Mission Statement: I will be using this thread to catalog my development of a mono-white aggro shell for Opening Day of Shadows Over Innistrad Standard. I intend to keep this thread updated with plausible card choices and potential decklists, and will be paying special attention to new spoilers for possible additions to the archetype. Feedback and comments are highly encouraged.
Fair statement up front: I'm not normally an "aggro" player. I play a little bit of everything, but I tend toward aggressively-slanted midrange decks. This is somewhat unfamiliar territory for me, and quite honestly, I don't think mono-white aggro is that great of an archetype, whether in general or coming up in SOI Standard. This deck is simply a filler project to allow me to play something early in the format.
With that said... I do think a mono-white aggro shell does a few things that you really want to be doing early in a new format. Specifically:
We want to be able to exploit bad brews from other people, instead of being bad brewers ourselves. This is a little presumptuous, as it's entirely possible that our deck is, indeed, a bad brew among many others. But there's a specific class of "bad brew" that I'm talking about here. At the start of a new season, players tend to go crazy with exploring all the cool new cards in a set. These players overwhelmingly do not understand how to build good decks. Their decks will be clunky 3 color monstrosities that play some good cards, some bad cards, with a bad mana curve and a badly-constructed mana base. Or, alternatively, the decks may be more soundly constructed, but will have a specific gameplan that isn't very good, or will go too far in one single suboptimal direction at the expense of an otherwise solid shell. I see lots of potential "trap archetypes" in the first couple of weeks of SOI Standard too. It's important, then, that we play something proactive, reasonably fast, with a good mana curve and a great mana base. If we do this, the deck itself doesn't even have to be all that powerful... we'll get all kinds of freerolls off of our opponents' poor deckbuilding decisions. I believe mono-white aggro has the tools to build a proactive, fast deck with a good curve and great mana base, while still playing sufficiently powerful cards to win a fair fight when the clunky monstrosities are working as intended.
We want to have a good to great matchup with aggressive red decks. The first lesson of playing competitive Standard is that no matter how terrible the card pool looks for Red Deck Wins at the start of a new format, there will be a swarm of devoted red mages jamming their favorite deck, and they will be highly successful early on. This is because aggressive red decks of the RDW style are excellent at the first point above. Their whole archetype exists to exploit decks like those running rampant on Day 1! So we know it'll be around, in larger numbers than normal, since the metagame will incentivize players to pick it up. We therefore want our deck to have a good RDW matchup. I believe mono-white aggro can do this, because it can keep up with RDW's quick board presence development, and does so with creatures that trump theirs in combat, either due to being slightly bigger (and thus better at racing) or having relevant keywords (notably vigilance and especially first strike).
We want to have a deck that has notable synergy with itself and isn't just a pile of independently powerful cards. This last bit is more important than it sounds -- at first glance it's almost just a completely subjective preference, but it does matter. The other trap that brewers tend to fall into is playing a bunch of independently powerful cards with no meaningful synergy between them, trying to win solely on card quality. This is perfectly reasonable and even just superior to synergy-laden gameplans, but it depends on a particular metagame with clear decks to beat and ample exploration of the cards in the format (to know which ones are good and which ones aren't). This obviously isn't the case with a new format, and so we want to make sure that our deck isn't just banking on our card evaluation skills -- we want to have some good synergies within our cards to make up for any errors in evaluation that we might have made. Mono-white aggro has several synergistic options enabled specifically by Shadows Over Innistrad which I am interested in exploring.
This deck's plan is to get on board early with reasonable attackers at low cmcs (1-2). It has a lot of built-in ways to buff the somewhat small size of the creatures that don't require us to go out of our way to gain the buffs. Just by continuing to develop our board, our creatures will quickly get to a dangerous size for the small amount of mana we invested into them, enabling quick kills while also ensuring that our opponents trade down on mana to answer them (short of sweeper effects). Our top-end finishers are Archangel of Tithes, which makes combat too difficult for our opponents to handle adequately, and Gideon, who provides backbreaking advantage on board when we're ahead or even with our opponent.
Threat Choices
Expedition Envoy: Somewhat unexciting, but the deck has to have an early board presence, which means playing as many decent to good 1-drops as possible. Envoy is definitely on the "decent" end of that scale (and that's a bit generous), but still earns a spot because of its two relevant subtypes. Human synergy is critical to making Thalia's Lieutenant function as well as it can, and being an Ally maximizes our Lantern Scout sideboard tech, ensuring that we can get a lot of lifelink triggers when we need them. Envoy's only competition thus far (03/20/2016) is Dragon Hunter, and in this case, Envoy has the better upside. Dragon Hunter is better if our opponents are playing Dragons, whereas Envoy is better if we're bringing in Lantern Scout out of the board. Given that we expect RDW to be prevalent in the opening day metagame, the synergy with our primary anti-red sideboard tech is more crucial than the +EV from having Dragon Hunter if we run into Dragons decks on opening day.
Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged: Again, somewhat unexciting, but we need 1-drops. This one has a lot of appealing text, though. This deck isn't as all-in on flipping Kytheon turn 3 as previous Kytheon decks were, because the other Gideon card in the deck is much more powerful than Battle-Forged, but Kytheon can cause a lot of havoc on the battlefield for the single mana investment. The deck has a significant number of first strike creatures in the deck, which makes Battle-Forged's +2 ability pretty close to "Destroy target creature without flying" in the deck. The +1 granting pseudo-vigilance is powerful with Archangel of Tithes, especially since the Archangel blocks so well to begin with, but also works well again with our first strike creatures for deterring attacks. And of course, bashing in for four, out of a 1-drop, as a "default" option when the other two modes aren't doing anything special, is never bad. The legend rule on both sides of the planeswalker pushes us toward fewer than four copies, but I think we want three instead of 1-2.
Consul's Lieutenant: Devastating card on the play, especially with a one-drop preceding it. Most decks will probably have some kind of presence on board on turn 2, but they're a single removal spell or anthem effect from being in a real bad spot (and that's assuming aforesaid two-drop has three toughness to begin with -- otherwise it's not a deterrent to attacking). An important play note is that this creature must become renowned for it to be any good, and so consequently it's often not good on the draw, and should basically never be left in the deck when we have to be on the draw. This is a very all-in card, but I think the deck has enough ways for it to get there (on the play, at least) to merit including it as a 4-of.
Thalia's Lieutenant: This is the card that got me thinking mono-white aggro could be a real force on day one. The way to look at this card is that it's a 3-drop that costs 2 mana. I say this because the deck should always have a turn-2 play (so you should never have to run it out on turn 2), and the deck should frequently have a 1-drop. Thalia's Lieutenant can be thought of as an X/X for 2, where X = 1 + the number of other creatures you control when its ETB trigger resolves (and with most of X spread out among other creatures). As long as X is at least 2, you're fine. Ideally you want it to be 3, and anything higher than that is awesome. So basically, Thalia's Lieutenant is the "3-drop" of the deck in terms of curving out... but it costing 2 mana gives us some extra opportunities for being mana-efficient and doing multiple things with our turn 3. The most powerful thing is when we're on the draw and can play Knight of the White Orchid + Thalia's Lieutenant on turn 3, but even just playing this as a follow-up to another 1-drop on turn 3 is big game.
Knight of the White Orchid: This card is the first of two cards already in the format that make this deck a viable contender. Stealing the play is going to be very big game early in the format, where tempo is king and many players will be relying on every tempo advantage they can buy due to the clunky decks they play. I've already mentioned Thalia's Lieutenant as a big follow-up, but there's also our removal spell, Declaration in Stone, which lets us answer our opponent's turn 3 play and develop our board at the same time. Knight of the White Orchid is a surprisingly good solution to the 3-drop problem that's plagued mono-white aggro ever since Brimaz, King of Oreskos rotated... who needs a 3-drop when you can play two 2-drops instead?
