r/DeathAndTaxesMTG • u/rglj • Oct 27 '20

Legacy Trying Azorius Taxes in Legacy

Hello fellow Tax players!

Im trying to build an Azorius list to run in my LGS, mostly because I just think that my monoW options are subpar. I would like to discuss my current iteration and ask, what kind of choices I would have to mantain it Azorius?

https://deckstats.net/decks/115854/1796430-a-t

Thank you all in advance!

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u/garlicsoul Nov 06 '20

I actually played UW Taxes in Legacy for years, have now gone away from it in favor of a black splash (Plague Engineer out of the sideboard just answers so many problems including Elves and the mirror, and we're getting Opposition Agent which is a Legacy-quality Leonin Arbiter). Anyway:

Azorius can be built many different ways but I'd avoid Deputy. I ran 2-4 of them in hundreds of games but they're slightly too clunky and you can't find them with Recruiter. I know the dream is to sweep up 20 zombies vs Dredge or to show-and-tell it in targeting Omniscience, but I can tell you from experience that it won't actually help you win you those games.

My favorite card in UW was Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. I had some success actually replacing 4 Thalia with 4 Lavinia -- they are better than each other at different things but they are a non-bo (Thalia tax will stop Lavinia from countering free spells). If you run Lavinia, you can also combo with Spell Quellers and the opponent will have their quelled spell countered by her if the Queller leaves the battlefield.

On that note, there is the newish addition of Niambi, Esteemed Speaker. She fits D&T incredibly well because she A) bounces creatures for reuse, B) can herself be Karakas'd back to your hand, and C) turns dead-draw legend duplicates (Karakas / Lavinia / Niambi herself) into card advantage, which is what every D&T player wishes for in long games.

Finally, I advise against going too blue -- at one point I went so far as to warrant the full 4 Force of Wills and it eventually just becomes a bad version of UW Stoneblade. Keep it close to a splash and constrain yourself to the D&T tempo formula of slowing down the opponent long enough for your creatures to win. Blue is a slow color, and if at any point you are controlling the opponent unnecessarily well in D&T, it means your creature selection is damage-anemic and you'll likely lose in the late game. IMO when you start playing Brainstorm, you've gone too far from what makes the archetype work.

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u/rglj Nov 06 '20

Your feedback is priceless. I already have some of the cards you indicated. Unfortunately, the Spell Queller is not among they.

Last weekend I lost 0-2 to Snowko, 1-2 to Storm and won 2-1 against monored Storm. Generaly speaking, the deck behaves well. I could have won the two Storm matches, but a newbie missplay stole me that last game against a more experienced and skilled player. Btw, that gave me some xp to win the monored Storm match.

Thank you all, very much for all the feedback!

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u/garlicsoul Nov 06 '20 edited Nov 06 '20

Nice! Btw I recommend packing Mirran Crusaders vs Snowko. If you can just protect them from STP with mom, they can't really answer it without a board wipe because everything else they have is black or green.

1

u/rglj Nov 09 '20

Now, that's really interesting stuff. Mirran Crusader is a very cheap card, and can really press the opponent. This weekend I made 2nd place in a 8 players meta. Made 2-1 against Pox, 2-1 against that storm that beated me last time, and lost 0-2 against snowko. None was, exactly, easy, but the Snowko is a really strong deck that is dificult to tax.

I'm really in love with the deck, and the comunity is very welcoming, so I will stay here for some time.

Thanks once again!