First off this is my first Primer so thanks for looking. All the other colors have had Devotion decks and I feel white is one that is going to shine once BNG comes out, here is a sample decklist and thoughts on cards. Would love input and ideas on the archetype.
Cards
Creatures
Soldier of the Pantheon: Best one drop, good early beats, life gain relevant and stops a lot of removal. Banisher Priest: Psuedo-Removal, great against decks that have no removal Precinct Captain: Double white for devotion, first strike is great vs aggro, tokens add up with spear on the table Brimaz, King of Oreskos: This BNG card is an auto include, two devotion, first strike, and makes tokens for spear Heliod, God of the Sun: Vigilance to all creatures is amazing and it's ability to make tokens is relevant with Nykthos Boros Reckoner: Best card with triple white, plus can deal with creatures much bigger than it. Fiendslayer Paladin: Amazing vs black and red decks, lifegain is huge vs aggro decks. Archangel of Thune: Lifegain with it or Fiendslayer makes all our creatures bigger, plus with spear our small guys become huge. Angel of Serenity: Helps pave way for attackers, also shuts down devotion Imposing Sovereign: great vs aggro decks or decks with flash
Spells
Brave the Elements: #1 option, lets us attack through stuffed board, also great for defending and saving our creatures. Last Breath: best option for Pack Rat, helps clear board early for our beats. Spear of Heliod: +1/+1 is amazing with first strike guys, it's ability also lets us kill bigger guys like Demon. Glare of Heresy: great for orzhov aggro, boros, or for detention sphere and elspeth. Pithing Needle: Shuts down Pack Rat, Mutavault, or any planeswalker Pacifism: Psuedo-removal, doesn't shut down devotion but helps get our attackers through. Renounce the Guilds: We have no multi-cards so this kills Weird, Specter, Fleeceman, etc. with no drawback.
Other
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: playing this turn 4 with a Nykthos is almost game in most matchups, also psuedo removal vs bigger creatures.
Blue: Azorious Charm allows us to lifelink more, or stop attackers/blockers, or just draw card if we get to late game. Lyev Skynight is great as it can detain big creatures and fly over their ground monsters.
Black: Duress/Thoughtseize vs control, or Orzhov Charm helps kill big creatures. Also allows us to splash for Blood Baron of Vizkopa which is amazing in this format.
About the blue splash, how do you feel about 2-3 Ephara MB? Great syngery with Precinct Captain and Brimaz. This would also allow you to play D-sphere which is still probably one of the best answers in the format, also very good vs pack rat.
Also, renounce the guilds might cause problems with your reckoners...
Ephara is just too slow I feel. I'd much rather be playing Elspeth on turn 4. I'm still experimenting with splashes but blue for D-Sphere to handle pack rat and for azorious charm or lyev skynight might be good.
Right now I'm leaning red if anything for mizzium mortars to kill Stormbreath and Blood Baron, plus Boros Charm is better than Rootborn Defenses and can hit to the dome for 4.
Celestial flare is the best removal option in a mono white deck, IMO. You need something to deal with Stormbreath. Makes combat a massive pain for your opp. if they know you have it too.
Also Path of Bravery is an option if you want to go the Archangel of Thune route.
Ajani/Gideon work decently in certain builds to turn on devotion/just beat on stuff(gideon).
Gideon is especially useful vs Esper, since he dodges lots of their removal and just swings each turn.
With the white devotion I'm thinking of putting in Ephara, God of Polis. She could become a big creature that is indestructible and lets you draw cards for late game.
I like spear of heliod more than Ajani right now since we have a lot of aggro creatures in this deck. But if it turns more into midrange than Ajani might be a better pick to give Ephara flying and double strike.
With the white devotion I'm thinking of putting in Ephara, God of Polis. She could become a big creature that is indestructible and lets you draw cards for late game.
I like spear of heliod more than Ajani right now since we have a lot of aggro creatures in this deck. But if it turns more into midrange than Ajani might be a better pick to give Ephara flying and double strike.
Gideon is just not good ever IMO.
You use all of them, since the point of mono white devotion at the moment is to really just go more into midrange/late than white weenies normally do.
I know people don't like the Gideon we have right now, but after trying him, he actually works pretty well. Usually he's just a 4 mana drop 6/6 (after you +1) indestructible beater every turn, which isn't too good or bad, but the key part is he adds devotion without being easily removed by stuff.
so Brian Braun-Duin is playing Mono-White splash red at SCG Baltimore. He's running 4 Elspeth, 4 Thune, 3 Heliod, and 3 Angel of Serenity. I think that is just way to many as if you get a few of those early game you can never play them.
