[Deck] Death and Taxes

Hi everybody! Long time lurker, first time poster. Figured I'd give it a go!
Every tuesday night, we have a legacy "tournament". It's not really official or anything, we go by points and not standings, but it's still a great place to get 4 rounds in with a competitive environment. The players are rough, the decks tough and the brews are strange. Although I'm very new to the format, I've been incredibly consistent with Merfolk, UR Delver and a little Show 'n' Tell and Goblins under my belt. Last night, I tried playing with Death and Taxes!

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4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Flickerwisp
3 Mirran Crusader
2 Mangara of Corondor
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Fiend Hunter

4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Æther Vial
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

10 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
3 Karakas

//Sideboard
SB: 2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
SB: 1 Sunlance
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Enlightened Tutor
SB: 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
SB: 1 Oblivion Ring
SB: 1 Leonin Relic-Warder
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 True Believer
SB: 2 Mindbreak Trap

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As you can see, my main deck is very standard, but the sideboard was all over the place. If I had my complete choice, I would definitely had left out the combo-hate and added more Miracle hate. We only had 1 guy show up playing combo (out of 22) so I had quite a few dead spots.

Match 1: Four Colour Reanimator
Game 1: On the play, hit him with a surprise Mother of Runescape into a Thalia and held up a Swords to Plowshares in fear of him ever getting anything online. Rishadan Port did a lot of the heavy lifting, keeping him off colours. Eventually, he cast a 2 mana Brainstorm on 2 lands at the end of my turn, I flash in a Mindcensor and he couldn't Entomb, Force of Will or do anything but cantrip.
Game 2: "Grindy" is the word used to describe this; I chip him down over turns and turns, right down to 5 life. He Pyroclasms my Thalia + Mom combo thinking he could get both or maybe I wouldn't notice. Then Liliana arrives to wreck everything! Luckily, I rip a RIP and just stall the game out over a LOT of turns, but once that Abrupt Decay arrives, there's nothing I could do.
Game 3: Once again on the play, with a lot of removal but not a lot of creatures, and at the same time, he keeps a hand with Liliana and not a lot else to do. I think he expected something more aggressive. Time is called after him upticking Lili and being chipped down by something small and being on the defensive. His brain didn't "switch" from defensive to offensive, which is something the player has trouble with, so his mistake cost him a potential win.
Result: 1-1-1: Draw

Match 2: RIP 'N' ROLL aka Rest in Peace Miracles
Game 1: I don't remember much in this game other his huge mistake of turn 1 Top, and then my turn 1 AEther Vial. Mangara soft-lock cuts him off white and the ability to do anything.
Game 2: With literally 1 card to sideboard, I keep an opener of Rish-Rish-Waste-Waste-Plains-Plains-Mother of Runes. I figured I'm going against the slowest deck of the day and that I may as well keep it, since my draws are much more live than his. After about 8 turns of doing nothing but cut him off colours, I draw a Thalia and some more Rishadan Ports. His face was one of pure anguish. "Why oh why did you need to tap 3 of my lands, and waste my off-colours?"
Result: 2-0: Win

Match 3: UW Miracles
Game 1: This one was great. Knowing this guy played either Miracles or RUG Delver, I kept an opener with an AEther Vial. Nothing happens for the first few turns of the game past me Rishadanning him. He plays 2 Fetchlands and begins to crack, and I make a huge derp of a move; Vial on 3, tap it expecting a response, then untap it and tap 3 lands to hard-cast Mindcensor. He cracks another fetch in return, I THEN activate Vial for a Flickerwisp. In the end, it didn't matter. He had a swords in hand to plow my dudes, but had he not, there would have been an incredible blow-out. After a few turns, he Terminus'd me and ticks Jace up for lethal.
Game 2: This time, I have slightly more stuff to sideboard since he has a few Snapcaster Mages. I don't remember this game all too well other than Mirran Crusader doing a lot of work, Revoker on Jace and a resolved Stoneforge Mystic grabbing a Batterskull.
Game 3: A far quicker game, due to the fear of going to time and having nothing more than a draw. I apply light pressure with a Cavern'd Thalia and Revoker which get Miracle-Terminus'd. I need to rebuild and fast! Coming down were 2 Mother of Runes, another Revoker and a Mirran Crusader. Time was called, he was on 14 life. Elspeth comes down which scares the living daylights out of me. The sickest rip ever of Fiend Hunter gobbles his token, and I beat him down to just 4 life. He does a Draw-Go plan. In comes Mirran Crusader, protection from White, and OH HELLO SNAPCASTER MAGE! I see the board state and almost derp, but that extra Mother granting protection from Blue does the trick!
Result: 2-1: Win

