Mono-White Warriors/Tokens (Budget)

Standard -Sylex-

SCORE: 126 | 115 COMMENTS | 31739 VIEWS | IN 84 FOLDERS


DTK Update ! Major deck overhaul. —April 7, 2015

Hey guys ! I wanted to thank you all for upvoting and giving me feedback for my deck. After a lot of playtesting and FNMs during the last months, I've got to play my deck against a wide variety of matchups. That was the Fate Reforged era, but now, Dragons of Tarkir cards are legal in Standard and the format is totally new ! That also means it's time to revisit my deck and try to make it even better, under a reasonable budget of course. Dragons of Tarkir brought a lot of sweet white cards and I've spent a couple of days figuring what changes I should make to my deck. Here's what I cutted : Mainboard : -2x Mardu Hordechief-1x Soldier of the Pantheon-1x [[Soul of Theros-2x Citadel Siege-2x Launch the Fleet-1x Triplicate Spirits +2x Myth Realized+2x Mastery of the Unseen+1x Hall of Triumph+4x Secure the Wastes As you can see, I cutted a lot of creatures. During my playtest, I've found out that my deck's main losing pattern vs Midrange decks ( Which are, and will be omnipresent in a format with a ton of powerful creatures ) is getting answered, running out of gas then gradually getting outclassed by their 3, 4- 5 + drops during the late game. I had to find a solution for this issue, y'know, I want my deck to be as competitive as possible. After some preliminary playtesting, I've found that cards like Myth Realized and Mastery of the Unseen were actually quite impressive in the maindeck. Running 25 lands mean you can get flooded, but having ''mana sinks'' helps at getting the maximum amount of value out of each mana ! Mastery of the Unseen is perticularly great when you have a Spear of Heliod or Dictate of Heliod in play and the lifegain ability is a nice bonus on top of that. Sideboard : -2x Glare of Heresy-3x Mastery of the Unseen +2x End Hostilities+3x Surge of Righteousness I decided to cut Glare of Heresy because the R/W midrange hype is now gone. It's as simple as that XD. I really like Surge of Righteousness. Destroying a attacking Goblin Rabblemaster, Siege Rhino or now Thunderbreak Regent and gaining back 2 life is really nice ! It still doesnt kills Stormbreath Dragon but hey, I can't even interact with this card... I was getting tired of Stormbreath Dragon at my last FNM but I'm also really annoyed by thoses G/W midrange decks.... I decided to bring in End Hostilities, which works really nicely with Mastery of the Unseen and Myth Realized. And that's pretty much it !

I love innovators like you, +1!

February 22, 2015 1:04 p.m.

Tempic says... #2

The problem with decks like these is that they lose ones your hand starts running dry. And care draw for mono white is almost none existent. perhaps a few copies of Defiant Strike or Pressure Point

February 24, 2015 4:35 a.m.

-Sylex- says... #3

To Tempic : It's true that White lacks true card draw, however, cards like Pressure Point and ((defiant strike)) draw cards, but dont give any card advantage. My deck already has many ways to gain card advantage ! Citadel Siege is a good example, as it gives you a way to progress or stall the bosrd turn after turn by just using 1 card.

February 24, 2015 6:40 a.m.

Tempic says... #4

it's undeniable that citadel siege does one hell of a job bunkering up or stopping an annoying attacker.
But lets take for example you are playing against a control deck (or any deck with a complete board wipe). you only have one card in hand and your complete board state gets annihalated. thats pretty much good-game there because without a possibility to fill up your hand again, you will probably never get the upperhand again.

if you would run for example Favored Hoplite in the onedrop slot and for example Fabled Hero in the three slot, which both have heroic, cards like Defiant Strike can get quite good, get a +1/+1 counter, give it +1/0 and get a card for 1 mana. Any heroic creature left unchecked (even the one drops) can get monstrous lategame.

Just some idea's here

February 25, 2015 5:22 a.m.

Tempic says... #5

just realized this is a warriors themed deck.... both creatures mentioned by me above are not warriors ofcourse...

February 25, 2015 5:23 a.m.

4nathema says... #6

You could always drop 1-2 Dictate of Heliod and get some Spirit Bonds in:)

February 25, 2015 7:37 a.m.

-Sylex- says... #7

To Tempic : Thanks for your suggestions, but I wont incorporate them into my deck since I would need to drastically change the decklist in order to make theses cards work.
My deck is Monowhite Tokens, not Monowhite Heroic and I really want to preserve my deck's unique identity.
My deck isn't a ''easy win'' for a control deck. I have some unusual sideboard cards for thoses matchups : Ajani's Presence and most importantly Mastery of the Unseen ! I bring 2 of them in against midrangey-control decks like Abzan control or Mardu control and I bring the full 3 against U/B control. Mastery produces a 2/2 manifest for 4 mana at instant speed, which seems unimpressive at first glance, but the later the game goes and the less card I have in hand, the more relevant this card becomes, especially with cards like Dictate of Heliod on the board.

Mastery of the Unseen has a cheap casting cost and it's a very, very powerful and underestimated card against any grindy deck.

To 4nathema : Spirit Bonds is a very cool and powerful card (That I already brewed around, check out Jeskai Bounce ), but sadly, it doesn't fit in my deck : It doesn't triggers off creature tokens, I only have 14 creatures and too much 2 drops on my curve.
You should brew around this card ! It would be nice to see a good Monowhite weenie deck with Spirit Bonds Still, thanks for your suggestion :-)

February 25, 2015 6:08 p.m.

BlackLotus13 says... #8

Love the deck. Definite plus one. What would you add if u didn't need to worry about budget?

February 25, 2015 6:18 p.m.

-Sylex- says... #9

To BlackLotus13 I would definitely add 4 Monastery Mentor instead of 4 Mardu Hordechief. I already own one ( hehehe, got lucky in a draft) in my deck but I havent got to see his real power in a game yet. Also, 2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos and 1-2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion would fit in nicely in there.
Originally, I thought about building a a B/W tokens deck to run Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Thoughtseize and Brutal Hordechief but the final decklist was too damn expensive ! I learned how to play Magic quite a while ago but I've been only playing and collecting cards more seriously since 8-9 months. I decided to go for a simpler and cheaper to build deck, in order to play Standard at my LGS and thus came the idea of Monowhite tokens.

February 25, 2015 6:49 p.m.

juicytoot says... #10

I like Mastery of the Unseen, nobody seems to realize that its complete nuts against BU control. Also good to note that the manifests sneak right under that ugin guy and his boardwipes. I just wonder here though, if Sandsteppe Outcast is better than the horde chief. The utility he has is good, and his token is non conditional.

February 25, 2015 8:10 p.m.

-Sylex- says... #11

To juicytoot : You could swap Mardu Hordechief for Sandsteppe Outcast if you prefer it since they almost do the same thing. I prefer hordechief because the raid ability isnt hard to trigger and it gives a better 2/3 body plus a chump blocker against aggressive strategies.

February 25, 2015 9:47 p.m.

Crazedsteno88 says... #12

Love the deck +1 from me, just an idea would Dragonscale General have a place here.

February 25, 2015 10:04 p.m.

Tempic says... #13

-Sylex-: Makes sense, those are quite some drastic changes to up the tempo a bit. However i do have one more suggestion, Looking at all the double white mana cards like Dictate of Heliod, Spear of Heliod, Citadel Siege etc... Why not incoperate a few Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx instead of the Radiant Fountain. This could potentially create a mana boost letting you double Mastery of the Unseen.

February 26, 2015 2 a.m.

meemoe8 says... #14

I've been out of the game for a while and I just wanted to question the merits of having the Soldier of the Pantheon, I can see strengths but is he really that good?

February 26, 2015 11:33 a.m.

-Sylex- says... #15

To Crazedsteno88 : Dragonscale General isn't bad, but her body is weak for a 4 mana creature. This card definitely has some potential when paired with a lot of small creatures, but Citadel Siege does everything she does in a even better way, by giving you options and a unconditional, ''un-Lightning Strikeable'' board presence. Still, thanks for your suggestions :-)

To Tempic : I'm not interested in putting Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to my mana base for a few reasons.First of all, while it is true that I run some cards with in their mana cost and that I could potentially produce a lot of mana, what would that mana even be used for ? My mana curve ends at 5 and I already run 25 lands for consistency. Plus, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a bit expensive and it's a colorless legendary land.... I dont wanna be stuck with a hand full of colorless land and no early play. I want to drop a Plains turn one, play a 1 drop, another land turn 2, play a 2 drop , turn 3, 3 drop... Why would I even want to activate Nykthos ? It could be good in some rare situations, but it's not worth compromising the consistency nor the budget tag of my deck just to run it.

To meemoe8 : Having a 2/1 body for 1 mana on turn one in this format full of enter-the-battlefield-tapped multicolored lands is really good. Soldier of the Pantheon can swing in for at least 2 or 4 damage over the course of a game, while being able to block and/or trade with a Goblin Rabblemaster. It's protection from multicolor and lifegain abilities aren't that impressive, but it's still nice to get some free value for such a low mana investment against certain decks. I dont run 4 of theses because I already have 4 Mardu Woe-Reaper, which also has a 2/1 body for 1 mana and is able to exile creatures cards from graveyards while giving you a decent amount of life back against midrange/aggro strategies.

February 26, 2015 5:07 p.m.

pedro.turco says... #16

What do you do against mass removals?

February 26, 2015 8:32 p.m.

-Sylex- says... #17

To pedro.turco :
Against mass removal ? I try to play around Wrath of God effects by not overcommitting and I bring in 3 copies of Ajani's Presence in game 2.

February 26, 2015 9:44 p.m.

What would you guy's cut for maybe 2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion? Or would it not help the deck?

February 27, 2015 1:23 a.m.

meemoe8 says... #19

Awesome advice thanks manAnd to That_guy_who_plays_bad_decks I'm personally going to try cutting a plains for Elspeth, Sun's Champion

February 27, 2015 2:27 a.m.

This deck is beautiful, I have no critiques i am genuinely impressed by it and have all the cards to build it i will be playing it at today's fnm to see how it fairs in practice.

February 27, 2015 1:16 p.m.

-Sylex- says... #21

To theeagleofrome Good luck ! Could you share your results and a description of what cards you liked, the matchups, how well the games went and stuff like that ? I'm interested to see how well my deck works for you ! Keep that in mind, we're breaking the meta :-D !

February 27, 2015 4:25 p.m.

DecistroYer says... #22

I am LOVING this deck. I tried making a BWU deck built on getting Silumgar, the Drifting Death out with plenty of +1/1 white cards and having lots of Negate and Dissolve and Typhoid Rats for creature and noncreature protection. I fell into the "gotta have more colors" trap you described, but I noticed that my white cards did their job when I was able to field them, so I was looking to find a win deck for just white and I found the answer! Also, love that this deck is budget, and seems to have answers to most meta threats (rabblemasters, rhinos, coursers, whip of e., etc). Will definitely build this up and test it out against those $$$$ decks today or Sunday, thanks so much!!!

February 27, 2015 5:05 p.m.

Slick1337 says... #23

Keep up the good work!! +1

February 28, 2015 12:57 p.m.

Shadow02 says... #24

thought about Soul of Theros instead of soldier of the pantheon?lifelink and firststrike are quite useful not to mention your 6/6 vigilance body

February 28, 2015 1:34 p.m.

-Sylex- says... #25

To Shadow02 : Yea sure ! Soul of Theros isnt that expensive ($$) and he works really well with tokens. I'll add one and swap a Soldier of the Pantheon to make room. Thanks for your suggestion !

February 28, 2015 2:32 p.m.