Basically building this deck to see if i can beat my friend's Jeskai Aggro deck with no expensive tournament staples. It's pretty straight forward, I'm sure there is some perfect balance between prowess creatures, heroic creatures, tokens, anthems, and heroic enabling spells. Oppressive rays really makes it hard for him to tempo me. Any affordable suggestions are welcome. Meditation Puzzle seems silly but considering the heinous amount of burn I will face it can easily be a 3 for 1 against burn to the face.
This can definitely use some oiling but do you have a decklist for what your friend plays? There's a few different kinds of jeskai tempo and there are different ways to best tackle them. For example, if he skimps on suspension fields, I would play uw heroic to punish him for it, gaining horrendous amounts of life and leaving burn range in a heartbeat. If he is theat light, high tempo, I would suggest looking at moving to aggro him out while sporting a high number of gods willing and feat of resistance. Etc, etc. You're building specifically to beat something so let's do that. And we can do much, much better than meditation puzzle. There are better ways to beat the burn.
So went to a magic tournament last night, got third with a severely altered version of this core strategy. Every win was 2-0 against legitimate contenders (Abzan, 4 color midrange, U/W control) and the only lost was to a mardu deck 1-2-0 where one greedy play lost me the game, was just bad magic on my part. Anyway this deck is extremely powerful against control decks and durdly midrange decks. The skill level is very high, and mistakes will punish you severely. Unlike say abzan where choosing between sorin and rhino on turn 4 might not necessarily lose you the game, choosing between God's Willing and Ajani's Presence can easily lose you your one big creature depending on the nature of the next removal spell.
So the deck I played last night and currently optimizing looks a little something like this
Mardu is rough, in 6 games was exactly 2-4-0. I think Mardu is a weakness but certainly not unbeatable. Save your limited removal sources for Butcher of the Horde as his massive lifepoint swings can put the game out of reach. Ordeal of Heliod is great at making Goblin Rabblemaster mediocre, and just having having a 1 drop on the table is threatening considering Trailblazer or favored hoplite can trade favorable with any instant besides launch the fleet. I have overcome stormbreath dragon by going wide though hes a pain in the butt. This match is rough but not unwinnable. If you end up with multiple 1 drops in your opening hand, a key to victory is using them as fodder for removal, it only takes one creature in this deck to win, and more often than not on the play with a 1 drop it'll be bigger than butcher when he arrives. Oh yeah Crackling Doom is rough and the biggest reason why this match is unfavorable.
U/W control is so easy to beat for this deck. You don't have to win fast anymore, you can literally go to turn 20 and beat this deck. I fought through about 10 removal spells including 4 end hostilities and just kept punching through with one creature. Now the key here is, you need a single creature to win and you can honestly go as slow as you want so cash in extra creatures early and often. The second game I started with 5 creatures, 1 land and 1 trick and just plowed through. Used the first 4 creatures as fodder, built up a reserve of protection spells and run it like a fish deck. And the control deck kills so slow you can literally get stuck with mismatched protection spells in your hand with no creatures and spend 3 turns drawing into a creatures and restart your assault. That second game I fought through 4 radiant fountains, 10 removal spells, and like 3 counterspells. One trick to surviving postboard, cards like Ajani's Presence can fend off last breath by raising your creature's power above 3, do not be afraid to wait multiple turns to deploy a creature with open mana for protection spells, that's the key to winning.
Abzan Midrange. This deck is not as threatening as it is common. It doesn't threaten fast enough to be of major concern. The most concerning part is the total number of Abzan Charm+Banishing Light in their deck which will tax your Gods Willing. I don't even like bringing in Erase in these situations because you're simply getting back your creature with no counters which is rough. Siege Rhino is a great target for your limited creature management spells (oppressive rays+suspension field). This deck is actually excellent at making his trigger worthless when you crack an ordeal, and trailblazer with just a single counter can hold down a mighty rhino. The way they can hang with you is multiple Rhinos and Sorin +1's where they can race you. Akroan Skyguard is excellent in this match, even trying to double block him with wingmate roc and token is dangerous with open mana. This match is certainly loseable as you go deep so manage your extra creatures well, make your limited removal count, and use your instants to make them play bad magic.
4 color midrange. Nothing I can tell you about this, he literally lost to color screw (shocking). Like Brad Nelson kind of made the case for our mana pool, but having that many lands drain you and come in tapped is not doing you any favors against this deck.
Finally some changes I'm considering.
Suspension Field was always a massive boon when I drew it. This is the kind of deck where you're not trying to answer every threat, but just that single solitary card warping the board around it. Nothing under 3 toughness should be particularly threatening.
Abzan Falconer in midrangey games I suspect this will be a massive blowout. I drew Fabled Hero a couple times last night and he honestly did nothing for me. It's just removal fodder, having a 4th land and the spell to protect him isnt super common. Like yeah chaining two spells together can cause massive lifepoint swings, but that was not my experience.
I don't think Seeker of the Way deserves 4 slots. I didn't draw him a ton but when I did he wasn't impactful. In practice he's been amazing with the heroic strategy just getting so much value from a card like defiant strike, I've completely turned games around with a pair on board, but against less aggressive decks I can't help but wonder if more removal is correct.
Glare of Heresy is probably the best sideboard card in the format. 3 of the 4 most popular decks (abzan, mardu, and jeskai) have high priority white targets.
My theory playing Defiant Strike is to play it as soon as possible on offense while leaving open mana for protection spells. I mean every game is different, but I never save this card for later.
If you like making a ton of decisions every turn, becoming an expert at combat, and not spending any money at all, you should try this deck.
Really love the idea of this deck. Going to sleeve it up shortly. Should work out okay I think. Maybe the Soldier of the Pantheon doesn't belong, but he's always been an all-star in other mono white decks I've run.
Not a huge fan of Seeker of the Way. Just seems a bit mediocre for this deck. Let me know if you see anything that needs fixing.
I know that the Banishing Lights and the Soldier of the Pantheons are probably not budget friendly, but I had them. I also had Hero of Iroas, but couldn't really find a lot of Auras to take advantage of right now.
I've been hording white cards hoping for the return of White Weenie, and here it is! Glad to see so many positive reports.
RE: Seeker of the Way: Yeah, I'm underwhelmed at this guy too. To my mind, he works as more of a midrange strategy, helping you catch up when you're behind. White Weenie wants to bash full speed ahead. Maybe he's better in a deck with Ajani's Pridemate so the life gain becomes pump too.
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Well, it won't be white weenie as white weenie has always been known. It was just that last season we had a bunch of viable one drops plus brave the elements and fortify. Mono white heroic has been around. Just less oomph. It will probably still have less oomph that UW heroic period but it isn't terrible. I don't agree with dawnbringer charioteers, though. Its too slow.
