Creature (24)
Enchantment (7)
Sideboard
Sorcery (8)
Planeswalker (3)
Maybeboard
Enchantment (2)
Artifact (1)
Land (1)
Creature (2)
Instant (1)
This is a mono-white midrange deck for Standard that focuses on lifegain. It's fairly budget-friendly, but it can play well against the meta's top aggressive decks -- Mardu Vehicles and BG Constrictor. This list by no means has an overwhelming advantage against either of these bogeymen, but it isn't weak against them. By building up a solid board and padding its life total, this mono-white deck tries to win races against these aggro decks. Being mono-colored, it also has the advantage of a more consistent mana base. This list has a difficult time against control decks due to white's inherent weaknesses against those types of strategies. Selfless Spirit and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are the sideboard provisions that come in to to pad those otherwise abysmal matchups. Barring these, playing a deck like this will give you a fighting chance to post a winning record in a creature-driven metagame.
Card Choices
Creatures
Aerial Responder: Efficient aerial threat that works well on defense. It's an apt target for the +1/+1 counters offered by Serene Steward, and it dodges non-revolted Fatal Pushes. Usually can't beat Heart of Kiran until the late-game, though. Odric, Lunarch Marshal gives its excellent keyword abilities to your whole board during all combats, which tends to put things in your favor if you have enough bodies in play.
Angel of Invention: A bigger version of Aerial Responder that pumps your board. You generally want to give it two +1/+1 counters from its fabricate trigger, except when you have an Odric, Lunarch Marshal on the field -- in which case having two extra 2/2's with flying, lifelink, and vigilance is generally better.
Archangel Avacyn
: This card is obviously strong, but we only run one copy to keep the deck's cost down. Preserves our board and can lead to big blowouts on defense.Bruna, the Fading Light
: A single copy is mainboarded solely to capitalize on its ability to meld with Gisela, the Broken Blade. Otherwise, it's generally overcosted and its abilities, while solid, are not game-ending on their own.Gisela, the Broken Blade: Excellent aerial threat that has a remote possibility of melding into Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
. Odric, Lunarch Marshal gives Gisela's excellent keyword abilities to your whole team, which should put you in a much better position to win the game.Lone Rider : The deck tends to come together around this card, though it does have the major drawback of dying to Fatal Push. This deck provides several early opportunities to transform this creature into It That Rides as One, a major threat which can win you the game if unanswered. If you have Odric, Lunarch Marshal, your creatures will usually be able to overpower your opponent's board and immensely pad your life total. Its presence on the battlefield makes subsequent copies of Lone Rider very easy to transform. You will be casting these into Fatal Push at times, though, but in this format, that can't be helped.
Odric, Lunarch Marshal: Not a very powerful card on its own; honestly even a bad one. I like the card a lot, though, and it's definitely not something most opponents will expect to see at FNM. Mono-white has many deficiencies, but having strong keywords on many creatures is one of its chief strengths. This card capitalizes on this by giving your whole board all available keywords during combat -- even on your opponent's turn. This turns even lowly Servo tokens or Serene Steward into legitimate threats if you have any one of the deck's better creatures on the field. This deck offers first strike, flying, lifelink, vigilance, and trample across its creatures (even indestructible if you have Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in the board). Odric brings these abilities together and creates unexpected board-wide advantages, especially in games that come down to attrition. He's not very strong against control decks, though, and should be sided out against them.
Serene Steward: A central piece of the deck's midrange strategy, and vital to capitalizing on the advantages afforded by lifegain. Mono-white often struggles to spend mana effectively later into the game, but Serene Steward lets you mitigate this weakness and gain leverage against decks with initially superior creaures. Growing your vigilance creatures tends to help you push opposition off the board and win races. While its 2/2 body for 2 CMC is average, it can become a threat in its own right if you have any other creature on board along with Odric. Remember not to stack counters onto one creature if the situation permits, so as to devalue the opponent's removal spells as much as possible. If you have a strong Game 1, expect your opponents to prioritize this card as a target for early removal. Beware also of attempting to put +1/+1 counters onto X/2 creatures when opponents are leaving up red mana -- chances are they will try to interrupt you with Shock. Often, victory is decided by correctly choosing when and where to place the +1/+1 counters offered by Serene Steward.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar: I struggled to decide between this playing this card, Pious Evangel , or even Filigree Familiar. Ultimately, this card is just better. The new Thalia allows you to put the breaks on aggressive decks, gain ground when you've lost the initiative, or keep it when you already have it. Thalia is also effective against Saheeli Rai combo decks. She generates advantages against virtually every matchup in Standard, and is thus simply too good not to play.
Toolbox
Authority of the Consuls: This card does two important things -- gains life and allows you to stay on offense against the opponent. This card is best when played early but is generally good throughout the game. Like Thalia, it helps you keep the initiative once you have it. It also provides mainboard insurance against Saheeli Rai Copycat decks.
Blessed Alliance: A very versatile card, but will most often be used as removal. It can help to quickly transform Lone Rider , or untap your first strike creatures for surprise blocks. It plays very well throughout the game since you can play all of its modes -- again helping to mitigate white's weakness of lacking mana sinks later in the game.
Sandstone Bridge: A single copy of this spell land offers surprising utility. It can allow you to go over the top with an attack while keeping your guard up, which is especially effective if the creature you target has lifelink. It creates strong synergy with Odric, Lunarch Marshal if you have a wide enough board state.
Implement of Improvement: A single copy for drawing a card and gaining life. It synergizes well with Decommission on the sideboard and offers early opportunities to transform Lone Rider . It can be used as a combat trick in certain situations if you have Serene Steward on the board and mana available.
Stasis Snare: Probably the best removal available for white midrange decks in the format. It stops a +1'd Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and handles most other creature threats, including Vehicles.
Westvale Abbey : Another mana sink for later in the game, especially during stalemates. It can break board stalls either by giving you a very powerful creature or adding small ones to your board (which can benefit from keywords granted by Odric's ability).
Sideboard
Authority of the Consuls: Bring this extra copy in against Saheeli Rai Copycat decks or against fast aggro decks that want to win early.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk: Decent against midrange decks that want to play attrition against you. Keep it in reserve until you start losing ground on the board, then play it to regain the advantage.
Collective Effort: Use your judgment on when to bring this in. It can be solid against midrange decks, especially if you can use all three of its modes. If you can remove a large threat and pump your board, it tends to be very powerful. Its sorcery speed limits it, though, especially against Vehicle decks.
Declaration in Stone: Powerful, low-cost removal. If you play it against aggro decks, it generally outweighs its drawbacks. Great against tokens and Scrapheap Scrounger.
Decommission: Bring these extra copies in against Mardu Vehicles. Since that deck tends to pack lots of removal, too, you'll find that this card's revolt clause is active more often. It's almost an inversion of Unlicensed Disintegration in this matchup. Don't be afraid to cast it without revolt, though. If you need to remove something, remove it.
Fragmentize: Efficient artifact and enchantment removal. Excellent at destroying Vehicles.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Bring him in against control decks or midrange decks that play attrition.
Selfless Spirit: Primarily for maintaining a board state against control decks, but it's also a decent option if you expect a midrange or aggro opponent to sideboard a lot of removal in against you.
Skywhaler's Shot: Extra removal. This spell hits most dangerous threats and smooths out your next draw.
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 6 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Standard legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 7 - 3 Mythic Rares 6 - 9 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 1 - 3 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 3.17 |
| Tokens | Clue, Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Servo 1/1 C |
| Folders | Retired Standard Decks |
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