Rack and Taxes: Exploring Taxing Control in Classic Legacy
“Drawing 3 cards a turn is so absurd; why is no one doing this?” “Likely because no one cares about drawing basic lands every turn.” After missing a Top 8 finish at Premodern Lobstercon 2023, I became obsessed with the {Land Tax engine until it was inevitably banned a couple of months later.
I put {Land Tax} on the shelf and hoped I'd revisit the deck one day. I found Classic Legacy by accident at first. I had heard about it and started thinking about a few decks I might want to play, but ultimately shelved the idea— until it started getting more publicity. I had hit a bit of a wall in Premodern, deck-building-wise, and wanted to try something else.
I made about 10 Classic lists before realizing Land Tax was legal. That's when I started bombarding my dear putter-up-with-my-constant-nonsense and friend, Mike Packer (MarineBiomancer), with ideas to revive that Lobstercon list in Classic. Here is the original list:
Classic Legacy Bant Tax
DECKLIST_START
Sorceries
3 {Gaea's Blessing} [1][g]
1 {Spontaneous Generation} [3][g]
Instants
4 {Counterspell} [u][u]
4 {Enlightened Tutor} [w]
3 {Foil} [2][u][u]
3 {Gush} [4][u]
4 {Swords to Plowshares} [w]
Artifacts
4 {Mox Diamond} [0]
4 {Scroll Rack} [2]
1 {Ivory Tower} [1]
1 {Phyrexian Furnace} [1]
1 {Zuran Orb} [0]
Enchantments
4 {Land Tax} [w]
1 {Humility} [2][w][w]
1 {Seal of Cleansing} [1][w]
1 {Sylvan Library} [1][g]
Lands
4 {Flooded Strand}
4 {Undiscovered Paradise}
6 {Island}
5 {Plains}
1 {Forest}
Sideboard
4 {Annul} [u]
2 {Blue Elemental Blast} [u]
2 {Engineered Plague} [2][b]
4 {Meddling Mage} [u][w]
1 {Sylvan Library} [1][g]
1 {Tormod's Crypt} [0]
1 {Wrath of God} [2][w][w]
DECKLIST_END
Sam Black created the list to abuse {Gush}, {Land Tax}, and {Scroll Rack} to build a control deck that runs with as few threats as possible, uses {Gaea’s Blessing} to loop your deck, keeps recycling your {Swords to Plowshares} and {Counterspell}s, and locks your opponent out of the game. The Tax engine works by fetching basics from your deck, then putting them back with {Scroll Rack}. This lets you fetch them again the next turn, and you keep exchanging 3+ cards for more real answers. After about two turns of this, most matchups are unloseable, as you have effectively drawn six extra cards and sculpted a nearly perfect hand.
The deck was incredibly powerful, and even though I lost {Gush}, I gained {Brainstorm} and {Jace, The Mind Sculptor} as additional ways to put basic lands back into the deck so I could refetch them with Tax. This puts less emphasis on finding a {Scroll Rack} right away, and {Land Tax} shuffles the library every turn, so I can reset my {Brainstorm}s without a fetchland. On my initial pass at creating a Classic list, I swapped the {Counterspell}s from the original Premodern list for {Daze}s, the {Gush}es for {Brainstorm}s, and {Spontaneous Generation} for }Jace, The Mind Sculptor}. I didn’t feel like I needed both {Ivory Tower} and {Zuran Orb}, and with {Brainstorm} and Jace acting as pseudo {Scroll Rack}s, I could cut those to fit in more powerful card combinations like {Counterbalance} and {Sensei’s Diving Top}, as well as {Ajani Vengeant} and {Back to Basics}.
{Back to Basics} by Andrew Robinson
Ajani plus {Back to Basics} means that if my opponent uses one of the basics for mana, they won’t get it back any time soon and will likely be stunted long enough to ultimate, so they can’t come back from the {Back to Basics} lock. The deck also has access to {Porphyry Nodes} as a cheaper way to answer many creatures or buy me time to build my engine while the opponent waits for Nodes to eat their fill.
After talking to Packer a bit more, he convinced me that {Daze} may not be the card I was looking for, since it isn't great into the late game, and the deck is definitely trying to reach turn 20+ at times. I put the {Counterspell}s back in, though I wondered if that was the right move, given the synergies with Tax, {Foil}, and the much-needed early interaction. He also suggested a singleton {The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale}, which I loved as a way to also help manage go-wide strategies and force people to play out more lands.
So, we arrive at my first attempt at a Classic Legacy Tax build. I called it Raka Rack after the Raka and cards from the Invasion block, since the deck felt more [u][w][r] than any other color combo.