I know card draw is extremely important to this deck, but I think spirit of the labyrinth deserves some consideration, mostly just as an anti jeskai ascendancy plan. It interferes with our sole draw spell, defiant strike, but it also slows down our opponent, forcing them to top deck. It also hurts decks that want to use dragon mantle on turn 2, and it stops treasure cruise.
It will draw a removal spell from the opponent, and I do not know if we are willing to use a protection spell on it.
Heroic is very picky about non-heroic creatures. These are the only ones that get a spot as far as I'm aware at most.
Heliod's pilgrim. Search on some weak legs. Kind of a toolboxer.
Eidolon of countless battles. I suppose there's worse. I am personally not so much a fan but it does have uses. I suppose it at least can trigger heroic.
Seeker of the way. Because in UW heroic you can get a pretty decent spell train going with the draw.
Things like spirit of the labyrinth don't qualify imo. They don't support the strategy. Critical mass is everything in heroic. Realistically, pilgrim is a tutor which is supporting. Eidolon supports the strategy as a trigger. Seeker is supported by the strategy as all heroic triggers also trigger prowess. Spirit has no interaction. Thus in a highly synergistic deck, I don't recommend it.
Glad to see people interested in the deck. First off I want to make this abundantly clear this is not a soldier deck and shouldn't be treated as one. I feel strongly that this is a much more viable strategy than any obelisk deck. While decks like those eat it to Anger of the Gods or End Hostilities, this deck can consistently make those cards ineffective.
First things first. When a deck is successful, you shouldn't make any drastic changes to it. When I go 3-1-0 against legitimate decks with only about 10 practice games beforehand I know I'm onto something.
Second, a lot of the time I could have ended a game a turn sooner if I would draw any instant at the time. And many games I just wanted a fistful of protection spells. Nothing brings home a game more consistently than having a pro color spell and an indestructible spell in your hand at the same time.
Thirdly, pro-color spells are better than indestructible spells in this metagame. We literally have 3 enchantments (banishing light, suspension field, oppressive rays), Abzan Charm, last breath, devouring light, glare of heresy that don't destroy but can easily shut our game down. I mean the only thing the indestructible cards protect you from that pro-color spells don't is End Hostilities. While there are no rules of thumb in magic, if you don't know which instant to use, use the indestructible spell.
4. Upgrading to Suspension Field. This card was wonderful everytime I cast it. I initially used Oppressive Rays to enable turns where I could enchant an enemy creature and still leave up mana for protection, but Suspension Field has never prevented that since it should only ever be cast much later in the game against creatures you will lose to.
5. Trailblazer is not inferior to Favored Hoplite. Trailblazer is excellent against decks with burn since I can deploy her turn 1 without fear of being destroyed. Yes 1 extra power is huge for Hoplite, but so is having to deploy him turn 2.
6. Delaying doing anything a turn is not the massive deal it was last season. This standard is slow and weak. Most people aren't doing anything turn 1, or even anything meaningful turn 2. This deck builds such a large creature so fast that starting a turn late isn't a big deal.
7. Ordeal and Launch the Fleet are chiefly to enable Heroic when we don't want to waste a protection spell to get the ball rolling. Ordeal is a great card to let us race with the huge life bonus, and even against control it's not totally useless giving 3 counters for 1 card. I'll admit Launch the Fleet isn't perfect for this deck though it does have great synergy with Phalanx leader. I've had game's with a 3/3 leader and 2 3/3 soldiers on the field.
8. The sideboard is by no means perfected. There is plenty of room to game the sideboard for your metagame. I would strongly advise at least 4 protection spells, 2 Erase to fight Whip, and 2 Glare of Heresy because they're excellent.
9. Fabled Hero never performed for me in the tournament though I only saw him twice. I mean a lot of times you're just defending your one big creature and can't deploy him without tapping out. He is definitely plan B. I kept him because I can easily see a situation where I deploy him late game, get a pro color spell and sink in those last points of damage . I mean with feat of resistance thats 8 nearly impossible to block damage.
10. I think Abzan Falconer will be a great surprise going forward. I'm well aware that killing him could lead to unfavorable combat, but this deck is also excellent at negating kill spells. Pick your spots, he's not always the bomb he appears to be.
11. Seeker of the Way is not an all star. His original intent was to generate maximum value out of our protection spells, but often I just don't see any great opening to deploy him. Still, playing smart, when we have too many creatures and our opponent knows our strategy, fodder is fodder, don't be afraid to send extra creatures to their death, that's one more turn to build our hand, and one less kill spell our opponent has.
12. Acolyte's Reward is just a fun-of I wanted to try, even deflecting as little as 2 damage back at a seeker, rabblemaster, or courser in combat can be great. I wouldn't expect more than 3 devotion at anytime but it's a card no one expects let alone understands so it triggers heroic, acts as protection, and can't be played around when it is this obscure. Honestly this could be another Feat of Resistance.
I do feel like single creature to protect and run with it is correct. However, I also feel that the reasoning you're using is wrong. You say making AOG and company ineffective is good and it is... but comparatively you've neglected to mention that single creature heroic eats it to crackling doom and has no way whatsoever to fight that other than to accept that they got wrecked and try to rebuild. UW heroic has stubborn denial at least. Mardu shows up enough that its a slight misrepresentation to say it like its all flowers and roses. While it is better overall, you're walking out of one Achilles heel and just gaining another on the other foot.
I'm also fairly sure that heroic was better as single creature voltron from the beginning anyway and that has never changed. Though heroic swarm has netted a few wins here and there, voltron has been more on top due to consistency in general and not needing such specific cards.
If you read my tournament report, which you haven't, you would know I mentioned Crackling Doom as a huge weakness of this deck. Unlike everyone on this forum I'm not going to pretend this deck is favorable against every matchup. Mardu is a weakness. Like every deck this deck has a weakness. I gave a rough summary of what to expect in the matchup and how to maximize your odds. I even went so far as to state that this deck only has a 33% win percentage against mardu. Please read all my posts before pointing out imaginary flaws in my analysis.
Since Mardu is so good against this deck I will give a more detailed analysis of my approach.
Mardu is ideally suited to battle with our deck. Their removal spells are wonderful, especially after sideboard. Mardu has early burn spells to snag Favored hoplite, phalanx leader, and akroan skyguard. Trailblazer is a great starter for this deck as you dont have to leave up mana early for burn spells. If your opponent is running magma spray all the power to them because outside of turn 1 it's pretty awful and just a narrow card in general. This deck is rough, even dodging burn they can capitalize with chained to the rocks. Leading with hoplite a good trick is using a pro color spell declaring white against burn, his heroic trigger negates all the damage anyway, and pro white protects against the chains. When going against chains by itself respond to its trigger, not the casting, because if you respond to the spell they can simply target another creature if available.
