3rd out of 50 with Black + Taxes

[Richard Cheese]

I didn't take good notes, so this isn't a great tournament report, but I'm posting it here because I'm really not sure where this deck belongs...it's somewhere between Deadguy and Death and Taxes, so I'll just let the community decide. Here (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?2597-Deck-Deadguy-Ale-(B-w-Confidant)&p=776313&viewfull=1#post776313) is a previous report from a smaller event.

Here's the list:

2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Mirran Crusader
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Dark Confidant
3 Tidehollow Sculler

4 AEther Vial
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Marsh Flats
4 Scrubland
2 Swamp
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Plains
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas


SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 Oblivion Ring
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Enlightened Tutor
SB: 1 Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 3 Zealous Persecution
SB: 4 Duress


Round 1: Punishing Jund
I believe I won game 1 between Wastes and Ports keeping him from doing anything meaningful. Game 2 he gets Library and Bob online while I draw a ton of lands and lose. Game 3 I open on a couple Inquisitions taking Library and Bob and eventually land a Mirran Crusader. He gains some life with Deathrite and hits Bloodbraid into Confidant, but Bob giveth and he taketh away, so he promptly dies to a flipped Liliana. Bob, you dick.
SB: -1 Revoker, -1 SFM -?, +1 E. Tutor, +2 RiP

Round 2: UR Delver
He's playing a Young Pyromancer build, and I whiff on game 1 and let a Grim Lavamancer hit play, which keeps my board empty while Delvers and Elementals eat my face. Game 2 it's his turn to whiff and he lets me untap with a Mom. I Believe I had Thalia on the board and got a SoFI on her for the win. Game 3 is back and forth. I start out strong with mom and Revoker on Lavamancer, but he has enough removal to get rid of mom then drops Delver, YP, and Ponders. Luckily I have Persecution to wipe his board, and SoFI gets there again.
SB: -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Bob, +3 Persecution

Round 3: Doomsday
Game 1 I open with discard taking Doomsday followed by Thalia, then Revoker on SDT. Mirran Crusader joins the assault and it's game over. Game 2 I open on discard taking Doomsday again, followed up with Canonist, then Thalia, and he can't recover. Oddly, both games he had Burning Wish in hand and a good bit of mana despite Thalia, but never went for a sweeper. Not sure what was going on there.
SB: -4 StP, -1 Revoker, -1 SFM, +1 E. Tutor, +1 Canonist, +4 Duress

Round 4: BUG Delver
Game 1 I had him on Shardless BUG and made a loose keep of mostly land and Moms. I can't keep his manabase under control through multiple Ponders and Brainstorms though and eventually he finds Delver and TNN, and kills me with Deathrites. I proceed to sit on no Black sources and draw only Bobs and Thoughtseizes. Game 2 the mana-denial plan works much better, Wastes and Ports keeping him from doing anything meaningful until I hard cast a Batterskull. Game 3 is much closer, he hits my opening Crusader with Hymn, but I believe I stick a vial and get it to 2, holding lands up to cast Persecution in case he has Golgari Charm. Eventually, I vial in SFM into SoFI and manage to connect with it once, killing his Delver and drawing a Wasteland that I used to cut him off green. I thought I had the game sealed up but he dropped Liliana and made me sac the mystic, but I ripped Thalia off the top, Vial'd her in and equipped while he was tapped out, and he couldn't find more removal in time.
SB: -1 Revoker, -1 Bob, -1 Sculler, -1 SFM, +1 E. Tutor, +1 RiP, +2 Persecution

Round 5: We're the only 4-0s, so we ID.

Round 6: Split with a friend so we're both guaranteed top 8

Top 8: Everyone makes it pretty clear that they want to split, one guy is about to lose his ride and I gave someone else a ride, so I go along and split. I was ranked first after round 4, but ended up 3rd because of breakers, but it doesn't really make any difference since we just divided the pool up evenly. Walked away with $140 in store credit, a playmat, and a "TCG Player Point"...not too shabby for a deck that I've only had one prior tournament with.

Like I said, my notes are shit so this is all from memory. If you were there and I screwed something up, just correct me.

On the deck: it feels really solid and suprisingly well-placed in the meta given the amount of /-x effects out there right now. It plays mostly like D&T, but it lacks the Mangara/Flickerwisp shenanigans. TBH, I don't really miss them, and I feel like the black splash helps the deck in two sorely-needed areas: card draw and turn 1 plays vs. combo. Mirran Crusader is a boss and SoFI has been incredible. The discard suite is small enough to be useful without creating too much chaff in the late game. At this point, I'm not sure it warrants it's own thread but if there's enough interest I'll come up with an acceptably stupid name and make one.

[DavidHernandez]

Congrats! That's awesome!

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Black + Taxes

Plessy's Revenge, imo.

[Bed Decks Palyer]

On the deck: it feels really solid and suprisingly well-placed in the meta given the amount of /-x effects out there right now. It plays mostly like D&T, but it lacks the Mangara/Flickerwisp shenanigans. TBH, I don't really miss them, and I feel like the black splash helps the deck in two sorely-needed areas: card draw and turn 1 plays vs. combo. Mirran Crusader is a boss and SoFI has been incredible. The discard suite is small enough to be useful without creating too much chaff in the late game. At this point, I'm not sure it warrants it's own thread but if there's enough interest I'll come up with an acceptably stupid name and make one.

Congrats on nice finish.
I guess your only trouble is getting fast to correct color, am I right? I see the maindeck is pretty tight, but what do you think about Weathered Wayfarer as a way how to fetch Wasteland/Karakas or even black?

[Secretly.A.Bee]

I think that puts the deck back into WW-Land rather than assisting the black splash. Bob Is the most probable slot for Wayfarer because both net you a form of card advantage. Also, the 1 cc slot is already basically at a critical point. Vials and discard are already fighting for the turn1 play and mom is better pretty much all the time vs. Wayfarer. I love this deck. It's very cool and also fairly close to what I've wanted to play for a while. I'm not going to because I don't want to drop 250 on a set of lands that I won't use literally any where else.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[Plague Sliver]

Looks like a really cool deck. Question: what's with the 4x Duress in the board?

[uncletiggy]

Black-taxes.... Obama Care?

[Kayradis]

I second the Obama Care name.

I might give that list a spin as well!

[Valech]

Black-taxes.... Obama Care?

You made me physically laugh. I second this.

[raikenxy]

I used to run a list very much like this before I made the switch to full on death and taxes. With 3 tidehollow scullers you definately have some flexibility to drop the discard down to just to thoughtseize in my opinion. 5 forms of discard, two of them being off of vial, should be more then enough I think. Also when it comes to the mana base I don't believe you need basic swamps at all, white is just a much more important color in the deck. Also i think you could spare going to just five fetchlands, preferably 4 marsh flatts and one verdant. Your deck still wants mana, you don't want to thin it out to much to point where you can't draw it mid game when you need it. this was the list i finally came up with

land base 23

4 marsh flats
4 scrubland
4 wasteland
4 port
4 plains
2 karakas
1 verdant

creatures

4 mom
4 thalia
4 stoneforge
3 revoker
3 Dark Confidant
3 tidehollow sculler
1 aven mindcensor
2 flickerwisp

spells

4 aether vial
2 thoughtseize
1 jitte
1 batterskull

the only problem i really ended up having with this deck main board was that it would have a lot of trouble dealing with a resolved true-name nemesis. the deck can clog up the board no problem but it has the problem of not being able to attack through other opposing walls as well. the deck space was too tight to add fire and ice to the the main. it's definitely a cool deck and has some spice, if only there were more fliers 0.o

btw... black tax is a great deck name

[Richard Cheese]

Looks like a really cool deck. Question: what's with the 4x Duress in the board?

Just more combo hate. Our meta used to be full of it, although there wasn't as much at this event. Still, StP is pretty much useless there so I have a lot to take out. StP has also traditionally been pretty poor against Stoneblade decks, and Duress deals with things like Jace and Supreme verdict that the maindeck doesn't handle well. I haven't tested a ton against the new TNN-heavy variants of that deck though, so I'm not sure if that still holds.


Congrats on nice finish.
I guess your only trouble is getting fast to correct color, am I right? I see the maindeck is pretty tight, but what do you think about Weathered Wayfarer as a way how to fetch Wasteland/Karakas or even black?

Usually it's not an issue between Vial and most of the guys only requiring one colored mana. Sculler is the obvious exception, and that's why it's a 3-of, and why I'm running two of each basic. I didn't think about Wayfarer, I'm just not sure what I would cut for it. The deck is already lacking offensive power so I'm not sure another 1/1 is where it wants to be. I did test out swapping one of each basic for a couple Cavern of Souls, but goldfished with it some and really didn't care for it. Too awkward of an opener, and way too awkward with Sculler.


