@shelldell
Unfortunately I actually haven't had a chance to play against those two precise matchups, but have been matching against grixis control/UB control, which the deck does fine against. I actually used to build mono white human soldiers, but that deck forces you to run far more bears (2cc for 2/2) and lots of other cards that don't provide a lot of power for the mana cost investment. I was unable to race other aggro decks, nor did I apply enough pressure to close out the game fast enough against control.
@Stompbee
Yeah, both Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademaster are fine cards on their own, but with so much upside. As long as you draw 2 allies, this greatly increases value, and with 12 copies in our deck, it is very likely to have 2 allies or more by turn 3 (assuming no mulligans). I do recall a hilarious game where I had an opening hand of 3 Expedition Envoys after a mulligan to 6 though, but the chances are minimal for such occurrences.
And yeah it must always feel bad to have to cast premium removal on cards like Hada Freeblade I like to think that almost every creature in the deck has the potential to grow larger
And about the midgame, you nailed it - our 1 mana 2 mana "tarmogoyfs" reach insane sizes and easily outpower opposing 4cc 5cc drops. Even a turn 3 tasigur wasn't a problem.
I was between Proclamation of Rebirth and Return to the Ranks, and honestly both can work - but I decided to roll with the latter because bringing back multiple Thalia's Lieutenant is so much more game breaking than say, Champion of the Parish. But I do think its down to personal preference!
My main problem with Student of Warfare is that for the most part, it will just be a 1cc vanilla 1/1, because I'd lean towards developing my board rather than putting mana in to level him. He is also way slower than falconer; as a 3cc for 3/3 first strike, it's really not amazingly costed. Falconer is a game ender and breaks through any board stall. I'd rather spend 3 mana on Thraben Inspector + another card, as that builds strongly into the allies synergy as well as Champion of the Parish or Thalia's Lieutenant. For a single card, Thraben Inspector contains far more burst potential - can chain into other allies and humans to buff your entire board again.
I like to think of the synergies in the deck this way: each 1 mana creature has the potential to grow to insane sizes itself, or buff each other. Expedition Envoy may look like trash when placed alone next to Student of Warfare, but because it buffs so many other creatures in our deck, it will consistently represent 3 or 4 power for 1 mana, which is amazing mana efficiency.
@Dennis, try playing with a pair of Abzan Falconer I think it may surprise you, especially with the large amount of creature based strategies in modern. Though of course, these are the first to be sideboarded out against non-creature-based strategies.
And good point with Honor of the Pure I find myself sideboarding them out very often as well, because its hard to sideboard out creatures because they all rely on each other. I'll try experimenting with 3 copies and see how that feels.
As for colorless lands, I cut down on them because the deck always, always, wants double white on turn 2. Running a playset of Mutavault means we are likely to start hands with Mutavault+white source, which is incredibly limiting in terms of explosive power the deck can bring. I think the best land to counter flooding would be Horizon Canopy, and I'd happily play 3 copies if I could afford them. I've actually had the colorless source almost lose me games before, and wished I'd simply had another plains in its place.
Fragmentize looks great and I'll be looking to try fitting a pair (or 3) into the sideboard for sure!
I wouldn't worry about aggro mirrors - this deck absolutely crushes and outraces them. One mana 2/2 for a Goblin Guide? How about I show you a 1 mana 3/3, 4/4, or larger, Champion of the Parish, or a 1 mana 2/3, 3/4 Hada Freeblade? The Goblin Guide and Wild Nacatl have fixed sizes, they'll never grow past a certain point. At this weekends modern tournament, I won 1 game with 17 life remaining against naya burn, having only taken 3 damage off a searing blaze - burn was forced to keep pointing spells at my creatures because they were just completely outclassing what he had. My problem with cards like Authority of the Consulate is that it doesn't develop your board and only serves to stem a bit of damage from haste creatures. If we are running this out on turn 1, then we will be behind in board by far, and we won't be able to properly apply pressure from the tapped creatures our opponent plays. Even a savannah lion is a better play, as it can trade with most other one drops while dissuading attacks or forcing a removal spell.
@Stompbee
I think the best choice for an antisweeper would be splashing red for boros charm, which I am considering.