Match 4: BUG Delver
Game 1: Not a whole lot happened, it was all over so fast. I couldn't resolve a Vial or any of my 3 Thalias, while getting beat down by Nimble Mongoose. It was even more fun to have 3 Swords to Plowshares in my hand just for them!
Game 2: I was much happier about an early resolved Vial into Mirran Crusader and Revoker naming Lili. Wastelands kept him off colours and double strike destroyed him. That resolved Crusader was complete death and destruction, I love it!
Game 3: I get my thoughts seized straight off a shockland, he takes my Thalia. Mother of Runes is my turn 1 play, followed by a Stoneforge Mystic on a Cavern. I grabbed Sword of Feast and Famine, but then cuts me off the mana and I can't cheat it in! Eventually he drops a Liliana, and I get a Revoker naming her. He gets Jace, bounces the Revoker and makes me pitch a Batterskull I was bluffing on my Stoneforge. Off the top comes another Revoker and it's just a complete standstill from there. Fortunately, I rebuild quicker than he does and that Sword comes into play attached to a Revoker and it's lights out!
Result: 2-1: Win

Aftermath!
So I had fun playing the deck and I feel as though it will become a mainstay in my collection. Coming from Standard, I could really wrap my head around the hatebears. I feel like the maindeck choices were great, but my sideboard options and sideboarding in general felt really weird. I was often sideboarding out 1 of a few things instead of 2s, 3s and 4s.

Don't sweat the tentative side boarding. I think most of us do the same. There is something to be said for making your opponent think you have access to lots of cards that are really just 1 or 2 of in the deck. But also, the main is pretty versatile. I am rarely anxious to side out anything unless it is one of the bad matchups.

Thanks for the interesting report. Welcome to the forum.

I've put down my new sideboard for what I think would work at my local meta, but I'm having such a hard time justifying Sword of Fire and Ice. People were telling me to use it in the RUG Delver matchup or something similar, but I get the feeling that I would never actually resolve it. I know, Sword of Feast and Famine is kinda lazy as well but it just makes all my dudes Mirran Crusaders, which is pretty awesome in some matchups. Our meta has quite the amount of BUG players, after all.

After tuesday night, I saw my mistakes. Against those Miracle players, out should have gone the swords, and never should I have taken out a Mangara. That's just silly of me! Oh well, you live and learn.

I rarely if ever find myself siding out Mangara, he's just too useful. And side boarding has always been a little awkward with this deck, even more so since my sideboard typically has 2-3 E Tutors and the rest are singletons. Kudos on the wins, and enjoy the deck. Its a blast to play!

Any chance the new Spear sees play in the sideboard flex slots? It gives some protection against Dread of Night or Engineered Plague type effects while actually affecting the board (killing a lone creature wearing Jitte, for instance). The list is pretty tight so I'm not confident this is impactful enough.

Hi guys,
I'd like to spark a little brainstorm...
After getting bashed by a non-GSZ Maverick.dec over and over again, with me bringing all kinds of tier decks to the battlefield, I came to think about a green splash fpr DnT - again.
Yes, I'm aware it has probably been discussed before, but I'd like to hear some of your guys' opinions again.
KotR, Sylvan Safekeeper & -Library, Gaddock, Noble Hierarch, Scrybranger, Choke, Pridemage, Ooze and possibly Thrun clearly are extremely powerful spells, some of which would be core cards were it not for the tree-ish mana symbols, since most of them support DnT's disruptive strategy genuinely.

I get the "mono W = more stable manabase" argument, but it doesn't convince me. What other arguments are there beyond that? Please try to elaborate on your views - cheers! :)

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Originally Posted by klaus

I get the "mono W = more stable manabase" argument, but it doesn't convince me. What other arguments are there beyond that? Please try to elaborate on your views - cheers! :)

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if you add all these cards to DnT, what the result would be? Correct answer: Maverick.

Question which is stronger - Maverick or DnT - is the same as asking BUG cascade or Miracles etc. etc.

