At this time of year, everyone loves to listen to their favorite holiday song. We turn on the radio or, nowadays, our new-fangled radio streaming app, and
everyone’s got Christmas music going. If you don’t hear your favorite, chances are you can flip to another station or wait a few minutes and they’ll put it
on there. Some people love those silly songs that involve Santa doing something un-Santa-y a la Eartha Kitt while some people (read: my parents) love
classic hymns and carols. Lots of people like both!
Today though, we’re singing a Bing Crosby tune we all know at least four bars of.
~ We’ll be…dreamin’…of a white…good deck. // Just like the ones I used to know! ~
Several months ago, I decided to keep a few physical decks on retainer. Since I sold my collection last year, I’d been missing out on some of the fun.
Sure, I’d been proxying decks, but this actually proved to be a greater challenge to successful gameplay than I anticipated. First, nearly all of
the cards were proxied, which takes a lot of fun out of the game. It just doesn’t feel good beating a deck for which someone’s worked hard and paid a high
price with basic lands blatantly hidden under typed pieces of paper. Second, it was nearly impossible to get a simple game out of a deck because of the
complexity and explanation required for both me and my opponent. Often I’d overlook a card I had in hand because it looked indistinguishable from the other
six cards, and people constantly had to ask me what obscure cards like Battlefield Thaumaturge and Guardian of Meletis do. Planeswalkers also proved
challenging to grasp without the card itself in front of you. I got a lot of “how many counters does Tibalt’s ultimate cost?” and “why are you playing an
Avacyn Restored card in Standard?” and “you need help, Tibalt is a bad Magic card.”
To right this wrong, I decided to buy into cheap (read: mono-colored) decks to have something on hand to play in small events and as a platform for budget
testing. Since then, I’ve crafted fairly inexpensive versions of Standard decks for each of the five colors of Magic. Each is a bit different, and I’ve
covered a couple of them here (Waste Not and Mono-Green, namely.) White has perhaps been the most fun in practice.
Tom Ross, who I talked about last week and will probably somehow bring up in my
non-Standard article next week, has innovated for the heroic archetype by manufacturing the sturdy, reliable W/U Heroic list that has come into the format
as a real contender. I’d started crafting this brew a bit before Ross’s breakout events, and although I believe his list is superior, it does have a couple
problems for a budget player, namely the Flooded Strands.
In many decks, the Strands are “good-if-you-have-them-but-fine-without” cards. However, because Tom’s color fixing and delve capabilities are so carefully
mapped to playing the Strands, creating a budget version of his list feels incorrect. We can just cut out the middleman, use the best creatures in white,
and jam white-only spells.
When we take out the blue, we’re left with a snowy winter wonderland of pain.
Heroic decks are generally regarded in the brewing community as relatively low hanging fruit, so I took a fairly straightforward decklist as a first draft.
Creatures (18)
- 4 Phalanx Leader
- 4 Favored Hoplite
- 2 Soldier of the Pantheon
- 2 Fabled Hero
- 2 Hopeful Eidolon
- 4 Vanguard of Brimaz
Lands (22)
Spells (20)
- 4 Gods Willing
- 2 Spear of Heliod
- 4 Acolyte's Reward
- 2 Ajani's Presence
- 2 Launch the Fleet
- 2 Dictate of Heliod
- 4 Defiant Strike
Sideboard
Instead of breaking down the whole list, let’s just look at it with a broad lens. I imagine most players have seen or played a list like this before, so I
don’t need to tell you how it works.
White heroic decks historically have featured Favored Hoplite as their preferred beatstick; it’s nearly unkillable with damage and unblockable thanks to
its heroic trigger. Let’s face it, they always play like you “have it.” Soldier of the Pantheon is a good target for both protection and pump spells, and
Hopeful Eidolon bestowed is literally solid on every creature.
The spells aren’t anything crazy; there’s only so many heroic spells. Most heroic players, whether they’re on the aggro or combo plan, have used Defiant
Strike as a simple cantrip, but it can actually add significant damage to a combat in this list while also replacing itself, especially when targeting
role-players like Phalanx Leader. Acolyte’s Reward has been a card I’ve loved since it got spoiled last year. At the time, I was working on a deck with Palisade Giant and this card, allowing
you to do what Deflecting Palm basically does for two mana. Thanks to the heavy white on cards like Vanguard of Brimaz and Spear of Heliod, this could
completely protect a creature and bounce the damage back. If there’s a lull, it does also target two creatures to trigger heroic twice. It’s important to
remember though, that Favored Hoplite is a bad target for the first part of the spell, as its heroic trigger will prevent any damage from hitting it and
thus being redirected.