Archangel of Tithes: The other card that potentially pushes this deck over the top as a contender. The Archangel has been much maligned throughout her time in Standard due to her prohibitive casting cost, but it's looking like we may finally be going toward a format where the opportunity cost of playing her is low enough that she becomes playable. She makes combat virtually impossible for opposing creature decks, and she's extremely powerful when the deck 'turns the corner' against aggressive decks, taxing them both during blocking and when we attack out. She's not particularly potent vs controlling decks, but the format's good decks early will all be trying to be maximally mana-efficient, which Archangel hoses, hard.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: I guess you could say this card also pushes the deck, but he actually seems like a slight misfit to me. He kinda fails the synergy aspect of our deck since he's a grindier threat that just happens to win fast, but at the same time, this deck's ability to dominate the battlefield might actually give him one of his best shells yet. Protecting him the turn he comes down is a cinch since you're probably ahead on board or at least even on board, which is where Gideon tends to take over games. The rotation of both Crackling Doom and Abzan Charm (and the inability of decks to splash for Stasis Snare) makes his +1 much more powerful, and of course he can just grind out a lot of decks with 2/2s. The emblem is even good here! Just a good solid card, not a lot to write about. I play 3 to avoid awkwardness involving Gideon, Battle-Forged, but there's a fourth in the board because this card will frequently be the best card in your deck.
Utility Choices
Declaration in Stone: Boy this card is nuts in this shell! Two-mana unconditional exile is just crushingly good. Sorcery speed isn't even a drawback since this whole deck plays at sorcery speed anyway. Giving them Clue tokens is cute, if you're doing it right they should only be cracking the Clues if they're short on time and desperate to find an answer. The fact that it's basically Bile Blight as far as opposing tokens go is also big game, since going wide with tokens is probably the best way to beat this deck (outside of playing sweepers obviously). This is your removal spell, use it wisely.
Eerie Interlude: This may look like a weird addition at first, but I'll bet I can sell you on it without a lot of trouble. The deck's biggest weakness is wrath effects, which this easily counters. That's almost reason enough to have access to these in the 75 for a mono-white shell, since you can't play Negate or the like. But wait, there's more! Look at all the creatures we play with the Human subtype, and reread Thalia's Lieutenant... or really just read Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. Uh huh. You get it now. Even if our opponent isn't playing wraths, we can just cycle this to massively pump the squad on their turn! Imagine how backbreaking it would be in an aggressive mirror to max out on blocks to preserve our life total, and then cast this. Not only do we Fog them, which is sometimes enough to swing an aggro mirror on its own, but our guys come back bigger for the trouble! The applications of this card are just insane. Fog in aggro decks, counter for wrath in control decks, beefing our team either way, and then sometimes we might even get a land with Knight of the White Orchid just to put salt in the wound. It's a little off the beaten path for an aggro deck, so I only play two copies, but I have a third in the board, and I can easily see this becoming a 4-of if testing pans out.
Secure the Wastes: One of these is basically free in a white deck. I have more in the board for decks relying on spot removal, but this doesn't synergize with anything in the deck (the Warriors are tokens, so no Anafenza triggers, and aren't Humans, so no Thalia's Lieutenant triggers), and it's an inefficient effect if X is small (you need X = 3+). This is the flexest of flex spots and can easily be something else or just cut altogether.
Sideboard Choices
Bygone Bishop: Tech that interests me for the grindier matchups. I feel like if we're cracking Clue tokens, we're probably losing anyway, but a 2/3 flying creature for 3 is already an okay rate, and this deck can make a lot of Clues. In conjunction with Gideon spending zero mana to make 2/2s, there's the beginnings of a plan for longer games.
Lantern Scout: Tech for RDW and other decks that would go underneath us or threaten to burn us out. This card has been playable as "2W: Creatures you control gain lifelink until end of turn. Put a 3/2 white Human Scout Ally creature token onto the battlefield." But in this deck, it's not just that. Look carefully... there are twelve ways to trigger Rally in the deck counting the Scouts themselves, and four of them (the Gideons) are repeatable effects! Getting a second trigger off the Scout is a very realistic possibility, which can be plausibly expected to win games in which they're boarded in on their own.
Surge of Righteousness: I'm not joking about these damn red decks. Don't skip on the hate. Bonus points for sniping a blocking Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or other random black monsters that would give us trouble.
Vryn Wingmare: Testing this for opposing controlling decks. I dunno if this gets in our own way too much or not, since Gideon is our best card against those decks and the tax hits him too. Plus, I don't like 3-mana spells that want to be played on-curve in a Knight of the White Orchid deck. This could be perfectly reasonable or it could just be garbage, but that's what testing is for!
Potential Splashes
Splashes? We don't need no splashes. Don't be greedy and screw this up.
But since you asked... plausible splashes are green for Collected Company and Dromoka's Command, or blue for Reflector Mage, Dispel, and Invasive Surgery. I'm not as sure about black and white yet, but Company and Command are extremely on-plan, Reflector Mage is very on-plan, and 1-mana counterspells give us a lot of game postboard as an aggro-control deck.
But really, for goodness sake. Don't do it. The mana base we have is beautiful. We support 1WWW in an aggro deck and get some sweet lifegain utility lands to boot. You do not need a second color. Rock this as it is!
EDIT: Including an analysis of new cards as of 3.22.2016. Will possibly update that post as new cards are spoiled, no guarantees though. LINK
EDIT2: Great post here concerning one of the issues Mono-White needs to solve vis-a-vis RDW. LINK
With the new rare lands spoiled (Port Town mainly) and with Prairie Stream already in existence, I think splashing blue would be both easy and a really good idea.
Also, what are your thoughts on Eternal Vigil or whatever the +1/+1 and Vigilance card will be?
After having played this pre-rotation for a while now (it's actually pretty decent already), I'd advise you that if you stick with mono-W, you add some more longevity in the form of utility lands. You can devote quite a number of slots to colorless lands in a purely white build. You're currently running Blighted Steppe, but I'm not sure that lifegain is what you want to do with your lands, especially when Lantern Scout can net you the life you need against RDW while also providing a creature.
I've tested Foundry of the Consuls, Rogue's Passage and Sea Gate Wreckage. I found that Foundry was too slow and rarely made a difference. Rogue's Passage sealed a game with a stalled board once in a while, and SGW was outright good since you're going to empty your hand easily with this deck. Needless to say, that requires you to dedicate enough colorless lands to activate it consistently, but it can be done, and the lands add a lot more options to the deck.
I had Eternal Vigil in my draft lists before posting, but I feel like it's going to be too tempo-negative to play. I could be wrong though. It's on my radar for testing. Good suggestion!
Regarding splashes -- this deck needs a minimum of 22 and ideally 23 white sources for Archangel of Tithes. Every splash has to start with that consideration in mind. Splashing another color is hard because you generally want 10-12 sources of your splash color, which means not only a cycle of the reveal land (which seems pretty playable) but also the cycle of battle lands (iffy) and 2-4 guildgates (unplayable). (We can also play some number of basic lands that aren't Plains but that seems bad given all the heavy WW costs.) Adding colorless sources is very likely to make Archangel uncastable.
I think there are some good ideas here, but pay attention to the curve. I do not think it is correct for this type of deck to run 15-18 two-drops, zero three-drops, and 7-8 four-drops. I also think Secure the Wastes is slow for such an aggressive deck.
Beyond that, I think Thraben Inspector and Bygone Bishop have a place in the maindeck. They might not seem like traditional aggro cards, but I've always like having a manasink or two in my aggro decks, and drawing extra cards for 2 a piece seems like a great way to keep the pressure going against control.
That said, Languish decks might just not be a strong matchup for this deck.
I had Eternal Vigil in my draft lists before posting, but I feel like it's going to be too tempo-negative to play. I could be wrong though. It's on my radar for testing. Good suggestion!
Regarding splashes -- this deck needs a minimum of 22 and ideally 23 white sources for Archangel of Tithes. Every splash has to start with that consideration in mind. Splashing another color is hard because you generally want 10-12 sources of your splash color, which means not only a cycle of the reveal land (which seems pretty playable) but also the cycle of battle lands (iffy) and 2-4 guildgates (unplayable). (We can also play some number of basic lands that aren't Plains but that seems bad given all the heavy WW costs.) Adding colorless sources is very likely to make Archangel uncastable.
This guy was on the right track but didn't fully appreciate how good the new lands are. I think a secondary color splash is probably doable if two things are true:
1) We are willing to go up to 25 lands and cut utility lands
2) We are willing to make the secondary color a true splash, i.e. no secondary-colored spells before turn 3
This means we only need 11-12 sources for our secondary color. I'm using blue as the example here, because Reflector Mage ostensibly solves a significant problem that rujasu notes later, and because countermagic will help me come up with reasonable sideboard cards for Day 1. Four Port Town, four Prairie Stream and three Islands make for eleven sources, and since only three of those tap exclusively for blue, we can play 3 Islands and 22 lands that produce white mana, hitting our target for Archangel of Tithes.
Of course, now we get to the next question -- how often will we have taplands? To answer this, we need to look at the configuration of our lands. In a hypothetical four-Town, four-Stream, 3-Island, rest-Plains configuration, 25 lands would give us 4 Town / 4 Stream / 3 Island / 14 Plains. Literally every land except another Town can be revealed to Town to enable it coming into play untapped, so in a mana base like that, the Towns are basically freeroll UW untapped duals for the first few turns of the game (i.e. until you run out of Plains or Island to reveal). Coming into play tapped later is only a problem if we need to curve out but don't have the lands to reveal to it to do so. All in all, while they're not perfect untapped duals, they're so easy to sequence at first glance that I struggle to think of them as anything but.
Then we have seventeen basic lands for our four battle lands. For reference, my Bant Company list in the current Standard plays four battle lands, 25 lands in all, and seventeen sources for the battle lands... except that ten of those sources are fetchlands, which means that if I use them to find basics for my battle lands, I actually reduce the number of sources of basics left by two (the fetch and the land it tutored). This configuration should be slightly more reliable than the Bant Company lists which already exist, and those have, in my experience, been very consistent. I think I'm okay with running those.
The lesson here is that this archetype can splash green or blue without losing Archangel of Tithes, as long as it's okay with not casting its green or blue spells prior to turn 3, and not casting double-costed green or blue cards at any point. Anything more intensive will require the Archangel to be cut, and I'm personally not interested in making that call.
No love for Captain's Claws? That card has been doing work for me, especially after an emblem from Gideon.
I hadn't thought of Captain's Claws in the deck or, for that matter, tested with the card at all in any deck. That could be really interesting. I worry about the potential tempo loss from taking the time to play it and equip it if an opponent has a removal spell, as with most equipment I suppose. The deck doesn't give opponents great spot removal options as it is, and so I'd rather avoid giving them a freebie.
I think there are some good ideas here, but pay attention to the curve. I do not think it is correct for this type of deck to run 15-18 two-drops, zero three-drops, and 7-8 four-drops. I also think Secure the Wastes is slow for such an aggressive deck.
I agree, but I don't see any enticing three-drops in mono-white. One of my hopes is that SOI gives the archetype a single good 3-drop to plug and play. Bygone Bishop is the closest thing I can think of, but I'm not really excited by it in general -- while we might have time in some matchups to cash in Clues, I want my three-drop to be more aggressively slanted than the Bishop is. With that said, adding Reflector Mage in blue really solves a lot of this problem, as the Mage is probably at its most threatening when it's clearing out a 2-drop for our attacking 1-drop and Consul's Lieutenant to push through damage. And additionally, I don't mind a hole at the 3-spot specifically; we can be mana-efficient on turn 3 by playing a 1-drop and a 2-drop, and 3 isn't a great place to be on the curve in general (as double-spelling with a 3-drop becomes difficult in a deck that expects to hit four land drops but not necessarily five).
It's undoubtedly a weakness though. Zero three-drops pretty much has to be wrong. I just don't know what I'm supposed to play instead...
I think it's unnecessary. It's a fine card and I could be very wrong, but Declaration in Stone basically does the same thing for two mana, and I don't think the deck needs a lot of these effects.
What happens when your opponent casts languish on turn 4? I think you need a plan of attack for that.
Well, Eerie Interlude is pretty sick. I think any time you respond to Languish with Interlude, you straight up win the game. Without that answer though, Archangel of Tithes and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar both come down prior to Languish on the play and survive Languish, and somewhat ironically, Thalia's Lieutenant becomes big enough to survive Languish at times, and specifically does so when we overextend into Languish by dumping a bunch of Human creatures on the field. For how soft the deck is to sweepers in general, I think it's about as well equipped to handle Languish as any such deck can be. The card is just going to beat us sometimes, which is fine, that's what it's supposed to do. But we have counterplay for Languish; we're not just dead to it like a lot of white weenie builds in the past would be.
The archangel and dragonlord benefit immensely from vigilance and dragonlord gets out of languish and flash avacyn range.
On the draw, the knights can grab us our blue source and can even come into play untapped depending on the first two lands. Nothing better than t3 knight into play with silkwrap. Then t4 dragonlord, turn 5 drop an always watching and have negate backup.
Btw, how does eerie interlude work with anafenza, tree-kin spirit? Does all the bolster trigger for each other creature that is returned to play with anafenza if anafenza is also blanked out? Also for thalia's lieutenant does both trigger happen assuming 2 other humans were exiled as well? So each human gets a +1/+1 counter and the lieutenant gets 2 counters?
Short story on Eerie Interlude: It works in the best possible way for us with our Lieutenant/Anafenza triggers.
Long explanation: All of the creatures 'see' each other enter the battlefield when multiple creatures enter the battlefield simultaneously. So suppose we blink two Expedition Envoy, two Thalia's Lieutenant, and an Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit...
1) All creatures enter simultaneously. The Envoys are 2/1s, Lieutenants are 1/1s and Anafenza is a 2/2.
2) The Lieutenants each see three other Humans enter (the other Lieutenant and the two Envoys), Anafenza sees four other creatures enter. This all happens as they're entering the battlefield.
3) At the same time, you will place four bolster 1 triggers, two anthem (**except Anafenza) triggers from the Lieutenants' ETB effects, and six Lieutenant triggers from the other Humans entering. Importantly, you can stack the triggers in whatever order you want, which lets you guide the bolster triggers to where they need to go.
(For example: say that you intended to swing out with everybody but Anafenza next turn, and you wanted to maximize the damage this would do -- you would put the Lieutenant anthem triggers on the bottom, then the Anafenza bolster triggers on top of those, then the Lieutenant +1/+1 triggers on top. Your Lieutenants become 4/4s, then your Anafenza bolsters can all go to the Envoys (making one a 3/2, the other a 3/2, the first a 4/3 and the second a 4/3), then your Lieutenant anthems can resolve, with the ultimate effect of leaving you with two 6/5 Envoys, two 5/5 Lieutenants, and a 2/2 Anafenza.)
So yes, all the possible triggers happen, and you get to resolve them in the order you choose.
New list. I've decided to try out splashing blue for Reflector Mage and sideboard Dispel. Reflector Mage does it all. On the play, when we're typically ahead on board and our opponent is most likely sitting on just one creature in play, the Mage kills it, clears the way for a significant attack, and leaves behind a reasonably sized body that can be buffed with Thalia's Lieutenant. That we get an extra use out of the bounce effect with Eerie Interlude is just an added awesome bonus. On the draw, the Mage is another way to 'steal the play' like Knight of the White Orchid -- we get to undo their best play and leave a body behind, which lets us break serve on the draw by doing two things in one turn first.
As for Dispel, I expect Collected Company strategies to be popular on Day 1, and Dispel gives us a savagely efficient 1-for-1 answer to Company, which is crucial, because Company is typically how those strategies get caught up on board against smaller, faster decks. The fact that we can do basically anything in the deck on turn 3 on the draw and still hold up Company is great. It's also useful against controlling decks relying on powerful instant-speed removal spells to bridge the gap to their sweeper, since we can use it to protect our Eerie Interlude if it looks like a counter war is imminent.
I made some other adjustments to the list after some suggestions. I lowered the land count to 23 to avoid flooding effects, since the deck has a glut of 1-2 drop action. I also cut a Kytheon and a Gideon, both to reduce legendary rule awkwardness and, in the case of Gideon, to help lower the curve. I added the full set of Dragon Hunter to hit a critical mass of 1-drops, and of course, updated the mana base to enable the blue splash.
There's still a gap at the 3-drop spot. Thalia one timeeeeeeeee
I moved the Consul's Lieutenant to the sideboard because it's a fairly bad card when we're on the draw. This deck plays much worse on the draw compared to being on the play, and so I have the deck "preboarded" for playing on the draw -- the harder matchups will be the ones where we're on the draw, so I want Consul out of the maindeck in preparation for this. But it's so powerful when on the play that I think it more or less has to be in the deck. Usually there's some amount of room to cut the bigger top-end cards (Interlude, Archangel, Gideon) depending on the matchup, but it can also be okay to cut some number of Dragon Hunter for them, as Dragon Hunter is a bad Magic card that's only in the deck to hit our ideal number of Savannah Lions. (Which I currently have at 10, but really really hope can drop...)
The extra Gideons come in for Archangels when the matches are expected to get grindy, especially if the opponent isn't going particularly wide. The two Surge of Righteousness are extra insurance against RDW, and the Lantern Scouts are much of the same.
My concern is that decks like this will simply be too slow to be able to stand up to the menace that's going to be BR Dragons/Vampires. The opponent curving Olivia into Drana into Thunderbreak Regent (for example) is simply going to be run over any sort of weenie strategy that isn't being proactive. Thoughts?
Maybe someone who has more experience playing with Archangel of Tithes can comment on this, but I'm going to point out that I'm not as enamored with the card as everyone else seems to be. A 3/5 Flying for 4 is a pretty good rate, and the taxing effect is useful, but is it so good that we want to maindeck it here? Is the average deck really going "wide" enough that they can't afford to pay 1 for their attacking or blocking creatures? I'm thinking the only four-drop in the maindeck should be Gideon, with Archangel coming in out of the board for other aggro matchups.
I don't even think Village Messenger is good enough for mono-red. Abbot is good, but the deck doesn't need a two-drop. Pia and Kiran are also good, but the deck already has Gideon which fills a similar role.
I do like the idea of splashing just for Reflector Mage. That plus Declaration in Stone seems like just the right amount of interaction for this type of deck.
Hanweir Militia Captain seems intriguing.
I have trouble seeing the mana base that will do both WW on T2 for Anafenza and RR on T4 for Pia and Kiran.
I do think Odric, Lunarch Marshal is interesting, as I think his effect happens the turn he comes into play, even though he can't attack. One flying creature makes all creatures fly, and one double-striking creature works similarly (Arashin Foremost).
My concern is that decks like this will simply be too slow to be able to stand up to the menace that's going to be BR Dragons/Vampires. The opponent curving Olivia into Drana into Thunderbreak Regent (for example) is simply going to be run over any sort of weenie strategy that isn't being proactive. Thoughts?
What do you mean by proactive / slow that a deck playing 8-10 one-drops doesn't qualify? To me, if their curve starts at Olivia and doesn't truly do anything until t4 hasted Drana, they're going to be too far behind. That curve looks real soft to 1-drop into 2-drop into basically any followup
My concern is that decks like this will simply be too slow to be able to stand up to the menace that's going to be BR Dragons/Vampires. The opponent curving Olivia into Drana into Thunderbreak Regent (for example) is simply going to be run over any sort of weenie strategy that isn't being proactive. Thoughts?
BR Vampires is the same as every other aggro deck...its not this super amazing new menace. It will kill you turn 4-5 just like Atarka red. It is easily beatable, at the very least game 2,3
The problem for me is that this isn't a tokens deck, and while four creatures is certainly possible, I'd be fine having a different two-drop in that scenario. Meanwhile, if you have only two or three creatures, one of them being a Grizzly Bears doesn't seem ideal.
I do think Odric, Lunarch Marshal is interesting, as I think his effect happens the turn he comes into play, even though he can't attack. One flying creature makes all creatures fly, and one double-striking creature works similarly (Arashin Foremost).
I think he's way too close to just being a Hill Giant. Sure, you could add more flying and double-strike creatures to the deck, but I'm not convinced that plan is good enough to go all-in on. Would you play something like Arashin Foremost if Odric wasn't in the deck?
The problem for me is that this isn't a tokens deck, and while four creatures is certainly possible, I'd be fine having a different two-drop in that scenario. Meanwhile, if you have only two or three creatures, one of them being a Grizzly Bears doesn't seem ideal.
I do think Odric, Lunarch Marshal is interesting, as I think his effect happens the turn he comes into play, even though he can't attack. One flying creature makes all creatures fly, and one double-striking creature works similarly (Arashin Foremost).
I think he's way too close to just being a Hill Giant. Sure, you could add more flying and double-strike creatures to the deck, but I'm not convinced that plan is good enough to go all-in on. Would you play something like Arashin Foremost if Odric wasn't in the deck?
Yeah, I can imagine the Captain as a sideboard card against noninteractive decks, but I don't know what he is certainly better than. If he does flip, the tokens trigger the Lieutenant, but we saw how hard it was to trigger battalion during RTR and in some ways this is a higher bar. Dragon Hunter works well with Foremost, but without more Warriors, he is also of dubious benefit. Maybe he is best in a midrangier setup with Hidden Dragonslayer and Den Protector, but that is a whole different deck. What I like about Odric is that he is a 4 that can win the game the turn I play him, where Gideon and the Archangel don't really help until the next turn.
I guess discussing sideboard fodder like this is ridiculous when we don't know what we're sideboarding against.
Well, in the immortal words of Rosanna Rosanna Danna ...
Having played RDW quite a bit, as well as a few weenie decks (UW being one of my all time favorite aggro archtypes due to the combat tricks). I have to say Kudos. The deck looks great, even from V1.
Manabase:
A few things I would mention are, if going for Mono-White, even using the full 8x 4-drops in the first deck, I would still stop at 22 or at most 23 lands. Any mono deck I've run, I've had no trouble (relative to the random mana trouble EVERY deck gets) with mana screw at 20-22 lands (20 for 4x 4-drop), and even go down to 18-19 occasionally. However I have had much more often times get a sort of mana flood. Not exactly overly flooded, but once you hit 4 land, you basically dont want any more, just more gas. 5 lands is ok due to double casting, but most likely you're out of cards there anyways without a lot of clues, and 4 can play two cards of most of this deck. That combined with Knight of the White Orchid to help any slips means you are pretty set.
For a splash with blue (or green, but I think blue wins), I could see going up to 24 lands at absolute max, and I feel like that would need a mana sink or 23 lands would be best. I'd then run your 21-22 white sources (8 duals), with the 1-2 extra lands being blue. That should give you plenty enough to hit your blue mana, especially if its only Reflector Mage. I agree with you that splashes in such an aggro'y deck need to be T3 or later really, and I think that probably cuts green and favors blue splash.
3 Drops:
I definitely like your 2x 2-drop plays that are possible on T3, and IF you splash blue, they may assume you have a 1-drop trick held open if you have the two drop. That being said, having a 3 drop is pretty decent, and IMO, I definitely see Reflector Mage filling that role, or hell, even saving it open for an Eerie Interlude on the play if you dnt have the Orchid play. Captain's Claws is OK, and I generally think of it as a 3-drop, cast and equip and swing. It would be an auto include if it was Humans, but it only is an Ally trigger. Another decent 3-drop I like is the Always Watching, especially with Archangel of Tithes. So in short, to fill your 3-drop slot, I would use a mix of these cards: (4x Reflector Mage, 2x Always Watching, and I guess 2-3x Eerie Interlude). With the Eerie being more of a reactive card and not really a 3-drop.
Having said all that, here is my take on the Deck.
I took out Dragon Hunter because like you, I dont like himTook out Expedition guy, added dragon hunter, and would rather Thraben Inspector for some extra longevity if needed.
I also lowered Kytheon, Hero of Akros to a 2 of because Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is better, but you needed some 1 drops, and hes a 2/1 Human with an upside.
I did take out Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit because shes not human, and with the splash, it'd suck if you didnt have the 2 white, plus she just seems, OK to me. However I added in another human, and he gets flying with counters on him so evasion is nice, plus hes easier to cast in case you splash more blue.
I dropped 1 Declaration in Stone for an extra Gideon, Ally of Zendikar because he's so easy to just use as the emblem or a finisher.
With two spots I free'd up, I put in a sort of Flex trick. I picked Tandem Tactics for this one because it effects two creatures if needed, and gives you some mainboard lifegain. The +1/2 doesnt give you that much more damage, but +2 toughness is pretty relevant in an aggro match, or when you "swing wide" against a midrange but really bait them. This card could switch with quiet a few in the SB though.
Speaking of the SB, I didnt really put too much thought into it, the Consul's Lieutenants because like you said, good on the play, Surge of Righteousness because RDW and Rakdos Vamps needs some hate. The other 8 cards are more cards of the tricks that I love UW Aggro for. Slip Through Space is a decent finisher against a midrange thats starting to stabilize, and cantrips. Grasp of the Hieromancer, tap a blocker every time I attack? Yes please. This is an easy way to push through more damage. Mirror Mockery "Every time you swing with Thalia's Lieutenant, put a +1/1 counter on it, then put a +1/1 counter on everyone. Also, swing with an extra 1/1"
Again, my SB could be much better, but I'd suggest some of those tricky tricks.
Fair statement up front: I'm not normally an "aggro" player. I play a little bit of everything, but I tend toward aggressively-slanted midrange decks. This is somewhat unfamiliar territory for me, and quite honestly, I don't think mono-white aggro is that great of an archetype, whether in general or coming up in SOI Standard. This deck is simply a filler project to allow me to play something early in the format.
With that said... I do think a mono-white aggro shell does a few things that you really want to be doing early in a new format. Specifically:
Decklist v1.0
4 Expedition Envoy
3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Consul's Lieutenant
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4 Archangel of Tithes
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Instants & Sorceries (7)
4 Declaration in Stone
2 Eerie Interlude
1 Secure the Wastes
Lands (24)
22 Plains
2 Blighted Steppe
2 Bygone Bishop
1 Eerie Interlude
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Lantern Scout
2 Secure the Wastes
3 Surge of Righteousness
2 Vryn Wingmare
This deck's plan is to get on board early with reasonable attackers at low cmcs (1-2). It has a lot of built-in ways to buff the somewhat small size of the creatures that don't require us to go out of our way to gain the buffs. Just by continuing to develop our board, our creatures will quickly get to a dangerous size for the small amount of mana we invested into them, enabling quick kills while also ensuring that our opponents trade down on mana to answer them (short of sweeper effects). Our top-end finishers are Archangel of Tithes, which makes combat too difficult for our opponents to handle adequately, and Gideon, who provides backbreaking advantage on board when we're ahead or even with our opponent.
Threat Choices
Expedition Envoy: Somewhat unexciting, but the deck has to have an early board presence, which means playing as many decent to good 1-drops as possible. Envoy is definitely on the "decent" end of that scale (and that's a bit generous), but still earns a spot because of its two relevant subtypes. Human synergy is critical to making Thalia's Lieutenant function as well as it can, and being an Ally maximizes our Lantern Scout sideboard tech, ensuring that we can get a lot of lifelink triggers when we need them. Envoy's only competition thus far (03/20/2016) is Dragon Hunter, and in this case, Envoy has the better upside. Dragon Hunter is better if our opponents are playing Dragons, whereas Envoy is better if we're bringing in Lantern Scout out of the board. Given that we expect RDW to be prevalent in the opening day metagame, the synergy with our primary anti-red sideboard tech is more crucial than the +EV from having Dragon Hunter if we run into Dragons decks on opening day.
Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged: Again, somewhat unexciting, but we need 1-drops. This one has a lot of appealing text, though. This deck isn't as all-in on flipping Kytheon turn 3 as previous Kytheon decks were, because the other Gideon card in the deck is much more powerful than Battle-Forged, but Kytheon can cause a lot of havoc on the battlefield for the single mana investment. The deck has a significant number of first strike creatures in the deck, which makes Battle-Forged's +2 ability pretty close to "Destroy target creature without flying" in the deck. The +1 granting pseudo-vigilance is powerful with Archangel of Tithes, especially since the Archangel blocks so well to begin with, but also works well again with our first strike creatures for deterring attacks. And of course, bashing in for four, out of a 1-drop, as a "default" option when the other two modes aren't doing anything special, is never bad. The legend rule on both sides of the planeswalker pushes us toward fewer than four copies, but I think we want three instead of 1-2.
Consul's Lieutenant: Devastating card on the play, especially with a one-drop preceding it. Most decks will probably have some kind of presence on board on turn 2, but they're a single removal spell or anthem effect from being in a real bad spot (and that's assuming aforesaid two-drop has three toughness to begin with -- otherwise it's not a deterrent to attacking). An important play note is that this creature must become renowned for it to be any good, and so consequently it's often not good on the draw, and should basically never be left in the deck when we have to be on the draw. This is a very all-in card, but I think the deck has enough ways for it to get there (on the play, at least) to merit including it as a 4-of.
Thalia's Lieutenant: This is the card that got me thinking mono-white aggro could be a real force on day one. The way to look at this card is that it's a 3-drop that costs 2 mana. I say this because the deck should always have a turn-2 play (so you should never have to run it out on turn 2), and the deck should frequently have a 1-drop. Thalia's Lieutenant can be thought of as an X/X for 2, where X = 1 + the number of other creatures you control when its ETB trigger resolves (and with most of X spread out among other creatures). As long as X is at least 2, you're fine. Ideally you want it to be 3, and anything higher than that is awesome. So basically, Thalia's Lieutenant is the "3-drop" of the deck in terms of curving out... but it costing 2 mana gives us some extra opportunities for being mana-efficient and doing multiple things with our turn 3. The most powerful thing is when we're on the draw and can play Knight of the White Orchid + Thalia's Lieutenant on turn 3, but even just playing this as a follow-up to another 1-drop on turn 3 is big game.
Knight of the White Orchid: This card is the first of two cards already in the format that make this deck a viable contender. Stealing the play is going to be very big game early in the format, where tempo is king and many players will be relying on every tempo advantage they can buy due to the clunky decks they play. I've already mentioned Thalia's Lieutenant as a big follow-up, but there's also our removal spell, Declaration in Stone, which lets us answer our opponent's turn 3 play and develop our board at the same time. Knight of the White Orchid is a surprisingly good solution to the 3-drop problem that's plagued mono-white aggro ever since Brimaz, King of Oreskos rotated... who needs a 3-drop when you can play two 2-drops instead?