He playing red for Mortars and Chained to the Rocks. I still think blue is the best splash for Detention Sphere, then possible Sphinx's Rev or Azorious Charm.
I don't like Phalanx really, but haven't tested it that much. I do love Ephara as you can proc tokens from precinct and brimaz and draw an extra card every turn.
I'm also experimenting with rapid hybridization and think it's the removal this deck needs. Banisher isn't hard removal and last breath(even though great against pack rat), doesn't kill most creatures. Rapid can put it in range of most of our creatures, plus using rapid hybridization on Ephara or Heliod and getting a 3/3 for 1 mana is amazing, especially during combat phase.
I'm also considering brave the elements and not 100% sure if that is the direction the deck wants to go in.
Thanks delfam for putting this up! This is the archetype I plan on using when bng goes legal. I'll splash blue for detention sphere and ephara. One thing I've noticed though is that many of the decks seem to be white midrange and take no advantage of the ludicrous amounts of mana that nykthos can generate. Here is a loose list of what I plan on running. Excuse the format, I'm on my phone!
4x nykthos, shrine to nyx
4x hallowed fountain
4x temple of enlightenment
2x azorius guildgate
10x plains
4x nyx born shieldmate
2x hopeful eidolon
4x precinct captain
4x phallanx leader
2x brimaz
4x detention sphere
1x spear of heliod
2x ajani, caller of the pride
3x heliod, god of the sun
3x ephara, god of the polis
2x banisher priest
3x angel of serenity
1x elspeth, suns champion
1x rapid hybridisation
I'm not convinced about phallanx leader with only 7 triggers but the deck needs 2 ww 2 drops and after precinct he is the best. Lots of synergy and possible turn 4 double god drop! Gotta love that!
I still don't like the phalanx, and you don't *need* 7 WW drops. Can just do 4 precincts, and put in some imposing sovereigns or something.
Also, looks like too many angels of serenity. Take one out and put in an Elspeth if possible.
I actually had spear of heliod as a 3 of, even with its legendary status, just so I can guarantee drawing it for the most part, since it's so useful for the deck as a whole. I think mono white devotion should at least have 2, since not only is its +1/+1 effective, its secondary effect actually does some work as well.
If we're doing white devotion, Boros Reckoner should be there somewhere, its just too good as a 3 drop.
that's why I was considering Judge's Familiar instead of say Soldier of the Pantheon as it holds back Drown in Sorrow for a turn. Maybe not the biggest deal but helps keep our devotion up a little longer to maybe get an Angel or Elspeth out their.
Angel of serenity is one of the greatest reasons to play mono white. You can power her out from turn 4 onwards but she really shines when you have an angel who has exiled an angel. Once that happens barring exile effects she really is unstoppable. Having only 2 for me is pretty risky. I don't like sovereign or reckoner.sovereign is amazing when your playing aggro but thats not my game plan. Reckoner might be side board against red decks ( although I think fiendslayee paladin ias better in that slot) but the main decks I feel that I will be facing will be u/w based control, mono blue and a huge amount of mono black and reckoner can either be ignored or destroyed by all 3 too easily.
The one drops and phalanx synergise well together but I will be trying several options in these spots. My current biggest fear is the new black removal. Anythingbthat can push our creatures out of drown in sorrow range I think is worth exploring!
No, my problem is having 3 of them.
2 is more than enough, usually.
The greatest reason to play mono white is so you can power out common threats in this meta quicker than others, in which its mostly Elspeth/Angel. Elspeth to me is far more useful, as it can either save you with her -3 that destroys key creatures like Stormbreath/Blood baron, or just help you win even harder by generating 3 tokens that's probably being buffed by spear.
Also Angel doesn't get rid of Blood Baron/Stormbreath, which from my playings is disgusting against us, since it dodges nearly everything we have aside from Elspeth and renounce/celestial flare/your splashes in the sideboard. Control decks that use it would have huge swings against us.
Reckoner is a three drop that gives 3 devotion. It's good for a lot of things, but since it looks like you really want devotion going, you'd probably want things that give as much devotion as possible.
I'm still not convinced on the leader. I actually had my deck start out using him, but he's so inconsistent that sometimes he's wonderful and gives a bunch of counters, and sometimes he's a 2 mana costed 1/1, in which i'd just rather run something like imposing sovereign.