Here's a monowhite human allies version to consider; recent 3-0 at LGS Modern Monday, didn't drop a single game the entire tournament either; swept through Naya Burn, Merfolk, and Izzet Delver with ease.
If you've never tried playing human-allies before, I recommend you give it a shot - it allows for consistent explosive starts, and is not reliant on having Champion or Thalia's Lieutenant for explosive starts, because Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademasters fill a similar role.
I'll go a bit into why the ally package brings so much more to the table. Let's start by breaking the deck down.
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Thraben Inspector
Standard Humans package, self explanatory - 3 Kytheon's because drawing multiples is basically a mulligan - you have one less card to work with. Thraben Inspectors over the other vanilla one drops because of the card advantage; I have never found thraben inspector a bad draw at any point in my experience with him.
4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
4x Expedition Envoy
Allies package;Hada Freebladeis our Champion of the Parish numbers 5-8; often times he can grow up to 3/4 or larger - literally another one-mana goyf that has staying power. Even if we only get one single other ally into play besides Hada, it will still be a one mana 2/3, which is substantially better than a savannah lion. Kazandu Blademaster2 for 2/2 first strike vigilance? Already solid in all sorts of match ups - a single other ally would make this card a 2 mana 3/3 first strike vigilance, not to mention multiple allies, honor of the pures, or lieutenants. The first strike, vigilance key words are game breaking against any aggro deck, including burn, zoo, and certain death's shadow builds Expedition Envoy A vanilla 2/1 for 1 seems weak, until you realize this card buffs up to 16 other creatures in our deck upon entry into the battle field - 2 times better than any other savannah lion that can only buff champion and lieutenant
The ally package allows us to run an interesting card:
2x Abzan Falconer
With the +1/+1 counters allies employ, paired with lieutenant, most, if not all, of our creatures will be buffed with flying. This is a big deal and a blowout, breaks through stalled board situations, and can function as an alpha strike that pumps some of your creatures while also likely lasting for more strikes in the following turns. Something to note is the lack of flyers in modern, making a flying "lord" effect an amazing addition to a deck with no evasion. These will be sideboarded out against control and combo decks with little to no threats.
Spells
3x Path to Exile
4x Brave the Elements
4x Honor of the Pure
Fairly standard spells package; I opted not to include the 4th path because most of the time I'd rather draw another creature rather than a second path. I don't run token generators because I feel there is not enough value - if the tokens we made were 2 mana for human allies, that would function amazingly in this deck. Unfortunately, there is no such card. An argument could be made for spectral procession but I'd really rather other ways to come back from a boardsweeper.
Lands
9x Plains
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Westvale Abbey
4x Flooded Strand
4x Windswept Heath
Foundry is optional, generally used as a bluff in game 1 - and this has actually happened - my opponent would play sub-optimally because he believed I had a lightning bolt in my hand, especially if we shock ourselves for the Foundry to enter untapped. Because we are generally the aggressor, our life total does not matter as much.
8 fetches to thin the deck
1 Eiganjo Castle because there is no reason not to include a copy, given that it enters untapped.
1 Westvale Abbey as a late game mana sink that also buffs any Champions and Lieutenants we happen to have around. If I had Horizon Canopy I'd run those instead.
Sideboard
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben-an argument can certainly be made to main deck her, but I find myself getting taxed relatively often, and would prefer them to only be sideboarded in when necessary. These can be swapped with the main deck Abzan Falconers; it is fine to have the falconers start on the sideboard as well and be added against creature based decks.
2x Return to the Ranks-antisweeper, gives us late game staying power
2x Lantern Scout-another benefit of the ally package is the other cheap white human allies we get. Note that this one gives creatures we control, rather than allies we control, lifelink. One mass attack on the turn he is played can put our life total far out of reach of the most aggressive decks there are.
2x Ranger of Eos-late game staying power, also great to sideboard in if our opponent runs Path to Exile to help us get to the 4th land.
1x Path to Exile-no need to be explained
3x Dismember-against decks that need more interaction, such as Infect, Abzan Coco, these come in
1x Abzan Falconer-more consistency to break board stalls in creature based matchups
2x Repel the Abominable-blowout card against combo decks of all sorts, like scapeshift, ad nauseum, and even burn or infect. The versatility of this card is amazing; I've played it against burn and cast it on turn 3 after my opponent suspended two rift bolts on turn 2, and it is not a card that people expect to face. Repel can also blowout infect after they stack all of their lethal buffs on an inkmoth or glistener elf, and isn't stopped by vines of vastwood. In fact, if played against certain decks, Repel acts as a time walk for us.
leon, would you mind posting the complete decklist that you ended up running after the weeks of testing? It seems that you have a lot of changes and additions so its just a bit hard to keep track of what you might be dropping to add some of these cards!
A couple of questions, though they may be misguided since I don't know your current deck composition:
What made you decide to drop Brave the Elements? Was there any specific matchup that influenced your decision?
What drove you to the statement that 19 lands is the magical number? Could you provide some rational regarding that? And it would seem,though of course I do not have any testing experience with your build, that 19 lands would make it very hard to consistently play cards that require 4 lands to be playable such as Gryff's Boon and Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Even the 3 cc cards that you talked about in the sideboard appear to be questionable in terms of consistency with 19 lands.
What deck did you run Expedition Envoy in? Could you explain why it was a dead draw?
I need to disagree with the statement at Auriok Champion. Not only does it further any human synergies, gets buffed by anthems like Honor of the Pure, it is also a body, and also has protection from black as an added bonus. The circle requires you to constantly keep mana up, which is not what a rush deck wants to be doing in the early turns - and when you do have the mana available to activate circle, it might just be too late.
Would Mayor of Avabruck be too similar to honor of the pure, in that it clogs up the 2cd slot?
Oh and has running 4 colorless sources ever been a problem especially when you want to be casting either 2 white one drops on turn 2 or a Kazandu Blademaster? I can visualize possible games where a plains and a Mutavault are all the lands that we have for the entire duration.
Unfortunately budget reasons keep me away from properly stocking up a good sideboard; just feels bad to spend $40 for Auriok Champion that won't see play often :/ perhaps eventually I'll come around to that point!
I really hate that level up has to be a sorcery; would a green splash with a Temple Garden and 8 fetches used along side Warden of the First Tree be flexible enough? Since we are cutting the Honor of the Pure we don't lose out on the fact that Warden is not white. The advantage that would bring would be that its essentially an infinite mana sink and can be used at instant speed, allowing us to leave up mana for Brave the Elements or Repel the Abominable, but the drawback would be that it requires specific quantities of mana to "level up", so we might lose out on the occasional loose bit of mana that is not quite enough to rank the Warden up.
Proclamation of Rebirth does look great! I haven't had a chance to sideboard in Return to the Ranks yet so don't have any experience as to whether or not we will have enough mana to make the x cost worth
I've played against a casual friend who has a budget affinity deck (doesn't run arcbound ravagers) but that contains everything else; the Etched Champion definitely was a pain, but Abzan Falconer helped me outrace him each time I was able to get him out.
Yeah I can see the Falconer concern; It generally won't be a turn 3 play though so here's to hoping that they've exhausted all their bolts Would depend on the local meta though, an easy swap with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben any time!
I honestly haven't had a chance to properly test this deck; unfortunately, I don't have an MTGO account and my local game store doesn't really support modern. I do like Student of Warfare but my only gripe with it is it will remain a vanilla 1/1 for a while; I'd much rather be deploying my hand and buffing my creatures with new units than pumping mana into a card that can be easily removed. With 8 fetches I think it would be relatively easy to splash black/green and run a couple copies of Anafenza, the Foremost which helps grow our creatures more and is out of bolt range. This is just theory craft though, have never tried Anafenza before.
Though the core of the deck is monowhite, I do have a pair of Boros Charm in the sideboard hence the red splash, as an answer to board sweepers; would you simply not run those? Hard sweepers seem to be the decks largest weakness (our creatures out grow red sweepers like Anger of the Gods) cards like Wrath of God and Supreme Verdict can really screw the deck over. Going monowhite I could see including Selfless Spirit as a method to mess with sweepers, but that loses the surprise factor boros charm has.
@Ridley, great! looking forward to your update on how the human allies went!
Honestly, people underestimate the ally package. Without running the ally playsets, you are left running essentially vanilla savannah lions like mardu woe-reaper and soldier of the pantheon, which never really grow. Let's take a step back to this thread's main idea-mono-white goyfs->1 or 2 drops that grow to insane sizes.
