[Deck] Death and Taxes

[WashableWater1]

Prelate vs Delver is slower as molasses. By the time it reaches play, it can very often be too late for it to have any impact. Its also a horrific topdeck.

RW Taxes runs the same number of white sources as monowhite Taxes. Cataclysm is not any less castable than it normally is. With a Magus in play, sure its harder. But if you have Magus in post board, and he's in play, you probably aren't looking to Cataclysm.

[itsmrjack]

Hi Taxes crew. I’m pretty fresh regards posting my own content but have been following this thread and playing Taxes for a couple of years on/off (although I’ve been on/off the game as a whole since Ice Age).

So I’ve been mucking around with the Wr version, playing a bunch on Xmage with it and a number of side events at GP London, but I came to feel that it was very often just too slow or a little bit toothless (P&K finishes excepted). I even ended up going to 2 MD Crusader to improved results, but two unsatisfactory things for me were 1. while he is undoubtedly amazing a lot of the time, Magus often didn’t quite do enough (many more people playing with basics, 3rd/4th turn being too late or he simply got Bolted/Punished) and 2. there were just too many very mana intensive things to be doing with the deck too often for my liking, and this coupled with going down to 3 Ports meant I was too little taxing their lands. Daredevil, though super fun and never truly bad for me, felt like he was exacerbating the mana intensiveness issue. I achieved a win ratio of 54% with Wr Taxes of about 15 matches that I bothered to record. I totally respect opinions to the contrary and think it may just have been about something as unquantifiable and subjective as my play style better suiting a slightly different approach to the deck... Saying that, it could also be that the UK and Xmage metas are that different than the metas that others have been testing in. One thing to mention regards meta is that Grixis Delver has been way less prevalent for me than the 10-15% range I have seen in places, however according to Medea’s Wr research this should benefit the Wr build… So hey I dunno.

So I’ve moved back to a mono-white list that I have designed to be fast and have sharp teeth. Grrr. I do think it’s important to play something that feels right to you and this feels right to me, ATM. I feel I've got enough results (27 matches, 2 small events) with the list below to share. I will keep making notes and update with progress once I'm closer to or past the 100 match mark.

So there are four main things going on here:

• 3 Judges + 1 Wingmare. This feels like the best of both worlds. Mana denial feels strong with this mix (accompanied by 2 SB Prelate). Then we have 8 fliers, which has just been so good. I should note here that going back up to 4 Flickerwisp from the 3 in the Wr version feels really good too. EOT Wisps on their mana as a tempo play, to get blockers off the board, or to stop them attacking to win has been so much more frequent and very often a winning play. I hadn’t realised I’d missed that. The extra tempo from Judges has been very important and compounds with the tempo gained from EOT Wisps too.
• 3 Crusaders. Gives us teeth. Wins so many games. Feels especially good with the tempo package above, very often coming down to land the sucker punch.
• Switching Batterskull for SoWaP. With 3 Crusaders and 8 fliers this just makes sense to me. In fact it’s felt great. I've barely missed the Batterskull. In situations where I haven’t wanted SoWaP I wouldn’t have wanted Batterskull either as I am going straight for SoFaI or Jitte anyway.
• 1 MD/1 SB Revoker split. I have been increasingly feeling that whether Revoker is effective or not is basically a coin flip, and so on that basis I really don’t want too many floating around the main deck, nor in general. It feels like a year or more ago it used to be better, but for various hard-to-grasp reasons it just doesn’t seem to be as annoying for opponents at the moment. Perhaps more removal in the format? I dunno. But It’s the sometimes-just-doesn’t-do-enough-and-having-3-or-4-wouldn’t-have-made-a-difference/sometimes-the-1-is-enough kind of tendency that makes me perfectly happy having it as a 1/1 split. So now having played a fair bit with this 1/1 split, Revoker has both won me and failed to win me games. At no point have I wished I had a Revoker and only once have I Recruited it.

