Welcome to the fifth instalment of Spotlight on Future Si-?
What?
I’m not doing it?
What do you mean, “Mike is doing it?”
Excuse me for a moment. I just need to climb up a panel.
Huff-huff.
Okay then. So this is what it looks like at the top (after the advertisements, anyway). Right then, let’s fire her up!
Flores Friday.
Bzzz, clunk. Bang bang.
Prof’s Flores Friday.
Better…
Just one more thing to do.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
[Prof! Put the Chainsaw down! Dismembering our chief writer is not allowed. – Craig.]
Aaaaawwwww.
A new set has just been released, so it’s time for me to misevaluate all the cards, build decks you wouldn’t even foist on your irritating kid brother, and watch as my readership declines down to just me and Craig (and only because he has to edit it).
While everyone does the general “there’s this card, it’s kind of like Force of Will” breakdown of the set in nice bite-sized chunks, I’m going to try and stitch them into decks. It’s dirty work, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do…
Or rather what a Billy Moreno does. Heh-heh.
…
What do you mean, “he’s escaped?”
Oh well, looks like it’s just me again. I’ll just have to try and do a better job than “Sulfur Elemental might be good for pumping white guys” this time. Or try and be funny.
Heh, look… giblets. Giblets are funny, right?
I’m going to do things differently this time round. Rather than throw out a stream of random deck lists, I’m going to concentrate more on how I think a card can be utilised. Some cards are obviously designed to build decks around. Others are designed more as specific answers within a metagame. It’s also rare nowadays that the small sets spawn completely new archetypes. R&D appear to have turned back the dial on linear after the Dark Age of Affinity.
I’m also going to be looking at cards for Block as well as Standard. With a PTQ season coming up that uses the Block Constructed format, I imagine people will be just as interested in the those applications of the new set.
This week I’m going to talk about White, and in particular the White Weenie deck from Block. This is mainly because White didn’t get a great deal. You only really have to look at the Pact cycle. Blue gets Force of Will, Green gets a Tutor for creatures, Black a Terror, and Red a sort of Beast Attack.
What does White get…?
White gets a situational damage prevention spell with some life gain tacked on (and it’s not stopping a hellbent Demonfire either, or a kicked Molten Disaster).
White is rubbish.
THE END.
…
Okay, so I suppose I need to write a little more than that. First, let’s list the new tools at our disposal.
Rare
Angel of Salvation
Barren Glory
Daybreak Coronet
Imperial Mask
Intervention Pact
Magus of the Moat
Oriss, Samite Guardian
Scout’s Warning
Seht’s Tiger
Uncommon
Aven Mindcensor
Bound in Silence
Chronomantic Escape
Dust of Moments
Even the Odds
Goldmeadow Lookout
Lost Auramancers
Mistmeadow Skulk
Ramosian Revivalist
Spirit en-Dal
Common
Augur il-Vec
Blade of the Sixth Pride
Gift of Granite
Judge Unworthy
Knight of Sursi
Lucent Liminid
Lumithread Field
Lymph Sliver
Marshaling Cry
Patrician’s Scorn
Saltskitter
Samite Censer-Bearer
And some lands:
Horizon Canopy
New Benalia
Nimbus Maze
Now let’s have a look at the environment they’re entering.
Standard is a little harsh at the moment. Stuart Wright summed it up in Yokohama when he said that most new Standard decks weren’t viable because of the presence of Dragonstorm. Aven Mindcensor can muck it around, but they only need to find a Hellkite in their top four cards for one of the storm copies, and then the rest will resolve just fine. While I’m a big fan of stormin’ up Dragons, part of me hopes Seething Song will join the Tron in taking a break from the game once Tenth Edition rolls in.
I’ve been more focused on Block, but for me the biggest obvious change Planar Chaos has made to Standard is the complete killing off of Boros-based aggro decks. Sulfur Elemental has hit the little White guys like myxomatosis on bunnies. The dominant aggro deck is now Gruul based. White now mainly plays a roll in three-color “good stuff” decks, such as various flavors of Red/White/Blue Angel decks, or the “blunt” control methods of Solar Flare.
In Time Spiral block, things are a little simpler. There is one White deck, and it relies on making efficiently costed men and charging them over the hill until either they or your opponent falls over. According to major tournament results this is either the strategy or the worst deck choice you could ever make.
My thinking is the White deck lies somewhere in between and will stabilise as one of the Tier 1 decks.
The highest finishing White deck from Yokohama was this listing piloted by Jan Kortla (who coincidentally eliminated me from the tournament in round 7):
Creatures (26)
Spells (34)
Sideboard
I’m going to talk a little about other deck archetypes, but as I feel they’re largely Johnny specials (Future Sight strikes me as leaning more towards the Johnny class of player) I’m going to concentrate more on how Future Sight updates the White Weenie listing.
First let’s run through those Johnny cards. These are the cards that form the hearts or engines of decks in much the same way as Wild Pair decks are ostensibly Wild Pair decks (unless, they’re Japanese Wild Pair decks, in which case they happily assemble bizarre combinations of Slivers that will explode your mind).
Cards to build decks around
Angel of Salvation
The anti-Hellkite. Sure damage prevention is suckier than obliterating your opponent’s army, but this bird has convoke, which means she’ll come out a lot faster than most decks will find comfortable. She’s not really a card you can build a deck around, but I think she might find a niche as a finisher in Glare type decks. Blinking Snake might want a top end beat-stick, but with competition from cards like Akroma, Hellkite, and Angel of Despair, overall I think she’ll probably just remain a Limited bomb.
Barren Glory
This enchantment is ready made for Greater Gargadon. Restore Balance and Boom / Bust are also floating around. It could be the finishing piece in those decks, but my thinking is if you manage to go through all the hoops to get nothing in play and nothing in hand, then you’re probably also beating them to death with an unsuspended Gargadon. The same is true for Extended, where Balancing Tings might be interested.
I’m not overly excited, but I’m not about to rule it out either.
Daybreak Coronet
During testing for Yokohama I think Tom Harle and Johnny Chapman were trying out an odd Auramancer’s Guise / Spirit Loop / Auratog beatdown deck. I mention the Coronet only for that reason. It’s another Johnny card though.
It’ll all end in tears with Snapback.
Oriss, Samite Guardian
Zzz. Undertaker. Zzz. No point repeating what everyone else has said.
Lost Auramancers
It’s Academy Rector Jim, but not as we know it. I did make a list of all the possible Enchantments you could get, but it feels really hard to actually get Auramancers to trigger. Against some decks they are going to be fantastic, but that relies on those decks not killing them before the vanishing counters go away. Chronozoa has the same problems and hasn’t really found a home yet.
You can get round the counter problem with Vesuvan Shapeshifter, but then you still have to kill the damn thing to find the enchantment.
Way too fiddly to build a deck around in my books. Maybe you could play them in some form of Shapeshifter / Chronozoa deck and also have a bunch of enchantments that are also useful on their own.
Now it’s time to look at the unsung footsoldiers. These are the guys that turn sideways across the red zone in the most efficient manner.
Aggro Cards
Aven Mindcensor
Mistmeadow Skulk
Spirit En-Dal
Blade of the Sixth Pride
Knight of Sursi
Saltskitter
All of the textless vanilla creatures have some gorgeous art, and Blade of the Sixth Pride is no exception. The 3/1 body for two mana is also very efficiently costed. In normal formats, starting out with Savannah Lion and following with Blade of the Sixth Pride would be very strong. Unfortunately Sulfur Elementals are going to be stinking up the place for the foreseeable future. Time Spiral block is probably too hot now for this vanilla creature, but it’s efficient enough that it joins the long list of viable two mana White creatures in both Standard and Extended.
Knight of Sursi is probably too slow for the older formats, but I can see a very strong case for it in Time Spiral block. That one mana slot is very problematic at the moment for White Weenie. Neither Javelineers nor Mana Tithe really do enough. Knight of Sursi could become the new turn 1 play, but the deck already has Shade of Trokair and too many suspend creatures might slow it down. Worth testing.
I’ve already briefly mentioned the Mindcensor, and despite his small stats to cost ratio the ability might be enough to catch some people out. I can see him being very good in response to Mystical Teachings and occasionally bumming over a sac land, but he’s not quite as brutal as Shadow of Doubt. More of a nuisance than a savaging, but there’s a body attached and he can always attack for two in the worst case.
The other cards don’t quite make the grade. I think the Skulk is a really cute card and probably quite annoying against some decks. Unfortunately he’s easy to block with either Wall of Roots or a morph, and the best fatties either fly over or trample through him. Saltskitter also strikes me as interesting. You could have a hypothetical situation where you save another creature and him from Damnation by offering up a Stonecloaker instead, but at four mana he compares unfavourably to Calciderm.
Solid Spells
This is the Lightning Helix class. Basically stuff that does a good job and isn’t particularly choosey about what deck it needs to be in.
Judge Unworthy
This is another spell in a long line of conditional White removal spells that stretches back to Exile in Alliances and more recently cropped up as Condemn. The Scry ability makes it worth a look in the three-color Standard decks, and I’d also consider it in competition with Sunlance for a sideboard slot in Block White Weenie.
Specialised Answers
These are not automatic inclusions for any deck and they’re not exactly cards that decks are built around, but they are the kind of cards you go to when you want to answer or pose specific questions. Aven Mindcensor is probably more in this class rather than as a beatdown monster.
Magus of the Moat
Teferi’s Moat cropped up in both the main and sideboard of Heezy’s deck from Yokohama. At the time I tried to think of why as it didn’t really lock anyone out. Green/Red had Dragons and Akromas to fly right over it and White weenie is stuffed full of evasion and can just blow it up with Cloudchaser Kestrel in any case. But that sort of misses the point. Decks in the past used the original Moat to lock up the ground, but in this case I think Teferi’s imitation is there as a nuisance. Sure, it dies to Cloudchaser Kestrel, but if it keeps a Calciderm at bay long enough until it vanishes then it’s done its job. Rather than a lock, it’s a hefty speed bump to buy time to get control and then win. It’s also some good against other control decks, as Teferi and Aeon Chronicler aren’t getting over it any time soon.
Magus of the Moat should be thought of in the same way. It’s a creature, so it’s probably going to die, and it can’t do anything about the plethora of very good flying monsters in Constructed at the moment, but you should always keep it in mind as that sideboard card that destroys certain decks.
Seht’s Tiger
In Yokohama I saw a classic case of trying it on. A Black/Red deck attempted Void against a White Weenie deck. The White Weenie player, who I think might have been Chinese with limited English, played Dawn Charm. It took a while to establish that the player wanted to use the third of the abilities (counter target spell targeting him). Once he realised what was going on, the Black/Red player tried to make out that he hadn’t actually announced targets and wanted to target himself with the Void.
Nice try, Mr. Shifty.
I guess this would be another one of those examples of Imprecision I talked about here. Thankfully the judges were having none of that.
The reason for all this rambling is there’s another interesting answer card in the form of Seht’s Tiger. You’ll notice I haven’t put up deck lists yet, but that’s basically because you don’t build decks around card like Seht’s Tiger. He’s a card you utilise as an answer to an opponent’s strategy.
Like Dawn Charm, Seht’s Tiger can counter Void (it fizzles if they targeted you, and it is assumed they targeted you unless they say otherwise), and you get a free Hill Giant afterwards. This fizzling effect is also one of the few things that stops a hellbent Demonfire, and it even has interesting applications outside of Standard where you can do silly things like counter Gifts Ungiven (in much the same way Ivory Mask used to negate it, as they actually have to target you in order for you to choose what they get).
More importantly, we finally have an answer to the evil Dragonstorm demon. Yes, you still have to get rid of all the dragons afterwards, but at least you have a way to stop the initial twenty (or more) to the face.
Lumithread Field
Is this the card White Weenie is looking for to counteract Sulfur Elemental? It’s definitely an interesting card. My guess is you’ll probably make the first as an enchantment and then later copies can be made as morphs and give you a way of blocking and killing Blood Knights.
The dance of questions and answers between Red and White might be one of the more interesting sub-themes of the coming block season, so long as it doesn’t get smothered by Blue/Black Teferi control decks.
My guess is Lumithread Field is none to shabby in the mirror either (aside from Cloudchaser Kestrel’s ability to randomly defecate on it – bad bird! Go sh** on the neighbour’s Porsche instead). I wouldn’t be surprised to see this crop up in sideboards over the next few months.
Patrician’s Scorn is potentially a free Tranquility. No call for it yet, but then you never know what the future holds.
I’ll mention Even the Odds here, but I can’t currently see a use for it at the moment (a sure sign it’s probably busted). Casting it in the attack step after someone has charged you with Javelineers, Savannah Lions, and Blade of the Sixth Pride is dirty pool, but I imagine in most circumstances you’d rather have Judge Unworthy.
Now I’m going to spend most of the rest of the article concentrating on the block White Weenie deck, as I’m pretty sure it will be a popular choice when the PTQ season comes round.
Creatures (25)
- 4 Soltari Priest
- 4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
- 4 Serra Avenger
- 4 Calciderm
- 4 Shade of Trokair
- 2 Stonecloaker
- 3 Knight of Sursi
Lands (3)
Spells (32)
Sideboard
This deck list is more what I would build first to try out rather than something I would take cold to the first PTQ. There are a lot of new cards in there, and inevitably some will turn out to be duds.
Did you know you can cast Serra Avenger on turn 3 with Scout’s Warning? Serra Avenger says: “You can’t play Serra Avenger during your first, second, or third turns of the game.”
Do you see anything there that says you can’t play it on your opponent’s third turn?
I don’t.
It’s a cute trick, but I think Scout’s Warning might be a little more. One of the more obvious uses is to throw Calciderms and Serra Avengers in the way of unsuspecting attackers, but I think it gives more options than that. For starters, it gives you a way to play around countermagic.
Casting Mystical Teachings, eh. Think I’ll just flash this Calciderm in while you’re tapped out.
It also gives you an option of delaying casting critters until the end of your opponent’s turn, and makes the guessing game of when your opponent can most profitably cast that Damnation a little trickier.
All this and it replaces itself for the meager cost of one mana. This cost is not as trivial as it initially sounds. Aggro decks like to maximise their mana every turn, and Scout’s Warning might end up gumming up the works. I remember Quicken generating a lot of excitement and then failing to deliver. I think Scout’s Warning is certainly worth trying out. It’s probably better in combination with Mana Tithe, but after playing with the card I have to admit I’m not a fan of the Planeshifted Force Spike.
I’ve got Knight of Sursi in there as a replacement one-drop for the Sulfur-fodder Javelineers. They might just be too slow though, in which case Benalish Cavalry are probably the better choice.
I haven’t talked much about the lands, but here is a deck where Horizon Canopy is definitely worthy of consideration. I don’t actually know the correct number. Originally I listed four, but that seems like a lot of damage, especially if you draw multiples. It isn’t here for the fixing, but purely for the Mindtone ability. Sometimes the White Weenie deck can hit a run of land and be left without any gas. Horizon Canopy is perfect for this. Use it as a land early, then burn it for a card when you have enough in play. I suspect there was a very good reason why they gave the card no pain-free way of generating mana.
With the four Scout’s Warning the deck could potentially cheat on the land even more, I just started on the safe side.
Onto the sideboard and Cloudchaser Kestrel is the obvious card that remains. A spare Sacred Mesa isn’t bad. Not every deck runs Sulfur Elemental, and it can be game against Blue/Black decks on turn 3.
A card I definitely wouldn’t include is Serrated Arrows, even though Antti Malin runs it in the 50th place listing from Yokohama (the only other White deck in the top 50). I thought this was an automatic inclusion until you see opening hands of Arrows, Calciderm, and Serra Avenger.
Judge Unworthy may or may not be better than Sunlance (or even Temporal Isolation). The scry effect also helps to fix the draws, but it doesn’t clear blockers out of the road like Sunlance (although it will quite handily kill them).
Lumithread Field is for the Red matches, and possibly the mirror. Another card I considered was Epochrasite. This can chump a Marauders on turn 1 and then come back later to eat Blood Knights and Wildfire Emissaries. I’d like to try both.
Seht’s Tiger is possibly a stretch. He does stop Void and big Disintegrates to the face, and can even function as a Fog effect in the mirror. Whether all this is worth the expensive four mana tag I don’t know, although he feels more versatile than Angel’s Grace or Honorable Passage.
And now, with time constraints catching up on me and packing needing to be done, I’ll leave it there. White Weenie might have got a bashing at Yokohama, but I think it would be very foolish to rule it out over the forthcoming PTQ season on the strength of one bad tournament where most players were too frightened to play it.
Don’t believe the hype (or anti-hype)!
(Wow, two articles about the GWH, and I didn’t even get round to mentioning his name…)
Thanks for reading,
Prof