If you've never tried playing human-allies before, I recommend you give it a shot - it allows for consistent explosive starts, and is not reliant on having Champion or Thalia's Lieutenant for explosive starts, because Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademasters fill a similar role.
I'll go a bit into why the ally package brings so much more to the table as compared to 1 mana 2/1 savannah lions and mana sinks like figure of destiny/student of warfare. Let's start by breaking the deck down.
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Thraben Inspector
Standard Humans package, self explanatory - 3 Kytheon's because drawing multiples is basically a mulligan - you have one less card to work with. Thraben Inspectors over the other vanilla one drops because of the card advantage; I have never found thraben inspector a bad draw at any point in my experience with him.
4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
4x Expedition Envoy
Allies package;Hada Freebladeis our Champion of the Parish numbers 5-8; often times he can grow up to 3/4 or larger - literally another one-mana goyf that has staying power. Even if we only get one single other ally into play besides Hada, it will still be a one mana 2/3, which is substantially better than a savannah lion. Kazandu Blademaster2 for 2/2 first strike vigilance? Already solid in all sorts of match ups - a single other ally would make this card a 2 mana 3/3 first strike vigilance, not to mention multiple allies, honor of the pures, or lieutenants. The first strike, vigilance key words are game breaking against any aggro deck, including burn, zoo, and certain death's shadow builds Expedition Envoy A vanilla 2/1 for 1 seems weak, until you realize this card buffs up to 16 other creatures in our deck upon entry into the battle field - 2 times better than any other savannah lion that can only buff champion and lieutenant
The ally package allows us to run an interesting card:
2x Abzan Falconer
With the +1/+1 counters allies employ, paired with lieutenant, most, if not all, of our creatures will be buffed with flying. This is a big deal and a blowout, breaks through stalled board situations, and can function as an alpha strike that pumps some of your creatures while also likely lasting for more strikes in the following turns. Something to note is the lack of flyers in modern, making a flying "lord" effect an amazing addition to a deck with no evasion. These will be sideboarded out against control and combo decks with little to no threats.
Spells
3x Path to Exile
4x Brave the Elements
4x Honor of the Pure
Fairly standard spells package; I opted not to include the 4th path because most of the time I'd rather draw another creature rather than a second path. I don't run token generators because I feel there is not enough value - if the tokens we made were 2 mana for human allies, that would function amazingly in this deck. Unfortunately, there is no such card. An argument could be made for spectral procession but I'd really rather other ways to come back from a boardsweeper.
Lands
9x Plains
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Westvale Abbey
4x Flooded Strand
4x Windswept Heath
Foundry is there for a red splash if we sideboard in our boros charms; It can also be used as a bluff in game 1 - and this has actually happened - my opponent would play sub-optimally because he believed I had a lightning bolt in my hand, especially if we shock ourselves for the Foundry to enter untapped. Because we are generally the aggressor, our life total does not matter as much.
8 fetches to thin the deck
1 Eiganjo Castle because there is no reason not to include a copy, given that it enters untapped.
1 Westvale Abbey as a late game mana sink that also buffs any Champions and Lieutenants we happen to have around. If I had Horizon Canopy I'd run those instead.
Sideboard
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben-an argument can certainly be made to main deck her, but I find myself getting taxed relatively often, and would prefer them to only be sideboarded in when necessary. These can be swapped with the main deck Abzan Falconers; it is fine to have the falconers start on the sideboard as well and be added against creature based decks.
2x Return to the Ranks-antisweeper, gives us late game staying power
2x Lantern Scout-another benefit of the ally package is the other cheap white human allies we get. Note that this one gives creatures we control, rather than allies we control, lifelink. One mass attack on the turn he is played can put our life total far out of reach of the most aggressive decks there are.
2x Ranger of Eos-late game staying power, also great to sideboard in if our opponent runs Path to Exile to help us get to the 4th land.
