Ever since I saw Benalish Marshal printed I wanted to create a White Weenie Deck. I've put this together as a somewhat Knight Tribal deck with some City's Blessing shenanigans. I didn't want to go all-in on Knights as only a select few are playable. The idea of this deck is to beat face, achieve the City's Blessing and beat face some more. As such there are no removal spells main-board, the idea is to go completely aggro with a bunch of anthem effects to give you the edge in combat so the opponent either can't block profitably or doesn't block at all.
As with all my decks it is a work in progress so I really appreciate feedback to help improve. Anyway without further ado here we go.
The Creature Suite
Skymarcher Aspirant - a good early game beat stick, even if it gets out matched attacking it can threaten to trade with other 1-drops, 2-drops and even some 3-drops. Later game when The City's Blessing is achieved this is going to be even better at being an evasive beat-stick.
Dauntless Bodyguard - another 2/1 early game beater. This card, I feel, will flourish at any point in the game. Drop it early for quick damage and then if you draw it later it can protect some of your more important creatures (Marshal and Shalai I'm looking at you). Also a 'Knight' creature type for History of Benalia.
Adanto Vanguard - a good early aggressive creature that is resilient to removal, although at the cost of 4 life. The only life gain in this deck is in the form of Legion's Landing, however this deck looks to close the game out as quickly as possible so the loss of life may not mean too much as the opponent should be on the defensive from the get-go.
Knight of Grace - Another one of the few playable knights in standard. A 2/2 first striker is good and will be difficult to block, even better if our opponent is playing Black. As Black is played in a variety of decks and has some of the most efficient removal around this card should be well placed to avoid a lot of their removal. Again Knight synergies with History of Benalia.
Benalish Marshal - the payoff card for going mono-white. I really like this guy!! A 3/3 body for 3 Mana is decent and then he pumps the WHOLE team. Not just knights which is great for my other non-knight weenie dudes!! Marshal himself is a knight so will get pumped by History of Benalia.
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
- a one-of Shalai will help protect my board from spot removal and a 3/4 flyer isn't too shabby. Being able to protect her with Dauntless Bodyguard would be great. The activated ability I wasn't sure of, I could potentially splash green but it probably would dilute the deck too much, particularly as triple white is important.
Oketra the True - a 2-of late game win-con. With the amount of creatures in this deck Oketra should be able to attack and block. She does a good job of blocking a variety of threats, is resilient to removal with indestructible. She also has the ability to generate an army of her own. Although if I have an Adanto, the First Fort online it'll be a toss up which to activate to create an token army, I'd prefer life-link over vigilance.
The Enchantment Suite
Legion's Landing - effectively a one-stop creature. But also importantly counts as 2 permanents towards The City's Blessing. The life-link will be useful to re-coup any lost through Adanto Vanguards activated ability. The flip side of this is a late game mana sink and is useful for creating chump blockers if need be.
Cartouche of Solidarity - as a lot of the creatures are high power and low toughness pumping them and giving them first strike should be great and make blocking difficult. The additional body granted by this is nice and again counts as 2 permanents towards The City's Blessing. Nice Synergy between this and being able to bounce Trial of Solidarity for more anthem effects.
History of Benalia - another really good addition from Dominaria, this card is such a blow out. It churns out tokens and then buffs the Knight Team, between History and 12 other Knights in the
deck it should add a lot of power to the board. Again two more permanents for The City's Blessing and another the turn after. Finally (as far as I'm aware) this card can be played in multiples which is why it must be a 4-of, each additional one just keeps getting better.
Trial of Solidarity - another anthem effect that buffs the whole team and gives them vigilance. This is good to be re-bought through a Cartouche being played later in the game.
The Buff Suite
Pride of Conquerors - this takes our anthem count up to 13, early game it will be a simple +1/+1, but in the mid game when The City's Blessing has been achieved this is going to give you an even bigger edge is combat as pumping the whole team by +2/+2 is going to be formidable.
Shefet Dunes - if I run out of anthem effects, there's always Shefet Dunes, a great land that I can sack to buff the team by +1/+1. Effective anthem count is now 17.
So there we have it so far. As previously mentioned it is a work in progress and I'd really appreciate feedback and advice.
I'm currently thinking about splashing red for Bomat Courier through the use of Inspiring Vantage and Clifftop Retreat to help refill my hand as most things in the deck are quite cheaply costed that I could be top-decking before long.