Another strategy is going wider with a 1 drop, phalanx leader, and launch the fleet. Of course this line isn't consistently available, and this strategy is susceptible to sweepers making it more effective game 1 than after sideboard. Ajani's presence is great against sweepers, 4 mana to trigger two creatures against the 5 mana end hostilities.
Butcher of the Horde is the lynch pin of their strategy against this deck. If they can take time to deploy him and get a lifelinked swing in while consuming our protection spells they stand to win the game. Unless Rabblemaster is imminently going to kill me, I always save suspension field or glare of heresy for butcher. Stormbreath is rough but not unbeatable. Turn 5 is late if they're on the back foot, and we have 7 spells that give pro red, making rabblemaster and butcher unable to block as well. I enjoy ordeal against this deck making it very hard for them to race us. On the other hand if they're already pressuring and they deploy a stormbreath on top of that I'm not sure how many decks actually win that situation.
Their suite of burn spells and chained to rocks really make the only deck that can leverage their mana against us. Their excessive taplands do them no favors so this isn't the huge problem it's made out to be. Keep an eye out for white tapland turn 1, if there isn't one it's safe to ignore chained to the rocks.
Stubborn Denial is only good against Crackling Doom and nothing else. Running a suite of protection spells isn't enough to win any games. But when each spell makes your creature into a bigger threat there's a viable strategy.
Now having REVISITED the mardu matchup, I would strongly urge you not to play this deck if your shop is all mardu. With the rise of durdly Abzan and Sultai decks, I strongly advise you test this deck out.
I did read the report. However, its being stated there is fairly irrelevant because it is left out of the direct comparison. Cracking doom is not a weakness of the obelisk decks. If you plan to talk about direct comparisons, talk about the appropriate Achilles heel and don't fail to point out that they are immune to the ones that bother you. Otherwise it is lopsided presentation of information even if it is perfectly reasonable for the reader to figure out. Please present the entirety of the information with pros and cons of both sides before making a comparison. Presenting the points that support you and letting the ones that support the other side be hunted for is not equal representation.
If you wish, I can word it in such a way to make it clearer that I mean it in terms of comparison, even moreso than using the word "comparatively".
You say making AOG and company ineffective is good and it is... but comparatively you've neglected to mention that single creature heroic eats it to crackling doom and has no way whatsoever to fight that other than to accept that they got wrecked and try to rebuild whereas heroic swarm doesn't really care about this issue. It is merely trading one Achilles heel for another, no real leg up in any way over the other given that the amount of play that each sees is reasonably similar.
Please red herring elsewhere. If you kindly would keep on topic as I assume you've been reading, I specifically say that I believe that voltron type heroic is and has always been stronger than heroic swarm. If you further take a peek at anywhere else where I've commented on it, you'd know that I have consistently said that heroic swarm is a weaker deck than voltron heroic, usually citing Piece A + Piece B vs Piece A + Piece B + Piece C which concerns the consistency and more specific cards that need to be drawn and need to live to make heroic swarm work, leaving it slightly stronger on the god draw without interaction but weaker in prettymuch all other scenarios on average as compared to heroic voltron. Hardly a pet deck of any sort given that I generally advise not to do it.
Moving along, phalanx leader is a fairly weak card choice given the fact that voltron heroic does not want to commit too heavily to the board. Its synergy with launch the fleet is somewhat narrow, the kind of thing you either commit to or you don't. Launch the fleet itself is okay being a multi trigger in a deck with none of that otherwise (though I don't feel as though voltron necessarily needs multi triggers being what it is) but I feel that if you want a card to support it that card should be eidolon of countless battles. Where phalanx leader acts as a fine army booster, that isn't so much the point of the deck and ideally you will not have a large army, more commonly something large. Eidolon helps further that goal. It also reasonably synergizes with launch the fleet and will primarily act as a heroic trigger with a body. Also importantly, it gives you more to fight crackling doom with. Mono white has no stubborn denial. The best it has is recovery and eidolon can be that recovery. It can also even be put on a single creature that isn't your voltron which can drag crackling doom to it. If crackling doom hits it instead of the more desirable target, it drops a reasonably sized body, leaving the rest of your attack plan intact.
You can't spend 4 mana to trigger heroic. There are a good number of games where you won't even hit 4 mana. Just because a card is white doesn't mean it belongs in this deck. Getting a 1/1 after a crackling doom is of zero relevance. Ironically the only time Eidolon is strong is when going wide.
Launch the Fleet is just an easily striveable Heroic enabler, the fact that it makes tokens is almost irrelevant. Phalanx Leader is actually great against the durdly midrange decks. Phalanx Leader manages the excess glut of protection spells and creatures. Ideally we would draw 1 Favored Hoplite 2 lands, and 4 instants every game. But this deck requires a delicate balance of heroic creatures and heroic enablers. To prevent disastrous games where we draw too many creatures Phalanx Leader can fix that. It certainly isn't perfect but I have gone through wizard's card image gallery and I have familiarized myself with every white card available. With phalanx Leader you can voltron by proxy, and when the strategy suits you, this guy is serious removal bait since no player wants to see him stay on the field. He's not perfect, but saturating the deck with Hero of Iroas or Akroan Skyguards can lead to terrible hands.
There will be games that you won't hit 4 mana and in such cases it can be much less optimally but usefully played for 3. However, I don't see it as that terrible an issue given the reasonability of hitting 4 lands on 21. They likely will not be in consecutive land drops but you're not ending the game on turn 4 as a regularity either. The chances of it actually being a 1/1 after crackling doom is an unfair and abysmal assumption as well. Maybe against a hard control but if you're getting wrecked like that, you were already lost anyway. You're playing things because they are multi triggers. You're playing phalanx leader and seeker of the way. Don't tell me that you aren't expecting to have a field of some variety. Phalanx leader is nice vs slower midranges given a the extra time that is spent breaking through. Eidolon works there too, just in a different fashion. The time goes a long way towards negating the cmc matter. It also has more flexibility than phalanx leader in that it works before (though it being played earlier is more a rarity) or after you play a bunch of your other spells whereas phalanx leader needs enough triggers to tick. Yes, phalanx leader can do the bad voltron job himself and yes you will sometimes draw more creatures than you desire but wouldn't it be a simpler solution to just play somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 creatures to fix the problem? I personally prefer adjusting the idea to oil the engine over duct taping. There will always be some of those games where you just don't get things to go as planned but I feel that if you're going to do it, build around it. Phalanx leaders operate best by critical mass. If you want to play 1-2, play eidolons. If you want to play phalanx leaders and personally value multi triggers, might as well play more especially when you consider the seeker of the way abzan falconer halfway nonbo.