I felt like one of the weenie deck’s weaknesses had proven to be sweeping threats like Doomwake Giant, Anger of the Gods, and to some degree, End
Hostilities. Dictate of Heliod was an answer for that, and with significant devotion, you could get it out with a relatively low mana investment. And as a
surprise, no less! Spear of Heliod complements the Dictate. Finally, Launch the Fleet promised to provide an army of brawlers that could all be helped by
anthem effects and, if cast for enough mana, could close the game immediately.
At first, I proxied up a significant portion of this deck, slotting in a few creatures and spells I actually owned. I tested it strongly, often setting
aside decks I’d been playing to try this one out. It was really fun, but it wasn’t perfect or even particularly close. There were some draws though, that
couldn’t be beaten, and that’s the kind of deck that goes somewhere.
I’d planned to leverage the devotion potential, but it became clear that Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx was worse than a Plains on most occasions. I rarely, if
ever, cast Dictate of Heliod with Nykthos mana that I otherwise wouldn’t have had. I felt that my threats needed to be a little better, and that many cards
underperformed and overperformed.
Fabled Hero turned out to be too expensive to play reasonably (four mana minimum so you had mana to protect it), and most of the time, a two-mana threat
would cut the mustard (or eggnog, if it’s been sitting in there since last year.) Launch the Fleet was the definition of win-more. Casting this profitably
meant I had a good amount of mana, a good number of onboard threats, and that they were sufficiently defenseless to justify bringing down the house. It was
great to get three and four heroic triggers, but it did not make the deck better in a tight spot. Talk about a sloppy topdeck!
I revised down the plan and added a staple of Tom Ross’s list, Seeker of the Way, to round out version number two.
Creatures (16)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (22)
Spells (20)
I realized I had a lot of do-nothing end steps when my opponent did little because I was representing a protection spell for my Soldiers on the
battlefield. Raise the Alarm was added as a way to leverage this dead air into more threats.
By now, I’d ordered the physical cards and sleeved up a real version. I felt like a real adult.
When testing this, I realized two things: I’m really strong against black and control lists, but I’m pretty weak to Stormbreath Dragon, flyers in general,
and Mono-Red. I’m just never fast enough against that list, but the positive matchups I have give me a lot of hope for this deck. I wasn’t giving up
anytime soon, and I’d already invested in the few bucks to get me the cards listed, so why not keep plugging?
In this build, Ajani’s Presence not only shined, it was a freakin’ lighthouse. Frequently I was able to strive an extra creature and, with Seeker
of the Way, every block is a good block. Seeker of the Way was also outstanding; have you ever cast a Dictate of Heliod with two Seeker of the Ways out
there and swung for ten? Merry Christmas to me.
On the other hand, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion was stone awful. Like boulder awful, really. In one game, I had both in my opener, mulliganed, and after a cut,
proceeded to draw both of them again within two turns. The chance of casting Elspeth at a relevant point in the game was so utterly slim that I decided
there was never a time where I wanted to draw it except like turn 15 when we’re both already deep in topdeck mode. Nykthos, despite shrinking down to one
copy, never helped cast the Elspeth, Sun’s Champion or a Dictate and was basically a Blasted Landscape in play.
The sideboard proved helpful this time, so I’ll review it right quick. Spirit of the Labyrinth was added to deal with control and to provide a strong
hitter that didn’t need a heroic trigger to hit for a lot of damage. If I boarded out some of my more conditional heroic spells, Spirit could come in.
Hushwing Gryff also provided a way to help leverage my end step and to fight flyers with flyers. Eh? I’m wagging my eyebrows at you. Erase was excellent,
and Mortal Obstinacy, an Erase with a built-in heroic trigger, proved to be okay, but most of the time Erase was better. Heliod never saw play, but I
actually feel like it had Elspeth’s problem of only being relevant in turn billion.