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Originally Posted by nonja

if you add all these cards to DnT, what the result would be? Correct answer: Maverick.
Question which is stronger - Maverick or DnT - is the same as asking BUG cascade or Miracles etc. etc.

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I see your point, however Shardless BUG & Miracles are worlds apart, and have a different game plan, so that example doesn not convince me really.
I'm also not referring to add all of the above spells, but rather reinvestigate a light splash. Gaddock, Choke and KotR would be on my initial shortlist.

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Originally Posted by klaus

I get the "mono W = more stable manabase" argument, but it doesn't convince me. What other arguments are there beyond that? Please try to elaborate on your views

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The reverse could be asked, what are you gaining by adding Green? I see utility in Scryb Ranger and Knight of the Reliquary for sure, but do they accomplish something that's not available to the Death and Taxes? Scryb Ranger gives you a way to abuse tap abilitys, which Death and Taxes plays two of - Mother of Runes and Mangara of Conondor, but on color the deck already has Karakas to abuse Mangara. One can look at the added benefits of each of those synergistic pieces - Scryb Ranger's a flying body, it can provide Vigilance and it can mimic Maze of Ith tricks with Dryad Arbor. Karakas fits the deck's manabase providing on color mana, providing protection for our Mangaras and Thalias from removal and the ability to serve as Maze of Ith with blocking with Legends and returning them before damage. Flickerwisp also serves to cover some of the utility aspects of Scryb Ranger allowing the deck to reset creatures to be up as blockers, but goes much further by allowing us to reset Batterskull Germs, flip Insectile Aberrations, reset opposing Jittes/Vials/Planeswalkers, while also having great interaction with Mangara, Oblivion Ring and Fiend Hunter. One important constraint to keep in mind with Scryb Ranger is the way that it prohibits your own mana development, which I think plays fine in an aggressive deck and one that has access to maybe Knight into Gaea's Cradle to make up lost lands, but in a deck looking to grind into the mid-late game and utilize their mana sources to Rishadan Port their opponents and also deploy threats, losing several turns of land drops to untap effects is counter productive.

Knight of the Reliquary can do a lot of interesting things. It's ability to tutor Wastelands is powerful. One way Death and Taxes compensates not having access to additional tutors for Wastelands is it's use of Rishadan Port, which I feel like really differentiates the two decks greatly. In games 2 and 3 opposing decks often fetch to their basics first against both Maverick and Death and Taxes to avoid getting Wasteland + Thalia'd, with Death and Taxes the deck still has the ability to attack the opponent's mana with Rishadan Port and often limit their lines even greater due to them operating off of basics.

Knight can offer access to a utility tool box of effect-Lands mostly out of the Sideboard: Bojuka Bog, Maze of Ith and maybe Karakas or Gaea's Cradle. Death and Taxes already runs multiple Karakas so the effect of fetching those is of less value. Between 4 Mother of Runes and Legends+Karakas the deck has many ways to assemble a Maze of Ith effect. Death and Taxes with no commitment to the Graveyard itself usually post boards Rest in Peace.

Lastly Knight is a large creature that can serve as a clock. Death and Taxes approach is usually locking up the ground with their Mother of Runes and using evasive creatures to provide their clock - Flickerwisp, Serra Avenger, Mirran Crusader, Aven Mindcensor, etc. Unlike Maverick that often does look to aggressively close the game on the back a couple huge Knights, Death and Taxes usually is content to close the game with whatever incidental utility creature can go the distance.

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Originally Posted by klaus

I see your point, however Shardless BUG & Miracles are worlds apart, and have a different game plan, so that example doesn not convince me really.

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Death and Taxes and Maverick are further apart than you seem to credit. Maverick is disruptive, but is also definitely the aggressor in most match ups. Death and Taxes is much further on the control end of agro-control. You mentioned facing off against the Vial based version, which is somewhat of a hybrid of these two decks. Instead of using the focus on density of large creatures via Green Sun's Zenith or incidental victory through the evasion ala Death and Taxes, the Vial Maverick deck seems to focus on assembling many synergistic creatures and Stoneforging up serveral pieces of equipment to create an unblockable multi-trigger Sword bearer.

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Originally Posted by klaus

reinvestigate a light splash. Gaddock, Choke and KotR would be on my initial shortlist.