Hero of iroas is an obvious bad choice in mono white given the lack of auras as opposed to something like UW. Skyguard I also agree is fairly distasteful due to mono white not being so liberal about dumping triggers right away.
I've been hording white cards hoping for the return of White Weenie, and here it is! Glad to see so many positive reports.
RE: Seeker of the Way: Yeah, I'm underwhelmed at this guy too. To my mind, he works as more of a midrange strategy, helping you catch up when you're behind. White Weenie wants to bash full speed ahead. Maybe he's better in a deck with Ajani's Pridemate so the life gain becomes pump too.
I have to disagree with you here. Seeker is probably the best card against aggro in ANY heroic deck, plus it can consistently swing for 4 most turns. You cast all your spells targeting your heroic creatures, and seeker gets pumped as well.
A mix of 21 Lands, 18 Creatures and 21 Spells seems to work for me, although any combination around 20/20/20 should be viable.
Edit: The Launch the Fleet has not been great so far, with only one or two heroic guys out on the battlefield. I tend to replace them with Glimpse the Sun God to see, how that fits in (seems slightly more aggressive).
Fabled hero is much too slow, and with only eight protection spells, is likely to have all removal targeted towards it. It is a HUGE threat, but Phalanx leader makes ALL your cards threats for one less mana. Soldier of the Pantheon is so-so. Protection from multi is very relevant in today's standard, but it isn't a heroic creature. Take your pick, as there aren't many other good heroic creatures in mono-white, other than the ones that have been listed above.
On a side note, I believe you could run U/W heroic with no fetches, as the blue mana requirement isn't very much. You could add some gainlands, some temples, and maybe some Mystic Monasteries, plus the only expensive card is a hero of iroas, and that is about $3, and can be replaced by Akroan Skyguard.
I've been running heroic white online.
4 favored hoplite
2 lagonna-band
4 phalanx leader
4 hero of iroas
4 seeker of the way
1 eidolon of countless battles
1 heliod, god
1 spear of heliod
4 defiant strike
4 god's willing
4 chosen by heliod
1 ordeal of heliod
2 launch the fleets
3 ajani's presence
1 shrine
4 scry
15 plains
Sideboard
2 glare of heresy
2 erase
2 uhh 3mana convoke exile atk/blk
1 3 drop counters get flying
1 2 rop counters get 1st strike
1 ordeal of heliod
1 ajani's presence
2 feat of resistance
1 eidolon of countless battles
Will update post when at a computer. Works nicely, but I'm terrible online
sideboard
[cards]1 Mortal's Ardor
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Ordeal of Heliod
2 Erase
2 Suspension field
2 Banishing Light
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer[cards]
ive gone 2-2 and 3-1 with this list numerous times at FNM
Sorry I haven't been updating this thread, honestly have been trying to get out of magic, spend way too much time reading and thinking about strategies and the metagame and would have liked to do something more productive. Anyway I'm back. I have only been in two tournaments since my last post but I will try to be as illuminating as possible.
So past two tournaments have been 2-4-0 or 3-4-0. second to last tournament was a long time ago.
So round 1 was against U/R control, an interesting deck to say the least. Basically on the play I get out of burn range too fast, lead with trailblazer over favored hoplite on the draw, lagonna band trailblazer is such an underrated card. Bile blight useless, burn useless, after 1 trigger stoke the flames and siege rhino get really bad, can easily hold down rabblemaster. The reason I lost this match was the criminally underplayed aetherspouts which might as well exile your board. I still fought back into the game, I think I was sloppy on choosing which creatures bounced but I did get a trailblazer back up to a 3/7 and was threatening lethal. Control does not have inevitability anymore, I have more than once taken down a control deck after turn 10. I remember online i spent 4 turns killing ashiok, dexterously killed kiora with timely pro green spells. Just remember that they have a lot of dead cards against you, dig through time is not sphinx's revelation, they're not going to just hit 2 relevant spells to take you out. On a last note Ugin is a killer and I don't feel there is anyway you can combat him. I tried sideboarding stuff like banishing light, against control you just have to kill them before ugin and it is certainly possible to end them in a hurry. Against green ramp into ugin might just need banishing lights.
Game 2 was against sidisi whip which should tell you how long ago this tournament was. Went 1-2, on the play can just build enough momentum, make sure i answer the inevitable murderous cut and just pound away. On the draw satyr, into sidisi and trigger can just be too much fluff to fight through. Here i like suspension field for sidisi, there isn't a ton of action in the deck until they hit hornet queen which is rough. i have not found an intelligent way to fight through this thing, might just want a fabled hero i can voltron and make unblockable with pro green, use 1 and 2 drops as fodders so you dont have to protect fabled hero.
Game 3 I believe was against Abzan Aggro. Feel this is a high variable matchup, on the play hoplite into ordeal makes fleecemane lion and anafenza look terrible. I like bringing in glare and keeping in suspension field, just answer their biggest stuff, dont let anafenza take over, trailblazer is an excellent blocker, the great thing about this deck is its easy to cast your two mana removal while leaving up protection.
Now that I think about it I believe I had a bye in the third round because a 4th opponent is not occurring to me.
Wednesday night I can remember clearly.
Round 1 was against U/B control. This match really completely comes down to a healthy combination of creatures, heroic enabler, and protection spells, and of course a timely perilous vault. I started sideboarding banishing lights for this and ugin, the situation hasn't come up to see if it works. On the draw just assume they have bile blight, can even delay your 1 drop to deploy it the same turn you can hold up protection mana. This isn't a big deal, this isn't an aggro deck. Now a word about the sultai variation. satyr wayfinder into ashiok is a nuisance. I played the must kill ashiok route online and won, I'm not sure if it's correct, I think a followup ashiok would be a coffin nail, the ultimate is worthless but dropping blockers every turn is unwinnable on our side. I mean this match is high variable, if they can set up murderous cut and downfall in the same turn or wayfinder into ashiok it can get bad really fast. Perilous vault is must answer immediately, this match is winnable but three mana removal spells suck against us, so don't make bile blight a good card, pick your spots. Oh and murk lurker is rough, i feel we need suspension field to answer this thing.
Round 2 was against b/g devotion. Their ideal plan is to just not chump block and get a turn 4 hornet queen which is absurdly easy with frontier siege. I fear green midrange decks have just been further cemented as the most viable decks. This is not unwinnable, they actually have to draw hornet queen, or ugin, which is probably going to be a lot more common now though i feel banishing light can seriously devastate an ugin in this match up. But a one drop with a full head of steam can pound this deck mercilessly, make no mistake the b/g variants are a lot more difficult. its very tempting to use the useless pro colors to make a creature unblockable, until they tap caryatid for black and murderous cut your creature out of the green. Game 2 i put myself into a position with a double triggered fabled hero that had pro green making it unblockable and swinging for lethal, basically was a jammed up floor with hornet queen in tow and i put myself in the only chance to win, but of course he had hero's downfall, never failed to have every relevant card against me.
Round 3 was against U/B control again. This deck was much more conducive to beating us with post board murk lurker which gave him enough time to find ugin. And it didnt help when he used murk lurker to lifelink a pearl lake ancient the flashed in at the end of my turn. Got to game 3, just couldn't put him away.
So that's my walk through so far. I mean it's an $8 deck, I don't expect to win every game, but can still punish a player when they stumble, and comeback from mull to 5. There are a lot of interactions, it isn't dead to aggro or control, and did I mention it is $8?
Also, Valorous Stance seems great as a 1 of in deck and 1 of in board, though I kind of prefer feat of resistance for its greater utility.
Sage Reverie is a great addition (albeit with a expensive converted mana cost) for mono W because its one of the few cards that can draw more than 1 card.
If you can afford it, Monastery Mentor seems like an auto include for the deck. I'll run it alongside Phalanx Leader for better results.
4 Favored Hoplite
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
3 Phalanx Leader
2 Akroan Skyguard
2 Fabled Hero
Spells 24
4 Gods Willing
3 Ajani's Presence
2 Feat of Resistance
4 Defiant Strike
4 Ordeal of Heliod
3 Launch the Fleet
2 Mortal Obstinacy
1 Dauntless Onslaught
1 Phalanx Formation
2 Feat of Resistance
1 Ajani's Presence
1 Mortal's Ardor
2 Seeker of the Way
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Erase
1 Ephemeral Shields
1 Banishing Light
1 Akroan Skyguard
1 Reprisal
1 Phalanx Formation
First Deck
4 Favored Hoplite
2 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
2 Nyxborn Shieldmate
4 Seeker of the Way
3 Phalanx Leader
1 Cavalry Pegasus
1 Mardu Hordechief
1 Paragon of New Dawns
4 Oppressive Rays
3 Ajani's Presence
3 Gods Willing
2 Ephemeral Shields
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Mortal's Ardor
1 Defiant Strike
2 Raise the Alarm
2 Triplicate Spirits
1 Meditation Puzzle
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Spirit Bonds
20 Plains
Basically building this deck to see if i can beat my friend's Jeskai Aggro deck with no expensive tournament staples. It's pretty straight forward, I'm sure there is some perfect balance between prowess creatures, heroic creatures, tokens, anthems, and heroic enabling spells. Oppressive rays really makes it hard for him to tempo me. Any affordable suggestions are welcome. Meditation Puzzle seems silly but considering the heinous amount of burn I will face it can easily be a 3 for 1 against burn to the face.
So the deck I played last night and currently optimizing looks a little something like this
4 Favored Hoplite
3 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
2 Akroan Skyguard
2 Phalanx Leader
4 Seeker of the Way
1 Fabled Hero
Spells 23
4 Defiant Strike
4 Gods Willing
3 Ajani's Presence
1 Feat of Resistance
3 Launch the Fleet
3 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Dauntless Onslaught
2 Oppressive Rays
1 Suspension Field
1 Spear of Heliod
21 Plains
1 Pillar of Light
1 Reprisal
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Erase
2 Feat of Resistance
1 Ajani's Presence
1 Devouring Light
1 Mortal's Ardor
1 Abzan Battle Priest
1 Suspension Field
1 Akroan Skyguard
1 Phalanx Leader
So quick recap of last night.
Mardu is rough, in 6 games was exactly 2-4-0. I think Mardu is a weakness but certainly not unbeatable. Save your limited removal sources for Butcher of the Horde as his massive lifepoint swings can put the game out of reach. Ordeal of Heliod is great at making Goblin Rabblemaster mediocre, and just having having a 1 drop on the table is threatening considering Trailblazer or favored hoplite can trade favorable with any instant besides launch the fleet. I have overcome stormbreath dragon by going wide though hes a pain in the butt. This match is rough but not unwinnable. If you end up with multiple 1 drops in your opening hand, a key to victory is using them as fodder for removal, it only takes one creature in this deck to win, and more often than not on the play with a 1 drop it'll be bigger than butcher when he arrives. Oh yeah Crackling Doom is rough and the biggest reason why this match is unfavorable.
U/W control is so easy to beat for this deck. You don't have to win fast anymore, you can literally go to turn 20 and beat this deck. I fought through about 10 removal spells including 4 end hostilities and just kept punching through with one creature. Now the key here is, you need a single creature to win and you can honestly go as slow as you want so cash in extra creatures early and often. The second game I started with 5 creatures, 1 land and 1 trick and just plowed through. Used the first 4 creatures as fodder, built up a reserve of protection spells and run it like a fish deck. And the control deck kills so slow you can literally get stuck with mismatched protection spells in your hand with no creatures and spend 3 turns drawing into a creatures and restart your assault. That second game I fought through 4 radiant fountains, 10 removal spells, and like 3 counterspells. One trick to surviving postboard, cards like Ajani's Presence can fend off last breath by raising your creature's power above 3, do not be afraid to wait multiple turns to deploy a creature with open mana for protection spells, that's the key to winning.
Abzan Midrange. This deck is not as threatening as it is common. It doesn't threaten fast enough to be of major concern. The most concerning part is the total number of Abzan Charm+Banishing Light in their deck which will tax your Gods Willing. I don't even like bringing in Erase in these situations because you're simply getting back your creature with no counters which is rough. Siege Rhino is a great target for your limited creature management spells (oppressive rays+suspension field). This deck is actually excellent at making his trigger worthless when you crack an ordeal, and trailblazer with just a single counter can hold down a mighty rhino. The way they can hang with you is multiple Rhinos and Sorin +1's where they can race you. Akroan Skyguard is excellent in this match, even trying to double block him with wingmate roc and token is dangerous with open mana. This match is certainly loseable as you go deep so manage your extra creatures well, make your limited removal count, and use your instants to make them play bad magic.
4 color midrange. Nothing I can tell you about this, he literally lost to color screw (shocking). Like Brad Nelson kind of made the case for our mana pool, but having that many lands drain you and come in tapped is not doing you any favors against this deck.
Finally some changes I'm considering.
Suspension Field was always a massive boon when I drew it. This is the kind of deck where you're not trying to answer every threat, but just that single solitary card warping the board around it. Nothing under 3 toughness should be particularly threatening.
Abzan Falconer in midrangey games I suspect this will be a massive blowout. I drew Fabled Hero a couple times last night and he honestly did nothing for me. It's just removal fodder, having a 4th land and the spell to protect him isnt super common. Like yeah chaining two spells together can cause massive lifepoint swings, but that was not my experience.
I don't think Seeker of the Way deserves 4 slots. I didn't draw him a ton but when I did he wasn't impactful. In practice he's been amazing with the heroic strategy just getting so much value from a card like defiant strike, I've completely turned games around with a pair on board, but against less aggressive decks I can't help but wonder if more removal is correct.
Glare of Heresy is probably the best sideboard card in the format. 3 of the 4 most popular decks (abzan, mardu, and jeskai) have high priority white targets.
My theory playing Defiant Strike is to play it as soon as possible on offense while leaving open mana for protection spells. I mean every game is different, but I never save this card for later.
If you like making a ton of decisions every turn, becoming an expert at combat, and not spending any money at all, you should try this deck.
4 Favored Hoplite
4 Akroan Skyguard
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Phalanx Leader
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
Spells
2 Spear of Heliod
2 Banishing Light
2 Suspension Field
3 Defiant Strike
3 God's Willing
3 Mortal's Ardor
3 Feat of Resistance
3 Dauntless Onslaught
21 Plains
3 Glare of Heresy
3 Erase
3 Devouring Light
3 Pillar of Light
3 Oppressive Rays
Really love the idea of this deck. Going to sleeve it up shortly. Should work out okay I think. Maybe the Soldier of the Pantheon doesn't belong, but he's always been an all-star in other mono white decks I've run.
Not a huge fan of Seeker of the Way. Just seems a bit mediocre for this deck. Let me know if you see anything that needs fixing.
I know that the Banishing Lights and the Soldier of the Pantheons are probably not budget friendly, but I had them. I also had Hero of Iroas, but couldn't really find a lot of Auras to take advantage of right now.
RE: Seeker of the Way: Yeah, I'm underwhelmed at this guy too. To my mind, he works as more of a midrange strategy, helping you catch up when you're behind. White Weenie wants to bash full speed ahead. Maybe he's better in a deck with Ajani's Pridemate so the life gain becomes pump too.
It will draw a removal spell from the opponent, and I do not know if we are willing to use a protection spell on it.
Heliod's pilgrim. Search on some weak legs. Kind of a toolboxer.
Eidolon of countless battles. I suppose there's worse. I am personally not so much a fan but it does have uses. I suppose it at least can trigger heroic.
Seeker of the way. Because in UW heroic you can get a pretty decent spell train going with the draw.
Things like spirit of the labyrinth don't qualify imo. They don't support the strategy. Critical mass is everything in heroic. Realistically, pilgrim is a tutor which is supporting. Eidolon supports the strategy as a trigger. Seeker is supported by the strategy as all heroic triggers also trigger prowess. Spirit has no interaction. Thus in a highly synergistic deck, I don't recommend it.
As can be seen here http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=77507 Heroic style decks are moving away from toolbox enchantments and moving towards a Fish strategy where we deploy a single creature and protect it the entire game.
I have updated my list since the tournament
4 Favored Hoplite
3 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
3 Akroan Skyguard
2 Phalanx Leader
2 Seeker of the Way
1 Abzan Falconer
1 Fabled Hero
Spells 23
4 Defiant Strike
4 Gods Willing
3 Ordeal of Heliod
3 Launch the Fleet
3 Suspension Field
2 Feat of Resistance
2 Ajani's Presence
1 Dauntless Onslaught
1 Acolyte's Reward
21 Plains
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Erase
2 Seeker of the Way
1 Ephemeral Shields
2 Ajani's Presence
1 Devouring Light
2 Feat of Resistance
1 Reprisal
1 Mortal's Ardor
1 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
First things first. When a deck is successful, you shouldn't make any drastic changes to it. When I go 3-1-0 against legitimate decks with only about 10 practice games beforehand I know I'm onto something.
Second, a lot of the time I could have ended a game a turn sooner if I would draw any instant at the time. And many games I just wanted a fistful of protection spells. Nothing brings home a game more consistently than having a pro color spell and an indestructible spell in your hand at the same time.
Thirdly, pro-color spells are better than indestructible spells in this metagame. We literally have 3 enchantments (banishing light, suspension field, oppressive rays), Abzan Charm, last breath, devouring light, glare of heresy that don't destroy but can easily shut our game down. I mean the only thing the indestructible cards protect you from that pro-color spells don't is End Hostilities. While there are no rules of thumb in magic, if you don't know which instant to use, use the indestructible spell.
4. Upgrading to Suspension Field. This card was wonderful everytime I cast it. I initially used Oppressive Rays to enable turns where I could enchant an enemy creature and still leave up mana for protection, but Suspension Field has never prevented that since it should only ever be cast much later in the game against creatures you will lose to.
5. Trailblazer is not inferior to Favored Hoplite. Trailblazer is excellent against decks with burn since I can deploy her turn 1 without fear of being destroyed. Yes 1 extra power is huge for Hoplite, but so is having to deploy him turn 2.
6. Delaying doing anything a turn is not the massive deal it was last season. This standard is slow and weak. Most people aren't doing anything turn 1, or even anything meaningful turn 2. This deck builds such a large creature so fast that starting a turn late isn't a big deal.
7. Ordeal and Launch the Fleet are chiefly to enable Heroic when we don't want to waste a protection spell to get the ball rolling. Ordeal is a great card to let us race with the huge life bonus, and even against control it's not totally useless giving 3 counters for 1 card. I'll admit Launch the Fleet isn't perfect for this deck though it does have great synergy with Phalanx leader. I've had game's with a 3/3 leader and 2 3/3 soldiers on the field.
8. The sideboard is by no means perfected. There is plenty of room to game the sideboard for your metagame. I would strongly advise at least 4 protection spells, 2 Erase to fight Whip, and 2 Glare of Heresy because they're excellent.
9. Fabled Hero never performed for me in the tournament though I only saw him twice. I mean a lot of times you're just defending your one big creature and can't deploy him without tapping out. He is definitely plan B. I kept him because I can easily see a situation where I deploy him late game, get a pro color spell and sink in those last points of damage . I mean with feat of resistance thats 8 nearly impossible to block damage.
10. I think Abzan Falconer will be a great surprise going forward. I'm well aware that killing him could lead to unfavorable combat, but this deck is also excellent at negating kill spells. Pick your spots, he's not always the bomb he appears to be.
11. Seeker of the Way is not an all star. His original intent was to generate maximum value out of our protection spells, but often I just don't see any great opening to deploy him. Still, playing smart, when we have too many creatures and our opponent knows our strategy, fodder is fodder, don't be afraid to send extra creatures to their death, that's one more turn to build our hand, and one less kill spell our opponent has.
12. Acolyte's Reward is just a fun-of I wanted to try, even deflecting as little as 2 damage back at a seeker, rabblemaster, or courser in combat can be great. I wouldn't expect more than 3 devotion at anytime but it's a card no one expects let alone understands so it triggers heroic, acts as protection, and can't be played around when it is this obscure. Honestly this could be another Feat of Resistance.