MAINDECK


4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
3 Karakas
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy
9 Plains

4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of War and Peace
4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Mother of Runes
3 Judge's Familiar
4 Thalia
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Flickerwisp
3 Mirran Crusader
2 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Vryn Wingmare
1 Phyrexian Revoker


SIDEBOARD v1

So I played 19 matches with my SB as follows:

2 Cataclysm
2 Gideon of the Trials
3 Rest in Peace
1 Path to Exile
2 Sanctum Prelate
1 Containment Priest
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Phyrexian Revoker


RECORD WITH SB v1
Won Vs. (12)
Czech Pile, ANT, Dragon Stompy x2, White DnT, rogue UG mid-range deck, Grixis Delver, UR Delver, Manaless Dredge, Tin-fins, Lands, Punishing Thieves.

Lost Vs. (7)
Sneak and Show x2, Elves, Steel Stompy, Mono-red Sneak, BR reanimator, Grixis Delver.

Win ratio at this point was 12/19 = 63.2%. Ok, but not stellar. In particular I was unhappy with how some of the sideboarding had gone, so I made the following changes.

SIDEBOARD v2

2 Cataclysm
2 Rest in Peace
2 Path to Exile
2 Sanctum Prelate
2 Containment Priest
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Council’s Judgment


RECORD WITH SB v2
I then entered two small events. The first was a 4-round side event at Axion Now in Amersham, UK (big up to Francoise and crew for a great event). The second was just a 3-rounder on Xmage. I came back with a solid winning record in both events, boosting my overall win ratio with this decklist nicely and prompting me to be bothered to share my findings. Report for both small events (plus a bonus single match on Xmage) below:

OPPONENT	RESULT	COMMENTS
BR Reanimator	2-0 (4 round IRL side event @ Axion Now, UK)	G1 just kept them off mana enough to stall them a turn or so. Double Judge good for this. Found them playing around it a lot. They played Griselbrand but I then StP’d followed by more mana denial. G2 they played Griselbrand, passed turn, I Karakased it on their next turn so they wouldn’t have a massive hand for their turn. They then Unmasked themselves to put Griselbrand back in GY when they could have hard cast Grave Titan. I finished them in a couple of turns.
Enchantress	2-1 (4 round IRL side event @ Axion Now, UK)	G1 they double mulliganed. They scooped when I Wasted their Wild Growthed Savannah. G2 they slowed me with Humility and got me with Helm + RiP. I missed a couple land drops which might have made a difference. G3 they mulliganed again and I kept them at bay by restricting them to around 2/3 mana til I finished the job.
Elves	2-0 (4 round IRL side event @ Axion Now, UK)	A rare Elves win. Some luck involved, but I’ll take it thank you very much! And I do feel that some amount of the outcome was down to the specific list I was running. G1 they had lots of dorks, in fact all the pieces for Natural Order or Glimpse combos but they didn’t draw either of them, mana denial contributing to slowing them just enough and Recruited Crusader FTW. G2 they mulliganed to 5, all they had in play was a Reclamation Sage on nothing, preparing to sac to Natural Order. But I sniffed this and StP’d it then mana denied them to 2 mana so they wouldn’t have even been able to Abrupt Decay the Containment Priest I had down in time to play a dork into Natural Order.
Infect	2-0 (4 round IRL side event @ Axion Now, UK)	We ID to ensure prizes (a good Masterpiece each) but play anyway. Both games I had plenty of StP’s. G1 I mana denied them aplenty. G2 the Judges and Wingmare were highly relevant in stopping their lone Inkmoth Nexus from adding to my 8 poison counters.
Sneak and Show	2-1 (3 round Xmage event)	A bit more detail for this one as this can be such a problematic matchup, plus I lost to this player before I upped Containment Priest to 2 SB. G1 I had the Revoker for their Sneak Attack. But they had enough mana in play and cards in hand from Griselbrand that they were able to Show & Tell Omniscience into Emrakul. My second Karakas off of their show was therefore rendered useless. Classic Omniscience loss. G2 surprised to see them FoW T1 Vial. Allowed me to play T2 Containment Priest in response to their S&T, for which they found nothing obviously, and I put in Mom. Backup from Port, Judge, and Thalia allowed me to seal the game. G3 I mulligan to 5 for a not stellar but workable selection. However they have a slow hand. T3 Blood Moon, which in hindsight slowed them down. T3 Judge. T4 nothing either side. T5 my turn was the crucial turn. They had 1 mana open and a Sneak Attack in play plus a fistful of cards from their first Sneaked Griselbrand the previous turn (which got StP’d). Them on 8 me on 20. I had a Judge and Mom in play and Revoker in hand plus I only just drew my second land for the game. I have a feeling they’ve got another Griselbrand in hand so I play Revoker to bait it thinking they’ll be greedy looking for more cards, so yep they Sneak in Griselbrand and I name Sneak Attack. Then I give Judge pro black with Mom, swing to put them on 7 and render their Griselbrand useless anyway. Really this was a misplay on their part as I think they had some of Breach or S&T in hand but no other threats so should have saved Gris for next turn. However I am finding this kind of desire to wantonly go to Griselbrand for more cards can be the undoing of many Sneak/Show/reanimator players. No more threats and I win by small dorks over next two turns. I also had Leonin Relic-Warder in hand in case of Omniscience. Their Blood Moon slowing them down is something I’ve experienced against other Sol-land decks using it. With the maximum mana denial package I’m running I so often find that it just plays into what I want to do, enhancing the Judges, Wingmare, and of course Thalia. Felt great having 2 Containment Priest here again, as did having the Relic-Warder. Interesting to note that Revoker did nothing to stop them G1, which I lost, but was crucial in G3, which I won. It’s exactly this kind of fickleness about Revoker that makes me perfectly happy having it as a 1/1 split.
BR Reanimator (heavy on Iona and Elesh)	1-2 (3 round Xmage event)	G1 they Unmask themselves into Reanimate for Iona. But I have Vial in play. I get down a Revoker naming Griselbrand, which I begin racing them with while stopping them doing anything else with my two Ports. End of their turn Vialed in Flickerwisp seals the deal with me on 6. G2 with me on the draw, they are that crucial turn ahead of me and I can’t get enough down before they Exhume Elesh, sweeping what little I have. They back up Blood Moon and I don’t draw StP or Path (yes I’ve been sometimes running a full 4/2 where I see builds with a lot of threats and it’s frequently saved me). G3 I have a nice hand inc. Containment Priest but I don’t have my 1 Extraction and that’s the only thing that would have saved me as they have the T1 nuts ritual>entomb Iona>exhume Iona. Can’t beat that. Especially when I don't draw Karakas. Worth noting that if I'd had a T1 Judge, they wouldn't have been able to make their T1 nut play and I'd have been able to get Priest in before their T2.
Death’s Shadow	2-0 (3 round Xmage event)	Both games mana denial plus enough removal plus their low low life total made it easy for small dorks to go all the way. Feel much more confident in this matchup having roundly lost the only other time I've played it (can’t remember whether it was with Wr or this list as it was before I started making notes) and not knowing what it was til too late.
Czech Pile	2-0 (Xmage single match)	G1 I beat double TNN with my Jitte + SoFai wielding Stoneforge! G2 they play an early Leovold but I play around it, just developing my board. Despite the setback of double Fatal Push on Thalia and SFM in the same turn I play a backup Thalia next turn, followed by Jitte turn after, followed by Mirran Crusader turn after that. They Fatal Push my 2nd Thalia but they have no Lightning Bolt and so, of course, Crusader (+ Jitte) FTW.

WIN RATIO WITH SB v2
For only the two events and bonus single match in the report above, i.e. since the SB mod...
= 7/8
= 87.5%

OVERALL WIN RATIO
Overall with the decklist at this point
= 19/27
= 70.4%

I’m happy with how the deck is performing overall and especially happy after the SB changes, having a winning record in two small events in a row. Admittedly it’s only been 8 matches since the SB mod but the changes have felt effective, particularly having 2 Containment Priest.

So the deck in general just feels like it has a lot of redundancy in terms of mana denial while having the tempo and win cons to be able to capitalise on it. I hope the above says plenty about the deck in general so I’ll just make a few comments on the sideboard below.

Switching the Priest/Canonist split in favour of Priest feels like such a good move. Of course I could always run 2 Canonist but I just have not been feeling her to be that important, even in combo matches. The mana denial package of Judge + Wingmare + all the usuals, and backed up by 2 Prelates, feels so much more robust. Still, keeping 1 Canonist feels sensible.

I initially wanted to go to 2 Relic-Warder but then I remembered a comment from someone that Judgment can fill some of the same roles.

The lone Judgment has felt good in tandem with Relic-Warder, even when they haven’t been used they’ve made me feel secure and, alongside the 2 Paths, have lent a sense of versatility when boarding vs existential threats e.g. Omniscience, TNN, Dread of Night while being generically useful in a range of situations.

I’m actually now considering if a 2nd Relic-Warder might in fact be a good idea in place of something else to help shore up against Omni and Dread of Night (which I keep seeing people packing) still further, while being very good in the mirror and randomly shoring against any more Affinity/Steel Stompy decks that bubble up (I can see a few people jumping from their Modern or Vintage Affinity/Steel etc decks to Legacy versions for GP Birmingham, which I shall most certainly be attending!). Candidates for the 2nd Relic-Warder would be a Cataclysm (see below), or the remaining Canonist. Despite what I say above, I am tempted by switching out the last Canonist for the 2nd Relic-Warder as I feel I have quite enough protection against non-S&T-based combo already.

I haven’t yet cast Cataclysm, though it hasn’t ever been dead in my hand. However I really must play some Miracles so that I can see, amongst other things, how important having 2 Cataclysm is. They are primarily there for the Lands matchup but I beat the one Lands player I've faced so far without any need for ‘clysm, and it was the tempo and Prelate that won it for me. They are also a little awkward with the Wingmare hanging around. So for these reasons and more I could see myself possibly switching them for 2 Gideon of the Trials or 1 Gideon and a 2nd Judgment or Extraction, or just a 2nd of each Extraction and Judgment…

[DISCLAIMER]
The above results contain 0 matches Vs. Miracles and Eldrazi, and only 1 match Vs. Lands. I will of course be aiming to capture plenty more data including matches with these three decks.

I welcome questions and crit and just want to say a big thanks to all of those contributing, not least Medea for his highly entertaining and informative Twitch casts. I'm thankful to be able to build on the good work of others. Cheers

[EDIT]
After reading back through I've added a few words to clarify some plays in the event report.

[Klirre]

Hi everyone!

Been away from this thread for a while now, took a break from magic and since I returned I've been playing a lot of TES. But after stumbling in to this thread and reading about Wr being on the rise with Dire Fleet Daredevil I really want to try this out.

I played Imperial Taxes before Recruiter of the Guard got printed, but since then I've been on mono-w. I've got no Pia and Kiran anymore, but I'm not interested in warping the manabase completely to fit in that as well. I read your article Medea on the math of splashing, and I'm scared to try the 4 Cavern 4 Vial approach. My friend came with a somewhat different idea, why not try a singleton Plateau along with 4 Flagstones of Trokair in addition to cavern and vial? I'm aware that you leave the Plateau open for wasteland since it enters tapped, but Flagstones works really well along with Cataclysm post board.

So my idea is something along the lines of:
4 Mom
4 Thalia
4 Stoneforge
2 Magus
2 DFD
2 Revoker
2 Recruiter
3 Flickerwisp
1 Palace jailer
1 Serra Avenger

4 Swords
4 Vial
3 equipment

4 Waste
4 Port
4 Cavern
4 Flagstones
1 Plateau
2 Karakas
5 Plains

SB:
2 Cataclysm
Rip, Canonist, Containment Priest, Path to Exile etc.

Is this idea just silly and 4 fetches just better? I think I will at least try it out but maybe someone already has?

[NeckBird]

Played the WR version on Friday without any fetches. Only red sources were 3 Cavern, 2 Plateau, 4 Vial. Only red cards in the 75 were 2 Dire Fleet and 1 Magus.

I think I'd cut one more Plains to go up to 3 Plateau, but that's it. I'm playing so few red cards that they never felt clunky and fetches open you up to Stifle and getting clobbered by Burn. If you're afraid of Wasteland, just sandbag your red source and wait.

[ChrisCunningham]

Only red sources were 3 Cavern, 2 Plateau, 4 Vial.

I'm playing so few red cards that they never felt clunky

!! To the specific person who posted this; this is not intended as a personal attack on you !! But it is a vicious attack on the thing you said, which a lot of people say. !!

