[Deck] Meth and Taxes

[Vacrix]

Skeggi's Knigget's list inspired the following list (props to him and his team on working on this concept). It uses much of the same concepts as his list does, only my list is less Haakon oriented, it interacting with fewer cards. I think it will run much like Death and Taxes given that it has a soft lock against aggro via Haakon + Nameless Inversion, and has recurable beaters via Haakon and Haakon + Knight of the Reliquary. It runs 8 strong beaters, recurable dudes to hold equipment, and has massive CA outlets via Mother of Runes, SFM, BoB, and Haakon. At first I thought it was like Death and Taxes on crack, hence the name.

Meth and Taxes:
Creatures: 21
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
4 Knight of the Reliquary

Utility: 17
3 Entomb
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
2 Nameless Inversion

Equipment Package: 3
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

Land: 19
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bayou
3 Scrublands
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Ethersworn Cannonist
1 Thorn of Amythest
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
4 Open slot


Card choices

:Maindeck:

CREATURES
- Mother of Runes -
Virtual Card Advantage. She protects your guys from removal, chumps w/ protection, and most importantly protects Haakon from Swords/Path.
- Stoneforge Mystic -
Card Advantage. Fetches equipment, and 'vial' equipment into play.
- Dark Confidant -
Card Advantage. He draws you an additonal card each turn, and can hold a Jitte.
- Tarmogoyf -
One of your beaters.
- Haakon, Stromgald Scourge -
Mad card advantage. He allows you to reanimate Knight of the Reliquary or recur removal like Nameless Inversion. He can also recur himself and profitably blocks most of the smaller creatures in legacy, making him an asset all by himself.
-Knight of the Reliquary -
Another one of your beaters. He can pump himself, and can be reanimated by Haakon.

UTILITY
- Entomb -
Utility piece. It can fetch Haakon to your graveyard. If you already have Haakon in play, it is still useful, finding you either Knight of the Reliquary or Nameless Inversion.
- Aether Vial -
Utility piece. One of the best cards in the deck. Its a bomb against control, allows you to play Haakon without reanimating him, facilitates mad combat tricks, and makes supporting 3 colors a significantly smaller burden.
- Swords to Plowshares -
Removal. It hits most of the relevant creatures in the format. I'll take 4.
- Thoughtseize -
Disruption. I'm still debating this slot because it contributes to even more lifeloss.
- Nameless Inversion -
Utility piece. It functions as a removal spell that hits most of the smaller creatures in the format. It also serves as reach when played on creatures with a higher toughness. The main attraction, however, is that it can be continuously played from the graveyard via Haakon.

EQUIPMENT PACKAGE
- Umezawa's Jitte -
Equipment. Counteracts lifeloss, gets rid of small dudes, and can quickly end games.
- Sword of Light and Shadow -
Equipment. Puts Haakon out of burn range and gives him protection from the 2 most common removal spell colors, while also returning creatures to your hand that Haakon cannot reanimate.
- Sword of Fire and Ice -
Equipment. Can kill small dudes and draw you cards. This slot is debatable.

:Sideboard:
- Enlightened Tutor -
Utility piece. Enables a sideboard plan against the decks bad matchups.
- Ethersworn Cannonist -
Storm hate. A great piece of hate against storm combo that slows them down. Its also worth noting that you can protect it from removal with Mother of Runes. He can also hold equipment.
- Thorn of Amythest -
Storm hate. Redundancy against storm.
- Tormod's Crypt -
Grave hate. A good piece of hate against decks that like their graveyard.
- Relic of Progenitus -
Grave hate. See above.
- Wheel of Sun and Moon -
Grave hate. A much better piece of hate that unfortunately costs more.

