A painting of Thalia I painted some time ago when I got fascinated by White Eldrazi in Vintage.

In the past few days I wanted some change from the decks I usually play and I decided to give Death and Taxes in Legacy and White Eldrazi in Vintage a try. It might not have been the best choice because I started to mix these two decks together and did not realize sometimes that certain cards either are in the deck or are missing (for example in Vintage the deck does not run Swords to Plowshares main deck and sometimes not even in the sideboard, the Vintage deck also plays 3 Containment Priests main deck while the Legacy deck does not). Since my experience with the decks is limited I started with a copied decklists and I certainly made a fool of myself during my matches. I learned thanks to my mistakes and that is what is more important. I proactively tried to understand these decks and this allowed me to see the beauty and efficiency of both decks. Unfortunately my White Eldrazi experience was spoiled because the most common matchup was Shops and I struggled too much with it and that is the reason why I did not enter the Power Nine Challenge with this deck. Now I regret it a bit as I was soon facing Paradoxical Outcome decks my Delver deck wasn't really prepared for. The only two White Eldrazi pilots both made it to the top8! Congratulations to Wappla (for totally wrecking me with Trinisphere twice) and Boin who I managed to avoid because I was between the bottom 8 players rather than the top 8 ones where I usually played last year (thanks goes to a certain sideboard bug that did not allow me to sideboard).

When playing Death and Taxes, compared to other players that picked the deck up as an 'easy deck to pilot' I had an advantage. Many players think this deck is more of a white weenie deck while it is actually a white prison deck (control). I usually ran into problems because I want to play each deck as a control deck. In this case though it is the right thing to do. The deck is very proactive though and you can still see that I struggle with those proactive plays this deck needs to make. The new white Recruiter made the deck even more control-y, it turned into a toolbox. Sanctum Prelate is another addition and I can't express how much I like the card.

No_Outs offered to let me use some of his cards I'm missing and sent me his decklist. I loaded it and looked at it. Main deck seemed fine, but the sideboard totally intrigues me.

It is not the first time that I actually played with a similar deck but I never tried to understand the deck and that makes quite a big difference. I realized this relatively recently when I started playing with BG Delirium in Standard. I just wanted to see what the deck does. I did ok, several X-0 records and top8s, but it wasn't because I would play the deck particularly well. I observed what the deck can possibly do, but I did not really put too much effort in figuring out how to actually play the deck well or see what strategies are the best against this or that deck. That is why I struggled against UW Flash because I wasn't entirely sure what the best way to approach the deck was. After several games which one player was telling me that I play it totally wrong I started thinking about it and finally figured how to beat the UW Flash deck. It came handy, I went 4-1 in my next event (losing to mirror, top decked removal for my Emrakul, the Promised End) while this player went 0-3 drop. But I knew that my knowledge of the deck is very limited. Standard is not a format I would want to dedicate my time and when I do it's to have some fun and exploring what a deck does is enough fun for me (usually because I do not stick around for too long).

My prior experience with Death and Taxes in Legacy was similar to the BG Delirium story - I was just observing what the deck does not and I did not try figuring out how to play the deck well. That is the reason why my brain got overwhelmed with options when I played my very first match that you can watch if you like (see video below). I was lucky to play against a deck I know well and thus my decision making was easier. I asked myself what I wouldn't like to face with Delver and played accordingly. Surprisingly though there were still different ways to possible victory and I didn't know which of these to follow. It was rather frustrating because there was nothing I could base my decision on. So I just choose one at random and followed it.

Apart from not being able to sideboard properly in any of my matches, the matches went rather well.

Why Death and Taxes?

If you dislike blue decks and want to punish those blue mages for their deck choice this deck is probably the best one to pick. The deck has early aggressive threats that need to be taken care of. Some decks will struggle with that and will succumb relatively soon to those threats. Against some decks this deck is a control deck that aims for a long game where the game can be safely won with a creature and equipment or a flurry of Flickerwisps. This also means that in order to play this deck well one needs to be good at assuming roles and finding the right strategy to battle an opposing deck. I always considered Death and Taxes a control deck unlike many players around but I didn't truly know how safely this deck can play until recently. I was surprised to see that this deck does not really need to make many reckless plays and can sit back and wait till the game gets under control more often then be in a situation when it needs to bet on a beatdown plan, be faster or die.

