Parfait (Tax-Rack Mono-White Control)

[(nameless one)]

Parfait

Parfait is a mono-white control deck that uses the Land Tax + Scroll Rack combo. As long as you had less lands than your opponent, you are able to search your library and refill your hand with three basic lands. You would then activate Scroll Rack to replace those lands with useful card in your hand.

When the original Legacy (then type 1.5) ban list was released, Land Tax was one of the cards that got the hammer due to its brokenness with Scroll Rack. Over time, more better and effiencient cards got printed and Land Tax eventually turned from Broken to a laughing matter. Even though all this turn of events happened, Land Tax did not leave the ban list. Instead the apparent reason why it was banned is because it stalled games.

There has been a lot of speculations with the unbanning of Land Tax. It especially goes up everytime right before any updates on the B/R list. MTG Salvation is currently allowing a MWS Legacy tournament that allows players to run Land Tax. I myself would like to have my own take on Parfait for another Legacy tournament within my area that will be allowing Land Tax.

Recently, I have been playtesting this decklist, although not thoroughly. It has been working so far but far from being a deck to beat.

Here is my currently decklist:

Legacy Parfait 1.0


Lands:
13 Plains
3 Ghost Quarters
2 Serra Sanctum

Parfait Engine and Searchers:
4 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack

3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Enlightened Tutor

Toolbox:
4 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
4 Orim's Chant
2 Abeyance
2 Isochron Scepter

2 Humility
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Runed Halo
1 Solitary Confinement

1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgement
1 Cataclysm
1 Agrivian Find

2 Zuran Orb
1 Pithing Needle

Win Condition:
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Painter's Servant
1 Grindstone
1 Goblin Charbelcher

Sideboard:
Still working on it



Currently the decklist clocks at 62 cards but I am still working on trimming it.

I find that when I am playing Parfait in Legacy, you have to be a passive deck. It basically answers what your opponent throws. You don't really have to build the Parfait engine right away. Instead, try to set it up mid to late game. You have SDTs to help you early game. Mid-game, you will run out of gas, this is when you're going to utilize the Parfait Engine and try to either lock your opponent or combo-win (depending on the situation)

Here are the main combo lockdowns that the deck utilizes:

Scepter-Lock (Isochron Scepter + Orim's Chant): This essentially prevents your opponent from casting any spells and attacking with their creatures. It works by coping Chant via Scepter over and over again until you get enough mana and find your win condition.

Confinement-Lock (Solitary Confinement): This lock is more conditional as it requires the Parfait Engine. This is more like an add-on to your Engine. It works by utilizing the card advantage gained from Parfait Engine to fuel Solitary Confinement's drawback. Although it is not a permanent lock as Scepter-Lock, you can still utilize this to buy you time to set up your win conditions. It could also work with Land Tax alone but it will only protect you until you run out of lands from your library.

Here are the win conditions of the deck:

Luminarch Ascension: Luminarch is really effective once you've set up a lock to your opponent. However, it is not as threatening by itself.

Painter-Stone Combo (Painter's Servant + Grindstone): If you are in a hurry and have a way to Tutor them, you can always win with this.

Goblin Charbelcher: This is your late game win condition, when you have went through with most of your lands. It could also act as a conditional removal.

Other Card Choices:

This deck is an idea and some of my choices need justification:

Lands:

Plains: No need to explain

Ghost Quarter: This is your Wasteland. You might say its suboptimal but the main goal is to keep your opponent from their utility land, whether if its a man-land or a dual land. It is essentially a Wasteland but you want your opponent to have a higher land count as your to have Parfait Engine going. Whether your opponent decides to replace the destroyed land, its a win-win condition for you.

Serra Sanctum: You run ample amounts of enchantment. I dont see whats wrong with a land that produces a lot of mana.

Toolbox:

Sensei's Divining Top: Like what I mentioned above, you Parfait is only good mid to late game. SDT is your helper early game. It helps you draw essential cards that you need to get by early game.

Enlightened Tutor: If you need a silver bullet really bad, Tutor is there to bail you out. It could grab anything from combo-pieces to essential answers.

Path to Exile: PtE rivals StP in this deck as this creature removal is made for this deck. PtE virtually doesnt have a drawback with this deck.

Swords to Plowshares: For the most part, this is the best creature removal in the format. Having it to back up PtE does not hurt.

Orim's Chant: Legacy's version of Time Walk. I currently play Quinn and I find this card to buy you time early game. It also creates a lock when paired with Scepter.

Abeyance: This card is there to push through your counter. It also act as pseudo-disruption to certain decks. At worst, it cantrips for :1::w:

Isochron Scepter: Pair this with Chant and you have Scepter-lock. Pair this with one of your removals and you have a beating stick.

Humility: Humility is one of those underrated cards out there. It shuts down a lot of creatures in a creature format. It also stops Qasali Pridemages and Trygon Predators from ruining your day. Makes Tarmogoyf an $80 1/1 for :1::g:

Oblivion Ring: Tutorable utility removal.

Runed Halo: Its a pseudo-removal that protects you from a lot of dangerous things in the format. It can protect you from Goyfs to Tendrils

Wrath of God: Mass creature removal

Day of Judgement: Wrath of God 2.0. Sometimes, variety is good.

