Sorry for my ignorance, I'm new to this deck, but I have a doubt, I've seen quite a few Death and Taxes decklists that use Selfless Spirit, could you tell me why ?
I think the deck is pretty weak against global removals, especially without the Selfless.
Has anyone ever tried using creatures with Ghostly Prison effects? ... It seems to me that if any of those were 3 CMC that would be perfect.
Archangel of Tithes shows up every now and then as a 1-of, but if you include sideboards then non-creature Ghostly Prison itself shows up about 10x as often on mtgTop8.
I haven't heard of anyone using Muse despite it's less white-strict mana cost (I assume because it's a 4cmc "dies to Bolt" creature). The new creature you mention is at least Bolt proof so there's a chance it might get tested, but the Angel is probably still better due to evasion and the blockers-tax effect (unless there's a new way to bank on some sort of humans, soldiers, or legends tribal synergy).
So I am kinda new to this deck and haven't really been to my LGS since the unbanning of bloodbraid elf and jace. In the event that the store is rampant with Jund, what are some cards that I could look into adding to my main/side to increase my chances. Right now I am running just a mono white D&T that i have playtested some online, but haven't really been able to do well against jund.
All of these have applications in multiple other matchups.
Lingering Souls is great, too; but it requires a splash and isn’t as widely applicable as it used to be.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Modern has provided us a non-rotating format that is far more accessible than Legacy or Vintage, but still retains many of the qualities that people enjoy in those formats—such as a more stable metagame, the ability to play and tweak the same deck week after week, and simply a much more powerful card pool than Standard.”
- Sam Stoddard, “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) (by means of Sheridan Lardner, "Fixing Modern: Defining Format Mission (March 16, 2016))
Then you're able to play any version you like. This deck certainly is one of the most adaptable of entire modern and is always prepared to metagame, even back in eldrazi winter we were able to fight them properly. What happens is how you play against the meta, choosing main and sideboard properly. Try to read the primer at first page to see where you want to start.
I've a probably dumb question about a particular interaction: let's say I have a Leonin Arbiter and a Vial at 4. My opponent pays 2 for the tax and then cracks a fetch. When the fetch is on the stack I vial in a Restoration Angel targeting the Arbiter. When it resolves, if nothing else happens, do they have to pay again?
My understanding is that with multiple copies of Leonin Arbiters on the battlefield you have to pay 2 for each one of those, and if I flicker the only copy that is in play, when it comes back it is a brand new creature, applying a second tax which is different that the one my opponent already payed for. Is that how it works?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have. - René Descartes
The reason it works is because a blinked leonin arbiter is a new instance of leonin arbiter, so the one that was "paid for" no longer exists and your opponent has not paid to ignore the effect of the leonin arbiter currently on the battlefield. The relevant thing to remember in these interactions is that paying for leonin arbiter's ability is a special action that does not use the stack and the stack does not resolve until both players have passed priority without taking an action. So you can't respond to your opponent paying 2 to ignore leonin arbiter's effect (and your opponent may call you on this and try and argue this point) by blinking leonin arbiter, but you will receive priority again after your opponent pays 2 to ignore leonin arbiter's effect and before the fetch resolves as they have not passed priority without taking an action. Opponent's will often try and say "I pay 2 and the fetch resolves since this doesn't use the stack you don't get priority" which is incorrect.
The reason it works is because a blinked leonin arbiter is a new instance of leonin arbiter, so the one that was "paid for" no longer exists and your opponent has not paid to ignore the effect of the leonin arbiter currently on the battlefield. The relevant thing to remember in these interactions is that paying for leonin arbiter's ability is a special action that does not use the stack and the stack does not resolve until both players have passed priority without taking an action. So you can't respond to your opponent paying 2 to ignore leonin arbiter's effect (and your opponent may call you on this and try and argue this point) by blinking leonin arbiter, but you will receive priority again after your opponent pays 2 to ignore leonin arbiter's effect and before the fetch resolves as they have not passed priority without taking an action. Opponent's will often try and say "I pay 2 and the fetch resolves since this doesn't use the stack you don't get priority" which is incorrect.
Thanks! As clear as it gets.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have. - René Descartes
Hey everyone so I played a modern 1k today with mono white death and taxes and I topped 8! I lost to hollow one in the finals but it was fun and I was glad I could represent d&t.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
Death & Taxes
Fish
EDH
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Roon of the Hidden Realm
Xenagos, God of Revels
After seeing some of Catmix's success (shuffler be damned!) with Baby-Batterskull I thought I'd give the card a spin. I'm really liking it so far in my testing of a low-curve BW list.
