For those that want an interactive version of the deck on tapped out you can click here, for those that don't care the list is as follows.
Main:
4x Champion of the Parish
2x Doomed Traveler
4x Imposing Sovereign
4x Precinct Captain
3x Elite Inquisitor
4x Fiendslayer Paladin
4x Silverblade Paladin
3x Banisher Priest
3x Angel of Jubilation
4x Brave the Elements
2x Faith's Shield
3x Gather the Townsfolk
18x Plains
2x Cavern of Souls
Sideboard:
2x Fiend Hunter
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Pacifism
3x Rest in Peace
3x Rootborn Defenses
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
So why play White Weenie now? Well M14 gave the deck several good cards to build upon what has already been in the format. The first card that comes to mind for a strong white weenie strategy from M14 is the reprinting of Brave the Elements. It's just a card that is very straight forward at what it does, and it does that very well. Brave allows you to get past blockers, block for days, and even survive effects like Bonfire of the Damned or Mizzium Mortars thanks to how protection works. Aside from Brave the new cards from M14 are all creatures: Imposing Sovereign, Fiendslayer Paladin, and Banisher Priest. First up is a card that has made headway in the current Bantchantment lists, Fiendslayer Paladin. Without making it bigger like Bantchantments can do the card might seem lackluster, but a 2/2 first striking lifelinker can still be very strong especially in tandem with the other first strikers and Angel of Jubilation. Just as well besides the combat abilities his psuedo hexproof makes him very valuable because he can dodge what is obviously the most common colors for removal. Next up is the newly updated version of Fiend Hunter, Banisher Priest. The card serves as a great form of removal that the deck would be sorely lacking, and depending on how you like to think of the stats the 2/2 body in some cases better than the 1/3 body of Fiend Hunter. Last but not least is probably one of the best creatures in the list, Imposing Sovereign. While yes, the card is just Blind Obedience on a 2/1 body and lacking extort it's the type of card a white weenie deck would want. The ability is very impactfull is shuts down hastey creatures and pesky dorks from chump block duty when they get played. The effect just has a great effect in so many matchups. It helps shut down a flashed in Restoration Angel from Ambushing one of your creatures, and not only that it makes it so what ever the angel blinks unable to block. Also with Kiber's G/R list becoming very popular it helps lessen the bite of the hasters since they can't attack as soon as the hit the board. Sovereign is certainly a card that I hope will pick up in popularity once players realize how good it actually is.
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| Get on my level. |
Now that the new cards are covered, let's look at cards from the older sets. First up are the one drops Champion of the Parish and Doomed Traveler. Champ is just a given, what human list would be complete without this guy? The Travelers on the other hand are an interesting choice, I knew that the deck wanted to be up more in the two drops but the deck still needed a couple more one drops. For these slots the choices were Dryad Militant, Boros Elite, or Doomed Traveler. Because the deck is running Champion of the Parish Militant just won't fit, and Elite while powerful with a couple more dudes on the field it's just not great in a top deck scenario. So the last choice was Doomed Traveler, while not a strong creature it's a really good creature since more often than not your opponent will allow him to get through their blockers instead of giving you a flyer. Moving up the curve to join Imposing Sovereign in the two drop slots are Precinct Captain and Elite Inquisitor. Precinct Captain joins the first strike army and when he hits a player he helps grow your board with 1/1 soldier, and if he is bound to a Silverblade Paladin you have a chance of getting 2 soldiers off the hit. Along side the Captain in the first strike army is Elite Inquisitor, not only does he have first strike but he also has vigilance meaning that you don't have to worry about swinging with him and getting punished on the swing back. He also has what I like to call Protection from Innistrad, getting protection from werewolves, vampires, and zombie means that he not only blocks very well but his 2 power means that he can profitably block several well played creatures including an unflipped Huntmaster of the Fells and can soak up two points of damage from a Ravager of the Fells. To go along with Banisher Priest for the three drops the deck runs a playset of Silver Blade Paladins. It allows the list to do the damage that the larger creatures in the format do while also helping shoot down smaller creatures. Finally at the top of the curve are three angel of Jubilations, it's just an all around good card and one that I don't think get's enough respect despite it's restrictive mana cost. AoJ not only acts as an anthem for all of our creatures, but it's a good body and has an easily over looked flavor texts that helps shut down the Aristocrat Strategies. Besides Brave the Elements there are some other non-creature spells: Faith's Shield and Gather the Townsfolk. In the first version of the list I went overboard and ran a playset of Shields, however it took up creature slots and wasn't as impactfull as Brave the Elements, by keeping the Shield count at two it allows us to hopefully draw into one by the time we can use the fatefull hour effect making the card a fifth and sixth Brave the Elements and protecting us in the process. Giving us protection allows us to have big blowout swings by swinging all in and leaving up Shield for the swing back. Protection spells out of the way, the last spell in the list is Gather the Townsfolk. Gather is a very versitile card, it can give way to explosive starts with a turn two 3/3 Champion of the Parish, it can give a couple chump blockers, or it can just give us and entire army of dorks if fatefull hour has been hit.
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| We ain't afraid of no Vampires, Werewolves, or Zombies. But get those fucking spirits away. |
Moving on from the spells let's briefly touch on the manabase. The list runs twenty lands plain and simple, just eighteen plains and two Cavern of Souls. At first I tried out Mutavault, but with how restrictive the color requirements of the list is Mutavault just didn't fit in despite being another 2/2 body. So as an alternative I decided to run two Caven of Souls to help hedge our bets against counter spells. Unfortunately running twenty lands does lead to an occasional game stuck on two land, but more often than not I easily hit four land in alot of my matches.
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| Man lands are good, but they aren't always what you need. |
Lastly, let's take a quick look at the sideboard. The sideboard is pretty diverse and modular and can be easily changed to match you're local meta. Right now it's set up to have good matchups against control, reanimator, and a little extra help with the aggro matchup. Thalia is very self explanitory just like Champ was, it helps put control players off their impactful spells like board wipes an extra turn. Also for the control matchup I like to bring in Defenses to help combat Verdicts and Planar Cleansing. However the I like to lower the number of Defenses down to two if I want to prepare for the Bantchantments matchup. Alongside dropping a Defenses I like to drop the third Rest in Peace for two Glaring Spotlights. Dropping a Rest in Peace is pretty easy since hopefully cards like Scavenging Ooze will have already knocked Reanimator out of your local meta, but if not two Rest in Peace is enough if it helps out the pretty hard Bantchantments matchup. The other cards in the sideboard are pretty locked in and help prove their worth. To go along with the Defenses for the control matchup I like to board in Oblivion Rings depending on what I've seen my opponent play. While for the aggro matchup I like to bring int the Pacifisms and Fiend Hunters. The Pacifisms help take care of pesky creatures like Boros Reckoner and the Hunters help give another version of the ability that Banisher Priest has but with a slightly more defensive body.
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| Populate.....For value of course. |
Well guys, that's it for this week. I wanted to keep it short, sweet, and simple to get the point of the list across. There are several things in the list that make it strong until rotation hits, and if you have a chance to play it I'd highly recommend it. As for what's coming up article wise the topic is up for grabs, but expect weekly articles to pick up again next week.
Talk to you later,
Zack
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| ............For value |
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