Cataclysm: I recently added this mass removal as a Balance version. It has been okay so far. I am still undecided. It helps stabilize the field when things are not going your way.

Agrivian Find: This deck runs a lot of singleton (because of its toolbox nature). Sometimes, you might need to recycle an enchantment or an artifact to win.

Zuran Orb: This helps you keep your land count in check. It can also act as life gain against aggro.

Pithing Needle: I have been debating a lot lately with this card. It is an awesome card as it shuts down anything from Vials to Survivals. If you dont need SDT anymore, you can shut down SDT to help you go through against CounterTop.

Recent Suggestions/Possible Inclusion:

Mox Diamond: Keeping your land count low is good. Mox D helps you with mana without going up on your land count. The problem that I have faced so far is that my deck's land count is too low to support Mox Diamond. Land Tax sometimes help but Mox Diamond itself is not consistent. Also, getting them removed is a hard pull-back.

Chrome Mox: I am running a lot of singletons and exiling a card for C Mox is a real hard decision.

So far, both have been unhelpful. Maybe I just dont know how to utilize Mox D properly but without Mox D, it has been working fine.

Moat: This card is more of a meta call. I have been seeing a lot of Qasali Pridemages and Trygon Predators and Humility has been the better call lately. If the meta's aggro has been without the mentioned two then I suggest running Moat.

Sacred Mesa: Originally, I was running this with Ascension's spot but I found that its more mana-intesive compared to Ascension. The ":1::w:" upkeep also hurts in a deck that runs a low land count.

Planar Birth: Vintage Parfait used to run this to return lands that have been sacrificed via Zuran Orbs. I have not really playtested with it and I dont see any help that it could provide.

Wheel of Sun and Moon: This card is more of a sideboard card as a gravehate. I like the of using this to keep Confinement lock an infinite hard lock but it feels like a win-more condition.

Ethersworn Canonist: This card has been on the main of Vintage lists. Vintage has a different meta to Legacy and not everyone will be running a storm based combo deck. This card is more of a sideboard card.

Splashes:

There has been a lot of suggestions concerning splashes. Having a splash does add more tools to the deck. The main problem that I see against splashes is that we already have a lot of little things going on. Having additional splash could result to a lot of micro-managing which will make the deck less effective. I'd like to keep a particular focus on the deck. Having said that doesn't mean that I am closing my mind on any splashes.

Thank you for useful advises and as well as constructive criticism. Other suggestions are still open.

UPDATE

With the recent rumor of Land Tax being a Judge Promo, there has been recent speculations that it will get reintroduced to Legacy. I decided to try to work with this deck again. It cant hurt to be prepared, right?

Here is the current version I have been testing:

Legacy Parfait 2.0


Lands:
11 Plains
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Ghost Quarters
1 Serra Sanctum

4 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack
2 Zuran Orb

4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Orim's Chant
2 Abeyance

2 Isochron Scepter

3 Sands of Time
2 Equipoise
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Rule of Law
1 Solitary Confinement

6 Open Slots


Changes and Discussions

Mana Base

There are now 19 lands in the deck

Ancient Tomb - Ancient Tomb helps accelerate whatever pieces the deck is trying to play. At the same time, it helps with the lower land count but producing 2 mana from one source.

Ghost Quarters - I was contemplating on running Wasteland on this spot but I think the main purpose of Ghost Quarters is to deny your opponent from having utility land such as manlands without lowering his land count.

Mox Diamond - I dont think a build with only 19 lands can support Mox Diamond. I also think having a higher artifact count does not help the new additions to the deck.

Spells:

Swords to Plowshares - I have switched Path to Exile with StP because Path to Exile was not as effective as I though it would be.

Sands of Time + Equipoise - The new addition to the deck. It is essentially a two-card lockdown combo (kinda like Scepter-Chant lock). With the deck's low land count and 0 creature card, both card can produce a permanent Balance effect. However, with this combo, The artifact count must be minimal, hence the lack of Mana Artifacts.

Sands of Time also synergizes with the low land count. You can use your lands during your turn to play permanents and use those same lands during your opponent's turn to play control cards, or even use Scepter. This is the reason why Sands of Time has a higher count than Equipose.

Open Slots:

There are currently 6 open slots right now. They are reserved for win conditions and other tools that can be utilized in this deck. My current win condition right now is Goblin Charbelcher but I dont think that that itself is enough. This deck should have a back-up win condition (possibly a Black Vise effect since its a lockdown deck)

Also, I think that other means of control should be used. I am thinking of using Humility, Runed Halo, Oblivion Ring, Wrath of God, or whatever would fit in the deck.

As usual, any ideas and constructive comments are welcome.

[DrJones]

Foil and basic islands.

[hjalte]

You definitely want to run mox diamonds, they make land tax even more asymmetric.
Abolish should be Aura of Silence, you cannot tutor for abolish.

Painter+Grindstone takes 4 places in the deck, which is far too many, when you can run only basic lands and 2 Goblin Charbelcher. That is what I would do.