Next up here in the center ring is our final fight of the evening!

In the blue corner, we have the reigning champion, Mathematics!

Mathematics is thousands of years old and hails from the ancient beginnings of human civilization. Training for thousands of years, Mathematics has been working its entire existence to defend its title tonight! Nevermind its awesome power to explain the universe -- Mathematics specializes in giving us a model to investigate our generally poor intuition about probability. Some say that Mathematics is unapproachable, but it has a hell of a PR team -- as the current reigning champ, Mathematics is a household name to almost every man, woman, and child on Earth.

In the red corner, we have Comically Small Data Set!

An underdog, Comically Small Data Set ain't afraid to mix it up with no champion! Comically Small Data Set was formed over the course of several rounds of Magic: the Gathering last weekend and is fired up for tonight's fight! Eschewing any fancy machinery, Comically Small Data Set relies heavily on the advantage of personal experience. Everyone knows that Comically Small Data Set just feels right! And look at it! Who wouldn't root for Comically Small Data Set?

FIGHT

[itsmrjack]

In the red corner, we have Comically Small Data Set!

While you're right to flag up the problem of small data sets in that they don't allow one to extrapolate generalisable findings, there's no harm in treating them as 'pilot' studies from which we produce rather more subjective non-generalisable findings. Such findings may be very much more on the side of speculation than fact but I would argue that it's part of the process. The tension between generalisable and subjective, aka quantitative Vs qualitative, has long been a flashpoint in the sciences, but philosophy of science has moved on to the point where there seems to be increasing acknowledgement among scientists that one can assist the other—that they don't have to be mutually exclusive viewpoints.

Also, I'm not sure that anybody who uses the words 'felt'/'feels'/'feeling' about deck choices would claim that such statements are anything other than subjective.

I'm all for trying to generate more and more data as it can bring us insights that the subjective can't. But beware the tyranny of numbers. If we ignored all but the largest and most reliable datasets there would be a lack of diversity in approaches to building the deck and, more to the point, this thread would probably be a little on the thin side.

Question: is it necessary in this kind of forum for one to explicitly state whether they are offering generalisable or subjective findings? I would have thought it's fairly obvious but maybe more distinction would be better...

[Moctzal]

!! To the specific person who posted this; this is not intended as a personal attack on you !! But it is a vicious attack on the thing you said, which a lot of people say. !!

Next up here in the center ring is our final fight of the evening!

In the blue corner, we have the reigning champion, Mathematics!

Mathematics is thousands of years old and hails from the ancient beginnings of human civilization. Training for thousands of years, Mathematics has been working its entire existence to defend its title tonight! Nevermind its awesome power to explain the universe -- Mathematics specializes in giving us a model to investigate our generally poor intuition about probability. Some say that Mathematics is unapproachable, but it has a hell of a PR team -- as the current reigning champ, Mathematics is a household name to almost every man, woman, and child on Earth.

In the red corner, we have Comically Small Data Set!

An underdog, Comically Small Data Set ain't afraid to mix it up with no champion! Comically Small Data Set was formed over the course of several rounds of Magic: the Gathering last weekend and is fired up for tonight's fight! Eschewing any fancy machinery, Comically Small Data Set relies heavily on the advantage of personal experience. Everyone knows that Comically Small Data Set just feels right! And look at it! Who wouldn't root for Comically Small Data Set?

FIGHT

While I agree in principle, this is a garbage post. If you have reasons that you think math based arguments invalidate the type of argument presented, demonstrate why instead of responding with a non-fact based argument in kind. Saying "nuh-uh-cause-math" isn't an effective argument. Demonstrating an argument using math would be an effective argument.

[Medea_]

@itsmrjack

I'm glad you enjoy my content and welcome to the forums!

I'm not sure Gideon of the Trials is really anything our deck needs to be doing.
If you're interested in Judge's Familiar builds, look into Eron Relentless on MTGO if you haven't already. He had a couple of different finishes with Familiar builds that looked solid.

Obligatory comment: One thing to be wary of is the nature of your testing pool. Free platforms like Cockatrice and XMage tend to attract lower caliber players. Players tend to scoop early since nothing is at stake and players also tend to switch decks *very* frequently on those platforms. As such, your win percentage is probably going to be very inflated on those platforms. As you noticed, the meta also tends to be weird and you play against more fringe and "for fun" decks.

