Death and Taxes is a control deck with a long pedigree in legacy. It has varied and powerful disruption, a solid manabase, but always has suffered from a poor clock.
Humans retains some of the disruption of d&t but the addition of lords gives it a much improved clock. However to play sufficient powerful humans it needs to run a sketchy 5c manabase and precludes it from playing good non creature spells (removal/hate cards). The most important of these off-colour humans is noble hierarch which provides a strong tempo gain.
The recent affinity successes has shown us how much of a tempo gain Esper Sentinel can offer if you can increase its power at all.
Perhaps it is worth testing black and white humans?
- Esper Sentinel provides a tempo positive one drop that is on colour and synergizes better with the a go wide strategy and lords.
- With more cheap disruption instead of ramp, imperial recruiter is both less necessary and less castable.
- Others have tried splashing blue for meddling mage and some value. Mage is very good, but not that much better than freebooter. Mage also is double coloured unlike the B slash cards which means the manabase improves less.
- Black offers us the extra lords to consistently make sentinel a 2/2. As a 2/2 or bigger it is essentially impossible to play around for blue opponents.
- Cutting the 5c mana to WB gains you plow, basic lands, 2 ports to complement your mana denial, and the ability to cast sideboard anti unfair cards like deafening silence or thoughtseize.
The plan is to be basically merfolk with Thalia instead of fow. Less mana means recruitering for silver bullets is worse than just killing them.
Credits:
Angry women:
4 Mother of Runes
4 Kitesail Freebooter
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Supporting Cast:
4 Esper Sentinel
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Thalia’s Lieutenant
3 General Kudro
Props:
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Aether Vial
Elf-discriminatory Judge:
2 Orzhov Pontiff
Jarringly out of place cameo:
2 Rick, Steadfast Leader
Setting:
3 Plains
1 Scrubland
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Silent Clearing
1 Karakas
3 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
2 Rishadan Port
How important is the black here? In Mono White there is already
Mother of Runes
Champion of the Parish
Esper Sentinel
Charming Prince
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Thalia's Lieutenant
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Recruiter of the Guard
Militia Bugler
Sanctum Prelate
Skyclave Apparition
Elite Spellbinder
Palace Jailer
For buff effects there's 0cmc Force of Virtue
The thought was that Esper sentinel is pretty bad after t1 OTP if you don’t have a pump effect. After lieutenant, kudro and pontiff seem significantly better than aspirant or benalish marshall.
Additionally, mono white doesn’t really have a good disruptive human 2 drop after Thalia. I assume that is why UW builds splashed for meddling mage. Freebooter is a bit worse than meddling mage, but (Tomik, Canonist, or Tithe Taker) are miles worse than either. Secondary black cards like bob, discount bin meddling mage, or Kambal are considerations.
Most importantly, I don’t get to make a sweet film reference.
UW build for reference:
Edit:I assumed force of virtue is not viable without squadron hawk, which probably requires cutting lieutenant and then you r a different deck.
You might be interested in what's in here:
https://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/...=1#post1059729
Human can definitely be played in Legacy and put up some good results.
I haven't worked out the brand new sentinel but this is for sure a very nice inclusion.
My latest list is in my signature (Rainbow Swat).
I like "aggroish" list more than "controlish" because it goes straight to the dome (and you feel like a true swarm deck and not an D&T's erzatz).
Synergies are real in this pack. Everywhere like a very "oiled" machine. Period
Sylvan protector is a beast. Both MD and SB and, IMHO, it justifies, by itself, the splash for green.
Blue and Black colors are more for sideboard strategies where you need to pay more attention to oppo's interactions.
Have fun.
Ralf
Legacy & Homebrew **ONLY**
Brown Stax
Rainbow SWAT
Dimir Mill
Morph my Ride
Wally Wallah
Corona Syndrome
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