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Gaddock Teeg would be nice to have against Elves to blank Natural Order and Green Sun's Zenith, outside that match up, we don't have a great need for Teeg. The deck plays around Terminus very well between being able to protect Thalia and not needing to commit more than 1-2 threats to the table at a time. The deck also very rarely has issues with Storm based combos if it gets to have a turn 2, Thalia and Ethersworn Canonist are better than Gaddock Teeg against ANT and TES.

Blue based decks have historically been our strongest pairing. I don't know how valuable Choke would be. Against mana intensive control decks Death and Taxes does have Cataclysm available to them, which can serve a similar function of cutting the opponent off of resources if it resolves.

Knight of the Reliquary is a powerful card. I feel like if there were White versions of Knight of the Reliquary and Scryb Ranger I would certainly test them extensively. I think those cards push the deck in a more aggressive direction, which if that's what you're looking for I think the Vial Maverick list does a good job of combining the best elements of this deck and GSZ Maverick.

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Originally Posted by from Cairo

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Thanks for your thorough reply.
On a different note: what's the current opinion on Weathered Wayfarer? I see he has been discarded a long time ago, despite several obvious benefits. I guess "but there's nothing really worthwhile cutting for that critter" applies.

Hi Kalus.

I have been using Gaddock Teeg in my DnT build. I don't run fetches...they're no help. I run 2 Savannah. Teeg can come into play with Vial and I've played it successfully to several 1st place finishes in our local meta. Teeg is the only "green splash" I put into my DnT and I've been very, very happy with it.

In my opinion the deck can't support any more than 2 Teegs (1 main, 1 board), and any other green splash takes you to Maverick.

Dave

"What to cut" is my issue with green splash, really. It's not as if there are any cards that don't pull their weight. That's why the deck already has a lot of non-four-ofs. There is definitely a downside to including green - the mana base. But the upside does not seem to exist with certainty.

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Originally Posted by Finn

"What to cut" is my issue with green splash, really. It's not as if there are any cards that don't pull their weight. That's why the deck already has a lot of non-four-ofs. There is definitely a downside to including green - the mana base. But the upside does not seem to exist with certainty.

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I completely agree with you. For my area, Teeg has proven important and helpful. I win more with him than without him. That being said, if I were going to play in a different meta/area, I would reconsider his inclusion. My real point is that Teeg can be added if your meta shows you that he's needed, and if you plan to add any more "splash" then you're no longer playing DnT....you're playing Maverick.

Dave

I played at my LGS's weekly with D&T, and finished 4th! (out of 6) -_-...

List is pretty standard, and SB tweaked to my meta.

Rnd 1: Some Flavor of Punishing Blade (1-0-1) 0-1
Rnd 2: Maverick (2-0) 1-1
Rnd 3: Tin Fins (0-2) 1-2

:(

The weekly update:

Spellskite is now the flavor of the month for the maindeck. I suggest everyone test it out, it's pretty decent.

Hi everybody!

It's my first post here but I have been following the D&T thread for some time and I have had quite some success with the deck at my local events, getting into top 8 several times in a row (approx. 30 players tournaments each time).

I play either the Enevoldsen version of GP Strasbourg or Kurpaska's recent version with Serra Avengers replacing Flickerwisps.

Here is my question: how do you beat Maverick with D&T????

Indeed, I have a lot of trouble against Maverick. There are some good Maverick players in my meta and I always loose (quite badly) against them. I'm sure it's not only a question of skill and experience (since I do well against other experienced players that play other decks).

May I ask the experienced players here about the way they handle this specific match up? It seems that Maverick is superior in every aspect to D&T: it has bigger creatures and tutors for them (GSZ), answers to our equipment that can be tutored as well (Qasali), mana acceleration so that they cannot easily be disrupted (and they don't care about Thalia since they play mostly creatures). It's like all our game plans do not work against them :-(

This is really frustrating for me, even more so that the Maverick match up is described as "slightly favorable" in the primer of the D&T deck...

Thank you guys for any help that would be greatly appreciated!

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Originally Posted by gmantle31

Hi everybody!

It's my first post here but I have been following the D&T thread for some time and I have had quite some success with the deck at my local events, getting into top 8 several times in a row (approx. 30 players tournaments each time).

I play either the Enevoldsen version of GP Strasbourg or Kuparska's recent version with Serra Avengers replacing Flickerwisps.

