Boss Humans

I chose the wrong deck to play at #SCGINVI this past weekend in Columbus. I played W/G Humans with some card additional advantage in Bygone Bishop, Duskwatch Recruiter, and Tireless Tracker. The idea for the deck was fresh, yet untested. Seemed like it could spike the tournament if things went my way.

Unfortunately, the deck didn’t have enough card advantage to compete with real card advantage decks like Bant Company or hard control. The deck also lacked the speed to end games quickly or punish people for stumbles. I dropped at 0-3 before playing Infect in the Modern portion.

After my worst Invitational performance ever, I was a bit on tilt, the kind of tilt that makes you want to double your bets after a huge loss. I didn’t care if I didn’t win a match in the Open, but at the same time I really wanted to win the whole tournament. I wanted to recover my losses and fast.

I went with my gut. I played a “Tom Ross” deck.

Didn't win a match in the Invitational. Didn't lose a match in the Open. 9-0 #SCGINVI

— Tom Ross (@Boss_MTG) April 17, 2016

On Day 1 of the Open, I smushed everyone. After Round 7, I semi-jokingly told those around me that I’d won more games than I’d taken combat damage so far (which was true at ten games to nine damage). Everything felt right. It was my style of deck that punished people trying to squeak out small edges over each other by going a touch bigger. My matches were over quickly, which allowed me to stay refreshed for the next match every time. I estimate I played about two hours of actual Magic game-time on Saturday.

The Top 8 of the Open included me, Noah Walker (who always beats me) on U/R Control, a G/R Eldrazi player I beat in the Swiss, a Bant Company player I beat in the Swiss, and four more Bant Company players. I unfortunately get paired against Noah in the quarterfinals and get crushed in ten minutes. I think that, if I could’ve gotten through Noah, I had a good chance to win the tournament. I could’ve avoided the situation by conceding Round 15 instead of drawing into first seed. Probably should’ve.

I had this deck for quite a while, long before even #SCGBALT. Still, I was reluctant to pull the trigger and play it in a big event.

“What if they sweep my battlefield?”

“What if my creatures get outmatched?”

“What if I never draw a second land?”

“What if I draw too many Plains?”

I stuck with a more traditional build of Mono-White Humans during the early testing period. Archangel of Tithes, Bygone Bishop, and Stasis Stare seemed too powerful to pass up. The aforementioned fears would occur less often with a normalized build. At that point, it’s not much of a cost to go into blue for Reflector Mage.

I dabbled in blue but hated the draws that included too many copies of Port Town or Prairie Stream. Or uncastable Reflector Mages. Or not doing anything relevant on the first turn or two. I hated it and went back to testing Mono-White Humans.

At the time I had twenty Plains and a Westvale Abbey in my Mono-White Humans deck. The card I was most frustrated with drawing was Plains. It seemed to happen every time like clockwork. I wanted extra Plains out of my deck ASAP. Out went lands and in came one-drops. The lowered land count did wonders for the deck in multiple ways.

Needing a fourth land but also having to skip your third land drop on the play with Knight of the White Orchid is the worst. With other decks like B/W Eldrazi, I sometimes had to slyly “miss” a land-drop to get any value out of the 2/2 first striker. However, Knight of the White Orchid is great, play or draw, if you don’t have a third land to play. With the lowered land count, my Knights got value more often than any other deck would. Also, with fewer lands, opposing Knights of the White Orchid got value less often. Twice during the Open, I had to stop my opponent from grabbing their library after casting Knight of the White Orchid.

Some hands will require you to keep only one land. With so many one-drops, you’ll often have plays to make even if you miss for a couple of turns. Here, Knight of the White Orchid functions similarly to Burning-Tree Emissary from Boss Sligh to catch you back up quickly once you find that second land.

The newest addition that ties everything together. If Legion Loyalist was a one-mana Akroma’s Memorial, this is a one-mana Glorious Anthem. It makes attacking into 2/3s much easier and gets your Consul’s Lieutenants through more often. With Always Watching it gets to attack too! I once attacked with two Anointer of Champions, a Town Gossipmonger, and a Kytheon, Hero of Akros with an Always Watching in play. At the end of combat, all my creatures were tapped and I had a flipped Kytheon. Glorious.

Anointer of Champions lets you be reactive against decks that want to react to you. It helps immensely when attacking into Collected Company or Archangel Avacyn mana. It also puts a lot of pressure on your opponents to block correctly, either to conserve their life total or to try to remove some of your battlefield. Even if they remove something, it’s probably a one-drop that traded up.

The best white removal spell in Standard is a top nominee for best card from Shadows over Innistrad. In this build of Mono-White Humans I forgo any other removal spells like Stasis Snare or Silkwrap and prefer to play more Humans that progress my battlefield. Creatures dying can happen in combat, where I’m advantaged. With less removal, those Declarations in Stone are more likely to hit multiple creatures. And the best part? This build kills them quickly, before they can crack any Clues that you give them.

I wanted to note how great these flip cards are against Reflector Mage. Multiple times, my opponents had to cast Collected Company to find Reflector Mage and bounce my most threatening creature attacking them, which was often Incited Rabble or Gideon, Battle-Forged. After, combat I’d recast Town Gossipmonger or Kytheon, Hero of Akros and feel no tempo loss at all. Although it might feel bad to lose that Gideon, Battle-Forged, who really cares? It was a one-mana planeswalker in the first place and will be one very soon again.