Archangel of Tithes: The other card that potentially pushes this deck over the top as a contender. The Archangel has been much maligned throughout her time in Standard due to her prohibitive casting cost, but it's looking like we may finally be going toward a format where the opportunity cost of playing her is low enough that she becomes playable. She makes combat virtually impossible for opposing creature decks, and she's extremely powerful when the deck 'turns the corner' against aggressive decks, taxing them both during blocking and when we attack out. She's not particularly potent vs controlling decks, but the format's good decks early will all be trying to be maximally mana-efficient, which Archangel hoses, hard.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: I guess you could say this card also pushes the deck, but he actually seems like a slight misfit to me. He kinda fails the synergy aspect of our deck since he's a grindier threat that just happens to win fast, but at the same time, this deck's ability to dominate the battlefield might actually give him one of his best shells yet. Protecting him the turn he comes down is a cinch since you're probably ahead on board or at least even on board, which is where Gideon tends to take over games. The rotation of both Crackling Doom and Abzan Charm (and the inability of decks to splash for Stasis Snare) makes his +1 much more powerful, and of course he can just grind out a lot of decks with 2/2s. The emblem is even good here! Just a good solid card, not a lot to write about. I play 3 to avoid awkwardness involving Gideon, Battle-Forged, but there's a fourth in the board because this card will frequently be the best card in your deck.
Utility Choices
Declaration in Stone: Boy this card is nuts in this shell! Two-mana unconditional exile is just crushingly good. Sorcery speed isn't even a drawback since this whole deck plays at sorcery speed anyway. Giving them Clue tokens is cute, if you're doing it right they should only be cracking the Clues if they're short on time and desperate to find an answer. The fact that it's basically Bile Blight as far as opposing tokens go is also big game, since going wide with tokens is probably the best way to beat this deck (outside of playing sweepers obviously). This is your removal spell, use it wisely.
Eerie Interlude: This may look like a weird addition at first, but I'll bet I can sell you on it without a lot of trouble. The deck's biggest weakness is wrath effects, which this easily counters. That's almost reason enough to have access to these in the 75 for a mono-white shell, since you can't play Negate or the like. But wait, there's more! Look at all the creatures we play with the Human subtype, and reread Thalia's Lieutenant... or really just read Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. Uh huh. You get it now. Even if our opponent isn't playing wraths, we can just cycle this to massively pump the squad on their turn! Imagine how backbreaking it would be in an aggressive mirror to max out on blocks to preserve our life total, and then cast this. Not only do we Fog them, which is sometimes enough to swing an aggro mirror on its own, but our guys come back bigger for the trouble! The applications of this card are just insane. Fog in aggro decks, counter for wrath in control decks, beefing our team either way, and then sometimes we might even get a land with Knight of the White Orchid just to put salt in the wound. It's a little off the beaten path for an aggro deck, so I only play two copies, but I have a third in the board, and I can easily see this becoming a 4-of if testing pans out.
Secure the Wastes: One of these is basically free in a white deck. I have more in the board for decks relying on spot removal, but this doesn't synergize with anything in the deck (the Warriors are tokens, so no Anafenza triggers, and aren't Humans, so no Thalia's Lieutenant triggers), and it's an inefficient effect if X is small (you need X = 3+). This is the flexest of flex spots and can easily be something else or just cut altogether.
Sideboard Choices
Bygone Bishop: Tech that interests me for the grindier matchups. I feel like if we're cracking Clue tokens, we're probably losing anyway, but a 2/3 flying creature for 3 is already an okay rate, and this deck can make a lot of Clues. In conjunction with Gideon spending zero mana to make 2/2s, there's the beginnings of a plan for longer games.
Lantern Scout: Tech for RDW and other decks that would go underneath us or threaten to burn us out. This card has been playable as "2W: Creatures you control gain lifelink until end of turn. Put a 3/2 white Human Scout Ally creature token onto the battlefield." But in this deck, it's not just that. Look carefully... there are twelve ways to trigger Rally in the deck counting the Scouts themselves, and four of them (the Gideons) are repeatable effects! Getting a second trigger off the Scout is a very realistic possibility, which can be plausibly expected to win games in which they're boarded in on their own.
Surge of Righteousness: I'm not joking about these damn red decks. Don't skip on the hate. Bonus points for sniping a blocking Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or other random black monsters that would give us trouble.
Vryn Wingmare: Testing this for opposing controlling decks. I dunno if this gets in our own way too much or not, since Gideon is our best card against those decks and the tax hits him too. Plus, I don't like 3-mana spells that want to be played on-curve in a Knight of the White Orchid deck. This could be perfectly reasonable or it could just be garbage, but that's what testing is for!
Potential Splashes
Splashes? We don't need no splashes. Don't be greedy and screw this up.
But since you asked... plausible splashes are green for Collected Company and Dromoka's Command, or blue for Reflector Mage, Dispel, and Invasive Surgery. I'm not as sure about black and white yet, but Company and Command are extremely on-plan, Reflector Mage is very on-plan, and 1-mana counterspells give us a lot of game postboard as an aggro-control deck.
But really, for goodness sake. Don't do it. The mana base we have is beautiful. We support 1WWW in an aggro deck and get some sweet lifegain utility lands to boot. You do not need a second color. Rock this as it is!
EDIT: Including an analysis of new cards as of 3.22.2016. Will possibly update that post as new cards are spoiled, no guarantees though. LINK
EDIT2: Great post here concerning one of the issues Mono-White needs to solve vis-a-vis RDW. LINK
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
Also, what are your thoughts on Eternal Vigil or whatever the +1/+1 and Vigilance card will be?
I've tested Foundry of the Consuls, Rogue's Passage and Sea Gate Wreckage. I found that Foundry was too slow and rarely made a difference. Rogue's Passage sealed a game with a stalled board once in a while, and SGW was outright good since you're going to empty your hand easily with this deck. Needless to say, that requires you to dedicate enough colorless lands to activate it consistently, but it can be done, and the lands add a lot more options to the deck.
Regarding splashes -- this deck needs a minimum of 22 and ideally 23 white sources for Archangel of Tithes. Every splash has to start with that consideration in mind. Splashing another color is hard because you generally want 10-12 sources of your splash color, which means not only a cycle of the reveal land (which seems pretty playable) but also the cycle of battle lands (iffy) and 2-4 guildgates (unplayable). (We can also play some number of basic lands that aren't Plains but that seems bad given all the heavy WW costs.) Adding colorless sources is very likely to make Archangel uncastable.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
We are not too far off in the main 60, from each other.
4 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
3 Topan Freeblade
4 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Archangel of Tithes
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Consul's Lieutenant
3 Hidden Dragonslayer
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Artifact
3 Captain's Claws
Spells
3 Secure the Wastes
Lands
20 Plains
2 Blighted Steppe
Well, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar works pretty well.
Beyond that, I think Thraben Inspector and Bygone Bishop have a place in the maindeck. They might not seem like traditional aggro cards, but I've always like having a manasink or two in my aggro decks, and drawing extra cards for 2 a piece seems like a great way to keep the pressure going against control.
That said, Languish decks might just not be a strong matchup for this deck.
Unless I'm mistaken, Eerie Interlude protects from Languish
On a bit of a side note, what decks usually win Game Days? I've never been to one.
This guy was on the right track but didn't fully appreciate how good the new lands are. I think a secondary color splash is probably doable if two things are true:
1) We are willing to go up to 25 lands and cut utility lands
2) We are willing to make the secondary color a true splash, i.e. no secondary-colored spells before turn 3
This means we only need 11-12 sources for our secondary color. I'm using blue as the example here, because Reflector Mage ostensibly solves a significant problem that rujasu notes later, and because countermagic will help me come up with reasonable sideboard cards for Day 1. Four Port Town, four Prairie Stream and three Islands make for eleven sources, and since only three of those tap exclusively for blue, we can play 3 Islands and 22 lands that produce white mana, hitting our target for Archangel of Tithes.
Of course, now we get to the next question -- how often will we have taplands? To answer this, we need to look at the configuration of our lands. In a hypothetical four-Town, four-Stream, 3-Island, rest-Plains configuration, 25 lands would give us 4 Town / 4 Stream / 3 Island / 14 Plains. Literally every land except another Town can be revealed to Town to enable it coming into play untapped, so in a mana base like that, the Towns are basically freeroll UW untapped duals for the first few turns of the game (i.e. until you run out of Plains or Island to reveal). Coming into play tapped later is only a problem if we need to curve out but don't have the lands to reveal to it to do so. All in all, while they're not perfect untapped duals, they're so easy to sequence at first glance that I struggle to think of them as anything but.
Then we have seventeen basic lands for our four battle lands. For reference, my Bant Company list in the current Standard plays four battle lands, 25 lands in all, and seventeen sources for the battle lands... except that ten of those sources are fetchlands, which means that if I use them to find basics for my battle lands, I actually reduce the number of sources of basics left by two (the fetch and the land it tutored). This configuration should be slightly more reliable than the Bant Company lists which already exist, and those have, in my experience, been very consistent. I think I'm okay with running those.
The lesson here is that this archetype can splash green or blue without losing Archangel of Tithes, as long as it's okay with not casting its green or blue spells prior to turn 3, and not casting double-costed green or blue cards at any point. Anything more intensive will require the Archangel to be cut, and I'm personally not interested in making that call.
I hadn't thought of Captain's Claws in the deck or, for that matter, tested with the card at all in any deck. That could be really interesting. I worry about the potential tempo loss from taking the time to play it and equip it if an opponent has a removal spell, as with most equipment I suppose. The deck doesn't give opponents great spot removal options as it is, and so I'd rather avoid giving them a freebie.
I agree, but I don't see any enticing three-drops in mono-white. One of my hopes is that SOI gives the archetype a single good 3-drop to plug and play. Bygone Bishop is the closest thing I can think of, but I'm not really excited by it in general -- while we might have time in some matchups to cash in Clues, I want my three-drop to be more aggressively slanted than the Bishop is. With that said, adding Reflector Mage in blue really solves a lot of this problem, as the Mage is probably at its most threatening when it's clearing out a 2-drop for our attacking 1-drop and Consul's Lieutenant to push through damage. And additionally, I don't mind a hole at the 3-spot specifically; we can be mana-efficient on turn 3 by playing a 1-drop and a 2-drop, and 3 isn't a great place to be on the curve in general (as double-spelling with a 3-drop becomes difficult in a deck that expects to hit four land drops but not necessarily five).
It's undoubtedly a weakness though. Zero three-drops pretty much has to be wrong. I just don't know what I'm supposed to play instead...
I think it's unnecessary. It's a fine card and I could be very wrong, but Declaration in Stone basically does the same thing for two mana, and I don't think the deck needs a lot of these effects.
Well, Eerie Interlude is pretty sick. I think any time you respond to Languish with Interlude, you straight up win the game. Without that answer though, Archangel of Tithes and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar both come down prior to Languish on the play and survive Languish, and somewhat ironically, Thalia's Lieutenant becomes big enough to survive Languish at times, and specifically does so when we overextend into Languish by dumping a bunch of Human creatures on the field. For how soft the deck is to sweepers in general, I think it's about as well equipped to handle Languish as any such deck can be. The card is just going to beat us sometimes, which is fine, that's what it's supposed to do. But we have counterplay for Languish; we're not just dead to it like a lot of white weenie builds in the past would be.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
4 thraben inspector
2 kytheon, hero of akros
4 knight of the white orchid
4 thalia's lieutenant
2 anafenza, kin-tree spirit
4 reflector mage
3 archangel of tithes
2 dragonlord ojutai
2 negate
3 silkwrap
3 always watching
1 stasis snare
2 eerie interlude
4 port town
4 prairie stream
13 plains
2 island
The archangel and dragonlord benefit immensely from vigilance and dragonlord gets out of languish and flash avacyn range.
On the draw, the knights can grab us our blue source and can even come into play untapped depending on the first two lands. Nothing better than t3 knight into play with silkwrap. Then t4 dragonlord, turn 5 drop an always watching and have negate backup.
Btw, how does eerie interlude work with anafenza, tree-kin spirit? Does all the bolster trigger for each other creature that is returned to play with anafenza if anafenza is also blanked out? Also for thalia's lieutenant does both trigger happen assuming 2 other humans were exiled as well? So each human gets a +1/+1 counter and the lieutenant gets 2 counters?
Short story on Eerie Interlude: It works in the best possible way for us with our Lieutenant/Anafenza triggers.
Long explanation: All of the creatures 'see' each other enter the battlefield when multiple creatures enter the battlefield simultaneously. So suppose we blink two Expedition Envoy, two Thalia's Lieutenant, and an Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit...
1) All creatures enter simultaneously. The Envoys are 2/1s, Lieutenants are 1/1s and Anafenza is a 2/2.
2) The Lieutenants each see three other Humans enter (the other Lieutenant and the two Envoys), Anafenza sees four other creatures enter. This all happens as they're entering the battlefield.
3) At the same time, you will place four bolster 1 triggers, two anthem (**except Anafenza) triggers from the Lieutenants' ETB effects, and six Lieutenant triggers from the other Humans entering. Importantly, you can stack the triggers in whatever order you want, which lets you guide the bolster triggers to where they need to go.
(For example: say that you intended to swing out with everybody but Anafenza next turn, and you wanted to maximize the damage this would do -- you would put the Lieutenant anthem triggers on the bottom, then the Anafenza bolster triggers on top of those, then the Lieutenant +1/+1 triggers on top. Your Lieutenants become 4/4s, then your Anafenza bolsters can all go to the Envoys (making one a 3/2, the other a 3/2, the first a 4/3 and the second a 4/3), then your Lieutenant anthems can resolve, with the ultimate effect of leaving you with two 6/5 Envoys, two 5/5 Lieutenants, and a 2/2 Anafenza.)
So yes, all the possible triggers happen, and you get to resolve them in the order you choose.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
As for Dispel, I expect Collected Company strategies to be popular on Day 1, and Dispel gives us a savagely efficient 1-for-1 answer to Company, which is crucial, because Company is typically how those strategies get caught up on board against smaller, faster decks. The fact that we can do basically anything in the deck on turn 3 on the draw and still hold up Company is great. It's also useful against controlling decks relying on powerful instant-speed removal spells to bridge the gap to their sweeper, since we can use it to protect our Eerie Interlude if it looks like a counter war is imminent.
I made some other adjustments to the list after some suggestions. I lowered the land count to 23 to avoid flooding effects, since the deck has a glut of 1-2 drop action. I also cut a Kytheon and a Gideon, both to reduce legendary rule awkwardness and, in the case of Gideon, to help lower the curve. I added the full set of Dragon Hunter to hit a critical mass of 1-drops, and of course, updated the mana base to enable the blue splash.