I've been having some luck in the tourney practice room. It feels real grindy since their removal is stretched thin between GBI being a house and all the Scullers stealing cards. Lot of fun so far. Sideboard help would be appreciated; right now it's basically empty with just the 4th GBI and Freebooters 3-4 in there.
Also, man am I wishing I bought more Kytheon before the DOM spoilers came out; the MTGO cost has doubled since Mox Amber, etc. and all the "legendary matters" news came out.
Round 1
2-0 UR thing in the ice pyromancer
Taxes and land destruction got for the best of opponent and beats got me there.
Round 2
2-1 Burn
First match arbiter and vial won it for me with having him on 1 land and adding more creatures to the board
Second match was close but Boros charm got me to 0
Third match land destruction came in clutch with Thalia and arbiter in the board.
Round 3
1-2 UG Infect
Round one my opponent got there easily with blighted agent and I had no interaction
Round 2 I had Thalia out with blade splicers and flyers to get me the win
Round 3 I should of won that one. I misplayed really bad. I had arbiter out he could find lands and he only had one issuable land and a noble and a blighted agent. When I was messed up was a turn before he had a glistening elf and I wasted my path on the elf. I managed to get a mirran crusader on the board so I didn’t need to patch the elf and I should have saved it for the agent. He managed to become immense it for the win.
Round 4
2-1 Burn
Game 1 I lost I got burnt out
Game 2 I kept a sketchy hand with a ghost quarter and a vial hoping he didn’t have destructive revelry. He didn’t and I just taxed him and got the beats in for the win
Game 3 he was on two lands. I had a clue and a vial on 2. On his end step I cracked my clue and top decked an arbiter and vialed him in. A turn alter I got a ghost quarter and popped his only green source and left him with one basic mountain. I also had a Thalia on the field and that’s all she wrote.
Round 5
2–1 RG valakut with BBE
Match 1 arbiters stopped him from doing much and got the beats on
Match 2 he played thragtusk, baloth, BBE and I had no flyers to put pressure on. I did have my arbiters out and I felt should have won that game by playing a third arbiter but I was really playing around anger of the gods. He played scapeshift with enough mana to pay for 2 arbiters and got me.
Match 3
It was really Grindy. I had a turn two arbiter with a forgetender to protect it. He was paying for the arbiter to set up for scapeshift. Finally he tried to go off. He payed for arbiter and tapped out to play scapeshift then when I flash in resto blinking my arbiter to make him pay 2 again. Being tapped out he could and I pretty much won from there.
Round 6
Hollow one 2-1
Match 1 he wasn’t getting anything good and Thalia with arbiter and me popping his lands was making it hard for him to set up. I also had Serra avenger getting in beats and blocking his Phoenix.
Match 2 it was a close games but his creatures were bigger than mine and I couldn’t keep up with his flyers. The next card I draw when I lost was a resto which is what I really needed haha
Match 3 very grindy match up on both side that’s went to turns but mirran crusader with resto got me the win. He only had tasigur as a blocker and he was at 7 life so he couldn’t do anything.
One to the top 8
0-2 hollow one
Match 1 I went against the same opponent and he just had a good hand. He had 2 adepts getting the beats and I couldn’t keep up with it send they had menace and I didn’t have enough creature to step the bleeding early game so he got there
Match 2 he had the nut hand. Burning inquiry into 2 hollow ones and all I had was an inspector. On top of that I was flooding out with drawing lands. So yeah he got the win
I ended up finishing in 6th place and overall it was fun! I was glad to be able to represent d&t and show that the deck is still good for this meta. Thanks everyone!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
Death & Taxes
Fish
EDH
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Roon of the Hidden Realm
Xenagos, God of Revels
I finally decided to throw my fears out the window of playing all my favorite cards in one deck. Thalia and Lingering Souls together is fine! The only times it's been a problem for me, it is a far bigger problem for my opponent. Seriously, other decks HATE Thalia so much that if she lives more than 1 turn we're in great shape. And Lingering Souls is just unfair as hell.
As far as the Jund matchup goes (what I've tested it against mostly since traditionally that was our worst tier 1 matchup): Dark Confidant, Thraben Inspector, and Lingering Souls let us grind out games like traditional taxes builds can only dream of. Also Jund weeps at the sight of Lingering Souls. This isn't to say it's a super awesome matchup, but it feels a lot more like a 50/50 than it does with mono white.
Like I said, it's pretty rough. I threw it together recently and I'm sure it could be tweaked. But for now I'm surprisingly pleased with it.
I finally decided to throw my fears out the window of playing all my favorite cards in one deck. Thalia and Lingering Souls together is fine! The only times it's been a problem for me, it is a far bigger problem for my opponent. Seriously, other decks HATE Thalia so much that if she lives more than 1 turn we're in great shape. And Lingering Souls is just unfair as hell.
Your deck is only counting 57 cards in the maindeck, so I guess you play 3 Lingering Souls?
It's a cool list and I'm curious how it will play, without heavy hitters such as KTS and Resto Angel.
Hey, peeps. I'm an old hand with D&T in legacy, circa 2009-2011 when I left MTG behind. I returned to modern because the D&T list I sold back then for $1,000 would cost nearly triple to rebuild, that and Modern has more support from Wizards and more traction in my area. I kept up with the developments where I could and was happy to see D&T had gained enough tools to be viable here, and I've got a lot of experience testing out different card selections in the legacy metagame back then. I understand it's not the same, but thanks to functional reprints being a thing and Modern being so diverse, there are a few strategies folks have ignored or that have fallen by the wayside that I hope to contribute to this thread. Anyway, thanks for having me and I'm glad to be here!
I've been playing another deck since I returned to MTG for just over a month now, but I've had the cards to assemble D&T the whole time. I'm stuck in that weird place where I'm trying to find a list I'm comfortable with that meets the needs of my meta at the same time, so I've been waffling for a few weeks. At this point, I figured it's time to just post and see where a lot of you land on this stuff based off your experience. If you're the type to dismiss stuff out of hand that you've never tested, I'll probably ignore you and ask that you just ignore me. Don't worry, I'm not going to advocate for Vizzerdrix or anything crazy like that, but I do enjoy approaching deck-building asymmetrically sometimes.
Anyhow, my shop routinely breaks 50 people every Tuesday for Modern. I've seen a wide range of lists in the past month, but the most represented (from what I've played against and gleaned in-between rounds) has been:
Ad Nauseum
Burn
Flavors of Tron
U/R Gifts Storm (both fetches & fetch-less)
Jund
G/R Ponza
If I had to guess, the above makes up more than 50% of my local metagame. Aside from D&T's bone stock, which I believe to be this:
What are some of you fielding or would consider fielding against this meta? I've seen that Judge's Familiar, Aven Mindcensor and Thalia, Heretic Cathar have fallen out of favor, but they seem especially punishing in this environment with the obvious trade-offs of losing Inspector spots and fiddling with beats/tax ratios. Additionally, I've seen lists packing Smuggler's Copter and altering the D&T core to squeeze in extra utility with Dismember, Condemn, and even Mana Tithe. Personally, Oust in conjunction with Ghost Quarter, or without, can be especially useful in out-tempoing our opponents.
As you can see I've fallen into the trap of trying (or wanting) to do too many things at once. I've built heavy taxes lists, net decks of current top 8ers, heavy utility, and goofy hybrids. I keep seeing successful lists running a stack of 1-ofs (virtual 5-ofs if we count 1 Mindcensor with 4 Arbiter), 2-ofs, and 3-ofs all over the place, with the mostly-agreed-upon core being the only consistent theory in action. This, plus my inexperience with this particular format and 7 year absence has made this a real undertaking. Where do you awesome folks land on all of this?
Oops, yes I am playing 3 Lingering Souls! I updated the post to show that.
@scytale I completely agree. I was noticing that, and I think I'll go take a look at Frank karstens famous land article to fix the manabase. I'm guessing it'll be something like -2 plains, +2 swamps.
As far as heavy hitters goes, I think the list falls somewhere between mono white and eldrazi taxes. No TKS to smash face, but more fliers with copter and souls to push damage through more consistently. And the lower curve and tempo orientation makes it feel a bit more agressive than mono white.
Edit: Looks like I actually need 13 white and 13 black sources (and 20 colored lands total) to reliably hit BW on turn 2. The only way I see to achieve this is to cut out my tectonic edges, but that feels really bad. The mana denial plan is extra important without eldrazi to hasten the clock! Maybe I have to look into using a third dual land like caves of koilos? But that breaks the math of having 20 colored lands
And now I'm finding I can't hit that 20 mark at all. Even after going to 23 lands. Are we allowed to consider aether vial here to help us cheat our mana? I thought cutting the eldrazi would improve my manabase D:
Do not you miss Magus of the Moon in this deck ?
It looks like a key creature on the R/W (BOROS) version (either on the sideboard or maindeck) because it works great against many kinds of decks.
I think Damping Sphere can come to replace the slot of the Magus of the Moon in the SB somehow.
Sorry for my ignorance, I'm new to this deck, but I have a doubt, I've seen quite a few Death and Taxes decklists that use Selfless Spirit, could you tell me why ?
I think the deck is pretty weak against global removals, especially without the Selfless.
Has anyone ever tried using creatures with Ghostly Prison effects?
Like: Windborn Muse, Archangel of Tithes and the new guy Baird, Steward of Argive.
It seems to me that if any of these were 3 CMC that would be perfect.
I haven't heard of anyone using Muse despite it's less white-strict mana cost (I assume because it's a 4cmc "dies to Bolt" creature). The new creature you mention is at least Bolt proof so there's a chance it might get tested, but the Angel is probably still better due to evasion and the blockers-tax effect (unless there's a new way to bank on some sort of humans, soldiers, or legends tribal synergy).
All of these have applications in multiple other matchups.
Lingering Souls is great, too; but it requires a splash and isn’t as widely applicable as it used to be.
- Sam Stoddard, “Developing Modern” (June 21, 2013) (by means of Sheridan Lardner, "Fixing Modern: Defining Format Mission (March 16, 2016))
How to Use Spoiler Tags
Starting Over: The Origins of the Mulligan Rule
Practical Approach to Slow Play
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 2: SWARM and TOOLBOX
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 3
THE Guide to Aggro, Part 4
These videos are by MTG Salvation Moderator Lantern!
Introduction to Tempo
Controlling Tempo
Elements of Tempo
Roadblocks to Tempo
How Not To Build A Deck - Tempo
Learn How To Sideboard, Dammit!
Mulligan's Island
The Art of the Mulligan
The Art of the Mulligan: Eight Case Studies
Fundamentals: The Mulligan
Some Mulligan Exercises
A Mulligan Is Worth Three Cards
The Mulligan Debate
Common Sense: The Art of the Mulligan
Who's The Beatdown?
3 Caves of Koilos
3 Eldrazi Temple
2 Fetid Heath
3 Godless Shrine
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
2 Tectonic Edge
Artifacts (4):
4 Æther Vial
4 Path to Exile
Creatures (29):
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Fiend Hunter
4 Flickerwisp
4 Serra Avenger
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Wasteland Strangler
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Dismember
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Flooded Strand
6 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Steam Vents
3 Sulfur Falls
Creatures (16):
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stormchaser Mage
2 Gut Shot
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mutagenic Growth
3 Spell Pierce
3 Twisted Image
3 Vapor Snag
Sorceries (8):
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Blood Moon
2 Dispel
1 Forked Bolt
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Repeal
2 Roast
1 Spell Snare
2 Spellskite
1 Vapor Snag
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Copperline Gorge
5 Mountain
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
Creatures (14):
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Atarka's Command
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Searing Blaze
Sorceries (8):
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
2 Deflecting Palm
4 Destructive Revelry
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Path to Exile
2 Rending Volley
3 Skullcrack
19 Forest
3 Treetop Village
Creatures (24):
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Dryad Militant
2 Dungrove Elder
4 Experiment One
4 Leatherback Baloth
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Rancor
Instants (10):
3 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
3 Dismember
2 Choke
2 Gut Shot
2 Deglamer
2 Feed the Clan
2 Oxidize
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Skylasher
1 Unravel the Æther
4 Path to Exile
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Flickerwisp
My understanding is that with multiple copies of Leonin Arbiters on the battlefield you have to pay 2 for each one of those, and if I flicker the only copy that is in play, when it comes back it is a brand new creature, applying a second tax which is different that the one my opponent already payed for. Is that how it works?
Death & Taxes
Fish
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Roon of the Hidden Realm
Xenagos, God of Revels
After seeing some of Catmix's success (shuffler be damned!) with Baby-Batterskull I thought I'd give the card a spin. I'm really liking it so far in my testing of a low-curve BW list.