I used to run a list very much like this before I made the switch to full on death and taxes. With 3 tidehollow scullers you definately have some flexibility to drop the discard down to just to thoughtseize in my opinion. 5 forms of discard, two of them being off of vial, should be more then enough I think. Also when it comes to the mana base I don't believe you need basic swamps at all, white is just a much more important color in the deck.

Completely disagree on both points. I think you could argue for a different mix of 1-mana discard spells (I just lifted this combo from Esper Blade), but any less and you've defeated the purpose of running it at all, which is to have a meaningful first turn against combo. Sculler is good in the matchup as well, but you don't want every option you've got sitting in your hand hoping you get a second turn. As for Swamps, I want the manabase to be resilient, especially in this meta. Black is also increasingly important postboard, where there are several matchups that you need to hold BW open for Zealous Persecution.


I love this deck. It's very cool and also fairly close to what I've wanted to play for a while. I'm not going to because I don't want to drop 250 on a set of lands that I won't use literally any where else.

Hey man, there's always Goblins and Lands! I honestly had the same conundrum, so I borrowed them from .dk, loved the deck, then my wife got a raise so I kinda helped myself. It's an investment, right?


Finally,

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ people...Plessy's Revenge? Obamacare? Are we really that racist? Surely we can do better. Here is a list of some black and white things to get the creative juices flowing:

Dalmations
Tuxedos
Piano Keys
Tile floors
Some cats (including the venerable Mr. Cat)
Cows
Oreos
Houndstooth
QR Codes
Pandas
Zebras
Artistic Nudes

[raikenxy]

Just more combo hate. Our meta used to be full of it, although there wasn't as much at this event. Still, StP is pretty much useless there so I have a lot to take out. StP has also traditionally been pretty poor against Stoneblade decks, and Duress deals with things like Jace and Supreme verdict that the maindeck doesn't handle well. I haven't tested a ton against the new TNN-heavy variants of that deck though, so I'm not sure if that still holds.


ratchet bombs, catacylsm, and meekstone are all really good against deathblade decks. cataclysm clears their board of walkers and lands, ratchet bomb and meekstone can keep tnn and cliques in check. deathblade decks against you will try to assemble tnn + jitte to stop you. revoker on jitte is a good way to slow this down.

[DavidHernandez]

In the build I worked on, I used 3 Liliana of the Veil. Did you wish you had her in there, or was it a non-issue? I know you're build is more of a D&T hybrid, but having black available just begs for Lil...

[Aggro_zombies]

A deck with a full suite of Wastelands and Ports probably can't support BB and WW mana costs in the main.

Speaking of which - was the 2-2 Plains-Swamp split sufficient? Is it just to ensure a turn one black source against combo? I feel like you'd rather be 3-1 Plains-Swamp just given your mana costs.

[Richard Cheese]

Didn't really miss Lili, and I purposefully kept away from BB mana costs, because I knew I wanted Crusader. Really this deck doesn't care too much about removal though, you clog up the board with Moms then just swing past their defenses with SoFI/Crusader. StP is mostly a stopgap to get rid of Delvers and utility stuff like Deathrite.

Aggro_Zombies is probably correct with the 3/1 Plains/Swamp setup, as there are no double-black requirements. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

[ScatmanX]

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ people...Plessy's Revenge? Obamacare? Are we really that racist? Surely we can do better.
Michael Jackson?

[DavidHernandez]

Yeah, BB would be pushing it in a build like this.

Have you considered Godless Shrine instead with a 2/1 Swamp/Plains mix? Sometimes, you just need what you need.

Dave

[Myelectronicdays]

Michael Jackson?



Black and Decker Pecker Wrecker


its short and sweet.

[Razorwynd]

black and decker pecker wrecker


its short and sweet.

rofl

[FTW]

Nothing about that black pecker is short, or sweet

[Mr. Froggy]

Black and Decker Pecker Wrecker


its short and sweet.

This made me physically laugh.

Sir, you have won the internet.

[Richard Cheese]

I think I'll just call it MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY.

It's identifiable.

[TheMightyQuinn]

You should splash red just to name the deck Black And White And Red All Over. And when people ask "What's Black And White And Red All Over?", you can say "A newspaper." It will never get old.