MTGNexus

This is the placeholder thread for the Legacy Death & Taxes Primer on MTG Nexus. If you would like to take over the primer for this particular deck, please message a Legacy staff member.

Death & Taxes is a mono-White, creature-based controlling midrange deck. As it sports 0 cards on the Reserved List, has a price tag that floats around the $1000 mark, and has had literally every expensive piece printed or reprinted in the past five years, it is one of the most popular decks in the format, especially for players just getting into Legacy. However, it also boasts an extremely high skill ceiling, with a staggering number of possible play lines that must be adjusted on the fly depending on the matchup and how it is progressing. At the core, Death & Taxes plays a mana denial plan, utilizing Wasteland, Rishadan Port, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to tax the opponent's mana base and prevent them from playing their full game. Mother of Runes protects the creature-based disruption pieces like Thalia, Phyrexian Revoker, Vrynn Wingmare, Sanctum Prelate, Containment Priest, Leonin Relic-Warder, Tomik, Distinguished Advokist, and Ethersworn Canonist. Stoneforge Mystic provides the primary win condition, searching up Batterskull, Umezawa's Jitte, or a sword (that can vary by matchup). Other win conditions can include Flickerwisp, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Brightling, Mirran Crusader. and Hallowed Spiritkeeper. Karakas can protect Thalia or your other legendary creatures, or it can offensively mess with opposing legends, notably the Marit Lage from Dark Depths. Aether Vial is the glue that holds the deck together, allowing you to cheat on mana costs so you can reserve your lands for taxing the opponent.

So since this really isn't active, outdated and I don't really know where else to put this...

Here is my mostly current list, I think people have gone down to 3 Skyclaves over 4 for the most part, but it's still more or less what the deck looks like in 2021 where it is doing a fair bit better than it was for a while.

Is Skyclave a better choice than Jailer, what with Marit Lage still being a big threat in the format? Additionally, isn't Jailer a better choice to side in against Sneak & Show for when they side in the dude that makes a token copy of a creature it exiles? Mystic something?

could be that Skyclave has several targets in the area he plays in. Can also be no sneak show in his meta.

Skyclave is absurd, definitely one of the strongest new options out there for D&T. As Oko showed, turning something relevant into a stack of vanilla stats is hugely powerful.

Yes, there is still room for Palace Jailer vs Marit Lage, Emrakul, etc, but Skyclave is so much better in "fair" fights that it's far and away the best maindeck option.

for me, Skyclave is an even better thought-knot seer. Because they get a vanilla, instead of drawing an extra card. Whatever the vanilla replaced, it's something more dangerous than the vanilla itself.

Skyclave is generally an upgrade over other options.
Jailer is maindeckable. Monarch does not play well with Spirit of the Lab, though,.
Generally if d n t is to beat 20 20s it needs tight, tight play. It has some good tools, flash flying blockers, flickerwisp, karakas and swords etc. It is the not getting rolled by t1 snt that is the issue, I.e. the speed of the deck.