Last week I asked you to choose my budget and deck for Legacy Hero as I head to Grand Prix Las Vegas. And the votes are in!!
Well, kind of. While there was a clear winner in the overall budget and the monthly budget, I don’t think I had two people vote for the same deck in terms of archetype. I ended up outlining a few goals for what I wanted before I decided. The most important goal for me was to have any expensive cards the deck would want to be things that could work in multiple decks. I wanted the investments to be cards that have a history of being Legacy playable and would most likely continue to be so even if someone didn’t stick with this deck.
I also decided I didn’t want to play a control or a combo deck because I thought it would be a bad introduction for new Legacy player. Storm is extremely tricky in a format that is running rampant with Force of Will and Flusterstorms. Also Control is something that does better to someone extremely familiar with the format. Therefore, I decided I wanted something that could fall more into the aggro corner, which is how I chose Death and Taxes. The deck isn’t blue so it’s fairly affordable, the big staples such as Karakas, Wastelands, Aether Vials, and the swords see play in a reasonable number of decks. It’s got some prison elements so those who like control will have the ability to still have a fun.
The list I put together is inspired by traditional Death and Taxes lists as well as Modern Hatebears and Modern Mono-White Flash lists. I wanted to have fun while still creating something competitive. According to MTG top 8 Miracles is making a major comeback so it was important to be to create a list that would do well against them. So without any further ado, I present Budget D&T by Kate!
Budget Death & Taxes
| Creatures (25) 2 Akroma, Angel of Fury 4 Leonin Arbiter 3 Flickerwisp 1 Mirran Crusader 4 Mother of Runes 2 Phyrexian Revoker 2 Sanctum Prelate 3 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Spells (13) 1 Cloudshift 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 Batterskull 2 Smuggler’s Copter 1 Umezawa’s Jitte 4 Aether Vial | Lands (22) 12 Plains 4 Ghost Quarter 4 Wasteland 2 Karakas Sideboard (15) 3 Eidolon of Rhetoric 4 Faerie Macabre 2 Absolute Law 2 Rest in Peace 2 Meekstone 2 Pithing Needle |
I used TCG Player Market Price to budget these (and founded the cheapest printing if there was more than one) and got the deck total (including sideboard) to $499.40, right on budget (with enough left over to grab a candy bar). I decided on TCG Market Price because not only is that what the store I work at uses to price cards I feel it’s a common average used while trading. It took me a long time to get to this list—lots of tweaking with feedback from Brew Corner’s Aaron Gazzaniga—but I can happily say I finally got there.
For the creature suite you’ll see I start off with something interesting: two Akroma, Angel of Fury. This was an inspiration from Modern Mono-W Flash. I really wanted to add something both affordable and unique to the deck with cards that maybe a Modern or Commander player might easily have access to that also meshed well with existing Death and Taxes cards. If you’re wondering how Death and Taxes plays an expensive red Creature that has protection from White you’ll love this fun interaction. Akroma is a morph creature so you can cast it for three mana and then flicker it with Flickerwisp or Cloudshift and it will come back into play unmorphed. Most of the best removal spells in Magic (especially ones that can hit something that large) are white so once you get it into play you basically have a 6/6 flying trampler that most decks just can’t do anything about. I thought it was a really fun, affordable addition to a list that is otherwise fairly traditional and derative.
Next you’ll see four Leonin Arbiters. This is because I’m running four Ghost Quarters instead of Rishadan Ports (lets be real, those are not in the budget). It is a bit of a non-bo with Stoneforge Mystic but I believe it will shut down your opponents enough in this format where it won’t be a problem. A lot of decks can’t afford to pay two to fetch and it also shuts down Green Sun’s Zenith among other things, so it’s a powerful card in this format and worth the small downside to us.
The next few pieces are fairly traditional: Flickerwisp, Batterskull, Swords to Plowshares, Wasteland, etc. There is one card snuck in there though that you definitely won’t see on most D&T lists but I bet a lot of players saltly have playsets of currently and that’s Smuggler’s Copter. It’s a 3/3 flyer than helps us dig in a deck that isn’t exactly known for its card drawing ability. It’s easily crewed with our creatures, including Stoneforge Mystic which is normally considered useless once it’s equipment is on the field. I think it’s a really strong card and a really fun addition to the deck.
Really obvious cuts include no Sword of Fire and Ice. It’s a $35-40 card and I couldn’t find a way to happily afford it. I thought it would be much more comfortable to buy it during the first month with the deck. I feel like I did a lot to make this version strong against blue decks and to fight through burn decks so hopefully it won’t be a miserable first month without it.
The sideboard is missing Council’s Judgment, it’s just too expensive but will hopefully be added in quickly with the monthly budget. Other than that I think the list stays very true to D&T and I look forward to playing it and improving it over time.
So! This isn’t the end of the initial decklist creation, I am very open to feedback because after all I am going on this journey for you! Hit me up on Twitter and let me know what you think!
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH.