So yesterday was an event at Top Deck Games NJ. In the weeks leading up to this event I had planned on playing some sort of blue deck weather it be landstill, mentor, bomberman, or big blue, as I am predominantly a blue control player. Me and my buddy Dave Reitnauer would test in real life once or twice a week for 4+ hours at a time. I just couldn't get comfortable with any of the blue decks. All of them felt close to being correct but not quite right. So this is when I revisited the idea of RW Death and Taxes. I developed and put this deck on the map around 6 months or so ago putting up 2 top eight finishes. Oddly enough through hours and hours of testing, my red white hate deck seemed to be the most well positioned against the meta game. So below is a lost and mini report of my deck and its performance!
"Simian Mom" (RW Death & Taxes)
3 Mother of Runes
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Sudden Shock
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Containment Priest
3 Thalia Guardian of Thraben
3 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Leonin Relic-Warder
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Plateau
2 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
1 Flooded Strand
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Keldon Megoliths
2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
SIDEBOARD
4 Grafdiggers Cage
2 Umezawas Jitte
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Shattering Spree
1 Wasteland
2 Path to Exile
1 Phyrexian Revoker
Rd 1 - 2-0 win vs Alex on Martello Shops
Game 1 - Alex puts me on Terra Nova shops as that was what I was running last time we played. I'm on the play and have turn 1 thalia, he is surprised and I wasteland his shops. I then follow up with mom and spirit of the labyrinth. He never comes back.
Game 2 - my opener has 2 chewers, some lands, and some dudes. He is on the lock me out of the game via sphere of resistance plan. I continue to make land drops and he is actually hindering his development with his own spheres. We get to the mid game and he revokes my pearl. My next play is lavamancer which takes care of revoker and puts on a clock as he already helped me with ancient tomb damage. At this point I used minimal removal spells and have a fist full of chewers and relic wader. He draws a 2nd shop and can start casting big dudes...I answer golem, hellkite, hellkite 3 turns in a row and take over thereafter!
Rd 2 - 2-0 win vs Nick DiJohn on Martello Shops
Game 1 - I'm sure Nick puts me on blue as that's all he's ever seen me play. He leads with shop into thorn. I strip mine his shop and start playing bears. He doesn't have another good land for 2 turns and I overwhelm the board
Game 2 - Nick keeps an awkward hand playing around my waste effects first and foremost. He leads with cavern pass. I lead with plains. He then plays crucible...I'm not sure if I drew lotus or pearl. But I end up wasting shops and relic warden his crucible in the same turn. He then doesn't draw well enough to come back
Rd 3 - 2-1 win vs Michael Savage on Dack Bomberman
Game 1 - I have fairly fast paced hand with thalia relic warder and friends. I attack Savage to 5 life before he kills my key bears and wins via combo
Game 2 - we battle back and forth early game, involving me spending 3 plow effects to kill salvagers. I end up with 2 mom and flamespeaker on my side and he has Jace and trinket mage on his...I use mom and speaker to enable me to +2 cards every turn until I just draw too many relevant cards over 3 turns involving killing trinket, casting spirit to shut off Jace, and I just continued the beats
Game 3 - This was an odd game. He leads with tundra into needle naming wasteland. I am holding strip mine, thalia, revoker, 3 cavern, jitte. I strip his tundra to keep him off white. A turn or 2 later he plays salvagers off lotus but luckily thalia only allows him to not go infinite. I use revoker on salvagers. I then relic warder on sol ring and cast jitte. Luckily for me at this point lotus was in grave and he was stuck without white mana for a bunch of turns. I equip jitte to warder and attack into a waiting salvagers to get tokens on jitte. He blocks and get ring back. I then equip to thalia knowing I can attack into salvagers due to first strike and counters on jitte. This combo takes over and I land a spirit of the labyrinth and never look back!
Rd4 ID
Rd 5 - 1-2 loss vs Joel on Mentor (played for seating for t8) I played this match so I can see how my side boarding worked out and how tough the match would be! I do know I need a strong proactive hand to win this match up...
Game 1 - he beats me in a long game where he has a lot of removal and grinds out a win
Game 2 - I have a lot of bears pushing him into a corner while sudden shock takes care of mentor only producing 1 token
Game 3 - My hand wasnt good enough after mulling to 6 and his hand was strong.
T8 - 2-0 win vs Sean on Pyromancer Big Blue
Game 1 - Leading into this match I have no clue what Sean is playing. I have a suspicion he's on some sort of blue but I don't really know. He leads with preordained while I lead with thalia. He casts young pyromancer and i assume im vs tempo...I cast spirit and mom. He plays a underground sea and I'm confused. At this point I'm thinking he can have Yawg will demonic and vamp in his deck. Sure enough he casts will to preordain and try to get into the game. He has Pyro and 2 tokens and I cast grim lavamancer...grim chips away at his mini army And I play revoker on time vault for safe measure
Game 2 - Sean gas another slow hand while I have a fairly good hand controlling the pace of the game. Mid game rolls around and I almost have lethal on board and he has 6 cards in hand and I don't want to lose to key vault. I have relic warder in hand and priest on board to stop tinker bot. I then cast revoker on vault with mom on board and I know the game is sealed. He then in fact casts time vault. That's the match
T4 - 0-2 loss vs ??? on Mentor
Game 1 - I mulligan to 6 on the play and he starts with library of alexandria. I don't have wasteland and by the time I try to do things the game is already over as he's drawing 2 cards per turn
Game 2 - My hand isn't fast but it has thalia, revoker, 2 jitte, cavern, 2 land. I lead with plateau pass. He has land, lotus, jace. He brainstorms to sculpt hand...he has removal for both my bears and then my 3rd bear he has more removal...I lose the match against 2 busted hands
The deck is deceivingly good. I am a blue player and love this deck. It's a control deck that controls via creatures. One of the best cards in the deck is mother of runes. I can not put any more emphasis on this. It literally kept me in a ton of must win games protecting my good bears.
Finally...I have only played this deck 4 times in events. First 2 times lead to top 8, 3rd time I lost in my win and in round, and this time I got top 4. So I am 3 for 4 in topping with this deck which is better percentage then any deck I've played with in a long time!
Hope everyone loves the read! Some of the sequences may be slightly off but it's as close as I can recall! Enjoy!