1x Path to Exile-no need to be explained
2x Boros Charm-antisweeper, also gives a lot more reach
2x Repel the Abominable-blowout card against combo decks of all sorts, like scapeshift, ad nauseum, and even burn or infect. The versatility of this card is amazing; I've played it against burn and cast it on turn 3 after my opponent suspended two rift bolts on turn 2, and it is not a card that people expect to face. Repel can also blowout infect after they stack all of their lethal buffs on an inkmoth or glistener elf, and isn't stopped by vines of vastwood. In fact, if played against certain decks, Repel acts as a time walk for us.
The main deck changes are very cheap to make, and I would really recommend people to try out human allies if you've never tried it before!
Unfortunately I actually haven't had a chance to play against those two precise matchups, but have been matching against grixis control/UB control, which the deck does fine against. I actually used to build mono white human soldiers, but that deck forces you to run far more bears (2cc for 2/2) and lots of other cards that don't provide a lot of power for the mana cost investment. I was unable to race other aggro decks, nor did I apply enough pressure to close out the game fast enough against control.
@Stompbee
Yeah, both Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademaster are fine cards on their own, but with so much upside. As long as you draw 2 allies, this greatly increases value, and with 12 copies in our deck, it is very likely to have 2 allies or more by turn 3 (assuming no mulligans). I do recall a hilarious game where I had an opening hand of 3 Expedition Envoys after a mulligan to 6 though, but the chances are minimal for such occurrences.
And yeah it must always feel bad to have to cast premium removal on cards like Hada Freeblade
And about the midgame, you nailed it - our 1 mana 2 mana "tarmogoyfs" reach insane sizes and easily outpower opposing 4cc 5cc drops. Even a turn 3 tasigur wasn't a problem.
I was between Proclamation of Rebirth and Return to the Ranks, and honestly both can work - but I decided to roll with the latter because bringing back multiple Thalia's Lieutenant is so much more game breaking than say, Champion of the Parish. But I do think its down to personal preference!
I like to think of the synergies in the deck this way: each 1 mana creature has the potential to grow to insane sizes itself, or buff each other. Expedition Envoy may look like trash when placed alone next to Student of Warfare, but because it buffs so many other creatures in our deck, it will consistently represent 3 or 4 power for 1 mana, which is amazing mana efficiency.
@Dennis, try playing with a pair of Abzan Falconer I think it may surprise you, especially with the large amount of creature based strategies in modern. Though of course, these are the first to be sideboarded out against non-creature-based strategies.
And good point with Honor of the Pure I find myself sideboarding them out very often as well, because its hard to sideboard out creatures because they all rely on each other. I'll try experimenting with 3 copies and see how that feels.
As for colorless lands, I cut down on them because the deck always, always, wants double white on turn 2. Running a playset of Mutavault means we are likely to start hands with Mutavault+white source, which is incredibly limiting in terms of explosive power the deck can bring. I think the best land to counter flooding would be Horizon Canopy, and I'd happily play 3 copies if I could afford them. I've actually had the colorless source almost lose me games before, and wished I'd simply had another plains in its place.
Fragmentize looks great and I'll be looking to try fitting a pair (or 3) into the sideboard for sure!
I wouldn't worry about aggro mirrors - this deck absolutely crushes and outraces them. One mana 2/2 for a Goblin Guide? How about I show you a 1 mana 3/3, 4/4, or larger, Champion of the Parish, or a 1 mana 2/3, 3/4 Hada Freeblade? The Goblin Guide and Wild Nacatl have fixed sizes, they'll never grow past a certain point. At this weekends modern tournament, I won 1 game with 17 life remaining against naya burn, having only taken 3 damage off a searing blaze - burn was forced to keep pointing spells at my creatures because they were just completely outclassing what he had. My problem with cards like Authority of the Consulate is that it doesn't develop your board and only serves to stem a bit of damage from haste creatures. If we are running this out on turn 1, then we will be behind in board by far, and we won't be able to properly apply pressure from the tapped creatures our opponent plays. Even a savannah lion is a better play, as it can trade with most other one drops while dissuading attacks or forcing a removal spell.
@Stompbee
I think the best choice for an antisweeper would be splashing red for boros charm, which I am considering.