Because the deck wants to play an extremely long game one, I want to ensure I have a way to answer any permanent an opponent may have resolved, and since the deck is susceptible to CounterTop strategies, I needed to have a {Disenchant} effect main. I wanted the effect to cost 3 mana, since it's easier to resolve against an active {Counterbalance}, but I also wanted the card to be tutorable off {Enlightened Tutor}.
{Enlightened Tutor} by Dan Frazier
This basically left {Aura of Silence} as the best option, and it is nice to play preemptively to make opponents play more lands to cast their spells, fueling {Land Tax}. Similarly, since our game ones are likely to go long and we have no creatures in the main, our sideboard has seven creatures to pivot and close out games two and three. These creatures also serve as disruption.
{Jötun Grunt} also shuffles cards back into my deck and provides graveyard hate for decks playing {Tarmogoyf}, Dredge, Reanimator, etc. {Meddling Mage} works well in this deck, as I can name {Force of Will} with the first one that resolves against most blue decks and then have more counters than the opponent, since I am running {Foil} over {Force of Will}.
This is likely the moment I should explain: why {Foil}? {Foil} is a free counterspell, like {Force of Will}, and in Legacy, free counter magic or cheap interaction is always necessary. Even if I had the correct blue card count to make {Force of Will} work in this list, I would still play {Foil}.
{Foil}’s alternate cast cost is discarding an {Island} and any other card. This is obviously worse than {Force of Will}, since you lose two cards instead of one, and you need an {Island}. The upside is that {Land Tax} puts basic Islands into your hand, and the cards are discarded rather than exiled. This means that as the game goes on, I will still have access to all my cards as I use Blessing/Grunt to put them back into the deck.
{Firestorm} is another card that fits this same ideology. It is cheap interaction and has a high investment cost, often requiring 3+ cards to be discarded. The deck struggles against go-wide strategies because it has no sweepers in the main deck, so we need something in the board for Elves, Goblins, Merfolk, etc. {Firestorm} is an easy way to convert the basic lands we got off {Land Tax} into actual cards by killing creatures/planeswalkers.
[u][w][r][g] Parfait
DECKLIST_START
Planeswalkers
1 {Ajani Vengeant} [2][r][w]
1 {Jace, the Mind Sculptor} [2][u][u]
Sorceries
3 {Gaea's Blessing} [1][g]
Instants
4 {Brainstorm} [u]
3 {Counterspell} [u][u]
4 {Enlightened Tutor} [w]
3 {Foil} [2][u][u]
4 {Swords to Plowshares} [w]
Artifacts
4 {Mox Diamond} [0]
2 {Scroll Rack} [2]
1 {Sensei's Divining Top} [1]
1 {Tormod's Crypt} [0]
1 {Zuran Orb} [0]
Enchantments
4 {Land Tax} [w]
1 {Aura of Silence} [1][w][w]
1 {Back to Basics} [2][u]
1 {Counterbalance} [u][u]
1 {Porphyry Nodes} [w]
Lands
4 {Flooded Strand}
4 {Undiscovered Paradise}
6 {Island}
1 {Plains}
1 {Tropical Island}
1 {Tundra}
1 {Volcanic Island}
1 {The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale}
Sideboard
1 {Blue Elemental Blast} [u]
2 {Firestorm} [r]
3 {Jotun Grunt} [1][w]
2 {Krosan Grip} [2][g]
4 {Meddling Mage} [u][w]
1 {Pithing Needle} [1]
1 {Pyroblast} [r]
1 {Red Elemental Blast} [r]
DECKLIST_END
I ran the list in the Webcam Monthly on the Classic Legacy Discord server for October. My first match was against Swagohod on a [g][w] {Knight of the Reliquary}-{Aether Vial} midrange deck. Unfortunately, I couldn't assemble Tax Rack fast enough and got beaten down by Knight.
In game two, I assembled a turn-two {Back to Basics} off a {Mox Diamond}. Swag tapped out for a {Qasali Pridemage}. I jammed an {Ajani Vengeant}, helixing the Pridemage. Swag conceded.
In game three, Swag had my number. Numerous {Krosan Grip}s and Pridemages keep me from assembling the engine, and I died to the beatdown.
The second match was against MrMello on Red Deck Wins (RDW). Main deck Tax plus {Zuran Orb} sealed the deal in game one, with a Jace ticking up to ultimate. Ajani really shines here as a 3-for-1, helixing a creature and forcing another spell or creature attack to finish him off.
