For all of the people on reddit who wanted to see my list, this one is for you.
Eldrazi and Taxes is a hybrid of a control deck and a midrange deck. The deck is midrange due to playing hard to kill creatures such as
Thought-Knot Seer
and
Reality Smasher
. The deck is control because we utilize mana denial to it's fullest in the form of blowing up our opponents' lands with
Ghost Quarter
combined with
Leonin Arbiter
,
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
by making their noncreature spells cost more, and even playing a
Flickerwisp
on their upkeep to stall them a land.
The deck has some interesting choices in it that seem to defy logical deck building strategies. First off, the deck is extremely creature heavy. Due to Thalia making noncreature spells costing 1 more to play, we want to minimize this affecting us as much as possible. Because of this, we only run 8 noncreature spells:
Path to Exile
, and
Aether Vial
. Path pulls double duty. It not only deals with a troublesome creature, but it also fuels exile for our
Wasteland Strangler
. Aether Vial allows us to cheat in our creatures at instant speed and play some interesting shenanigans such as Vialing in a Leonin Arbiter when our opponent cracks a fetchland or we can vial in a
Tidehollow Sculler
on their draw step to strip something useful. Another reason to play Aether Vial is because we have such a high density of creatures in our deck. It is to note that Aether Vial is a "may" ability. You can vial at strategic times to keep your opponent honest and not actually vial anything in. This is seen to its truest extent in legacy.
As for our Creatures...
Leonin Arbiter
- Don't leave home without them. They are a mainstay in the Modern version of Death and Taxes as we don't have access to
Wasteland
or
Rishadan Port
s like our Legacy brethren. Arbiter has an amazing synergy against fetchlands which is something modern takes for granted. Being able to make our opponent not be able to fetch is huge. Arbiter plus Ghost Quarter is enough sometimes to just put our opponent behind enough for us to take the lead. I was playtesting with a friend playing Naya Burn and I had out a vial on 2, a plains, and a GQ. He went to bolt the Thalia I had out so he could swing in with his Goblin Guide. I let it resolve and he played a fetch land. When he went to crack it, in response, I Pathed his Goblin Guide, GQ'd his land, and vialed. When it resolved, I put out a Leonin Arbiter and he missed out on 3 fetch triggers. This card is nuts.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- Ah Thalia, I always loved her character in the story and was so happy she didn't become corrupted on our return trip to Innistrad. Thalia slows the game down a little as our opponents need to pay one more in order to cast their spells. "So what? what's one mana more" you're probably thinking. Well, think about why a soft counter like
Mana Leak
sees modern play but a hard counter like
Cancel
doesn't. Why is
Lightning Bolt
the go to removal spell over
Lightning Strike
? One mana can make a huge difference. Especially when your opponent has to pay 25% 50%, or even 100% more on a spell. Plus, having First Strike makes her tough to kill in creature combat which is very relevant in magic unless you are like me and just play Tron =)
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
- I really like this card. One, it comes down at a time where some decks are just winning the game or taking over the game. This not only slows them down, but thanks to the pressure that this deck provides, it can act as a clock as your opponent can't deal with the board fast enough because they will always be a turn behind on their lands. Plus, thanks to the fetch heavy nature of modern, New Thalia fits right on home with the rest of the mana denial suite
Tidehollow Sculler
- This guy might not seem like he is that great of a card on the surface. He's a grizzly bear that can strip a card from your opponent's hand until they decide to kill them. But there is more to this little fella than meets the eye. Why he might not be a transformer, he can be vialed in your opponent's draw step and put your opponent in an awkward scenario. They can kill it with a bolt or whatever and be done with it now OR they can not do anything and be short a card. Here's the great thing: Sculler is pretty much the same as
Fiend Hunter
and not
Banisher Priest
. Both of these cards are the same in function but because the return condition is its own separate clause, if you blink a Fiend Hunter when it's ability is on the stack, the new Fiend Hunter will have no memory of the previous one's effect. So you can exile a creature forever. Tidehollow Sculler works the same way which is great because we can abuse that. BUT FIRST...
Wasteland Strangler
- This guy is sweet. He has a sweet interaction with Tidehollow Sculler and the next card on our list. Since you exile the card with Tidehollow Sculler, it is definitely a legal target to get processed. This is great because you can then effectively bolt a creature. The only problem is that you HAVE to bolt a creature. So if you process something and Strangler is the only creature on the field, you HAVE to choose him as a target. Unfortunate but that's the way the world turns. Also, if you exile a card with Tidehollow Sculler and then process it, if your opponent kills the Sculler, they don't get the card back as it is no longer exiled under the sculler.
Flickerwisp
- Now, going back to blinking things, FLICKERWISP! This thing is great. I had a hard time at first finding the little great things about this card but once I did, it has made me think of this elemental in a better light. First off, Vialing this in can do some weird shit to the game. It can be a SUPRISE MOTHERF*CKER!. It can save a creature about to die. It can flicker an opponent's land to make them effectively miss a land drop for the turn or possibly even more if they actually DO miss their land drop for the turn. It can flicker unwanted blockers and even make newer players call a judge over when you combine this with our next creature. Also, a 3/1 flyer can end the game fairly quickly with a couple of unblocked swings.