The Reckoner seems like a given to include due to the fact that it adds 3 devotion, which is extremely important for acceleration. The Banisher Priest is also necessary at least in G1 because he can disrupt enemy plans as we build up devotion. Brimaz is of course a given, but should it be a 2, 3, or 4 of? I also like at least 1 Spear. Maybe we need to play removal (like Celestial Flare or Rapid Hybridization) instead of Spheres MD and leave the Spheres to SB in against the right slower matchups?
If we include too many "legendary" permanents, our hands can start to get cluttered, so I also wonder how many of each God is worthwhile in the U/W shell.
Brimaz is going to be nuts in this build after BNG as well.
Biggest problem with this deck so far is the manabase, but not sure how I can (or if I even should) tweak it to make it more stable. The deck doesn't necessarily need to drop a Reckoner on turn 3 though and has an incredible lategame, so its not the end of the world if you stumble T3 or 4.
A similar list running Archangel instead of Scion went 3-1 in a daily a few days ago, I think that Scion is way better here though. Archangel is win-more, whereas Scion can save your butt if you're behind, is phenomenal vs. Mono B, and is great with Purphoros. It does all of this even if it eats removal the turn it comes out.
I'm trying this list. With a clear eye on the MBD matchup. I think it has the card that is the most problematic for MBD in blood baron, makes use of devotion with revelations, and can put on early pressure with some synergistic white creatures. Loveto get some thoughts.
Don't see why skyjek/Eidolon's there. You're not running too many smaller creatures for Skyjek's battalion, and Eidolon doesn't seem that effective when you have no auras apart from eidolon himself.
I believe Craig Wescoe have an article regarding Mono White Devotion weeks back.
The list features splash of black since he have cards in board that uses black mana mainly for Thoughseize and Blood Baron of Vizcopa.
This may be a viable build for Mono White once BNG is legal due to new black removals.
Don't see why skyjek/Eidolon's there. You're not running too many smaller creatures for Skyjek's battalion, and Eidolon doesn't seem that effective when you have no auras apart from eidolon himself.
Daring Skyjek rounds out the 2 spot. There is a about a 60% chance that I'll see one of the 6 by turn 2 and with a total of ten 1&2 drops there is an 80% chance I'll have a creature to play by turn 2. I wish there was something stronger than Skyjeck but I don't see anything right now. Consider also that a turn 3 Brimazwill activate Battalion on turn 4.
As for ECB, I think that the synergy with token producers (Precinct Captain, Brimaz, and Heliod) make it serviceable. As an aura it will at least give +2 with a chance to go bigger, but I see the real value in the devotion count. Even after a board sweep I will have at least 2 devotion, 4 with spear, 3 with heliod. It is likely, if I have Heliod down, I can swing for 8 right after a board clearing effect.
I agree the 2 spot is sorely lacking, so meh. I'm using Imposing Sovereign personally at the moment.
For 3 drops there's still Archetype of Courage. I actually really want to test this out, as first strike on all of your tokens and such seems pretty good. White has too many 3 drop options to choose from, imo.
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First off this is my first Primer so thanks for looking. All the other colors have had Devotion decks and I feel white is one that is going to shine once BNG comes out, here is a sample decklist and thoughts on cards. Would love input and ideas on the archetype.
Cards
Creatures
Banisher Priest: Psuedo-Removal, great against decks that have no removal
Precinct Captain: Double white for devotion, first strike is great vs aggro, tokens add up with spear on the table
Brimaz, King of Oreskos: This BNG card is an auto include, two devotion, first strike, and makes tokens for spear
Heliod, God of the Sun: Vigilance to all creatures is amazing and it's ability to make tokens is relevant with Nykthos
Boros Reckoner: Best card with triple white, plus can deal with creatures much bigger than it.
Fiendslayer Paladin: Amazing vs black and red decks, lifegain is huge vs aggro decks.
Archangel of Thune: Lifegain with it or Fiendslayer makes all our creatures bigger, plus with spear our small guys become huge.
Angel of Serenity: Helps pave way for attackers, also shuts down devotion
Imposing Sovereign: great vs aggro decks or decks with flash
Spells
Last Breath: best option for Pack Rat, helps clear board early for our beats.
Spear of Heliod: +1/+1 is amazing with first strike guys, it's ability also lets us kill bigger guys like Demon.
Glare of Heresy: great for orzhov aggro, boros, or for detention sphere and elspeth.
Pithing Needle: Shuts down Pack Rat, Mutavault, or any planeswalker
Pacifism: Psuedo-removal, doesn't shut down devotion but helps get our attackers through.
