Oxmo39
11-02-2010, 08:39 AM
« Recent » printings of Stoneforge Mystic and Leonin Arbiter made me feel like it was time to build my old beloved Death and Taxes deck.
At first sight, I agree that those two cards look very anti-synergistic but both make D&T so much better!
I didn’t get much time to playtest before the tournament but the tests I could do, were good. So I decided to pack both for the tournament!
31 people showed off and we played 5 rounds of swiss.
Here’s the list:
3 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Karakas
11 Plains
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Serra Avenger
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
Sideboard
2 Cataclysm
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Aura of Silence
1 Pithing Needle
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Runed Halo
3 Enlightened Tutor
Match 1: My opponent didn’t come…actually he arrived 2 minutes after that the judge gave him a match loss.
Later, I have known that this guy was playing Enchantress and felt a bit luckier...:tongue:
1-0
Match 2: BGW Rock
Game 1: I have a really good hand with Vial, STP, Arbiter, Rishadan, Plains.
I open with Vial. He opens Bayou, Duress taking STP. Turn 3, I tap his dual with Rishadan, he plays fetch, sac it => responding by vialing the arbiter => he won’t recover.
Game 2: I sword his Bob. Mom handled his Tarmo while Avenger was flying FTW
2-0
Match 3: Mono-U Merfolk (12 lords)
Game 1: Slow start from both sides, he wasted my Port, I played then Karakas, vial was @3, Mangara FTW
Game 2: He goes really fast, Reejerey tricks allowes him to play 3 Silvergill Adept the same turn…blurps
Game 3: He is still very fast and can’t handle all his treats and lords…
2-1
Match 4: Landstill UWb
I know what he plays and feel bad about that. I have to win this bad MU if I want to access to Top8.
Game 1: I play Vial: resolve! Woohoow. He plays land, go. T2, I waste his dual. T3 I play Port and tap his land during his upkeep. He plays fetch => vial Arbiter. Good start! I topdecked Karakas, Mangara was smiling in my hand. I go for the combo, he scooped immediately.
Game 2: He recursed a lot of EE, Jace smoked me.
Game 3: I’m able to play Pithing Needle naming EE on T2. I play Arbiter T3, which annoyed him only one turn, then get STP’ed. I have O-rings for Elspeth and Jace. But he will play 3 STP on my different threats…Finding no creatures, I drop Jitte. He’s at 9 and is not able to find another planeswalker and I wasted his mishra. He already played 3 STP, I hoped he could never find the last one and I finally decided to drop Mangara and equipped with Jitte. I can’t believe Mangara finally killed him like a champ with a Jitte!
3-1
Match 5: GW Survival
Final match of swiss, we both are at 3-1 but decide to play, draw was too risky.
Game 1: he plays hierarch (oh finally vengevines are coming), I play mom, pass. He plays Mom and I stp’ed it. I play Arbiter while survival is already on play. He then goes for agro with 3 Tarmo’s! I go down to 2 till I can stabilize with a second mom and an o-ring for his third tarmo. Ouch! He decided to go for survival but at arbiter’s rhythm, which means slooowly. Iona finally hits his grave. I hurry to play Mangara to have an answer to Iona but he will not reanimate her. I finally set the Mangara and Karakas combo but without Vial. This game was long, each turn I removed one permanent. At this moment, I’m stuck with 5 lands I have a second Karakas in hand and Solas. No kill condition on the table for me…this game went very long…
I finally topdecked another land and I drop Solas, hoping to draw a flyer…Next draw revealed Avenger! FTW My opponent was really sick of Mangara & Arbiter!
Game 2: T1 Vial, T2 Arbiter, T3 Mom, T4 Flickerwisp, GG
I haven’t seen a single vengevine during this game!
4-1
I go to Top 8 and my opponent also!
Top8: GW Survival
Same opponent as previous match
Game 1: He has survival, I don’t have any arbiter. He goes for 3 Vengevines but I have 2 Moms and Grunt to handle them. Double Wisp for the win!
Game 2: I have arbiter, he has no hierarch and is stuck with 2 lands. I have o-ring for survival and I beat him with Avenger. He plays Stoneforge Mystic fetching for Jitte. I play Stoneforge as well, fetching Jitte and playing it, reducing his Jitte to an artifact removal…I finished him with double Avengers!
2-0
Top4: Mono-R Goblins (piloted by a teammate)
Game 1: I mull to 5 due to non-land hands. I have STP for his Lackey, but I can’t respond the second one…
Game 2: T1 Burrenton Forge-Tender calmed him down immediately. Grunt & Wisp beat him.
Game 3: Mull to 6 and keep a slow hand, big mistake…
Conclusions:
- I was really glad of this day. I couldn’t hope to reach Top4 with Death&Taxes, but I proved to be a competitive deck besides it is the funniest!
- Leonin Arbiter rooocks! As you can read, it has stolen me games. Sure, it needs to be combined with Rishadan Ports and/or Wasteland to be more effective. It annoyed and slowed opponents the whole day if they don’t deal with him immediately.
- Irony made me lose against two good MU’s for D&T (merfolks & gobs). I point out that Arbiter is not efficient against those MU’s, and that I didn’t see Stoneforge Mystic…
- Not to have to play against combo decks made the day even better :smile:
- I can't wait till the next tournament to play this deck again!
