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White Ally / Equipment / Isolation

Standard* Aggro Allies Artifact Budget Mono-White

Hobbez9186

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Creature (14)

Land (20)

Enchantment (6)

Artifact (12)

Instant (6)

Sorcery (2)

Sideboard

Creature (3)

Enchantment (1)

Artifact (3)

Instant (8)

I don't like allies.

That said, we did an Oath of the Gatewatch draft when it launched and of course I ended up with a bunch of White Allies and Equipment cards. The first two packs I opened got me Stoneforge Masterwork and Stone Haven Outfitter. Both packs also had Bone Saw and I pretty much decided it was time to get on that. Several people at our weekly home game already play allies of all sorts and it just didnt gel for me. They usually either won but just barely, or lost miserably without much of a fight. Granted, there are always better cards and combos to discover and build, but it just was not anything I was excited about. I looked to see what other white allies there were as a core build, and then would determine whether or not to splash. Weapons Trainer seemed the best fit if I went red, but I just really didnt like the other red options and it slowed the deck down.

The main idea here is to get out an Expedition Envoy and Bone Saw on turn one, a Stone Haven Outfitter on turn two, a Lantern Scout on turn three, and then turn four drop and equip a Captain's Claws and the Bone Saw and swing out. Thats 12 damage with Lifelink that only grows with each combat. A decent alternative to a turn 3 Scout is a turn 3 Kor Scythemaster and then a Scout on turn four to swing out with a big creature with First Strike and Lifelink. If I am able to play that many creatures and equipment in the first 3-4 turns Im pretty well set to win the game over the next few turns. Searing Light , Immolating Glare , Gideon's Reproach, and Stasis Snare are all great control cards to deal with chump blockers and the like since I do not have trample. Stoneforge Masterwork on a Scythemaster becomes a huge threat that can jump right over defenders with a Mighty Leap to score some big damage as well. Quarantine Field is great at taking out any kind of threat and to clear the way of defenders. Munda's Vanguard should always have a token to tap and bump up the entire field, but really is there to help later in the game if it comes to that. Same goes for Relief Captain and Shoulder to Shoulder . They help, but don't win the game or get you out of jail free. Hero of Goma Fada is a strong contender to replace both of these cards, but the mana cost is a bit steep. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar would be another obvious choice, but not on a budget. If you can just keep your Lantern Scout alive or hold copies in your hand to replace right away, you should gain more than enough life to sustain long games and stay aggressive by attacking with everything every turn and spreading out further and further. Claws ensure you get an ally every single turn for the lifegain, so Cohort or Rally abilities for Life gain or Vigilance aren't really all that necessary.

Sideboard includes more control if needed as well as Makindi Aeronaut if your attackers arent getting through on the ground or need to deal with incoming birds. Dazzling Reflection can really tip the scales if your opponent has been allowed to get a fatty on the board and Aligned Hedron Network should be able to clear your opponents big creatures while leaving yours alone if you move your equipment around correctly. Spreading out and making a whole bunch of 3/2 tokens or 4/2 Envoys will dodge that bullet and pave the way to victory.

Keeping this deck mono colored eliminates a lot of possibilities, like there are some really nice Black/White combos and even a few Red/White, but this plays very consistently and usually very quickly becomes too much to deal with. The biggest opponent will be one with few creatures and heavy control that can keep you from spreading out an ally army. The key is to not get too eager to play everything every turn and to save your mana for combat tricks and your own control. You dont need more than one Scout or Outfitter and will regret playing doubles when the board gets wiped and you have nothing to put down next turn. Slowly moving all of your equipment cards to dispensable tokens makes it harder for your opponent to decide what to target and leaves your Outfitter and Scout a little less vulnerable.

I had Stoneforge Acolyte for a while because he was a cheap ally drop with a useful cohort ability to find Equipment, but I literally never got to use it effectively and found myself pseudo-milling away land and other things that would have helped too.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think :)

BTW, as I post this the entire deck can be bought for $24... On the off chance you don't have a single one of these cards, including Plains, this is worth scooping up and playing for less than $25. I played about 20 matches the first night I brought it to our home game and only lost once because I was too stubborn to mulligan.

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Updates Add

Eldritch Moon Update — July 16, 2016
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So Sigarda's Aid caught my attention immediately. What a sweet card, seriously.

I'm also really liking the love that White got from cards with Escalate. I knew I had to update this deck, so here are a few changes.

Sigarda's Aid: Auto-included. I'd run 4 but they don't do any good as duplicates. This solves the biggest problem this deck has, and that's transparency. Being able to turn all of my equipment cards into combat tricks is just ludicrously better than having to drop either an equipment or a creature, and then waiting to have to equip them, and then also waiting for summoning sickness. Most cards are cheap enough so after the first 3-4 turns I can do multiple things, but this ramps everything up substantially with that auto-equip feature. Crazy good in a deck like this.

Cathar's Shield: I was torn about adding more of these because of the 0 cost drop and vigilance. The extra 3 toughness would help keep something like Lantern Scout out of harms way (Languish for one just ruins my board state, and so does -X on Chandra). However, the 3 equip cost worries me that I won't get to use it as effectively as I think I could. With Aid, that's a moot point because of the Auto-equip but I'm pretty sure there's going to be a surge of Enchantment hate against it so I'm not putting more than one egg in that basket for now until I get to play around with it. Could be amazing. I do like to move my Equipment around and Aid doesn't...well,aid that.

Blessed Alliance: Even though the last mode isn't quite up to par with Immolating Glare since it puts the choice on your opponent, the fact that it has 2 other modes for different situations for the same mana cost made it an easy upgrade decision for me. I should probably keep 2 Glares in the sideboard instead of the rest of a playset of Alliance, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to find this working more to my liking. Great card.

Collective Effort: Escalate. Three awesome choices and tapping instead of paying more mana to pick more than one mode is just great. I can see this interacting with Alliance in an interesting way since one of the modes on Alliance lets me untap two creatures. I would absolutely go with a full playset of these and ditch Gideon's Reproach, but because it is a sorcery I just can't. I may find myself wrong here too, but I think 2 will be enough and Reproach has been good to me so I'm not ready to part ways just yet.

Borrowed Grace: I'm not totally sold yet but Escalate has me intrigued right now. The two options might just be the extra oomph needed to swing out for a win or enough defense to save my board from Languish, or -X on Chandra, or even Radiant Flames. Those are all prevalent threats around here.

Slayer's Cleaver: I simply must have a pair of these in foil. I love the artwork so very much and even better that the flavor text is wonderful too. +3/+1 is strong and Eldrazi bait is a nice touch. The 4 equip is dumb, but with Aid I'm not as worried because in a matchup where I need this I'll have plenty of time to get big hits in early and pick off small and medium sized Eldrazi as they follow onto the board. Again, since I like to move my Equipment around to spread the love and get the most out of Stone Haven Outfitter I don't see myself having or using more than 1 or 2 of these. Too bad.

I also decided to try out a playset of Blighted Steppe after I saw it put to great use at FNM several weeks ago. It might be enough to buy an extra turn or two if I'm behind and since all of mana was just Plains I have room to try something different without messing with my pace. I'd considered Sandstone Bridge but slow mana almost always screws me. One of these days I might toss 2 in here and see what happens.

I'm really excited to try out these changes. I love playing this deck but it always just needed something and I wasn't willing to splash colors to look for it. Eldritch Moon will solve some problems I think.

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