Here's what I have been running:
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Thraben Inspector
4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
4x Expedition Envoy
2x Abzan Falconer
3x Path to Exile
4x Brave the Elements
4x Honor of the Pure
Lands
9x Plains
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Westvale Abbey
4x Flooded Strand
4x Windswept Heath
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Return to the Ranks
2x Lantern Scout
2x Ranger of Eos
1x Path to Exile
3x Dismember
1x Abzan Falconer
2x Repel the Abominable
If you've never tried playing human-allies before, I recommend you give it a shot - it allows for consistent explosive starts, and is not reliant on having Champion or Thalia's Lieutenant for explosive starts, because Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademasters fill a similar role.
I'll go a bit into why the ally package brings so much more to the table. Let's start by breaking the deck down.
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Thraben Inspector
Standard Humans package, self explanatory - 3 Kytheon's because drawing multiples is basically a mulligan - you have one less card to work with. Thraben Inspectors over the other vanilla one drops because of the card advantage; I have never found thraben inspector a bad draw at any point in my experience with him.
4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
4x Expedition Envoy
Allies package;Hada Freebladeis our Champion of the Parish numbers 5-8; often times he can grow up to 3/4 or larger - literally another one-mana goyf that has staying power. Even if we only get one single other ally into play besides Hada, it will still be a one mana 2/3, which is substantially better than a savannah lion.
Kazandu Blademaster2 for 2/2 first strike vigilance? Already solid in all sorts of match ups - a single other ally would make this card a 2 mana 3/3 first strike vigilance, not to mention multiple allies, honor of the pures, or lieutenants. The first strike, vigilance key words are game breaking against any aggro deck, including burn, zoo, and certain death's shadow builds
Expedition Envoy A vanilla 2/1 for 1 seems weak, until you realize this card buffs up to 16 other creatures in our deck upon entry into the battle field - 2 times better than any other savannah lion that can only buff champion and lieutenant
The ally package allows us to run an interesting card:
2x Abzan Falconer
With the +1/+1 counters allies employ, paired with lieutenant, most, if not all, of our creatures will be buffed with flying. This is a big deal and a blowout, breaks through stalled board situations, and can function as an alpha strike that pumps some of your creatures while also likely lasting for more strikes in the following turns. Something to note is the lack of flyers in modern, making a flying "lord" effect an amazing addition to a deck with no evasion. These will be sideboarded out against control and combo decks with little to no threats.
Spells
3x Path to Exile
4x Brave the Elements
4x Honor of the Pure
Fairly standard spells package; I opted not to include the 4th path because most of the time I'd rather draw another creature rather than a second path. I don't run token generators because I feel there is not enough value - if the tokens we made were 2 mana for human allies, that would function amazingly in this deck. Unfortunately, there is no such card. An argument could be made for spectral procession but I'd really rather other ways to come back from a boardsweeper.
Lands
9x Plains
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Westvale Abbey
4x Flooded Strand
4x Windswept Heath
Foundry is optional, generally used as a bluff in game 1 - and this has actually happened - my opponent would play sub-optimally because he believed I had a lightning bolt in my hand, especially if we shock ourselves for the Foundry to enter untapped. Because we are generally the aggressor, our life total does not matter as much.
8 fetches to thin the deck
1 Eiganjo Castle because there is no reason not to include a copy, given that it enters untapped.
1 Westvale Abbey as a late game mana sink that also buffs any Champions and Lieutenants we happen to have around. If I had Horizon Canopy I'd run those instead.
Sideboard
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben-an argument can certainly be made to main deck her, but I find myself getting taxed relatively often, and would prefer them to only be sideboarded in when necessary. These can be swapped with the main deck Abzan Falconers; it is fine to have the falconers start on the sideboard as well and be added against creature based decks.
2x Return to the Ranks-antisweeper, gives us late game staying power
2x Lantern Scout-another benefit of the ally package is the other cheap white human allies we get. Note that this one gives creatures we control, rather than allies we control, lifelink. One mass attack on the turn he is played can put our life total far out of reach of the most aggressive decks there are.
2x Ranger of Eos-late game staying power, also great to sideboard in if our opponent runs Path to Exile to help us get to the 4th land.
