Modern 5-0 Eldrazi and Taxes

by philosopher99 on 26 December 2020

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Instants (3)


Enchantments (4)

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Deck Description

This is a recent (Dec 5, 2020) 5-0 Eldrazi and Taxes list, that caught my eye due to the balance of threats in the deck, as shown by the 3 copies of 6 creatures, which is different than the traditional 4 copies of 9 cards with 24 lands.

I am saddened by the removal of charming prince, as I loved flickering it to save my displacer, however, I do believe that adding Skyclave Apparition in the Prince's place provides more utility in because it can deal with any nonland permanent that is CMC 4 or less

Link: https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/eldrazi-and-taxes-decklist-by-rebus8-1069417

How to Play

I see this deck as 4 parts: land disruption, hand disruption, nonland permanent disruption, and making nonland spells cost more.

1) Land disruption:

I) Leonin Arbiter & enemy fetch land interactions:

Leonin Arbiter acts as a barrier to opponents using their fetch lands because they have to spend 2 mana to search for their land.

It is important to note that your opponent has to pay the 2 mana before the fetch land's ability resolves because if it resolves and they did not pay the mana, they are not able to search. This happens when your opponent is unfamiliar with Leonin Arbiter's ability or simply forgot to pay the tax.

MTGjudges.com explains it as "Leonin Arbiter‘s static ability prevents player from searching their libraries unless they pay 2 mana. Paying this mana is a special action that can only be done when a player has priority. Technically speaking, in order to search your library you must pay this two mana before any effect that would allow you to search starts to resolve." (https://preview.tinyurl.com/y8zn8ox7)

II) Advanced Leonin Arbiter, Eldrazi Displacer, & Fetch Land interactions:

Your opponent pays 2 mana for the Leonin Arbiter search cost, then sacrifices their fetch land and passes priority to you. If the fetch land is on the stack and you have priority, you can activate Displacer's ability to flicker Leonin Arbiter, so when priority gets passed back to your opponent, they have to pay an additional 2 mana to search for their land. If the opponent does not pay the additional 2 mana and lets the fetch resolve, they do not get to search for their land.

MTGO & FNM Rulings on not paying Leonin Arbiter's tax:

If you are playing on MTGO and your opponent did not pay the 2 mana, the client simply lets the fetchland resolve and the opponent cannot search their library for their land

If you are playing at Friday night magic or another variant of modern night magic and your opponent forgets to pay the search cost and goes to search for their land, kindly remind them that they did not pay the tax and, as a result, they cannot search for their land.

If you opponent asks for a redo, that is, to go back in time in the game before the spell resolves to pay the Arbiter cost, kindly call a judge, explain the situation and the request, and get them to rule on it because you should not be put into a situation where you have to decide whether to put yourself in a situation where correcting a mistake by your opponent will negatively affect you.

Most of the time the judge will authorize a redo, as modern night magic uses rules that are used to encourage learning, however, sometimes the judge will not let the redo happen, so it's always best to simply call a judge, as this allows you to maintain a positive relationship with your opponent.

III) Leonin Arbiter & Ghost Quarter interaction:

Activating a Ghost Quarter with a Leonin Arbiter on the field has the potential to act as a strip mine, where you destroy an opponent's land and prevent them from searching for a basic land.

IV) Leonin Arbiter & Path to Exile Interaction:

Playing a Path to Exile with Leonin Arbiter on the field has the potential to exile a creature, while preventing them to search for a basic land.

V) Aether Vial and Flickerwisp Interaction:

Using Aether Vial's ability to bring a Flickerwisp into play at the end of your turn, has the ability to remove an opponent's land until the end of their turn. This action is especially important against Tron decks, as this shuts down their 7 mana production ability.

VI) Aether Vial, Flickerwisp, and Wasteland Strangler Interaction:

You can also vial in a flickerwisp during your main phase to exile an opponent's land and then play a Wasteland Strangler to put that land into their graveyard.

2) Hand disruption:

I) Thought-Knot Seer:

When Thought-Knot Seer enters the battlefield, your opponent reveals their hand and you get to exile a nonland from their hand. When Thought-Knot Seer leaves the battlefield, your opponent draws a card.

II) Thought-Knot Seer and Eldrazi Displacer Interaction

The goal of this interaction is to control an opponent's draw step. This is done by blinking Thought-Knot Seer with Eldrazi Displacer, at the end of your opponent's draw step, to make them draw a card and then exile a nonland threat from their hand. This prevents your opponent from playing threats against you.


III) Tidehollow Sculler:

When Tidehollow Sculler enters the battlefield,

Deck Tags

  • death and taxes
  • Stax
  • Modern
  • Eldrazi
  • Orzhov
  • 2020

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

2
Likes

This deck has been viewed 914 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

330600

Deck Format


Modern

NOTE: Set by owner when deck was made.

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Modern 5-0 Eldrazi and Taxes

Your tidehollow sculler interaction is not complete in its description.
If timed correctly it will exile the first card put under it.

I've always questioned builds with 4 æther vials and has tested æther vial enough to know that only few decks need 4 of it.
I've had builds down to 1 vial that worked pretty well.

Currently there's some focus on ghost quarters + flagstones of trokair where the goal is to hit the flagstones to gain more mana faster

-1
Posted 27 December 2020 at 07:17

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You're correct in the tidehollow interaction, as I am stilling working on my how to play.

What would you put in place of Aether Vials? I'm thinking charming prince for his flicker effect.

Ghost quarters + flagstones of trokair would be best if Leonin Arbiter was not in play. I have also seen flagstones of trokair in RW taxes decks for ramp.

Thank you for your comments,

Philosopher99

0
Posted 31 December 2020 at 15:44

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I have no idea what to put in instead of a removed vial.
I usually spend days play testing to find out what works best.

I do have one curve that could be fun to use for death and taxes.
Search for the decktag: highland
Then click on the deck titled something like"project highlander"
It has just a single vial, and would give you a hell of a lot more creatures.

It can even support thoughtknot seer without eldrazi temple though it wont hit the table at turn 2-3.

The flagstone scenario is only used when you have no leonin in play. As soon as that happens you start on thinning out your own deck by removing lands from it, increasing the speed at which you draw a new leonin, then you revert back to eliminating the opponent lands :)
I'm ancient in magic, so I can tell you that some of the older versions of death and taxes had phyrexian revoker to lock down fetchlands, which made the leonin/thalia lock even better. And they used weathered wayfarer to draw the ghostquarters at a faster pace.

-1
Posted 31 December 2020 at 18:21

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I brewed a d&t version of the concept.
Changed the decktag: wdm highland

-1
Posted 31 December 2020 at 19:48

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