@Klirre
I value the ability to just slam Magus and get people. The Flagstones plan doesn't work towards that end. You also don't want to lock yourself off of white with your own Magus. The difference between a fetch and a Flagstones is pretty big on that front. Maybe try it out, but I'm not sure it's the best idea.

[Klirre]

@itsmrjack
@Klirre
I value the ability to just slam Magus and get people. The Flagstones plan doesn't work towards that end. You also don't want to lock yourself off of white with your own Magus. The difference between a fetch and a Flagstones is pretty big on that front. Maybe try it out, but I'm not sure it's the best idea.

Just goldfishing made me come to the same conclusion, the times when you get 2xFlagstones to "fetch" Plateau you're often stuck with waste, port or karakas as the third land when you slam Magus. After that you're required to find a plains to cast anything... In the end I just wanted it for the synergy with Cataclysm, but I'll have to do without it.

I just bought a Pia and Kiran Nalaar as well, so I'll have to go hunting for at least another Plateau now. I don't believe a singleton will be enough sadly.

[Medea_]

Just goldfishing made me come to the same conclusion, the times when you get 2xFlagstones to "fetch" Plateau you're often stuck with waste, port or karakas as the third land when you slam Magus. After that you're required to find a plains to cast anything... In the end I just wanted it for the synergy with Cataclysm, but I'll have to do without it.

I just bought a Pia and Kiran Nalaar as well, so I'll have to go hunting for at least another Plateau now. I don't believe a singleton will be enough sadly.

One of the non-obvious things to keep in mind with P&K is that you want red to activate the ability. If you rely too heavily on Cavern and Vial to get it in play, you might not be able to shoot things. Having multiple Plateau is certainly a good idea.

[itsmrjack]

@itsmrjack

I'm glad you enjoy my content and welcome to the forums!

I'm not sure Gideon of the Trials is really anything our deck needs to be doing.

Yeah lil' Gideon is something that I tried and didn't like so much and (probably) won't try again. Goes without saying that the bigger Gideon is by far the superior for DnT but I was keen to have a similar out to Lili and Jace that can be played on curve when I have a Thalia or Wingmare out. As I say, my build is much more about tempo so this seemed important. Besides, a couple of times recently I've been staring at an Ally of Zendikar without enough mana to cast it when needed.

If you're interested in Judge's Familiar builds, look into Eron Relentless on MTGO if you haven't already. He had a couple of different finishes with Familiar builds that looked solid.

Eron Relentless's list does look solid, and not a million miles from mine.

Differences of my list Vs. theirs:

• MD Wingmare in place of Prelate — I think Wingmare ties in better with the Judges
• 3 Crusader instead of 2 — I want consistent finishing power
• 1 Revoker instead of 2 — I moved one to the SB, see my original post
• 4/3 Flickerwisp/Judge's Familiar split instead of 3/4 — I don't want too many late game Judges and am really enjoying the full complement of Wisps
• SoWaP in place of Batterskull — 8 fliers + 3 Crusaders allows me to maximise on SoWaP

I'm going to keep testing my MD list as is for now as I haven't had any perceptible problems with it. The SB is still in progress.

Obligatory comment: One thing to be wary of is the nature of your testing pool. Free platforms like Cockatrice and XMage tend to attract lower caliber players. Players tend to scoop early since nothing is at stake and players also tend to switch decks *very* frequently on those platforms. As such, your win percentage is probably going to be very inflated on those platforms. As you noticed, the meta also tends to be weird and you play against more fringe and "for fun" decks.

I couldn't agree more. I meant to add a note to this effect accompanying my report so thanks for flagging this up. It's simply a financial thing for me at this point. I've already invested a lot in paper magic and am not solvent enough to make the leap to MTGO right now. However it is something I am looking at doing at some point. At the moment, Xmage is my tool at hand so I'm going to continue logging matches on it and will present some more stats when I get over 100 matches or so. IMHO it's still legitimate data—so long as one accepts that it isn't going to be representative of other environments, both in terms of quality and meta. However I would say that on the whole my opponents have felt plenty competent and I've only included one random rogue decks in my results because it wasn't actually horrendous. I would guess that those going to Xmage to play Legacy are more serious than for other formats. Also worth noting that Xmage is the more respectable of Xmage vs Cockatrice as it does at least contain a filter for players with high quit percentages.

