At last year’s Players’ Championship, the Roanoke contingent of Brad Nelson, Todd Anderson, and Tom Ross showed up with Death and Taxes for the Legacy portion. They slaughtered the competition, losing only when they were paired against each other.
The Roanokians opted for a classic mono-white build, but some Death and Taxes decks have been splashing Imperial Recruiter. With some additional utility, the deck becomes even more dangerous. You get a toolbox of disruptive creatures and even to get to play cool stuff like Magus of the Moon.
Well, shelve those Plateaus. You won’t need them anymore.
In a deck that creates incremental advantage and slowly puts its opponents in a choke-hold, any body that provides utility or card advantage or can hold Equipment is useful. Recruiter of the Guard does each, and it does them all well. It’s going to be a staple of the archetype.
The most important thing to note is that Recruiter of the Guard keys off toughness, unlike Imperial Recruiter. You can’t search for Painter’s Servant with this one, but you probably don’t want to anyway. After all, you’d rather have access to Red Elemental Blast in your Painter’s Servant deck.
Not only is Recruiter of the Guard on-color, but it’s better than Imperial Recruiter!
Why, you ask?
Flickerwisp is the most misunderstood card in Death and Taxes, and it’s among the most vital to the deck’s success.
With Recruiter of the Guard, Flickerwisp gets worlds better.
Given enough time, the Recruiter of the Guard / Flickerwisp combo can do a mean Squadron Hawk impersonation, ultimately ending with you having a flying army. It’s going to take a few turns because Flickerwisp doesn’t return the creature until the end step, but having that option is incredible.
Death and Taxes has always been on the fringe of being Tier 1, and it wouldn’t surprise me if this put it over the top.
I don’t expect Recruiter of the Guard to only show up in Death and Taxes, either. It’s possible to remake Aluren with white cards instead of red ones. Instead of Dream Stalker, you could have something like Arctic Merfolk, but you also get access to white mana and some very powerful sideboard options.
It’s conveniently a Soldier, so it might even breathe new life into the very fringe “Soldier Stompy” deck.
There’s also Cube Draft, where Recruiter of the Guard will certainly be a powerhouse.
Searching up Kitchen Finks is rather tame, but the value of finding a Ranger of Eos or Hallowed Spiritkeeper is massive. You can even do some sweet stuff with the conveniently on-color Karmic Guide.
A three-mana 1/1 may not seem exciting on first glance, but Recruiter of the Guard has numerous possibilities. It’s easily a multi-format staple, and you can expect to see a lot of it.