I was already solid in a field of midrange, so I decided to tailor the sideboard to faster, more red- and Jeskai-intensive matches. I finally cut the chaff
and landed on this list, which I believe to be nearly complete.
Creatures (16)
Lands (22)
Spells (22)
Creature base is the same, spell base has all been seen before, but there is something fishy up in the manabase and the sideboard, and I’d like to try to
win you over on these deviations.
Mono-Colored Decks, Temples, and Sweepers
In this day and age, if you aren’t Mono-Red, you’re going to be at an inherent disadvantage by choosing to be only one color. Your spell and creature
access is limited, but your mana is more consistent and less painful (if you play cards like Radiant Fountain, you can actually gain life from
your manabase). Because a basic-land-centered manabase is so solid, we actually can leverage Temples into an otherwise single-color build.
When you’re low on draw steps, scrying can make or break your game. This mono-colored deck has access to twelve scry effects (eight from the lands, four
from Gods Willing). Although you often need to play a land or two more than normal to make up for the tapped clause of these semi-lands, you give yourself
depth and card selection late in the game. Besides, in game 1, they will always fear the spells your Temple’s single color represents, whether it’s
Doomwake Giant, Crater’s Claws, Disdainful Stroke, or Nylea, God of the Hunt. Furthermore, because you don’t need the color, you can pick up the
cheapest ones in your color. No need to get Temple of Epiphany of Temple of Malady when the budget ones will do!
Second, you’ll notice three sweepers in the sideboard. Have you ever stuck a Perilous Vault? The entire game changes from that point on; nothing your
opponent plays will survive the Vault, and as long as you hold the mana open, you can keep them at bay. For a mono-colored deck, Perilous Vault can be the
key to your bad matchups. Perilous Vault is a colorless reset button that, despite the grievous cost to you, can be your one out that you can draw to
survive. Once it’s on the table, you can furiously block at will before opening the Vault, then rebuild your boardstate. White has the benefit of also
having End Hostilities, but for decks that lack ways to deal with problem permanents and “can’t-win” situations, Perilous Vault can be the best card in
your deck. Few people will expect it, and the blowout potential is huge. It’s slow, but it’s there; use it if you need it and play accordingly.
This final version is what I’ve been testing in the last few weeks, and although I wouldn’t say it’s phenomenal, it’s very strong. All the
free-win hands are still here, and they’re more frequent thanks to ringers like Feat of Resistance coming back into the maindeck. Dictate of Heliod
continued to steal games from the clutches of defeat, creating lots of read-then-scoop situations for my opponents. Raise the Alarm proved to be a real
winner too. The Temples almost always helped me scry to the bottom and, if not, they provided valuable information for my next turn in a deck where
sequencing was critical. The sideboard was better, but I’d probably still add more aggro hate, maybe Nyx-Fleece Ram, which can get pumped with Phalanx
Leader and anthem effects to get in the red zone. Reprisal was really strong, and Last Breath was good too, providing an alternative heroic trigger for
Phalanx Leader; if he was at two power, you could target him with Last Breath, he’d trigger and go to three power, and the Last Breath would fizzle due to
Phalanx Leader being an illegal target. End Hostilities was especially good at cleaning up green decks, which often had no answer and would scoop when I’d
follow it up with two creatures and an anthem. Perilous Vault did prove to be slow, but it still did save me from an unwinnable Jeskai Control match where
he’d admitted he boarded his Disdainful Strokes out.
Interested in buying in? With both maindeck and sideboard, you’re looking at somewhere between $60 and $80, depending on
which Temples you choose and the availability of some cards based on StarCityGames pricing. There’s still a 15% off sale through the end of the month, so
it’s not too late to snag some goodies for yourself! I know I will be; building decks is fun!
From the deck’s perspective, I think the build is sturdy. The number of protection spells and the speed with which you can get online is addicting, so now
it’s just a matter of learning how to play it optimally, realize what hands are good keeps in which matchups, and hoping that they print a white Treasure
Cruise.
I guess I know what I’m asking Santa for.
White heroic isn’t anything new, so what kinds of innovations are you practicing, or do you have another mono-colored heroic deck that’s topping your local
charts?
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and I’ll see you on the other side. I’ve got a special treat for you next week to bring in the new year!