[(nameless one)]

I'll give Mox Diamonds a second try. I did find that the Borderposts' ETB tapped a little slow.

Aura of Silence will substitute Abolish.

I am thinking of using a singleton Painter+Grindstone instead so I can accomodate a single Charbelcher. This gives me one extra slot. Whats a good card to run on that slot?

EDIT: actually, would a single Agrivian Find help on this slot as I am running a lot of singleton enchantments/artifacts?

[hjalte]

I would rather have another wrath or Zuran Orb. Mostly Orb. If your opponent is playing fast aggro with burn (zoo), it's not very nice, that they have the ability to burn you out. Furthermore you gain more control on, when you can tax.

Wow, Genju gives the creature pseudo Lifelink. I didn't remember that. The extra Zuran Orb might not be that important then. I do like the fact, that you can control when you can tax, though.


I was going to suggest Sacred Mesa or Elspeth as another win condition, but I am not sure if that is necessary.


One of the things you should test is, if 3 top and 3 rack is too many. If you play 3 or 4 tutors, 4 Scroll Rack might be enough. That would free 2 slots, which could be Humility or Moat, preferably Humility, as that shuts down Pridemage and Trygon Predator. I think you should try to fit Humility in either way, it's really devastating!

[(nameless one)]

I would rather have another wrath or Zuran Orb. Mostly Orb. If your opponent is playing fast aggro with burn (zoo), it's not very nice, that they have the ability to burn you out. Furthermore you gain more control on, when you can tax.

Wow, Genju gives the creature pseudo Lifelink. I didn't remember that. The extra Zuran Orb might not be that important then. I do like the fact, that you can control when you can tax, though.


I was going to suggest Sacred Mesa or Elspeth as another win condition, but I am not sure if that is necessary.


One of the things you should test is, if 3 top and 3 rack is too many. If you play 3 or 4 tutors, 4 Scroll Rack might be enough. That would free 2 slots, which could be Humility or Moat, preferably Humility, as that shuts down Pridemage and Trygon Predator. I think you should try to fit Humility in either way, it's really devastating!

The best part about Genju's pseudo-lifelink is that it stacks. So if I activate it 3 times, I gain three times that much life (although it is still a 2/5).

The reason why I ran 3/3 split is because of fear of Pithing Needle. Also, Top is very good if you cant keep the Parfait Engine going. It is essentially a failsafe.

Question: Would Equipoise work like Balance or would it hurt us more? We are playing less land and almost no creature?

[THEchubbymuffin]

The best part about Genju's pseudo-lifelink is that it stacks. So if I activate it 3 times, I gain three times that much life (although it is still a 2/5).


Didn't this trick get screwed in the m10 changes?

[(nameless one)]

Didn't this trick get screwed in the m10 changes?

No because it is not Lifelink.

When Lifelink got its errata, Genju did not due to some weird rulings. So when Lifelink got its M10 updated rules, Genju was not affected by it.

[grahf]

Didn't this trick get screwed in the m10 changes?

Not entirely. If the card actually said "lifelink" it wouldn't work, because lifelink is now a static, non-stackable ability. Instead the white Genju has a lifegain trigger, which says: "Whenever this creature deals damage, its controller gains that much life." It does stack.

What WotC actually did was revert back to the printed wording of the cards. So, all older cards that have the lifegain trigger written out, have it that way on the current Oracle text. See: Exalted Angel, Armadillo Cloak, Phantom Nishoba, probably others I can't think of right now. The one exception I'm aware of is Loxodon Warhammer, which is static lifelink, despite not being printed that way originally in Mirrodin. (I guess they figured more people had 10th Edition Warhammers, which say "lifelink.")

edit: You beat me to the punch there. :D

[Knuckles29]

I play Land Tax in a no proxy Vintage area. Here are a few things I've learned-

Play Diamond, just do it

My kill is disruption weenies or Luminarch Ascension
-Cannonist and Mindcensor-

2 Solitary Confinement + 1 Island Sanctuary let Ascension work just Fine

Path to Exile is made for this deck

3 Silence are nice, but Chant is probably better

Use Enlightened Tutor bullets

Play 2-3 Find

1 Mistveil Plains comes in Handy

1 Orb is fine

Make your sideboard diverse and have like 4-6 Bullets
-Kor Firewalker, Gilded Light, Needle, Crypt -

2 Sunscour is versatility vs random aggro, add 1 Balance and you're fine

Aura of Silence is amazing, just not on paper, try it!

Wasteland / Ghost Quarter vs Dark Depths might be need, I use them enough

And really, just feel out for the best bullets for the most targets.

[_erbs_]

If landtax is allowed to be played in legacy, you might want to run CB + sensei + scroll rack.

[(nameless one)]

I play Land Tax in a no proxy Vintage area. Here are a few things I've learned-

Play Diamond, just do it

My kill is disruption weenies or Luminarch Ascension
-Cannonist and Mindcensor-

2 Solitary Confinement + 1 Island Sanctuary let Ascension work just Fine

Path to Exile is made for this deck

3 Silence are nice, but Chant is probably better

Use Enlightened Tutor bullets

Play 2-3 Find

1 Mistveil Plains comes in Handy

1 Orb is fine

Make your sideboard diverse and have like 4-6 Bullets
-Kor Firewalker, Gilded Light, Needle, Crypt -

2 Sunscour is versatility vs random aggro, add 1 Balance and you're fine

Aura of Silence is amazing, just not on paper, try it!