{Zuran Orb} by Sandra Everingham
In game two, Mello has a really fast start, and I almost turn the corner but fall to a {Barbarian Ring}. In game three, I set up a fast {Counterbalance} Top and had time to find Tax plus Orb and Grunt to recycle my lands every turn and beat down.
The deck felt great into RDW, and I was a bit rusty against Swag’s [g][w] list, but the matchup still felt winnable. Not having enough data, I kept the list as is and went to the Duress Crew’s Regional Classic Legacy event at Great Stories in Whitinville, MA. This is where the deck's flaws started to show. Instead of doing a full breakdown of the matches, I would rather discuss the recurring themes I noticed while playing the deck.
First, I found myself with an active {Land Tax} and no {Scroll Rack} quite a few times. Usually, opponents correctly identified {Scroll Rack} as the priority target, but by shrinking to two copies made it harder to find. My reasoning was that with {Brainstorm} and Jace, I wouldn’t rely on it as much, and multiple Racks aren’t necessary unless I start getting multiple Taxes in play and don’t have six basics left in the deck. However, because they are so integral to the engine, I think I need to go back up to four copies.
I also let myself get caught without being able to activate my {Scroll Rack} after casting Tax on turn one and Rack on turn two; this led to Rack being removed and me gaining no real value from Tax. This matters because I likely should have waited, played a {Counterspell}, and tutored up more lands so I could activate {Scroll Rack} immediately for 4+ cards; otherwise, I risked not converting those lands into actual spells.
{Jotun Grunt} by Franz Vohwinkel
While I had noticed in my webcam matches that I was siding in Grunts every game and siding out Blessing, I wasn’t sure if that was just because I was playing against creature decks. Turns out, Grunt is better than Blessing most of the time. Grunt plays to the board and has a decent body that can help stabilize early aggression, even if the fuel isn’t there to keep them around for long. The cumulative upkeep can be spread out for each age counter; this allows the option to snipe key cards from the opponents’ graveyard and recycle the ones that are important from mine, where Blessing can only really do this on the first cast, as all subsequent casts should put a Blessing and two other cards back.
Blessing cannot split targets amongst different graveyards. Grunt is an engine by itself; putting cards back every upkeep means you resolve Grunt’s upkeep trigger before Taxing, letting you search the lands you just put back in or shuffle the deck, making it faster to find other key cards you put back. Blessing lets me insulate myself from milling strategies from {High Tide}-style decks, but they don’t seem as popular right now.
Blessing shuffles the library, while Grunt doesn't; this means that if I {Scroll Rack} or {Brainstorm} with no {Land Tax}, I can unlock myself by casting Blessing. Blessing also shuffles the cards back in immediately, whereas Grunt requires me to wait until my upkeep. This can matter against decks like Dredge or Survival, where Blessing might snipe a card, while Grunt is face up and forces the opponent to play into it.
{Land Tax} by Brian Snõddy
{Counterbalance}/Top is good, shocking, I know. I knew having access to CounterTop in the deck made sense and was relatively low cost, given the four {Enlightened Tutor}s and {Scroll Rack} as a poorman’s Top in a pinch, but every time I assembled it, games felt easy. There was a little bit of tension with Tax, as I sometimes wanted to keep a variety of mana values on top to have my bases covered, and Tax may shuffle me into a worse set of three cards, but it also occasionally shuffled a bad set away, letting me look at a fresh set with Top.
{Back to Basics} was a powerhouse. People could still mostly operate under it, since everyone had some basics and usually had pretty good fetchland discipline to retain a few to fetch basics or shuffle after {Brainstorm}s, but it allowed for some knockout games or turning unfavorable board states into positive ones.
Ajani overperformed a lot of the time. Usually, he was just a removal spell, but his ultimate threat won me one game. It is possible that Ajani could be a card like {Lightning Helix}, as it would be cheaper and instant speed, but having synergy with {Back to Basics} and forcing opponents to play more creatures out if I was locking one down with Ajani made {Porphyry Nodes} feel great the time I was able to pull it off.
{Porphyry Nodes} by Alan Pollack
{Tormod’s Crypt} felt terrible. I didn’t play against the decks that it is intended for, like Dredge, but it was so bad to draw. I would rather change it to a {Phyrexian Furnace} or move it to the side.
{Aura of Silence} was a bit awkward to cast at times, being [1][w][w], especially when I needed it in dire situations, like facing down a {Sulfuric Vortex} or {Survival of the Fittest}. It was, however, quite good against CounterTop if I kept them off the board before playing it.
