[Deck] Death and Taxes

[Mad Mat]

Actually, you're 2 for 1ing them in that case. They spent a removal spell and you still have a 3/1 flier. The strength of Recruiter is that it can fill the Beater role or the Lock Piece role. A lot of lists are down to Stoneforge and 2-3 beaters, so being able to get 4-7 power out of one card is pretty remarkable.

If you spent six mana to get a 3/1 flying and your opponent one mana on a removal spell, that feels pretty much like getting two-for-oned. Another big problem with assembling a wisp army is that you're not restricting players from doing something unfair with this play, while against fair decks, you're making yourself extra vulnerable to jitte, toxic deluge, forked bolt, terminus, engineered explosives and supreme verdict (and it gets worse post-side).

There are situations where you want to go recruiter into wispstorm, but in my experience those are quite rare. So it is strange to me that some people claim that is as good as all they're doing with recruiter. In fact, I think I use the card more often to find revoker than wisp.

[WashableWater1]

If you spent six mana to get a 3/1 flying and your opponent one mana on a removal spell, that feels pretty much like getting two-for-oned. Another big problem with assembling a wisp army is that you're not restricting players from doing something unfair with this play, while against fair decks, you're making yourself extra vulnerable to jitte, toxic deluge, forked bolt, terminus, engineered explosives and supreme verdict (and it gets worse post-side).

There are situations where you want to go recruiter into wispstorm, but in my experience those are quite rare. So it is strange to me that some people claim that is as good as all they're doing with recruiter. In fact, I think I use the card more often to find revoker than wisp.

If they spend a mass removal spell on a wisp army in a fair matchup then that's great. They've spent mass removal to deal with one card. Recruiter acts as card advantage in those matchups, and dodges sorcery speed mass removal if you have more than one wisp in play. It's a very mana hungry card, but the whole deck is so that's sort of fine.

[DoubleBull]

Long time reader, first post. I read the article Medea_ posted on page 415 and the Red Prison deck list looked interesting. I threw it together and have been playing the last few nights on MTGO and I have to say the deck has been performing fairly well. More often then not it is capable of dropping a Blood Moon or Magus on turn one which has just decimated a lot of the decks I've played against. I might continuing testing it while D&T continues to figure things out in this post-Top meta.

Anyone know if that deck has a thread open? I didn't see one.

[Medea_]

Long time reader, first post. I read the article Medea_ posted on page 415 and the Red Prison deck list looked interesting. I threw it together and have been playing the last few nights on MTGO and I have to say the deck has been performing fairly well. More often then not it is capable of dropping a Blood Moon or Magus on turn one which has just decimated a lot of the decks I've played against. I might continuing testing it while D&T continues to figure things out in this post-Top meta.

Anyone know if that deck has a thread open? I didn't see one.

There's probably a Dragon Stompy, All-in Red, or Red Prison page where you could discuss it.

I'm five cards away from finishing it, so I'll probably give it a spin next week at some point.

[JermStudDog]

Given the layout of the format right now, and the fact that big red is already a threat, maybe we should be lying off the magus ourselves and letting the meta handle that threat for us? It gives us a better game against red stompy decks ourselves and other decks still need to account for it. Besides, I have always felt like Magus kind of grinds against what we want to be doing anyway. Our opponents prefer basic lands in the first stages of the game ALREADY due to threats like Wasteland, throwing Magus on top of that doesn't do much to change the plan in any given game. Here's what I'll be running this weekend, with a few possible adjustments:

Creature (26)

4x Flickerwisp
2x Mirran Crusader
3x Mother of Runes
1x Orzhov Pontiff
3x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Recruiter of the Guard
2x Sanctum Prelate
1x Serra Avenger
1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben


Land (23)

3x Cavern of Souls
1x Flooded Strand
3x Karakas
7x Plains
3x Rishadan Port
1x Scrubland
4x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath


Artifact (7)

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


Instant (4)

4x Swords to Plowshares


Sideboard (15)

2x Containment Priest
2x Council's Judgment
3x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1x Orzhov Pontiff
2x Path to Exile
1x Pithing Needle
2x Rest in Peace


I'm still not sure about the 1-of Spirit and Serra Avenger, thinking maybe I need to promote 1 Kambal to the MD and add a Leonin Relic-Warder to the side?

[DoubleBull]

@Medea_ Let us know what you think after testing - curious to her your view.

@JermStudDog - I think I'm also coming around on cutting Magus. Its a great card if you can land it on T1 or 2 and shut off the opponents Fetch lands, etc. D&T cant land it until at least T3 or later by which time it might not have as much effect if they played out basics. Still is useful for shutting down Depths, Cradle and other such lands, so maybe is sticks in the sideboard?

Also, have been running two E-Tutors in my sideboard and has been great finding Canonist, RIP, Jitte, Needle, etc. Its a turn slow, but it guarantees you what you need.

[G0R3F3ST]

I went 3-0 with mono white D'n'T last night.

Rnd 1 I beat elves 2-1
Rnd 2 I beat B/R reanimate 2-0
Rnd 3 I beat the mirror 2-0

I was on camera for round 3. If anyone would like to tell me how to upload it here. I'll post it.

[OopsMissedTrigger]

Had fun in a side-event at GP Copenhagen yesterday. I was running the red splash and went 3-1 beating Mono-White DnT twice (it was all over the place along with elves) and Grixis Delver. WR seems to steamroll the Mono-White. Sudden Demise was amazing as my opponents did not see it coming.

My loss was against Esper Stoneblade - That deck seems amazing and I never stood a chance.

[gh0st_b1rd]

I talked to a Big Red player today and he seems to be under the impression that DnT's entire cardpool is on average better than anything he could be doing unless he lines up on the play with above average plays. He said something to the effect of needing to be on the play and must open with a lock piece.

I havent played the match up yet so I am taking his word for it.

[Medea_]

I talked to a Big Red player today and he seems to be under the impression that DnT's entire cardpool is on average better than anything he could be doing unless he lines up on the play with above average plays. He said something to the effect of needing to be on the play and must open with a lock piece.

I havent played the match up yet so I am taking his word for it.

D&T is waayyy favored against the big red decks. If you look at their sideboards, they have something like 4x Sulfur Elemental, 2x Sudden Shock, and 3x Volcanic Fallout to try and get games 2 and 3.

[gh0st_b1rd]

D&T is waayyy favored against the big red decks. If you look at their sideboards, they have something like 4x Sulfur Elemental, 2x Sudden Shock, and 3x Volcanic Fallout to try and get games 2 and 3.

He was explaining why his sideboard looked the way it did to me today.

It was a match up I had never played against before so I had no idea.

[G0R3F3ST]

Here is a link to last nights stream. Hopefully this works. I'm on the right of the screen. Any type of advice or criticism would be appreciated. Round 3 starts at 1Hr 45 mins.


https://www.twitch.tv/videos/147439793

Round 2 is my round 3 opponent, who was also on mono white death and taxes. I think he is playing against bug delver.

[zakzes]

D&T is waayyy favored against the big red decks. If you look at their sideboards, they have something like 4x Sulfur Elemental, 2x Sudden Shock, and 3x Volcanic Fallout to try and get games 2 and 3.

How do you approach this match? I found when I was playing against it, of they have the fast hand we just crumble. Even turn 1 inferno titan, is a beating.

[WashableWater1]

I've been trying out the red splash since Miracles exited the format. After being pretty underwhelmed by Magus of the Moon in a significant number of important matchups, I've decided to go back to trusty old monowhite. It feels like Revokers and Avengers have both gotten better, while Crusader has gotten worse. How has Spirit of the Labyrinth been performing?

As for the sideboard, how does this seem to everyone?

3 Containment Priest
2 Rest In Peace
2 Councils Judgement
3 Path to Exile
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Pithing Needle

[Hataraxy]

Hi all, and hi Medea
DT is my main deck since a long time ago. I do not often post on this thread, and I often go to Medea's website Thraben University. And I have a few questions for you Medea if you don't mind :
- What are you thought about Orzhov Pontiff ? Has he been relevent ? In side or main deck ? I see here some people are disappointed about Magus, and i am too. I think he's winmore and sometimes and dead card in hand. But Orzhow seems quite good no ?
- Second question : Thalia Heretic Cathar. I don't really understand why people never play her. On mtgtop8, she's never in the lists. I play her since the beginning and she never deceived me, and she's always a pain for my opponents. I remember at least two opponents on cockatrice saying "I don't like her, she's a pain in the ass !" She often wins games on her own. Just compare her with mirran crusader : against all combos she will be better. Better too against lands.deck and grixies tempo. Better against Eldrazi and stompy. But nobody gives her a slight chance in main deck. Poor thalia 2.0, why is she so hated ?

Thx for reading and sorry for my english ^^

Edit : I just won a game on cockatrice against stoneblade. Thx to Thalia 2.0, she carried the game all along. My opponent said at the end : "that thalia..."

[Medea_]

How do you approach this match? I found when I was playing against it, of they have the fast hand we just crumble. Even turn 1 inferno titan, is a beating.

Against most of those decks, mana denial is very good. They play somewhere on the order of 18 lands in a deck that wants to go big with mana; Rishadan Port and Wasteland have a huge impact. Their mana is so unstable that you can often Port or Waste them at the exclusion of doing anything else and lock them out of the game. A good portion of their deck (Trinisphere, Chalice, Moon, Magus) is likely bad against us, and many of their win conditions get shut down by Revoker (e.g. Chandra, Sneak Attack). Essentially, try to give them as few opportunities as you can to cast big spells. You'll sometimes lose to a nut draw, or things won't line up well, but you have all the tools you need.

