In Depth analysis - White Weenie and WW/x
by Michael Callahan
White weenie creature based decks have been doing reasonably well
in the Type II tournament scene right now, and are fairly inexpensive
to build. This is a short description of a sample deck, and why the
cards in the deck were chosen over other alternatives.
An important point to consider when you are building a deck is that
you are NOT building a 60 card deck. Instead you should be building
a much smaller core deck, and then presideboarding general utility cards
against the decks you have trouble with and expect to see in the
general tournament scene in your area.
For instance, here is a sample WW deck:
4 Order of the White Shield
2 Soltari Monk
4 Soltari Priest
4 White Knight
4 Warrior En-Kor
2 Nomad En-Kor
4 Crusade
2 Wrath of God
2 Armageddon
2 Aura of Silence
2 Disenchant
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Tithe
2 Mox Diamond
4 Wasteland
14 Plains
Here's a brief analysis of why those particular cards would be in the deck:
Order of the White Shield: These are good against Wall of Blossoms and
black creatures, but not so good against cursed scrolls/pingers.
Black isn't that popular right now though. If walls are more popular
than pingers in your area, play these. Otherwise take them out and
play something a little harder to kill.
Soltari Monk and Soltari Priest: Shadows are really good right now,
there are not that many ways to block them. Priests are particularly
good because they can't be blasted by anything red, and red is more
popular than black. The only problem with these is that they cannot
block creatures without shadow, so you will be more open to
counterattack.
White Knight: Protection from black and first strike are both good.
If you don't expect to see any black decks or removal, these could be
replaced with something else, such as longbow archers.
En-Kor: A real nuisance to get rid of, I highly recommend them. The
Nomads are hard to plink away, but could be replaced by something else
if plinkers are not a problem. Good canditates are Soltari
Footsoldiers or Infantry Veterans.
Crusades: Not many people are playing anti-enchantment spells right
now, instead using uktabi orangutans to get rid of pesky artifacts.
These also help against cursed scrolls and pingers like granger
guildmage or fireslingers. They are completely useless if everyone
else is playing ww as well though.
Wrath of God: Useful reset if you are loosing the creature battle.
Terrible vs 5cU Donais decks and not very useful against prosbloom or
turbizvi either. Wrath can be particularly nasty on tradewind rider
decks, other ww decks, and stompy/green decks though.
Armageddon: Good vs slower controlish decks, or if you have the
momentum on the board. Bad vs tradewind riders, other decks that run
on little mana.
Aura of Silence: Works well vs artifact/enchantment heavy decks, and
with cursed scroll.
Disenchant: Good against Propaganda, Dream Halls, Cursed Scroll,
Nevinyrral's Disk, and Legacy's Allure. If none of those are popular
in your area, this could go into the sideboard.
Cursed Scroll: Useful colorless creature removal that can be used to
plink down your opponent as well. It's mana intensive though, and
doesn't work particularly well with armageddon.
Lands: Wastelands are really good right now, people are playing many
non-basic lands, and this is a good way to slow them down.
Mox Diamonds: Good if armageddons and winter orbs are popular,
otherwise just play more plains.
Other White Cards
-----------------
Here are some other good white cards that could be used in place of
those in the deck.
Longbow Archers: Good against small fliers, such as Frenetic Efreets
and Foul Imps, niether of which are popular right now.
Freewind Falcon: 1/1 for 2 mana. Good against burn decks though.
Soltari Champion: These are a little on the costly side at 3 mana, and
are fairly easy to kill. However, they will increase how fast your
deck kills a goldfish. These could replace Soltari Monks or Crusades.
Don't play too many shadows though, or you will have no blockers when
you need them.
Empyrial Armour: Good for a really quick bashing early on in the game.
Goes well with wrath/armageddon, but not as well with cursed scroll.
Also, manowars and tradewinds are very popular right now, so it's
usually only going to be good for one big swat.
Warmth: good vs red decks if you have many creatures that they will be
nuking. If you're playing creatureless and you will have mana, CoP:
Red is probably a better choice.
CoP: Red: see Warmth.
Light of Day: Good against fast black shadow decks, it's hard for them
to get rid of.
Other Artifacts
---------------
Scalding Tongs: Good vs slower decks and through midgame. Doesn't
work as well with Wrath of God and Armageddon though.
Torture Chamber: Really good vs other small creature decks, or for
extra plinking damage, particularly with first strikers.
Bottle Gnomes: Good blockers and work well against red. They will
slow the deck down though, since they aren't affected by the crusades,
and are only 1/3 for 3 mana.
Splashing Other Colors
----------------------
Other colors can be splashed into this deck by rearranging the lands.
Remove some of the Wastelands and Plains, and replace them with some
appropriate mix of Gemstone Mines, Undiscovered Paradises, City of
Brass, and appropriate painlands.
These are some of the better cards to splash from each color, both for
the main deck and the sideboard:
Red
---
Earthquake: Similar to wrath, but many of the ww creatures are immune
to it.
Incinerate: Good for killing smallish creatures or finishing off an opponent.
Mogg Maniac: Combo reliant on Earthquake or En-Kors.
Dwarven Miner: Good in environment containing many non-basic lands.
Pyroblast: Kill tradewind riders and propaganda, help vs Counterspells.
Boil: Good against decks containing many islands, like big blue or
merfolk. However, the trend for most blue decks has been to move
away from islands to more non-basic lands, so these aren't as useful
as they once were.
Blue
----
Crystaline Sliver: Affected by crusades, untargetable.
Tradewind Rider: Good with Armageddon, and can be a really big
nuisance for your opponent.
Man-o-War: Slows opponents down if they are playing creature-based decks.
Mana Leak: Counter big stuff like Wrath of God, Tradewind Rider, or
part of some nasty combo.
Chill: Good with armageddons, really slows red down.
Propaganda: Good vs other creature based decks, slows them down
while you attack.
Green
-----
Uktabi Orangutan: Anti-artifact card with card advantage.
Victual Sliver: Good white creature that can be sacrificed
for 4 life if necessary. Crystaline Slivers are probably
a better first choice though.
Black
-----
Terror: Kills Tradewind Rider, Maro. Better in current environment than
Diabolic Edict because you get to pick what dies, not your opponent.
Derelor: Big fattie immune to terror and incinerate. Kills Wall of
Blossoms and Tradewind Riders if blocked.
Perish: Wrath of God for just your opponent, if they are using green
creatures.
Examples
--------
Here's a sample deck modified to add blue as a support color.
4 Soltari Monk
4 Soltari Priest
4 White Knight/Order of the White Shield/Longbow Archer
4 Warrior En-Kor
4 Crystaline Sliver
2 Crusades (1)
2 Tradewind Rider
4 Mana Leak
2 Wrath of God (2)
3 Armageddon
2 Aura of Silence
1 Disenchant
4 Tithe
2 Mox Diamond
2 Wasteland
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Gemstone Mine (3)
8 Plains
(1) Empyrial Armor, or Soltari Crusaders, or Derelors would work here also.
(2) Propaganda would be good here also, except vs Tradewind Rider decks.
(3) City of Brass or Undiscovered Paradise both work here, depending on
how often you want to cast Armageddon, and if you use Empyrial Armor.
(*) Man-o-War could be used in place of some of the creatures here.
In that case, I don't recommend using crusades.
Michael