Death and Taxes is my favorite deck archetype and my favorite form of control, but since it is mostly creatures doing the controlling (with disruption and tricks), it looks like little more than white weenie to the casual observer. The idea is to aggressively land creatures while creating a difficult environment for the opponent's deck to thrive in. "Taxes" refers to this kind of disruption. It never establishes complete control over the game though. The deck wins by delaying or negating elements of the opponent's strategy while its creatures nip at their life total. Games are intricate with many moving parts as Death and Taxes slows the game down to a grind.
Death and Taxes is not especially fast. The control is not particularly powerful. It does not have a killer combo finish. It does not even have any especially broken cards. What it does have is a strategy that dismantles the engines of other decks and the ability to coax them into playing its game, not their own. Against other decks that hope to win with "fair" creatures in aggro or aggro-control style, D+T offers a robust assortment of creatures that modify the rules just enough to keep opponents on their heels. Against "unfair" decks D+T is still formidable, using atypical cards and disruption styles that hit these decks where it hurts most. Really, only a few decks have the upper hand against D&T. Also, it seems that players have a hard time estimating the cumulative effect of the elements D+T brings to the table. You can expect most players who are not intimately familiar with the deck to continue to underestimate it even after seeing what it can do.
To pilot the deck close to its potential you have to have detailed knowledge of both your deck and your opponent's deck. Learning both your deck plus basically every deck you will face is a daunting task, especially in Legacy, but it is the nature of this deck to reward competent play.
Being a mono-colored deck, it lacks the raw power of some of the many-color decks that you will be facing. But Legacy is perennially overloaded with decks trying to eke out every drop from their lands. This results in unstable manabases that can be ransacked. Death and Taxes arguably has the strongest mana denial suite in the format in part because it gets to use more of its lands to deprive those same greedy decks of their mana. This element alone will win plenty of games.
Generally speaking, there is no way to build a budget version of this deck. The deck functions as a unit, and the expensive lands are as much a part of that as any other facet. For example, when you open a game on the play with Rishadan Port --> Aether Vial followed by turn 2 Karakas and then turn 3 Wasteland with Thalia coming in off the Vial, you have created a classic D&T environment. The taxation started on turn 2 (setting your opponent back to their mana supply as it was on turn 1) and became much more intensive on turn 3, putting you several turns out in front. Your opponent has to wait until at least turn 4 to zap Thalia since he/she is effectively down three mana at this point. By then you have Karakas and Vial untapped. Even if he/she has the removal, you can just pull Thalia back in your hand and Vial her back out before his/her removal spell even resolves. He/she is pinned and being attacked with no immediate way out. There are plenty of variations of this opening, but none of them work unless your lands contribute more than just mana. Tectonic Edge and Ghost Quarter don't count. Your lands prevent the opponent from getting his deck going while you set up and then disable his/her ability to easily break free. If you don't have Karakas, don't bother with Mangara. If you don't have Waste and Port, you do not have strong mana denial. At this point, your deck is missing the "Taxes". You are just playing White Weenie.
With decent early-game threats while clearly NOT being an aggro deck, Death and Taxes plays an unusual role in the metagame. I even would go so far and say that D&T is more of a control deck then most blue decks are (except Miracles, which is the epitome of control in Legacy). The role D&T will play varies in most of matchups.
While against decks like Storm (Ad Nauseam, Tendrils, and T.E.S.—The Epic Storm) it's an aggro deck that tries to get one or two hate bears like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Ethersworn Canonist online as soon as possible, it wants to play a long game against decks like 4-Color Delver. The longer the game lasts, the better your threats become: if the game lasts long enough, a Mother-of-Runes-protected, Sword-of-Fire-and-Ice-equipped Batterskull Germ token will outrace any Delver of Secrets or Tarmogoyf, while your opponent's Dazes are useless in the mid- or late game.
Mother of Runes are exactly what I mentioned at the beginning: A 1-drop that is not much a threat of herself, but protects all your other creatures from spot removal if not handled immediately—sounds fair to me.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is even more important. 1W 2/1 first strike sounds decent already, but the taxing ability is what seals the deal. Pay 2 mana for your Brainstorm—Oh, you are tapped out? Then no Force of Will for you... What, you can't get a storm count of more than 3? Not my problem! While she does slow down nearly every other deck, the ability is not so problematic for this deck that runs 27 creatures and aside from the 3 equipment cards, exactly 8 one-mana spells.
There isn't much to say about Stoneforge Mystic—a 2-mana value-searcher that can carry the equipment she found.
Next we have Phyrexian Revoker, which can win matchups all on its own. There are a ton of highly relevant cards in Legacy that Revoker shuts down: Sensei's Divining Top, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Engineered Explosives, Sneak Attack, Deathrite Shaman, Pernicious Deed, to name just a few. Be aware that he shuts down mana abilities too, so Lion's Eye Diamond might be a great target as well.
Then there is Flickerwisp. On paper he looks unimpressive, and when I started to play D&T I wondered myself why he's even on the list—but not for long. The more you play D&T, the more you will love Flickerwisp. He is already good enough when played at sorcery-speed. From flickering out a Delver of Secrets to flickering your unattached Batterskull to flickering a Stoneforge Mystic, the applications are endless for this guy. He gets crazy with an Aether Vial on 3. He saves any of your permanents from spot removal at instant speed, can hold off enemy attackers, or even let enemy permanents vanish for your whole next turn (if Vialed in at the end of the opponent's turn).
With Aether Vial on 3 Brightling essentially becomes aetherling. It's decent to include as a 1 of.
We got something we've always wanted, recruiter of the guards. Not much to say here. We finally get to tutor for creatures in mono white.
Palace jailer was a hidden gem that I hadn't considered until I played it. An oblivion ring on a stick that draws cards? Sign me the hell up!
After that, there are about 11 cards that can be found in 99% of all D&T lists (sometimes someone switches the Sword of Fire and Ice for another Sword). We have 4 Swords to Plowshares, the best spot removal ever printed (although Abrupt Decay has become a real contender); 4 Aether Vial, which make the difference between a clumsy White Weenie deck and the deck with probably the most tricks in the format; and the 3 best equipment cards in Legacy. Be aware that there are no matchups in which you board out Aether Vials (as some players do in Modern Merfolk). D&T relies heavily on this card, which allows you to play unfair games with a fair deck (turn-1 Aether Vial, turn-2 Rishadan Port, tap your land, turn-3 Wasteland your land, tap the other, all while playing creatures).