Rae, Agent of Justice and the case for a sideboard slot

Legacy rewards pilots who respect the seventy-five. Sideboard space is finite, every slot costs a draw step or a tempo swing, and the wrong inclusion can sink a tournament run before round two. White-based creature decks have long wrestled with how to spend those precious slots against Delver, Death's Shadow, and the growing number of token strategies, which is why a small Human Advisor has quietly become a favourite of grinders in Sydney and Melbourne.

Rae, Agent of Justice is a two-mana 2/3 with an enter-the-battlefield effect that taps a creature and puts a +1/+1 counter on another. She carries a channel cost of one white and a discard, giving her a second life as a single-target removal spell. The combination of a relevant body, a tempo-positive ETB, and a cheap disruption line makes her a swiss-army inclusion in Death and Taxes and other white-singleton shells.

Australian Legacy events are a useful proving ground. The format thrives on both coasts, with weekly gatherings at Good Games in Melbourne, regular Legacy nights at Milsons Point in Sydney, and a healthy player base in Brisbane that travels to larger events. Local metagames tend to be slightly creature-heavy compared to European scenes, which gives Rae room to breathe.

She is not a flashy card, and that is precisely the point. In a format where turn-one plays can decide entire matches, having a two-drop that meaningfully interacts with creatures while still advancing a board plan lets pilots stay one step ahead.

The package Rae brings to the board

Rae's enter-the-battlefield trigger asks a target creature to tap and another to receive a +1/+1 counter. Against creature mirrors, that effectively neutralises an opponent's biggest threat while pushing your own clock forward by a turn. The trigger does not require summoning sickness to be relevant, so she can also be deployed on defence, turning a stalled board into a favourable attack.

Her channel ability costs one white and a card. Targeting any creature, it shrinks that creature by one in each statistic until end of turn. This line is most useful against Death's Shadow, Tarmogoyf, and any deck that relies on a few large threats. The cost is real, but a single card for a tempo swing often beats dedicated removal that costs three or four mana.

Matchups that reward her inclusion

Death and Taxes pilots have grown fond of slotting Rae for Death's Shadow, the various Delver shells, and Maverick or other green-based fair decks. Against Shadow, her ETB taps a large threat while her channel can answer a smaller creature that would otherwise race. The ETB alone can slow a Young Pyromancer chain by tapping the most recent token, buying time for a more permanent answer.

She also pulls weight in 8-cast or other artifact-based creature decks, where a 2/3 that taps a creature is often a better answer than a dedicated removal spell because it advances your own game plan. Her channel is a clean answer to a turn-one creature from Elves or a resolved Goblin Lackey. Reading about unfair turn one plays gives a clearer sense of the threats Rae is built to answer.

Reading the channel line carefully

Channel is a one-shot, so timing matters. Casting it during your own turn before deploying a threat lets the effect land while your opponent is still deciding how to sequence. Holding it until you are under pressure often wastes the opportunity, because the temporary -1/-1 disappears at end of turn anyway.

The line also forces opponents into awkward decisions. A Goyf at three power stays at two for the turn, which means a Wasteland or a follow-up Stoneforge can resolve more safely. Players who learn the rhythm of channeling at the right moment will get more value from the card than those who treat it as a panic button.

The body is not just filler

A 2/3 might look unimpressive next to Murktide Regent or a flipped Delver, but it lines up well against the threats Legacy actually throws at white decks. She holds off a Goyf alongside a Mother of Runes, and survives most burn spells except a pitched Lightning Bolt. Her body also pitches to Force of Will, which is not nothing in a format full of blue decks.

Against blue-based tempo decks, the ETB tapping their threat is often the difference between dying on turn three and surviving to deploy a Stoneforge. That makes her more than a sideboard placeholder, and pilots in Brisbane's local tournaments have been using her as a flex piece in the main deck of mono-white prison shells.

Squeezing her into a Death and Taxes sideboard

The standard Death and Taxes sideboard runs fifteen cards, and a typical configuration looks something like this when Rae is included. Two common templates follow.

Slot Classic DnT sideboard Rae-forward sideboard
1 Surgical Extraction Surgical Extraction
2 Rest in Peace Rest in Peace
3 Sanctifier en-Vec Sanctifier en-Vec
4 Cataclysm Cataclysm
5 Deafening Silence Deafening Silence
6 Containment Priest Containment Priest
7 Path to Exile Path to Exile
8 Faerie Macabre Faerie Macabre
9 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
10 Swords to Plowshares Swords to Plowshares
11 — Rae, Agent of Justice
12 — Tocatli Honor Guard
13 — Dread of Night
14 — Kor Firewalker
15 — Council's Judgment

The choice often comes down to whether the local metagame favours creature mirrors or combo. In a room full of Delver, a Rae-forward build handles Young Pyromancer, Eight-and-a-Half-Tails pilots, and the growing Goblin Charbelcher decks that sometimes splash white.

Australian metagames and tournament calendars

Australia's Legacy calendar is anchored by events like the Sydney Legacy Series, the Melbourne Classic, and a handful of regional Modern-Legacy dual-format events. The Sydney scene is famously aggressive, with Delver shells making up a large share of the field, while Melbourne's metagame leans a touch fairer with more Death and Taxes and Maverick pilots. Brisbane's players are spread across a smaller community but still produce deep tournament runs at GP-adjacent qualifiers.

Time zones shape online play. AEST sits behind European peaks, so Australian players often log in late to test against overseas pilots. That makes cards like Rae valuable, since they reward tight, tempo-driven games during long sessions. Legacy card prices in AUD also push players toward versatile inclusions rather than narrow silver bullets. Players wanting broader strategic context can find gameplay analysis online to deepen their reading of the format.

When to bench Rae for other options

Rae is not for every metagame. In a room full of combo decks like Reanimator, Show and Tell, or Doomsday, her ETB and channel are largely irrelevant. The slot is better spent on cards like Deafening Silence or Faerie Macabre, which actually disrupt the combo player's plan.

She also struggles against true control builds, since her body is too small to pressure a resolved Jace or Teferi. Pilots preparing for a combo-heavy event should consider leaving her in the box and bringing a third piece of dedicated disruption instead.

Cards that pair well with Rae

A few inclusions work alongside her in the same sideboard shell.

Sideboard slots worth considering

When planning a seventy-five with Rae, the following slots are commonly debated.

Each of these can be swapped based on the expected field. Bring Rae to your next Legacy event, run her through a few league matches on Magic Online, and see how she changes your games. The Legacy Pit library holds prebuilt decks and sideboard guides, while the Twitch streams show experienced pilots sequencing her alongside Stoneforge Mystic. Join the community, share your sideboard choices, and keep refining that seventy-five.