Further, my best performance with the deck so far was in a real life event playing against regulars on the UK Legacy circuit (Axion Now event in the table in my earlier post), even if it was only a 4-rounder. Admittedly my data set is rather humble at this point but a big part of why I'm sharing early findings is to encourage others to do the same. I believe that the more of those in the DnT community, nay, the DnT cohort! who log and honestly report their results the more we collectively learn about the deck as a whole.

Cheers

[Medea_]

I believe that the more of those in the DnT community, nay, the DnT cohort! who log and honestly report their results the more we collectively learn about the deck as a whole.

Cheers

I believe the technical term is cult. Praise be.

[itsmrjack]

@Medea

Lol. I saw the show ;)

[FFreak]

Bad FNM:

What you think is worse game against evles or after that game against miracles (with humility) ....

Both is just sooo unbeatable

[DarthVicious]

Next up here in the center ring is our final fight of the evening!

In the blue corner, we have the reigning champion, Mathematics!

Mathematics is thousands of years old and hails from the ancient beginnings of human civilization. Training for thousands of years, Mathematics has been working its entire existence to defend its title tonight! Nevermind its awesome power to explain the universe -- Mathematics specializes in giving us a model to investigate our generally poor intuition about probability. Some say that Mathematics is unapproachable, but it has a hell of a PR team -- as the current reigning champ, Mathematics is a household name to almost every man, woman, and child on Earth.

In the red corner, we have Comically Small Data Set!

An underdog, Comically Small Data Set ain't afraid to mix it up with no champion! Comically Small Data Set was formed over the course of several rounds of Magic: the Gathering last weekend and is fired up for tonight's fight! Eschewing any fancy machinery, Comically Small Data Set relies heavily on the advantage of personal experience. Everyone knows that Comically Small Data Set just feels right! And look at it! Who wouldn't root for Comically Small Data Set?

FIGHT

*drops mic*
Internet walks away in defeat.

[Cermak]

Hi thanks for a great legacy community all my friends writes here! I have until now just read a lot but never actually posted anything here. Normally I play old school 93/94, but after meeting (pettdan) at a bar I got some interest for legacy. It really got me hooked great community and such a variety of decks to play.

I made it top 8 in a tournament with the deck last month.
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...d-School-93-94
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=17517&d=308517&f=LE


And last week now with a Blue Control No taxes ( White-blue taxes.) Inspired by (Autonom).

The deck was just featured in an article (see below) and tweeted by Gerry Thompson:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles...me-niche-decks


This version plays 4 Thalia and 4 Brainstorm, some people had something against that, most of them i crushed in the swiss, for me it has been worth paying 2 for both STP and Brainstorm most of the times. Finding the the cards you need and good combo with SFM and RoTG.
The heavy basic lands to get back to basics also worked out very well. Please give me some feedback. And let me know if there is some other appropriate thread, thanks!
Thanks for a great page community!


23 LANDS
4 Flooded Strand
2 Karakas
2 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Rishadan Port
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Plains
3 Tundra
4 Wasteland
22 CREATURES
2 Flickerwisp
1 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Mother of Runes
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
8 INSTANTS and SORCERIES
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
7 OTHER SPELLS
4 Aether Vial
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
SIDEBOARD
1 Armageddon
1 Aura of Silence
3 Back to Basics
1 Disenchant
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Flusterstorm
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace

[Moctzal]

Why play this over Stoneblade/Deathblade?

[Cermak]

Why play this over Stoneblade/Deathblade?

For me personaly in our meta, whent way better in tournaments, and puts a aggressive touch.

[Moctzal]

For me personaly in our meta, whent way better in tournaments, and puts a aggressive touch.

Okay, but why is it better? I'm asking you to explain.

[Cermak]

Okay, but why is it better? I'm asking you to explain.

-Huge creature controll, protection, jump ledgens, non targetable creatures
-Lock out after sideboard whit btb
-extermely easy connect the attachments.