Here is my question: how do you beat Maverick with D&T????

Indeed, I have a lot of trouble against Maverick. There are some good Maverick players in my meta and I always loose (quite badly) against them. I'm sure it's not only a question of skill and experience (since I do well against other experienced players that play other decks).

May I ask the experienced players here about the way they handle this specific match up? It seems that Maverick is superior in every aspect to D&T: it has bigger creatures and tutors for them (GSZ), answers to our equipment that can be tutored as well (Qasali), mana acceleration so that they cannot easily be disrupted (and they don't care about Thalia since they play mostly creatures). It's like all our game plans do not work against them :-(

This is really frustrating for me, even more so that the Maverick match up is described as "slightly favorable" in the primer of the D&T deck...

Thank you guys for any help that would be greatly appreciated!

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You need to mana denial them and revoker on qasali + mother of runes.
after that any equipement will do (plus other tricks).
Most games vs maverick are long and you have to grind your advantage. Did not lose to a maverick player yet.

The only worthwhile target for revoker is qasali, while theirs are free to name vial (much more painful). If you revoker mother of runes, your only out to save any creatures is karakas, which only hits legends, and can be wastelanded itself. Mirren Crusader and your evasive critters are your primary assets in this matchup, as the equipment is usually mirrored between the two decks.

Due to both decks utilizing such little removal premium cards in the match up are Mother of Runes and Swords to Plowshares - Mom advantage is king.

The advantage that Death and Taxes can have is having more evasive threats. If it goes to the midgame with Mother of Runes clogging the ground on both sides, Death and Taxes has the ability to equip their Umezawa's Jitte onto a - Flickerwisp, Aven Mindcensor or Mirran Crusader to get through for counters. The player that gets the active Jitte is undoubtedly the one that runs away with the game (per result of zapping opposing Mother of Runes with -1/-1 counters).

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Originally Posted by gmantle31

Here is my question: how do you beat Maverick with D&T????

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I've been plaing LOTS and Lots of Maverick lately, and the easiest way to beat them is to stick a mirran+ Aven Mindcensor, also an active mom helps a lot.

The play sequence should be something like this: keep a hand with vial(don't mulligan to find a vial, it's not that good in this Matchup)/Mom/STP/Mirran/Thalia(They also run thalia, but 2 Thalias in the board makes the GSZ uncastable)/Aven Mindcensor/1+ Basic Plains, a hand with multiple of this is a certain keep.


Also, for the guys that were talking about the SB, it should be appropriate yo your field, you can't run 2 Canonists, as most of the lists does, if your field has 0 combo, the same is true for any other card(specially the Liege, which is ULTRA specific answer to Hymn and Liliana, and usually doesn't come up in other MU)
I've been testis the following sideboard.

1 Grafdigger's Cage(I like running 3 Graveyard hates, i chose cage because it's AMAZING against Elves, which is a really bad Matchup)

1 Sunlance( Against Shaman, Delver, and Bob.Deck)

1 Ratchet Bomb( The number of Young Pyromancer has risen significantly and the Bomb is the best answer, it is also a good answer to needles and goyfs if you need it to be)

1 Manriki Gusari(You know.... we're a small creatures deck, jitte is your nightmare, it also keeps Batterksull in check, if you can't destroy it, you at least can make it never block/attack)

2 Ethersworn Canonist(My maindeck is really strong against combo[same 60 as Enevoldsen], but these two are great allies against Storm decks).

2 Rest in Peace(Bye bye Goyf/Shaman.Deck)

1 Absolute Law(amazing against Canadian's Bolts, Rough/Tumblr and Punishing fire from Jund)

1 Sword of Feast and Famine(as said before, turning any of our guys into Crusaders, also comes against combo decks)

1 Sword of Light and Shadow(The big answer to "killallyourguys.deck", also gives you protection from White that our deck lacks)

1 Oblivion Ring(SnT variants, Miracles and against Esper Stoneblade)

1 Cataclism(The number of decks that this card is good against has decreased, so is the number of it in the SB)

2 Wilt-Leaf Liege(Against Discards decks, and if you think they are going to bring in Golgari charm/E. Plague)

Well, that's it for today, hope you guys like my big post and sorry if i said something really wrong, good lucky with the Mono White Not-So-Care-bears!