Arena Standard - Azorius Tax Evasion

30 27
27 10 0 23
Midrange

Hi all, 

Just a reminder with the recent rank reset, this deck can get you to Plat w/ a positive win rate!

Firstly - do not spend Rare/Mythic wildcards on it unless you like D&T in Historic as rotation will impact this deck!  I have a positive win rate in Gold Ranked so is feasible, and did get me to Platinum.  Appropriate alternatives can be found in the Maybeboard with some suggestions as follows:

Secondly - the land base was limited by what I have.  I've found that it's a reasonably forgiving list with low colour intesity so doesn't need a ton of two colour lands (read: I haven't resorted to Tranquil Coveimage yet).  

Thirdly - for transparency, I'm not running the following due to a lack of wildcards:

And am running reduced numbers of:

Instead I'm running:

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Game Plan

Control / Tempo the early game and restrict the opponents actions via classic taxing and stax effects backed up by bounce spells and counter spells.

Always land your tax and stax effects first where practical - (so typically try to get Strict Proctorimage out over Skycat Sovereignimage for example)

The MVP will typically be Archon of Emeriaimage coupled with tax, bounce and counter effects.  

The deck has the following ways of breaking parity under an Archon of Emeriaimage:

Deck wants to close the game with a control finisher otherwise you can end up in durdle town (no Rally of Wingsimage in Standard anymore).  I've opted for 4 finishers in the form of 3x Iymrith, Desert Doomimage & 1x Starnheim Unleashedimage, 5 if you include Emeria's Callimage.  I think that any number of finishers from 3 to 5 seem appropriate.  I did drop one Dream Trawlerimage for one Iymrith, Desert Doomimage, the difference between 5 MV and 6 MV is huge in this list.  That said I've cast Emeria's Callimage three times now, and I did cast Dream Trawlerimage a couple of times before cutting it, and in some situations would have preferred the conditional Hexproof over the conditional Ward.  I'm unable to test Legion Angelimage due to wildcard constraints.  

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Lands

Land count is recommended to be 26 (CMC of 3.08), and I'm running 23, here's why:

In my analysis for the mana base I've assumed that:

  • Emeria's Callimage is a Land not a 7 MV card
  • Winged Wordsimage also is being counted as a 3 MV card, whereas in the final analysis I've taken it as a 2 MV card
  • Similarly I've counted Brazen Borrowerimage as both a 2 MV card and a 3 MV card

This gives an average CMC of 2.79 which is at the lower end of the recommended CMC for a 25 land, 60 card deck.  As 24 lands' cut off is 2.72, I'm only being a little bit greedy!

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Changes:

I've cut Strict Proctorimage / Hushbringerimage as ETBs aren't important in the current meta - this opened the way for a bit of experimentation with ETBs in our list.  As such I've added Skyclave Apparitionimage & Watcher of the Spheresimage (back in), cutting the You Find the Villains' Lairimage and Hypnotic Spriteimage I was running due to a lack of Rare Wildcards.  I've experimented with (and then cut) Resplendent Marshalimage (not enough similar creature types) & Glorious Protectorimage (too expensive/slow).  

I've also added one Doomskarimage because it's the best boardwipe for our deck (rebuilding after spending 3 mana is quite possible), but this is only in my 'I don't have enough wildcards' list as I'm not sure that it's better than anything else I'd want to run.  

As discussed in 'closing the game' section, I've cut one Dream Trawlerimage for one Iymrith, Desert Doomimage.  

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Notes on Hushbringerimage / Strict Proctorimage:

The balance between Hushbringerimage / Strict Proctorimage vs ETB effects that you want is hard to get right.  From playing cards like Skyclave Apparitionimage alongside Strict Proctorimage in other D&T lists, I've found that usually your opponent will try to remove them and have only sometimes been screwed by it (definitely outweighing the benefit of having that effect).  

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SlickSamos
Last Updated: 01 Aug 2021
Created: 19 Jul 2021
407 282 0

Mainboard - 60 cards (20 distinct)

Creature (27)
$1.02€1.400.02
$0.34€0.200.02
$2.10€2.152.19
$0.50
$0.35€0.340.18
$0.40€0.390.02
$0.75€0.879.62
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (10)
$0.24€0.100.03
$1.99€2.950.03
$2.501.51
Land (23)
$0.160.03
$0.150.03
$5.49€4.180.15
$0.35€0.200.02
$5.072.01
$14.48€12.961.27
$0.20€0.140.03
$0.59€0.820.02

Maybeboard - 12 cards (9 distinct)

$0.250.03
$0.75€0.640.10
$0.75€0.879.62
$0.30€0.280.02
$0.49€0.270.02
$3.89€5.080.02
$0.39€0.260.03
$0.18€0.080.03
$0.25€0.090.03

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