1x Path to Exile-no need to be explained
3x Dismember-against decks that need more interaction, such as Infect, Abzan Coco, these come in
1x Abzan Falconer-more consistency to break board stalls in creature based matchups
2x Repel the Abominable-blowout card against combo decks of all sorts, like scapeshift, ad nauseum, and even burn or infect. The versatility of this card is amazing; I've played it against burn and cast it on turn 3 after my opponent suspended two rift bolts on turn 2, and it is not a card that people expect to face. Repel can also blowout infect after they stack all of their lethal buffs on an inkmoth or glistener elf, and isn't stopped by vines of vastwood. In fact, if played against certain decks, Repel acts as a time walk for us.
A couple of questions, though they may be misguided since I don't know your current deck composition:
What made you decide to drop Brave the Elements? Was there any specific matchup that influenced your decision?
Why Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, a card that doesn't synergize with Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant? What did you replace with it?
What drove you to the statement that 19 lands is the magical number? Could you provide some rational regarding that? And it would seem,though of course I do not have any testing experience with your build, that 19 lands would make it very hard to consistently play cards that require 4 lands to be playable such as Gryff's Boon and Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Even the 3 cc cards that you talked about in the sideboard appear to be questionable in terms of consistency with 19 lands.
What deck did you run Expedition Envoy in? Could you explain why it was a dead draw?
I need to disagree with the statement at Auriok Champion. Not only does it further any human synergies, gets buffed by anthems like Honor of the Pure, it is also a body, and also has protection from black as an added bonus. The circle requires you to constantly keep mana up, which is not what a rush deck wants to be doing in the early turns - and when you do have the mana available to activate circle, it might just be too late.
Oh and for further discussion, here's a deck list of monowhite human soldiers that finished second at a recent SCG qualifier: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-mono-white-humans-27423#paper
It seems that we were on point in considering Selfless Spirit as a solid sideboard option against sweepers!
Oh and has running 4 colorless sources ever been a problem especially when you want to be casting either 2 white one drops on turn 2 or a Kazandu Blademaster? I can visualize possible games where a plains and a Mutavault are all the lands that we have for the entire duration.
Unfortunately budget reasons keep me away from properly stocking up a good sideboard; just feels bad to spend $40 for Auriok Champion that won't see play often :/ perhaps eventually I'll come around to that point!
Proclamation of Rebirth does look great! I haven't had a chance to sideboard in Return to the Ranks yet so don't have any experience as to whether or not we will have enough mana to make the x cost worth
I've played against a casual friend who has a budget affinity deck (doesn't run arcbound ravagers) but that contains everything else; the Etched Champion definitely was a pain, but Abzan Falconer helped me outrace him each time I was able to get him out.
I honestly haven't had a chance to properly test this deck; unfortunately, I don't have an MTGO account and my local game store doesn't really support modern. I do like Student of Warfare but my only gripe with it is it will remain a vanilla 1/1 for a while; I'd much rather be deploying my hand and buffing my creatures with new units than pumping mana into a card that can be easily removed. With 8 fetches I think it would be relatively easy to splash black/green and run a couple copies of Anafenza, the Foremost which helps grow our creatures more and is out of bolt range. This is just theory craft though, have never tried Anafenza before.
Though the core of the deck is monowhite, I do have a pair of Boros Charm in the sideboard hence the red splash, as an answer to board sweepers; would you simply not run those? Hard sweepers seem to be the decks largest weakness (our creatures out grow red sweepers like Anger of the Gods) cards like Wrath of God and Supreme Verdict can really screw the deck over. Going monowhite I could see including Selfless Spirit as a method to mess with sweepers, but that loses the surprise factor boros charm has.
@Ridley, great! looking forward to your update on how the human allies went!
Here's what I have been running:
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Thraben Inspector
4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
4x Expedition Envoy
2x Abzan Falconer
3x Path to Exile
4x Brave the Elements
4x Honor of the Pure
Lands
9x Plains
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Westvale Abbey
4x Flooded Strand
4x Windswept Heath
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Return to the Ranks
2x Lantern Scout
2x Ranger of Eos
1x Path to Exile
2x Boros Charm
2x Repel the Abominable
If you've never tried playing human-allies before, I recommend you give it a shot - it allows for consistent explosive starts, and is not reliant on having Champion or Thalia's Lieutenant for explosive starts, because Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademasters fill a similar role.
I'll go a bit into why the ally package brings so much more to the table as compared to 1 mana 2/1 savannah lions and mana sinks like figure of destiny/student of warfare. Let's start by breaking the deck down.