Wasteland / Ghost Quarter vs Dark Depths might be need, I use them enough

And really, just feel out for the best bullets for the most targets.

Would you like to share a decklist? Also, just to let you know, I am trying to build the deck as if Land Tax was legal in Legacy so no Balance for this one :(. How many lands are you running? I find that Mox Diamond faces so much hate in Legacy and the fact that its not as effective as I think it would be with minimal lands. I find that on my initial list, running just basic lands is better and just using Zuran Orb to keep your land count in check.


If landtax is allowed to be played in legacy, you might want to run CB + sensei + scroll rack.

Going with CounterTop with Parfait sounds tempting but I want to focus on mono-white lockdown instead. I think Scepter-Chant lock and Solitary lock sound do, having Luminarch Ascension or Sacred Mesa for the win.

[(nameless one)]

OP updated

[Knuckles29]

Engine-
4 Land tax
3 Scroll Rack

Creature Control-
3 Path to Exile
2 Sunscour
1 Island Sanctuary
2 Solitary Confinement

Win Con-
2 Luminarch Ascension
4 Ethersworn Cannonist
4 Aven Mindcensor

Other-
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Zuran Orb
1 Balance
2 Aura of Silence
1 Seal of Cleansing
3 Argivian Find
1 Pithing Needle
3 Silence

Mana-
1 Strip Mine
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Mistveil Plains
13 Plains
4 Mox Diamond

Not 100% perfect, but it was budget and works well enough. I would run more Enlightened if I could get more. The 4th Rack might be in soon.

[(nameless one)]

Engine-
4 Land tax
3 Scroll Rack

Creature Control-
3 Path to Exile
2 Sunscour
1 Island Sanctuary
2 Solitary Confinement

Win Con-
2 Luminarch Ascension
4 Ethersworn Cannonist
4 Aven Mindcensor

Other-
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Zuran Orb
1 Balance
2 Aura of Silence
1 Seal of Cleansing
3 Argivian Find
1 Pithing Needle
3 Silence

Mana-
1 Strip Mine
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Mistveil Plains
13 Plains
4 Mox Diamond

Not 100% perfect, but it was budget and works well enough. I would run more Enlightened if I could get more. The 4th Rack might be in soon.

Thanks for sharing your list but unfortunately, as mentioned on the opening post, we are following Legacy's B/R list (of course excluding Land Tax).

I did get ideas though such as Island Sanctuary, Sunscour and Mistveil Plains.

[Knuckles29]

glad you got new ideas.

From the list I modified, their sideboard had-
Wheel of Sun and Moon
3 Crypts, 1 Main
1 MD 3sphere -R
2/2 Abeyance - Chant MD then 2/2 SB

[hjalte]

In relation to Knuckles29 list, I suggest you read this
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/16515_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Parfait_Ambush.html

It's really a great article, but the deck is really minded at beating Vintage. It a nontrivial task to convert it to legacy, and I'm not sure it would even work. I have considered trying it though :)

[(nameless one)]

I read the article and thought it was helpful on how I should build the deck. I will try to borrow some point the article made and see if I can apply it on this build.

[Knuckles29]

well, no Land Tax for Legacy again.

[(nameless one)]

I know :(

I am still work on this deck though... There will be that unsanction tournament that will allow them around my area.

EDIT: I just got MWS and I am looking to playtest this deck. Anyone wanna participate?

[hjalte]

If I can find the time, I would love to test. I'm just not sure, whether it's possible (My studies take quite some time).
I have a similar deck, but it's more of a casual deck, so it's optimized to beat aggro-decks.

I will try to put together a legacy parfait deck, test it when I have the time and when I meet with my magic buddies :)
(How the hell do you put commas in an english sentence?)



On a sidenote, if we are going to play Aven Mindcensor, I think we might want to play city of traitors and/or Ancient Tomb, to accelerate it out turn 1, that just makes most sense. And likewise, we might want to play Wasteland, to further complement the denial strategy. If we do that, I think the deck will turn into something more stax-chalice-aggro-ish
I guess a rough list could be somethink like (This is totally untested, and off the top of my head!)

Mana: 26
4 Mox Diamond
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
10 Plains

Dudes: 12
4 Aven Mindcensor
4 Ethersworn canonist
4 Stoneforge Mystic

Engine: 8
4 Land Tax
4 Scroll Rack

Good stuff: 14
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Trinisphere
3 Enlightened Tutor
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

EDIT: There just seems to be too few guys, and too few fliers.

[(nameless one)]

How do you play this deck? Do you play it like Vintage Parfait style?

I find that if I play it like Quinn at the beginning (playing around with SDT) then go Parfait mid-game, It actually suits the format.

Trying to set up the engine early game hurts against fast aggro such as Goblins and Zoo hurts because will race you. I usually try to remove all their early threats with the help of SDT. Then start on the Parfait engine mid-game, then start doing a lockdown and then secure your win conditions. Also, I am going to try to run a creature-less list if possible.