I'm also fairly sure that heroic was better as single creature voltron from the beginning anyway and that has never changed. Though heroic swarm has netted a few wins here and there, voltron has been more on top due to consistency in general and not needing such specific cards.
Since Mardu is so good against this deck I will give a more detailed analysis of my approach.
Mardu is ideally suited to battle with our deck. Their removal spells are wonderful, especially after sideboard. Mardu has early burn spells to snag Favored hoplite, phalanx leader, and akroan skyguard. Trailblazer is a great starter for this deck as you dont have to leave up mana early for burn spells. If your opponent is running magma spray all the power to them because outside of turn 1 it's pretty awful and just a narrow card in general. This deck is rough, even dodging burn they can capitalize with chained to the rocks. Leading with hoplite a good trick is using a pro color spell declaring white against burn, his heroic trigger negates all the damage anyway, and pro white protects against the chains. When going against chains by itself respond to its trigger, not the casting, because if you respond to the spell they can simply target another creature if available.
Another strategy is going wider with a 1 drop, phalanx leader, and launch the fleet. Of course this line isn't consistently available, and this strategy is susceptible to sweepers making it more effective game 1 than after sideboard. Ajani's presence is great against sweepers, 4 mana to trigger two creatures against the 5 mana end hostilities.
Butcher of the Horde is the lynch pin of their strategy against this deck. If they can take time to deploy him and get a lifelinked swing in while consuming our protection spells they stand to win the game. Unless Rabblemaster is imminently going to kill me, I always save suspension field or glare of heresy for butcher. Stormbreath is rough but not unbeatable. Turn 5 is late if they're on the back foot, and we have 7 spells that give pro red, making rabblemaster and butcher unable to block as well. I enjoy ordeal against this deck making it very hard for them to race us. On the other hand if they're already pressuring and they deploy a stormbreath on top of that I'm not sure how many decks actually win that situation.
Their suite of burn spells and chained to rocks really make the only deck that can leverage their mana against us. Their excessive taplands do them no favors so this isn't the huge problem it's made out to be. Keep an eye out for white tapland turn 1, if there isn't one it's safe to ignore chained to the rocks.
Stubborn Denial is only good against Crackling Doom and nothing else. Running a suite of protection spells isn't enough to win any games. But when each spell makes your creature into a bigger threat there's a viable strategy.
Now having REVISITED the mardu matchup, I would strongly urge you not to play this deck if your shop is all mardu. With the rise of durdly Abzan and Sultai decks, I strongly advise you test this deck out.
If you wish, I can word it in such a way to make it clearer that I mean it in terms of comparison, even moreso than using the word "comparatively".
You say making AOG and company ineffective is good and it is... but comparatively you've neglected to mention that single creature heroic eats it to crackling doom and has no way whatsoever to fight that other than to accept that they got wrecked and try to rebuild whereas heroic swarm doesn't really care about this issue. It is merely trading one Achilles heel for another, no real leg up in any way over the other given that the amount of play that each sees is reasonably similar.
Moving along, phalanx leader is a fairly weak card choice given the fact that voltron heroic does not want to commit too heavily to the board. Its synergy with launch the fleet is somewhat narrow, the kind of thing you either commit to or you don't. Launch the fleet itself is okay being a multi trigger in a deck with none of that otherwise (though I don't feel as though voltron necessarily needs multi triggers being what it is) but I feel that if you want a card to support it that card should be eidolon of countless battles. Where phalanx leader acts as a fine army booster, that isn't so much the point of the deck and ideally you will not have a large army, more commonly something large. Eidolon helps further that goal. It also reasonably synergizes with launch the fleet and will primarily act as a heroic trigger with a body. Also importantly, it gives you more to fight crackling doom with. Mono white has no stubborn denial. The best it has is recovery and eidolon can be that recovery. It can also even be put on a single creature that isn't your voltron which can drag crackling doom to it. If crackling doom hits it instead of the more desirable target, it drops a reasonably sized body, leaving the rest of your attack plan intact.
Launch the Fleet is just an easily striveable Heroic enabler, the fact that it makes tokens is almost irrelevant. Phalanx Leader is actually great against the durdly midrange decks. Phalanx Leader manages the excess glut of protection spells and creatures. Ideally we would draw 1 Favored Hoplite 2 lands, and 4 instants every game. But this deck requires a delicate balance of heroic creatures and heroic enablers. To prevent disastrous games where we draw too many creatures Phalanx Leader can fix that. It certainly isn't perfect but I have gone through wizard's card image gallery and I have familiarized myself with every white card available. With phalanx Leader you can voltron by proxy, and when the strategy suits you, this guy is serious removal bait since no player wants to see him stay on the field. He's not perfect, but saturating the deck with Hero of Iroas or Akroan Skyguards can lead to terrible hands.
Hero of iroas is an obvious bad choice in mono white given the lack of auras as opposed to something like UW. Skyguard I also agree is fairly distasteful due to mono white not being so liberal about dumping triggers right away.
I have to disagree with you here. Seeker is probably the best card against aggro in ANY heroic deck, plus it can consistently swing for 4 most turns. You cast all your spells targeting your heroic creatures, and seeker gets pumped as well.
Fabled hero is much too slow, and with only eight protection spells, is likely to have all removal targeted towards it. It is a HUGE threat, but Phalanx leader makes ALL your cards threats for one less mana. Soldier of the Pantheon is so-so. Protection from multi is very relevant in today's standard, but it isn't a heroic creature. Take your pick, as there aren't many other good heroic creatures in mono-white, other than the ones that have been listed above.
On a side note, I believe you could run U/W heroic with no fetches, as the blue mana requirement isn't very much. You could add some gainlands, some temples, and maybe some Mystic Monasteries, plus the only expensive card is a hero of iroas, and that is about $3, and can be replaced by Akroan Skyguard.
8-1 drops
4-2 drops
4-3 drops
2-4 drops
Probably not enough creatures, and in an aggro deck, 4 drops are a bit... slow, along with the one drops. Maybe add more 2-drops?
4 favored hoplite
2 lagonna-band
4 phalanx leader
4 hero of iroas
4 seeker of the way
1 eidolon of countless battles
1 heliod, god
1 spear of heliod
4 defiant strike
4 god's willing
4 chosen by heliod
1 ordeal of heliod
2 launch the fleets
3 ajani's presence
1 shrine
4 scry
15 plains
Sideboard
2 glare of heresy
2 erase
2 uhh 3mana convoke exile atk/blk
1 3 drop counters get flying
1 2 rop counters get 1st strike
1 ordeal of heliod
1 ajani's presence
2 feat of resistance
1 eidolon of countless battles
Will update post when at a computer. Works nicely, but I'm terrible online
2 Eidolon of Countless Battles
3 Seeker of the Way
3 Fabled Hero
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
2 Dawnbringer Charioteers
4 Favored Hoplite
3 Phalanx Leader
2 Spear of Heliod
4 Defiant Strike
1 Dauntless Onslaught
2 Suspension Field
1 Feat of Resistance
4 Launch the Fleet
4 Gods Willing
1 Banishing light
sideboard
[cards]1 Mortal's Ardor
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Ordeal of Heliod
2 Erase
2 Suspension field
2 Banishing Light
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer[cards]
ive gone 2-2 and 3-1 with this list numerous times at FNM
So past two tournaments have been 2-4-0 or 3-4-0. second to last tournament was a long time ago.