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Extended Core
4 Thraben Inspector
3 Smuggler's Copter
3 Flickerwisp
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3 Glory-Bound Initiate
2 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Athreos, God of Passage
Land
4 Concealed Courtyard
2 Godless Shrine
2 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Plains
1 Swamp
Also, man am I wishing I bought more Kytheon before the DOM spoilers came out; the MTGO cost has doubled since Mox Amber, etc. and all the "legendary matters" news came out.
4 Thalia, guardian of thraben
4 leonine arbiter
4 flickerwisp
4 blade splicer
4 restoration angel
3 mirran crusader
2 Serra avenger
4 path to exile
2 shefet dunes
4 ghost quarter
4 tectonic edge
3 horizon canopies
1 field of ruin
9 plains
2 Rest In Peace
2 stony silence
2 burrenton forge-tender
2 worship
1 Gideon, ally of zendikar
1 grafdigger’s cage
1 eidolon of rhetoric
1 dismember
1 ratchet bomb
1 pithing needle
1 kitchen finks
Round 1
2-0 UR thing in the ice pyromancer
Taxes and land destruction got for the best of opponent and beats got me there.
Round 2
2-1 Burn
First match arbiter and vial won it for me with having him on 1 land and adding more creatures to the board
Second match was close but Boros charm got me to 0
Third match land destruction came in clutch with Thalia and arbiter in the board.
Round 3
1-2 UG Infect
Round one my opponent got there easily with blighted agent and I had no interaction
Round 2 I had Thalia out with blade splicers and flyers to get me the win
Round 3 I should of won that one. I misplayed really bad. I had arbiter out he could find lands and he only had one issuable land and a noble and a blighted agent. When I was messed up was a turn before he had a glistening elf and I wasted my path on the elf. I managed to get a mirran crusader on the board so I didn’t need to patch the elf and I should have saved it for the agent. He managed to become immense it for the win.
Round 4
2-1 Burn
Game 1 I lost I got burnt out
Game 2 I kept a sketchy hand with a ghost quarter and a vial hoping he didn’t have destructive revelry. He didn’t and I just taxed him and got the beats in for the win
Game 3 he was on two lands. I had a clue and a vial on 2. On his end step I cracked my clue and top decked an arbiter and vialed him in. A turn alter I got a ghost quarter and popped his only green source and left him with one basic mountain. I also had a Thalia on the field and that’s all she wrote.
Round 5
2–1 RG valakut with BBE
Match 1 arbiters stopped him from doing much and got the beats on
Match 2 he played thragtusk, baloth, BBE and I had no flyers to put pressure on. I did have my arbiters out and I felt should have won that game by playing a third arbiter but I was really playing around anger of the gods. He played scapeshift with enough mana to pay for 2 arbiters and got me.
Match 3
It was really Grindy. I had a turn two arbiter with a forgetender to protect it. He was paying for the arbiter to set up for scapeshift. Finally he tried to go off. He payed for arbiter and tapped out to play scapeshift then when I flash in resto blinking my arbiter to make him pay 2 again. Being tapped out he could and I pretty much won from there.
Round 6
Hollow one 2-1
Match 1 he wasn’t getting anything good and Thalia with arbiter and me popping his lands was making it hard for him to set up. I also had Serra avenger getting in beats and blocking his Phoenix.
Match 2 it was a close games but his creatures were bigger than mine and I couldn’t keep up with his flyers. The next card I draw when I lost was a resto which is what I really needed haha
Match 3 very grindy match up on both side that’s went to turns but mirran crusader with resto got me the win. He only had tasigur as a blocker and he was at 7 life so he couldn’t do anything.
One to the top 8
0-2 hollow one
Match 1 I went against the same opponent and he just had a good hand. He had 2 adepts getting the beats and I couldn’t keep up with it send they had menace and I didn’t have enough creature to step the bleeding early game so he got there
Match 2 he had the nut hand. Burning inquiry into 2 hollow ones and all I had was an inspector. On top of that I was flooding out with drawing lands. So yeah he got the win
I ended up finishing in 6th place and overall it was fun! I was glad to be able to represent d&t and show that the deck is still good for this meta. Thanks everyone!
Death & Taxes
Fish
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Roon of the Hidden Realm
Xenagos, God of Revels
Anyway, here's something rough I've drafted up. I'd love to get some feedback on it. It's done better than expected in testing (always exciting)!