I have been having problems with my land count. It sucks when either Land Tax and SDT gets countered/destroyed early game and you're stuck with one land. Maybe I just dont know how to mulligan. I might bring the total to 19 with 4 Ghost Quarters.

Speaking of Ghost Quarters, I might actually consider running Wasteland over it again as I just realized that Ghost Quarters puts the land into play untapped.

I have actually removed StP all together and depend on PtE alone. I am not sure if its a wise choice but playtesting will determine whether if it is.

Cataclysm is okay but not stellar. So far it has helped me against decks that need a lot of permanents. Facing a Progenitus though hurts a lot.

Painter-Stone combo is a meh for me. Its a great finisher late game but drawing it early game hurts. I will try running 2 Belchers instead and see if its better.

[hjalte]

I have played a list similar to the one in the OP, and I would play that one very much like a Quinn deck. But if we want to include Aven Mindcensor, and go on a more disruptive route, as the article I linked to, we cannot have Humility, as that would shut our own disruptive creatures down.
So the most devastating 4cc spells we have, Humility and Wrath of God, suddenly becomes not so good, when we want to play disrupting creatures. Which is why I suggested the other list, if we are going to try Mindcensor and friends.

So I guess what I am trying to say is, that if we want to somehow port Parfait Ambush to legacy, I would suggest my list from above as a starting point. I have absolutely no idea, whether that would be a good idea. The big difference is, that legacy is a creature format, whereas vintage is not. That is what makes porting so difficult. Furthermore Parfait Ambush is an aggro-control staxish deck, which uses the original Parfait engine, and not a control deck. At least not what i would define as a control deck.

If we want to create a Parfait deck, more like the original parfait, I think your approach is way better. We want to grab some ideas from Quinn, and make a control decks, which beat legacy's creatures.

[mikez0r]

I'm just brainstorming here and made some changes to the list hjalte posted.

Mana: 26
4 Mox Diamond (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Mox%20Diamond)
4 Ghost Quarter (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Ghost%20Quarter)
4 Arid Mesa (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Arid%20Mesa)
4 Wasteland (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Wasteland)
10 Plains (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Plains)

Dudes: 11
4 Aven Mindcensor (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Aven%20Mindcensor)
1 Ethersworn canonist (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Ethersworn%20canonist)
2 Stoneforge Mystic (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Stoneforge%20Mystic)
4 Weathered Wayfarer (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Weathered%20Wayfarer)

Engine: 6
3 Land Tax (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Land%20Tax)
3 Scroll Rack (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Scroll%20Rack)

Good stuff: 14
4 Path to Exile (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Path%20to%20Exile)
3 Trinisphere (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Trinisphere)
3 Enlightened Tutor (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Enlightened%20Tutor)
1 Umezawa's Jitte (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Umezawa's%20Jitte)
1 Sword of Fire and Ice (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Sword%20of%20Fire%20and%20Ice)
1 Empyrial Plate (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Empyrial%20Plate)
1 Aura of Silence (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Aura%20of%20Silence)
3 Aether Vial (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Aether%20Vial)

Reasons for changes:
Ghost Quarter: This card on paper looks like it is likely to be a strip mine for basic land if Mindcensor is in play. If you get it early game it can be a pitch target for Mox Diamond. It can be fetched up with Weathered Wayfarer.

Arid Mesa: This will enable the deck to better perform Weathered Wayfarer. The deck loses a little bit of speed now that first turn Mindcensor and Trinisphere aren't likely, but it is a trade off that we should consider for running 8 strip mine effects.

Ethersworn canonist: I cut this down to only one because it can be tutored up when needed. Is it really a must have very every match up? Let's think about putting some into the sideboard.

Stoneforge Mystic: We really only need to draw one equipment in a game so only running 2 of these means you are really running 5 equipments. Sword of Fire and Ice may not even be woth having in the deck as it might not improve any matchups, but it's fun so I left it in.

Weathered Wayfarer: I explained this above, we want to get them into a lock with fetching up strip mine effects.

Engine: I cut Land Tax and Scroll Rack by one because you really don't want to see double copies of any of these. They are both tutor targets, maybe even could cut them further.

Path to Exile: I replaced swords with paths because they work so much better with the theme of the deck. They help you get in a position to Wayfarer or Lax or if you already have Mindcensor in play they become straight up amazing.

Trinisphere: We really don't want to see more than one copy of this card, I have a hard time believing that Aura of Silence isn't just as good. What decks does this hurt significantly? What decks would the matchup be improved by adding more Auras? It does help the mana lock if we were able to tutor up strip mine effects.

Empyrial Plate: Mystic target with synergy with Lax.

Aura of Silence: Tutor target, hits CB, Survival, Standstill and Chalice. We have the option to hit Vial which might make our Trinispheres useful. Seems like there should be more copies, one doesn't seem like it would be enough, though we don't want to see very many in our hand.

Aether Vial: Enable us to be tricky and respond with sneaking in Mindcensor or Ethersworn canonist. Helps us fight count magic and standstills, helps us verse our own Trinispheres. We don't want to see more than 2 so let's play 3.

[(nameless one)]

Hmm

I have been trying to play this deck off of MWS (I finally got it working thanks to Eldrael).

I find that my testing off of MWS, I dont seem to get my curve going properly. Any suggestions?

Should I stick with 0-creatures or move to more aggro-end?

Maybe try using Stoneforge Mystic toolbox?

[pi4meterftw]

I'm just brainstorming here and made some changes to the list hjalte posted.

Mana: 26
4 Mox Diamond (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Mox%20Diamond)
4 Ghost Quarter (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Ghost%20Quarter)
4 Arid Mesa (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Arid%20Mesa)
4 Wasteland (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Wasteland)
10 Plains (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Plains)

Dudes: 11
4 Aven Mindcensor (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Aven%20Mindcensor)
1 Ethersworn canonist (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Ethersworn%20canonist)
2 Stoneforge Mystic (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Stoneforge%20Mystic)
4 Weathered Wayfarer (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Weathered%20Wayfarer)

Engine: 6
3 Land Tax (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Land%20Tax)
3 Scroll Rack (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Scroll%20Rack)

Good stuff: 14
4 Path to Exile (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Path%20to%20Exile)
3 Trinisphere (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Trinisphere)
3 Enlightened Tutor (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Enlightened%20Tutor)
1 Umezawa's Jitte (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Umezawa's%20Jitte)
1 Sword of Fire and Ice (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Sword%20of%20Fire%20and%20Ice)
1 Empyrial Plate (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Empyrial%20Plate)
1 Aura of Silence (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Aura%20of%20Silence)
3 Aether Vial (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Aether%20Vial)

Reasons for changes:
Ghost Quarter: This card on paper looks like it is likely to be a strip mine for basic land if Mindcensor is in play. If you get it early game it can be a pitch target for Mox Diamond. It can be fetched up with Weathered Wayfarer.

Arid Mesa: This will enable the deck to better perform Weathered Wayfarer. The deck loses a little bit of speed now that first turn Mindcensor and Trinisphere aren't likely, but it is a trade off that we should consider for running 8 strip mine effects.

Ethersworn canonist: I cut this down to only one because it can be tutored up when needed. Is it really a must have very every match up? Let's think about putting some into the sideboard.

Stoneforge Mystic: We really only need to draw one equipment in a game so only running 2 of these means you are really running 5 equipments. Sword of Fire and Ice may not even be woth having in the deck as it might not improve any matchups, but it's fun so I left it in.

Weathered Wayfarer: I explained this above, we want to get them into a lock with fetching up strip mine effects.

Engine: I cut Land Tax and Scroll Rack by one because you really don't want to see double copies of any of these. They are both tutor targets, maybe even could cut them further.

Path to Exile: I replaced swords with paths because they work so much better with the theme of the deck. They help you get in a position to Wayfarer or Lax or if you already have Mindcensor in play they become straight up amazing.

Trinisphere: We really don't want to see more than one copy of this card, I have a hard time believing that Aura of Silence isn't just as good. What decks does this hurt significantly? What decks would the matchup be improved by adding more Auras? It does help the mana lock if we were able to tutor up strip mine effects.

Empyrial Plate: Mystic target with synergy with Lax.

Aura of Silence: Tutor target, hits CB, Survival, Standstill and Chalice. We have the option to hit Vial which might make our Trinispheres useful. Seems like there should be more copies, one doesn't seem like it would be enough, though we don't want to see very many in our hand.

Aether Vial: Enable us to be tricky and respond with sneaking in Mindcensor or Ethersworn canonist. Helps us fight count magic and standstills, helps us verse our own Trinispheres. We don't want to see more than 2 so let's play 3.

Right off the bat, there are two potential errors here. You typed Path to exile under "Good stuff" but I believe you meant swords to plowshares. OR maybe you did not mean to type "good stuff."

But one thing is for certain. Path to exile is not good. I don't know why anybody would think path to exile is good, but I'd give my opponent 12 life as a control deck even before I gave them a land. In certain decks, it's arguable if STP were 12 life every time if path would be better, but swords is usually considerably less than 12 life, so I don't even know how it's a comparison.

The only way I'd play PTE is if I signed a blood pact (It'd have to be a blood pact) with my opponent to have both of us play PTE, which I would sign because I have brainstorm fetch, and the average opponent may or may not have brainstorm.

[mikez0r]

pi4meterftw: I'm sure you are aware of this but since you didn't mention it, I'm going to point it out to you. PTE with Aven Mindcensor in play could be better than plowshares, since they will only be able to search the top four cards for a basic land.

PTE with Weathered Wayfarer or Land Tax in play might give you the edge to start using them.

In every other situation PTE is worse than plowshares. I'd still play it because of how awesome it is with Aven Mindcensor (that's the same reasoning I included Ghost Quarter).

[pi4meterftw]

pi4meterftw: I'm sure you are aware of this but since you didn't mention it, I'm going to point it out to you. PTE with Aven Mindcensor in play could be better than plowshares, since they will only be able to search the top four cards for a basic land.