Reality Smasher
- I first want to put this on the record: this card is busted. It is way too strong of a card for 5 mana. The only thing that keeps this card from being played everywhere, is the fact that it requires a colorless mana symbol. That being said, Smasher is the best finisher in our deck. Dropping this bomb late game will most likely win us the game. First of all, it is very difficult to remove from play as it is at worst, a 2-for-1. I have seen people discard 2 cards to double bolt this guy and the E&T player vial in a flickerwisp to protect it. That is what I call value. Another fun thing to do with Flickerwisp and Smasher is if your opponent blocks the Reality Smasher, if you vial in a Fliskerwisp to flicker the blocker, you will assign all of the trample damage over to your opponent. This is outlined in rule 702.19c 'If an attacking creature with trample is blocked, but there are no creatures blocking it when damage is assigned, all its damage is assigned to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking." Take 5
Thought-Knot Seer
- Another way to get the beat train going and have a Tidehollow Sculler effect to boot is to play this guy. A 4/4 body is tough to deal with. Add to it that you get information as well as the ability to strip your opponent's hand is amazing. Plus, the card exiled with TKS can be processed away. NEATO! "Oh, is that the one spell you need in order to get back into the game? I Thought-Knot."
Eldrazi Displacer
- This just might be my favorite card in the deck. Oh boy does this thing do the nuts. Flickerwisp is great because you can flicker things until the of the end of turn. This guy may be slightly more narrow-sighted but it can do amazing things. First off, the ability is rather easy to activate; sometimes multiple times in the same turn. It can tap down your opponent's creatures, it can displace your flickerwisp on your opponent's upkeep to flicker their lands, it can displace a Tidehollow Sculler or a TKS on your opponent's draw step to take their best card. You can even displace your own creatures that are being targeted for removal. This card also has an amazing synergy with the last card on my list and it's one that most people don't utilize.
Wall of Omens
- I was playtesting the deck and what I kept finding was that between casting the low cmc creatures as well as vialing them in, my hand was being depleted more than I cared for. The deck wants to refill it's hand but within Black an White, this just isn't viable. So here comes WoO. First off, it blocks aggro for days and even some tarmogoyfs. It replaces itself in hand by drawing you a card. You can flicker it for repeated draw and value and if you REALLY like taking the value train, you can displace it multiple times as a mana sink in the late game to refill your hand with targets for your Aether Vials or, hopefully, drawing into your Reality Smashers or Thought-Knot Seers. This card also makes an amazing bluff. Vial on 2 and your opponent goes to search through their library, you activate vial and now they have to play around the obvious of Thalia or Arbiter. So they play around it and don't get the most optimal play and when you go to vial, you can bring in a Wall of Omens and draw a card. This card is great and I am not sorry about trying it out as it definitely helps the deck out when at times it seems like it would fizzle because you can't draw enough cards to refill your hand.
Dark Confidant
- I was originally against Bob for the following explanation, "We could play
Dark Confidant
but that is a bad idea and here's why. Jund run only 2 4-drops. Junk runs about 4 but can gain 3 of the life back from
Siege Rhino
. If Bob hits when of those spells, it isn't as bad as junk can regain the life and jund doesn't have as high of a probability to hit them in the first place. We run 4 4-drops and 2 5-drops in the Mainboard without the ability to gain life easily. This makes running Bob incredibly risky. Plus his ability only triggers once a turn." Now, my opinion of Bob has changed since then. When I originally wrote this, the deck didn't have the fastlands. So, we had to shock ourselves in order to play a land untapped. Coupled with the pings from Caves of Koilos, we were taking a little too much damage and Bob would make it worse. Now that we have a dual that comes in untapped, our life is less of a worrisome resource. This is great because Dark Confidant is a fantastic card advantage engine. So it doesn't matter as much that we take a few points of damage from him. Plus, if we rip reality smasher, he will be able to close the game out much faster than our opponents.
That is it for the creatures. I am going to discuss the land next but not as in depth as each creature.
Ghost Quarter
- As I mentioned above when discussing Leonin Arbiter, this card is great. At worst, it makes your opponent lose a shock land and get a basic instead. Which isn't a bad thing. I was playing against Naya Burn once with RG Tron and I played a GQ and my opponent went to swing for lethal and I GQ'd his Sacred Foundry and hoped he didn't have a Plains to keep the
Wild Nacatl
a 3/3. He failed to find the Plains and I lived for one more turn. I ultimately lost that game next turn as he showed me a hand of 2 Boros Charms and an Atarka's Command on my next turn so nothing was going to save my ass. This is what GQ can do at worst. At best, it is a
Strip Mine
. It is to note that GQ doesn't act like a land in this deck. We use it as a "destroy target land, skip your land drop for the turn" sort of spell.
Eldrazi Temple
- A card on the potential chopping block during Eldrazi Winter, this card allows for the stupid plays of T2 Stranglers or Displacers if in single and with two out, we can get a T2 TKS or a T3 Reality Smasher. It also makes using Displacer's ability easier as it requires less lands. Check please.
Godless Shrine
- You play modern, you know how great shocklands are. Next.
Shambling Vent
- We need to make sure that we can cast our spells so we need ways to produce both White and Black Mana. Plus, it makes us a dude who can block and can even gain us some life.
Caves of Koilos
- This is a Tri-land. It can get us either the White or Black we need as well as provide Colorless mana which a couple of our creatures require.
Fetid Heath
- This card is well worth the $30 price tag. Heath can make us able to produce the WB mana needed on T2 to cast Sculler even when we don't have another colored source besides the one we played the previous turn. The deck has a very awkward mana base and this card holds it all together. I would be inclined to play 2 but I only have one. Confirmation from anyone who has tested 2 would be appreciated.
Swamp
and
Plains
- Path or GQ got you down? We can fix that.
That is it. Eldrazi and Taxes. Love it or Hate it, this deck will be a regular contender for a time to come. Hope you enjoyed my guide. If I have missed anything, point it out. If I was completely wrong on something and you want me to know so I don't look like an ignorant tool on the internet, leave a comment and I will get adjust accordingly. Have a great day everyone!