The creatures that have been getting the spotlight as being combos with Always Watching have been Archangel of Tithes and Dragonlord Ojutai. The real winners are Town Gossipmonger and Anointer of Champions. You’re naturally filling your deck with a high creature count, which works well with Always Watching in the first place. It’s your most important card against sweepers like Kozilek’s Return or Flaying Tendrils and I would likely play more than four if I could, even in an eighteen-land deck.

This little Aura functions very closely to what an Equipment would do. It’s a cheap spell that’s reusable late. This, along with Incited Rabble pumps and Clue cracking, is your late-game use for extra mana. It’s particularly good to get a Consul’s Lieutenant through or to prevent Incited Rabble from hopelessly running into a blocker.

The hidden benefit from Gryff’s Boon that I found is how well it protects your Always Watchings from Dromoka’s Command. Your sideboard plan against Bant Company is to make their Dromoka’s Commands weak while keeping up the pressure.

Moving forward, I think the maindeck is perfect, but the sideboard I played in the Open needed some work. This is what I’d play at Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad if I were going.

Sideboarding

Bant Company has been everywhere on the SCG Tour^® since Jim Davis won #SCGBALT. It accounted for nineteen of the 32 decks in the Top 32 of the Open and has a lot of power behind it in both card advantage and individual card strength.

Your plan is to run them over before the get an engine going. Their mana is super-smooth and need to keep a hand with a two-drop to compete. Boss Humans is built to attack into Sylvan Advocate, so this is rarely an issue. Their big trump is getting you mid-combat with a Collected Company, which the deck is set up to plow through with Anointer of Champions.

After sideboarding, you want to load up on enchantments to overload their Dromoka’s Commands, which is the best card in their deck against you. Even though Declaration in Stone is pretty good against them, you need to take out some number of noncreature spells for this plan and diversify your threats against possible Declaration in Stone from their side.

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Charmingly nicknamed “Mono-White Jund,” the Big White deck is full of great cards and great mana. It lacks the ability to be close out games quickly and is a tad susceptible to mana flood or screw. Your plan here is to put pressure on them while doing your best not to get caught by a backbreaking Tragic Arrogance. Because of Declaration in Stone, you want to slim down on your four-ofs. Because of Tragic Arrogance, you don’t want any enchantments that aren’t Always Watching and do want another threatening permanent type in Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.

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You’re advantaged here no matter how many Kozilek’s Returns they have maindeck. Jaddi Offshoot is an annoying speed bump that’s not too hard to push through. G/R Eldrazi is good because its great matchups are such a huge percentage of the field. When you can’t lose to Bant Company and it’s 50% of the metagame, you know you’re playing the right deck.

Flip your Town Gossipmongers on your turn so you don’t get caught by a Kozilek’s Return.

If they’re playing Hangarback Walker or Sylvan Advocate, put in two Silkwrap for two Expedition Envoy. Expedition Envoy over Dragon Hunter because they sometimes show up with Dragonlord Atarka.

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I can’t flip my Jace

My graveyard two

But I looted

But I looted

• This Weeknd

U/R Control is a bad matchup, whether they’re maindecking Fevered Visions or Sphinx’s Tutelage or not. The more Fiery Impulse they have, the worse off you are. Their deck is extremely tough to play around between wanting to get them dead quickly and looming Kozilek’s Returns. Thing in the Ice and Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy are both powerful cards that you must respect with Silkwrap. However, they can beat you without either and with a Chandra, Flamecaller or a Pyromancer’s Goggles. You’re in a tough spot where you’re hoping your cards match up well against theirs but not vice versa.

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There’s quite the anomaly going on in this Standard format. It seems like the bigger you are, the better you match up against control decks. The smaller decks are beating up on the midrange decks. I haven’t gotten to test this matchup, but it seems like Anointer of Champions will do some work while the other deck may be stuck with higher-cost cards or draw one too many lands. Archangel of Tithes is all right, but nothing to really get a fuss over.

Incited Rabble doesn’t have to attack anymore and Anointer of Champions is helping you in combat without being in it. After your hand is dumped on the battlefield, you use all of your mana to pay for the tithe. Their Stasis Snares will trade down always too. I don’t like Silkwrap much unless they show you Hanweir Militia Captain too, and I think two Gryff’s Boon is just the right number.

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They often spread themselves from one-drops up to five-drops like Dragonlord Ojutai or Archangel Avacyn. Their manabase is susceptible to clunkiness and their Reflector Mages are pretty weak against you. I feel like Mono-White is the superior version of Humans in all matchups except heavy control like Esper Dragons, U/R Control, or B/R Control, where the sideboard counterspells are good.

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Mono-White Humans is the best deck. Mono-White Humans will Win The Pro Tour. It’s fast, consistent, and merciless. Whatever you do, please don’t play Bant Company. It gets crushed by G/R Eldrazi and Mono-White Humans. It’s nearly incapable of winning the mirror in 50 minutes. Bant Company is a good deck in a wide-open field, but not now. Not when we have a real metagame.

Play Boss Humans. You won’t regret it.