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Thraben Inspector
Standard Humans package, self explanatory - 3 Kytheon's because drawing multiples is basically a mulligan - you have one less card to work with. Thraben Inspectors over the other vanilla one drops because of the card advantage; I have never found thraben inspector a bad draw at any point in my experience with him.
4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
4x Expedition Envoy
Allies package;Hada Freebladeis our Champion of the Parish numbers 5-8; often times he can grow up to 3/4 or larger - literally another one-mana goyf that has staying power. Even if we only get one single other ally into play besides Hada, it will still be a one mana 2/3, which is substantially better than a savannah lion.
Kazandu Blademaster2 for 2/2 first strike vigilance? Already solid in all sorts of match ups - a single other ally would make this card a 2 mana 3/3 first strike vigilance, not to mention multiple allies, honor of the pures, or lieutenants. The first strike, vigilance key words are game breaking against any aggro deck, including burn, zoo, and certain death's shadow builds
Expedition Envoy A vanilla 2/1 for 1 seems weak, until you realize this card buffs up to 16 other creatures in our deck upon entry into the battle field - 2 times better than any other savannah lion that can only buff champion and lieutenant
The ally package allows us to run an interesting card:
2x Abzan Falconer
With the +1/+1 counters allies employ, paired with lieutenant, most, if not all, of our creatures will be buffed with flying. This is a big deal and a blowout, breaks through stalled board situations, and can function as an alpha strike that pumps some of your creatures while also likely lasting for more strikes in the following turns. Something to note is the lack of flyers in modern, making a flying "lord" effect an amazing addition to a deck with no evasion. These will be sideboarded out against control and combo decks with little to no threats.
Spells
3x Path to Exile
4x Brave the Elements
4x Honor of the Pure
Fairly standard spells package; I opted not to include the 4th path because most of the time I'd rather draw another creature rather than a second path. I don't run token generators because I feel there is not enough value - if the tokens we made were 2 mana for human allies, that would function amazingly in this deck. Unfortunately, there is no such card. An argument could be made for spectral procession but I'd really rather other ways to come back from a boardsweeper.
Lands
9x Plains
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Westvale Abbey
4x Flooded Strand
4x Windswept Heath
Foundry is there for a red splash if we sideboard in our boros charms; It can also be used as a bluff in game 1 - and this has actually happened - my opponent would play sub-optimally because he believed I had a lightning bolt in my hand, especially if we shock ourselves for the Foundry to enter untapped. Because we are generally the aggressor, our life total does not matter as much.
8 fetches to thin the deck
1 Eiganjo Castle because there is no reason not to include a copy, given that it enters untapped.
1 Westvale Abbey as a late game mana sink that also buffs any Champions and Lieutenants we happen to have around. If I had Horizon Canopy I'd run those instead.
Sideboard
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben-an argument can certainly be made to main deck her, but I find myself getting taxed relatively often, and would prefer them to only be sideboarded in when necessary. These can be swapped with the main deck Abzan Falconers; it is fine to have the falconers start on the sideboard as well and be added against creature based decks.
2x Return to the Ranks-antisweeper, gives us late game staying power
2x Lantern Scout-another benefit of the ally package is the other cheap white human allies we get. Note that this one gives creatures we control, rather than allies we control, lifelink. One mass attack on the turn he is played can put our life total far out of reach of the most aggressive decks there are.
2x Ranger of Eos-late game staying power, also great to sideboard in if our opponent runs Path to Exile to help us get to the 4th land.
1x Path to Exile-no need to be explained
2x Boros Charm-antisweeper, also gives a lot more reach
2x Repel the Abominable-blowout card against combo decks of all sorts, like scapeshift, ad nauseum, and even burn or infect. The versatility of this card is amazing; I've played it against burn and cast it on turn 3 after my opponent suspended two rift bolts on turn 2, and it is not a card that people expect to face. Repel can also blowout infect after they stack all of their lethal buffs on an inkmoth or glistener elf, and isn't stopped by vines of vastwood. In fact, if played against certain decks, Repel acts as a time walk for us.
The main deck changes are very cheap to make, and I would really recommend people to try out human allies if you've never tried it before!