PTE with Weathered Wayfarer or Land Tax in play might give you the edge to start using them.

In every other situation PTE is worse than plowshares. I'd still play it because of how awesome it is with Aven Mindcensor (that's the same reasoning I included Ghost Quarter).

I mean I see that this is in the casual forum, so you don't really have to justify your choices. But since you attempted to do so, then I respond:

Your opponent will always make the better choice as to whether to fetch a land or not off PTE. The point is, you give your opponent a ridiculously unnecessary choice with PTE, where if you don't have wayfarer to punish him, then he gets a free land +accel.

If your opponent is uncertain if you have something to punish him, then he'll make the probabilistically correct play. Since the lifegain from swords is nothing (So I don't see why you think it's so glorious for PTE to maybe not let them have a basic land when you can guarantee they won't have one.) path gives you the worse of two situations (Because your opponent picks which between searching and not searching is better for him) whereas swords just automatically gives you one of those situations. It's obvious that a>=min(a, b) so I can't see why you would play your strictly worst card here, without having 4 swords. I have just provided a game theoretic PROOF, which means you could only have possibly have had oversights, and there aren't any arguments because reasoning is a consistent sort of thing, and it can't be that both of us are right.

[(nameless one)]

Actually, with my 1st round of playtesting off of MWS, I found that Path to Exile actually helps my opponent in killing me faster. Also, I will completely replace Ghost Quarter with Wasteland as it is more efficient. If Ghost Quarter's fetched land came onto the field tapped, it would be better but as it turns out, GQ also helps the opponent (By giving him/her essentially 2 mana). The only time I see it marginally okay is if I am wasting a man-land.

I am still testing the deck. I wanna try to make it with less creatures. Essentially the objective of the deck is to try to stabilize early game then lock-down late game and use Goblin Charbelcher or Luminarch Ascension for the win.

EDIT:

also, since the MWS banging against the wall thread is close, I just want to share how stupid people are. When I create a game, it clearly says "Legacy Land Tax Test"... so stop telling me that its banned for fucks sakes!

That is all

[mikez0r]

I mean I see that this is in the casual forum, so you don't really have to justify your choices. But since you attempted to do so, then I respond:

Your opponent will always make the better choice as to whether to fetch a land or not off PTE. The point is, you give your opponent a ridiculously unnecessary choice with PTE, where if you don't have wayfarer to punish him, then he gets a free land +accel.

In the situation where the opponent may not search for a basic land on a PTE is great for the deck. Ideally you'd want to play PTE in the situation of having land counts that are tied and land lax or Wayfarer is in play.

In the other situation where you PTE with Aven Mindcensor in play the opponent has no choices to make, if they want to search for a basic land it has to be the top 4 cards or they cannot bring a land into play off of PTE.

PTE without Aven Mindcensor in play is suboptimal but I suppose it would have to be done from time to time. The game plan should then be to get Aven Mindcensor in play and crack Ghost Quarters on their basics.

[(nameless one)]

The problem though is that you will never have Aven Mindcensor online all the time. Then the forementioned cards just become suboptimal choices.

How exactly would 3sphere help?

I noticed that the Vintage list has it to prevent your opponent access to his/her artifact mana. Without Mox Diamond, do you guys think it will work here?

Also, I dont find Mox Diamond to be helpful at all. It becomes a removal target most of the time, not to mention that I am running on minimal lands.

[pi4meterftw]

In the situation where the opponent may not search for a basic land on a PTE is great for the deck. Ideally you'd want to play PTE in the situation of having land counts that are tied and land lax or Wayfarer is in play.

In the other situation where you PTE with Aven Mindcensor in play the opponent has no choices to make, if they want to search for a basic land it has to be the top 4 cards or they cannot bring a land into play off of PTE.

PTE without Aven Mindcensor in play is suboptimal but I suppose it would have to be done from time to time. The game plan should then be to get Aven Mindcensor in play and crack Ghost Quarters on their basics.

So basically: one terrible card+one unplayable card= one terrible card plus one usually good card and occasionally unplayable card, yeah!

I don't get what the mixup is here. My claim is that PTE gives your opponent the choice of searching for lands, whereas swords doesn't. You argue that your opponent searching lands will help you use your deck's engine. But then your opponent simply won't search the lands. In that case, it's as good as swords. However, in the case where the correct play by your opponent is to search the land, Path leaves you at a vast disadvantage relative to swords.

What's happening here is essentially akin to a fact about the natural numbers. Suppose n, m are natural numbers and > is defined in the usual way. Then n>=Min(n, m)

Specifically here, your opponent will try to minimize (min) your welfare, so it's better (>=) if you give him one (n) choice instead of two (n, m). There, I even spelled out the correspondences parenthetically, so there can't be any confusion now, right?

[(nameless one)]

Hello...

A did a little research and apparently back in the days, Di managed to create a parfait deck that uses Equipoise + Sands of Time lock.

I will try to get a hold of him and see if he still has the list. I have a feeling that its going to be a really outdated list.

[Antonius]

first off-- I think most of your lists have way too few lands to actually support mox diamond. With only 22 lands, you rely a bit too much on having an active tax to get lands to pitch to diamond. No bueno; run 25-26 lands or don't run the mox.