Questions
- Thoughtseize vs. Duress vs. Cabal Therapy. Therapy works with Entomb, and is a great asset in game 2/3. Is it worth playing over more consistent disruption?
- Nameless Inversion. How many copies should I run? Should I run a split between it and Crib Swap?
- Sword of Fire and Ice. Good or bad? I think this slot could be put to better use.
- Vindicate? It might be worth running given that I'm in black/white.
- Basillik Collar? Props to PastorofMuppets for thinking of this. Might it be worth cutting SoFI for this? Its great with Haakon.
- Doran the Siege Tower? He's 3 for a 5/5 in the right colors. Maybe he is worth playing.
- Qasali Pride Mage? He's on color. ATM, I have no permanent removal. Is he worth playing?
- Path to Exile? In addition to or replacing STP. Worth it?
- How best to work the board? I think that UW Tempo has proven that the Etutor postboard plan is great, given that even DnT adopted it. What else should I run?
- What are the anticipated good/bad matchups?



UPDATE:

Currently Testing:

Meth and Taxes:
Creatures: 21
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
4 Knight of the Reliquary

Utility: 17
3 Entomb
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Path To Exile
2 Nameless Inversion

Equipment Package: 2
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Land: 20
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
2 Scrublands
2 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Ethersworn Cannonist
1 Thorn of Amythest
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Oppression

[memnarch]

I like the Entomb idea in an aggro deck interesting concept. Unfortunatly you can only abuse Nameless Inversion with Haakon in play and once he gets swords that's not gonna work. But using the vial is a great idea with him and I like the general concept. I would like to see a little more hand disruption in there besides just the set of Thoughtseize I can tell you now combo will be a nightmare. Also I think Relic is better then Wheel of Sun and Moon. It stops opposing Goyfs and they cant just bounce it and go off because there is always the threat of cracking it. You don't need it in your opening hand either, its a better top deck. From experience I have found Relic to be better, I experimented with Wheel.

[Greenpoe]

How about the various flashback cards for entomb targets? Traitor's Clutch would be awesome in the aggro matchup to swing for the win. Entomb + 1B to pump & make your biggest creature virtually unblockable. Cabal Therapy might be good, but you probably wouldn't want to sacrifice a beloved creature, except maybe Bob. Perhaps even a dredge card, like Necroplasm, Stinkweed Imp or Darkblast, but they might be too slow, even though Stinkweed and Necroplasm would could a lot with enemy creatures.

[Vacrix]

I like the Entomb idea in an aggro deck interesting concept. Unfortunatly you can only abuse Nameless Inversion with Haakon in play and once he gets swords that's not gonna work. But using the vial is a great idea with him and I like the general concept. I would like to see a little more hand disruption in there besides just the set of Thoughtseize I can tell you now combo will be a nightmare. Also I think Relic is better then Wheel of Sun and Moon. It stops opposing Goyfs and they cant just bounce it and go off because there is always the threat of cracking it. You don't need it in your opening hand either, its a better top deck. From experience I have found Relic to be better, I experimented with Wheel.
Well I think that on paper, Haakon is much stronger than Mangara; however, DnT runs some stuff to protect it that MnT does not: Flickerwisp. It can save Mangara. DnT also runs Mother of Runes to protect its team, including Mangara, as do I in my list. The argument against either is just as valid; if it eats a swords, you're done. The upside, though, is that I run 5 virtual copies of Haakon and Confidant to hopefully draw into one of those copies. Its also not the decks focus which means if your opponent wastes a STP or PtE on Haakon, he could have very well used that on my Goyf or KoTR. The deck is packed enough as is so I don't know if I can accommodate a larger disruption package.

Keep in mind that in the Haakon/Inversion lock vs. the Mangara/Karkas lock, you can play Inversion more than once in a turn, which means you can kill Goyfs, or even Iona provided you have enough mana. The downside is that I can't remove permanents.

In general, my list is weak against non-creature permanents so I want to try some QPM but I don't know where to put them. Ideas?

[kinda]

Chains of Mephistopheles and Anvil of Bogardan lock...quite some synergy with haakon...

[grahf]

Do you really need 4 Vials and 3 Equips? Those are the slots I would look at, potentially shaving off one of each.

[Vacrix]

I cut -1 SoFI from the original list and added a land. It completely thrashed Merfolk 3-0 preboard. It wasn't even close. I had so many threats they couldnt do shit. I played one shitty game against Zoo in which my discard was completely dead. Then again, I was playing Thoughtseize. I will definitely be cutting 4 Thoughtseize for 4 Cabal Therapy. Therapy is a sac outlet for Confidant, which you really do need sometimes, and its another way to get Haakon in the grave. I had Haakon stuck in my hand once. I'm looking for more options for discard outlets.

