Here is another great victory for a deck which has been coming and going with success over the past year. It is a very strong package of disruption which comes in the form of aggro beatdown allowing the deck to operate on a very powerful axis. For those of you unfamiliar with Death and Taxes it is at its core The White Weenie deck. It has evolved from a deck which worked to exile the opponents permanents for value into a mash up of hate bears and resource oppression. It has a pile of the best white creatures ever printed.
The journey up the mana curve is very important for this deck as it relies heavily upon Æther Vial to ‘cheat out’ it’s creatures around counter magic and as disruption. The ideal turn one play involves either Æther Vial or Mother of Runes to let the games begin. Once ‘mom’ is out it becomes increasingly more difficult for your opponent to use spot removal on your creatures. A great turn two play would be a follow up of either Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to actively disrupt the opponents plans or even Stoneforge Mystic to start building offensive to bring the beats. And while Thalia will affect your spells as well it is a minor cost as the spells we cast are one cost and the equipment is going to be cheated in with the Mystic. Speaking of equipment the Stoneforge package in the deck is rather robust including not only a Batterskull and an Umezawa’s Jitte but also a Sword of Fire and Ice, all of which are efficient tools to boost any of your creatures into lean and mean fighting machines. As for some straight-up beatsticks the deck packs a Brimaz, King of Oreskos for value and a trio of Serra Avenger which are able to skirt the turn it can be played restriction with an Æther Vial activation. Then for disruption we find a variety of answers with Phyrexian Revoker to shut down a pesky permanent especially in response to casting a planeswalker, Spirit of the Labyrinth which absolutely ruins players hands in response to a Brainstorm, and Aven Mindcensor that can come in response to a fetchland or Stoneforge trigger to try and force the opponent to whiff. The final creature in the deck is a trio of Flickerwisp which can be vialed into play in response to removal to save a permanent or used to reset a Revoker, rebuy a Mystic and even regerm a Batterskull, not to mention suit up with a Sword or Jitte to bring the beats. There is a heavy resource denial package within the manabase with not only a full set of Wasteland but also a full set of Rishadan Port to lockdown any hope of the opponent to have a fighting chance. Also, for spot removal we find Swords to Plowshares to rid the board of any nuisance creatures trying to stand in the way.
And there we have it the first Legacy winner is a deck that is rapidly becoming a staple deck at the top tables. Of course as Legacy is a huge wide open field there is always a brick wall that every deck will run into eventually, but this deck look not only to be resilient but also a great deal of fun. I would be not only happy but confident as well to sleeve up this deck for the next Legacy tournament.
Chromanticore – holy moley and just plain wow !!! This guy is, on the surface, pretty ludicrous. Sure this cost is extremely restrictive but at that cost you’re certainly only playing it in a ramp strategy which includes dorks that provide multiple colors depending on what you’d need. And to compliment the rainbow cost we have a rainbow of abilities on this card. Flying, First Strike, Vigilance, Trample AND Lifelink…really ??? But is it anywhere near playable for constructed, I don’t think so. It could possibly find a home as a one-of in a Maze’s End deck but even then that might be a stretch. Casual players are going to eat this up though and I bet it’s going to be a blast to play with.
Glimpse the Sun God – with all the rampant creature decks running amok this sly little trickster is sure to find a very useful spot in any white based control deck as a one or two-of. The addition of Scry 1 is what sells it basically allowing you to have a bit of a Cryptic-lite style card to tap down your opponents army before he declares and help with a bit of card selection. I don’t think it’s necessarily a main deck card but even a split of one main and one side might be seen going forward.
Spirit of the Labyrinth – this one has fairly good stats as an offensive threat just as a 3/1 for a two drop but her fairly unique ability is extremely strong. While it is not going to be useful against every deck there is a good deal which it does most specifically against Sphinx’s Revelation and Underworld Connections which is a very important part of the standard metagame. If not at the very least a necessary sideboard card I’m absolutely certain this is going to see constructed play and could help shape and redefine a new meta going forward.
Heroes’ Podium – an interesting way to dig for your threats but it is just way too expensive to use reliably. There is the added bonus of the Coat of Arms style anthem effect but it’s just too narrow. This one will be relegated to Commander enthusiasts and is definitely great protection to help dig up your general should he fall victim to a tuck effect.
Nessian Demlock – so what exactly does our opponent want to do? Chances are if he has any removal to deal with a 6/6 or even a few chump blockers he isn’t going to give you the opportunity to get rid of one of his non-creature permanents. If only this came with a useful keyword like Trample or even off-color Haste then maybe, but most often I think he’s just a five mana 6/6 vanilla beater. If that’s what your deck need then here’s your beast otherwise I think we need to look elsewhere.