This deck has access to very strong mana denial in the form of its mana base (Rishadan Port, Wasteland, and sometimes Ghost Quarter) and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. It runs 4 Aether Vials that help the deck get and stay ahead. Putting creatures into play with Vial avoids counterspells and thanks to these Vials the Death and Taxes player has access to many instant speed tricks, especially dangerous when the Vial has 3 counters which can put into play Flickerwisp. That card can not only save a permanent from being destroyed but it can also reset a planeswalker if need be, kill a token, flip Delver, retrigger Stoneforge Mystic, Recruiter of the Guard or Batterskull, or remove a blocker (or attacker) from the game for one turn. The deck is full of other hatebears that can even be tutored and this way the deck can punish many decks. This deck is not good against heavy creature decks not playing too many noncreature spells and basic lands though.

I wasn't usually too optimistic playing Death and Taxes because many people played cards like Serra Avenger, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Mirran Crusader. Those cards have 'beatstick' written on them. It means that their role is to attack and I just couldn't live up with that much. It seemed people considered those the norm and I wasn't willing to play these cards, but cards like Aven Mindcensor, Spirit of the Labyrinth and Vryn Wingmare did not change the deck to something I'd appreciate either, the deck still needed something different for me to feel that I play with a control deck and not some proactive control hybrid deck. In August 2016 things changed though. Death and Taxes players received a present in the form of two cards - Recruiter of the Guard and Sanctum Prelate. With these cards around I was willing to give the deck a second chance. Now we will look at the mentioned cards and what they do mean for a Death and Taxes deck.

New cards

I know that from a Death and Taxes player the cards I'd like to talk about are not that new since they were printed in August last year. They both came from Conspiracy 2: Take the Crown.

The first one is Recruiter of the Guard. Those players that had the chance to play with Imperial Recruiter in their decks can immediately see what kind of impact this card can have. The card costs the same amount of mana as Imperial Recruiter but is white and looks for creatures with toughness of 2 or less. The card can't fetch Painter's Servant, the most common target for Imperial Recruiter, but in Death and Taxes it can fetch all the relevant cards (since, they usually share the dreaded toughness of 1, but their power is usually 2). For some decks the card being white might mean splashing a different color because being able to fetch for lower toughness creatures can be an upgrade compared to Imperial Recruiter (Aluren for example). Death and Taxes can just play the Recruiter without downside of splashing a color and it can enjoy the possibility to fetch any card in the deck. For example an Imperial Taxes deck was splashing red for Imperial Recruiter, Magus of the Moon and sometimes cards like Sudden Demise. Why were people splashing red for this tutor effect? It seemed to me they wanted more consistency. They wanted to have their hatebears available at times they might need them and this card certainly helped it. My experience with Recruiter of the Guard though was a bit different though. I could choose from way more creatures than I first envisioned and often I did not need to search for the cards as most are full playsets. Recruiter of the Guard changed the deck to a toolbox. I understand that this is a question of taste, some people will just look at the Recruiter of the Guard as a 5th copy of something they need, some players will proactively use the card to find a silver bullet like Mirran Crusader against Goyf decks. The Recruiter of the Guard also searches for Flickerwisp that alone can flicker the Recruiter which can bring another Flickerwisp. This is something I really appreciated because the consistent stream of flyers is something I always missed when I played with Death and Taxes before CN2 was out. Many games were decided by a flyer with an equipment attached to it and this card allows to have access to a flyer more consistently (sooner).

The other card I'd like to talk is Sanctum Prelate. I've seen many people look at the card and say that the card is not good. Other players looked at the card and said 'Chalice of the Void on stick'. But even those players did not appreciate the card enough. The first difference from Chalice of the Void is the fact that this card does not allow players to actually PLAY the cards unlike Chalice of the Void that allows it but counters them. This is relevant when you need to fill your graveyard or trigger a Prowess ability for example. Chalice of the Void can be destroyed with an uncounterable spell (Abrupt Decay), Sanctum Prelate simply says 'no' because the card cannot even be cast. Similarly to Phyrexian Revoker's ability, when this card enters play the number is chosen and no one can respond to that. The downside of this card is its restrictive mana cost - 1WW (that is a good thing though because personally I do not want to face this card often). For some decks CMC3 is rather too much to cast and for some WW is the problem. Another big difference is that Chalice of the Void counters ANY spell with CMC equal to the number of counters on it. Sanctum Prelate does not allow us to play noncreature spells of the chosen CMC. For example a Shops player setting Chalice of the Void on 2 wouldn't be able to play his Thorns, Spheres and Arcbound Ravagers. Death and Taxes players though choosing 2 for Prelate can still play their 2-drops because they are creatures - Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Stoneforge Mystic. Mana investment is also very important difference. With Sanctum Prelate you can choose ANY number for the mere cost of 1WW. Meaning you can choose 6 to stop Terminus and you don't need 12 mana for it, just those 3. One more thing that is pretty neat is the fact that you can reset Sanctum Prelate with Flickerwisp. This might not happen often but there might be the need for it once in a while (same with Phyrexian Revoker, at least in Vintage I've done this relatively often).

Now that we have Chalice of the Void part of Sanctum Prelate solved I'd like to talk about second part of Sanctum Prelate, because that is the 'part' that came to my mind when I first saw the card. Have you ever played with Meddling Mage? The card is good against combos, control and tempo decks. The reason is that it can stop a win condition from happening, it can stop a Wrath effect or it can name a card that will simply earn you a turn or two so you can run over your tempo playing opponent. Sanctum Prelate is used in a similar way with the exception that it shuts down all noncreature cards of a certain mana cost and some decks are very dependent on spells having the same mana cost. For example Delver decks play many cantrips and 1 mana removal spells. If you've ever played a Delver deck and had to face Chalice of the Void, you probably know that Chalice of the Void for 1 is rather crippling for the deck. When I played with Loam recently (discovering what the deck does) I ran into a Death and Taxes players (quite a rarity on Magic Online). They played Sanctum Prelate. The moment I saw the card on stack I realized that my two cards I need to cast repeatedly in order to win cost 2 mana. It did not feel good at all. Against ANT or TES all you need to choose game 1 is the number 4 and post-board number 2 deals with Abrupt Decay and 2 mana tutors.

I understand that many players were judging the card based on its effect but not by the impact it would have at the time the card could actually be played. Chalice of the Void is a card that finds its place in MUD decks primarily and Loam for example. In these decks the card can often be played on turn 1 for 2. Chalice on 1 is something many decks have hard time dealing with (many will just scoop). Mid to lategame though this card might not have such an impact. The reason why I looked at Sanctum Prelate as Meddling Mage is because when playing with it, the player playing it will use it in a similar way to Meddling Mage rather than Chalice of the Void. Playing with Sanctum Prelate may not be easy for some players. It requires the knowledge of your opponent's deck and also a good judgment about what is going on in the game. Depending on the board state the chosen number can differ against the same deck. Often though you get to a situation when there your opponent has only one out and not giving your opponent the possibility to play it simply wins the game without any worries.

At the Eternal Weekend Legacy event I played against one deck that seemed rather familiar to me, it looked like a deck I know from Vintage - White Eldrazi. While I do not fear this deck in Vintage it seemed as a nightmare in Legacy. The realization that Chalice of the Void and Lodestone Golem are not restricted made me almost cry. Not only did my opponent play 4 copies of Chalice of the Void, but he also ran Sanctum Prelate. I didn't care about the Chalice that much at first, but when Prelate hit the board and forbid me from casting cards costing 2, I was seriously screwed. I couldn't play Abrupt Decay to deal with Chalice so I could possibly play my Delvers, cantrips and Lightning Bolts later. Not that these cards would help much against Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. I also had to face several Thorn effects. When I finally managed to cast Gurmag Angler - the only creature that could go through one Thalia - my opponent played Palace Jailer on it. I remembered the card from limited where it did not seem that good, but when I realized that I can't play any noncreature spells and none of my creatures can get through Thalia, I just shook my head. I knew I couldn't become the Monarch in that game. When non-blue deck can draw more cards than a blue deck something is seriously wrong. Palace Jailer is not available on Magic Online and I hope that Wizards of the Coast will figure out how to allow us to play with such cards and mechanics.

After few days I had to return the borrowed cards to No_Outs. I was motivated to play more with Death and Taxes though. Since I couldn't play online (Rishadan Port costing more than Black Lotus is a joke) I had to find the cards in their respective paper versions and go out to attend a tournament at our local game store. After I found all the cards I needed I spent some time staring at the deck in front of me and decided to make some changes. Some of No_Outs card choices didn't sit well with me so I decided to change the cards. I produced this list, sleeved it and took with me to work and in the evening to the LGS (the one of Serra Avenger was an odd choice).

During the event I was lucky not to play against any unfavorable matchups, with the worst one being UR Delver to which I lost to a very funny mulligan and draws. I mulled to 5 keeping Swords to Plowshares, Swords to Plowshares, Plains, Rishadan Port, Aether Vial. My following draws were Aether Vial, Aether Vial, Aether Vial, Umezawa's Jitte, 8 lands. I did not even bother playing the fourth Vial. Against a Grixis Delver player I felt more confident than against the UR Delver deck that not only plays way more burn but also runs Stormchaser Mages that are difficult to get rid of. Grixis Delver is slower and one of the best additions can be named with Phyrexian Revoker - Deathrite Shaman - and Gurmag Angler can be removed from the game with Swords to Plowshares. There is usually one or two of them in the deck and drawing 1 Sword out of 4 is not that difficult either (even though it is way more difficult than in a deck running a set of Brainstorm and Ponder). In this matchup I wished to play Sanctum Prelate to see my opponent's face. My wish came true, I won game one thanks to Sanctum Prelate choosing 1 and immediately fell in love with the card! Seeing my opponent's facial expression when he realized what the card meant for him was priceless! In game two everything would have been fine if had I not lost my Thalia due to a colossal mistake on my part - obviously one cannot play this deck mindlessly. In game three I had to race True-Name Nemesis and Delver of Secrets. I had 2 Mother of Runes in play, Phyrexian Revoker and Flickerwisp. I was attacking for five each turn using Mother of Runes ability to go through and taking 6 damage though. In a final attack though I could deal the difference in damage and win a turn earlier than my opponent (I'd be down to 1). I needed my opponent's Delver of Secrets to stay in 1/1 form for at least one turn or draw another Flickerwisp to be able to deal with the attacking Delver. The latter happened but my opponent drew another Delver. It didn't flip so I won. Without Mother of Runes this would not have been even possible. I got my lesson about the power of Mother of Runes.

At the tournament I also got the chance to play my first mirror match. I wasn't really sure how such a match looks like but I soon found out. When playing a mirror match that involves a deck with creatures I usually get overwhelmed by the creatures and can't figure out how to attack or block. I'm used to casting counterspells and sweepers not creatures (unless those creatures are Snapcaster Mage or Jace, Vryn's Prodogy)! This match went fine though. Stoneforge Mystic is obviously the key card. Creatures that can fly and Mother of Runes also decide the game. The first game looked good for me because I was able to play Stoneforge Mystic on turn 2 and somehow equip my creatures with some equipment later. In game two I needed to be very aggressive and win through Sword of Light and Shadow that I couldn't deal with (nor with the creatures). What I was grateful in this match is the fact that I did not need to turn my creatures sideways and see what happens. I'm not a good player when it comes down to heavy creature decks that need to attack. In this case I could keep the game under control though. I could choose creatures that could attack safely and I knew which creatures would most likely block. That is probably why I might in the end be able to play with this deck and even like it and not get into frustrating situations in which I don't know how to deal some damage to my opponent and not lose all my creatures in the process. That is how I lost Thalia in earlier rounds of the event. I managed to cash the event though so all was good. I just regretted a bit the fact that I couldn't use the store credit to buy digital copies of Recruiter of the Guard and Sanctum Prelate.