So round 1 was against U/R control, an interesting deck to say the least. Basically on the play I get out of burn range too fast, lead with trailblazer over favored hoplite on the draw, lagonna band trailblazer is such an underrated card. Bile blight useless, burn useless, after 1 trigger stoke the flames and siege rhino get really bad, can easily hold down rabblemaster. The reason I lost this match was the criminally underplayed aetherspouts which might as well exile your board. I still fought back into the game, I think I was sloppy on choosing which creatures bounced but I did get a trailblazer back up to a 3/7 and was threatening lethal. Control does not have inevitability anymore, I have more than once taken down a control deck after turn 10. I remember online i spent 4 turns killing ashiok, dexterously killed kiora with timely pro green spells. Just remember that they have a lot of dead cards against you, dig through time is not sphinx's revelation, they're not going to just hit 2 relevant spells to take you out. On a last note Ugin is a killer and I don't feel there is anyway you can combat him. I tried sideboarding stuff like banishing light, against control you just have to kill them before ugin and it is certainly possible to end them in a hurry. Against green ramp into ugin might just need banishing lights.
Game 2 was against sidisi whip which should tell you how long ago this tournament was. Went 1-2, on the play can just build enough momentum, make sure i answer the inevitable murderous cut and just pound away. On the draw satyr, into sidisi and trigger can just be too much fluff to fight through. Here i like suspension field for sidisi, there isn't a ton of action in the deck until they hit hornet queen which is rough. i have not found an intelligent way to fight through this thing, might just want a fabled hero i can voltron and make unblockable with pro green, use 1 and 2 drops as fodders so you dont have to protect fabled hero.
Game 3 I believe was against Abzan Aggro. Feel this is a high variable matchup, on the play hoplite into ordeal makes fleecemane lion and anafenza look terrible. I like bringing in glare and keeping in suspension field, just answer their biggest stuff, dont let anafenza take over, trailblazer is an excellent blocker, the great thing about this deck is its easy to cast your two mana removal while leaving up protection.
Now that I think about it I believe I had a bye in the third round because a 4th opponent is not occurring to me.
Wednesday night I can remember clearly.
Round 1 was against U/B control. This match really completely comes down to a healthy combination of creatures, heroic enabler, and protection spells, and of course a timely perilous vault. I started sideboarding banishing lights for this and ugin, the situation hasn't come up to see if it works. On the draw just assume they have bile blight, can even delay your 1 drop to deploy it the same turn you can hold up protection mana. This isn't a big deal, this isn't an aggro deck. Now a word about the sultai variation. satyr wayfinder into ashiok is a nuisance. I played the must kill ashiok route online and won, I'm not sure if it's correct, I think a followup ashiok would be a coffin nail, the ultimate is worthless but dropping blockers every turn is unwinnable on our side. I mean this match is high variable, if they can set up murderous cut and downfall in the same turn or wayfinder into ashiok it can get bad really fast. Perilous vault is must answer immediately, this match is winnable but three mana removal spells suck against us, so don't make bile blight a good card, pick your spots. Oh and murk lurker is rough, i feel we need suspension field to answer this thing.
Round 2 was against b/g devotion. Their ideal plan is to just not chump block and get a turn 4 hornet queen which is absurdly easy with frontier siege. I fear green midrange decks have just been further cemented as the most viable decks. This is not unwinnable, they actually have to draw hornet queen, or ugin, which is probably going to be a lot more common now though i feel banishing light can seriously devastate an ugin in this match up. But a one drop with a full head of steam can pound this deck mercilessly, make no mistake the b/g variants are a lot more difficult. its very tempting to use the useless pro colors to make a creature unblockable, until they tap caryatid for black and murderous cut your creature out of the green. Game 2 i put myself into a position with a double triggered fabled hero that had pro green making it unblockable and swinging for lethal, basically was a jammed up floor with hornet queen in tow and i put myself in the only chance to win, but of course he had hero's downfall, never failed to have every relevant card against me.
Round 3 was against U/B control again. This deck was much more conducive to beating us with post board murk lurker which gave him enough time to find ugin. And it didnt help when he used murk lurker to lifelink a pearl lake ancient the flashed in at the end of my turn. Got to game 3, just couldn't put him away.
So that's my walk through so far. I mean it's an $8 deck, I don't expect to win every game, but can still punish a player when they stumble, and comeback from mull to 5. There are a lot of interactions, it isn't dead to aggro or control, and did I mention it is $8?
Also, Valorous Stance seems great as a 1 of in deck and 1 of in board, though I kind of prefer feat of resistance for its greater utility.
4 Favored Hoplite
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
4 Akroan Skyguard
3 Seeker of the Way
4 Fabled Hero
2 Dawnbringer Charioteers
4 Defiant Strike
4 Gods Willing
4 Feat of Resistance
2 Launch the Fleet
17 Plains
4 Radiant Fountain
2 Ordeal of Heliod
2 Dawnbringer Charioteers
1 Glimpse of the Sun God
1 Spear of Heliod
2 Launch the Fleet
1 Vanguard of Brimaz
2 Banishing Light
2 Erase
2 Devouring Light
Here, a more expensive version (4 Hero of Iroas), but with Heliod's Pilgrim toolbox.
4 Hero of Iroas
3 Heliod's Pilgrim
1 Lotus-Eye Mystics
3 Seeker of the Way
4 Akroan Skyguard
Auras
1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
3 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Sage's Reverie
1 Oppressive Rays
1 Gift of Immortality
Instants
4 Defiant Strike
1 Valorous Stance
1 Feat of Resistance
4 Gods Willing
1 Ajani's Presence
4 Radiant Fountain
2 Banishing Light
2 Erase
3 Glare of Heresy
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Ajani's Presence
2 Launch the Fleet
2 Dawnbringer Charioteers
1 Vanguard of Brimaz
Sage Reverie is a great addition (albeit with a expensive converted mana cost) for mono W because its one of the few cards that can draw more than 1 card.
If you can afford it, Monastery Mentor seems like an auto include for the deck. I'll run it alongside Phalanx Leader for better results.
special thanks to sentimentgx4 for the sig
Pourquoi?