In fact, I see a lot of this deck's problems to be similar to the problems of most survival decks - it just doesn't function without its engine. So many cards--path, ghost quarter, etc--are really bad without an active tax. Tax also limits how many lands you can play, thus cutting you off (most of the time) from the vital 4cc drops like humility, wrath, elspeth, etc that absolutely rock the game.

IMO, Life from the Loam is better than Tax. It serves the same function (gives you lands to feed scroll rack) and has the added utility of allowing you to recur Wastelands, man lands, fetches; all manner of good stuff. Sure, it's vulnerable to GY hate, but it lets you play as many lands as you need to drop bombs or otherwise control your opponent. Here's my concept list:

30 - Lands/Moxen

1 The Tabernacle
1 Nantuko Monastery
3 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Windswept Heath
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Savannah
1 Tundra
4 Plains
4 Mox Diamond

10 - Card Advantage/Selection
3 Life from the Loam
3 Scroll Rack
2 Tithe
2 Crop Rotation

11 - Permanents
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Isochron Scepter
2 Elspeth, Knight Errant

9 - Control Spells
4 Swords
1 Path
4 Orim's Chant
2 Wrath

Things to ponder -

Wrath vs Ghostly prison - Wrath (and to a lesser extent, humility) is anti-synergistic with The Tabernacle, which I think we can all agree is a grossly unfair card in many matchups. Which makes me wonder if I should ditch it for Ghostly prison, which absolutely shuts out a lot of decks.

Tithe - works as a Tax, but even better. because it resolves at instant speed, you can play it with a sacrificed waste or fetchland on the stack; it also has synergy with crop rotation. But these are all early game scenarios. After turn 4 or so, Tithe loses half of its power. Furthermore, with so many lands in the deck already, getting more lands can seem underwhelming, with the only real benefit being to cram the hand with chaff to pitch to Scroll Rack; I'm not sure if this is necessary. I could dump these for prisons or abeyances or more crop rotations

hardcore mana denial - port rapes. If they run less than 3 basics, they will not be able to play through waste-lock and port. This stalls until Scepter Lock comes online and goes to town.

singleton tundra is to keep sideboard options--most notably, Meddling Mage.

[(nameless one)]

first off-- I think most of your lists have way too few lands to actually support mox diamond. With only 22 lands, you rely a bit too much on having an active tax to get lands to pitch to diamond. No bueno; run 25-26 lands or don't run the mox.

In fact, I see a lot of this deck's problems to be similar to the problems of most survival decks - it just doesn't function without its engine. So many cards--path, ghost quarter, etc--are really bad without an active tax. Tax also limits how many lands you can play, thus cutting you off (most of the time) from the vital 4cc drops like humility, wrath, elspeth, etc that absolutely rock the game.

IMO, Life from the Loam is better than Tax. It serves the same function (gives you lands to feed scroll rack) and has the added utility of allowing you to recur Wastelands, man lands, fetches; all manner of good stuff. Sure, it's vulnerable to GY hate, but it lets you play as many lands as you need to drop bombs or otherwise control your opponent. Here's my concept list:

30 - Lands/Moxen

1 The Tabernacle
1 Nantuko Monastery
3 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Windswept Heath
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Savannah
1 Tundra
4 Plains
4 Mox Diamond

10 - Card Advantage/Selection
3 Life from the Loam
3 Scroll Rack
2 Tithe
2 Crop Rotation

11 - Permanents
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Isochron Scepter
2 Elspeth, Knight Errant

9 - Control Spells
4 Swords
1 Path
4 Orim's Chant
2 Wrath

Things to ponder -

Wrath vs Ghostly prison - Wrath (and to a lesser extent, humility) is anti-synergistic with The Tabernacle, which I think we can all agree is a grossly unfair card in many matchups. Which makes me wonder if I should ditch it for Ghostly prison, which absolutely shuts out a lot of decks.

Tithe - works as a Tax, but even better. because it resolves at instant speed, you can play it with a sacrificed waste or fetchland on the stack; it also has synergy with crop rotation. But these are all early game scenarios. After turn 4 or so, Tithe loses half of its power. Furthermore, with so many lands in the deck already, getting more lands can seem underwhelming, with the only real benefit being to cram the hand with chaff to pitch to Scroll Rack; I'm not sure if this is necessary. I could dump these for prisons or abeyances or more crop rotations

hardcore mana denial - port rapes. If they run less than 3 basics, they will not be able to play through waste-lock and port. This stalls until Scepter Lock comes online and goes to town.

singleton tundra is to keep sideboard options--most notably, Meddling Mage.


I like your idea but in my opinion, it kinda reminded me of Astral Slide.

Don't get me wrong but the thread is about utilizing the Tax Rack engine, if it can be optimized under the current legacy environment. Although I will look on some of your ideas.

Thanks for sharing.

EDIT: I know the posted list on the opening post is still suboptimal. I will actually take the initiative to try to get back into it.

I will also need help playtesting. If you are willing to help and have MWS, just let me know.

Thanks in advance

[(nameless one)]

Quick Update on the OP