While playing with the deck in the TP room and at the tournament I started to recognize which cards are good and which are bad against Death and Taxes and I tried to figure out which match ups are possibly good and which are bad. I realized that I actually have that kind of knowledge already, I just need to change the perspective and that wasn't as easily done as said. I also need to refresh my memory since I wasn't really playing much of Legacy last year (only during Legacy Festival). I played all kinds of Delver decks, Miracles, ANT, Stoneblade, Reanimator, Sneak and Show, Jund, Shardless BUG etc. and while playing these decks I also used to encounter Death and Taxes. I also used to side in a certain way against the deck be it Null Rod, Pithing Needle, artifact removal or global removal spells like Massacre, Toxic Deluge, Golgari Charm, Zealous Persecution. When sideboarding with Death and Taxes I wasn't considering what my opponents would sideboard and sometimes that did not end up well. During one of my matches, a True-Name Nemesis I had to face woke me up and changed my 'observer' approach. I was lucky to actually see the card game 1 because I wouldn't have thought about it when sideboarding. But after this experience, I should use the 3 minutes well and ask myself the question 'what would I sideboard and which cards I would value against Death and Taxes?' when sideboarding (since obviously I have more experience sitting across a Death and Taxes deck). Here is an overview of some of the matchups I faced and some comments.

Matchups

Against a Delver deck this deck is obviously favored (I never liked to face this deck with Delver). I can disrupt lands, I have Stoneforge Mystic that can fetch an equipment and I have Thalia to make the Delver player cry. Turn 1 Mother of Runes game one is also unbeatable, unless my opponent goes turn 1 Delver, turn 2 Delver and manages to flip those Delvers. The only problem is Tarmogoyf and not even all Delver decks play it. I like Young Pyromancer in my decks but after seeing that I did not even care about the card in play when playing D&T I realized that sometimes Tarmogoyf is better. To deal with Tarmogoyf there are still Swords to Plowshares in the deck. I was usually fetching Batterskull against these decks because it can't be hit by Abrupt Decay but I wasn't sure if my decision was correct. The 4/4 Lifelink body though is very tough for Delver decks so I think it was correct after all.

Miracles is an even matchup from my previous experience playing Miracles so I expect Death and Taxes players to see the match up the same way. I know that when my Death and Taxes opponent has access to Aether Vial it gets complicated and when Sword of Fire and Ice gets in play I'm rather screwed as a Miracles player. Terminus becomes a rather inefficient removal spell. Death and Taxes also plays 3-4 Phyrexian Revokers that can stop the Miracle player from using Sensei's Divining Top or Jace, the Mind Sculptor. If I could land Jace and keep using it the Death and Taxes player simply lost. Since I could simply use knowledge from playing Miracles against Death and Taxes I could navigate the matchup fairly well. What I wrote above is true even though I never knew how it feels to be on the other side. Jace is very daunting! I felt similarly to facing Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull while being on Zoo. Sanctum Prelate is an awesome card against Miracles. You can choose either 1 that prevents notably Sensei's Divining Top and Swords to Plowshares or 6 which stops Terminus. When I saw Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in my sideboard I put it there including Cataclysm and Council's Judgment. Cataclysm comes from a pre-Planeswalker era and that is why this also works as a Planeswalker removal (getting rid of Jace at any cost is good). Council's Judgment is a very good card too because it can hit permanents and even the ones that do not have Shroud (which is not relevant in Miracles matchup, I know). Pithing Needle also helps with Jace and Top. I was also hoping to see how Mangara of Corondor works since this is one of the matchups where it should come handy. The Miracle player needs to try hard to get rid of it, otherwise it can wreck their game a lot. In this matchup Recruiter of the Guard seemed to be too good to be true. This is the matchup in which one can chain Flickerwisps.

Against Stoneblade decks I followed a similar path to the Miracles matchup, keeping in mind that I would need to close the game sooner and I needed to avoid True-Name Nemesis and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Unfortunately during the few games I played my board was wiped with Zealous Persecution and Snapcaster Mage made it worse later. Honestly I did not see that coming even though I myself play 2 Zealous Persecutions in my Stoneblade sidebord. My feelings about Mother of Runes were mixed during this match up. Against Miracles I took the card out even though I was aware of Swords to Plowshares/Snapcaster Mage. In the end I realized that Mother of Runes in combination with Sanctum Prelate may lock the Miracles player out and decided to keep the Mothers in. Against Stoneblade the card seemed to be good enough to stay in the deck (I don't know if taking it out in the first place is something that people do) but obviously I do not appreciate this card that much and still need to see how powerful the card is.

Sneak and Show, obviously losing this match is difficult. Sitting behind Thalia and having access to Karakas and Phyrexian Revoker obviously helps a ton! It's probably the first time ever I did not need to fear Emrakul or Griselbrand.

While games against Reanimator are usually pretty boring and one sided, this match was actually quite funny.

Reanimator is probably a very favorable matchup even though this deck does not run as many Containment Priests and Rest in Peace as white Vintage decks. The deck has also access to Surgical Extraction and Council's Judgment that can help with what gets cheated into play. Since this card avoids Shroud and the likes it can even get rid of Inkwell Leviathan. Oblivion Ring used to be played in D&T decks but this card seems to be far better since it deals other threats Death and Taxes had a hard time with including Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Stoneforge Mystic and equipment are obviously bad against this deck but I'm not sure if I can cut all of it? Batterskull can still close the game more quickly than a random 2/2 bear. In the games I played though I kept some of the package but I did not have time to actually put the equipment into play. Reanimator decks run Massacre though and Stoneforge Mystic -> Batterskull avoids it (it's a stretch but can be rarely relevant). Sanctum Prelate again is stellar against this deck if you can live long enough to play it.

ANT/TES is an ok matchup. When I played with ANT I had problems with Thalia but when there wasn't enough pressure from my opponent I could win through her. I even beat a few of my unfortunate opponents playing Ad Nauseum and winning with a Thorn effect in play. Those were funny games. Phyrexian Revoker is not a card I like to see since it can name Lion's Eye Diamond but many people do not know that they can name it here. From the other side of the table the game looks a bit different. Game 1 is rather more about variance. But access to Thalia and Phyrexian Revoker is a good start. It's not like the deck can't win game 1 like other non-blue decks in Legacy. There are many dead cards in the deck though. Post-board it gets much better because Ethersworn Canonists can be boarded in. Death and Taxes faces a threat in the form of Massacre or Dread of Night, Abrupt Decay and Pyroclasm. The Storm player needs to find these cards first or discard the hatebear before they can go off.

I haven't played against anything else yet but I heard Death and Taxes players claim that Elves matchup is a dreaded one and I can imagine this to be true. But how badly I will feel during the matchup is something I will yet have to experience. This is the matchup where cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Sanctum Prelate do not really do anything. This is also a matchup in which I could see Thalia, Heretic Cathar being good. But since this card does not seem to be that crippling (due to the fact this deck's mana denial is softer than of White Eldrazi) it might not see that much play in this kind of a deck. In a more aggressive and taxing deck this creature could do a better job though.

Not a regular White Weenie deck

After reading this article I hope that you can see through the misconception about this deck. It is not a White Weenie deck. It is one of the most controlling decks in Legacy with Miracles being the exception because that probably won't be dethroned from its ultimate control position. If you haven't played with Death and Taxes yet I'd recommend it. Even if you are not friends with creatures like I am, the deck is enjoyable to play and gives many options how to control a game. In some matchups you will need to be in a very aggressive mode but usually against decks where the path is clear of creatures - against ANT, Reanimator or Show and Tell for example. If you indeed like creatures unlike me you can easily tweak this deck to a more aggressive version. The deck can be much like a White Weenie or tempo deck with some control elements the same way it can be a prison control deck with some aggressive creatures. It is up to you to choose the primary role for this deck while keeping in mind that you will have to switch roles relatively often when playing with Death and Taxes.

For reference this is the other deck I was trying - White Eldrazi. It seems that the deck can see play in Legacy as well and might actually be good.

If anyone wonders what the White Eldrazi I mentioned looks like here is the decklist I tried playing with. The deck can obviously be ported to Legacy without many changes. It would run 4 Chalice of the Void, 4 Lodestone Golem. The Power Nine cards would have to be replaced as well most probably with Mox Diamonds and the deck would need to run more lands (City of Traitors). Containment Priest/Eldrazi Displacer combo wouldn't probably be worth trying because in Legacy creatures die way faster and way more often than in Vintage. Against some decks Containment Priests could be sided in and one could just profit from that combination.

Thanks for reading!

S'Tsung

Decklist