@ grahf. 4 Vial is pretty important IMO. Its too good to cut any. I like seeing multiples because of all the card advantage anyway.


EDIT:
Possible discard outlet for Haakon that punishes aggro and control decks:
Oppression

It looks like an extremely strong choice post-board for both the control and combo matchups. Combo can't play its cantrips to set up and makes it very difficult for them to find a removal spell without nuking their own hand in the process. Its great against control because they can't play their cantrips profitably. Its terrible against aggro. Given this card, I think I'm going to switch the entire maindeck to beating aggro. Here is an updated list:


Meth and Taxes:
Creatures: 21
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
4 Knight of the Reliquary

Utility: 17
3 Entomb
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Path To Exile
2 Nameless Inversion

Equipment Package: 2
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Land: 20
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
2 Scrublands
2 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Ethersworn Cannonist
1 Thorn of Amythest
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Oppression

Now I have plenty of MD removal to beat aggro, and a good engine via Haakon to out perform control. I think that I have enough removal to keep my opponent off green creatures --> NO --> Progenitus. I'll be testing this list on my friend's MWS as soon as I can.

[Phoenix Ignition]

So now your deck runs 2 Haakon just for 2 x nameless inversion and 4x KotR? Haakon sucks on his own, so you need one of your 2 nameless inversions to really capitalize on him. KotR don't die almost ever, they get plowed, so I really don't think you want Haakon in here anymore. Just turn it into a rock deck, take out haakon and nameless inversions for 4x pridemage.

[Vacrix]

Actually Haakon doesn't suck on his own. He reanimates himself which has been very useful. He also profitably blocks most of the smaller creatures in the format (Kird Ape, Nacatl, various Merfolk, etc). Inversion recursion has won me games too which QPM would not have. Keep in mind you can play Nameless Inversion more than once. I've killed Goyfs 5/6 Goyfs with it in testing. And I've wrecked an opponent entire team with Nameless Inversion, and one time, I manage to end the game quickly by playing Nameless Inversion on KoTR before my opponent got a removal spell. The thing about KoTR is that he actually does die quite a bit (and when he doesn't you can Entomb EOT and then reanimate him with Haakon , which means Entomb facilitates more virtual copies of KoTR (which means I might run fewer of them). More often than not KoTR a 5/5, which still dies to block + combat trick (or my KoTR has been countered and then I reanimate him). The playstyle is more like rock than DnT. I do want to run QPM though. I might cut -1 Nameless Inversion -1 land +2 QPM. I haven't decided though. I'm going to test that other list first and see what happens.

[Skeggi]

Hey, nice list :wink:. Looks like you could use Sensei's Divining Top. I would probably go -2 Stoneforge Mystic, -2 Path to Exile and an optional -1 Mother of Runes for +3/4 Sensei's Divining Top.

[Vacrix]

I was thinking about that myself actually. Fixing the top card would be nice. I'd prefer not to have a mana sink though so I was thinking about trying Sylvan Library since its on color, and can potentially grab me more than one removal spell in a sticky situation.

EDIT:
I'm testing 1 Choke postboard in place of that awful O-ring.

[supachai]

They deck just felt really clunky when we played. It also has lots of threats. This is probably why you will be good against Merfolk and bad against stuff like Zoo. I think this can really be attributed to mana issues-its just not streamlined enough. 3 colors with multiple double mana requirements is tough.

[Vacrix]

They deck just felt really clunky when we played. It also has lots of threats. This is probably why you will be good against Merfolk and bad against stuff like Zoo. I think this can really be attributed to mana issues-its just not streamlined enough. 3 colors with multiple double mana requirements is tough.
I don't think we have enough definitive testing against Zoo to know either way, Oliver. I cut those terrible Thoughtseizes for PtE. The Zoo matchup should be significantly better now. :D

[Skeggi]

You totally should run a 1-of Karakas. Not only does it mise against Iona, but it also protects Haakon. You can fetch it with KotR.

[Vacrix]

Thats a great idea. I will have to find more discard outlets though.