I've been trying out the red splash since Miracles exited the format. After being pretty underwhelmed by Magus of the Moon in a significant number of important matchups, I've decided to go back to trusty old monowhite. It feels like Revokers and Avengers have both gotten better, while Crusader has gotten worse. How has Spirit of the Labyrinth been performing?

As for the sideboard, how does this seem to everyone?

3 Containment Priest
2 Rest In Peace
2 Councils Judgement
3 Path to Exile
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Pithing Needle

That's a reasonable sideboard. I'm not sure how great Gideon really is in the new metagame now that Miracles is gone.

Hi all, and hi Medea
DT is my main deck since a long time ago. I do not often post on this thread, and I often go to Medea's website Thraben University. And I have a few questions for you Medea if you don't mind :
- What are you thought about Orzhov Pontiff ? Has he been relevent ? In side or main deck ? I see here some people are disappointed about Magus, and i am too. I think he's winmore and sometimes and dead card in hand. But Orzhow seems quite good no ?
- Second question : Thalia Heretic Cathar. I don't really understand why people never play her. On mtgtop8, she's never in the lists. I play her since the beginning and she never deceived me, and she's always a pain for my opponents. I remember at least two opponents on cockatrice saying "I don't like her, she's a pain in the ass !" She often wins games on her own. Just compare her with mirran crusader : against all combos she will be better. Better too against lands.deck and grixies tempo. Better against Eldrazi and stompy. But nobody gives her a slight chance in main deck. Poor thalia 2.0, why is she so hated ?

Thx for reading and sorry for my english ^^

Edit : I just won a game on cockatrice against stoneblade. Thx to Thalia 2.0, she carried the game all along. My opponent said at the end : "that thalia..."

Pontiff is a card I really want access to right now. It's very important for the TNN decks, the mirror, Young Pyromancer decks, and Elves. I am have very positive results with Magus; others are less impressed. Use your own judgment there based on your experiences.

THC is great when powered out a turn early, but on turn three (or turn 4 off Vial), it often feels a bit too slow (especially on the draw). THC shines against Eldrazi and Elves in particular, and is still pretty good against 3-4 color decks as well. It is synergistic with the overall goals of the deck, and it's nice to have another threat you can protect with Karakas for the attrition matchups. When THC is bad though, it is abysmal. Against an opposing Karakas or an opponent who is ahead on board, it just often feels like too low of an impact card.

Also, Mirran Crusader wins so many games on its own. Unchecked with equipment, the game ends in two turns. Against green decks, it is really like a hatebear. It stabilizes the board against threats like Goyf or Gurmag Angler, attacks through a board of Elves, and trades with big bodies like Thought-Knot Seer.

[G0R3F3ST]

Death and taxes made top 8 at the Card Kingdom legacy 1K event. Although it lost in the top 8 to Burn. I don't know what build he was on since they chose to stream another match instead. The deck list isn't on mtgtop8 either.

[WashableWater1]

That's a reasonable sideboard. I'm not sure how great Gideon really is in the new metagame now that Miracles is gone.

I think hes still a slam dunk against BUG control decks like Czech Pile and other removal heavy slow decks such as Stoneblade. His stock has certainly gone down, but Im slanting my maindeck for the more popular decks so I think he might be worth it to push some 50/50 matchups to favorable.

Pontiff is a card I really want access to right now. It's very important for the TNN decks, the mirror, Young Pyromancer decks, and Elves. I am have very positive results with Magus; others are less impressed. Use your own judgment there based on your experiences.

Are TNN and Pyromancer a problem for Taxes? Pyromance seems weak to Thalia, Prelate, Batterskull and potentially even Spirit of the Labyrinth to some extent. If they do pull out ahead and make a shitload of tokens, then I would assume that you're already losing. I'm a big fan of the 0 mana answer to TNN, "Ignore it, its a 3 mana 3/1". Fliers and SoFi both make TNN look like a pretty mediocre card, and we don't tend to need to attack with a single huge creature like some decks do.

THC is great when powered out a turn early, but on turn three (or turn 4 off Vial), it often feels a bit too slow (especially on the draw). THC shines against Eldrazi and Elves in particular, and is still pretty good against 3-4 color decks as
Also, Mirran Crusader wins so many games on its own. Unchecked with equipment, the game ends in two turns. Against green decks, it is really like a hatebear. It stabilizes the board against threats like Goyf or Gurmag Angler, attacks through a board of Elves, and trades with big bodies like Thought-Knot Seer.

What are the big green decks right now? It feels like BUG Delver and Czech pile are the only two that I've been seeing around.

[Scott]

Some spice for you guys in today's 5-0 MTGO lists. A Recruitable 1-of Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. Plus a G/W Vial list that might not be Death & Taxes but is interesting, with things like Flickerwisp and Thalias, but also Restoration Angel, Scavenging Ooze, and other cards.

[Barook]

That GW list makes we wonder if it's possible to cut the cutesy crap and do a port of the new Modern hotness, Counters Company. But that deserves its own thread, probably.