such as running Quasali or not. I went with Nutzlos's version simply because it's shown itself time and time again to be a solid deck.
I feel White and Green to be favored more in most match ups. White really only gets the leg up against blood moon decks, but green still has outs there even. White (in my opinion) is 2 or so cards short of being a real quality deck. Not having Mom or stoneforge in modern really hurts the mono white version.
Fair enough. Choke can indeed be a nasty beast (and hard for Twin to answer if timed right with the casting of it). I was just trying to figure out what kinds of silver bullets are out there from various decks that need to be answered. I built D&T in Modern for a brief period (since I had the Vintage White Trash deck) but agreed with your assessment that it needs that little bit of something more to truly shine. I constantly scan spoilers when new cards are coming out thought to see if it's time to sleeve the deck up again (:
Modern Warp / UR Control / UR Storm / Naya Breachshift / ElectroBalance
Solidarity / Lands / Sneak and Show / Grixis Delver / Reanimator / Belcher / Storm / Dredge
Well im glad it has your interest WB death and taxes is my baby haha. It's probably the only reason it's up there. I will eventually try and clean up the entries a little more, expand here and there. There are certainly note worthy cards I don't have mentioned there, and I would like to do so in order to stream line conversation. Just thank god it's done so now the droves of people looking for a relevant, basic mono white build have a good reference other than the out dated mess that used to be up there hahaha.
Thanks! I added it to terrible without seeing it was already in bad haha. A minor disagreement with the original author.
Modern Warp / UR Control / UR Storm / Naya Breachshift / ElectroBalance
Solidarity / Lands / Sneak and Show / Grixis Delver / Reanimator / Belcher / Storm / Dredge
Old primer was no longer being maintained, nor did it contain crucial information such as an acceptable basic deck list for those trying to get into the deck. Essentially, the primer could no long fulfil it's duties. It still advocated the use of mangara and stonecloakers as the standard to give you an idea of how dated it was.
Hmm... Alright. Thanks for the answer.
I hope that was satisfactory, if you have any suggestions for the primer or find any errors let me know!
I've finally got the deck constructed and it's so fun to play. It has tons of lines of play, game against most decks, and even the ability to cheese some wins with heavy Ghost Quarter draws or great Vial curves. Here's what I've built:
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Mutavault
3 Judge's Familiar
2 Icatian Javelineers
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Kor Skyfisher
1 Jotun Grunt
4 Blade Splicer
4 Flickerwisp
3 Aven Mindcensor
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Path to Exile
2 Dismember
2 Rest in Peace
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Gods Willing
1 Disenchant
1 Aegis of the Gods
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Spellskite
The weirdest part of the list above is no Restoration Angel. It's partially a money decision, but I'm kind of enjoying this version. With no 4 cmc cards, I feel capable of playing 22 lands. Kor Skyfisher does an okay Resto impression. My meta has a bunch of beatdown decks like Merfolk and Zoo, which is why the MD Dismembers and -1 Thalia. The Javelineers have been surprisingly effective against a slew of decks. I'm pretty happy with the main deck.
The sideboard I'm less sure about. The Firewalkers, RIP, Gods Willing and Aegis of the Gods have all been only okay. Does the deck look like it has any gaping holes that could be covered by different sideboard cards?
I'm also going to petition for Auriok Champion in the 2cmc list.
Tempo
Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
If your happy with skyhooks and javiloneers, the only suggestion I would make is cut aegis, fire walker and gods willing to put 2 auriok champion, an additional spellskite, and perhaps a mark of asylum there. Ethersworn canonist should be eidolon of rhetoric as well. I like the list though, I imagines it's quite solid! There are some non budget options you could do, but I'd try and replace a javiloneer with a resto first. I ran four wisp one resto a long time and was quite happy!
I added it under the two cmc suggestions!
It was.
I used to be more involved with the previous primer and was just curious. There are pieces out of it, old decklists and such, that I will have to find in the archive to save.
I haven't had a chance to play Modern as much and have been dabbling in 8rack when I do, but this is the deck that got me into Modern (and then Legacy) so I'm sure I'll pop in from time to time.
To actually contribute: one thing I always liked previously, to help close out games and to give survivability through sweepers was a replacement of Tectonic Edge for Mutavault (I splashed green). Edge always seemed lack luster and slow to fully mesh with the tax element of the deck; and Mutavault provides the aggression that I always felt the deck was missing while also having synergy with Blade Splicer, as you have already noted.
I did save the old featured lists as a throw back to the old primer I like muta in the mono white list as well, tec edge just hits a little late. I just hesitate to recommend it in the current meta since tec edge helps a lot against scapeshift which is rising in popularity, and it's key in the mono green devotion match up I've been seeing a lot of. I am considering sticking them in my BW list though as a buff to the rats though, and the splicer synergy.