At first sight, I agree that those two cards look very anti-synergistic but both make D&T so much better!
I didn’t get much time to playtest before the tournament but the tests I could do, were good. So I decided to pack both for the tournament!
31 people showed off and we played 5 rounds of swiss.
Here’s the list:
3 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Karakas
11 Plains
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Serra Avenger
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
Sideboard
2 Cataclysm
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Aura of Silence
1 Pithing Needle
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Runed Halo
3 Enlightened Tutor
Match 1: My opponent didn’t come…actually he arrived 2 minutes after that the judge gave him a match loss.
Later, I have known that this guy was playing Enchantress and felt a bit luckier...:tongue:
1-0
Match 2: BGW Rock
Game 1: I have a really good hand with Vial, STP, Arbiter, Rishadan, Plains.
I open with Vial. He opens Bayou, Duress taking STP. Turn 3, I tap his dual with Rishadan, he plays fetch, sac it => responding by vialing the arbiter => he won’t recover.
Game 2: I sword his Bob. Mom handled his Tarmo while Avenger was flying FTW
2-0
Match 3: Mono-U Merfolk (12 lords)
Game 1: Slow start from both sides, he wasted my Port, I played then Karakas, vial was @3, Mangara FTW
Game 2: He goes really fast, Reejerey tricks allowes him to play 3 Silvergill Adept the same turn…blurps
Game 3: He is still very fast and can’t handle all his treats and lords…
2-1
Match 4: Landstill UWb
I know what he plays and feel bad about that. I have to win this bad MU if I want to access to Top8.
Game 1: I play Vial: resolve! Woohoow. He plays land, go. T2, I waste his dual. T3 I play Port and tap his land during his upkeep. He plays fetch => vial Arbiter. Good start! I topdecked Karakas, Mangara was smiling in my hand. I go for the combo, he scooped immediately.
Game 2: He recursed a lot of EE, Jace smoked me.
Game 3: I’m able to play Pithing Needle naming EE on T2. I play Arbiter T3, which annoyed him only one turn, then get STP’ed. I have O-rings for Elspeth and Jace. But he will play 3 STP on my different threats…Finding no creatures, I drop Jitte. He’s at 9 and is not able to find another planeswalker and I wasted his mishra. He already played 3 STP, I hoped he could never find the last one and I finally decided to drop Mangara and equipped with Jitte. I can’t believe Mangara finally killed him like a champ with a Jitte!
3-1
Match 5: GW Survival
Final match of swiss, we both are at 3-1 but decide to play, draw was too risky.
Game 1: he plays hierarch (oh finally vengevines are coming), I play mom, pass. He plays Mom and I stp’ed it. I play Arbiter while survival is already on play. He then goes for agro with 3 Tarmo’s! I go down to 2 till I can stabilize with a second mom and an o-ring for his third tarmo. Ouch! He decided to go for survival but at arbiter’s rhythm, which means slooowly. Iona finally hits his grave. I hurry to play Mangara to have an answer to Iona but he will not reanimate her. I finally set the Mangara and Karakas combo but without Vial. This game was long, each turn I removed one permanent. At this moment, I’m stuck with 5 lands I have a second Karakas in hand and Solas. No kill condition on the table for me…this game went very long…
I finally topdecked another land and I drop Solas, hoping to draw a flyer…Next draw revealed Avenger! FTW My opponent was really sick of Mangara & Arbiter!
Game 2: T1 Vial, T2 Arbiter, T3 Mom, T4 Flickerwisp, GG
I haven’t seen a single vengevine during this game!
4-1
I go to Top 8 and my opponent also!
Top8: GW Survival
Same opponent as previous match
Game 1: He has survival, I don’t have any arbiter. He goes for 3 Vengevines but I have 2 Moms and Grunt to handle them. Double Wisp for the win!
Game 2: I have arbiter, he has no hierarch and is stuck with 2 lands. I have o-ring for survival and I beat him with Avenger. He plays Stoneforge Mystic fetching for Jitte. I play Stoneforge as well, fetching Jitte and playing it, reducing his Jitte to an artifact removal…I finished him with double Avengers!
2-0
Top4: Mono-R Goblins (piloted by a teammate)
Game 1: I mull to 5 due to non-land hands. I have STP for his Lackey, but I can’t respond the second one…
Game 2: T1 Burrenton Forge-Tender calmed him down immediately. Grunt & Wisp beat him.
Game 3: Mull to 6 and keep a slow hand, big mistake…
Conclusions:
- I was really glad of this day. I couldn’t hope to reach Top4 with Death&Taxes, but I proved to be a competitive deck besides it is the funniest!
- Leonin Arbiter rooocks! As you can read, it has stolen me games. Sure, it needs to be combined with Rishadan Ports and/or Wasteland to be more effective. It annoyed and slowed opponents the whole day if they don’t deal with him immediately.
- Irony made me lose against two good MU’s for D&T (merfolks & gobs). I point out that Arbiter is not efficient against those MU’s, and that I didn’t see Stoneforge Mystic…
- Not to have to play against combo decks made the day even better :smile:
- I can't wait till the next tournament to play this deck again!