There's still a gap at the 3-drop spot. Thalia one timeeeeeeeee
4 Dragon Hunter
4 Expedition Envoy
2 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4 Reflector Mage
4 Archangel of Tithes
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Utility (6)
4 Declaration in Stone
2 Eerie Interlude
Lands (23)
12 Plains
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
3 Island
4 Consul's Lieutenant
2 Dispel
1 Eerie Interlude
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Lantern Scout
2 Surge of Righteousness
I moved the Consul's Lieutenant to the sideboard because it's a fairly bad card when we're on the draw. This deck plays much worse on the draw compared to being on the play, and so I have the deck "preboarded" for playing on the draw -- the harder matchups will be the ones where we're on the draw, so I want Consul out of the maindeck in preparation for this. But it's so powerful when on the play that I think it more or less has to be in the deck. Usually there's some amount of room to cut the bigger top-end cards (Interlude, Archangel, Gideon) depending on the matchup, but it can also be okay to cut some number of Dragon Hunter for them, as Dragon Hunter is a bad Magic card that's only in the deck to hit our ideal number of Savannah Lions. (Which I currently have at 10, but really really hope can drop...)
The extra Gideons come in for Archangels when the matches are expected to get grindy, especially if the opponent isn't going particularly wide. The two Surge of Righteousness are extra insurance against RDW, and the Lantern Scouts are much of the same.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
Red Werewolves also enter as humans, another boon to Thalia's Lieutenant
I don't even think Village Messenger is good enough for mono-red. Abbot is good, but the deck doesn't need a two-drop. Pia and Kiran are also good, but the deck already has Gideon which fills a similar role.
I do like the idea of splashing just for Reflector Mage. That plus Declaration in Stone seems like just the right amount of interaction for this type of deck.
I have trouble seeing the mana base that will do both WW on T2 for Anafenza and RR on T4 for Pia and Kiran.
I do think Odric, Lunarch Marshal is interesting, as I think his effect happens the turn he comes into play, even though he can't attack. One flying creature makes all creatures fly, and one double-striking creature works similarly (Arashin Foremost).
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Abbot is the only card we can afford to play out of those unless we cut Archangel, and even then it's not an easy splash.
What do you mean by proactive / slow that a deck playing 8-10 one-drops doesn't qualify? To me, if their curve starts at Olivia and doesn't truly do anything until t4 hasted Drana, they're going to be too far behind. That curve looks real soft to 1-drop into 2-drop into basically any followup
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
BR Vampires is the same as every other aggro deck...its not this super amazing new menace. It will kill you turn 4-5 just like Atarka red. It is easily beatable, at the very least game 2,3
The problem for me is that this isn't a tokens deck, and while four creatures is certainly possible, I'd be fine having a different two-drop in that scenario. Meanwhile, if you have only two or three creatures, one of them being a Grizzly Bears doesn't seem ideal.
I think he's way too close to just being a Hill Giant. Sure, you could add more flying and double-strike creatures to the deck, but I'm not convinced that plan is good enough to go all-in on. Would you play something like Arashin Foremost if Odric wasn't in the deck?
Yeah, I can imagine the Captain as a sideboard card against noninteractive decks, but I don't know what he is certainly better than. If he does flip, the tokens trigger the Lieutenant, but we saw how hard it was to trigger battalion during RTR and in some ways this is a higher bar.
Dragon Hunter works well with Foremost, but without more Warriors, he is also of dubious benefit. Maybe he is best in a midrangier setup with Hidden Dragonslayer and Den Protector, but that is a whole different deck. What I like about Odric is that he is a 4 that can win the game the turn I play him, where Gideon and the Archangel don't really help until the next turn.
I guess discussing sideboard fodder like this is ridiculous when we don't know what we're sideboarding against.
Well, in the immortal words of Rosanna Rosanna Danna ...
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Manabase:
A few things I would mention are, if going for Mono-White, even using the full 8x 4-drops in the first deck, I would still stop at 22 or at most 23 lands. Any mono deck I've run, I've had no trouble (relative to the random mana trouble EVERY deck gets) with mana screw at 20-22 lands (20 for 4x 4-drop), and even go down to 18-19 occasionally. However I have had much more often times get a sort of mana flood. Not exactly overly flooded, but once you hit 4 land, you basically dont want any more, just more gas. 5 lands is ok due to double casting, but most likely you're out of cards there anyways without a lot of clues, and 4 can play two cards of most of this deck. That combined with Knight of the White Orchid to help any slips means you are pretty set.
For a splash with blue (or green, but I think blue wins), I could see going up to 24 lands at absolute max, and I feel like that would need a mana sink or 23 lands would be best. I'd then run your 21-22 white sources (8 duals), with the 1-2 extra lands being blue. That should give you plenty enough to hit your blue mana, especially if its only Reflector Mage. I agree with you that splashes in such an aggro'y deck need to be T3 or later really, and I think that probably cuts green and favors blue splash.
3 Drops:
I definitely like your 2x 2-drop plays that are possible on T3, and IF you splash blue, they may assume you have a 1-drop trick held open if you have the two drop. That being said, having a 3 drop is pretty decent, and IMO, I definitely see Reflector Mage filling that role, or hell, even saving it open for an Eerie Interlude on the play if you dnt have the Orchid play. Captain's Claws is OK, and I generally think of it as a 3-drop, cast and equip and swing. It would be an auto include if it was Humans, but it only is an Ally trigger. Another decent 3-drop I like is the Always Watching, especially with Archangel of Tithes. So in short, to fill your 3-drop slot, I would use a mix of these cards: (4x Reflector Mage, 2x Always Watching, and I guess 2-3x Eerie Interlude). With the Eerie being more of a reactive card and not really a 3-drop.
Having said all that, here is my take on the Deck.
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
2 Island
12 Plains
// 28 Creatures \\
3 Thraben Inspector
4 Dragon Hunter
2 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
3 Lightwalker
4 Reflector Mage
4 Archangel of Tithes
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Declaration in Stone
2 Eerie Interlude
2 Tandem Tactics
4 Consul's Lieutenant
3 Surge of Righteousness
3 Slip Through Space
2 Grasp of the Hieromancer
3 Mirror Mockery
I took out Dragon Hunter because like you, I dont like himTook out Expedition guy, added dragon hunter, and would rather Thraben Inspector for some extra longevity if needed.I also lowered Kytheon, Hero of Akros to a 2 of because Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is better, but you needed some 1 drops, and hes a 2/1 Human with an upside.
I did take out Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit because shes not human, and with the splash, it'd suck if you didnt have the 2 white, plus she just seems, OK to me. However I added in another human, and he gets flying with counters on him so evasion is nice, plus hes easier to cast in case you splash more blue.
I dropped 1 Declaration in Stone for an extra Gideon, Ally of Zendikar because he's so easy to just use as the emblem or a finisher.
With two spots I free'd up, I put in a sort of Flex trick. I picked Tandem Tactics for this one because it effects two creatures if needed, and gives you some mainboard lifegain. The +1/2 doesnt give you that much more damage, but +2 toughness is pretty relevant in an aggro match, or when you "swing wide" against a midrange but really bait them. This card could switch with quiet a few in the SB though.
Speaking of the SB, I didnt really put too much thought into it, the Consul's Lieutenants because like you said, good on the play, Surge of Righteousness because RDW and Rakdos Vamps needs some hate. The other 8 cards are more cards of the tricks that I love UW Aggro for.
Slip Through Space is a decent finisher against a midrange thats starting to stabilize, and cantrips.
Grasp of the Hieromancer, tap a blocker every time I attack? Yes please. This is an easy way to push through more damage.
Mirror Mockery "Every time you swing with Thalia's Lieutenant, put a +1/1 counter on it, then put a +1/1 counter on everyone. Also, swing with an extra 1/1"
Again, my SB could be much better, but I'd suggest some of those tricky tricks.
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Hidden Dragonslayer
3x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4x Consul's Lieutenant
4x Knight of the White Orchid
4x Den Protector
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
1x Sigarda, Heron's Grace
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Declaration in Stone
2x Dromoka's Command
2x Stasis Snare
4x Canopy Vista
4x Fortified Village
10x Plains
2x Forest
I like the G splash. Sadly, I don't see Nissa being cast very often with 10 G sources.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.