Renounce the Guilds: We have no multi-cards so this kills Weird, Specter, Fleeceman, etc. with no drawback.
Other
Sample Decklist
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Angel of Serenity
3 Archangel of Thune
4 Banisher Priest
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Imposing Sovereign
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
4 Precinct Captain
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Brave the Elements
3 Last Breath
2 Spear of Heliod
4 Fiendslayer Paladin
3 Glare of Heresy
2 Pacifism
2 Pithing Needle
3 Renounce the Guilds
Possible Splashes
Red: This would just be for Boros Charm, maybe splashing 4 Sacred Foundry and 2 Temple of Triump for 2-3 Boros Charm, this would help get over Supreme Verdict.
Green: Mistcutter Hydra and Skylasher are amazing vs the control matchups
Black: Duress/Thoughtseize vs control, or Orzhov Charm helps kill big creatures. Also allows us to splash for Blood Baron of Vizkopa which is amazing in this format.
Matchups
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it!
this is a card I have been debating, sacred foundry won't hurt the decks temp but 4 temple of triumphs might.
I have been debating rootborn defenses just for supreme verdict and will probably test it out.
Celestial Flare is also I card I might add to sideboard to handle Stormbreath Dragon and Blood Baron of Vizkopa.
Ephara is just too slow I feel. I'd much rather be playing Elspeth on turn 4. I'm still experimenting with splashes but blue for D-Sphere to handle pack rat and for azorious charm or lyev skynight might be good.
Right now I'm leaning red if anything for mizzium mortars to kill Stormbreath and Blood Baron, plus Boros Charm is better than Rootborn Defenses and can hit to the dome for 4.
He's going to have to play lands to win - Paul Cheon
Decks:
Standard:
WBWb Weenie/Almost Orzhov AggroWB
UWUW ControlUW
Modern:
UWRUWR ControlUWR
Also Path of Bravery is an option if you want to go the Archangel of Thune route.
Standard:
RW Boros devotion/Purphoros combo
RGB Jund Midrange
Modern:
WB Martyr.proc
Gideon is especially useful vs Esper, since he dodges lots of their removal and just swings each turn.
I like spear of heliod more than Ajani right now since we have a lot of aggro creatures in this deck. But if it turns more into midrange than Ajani might be a better pick to give Ephara flying and double strike.
Gideon is just not good ever IMO.
You use all of them, since the point of mono white devotion at the moment is to really just go more into midrange/late than white weenies normally do.
I know people don't like the Gideon we have right now, but after trying him, he actually works pretty well. Usually he's just a 4 mana drop 6/6 (after you +1) indestructible beater every turn, which isn't too good or bad, but the key part is he adds devotion without being easily removed by stuff.
He playing red for Mortars and Chained to the Rocks. I still think blue is the best splash for Detention Sphere, then possible Sphinx's Rev or Azorious Charm.
I'm also experimenting with rapid hybridization and think it's the removal this deck needs. Banisher isn't hard removal and last breath(even though great against pack rat), doesn't kill most creatures. Rapid can put it in range of most of our creatures, plus using rapid hybridization on Ephara or Heliod and getting a 3/3 for 1 mana is amazing, especially during combat phase.
I'm also considering brave the elements and not 100% sure if that is the direction the deck wants to go in.
I still don't like the phalanx, and you don't *need* 7 WW drops. Can just do 4 precincts, and put in some imposing sovereigns or something.
Also, looks like too many angels of serenity. Take one out and put in an Elspeth if possible.
I actually had spear of heliod as a 3 of, even with its legendary status, just so I can guarantee drawing it for the most part, since it's so useful for the deck as a whole. I think mono white devotion should at least have 2, since not only is its +1/+1 effective, its secondary effect actually does some work as well.
If we're doing white devotion, Boros Reckoner should be there somewhere, its just too good as a 3 drop.
No, my problem is having 3 of them.
2 is more than enough, usually.
The greatest reason to play mono white is so you can power out common threats in this meta quicker than others, in which its mostly Elspeth/Angel. Elspeth to me is far more useful, as it can either save you with her -3 that destroys key creatures like Stormbreath/Blood baron, or just help you win even harder by generating 3 tokens that's probably being buffed by spear.
Also Angel doesn't get rid of Blood Baron/Stormbreath, which from my playings is disgusting against us, since it dodges nearly everything we have aside from Elspeth and renounce/celestial flare/your splashes in the sideboard. Control decks that use it would have huge swings against us.
Reckoner is a three drop that gives 3 devotion. It's good for a lot of things, but since it looks like you really want devotion going, you'd probably want things that give as much devotion as possible.
I'm still not convinced on the leader. I actually had my deck start out using him, but he's so inconsistent that sometimes he's wonderful and gives a bunch of counters, and sometimes he's a 2 mana costed 1/1, in which i'd just rather run something like imposing sovereign.
We have so many good 3-drops that it makes it difficult to include Detention Spheres. Banisher Priest, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Boros Reckoner, Fiendslayer Paladin (SB item), Frontline Medic (excluded?), Spear of Heliod, Ajani, Caller of the Pride.
The Reckoner seems like a given to include due to the fact that it adds 3 devotion, which is extremely important for acceleration. The Banisher Priest is also necessary at least in G1 because he can disrupt enemy plans as we build up devotion. Brimaz is of course a given, but should it be a 2, 3, or 4 of? I also like at least 1 Spear. Maybe we need to play removal (like Celestial Flare or Rapid Hybridization) instead of Spheres MD and leave the Spheres to SB in against the right slower matchups?
Besides Soldier of the Pantheon and Precinct Captain, we seem to be missing another good 1 or 2 drop for this build. Judge's Familiar and Nyxborn Shieldmate are perhaps the best at 1cc, or maybe Dryad Militant? At 2cc I don't really see anything worthwhile other than Imposing Sovereign.
If we include too many "legendary" permanents, our hands can start to get cluttered, so I also wonder how many of each God is worthwhile in the U/W shell.
Of course, there is the heroic route with phalanx leaders and stuff, but that's pretty inconsistent, and it's already not the most consistent deck.
I've been testing this list the past two days, and I am highly frigging impressed with it so far:
4x Precinct Captain
4x Boros Reckoner
4x Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
3x Heliod, God of the Sun
3x Purphoros, God of the Forge
3x Spear of Heliod
3x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4x Chained to the Rocks
4x Mizzium Mortars
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Temple of Triumph
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
8x Plains
4x Mountain
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Warleader's Helix
2x Boros Charm
2x Keening Apparition
2x Glare of Heresy
3x Anger of the Gods
Brimaz is going to be nuts in this build after BNG as well.
Biggest problem with this deck so far is the manabase, but not sure how I can (or if I even should) tweak it to make it more stable. The deck doesn't necessarily need to drop a Reckoner on turn 3 though and has an incredible lategame, so its not the end of the world if you stumble T3 or 4.
A similar list running Archangel instead of Scion went 3-1 in a daily a few days ago, I think that Scion is way better here though. Archangel is win-more, whereas Scion can save your butt if you're behind, is phenomenal vs. Mono B, and is great with Purphoros. It does all of this even if it eats removal the turn it comes out.
Standard:
RW Boros devotion/Purphoros combo
RGB Jund Midrange
Modern:
WB Martyr.proc
4 soldier of the pantheon
2 daring skyjek
4 precinct captain
4 brimaz, king of oreskos
4 eidolon of countless battles
1 ephara, god of the polis
2 heliod, god of the sun
4 blood baron of vizkopa
4 detention sphere
2 spear of heliod
3 sphinx's revelation
Mana base 25
3 nyx
4 hallowed fountain
2 temple of enlightenment
3 godless shrine
1 temple of silence
3 watery grave
2 temple of deceit
5 plains
2 islands
The list features splash of black since he have cards in board that uses black mana mainly for Thoughseize and Blood Baron of Vizcopa.
This may be a viable build for Mono White once BNG is legal due to new black removals.
Daring Skyjek rounds out the 2 spot. There is a about a 60% chance that I'll see one of the 6 by turn 2 and with a total of ten 1&2 drops there is an 80% chance I'll have a creature to play by turn 2. I wish there was something stronger than Skyjeck but I don't see anything right now. Consider also that a turn 3 Brimazwill activate Battalion on turn 4.
As for ECB, I think that the synergy with token producers (Precinct Captain, Brimaz, and Heliod) make it serviceable. As an aura it will at least give +2 with a chance to go bigger, but I see the real value in the devotion count. Even after a board sweep I will have at least 2 devotion, 4 with spear, 3 with heliod. It is likely, if I have Heliod down, I can swing for 8 right after a board clearing effect.
For 3 drops there's still Archetype of Courage. I actually really want to test this out, as first strike on all of your tokens and such seems pretty good. White has too many 3 drop options to choose from, imo.