Last but certainly not least, {Counterspell} felt pretty bad. [u][u] was hard to access at times, or it forced me to tap an {Undiscovered Paradise} at inopportune moments. I usually wanted to spend all my mana early to set up the engine as fast as possible, so I often didn't have mana open to cast {Counterspell} when my opponent cast a must-answer like Survival or {Counterbalance}. It also didn’t play well with {Foil}, since I usually needed to play the {Island}s from my hand to have mana open for {Counterspell}, which meant I couldn’t pitchcast the {Foil}.
Sometimes {Counterspell} countered a card that {Spell Snare} or {Daze} couldn't, but more often, spells resolved because I didn’t have mana open for {Counterspell}. I think resolving the engine as soon as possible and interacting with the opponent’s game plan early made {Daze} the better card over {Counterspell}. It could be that one copy of {Counterspell}, as strange as that sounds, could be correct, since I am recycling my cards and want a hard counter in the deck for when the game goes long that isn’t as punishing as {Foil}.
One of my games is on stream in round two, and it illustrates many of the issues I have mentioned here. Below is a revised list given my takeaways from the event.
Updated [u][w][r][g] Parfait
DECKLIST_START
Planeswalkers
1 {Ajani Vengeant} [2][r][w]
1 {Jace, the Mind Sculptor} [2][u][u]
Creatures
3 {Jotun Grunt} [1][w]
Instants
4 {Brainstorm} [u]
1 {Counterspell} [u][u]
3 {Daze} [1][u]
4 {Enlightened Tutor} [w]
2 {Foil} [2][u][u]
4 {Swords to Plowshares} [w]
Artifacts
4 {Mox Diamond} [0]
4 {Scroll Rack} [2]
1 {Sensei's Divining Top} [1]
1 {Zuran Orb} [0]
Enchantments
4 {Land Tax} [w]
1 {Aura of Silence} [1][w][w]
1 {Back to Basics} [2][u]
1 {Counterbalance} [u][u]
Lands
4 {Flooded Strand}
4 {Undiscovered Paradise}
6 {Island}
1 {Plains}
1 {Mountain}
1 {Tropical Island}
2 {Tundra}
1 {Volcanic Island}
Sideboard
1 {Blue Elemental Blast} [u]
2 {Firestorm} [r]
2 {Krosan Grip} [2][g]
4 {Meddling Mage} [u][w]
1 {Pithing Needle} [1]
1 {Pyroblast} [r]
1 {Red Elemental Blast} [r]
1 {Tormod's Crypt} [0]
1 {Propaganda} [2][u]
1 {Ghostly Prison} [2][w]
DECKLIST_END
Given that Grunt was a more impactful Blessing-style card, we dropped the Blessings for Grunts. I shifted the counter magic around to fit in the Dazes for more reliable early interaction and to more easily enable {Foil} and Tax.
Tabernacle was a fun one, but it never came up, and would likely just have been a lightning rod for {Wasteland}, so I swapped it for a {Tundra} to have more options to cast Tax and have {Daze} up on turn one. Swapped {Forest} for {Mountain} as {Gaea's Blessing} is gone. I moved {Tormod’s Crypt} to board and dropped the {Porphyry Nodes} for two additional {Scroll Rack}s.
In the sideboard, I added one {Propaganda} and a {Ghostly Prison}. The tax on attacking fulfills a similar role as Nodes and synergizes with Tax.
{Bitterblossom} remains under the radar. It's a great win condition and, in my opinion, underappreciated. It could be in the board instead of a blast, but I wanted to see how this configuration works before making more changes. Now, an elephant in the room this whole time: {Life from the Loam}. Loam is an engine all by itself, regrwoing {Wasteland}s, Cycling Lands, etc.
{Life from the Loam} by Terese Nielsen
So why go through so many hoops to play {Land Tax} when I could just play Loam and get a very similar,, if not situationally better,, engine? Well, while Loam is a fantastic engine, it is “too good” sometimes. Because of the mill from dredge, Loam locks you out of seeing nonland cards unless you stop or cycle lands. Graveyard hate can also completely stop Loam, which seems to be on many people’s minds. Loam also requires you to cast the same sorcery repeatedly, so {Vendilion Clique}s can tuck the Loam and stop the engine.
All this, and mainly, I like the playstyle of Tax and think it's been underexplored, where Loam feels a bit too easy to include in a lot of lists. I found an older list that used Loam and Scroll Rack to mimic the Tax Rack engine, and it gets around the issue of locking your draws to only lands because you always put 3 lands back on top to be milled the following turn. So, I won’t say that Loaming is completely off the table for me.
I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into my thought process for constructing this Tax list. I hope it inspires a more critical look at some of your own 75s to see what's worth exploring.
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Featured image: {Scroll Rack} by Heather Hudson{