4 Aether Vial
3 Smuggler's Copter
Creature (24):
4 Dark Confidant
4 Flickerwisp
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Path to Exile
Sorcery (3):
3 Lingering Souls
Land (22):
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Godless Shrine
5 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Fatal Push
3 Collective Brutality
2 Fragmentize
2 Thoughtseize
I finally decided to throw my fears out the window of playing all my favorite cards in one deck. Thalia and Lingering Souls together is fine! The only times it's been a problem for me, it is a far bigger problem for my opponent. Seriously, other decks HATE Thalia so much that if she lives more than 1 turn we're in great shape. And Lingering Souls is just unfair as hell.
As far as the Jund matchup goes (what I've tested it against mostly since traditionally that was our worst tier 1 matchup): Dark Confidant, Thraben Inspector, and Lingering Souls let us grind out games like traditional taxes builds can only dream of. Also Jund weeps at the sight of Lingering Souls. This isn't to say it's a super awesome matchup, but it feels a lot more like a 50/50 than it does with mono white.
Like I said, it's pretty rough. I threw it together recently and I'm sure it could be tweaked. But for now I'm surprisingly pleased with it.
Your deck is only counting 57 cards in the maindeck, so I guess you play 3 Lingering Souls?
It's a cool list and I'm curious how it will play, without heavy hitters such as KTS and Resto Angel.
I've been playing another deck since I returned to MTG for just over a month now, but I've had the cards to assemble D&T the whole time. I'm stuck in that weird place where I'm trying to find a list I'm comfortable with that meets the needs of my meta at the same time, so I've been waffling for a few weeks. At this point, I figured it's time to just post and see where a lot of you land on this stuff based off your experience. If you're the type to dismiss stuff out of hand that you've never tested, I'll probably ignore you and ask that you just ignore me. Don't worry, I'm not going to advocate for Vizzerdrix or anything crazy like that, but I do enjoy approaching deck-building asymmetrically sometimes.
Anyhow, my shop routinely breaks 50 people every Tuesday for Modern. I've seen a wide range of lists in the past month, but the most represented (from what I've played against and gleaned in-between rounds) has been:
Ad Nauseum
Burn
Flavors of Tron
U/R Gifts Storm (both fetches & fetch-less)
Jund
G/R Ponza
If I had to guess, the above makes up more than 50% of my local metagame. Aside from D&T's bone stock, which I believe to be this:
22-23 Lands
What are some of you fielding or would consider fielding against this meta? I've seen that Judge's Familiar, Aven Mindcensor and Thalia, Heretic Cathar have fallen out of favor, but they seem especially punishing in this environment with the obvious trade-offs of losing Inspector spots and fiddling with beats/tax ratios. Additionally, I've seen lists packing Smuggler's Copter and altering the D&T core to squeeze in extra utility with Dismember, Condemn, and even Mana Tithe. Personally, Oust in conjunction with Ghost Quarter, or without, can be especially useful in out-tempoing our opponents.
As you can see I've fallen into the trap of trying (or wanting) to do too many things at once. I've built heavy taxes lists, net decks of current top 8ers, heavy utility, and goofy hybrids. I keep seeing successful lists running a stack of 1-ofs (virtual 5-ofs if we count 1 Mindcensor with 4 Arbiter), 2-ofs, and 3-ofs all over the place, with the mostly-agreed-upon core being the only consistent theory in action. This, plus my inexperience with this particular format and 7 year absence has made this a real undertaking. Where do you awesome folks land on all of this?
WW Death & Taxes
GG Control
RR Skred Red
@scytale I completely agree. I was noticing that, and I think I'll go take a look at Frank karstens famous land article to fix the manabase. I'm guessing it'll be something like -2 plains, +2 swamps.
As far as heavy hitters goes, I think the list falls somewhere between mono white and eldrazi taxes. No TKS to smash face, but more fliers with copter and souls to push damage through more consistently. And the lower curve and tempo orientation makes it feel a bit more agressive than mono white.
Edit: Looks like I actually need 13 white and 13 black sources (and 20 colored lands total) to reliably hit BW on turn 2. The only way I see to achieve this is to cut out my tectonic edges, but that feels really bad. The mana denial plan is extra important without eldrazi to hasten the clock! Maybe I have to look into using a third dual land like caves of koilos? But that breaks the math of having 20 colored lands
And now I'm finding I can't hit that 20 mark at all. Even after going to 23 lands. Are we allowed to consider aether vial here to help us cheat our mana? I thought cutting the eldrazi would improve my manabase D: