Creature (37)
Land (19)
Artifact (4)
Sideboard
Creature (7)
Sorcery (4)
Enchantment (4)
A pure Mono-white iteration of this deck got me a 5-0 record at an FNM a couple of weeks ago. As the modern meta reshapes and evolves, so too has this deck.
The iteration you see here just got me another 5-0 (largely thanks to a very focused sideboard). It's an extremely fun off-meta deck that's not quite as pricey as 5-color humans but can still go toe-to-toe with a lot of the current meta decks.
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Esper Sentinel is one of the new toys introduced in MH2 that this deck gets to play with. Each turn, when our opponent casts a non-creature spell for the first time, they have to pay the Sentinel Tax, i.e. extra mana equal to Esper Sentinel's power. If they can't (or don't), we draw a card. Against decks that are spell-heavy rather than creature-heavy, this will generate some extra cards for us. It's particularly good against Control and Green Tron, because those decks don't have a whole lot of cheap, early game removal to get rid of it, they'll likely have to pay the tax a few times. We also have a full playset of Luminarch Aspirant and Thalia's Lieutenant so we can often buff our Esper Sentinel to more than just 1 power. If we have multiple Sentinels, the effect stacks, so our opponent will have to pay for each one and for any they don't pay, we draw. Combine this with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben making non-creature spells themselves more expensive to cast, we'll be making control type decks pretty miserable.
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Dauntless Bodyguard has always been a personal favorite of mine and (in my humble opinion) severely underrated in white weenie style decks. As it enters the battlefield, we get to "pair" it with another one of our creatures. After that, we can sacrifice the Bodyguard at instant speed to give the other creature Indestructible until end of turn. There are some great applications for this. We can use it to protect a creature that's giving our opponent a hard time, such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben against a control deck, or a Sanctum Prelate that's denying a crucial spell our opponent wants to cast, or an Esper Sentinel that's drawing us a bunch of cards, or a Meddling Mage that's shutting off their one main threat; the applications are endless. Furthermore, we can effectively use this to block 2 creatures if needed. Let's say our opponent attacks with at least 2 creatures and we need to survive so we can retaliate next turn. We can put Dauntless Bodyguard in front of one and our paired creature in front of the other. Then before combat damage, we sac the Bodyguard (so the creature it was blocking has its attack fizzled) and give our other creature Indestructible so it blocks its creature with no worries about dying.
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Champion of the Parish is a pretty straightforward combat oriented creature. It buffs itself with a permanent +1/+1 counter whenever a Human enters the battlefield under our control. This is a cheap, early game threat that scales into the mid and late game if it isn't dealt with.
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Thalia's Lieutenant gives all of our Humans a permanent +1/+1 counter when it enters the battlefield. After that, it simply becomes another Champion of the Parish, buffing itself with a +1/+1 counter every time we play a Human.
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Luminarch Aspirant lets us put a +1/+1 counter on one of any of our creatures when we move to combat. This is a little different from Thalia's Lieutenant who gives a one time buff. With Luminarch Aspirant, we can make one of our creatures very tall instead of being forced to go wide. Esper Sentinel is a great target, because the bigger it gets, the bigger tax our opponent will have to pay or just let us draw a card. Even if we have no other targets, we can simply put the +1/+1 counter on Luminarch Aspirant itself.
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Auriok Champion is an extremely underrated card in the main deck. Firstly, it keeps us healthy throughout the game because it gains us life whenever ANYONE plays a creature (not just us). We have a ton of creatures in our deck and since we're spamming them, Auriok Champion will be gaining us a lot of life on our side of the board alone. If our opponent happens to be playing a creature-heavy deck as well, that's just a bonus. This card helps us race aggressive decks and edge them out. However, the best part of this card is the fact that it has protection from Black and Red, meaning it cannot take damage from sources that have either of those colors. It can block Dragon's Rage Channeler, Monastery Swiftspear, Soul-Scar Mage, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Goblin Guide, Death's Shadow, Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Lurrus of the Dream-Den all day long. It also can't be targeted by Lightning Bolt, Kolaghan's Command, Lava Dart, Fatal Push etc. Need I go on? Even in matchups without Red or Black, at the very least it's gaining us life and working with our other Human synergies. Don't sleep on this card.
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Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is our reward for playing a deck made almost entirely out of creatures. She makes all non-creature spells cost 1 more to cast, which doesn't affect a lot of cards in our deck but will be a Thorn of Amethyst in the side of any deck that relies on non-creature spells. Particularly annoying against Tron, as they usually want to play a Karn Liberated at exactly 7 mana, Thalia will make it cost 8. She also has First Strike, making her pretty useful in combat.
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Meddling Mage can name any non-land card we want when it enters the battlefield and as long as it sticks around, nobody can cast the named spell. This is an excellent card as long as we know what the main threats are in our opponent's deck. We can name Living End or Crashing Footfalls for example and Cascade decks literally can't combo off until they get rid of Meddling Mage.
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Sanctum Prelate is finally legal in Modern and it's a powerhouse when used correctly. The trick with this card is knowing and understanding matchups. What's the worst possible non-creature spell our opponent could cast right now? What is that spell's mana cost? Name that number when you play Sanctum Prelate. Going against UW Control and have a board full of creatures? Declare 4 to stop Supreme Verdict. Going against Living End or Crashing Footfalls? Declare 0 and they won't be able to cast them even if they cascade into them. Going against Tron? Declare 7 to prevent Karn Liberated or All Is Dust. Going against Hammer Time or UR spellslinger decks? Name 1 to shut off most of their spells. Have multiple Sanctum Prelates? Your opponent is not going to have a good time.
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Reflector Mage severely slows down creature-reliant aggro decks because it not only returns a target creature to hand when it ETBs, but prevents your opponent from casting anything with that name during their next turn.
- Aether Vial is what allows us to cheat Humans into play so quickly. On each of our upkeeps, we have the option of putting a charge counter on it (we don't have to). We can tap it at any time to cheat a creature from our hand into play that has an equal CMC to the number of charge counters. Since most of our important creatures cost 2 CMC in the deck, Vial on 2 is probably the best option. However, if have multiple vials, then ideally we'll want a vial on 3, a vial on 2 and if we happen to have a third vial, it's probably best to leave that on 2 as well.
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Flooded Strand fetches basic Plains or Island but can also grab Hallowed Fountain or Temple Garden.
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Hallowed Fountain taps for either of our main colors and is fetchable via Flooded Strand
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Seachrome Coast comes into play untapped if played early and provides both of our main colors.
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Silent Clearing provides black (which we need for one of our sideboard cards, Prismatic Ending) but also gives us the option to sacrifice it to draw a card if we need to.
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Temple Garden is fetchable via Flooded Strand and provides Green, which is important for Prismatic Ending.
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Prismatic Ending is a very versatile removal spell in this deck. If we cast it for just 1 White, we can exile a permanent with CMC 1 or 0. However, we have the option to spend more mana, so if we cast it for , we get to exile a permanent with CMC 2. This is why our land base feels like it's not pure UW. We have access to Black in case we need to spend 3 colors and a single Temple Garden just in case we need 4 colors for Prismatic Ending.
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Hushbringer is an absolute powerhouse in the current meta. Yes, it interferes with our Champion of the Parish, Thalia's Lieutenant, Auriok Champion and Reflector Mage, but it does NOT interfere with static abilities of Dauntless Bodyguard, Meddling Mage and Sanctum Prelate. In most cases where we need to side in Hushbringer, the Thalia's Lieutenants are coming out, so it's not a big deal. Furthermore, Luminarch Aspirant can still buff creatures and has no interference with Hushbringer so we still have the option of going tall. The ability to stop ETB effects is a huge hinderance to Stoneblade decks because Stoneforge Mystic will not trigger when it hits the board. They also can't strip away our hand with Grief. Elemental decks also have a very hard time with this card, because the only way they have to remove it is Solitude and Fury, both of which are turned off by Hushbringer. They also have Spitebellows but that triggers upon death, which Hushbringer also stops. On top of all that utility, it has Flying and Lifelink, meaning it can swing over blockers and help us race aggressive decks by gaining us back a little bit of life. If we buff it with Luminarch Aspirant, it'll be gaining us A LOT of life. Don't sleep on this card!
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Rest in Peace severely hinders graveyard-based strategies because not only does it hose all graveyards when it gets played but it also prevents cards from being sent to the graveyard while it's in play. Good against Living End, Lurrus variants, UR Murktide/Delver (or anything relying on Delirium), Dredge, Vengevine, Reanimator, etc.
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Sanctifier en-Vec helps solidify our match up into Black/Red decks by working alongside the Auriok Champions in the mainboard and Rest in Peace which is usually brought in with them. Redundancy means we see our match-up silver bullets more consistently.
Typical E-Tron mid range deck with a Karn the Museum Curator sideboard package
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GAME 1: I won the dice roll and was able to play a turn 1 Esper Sentinel which ended up drawing me quite a few cards because he couldn't afford to spend his early turns falling behind while paying the tax. Fortunately I was able to get down a Champion of the Parish before he could play a Chalice of the Void for X=1. However it was too late for him, I was able to deal heavy damage by turn 3 and the biggest creature he was able to play was a Matter Reshaper. He scooped on turn 4.
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GAME 2: I sided in Break Ties to deal with Chalice and Path to Exile to deal with his big Eldrazi. This game went long because I was on the draw so he was ahead of me with a Chalice and was able to find 2 Eldrazi Temples early to play a turn 3 Reality Smasher. Thankfully, I found a Break Ties and was able to cast Path to Exile afterward. Sanctum Prelate on 7 prevented any All Is Dust and I was able to take the win once my Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant were considerably stronger than his Reality Smashers.
RESULT: 2-0, Win
Discard/Artifact Control deck, not entirely sure how to describe it. Relies on Underworld Cookbook and other discard outlets to exert control and mana via Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar and Urza, Lord High Artificer, respectively.
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GAME 1: Pretty close game. I knew that Underworld Cookbook was the "boss" card of this archetype and that pilots pivot from there to make the rest of the deck work. So shutting it down was the key. Sanctum Prelate on 1 actually shuts off a majority of their artifacts (aside from Mishra's Bauble) and their only removal Fatal Push. With no actual answers for Sanctum Prelate, he was kind of stuck in neutral for the rest of the game and I took the win.
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GAME 2: My plan was the same except I removed Knight of the White Orchid and 3-drop Thalia in favor of Path to Exile, the thought being that if I didn't find a Sanctum Prelate I could at least deal with Asmo or Urza with that instead. However this game went largely the same as Game 1, drew some cards off of Esper Sentinel and eventually resolved a Sanctum Prelate on 1 and shut a good chunk of his important cards. Won soon after.
RESULT: 2-0, Win
Not to be confused with UR Delver, this is the deck with Stormwing Entity and an aggressive burn/damage package
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GAME 1: I unfortunately got flooded and didn't find much action, allowing him to easily overwhelm me with burn spells while hitting me with his Prowess-buffed creatures.
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GAME 2: Sided in Kor Firewalker and with those alongside the Auriok Champions, it was a nightmare for him. None of his creatures could get by mine except a single Stormwing Entity, whose damage was completely offset by the healing coming from Auriok Champion and Kor Firewalker. I eventually found a Sanctum Prelate, declared 1 which shut down most of his spells and eventually won the game afterward.
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GAME 3: Similar to game 2, nothing he could do about Kor Firewalker and Auriok Champion. I also had a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben making all of his spells more expensive. He got rid of it eventually with a burn spell but there wasn't much else he could do to my board.
RESULT: 2-1, Win
A deck that has no spells under 3 CMC aside from Living End, designed to dump big creatures with Cycling then Cascade into a guaranteed Living End with something like Shardless Agent or Violent Outburst.
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GAME 1: I'll be honest, I sort of won this game due to a blunder on my opponent's part. I had a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, a Sanctum Prelate naming Zero to turn off Living End and a few other creatures on my board. He was able to get rid of the Prelate with a Brazen Borrower and then tapped out to cast a Shardless Agent. Unfortunately, even if you cascade into a "free" spell, if it's a non-creature spell with Thalia on board, you have to pay an extra 1. He admitted he completely forgot about Thalia. I offered to let him take it back but he accepted his misplay and I won on the next turn.
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GAME 2: Sided in the 4 Rest in Peace and it was a bit of a wash. Between 4 of those, 4 Sanctum Prelates and 2 Ranger-Captain of Eos, I pretty much had 10 ways of keeping Living End in check while I built up the rest of my board and won the game through massive combat damage.
RESULT: 2-0, Win
Not to be confused with UR Blitz, this one runs less aggressive burn spells and more blue cantrips. I wasn't entirely sure what his creature package was but I saw Delver, Ragavan and Murktide Regent.
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GAME 1: Close game, Esper Sentinel and Thalia slowed him down considerably but I never saw a single Auriok Champion so he was able to ping me with some burn spells and fly over with Insectile Aberration which I had no blockers for. Eventually he played a huge Murktide Regent and that sealed the deal.
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GAME 2: Sided in Path to Exile and the full suite of Rest in Peace. I was a little iffy on Path because Sanctum Prelate on 1 shuts off a majority of their deck but also made Path to Exile useless. However Rest in Peace was a powerhouse, it kept his graveyard empty so there was no way he'd be casting a Murktide Regent this game. I had sided in the Path to Exile as a redundancy to deal with Regent but ended up not having to use it.
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GAME 3: Went largely the same way as game 2 but I didn't find a Rest in Peace so he was able to delve away his yard for a Murktide Regent. Thankfully, Esper Sentinel had drawn me quite a few cards and I had a Path to Exile with the Regent's name on it. He couldn't deal with my other stax effects and beefed up creatures. Won this game soon after.
RESULT: 2-1, Win
Game 1
- Esper Sentinel put in a lot of work here. The Murktide variants tend to run less burn and more cantrips so he didn't really have a way to remove it early on. He was forced to pay the Sentinel tax which slowed him down and I eventually found and resolved a Sanctum Prelate naming 1 and shut down a good chunk of his deck. Was able to beat him down with Champion of the Parish for the win.
Game 2
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Out: 4 Luminarch Aspirant, 3 Thalia's Lieutenant
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In: 4 Rest in Peace, 3 Sanctifier en-Vec
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Reasoning: I don't care about combat buffs. I want to delay Murktide Regent from coming down and I need blockers for his Prowess creatures and Ragavan
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Everything went perfectly. Thalia slowed him down, Auriok Champion and Sanctifier en-Vec were able to block his red creatures all day long. Sanctum Prelate shutting down all 1 CMC non-creature spells. He scooped once I resolved a second Sanctum Prelate naming 2.
Result: 2-0, Win
Game 1
- I managed to get a Meddling Mage out and named Persist to stop any early reanimation but he had a Stoneforge Mystic and found a Batterskull to beat me down with instead. Not much I could do here pre-sideboard.
Game 2
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Out: 4 Thalia's Lieutenant, 3 Reflector Mage, 4 Dauntless Bodyguard
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In: 4 Rest in Peace, 3 Sanctifier en-Vec, 4 Hushbringer
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Reasoning: R.I.P. and Sanctifier make it hard to reanimate and Hushbringer stops Stoneforge from searching.
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Safe to say he didn't have nearly as much fun this game as he did last game. Hushbringer it prevents Grief, Stoneforge, Archon of Cruelty and Ashen Rider ETB (as well as Ashen Rider death trigger). One of these alongside with Rest in Peace nullified most of his deck.
Game 3
- Went largely the same as Game 2. Nothing he could do about having his graveyard and reanimation targets constantly exiled. He also never found Batterskull or Kaldra Compleat because of Hushbringer. Easily won.
Result: 2-1, Win
Game 1
- Esper Sentinel put in some work again. This player was rather aggressive, opting not to pay the Sentinel tax so I was able to draw a few cards to replace the ones lost by Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize. I'm assuming this is because he wanted options for Dauthi Voidwalker, not sure entirely. Regardless, I was able to find and resolve an Auriok Champion and a Sanctum Prelate naming 1. Eventually overwhelmed him with Auriok Champion buffed up from multiple Luminarch Aspirant triggers.
Game 2
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Out: 3 Reflector Mage, 4 Thalia's Lieutenant
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In: 3 Sanctifier en-Vec, 4 Rest in Peace
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Reasoning: Pro black and red makes Sanctifier a pain to deal with, R.I.P. puts the brakes on the Lurrus value engine
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Was a tough game mainly due to Engineered Explosives constantly being brought back because of Lurrus. However, Meddling Mage put a stop to it. I was able to protect Meddling Mage with Dauntless Bodyguard and eventually found a Rest in Peace and an Auriok Champion soon afterward. He scooped.
Result: 2-0, Win
Game 1
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Sanctum Prelate on 1, that is all.
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Ok jokes aside, Prelate on 1 stops Colossus Hammer, Sigarda's Aid, Steelshaper's Gift, Springleaf Drum. So basically, a good chunk of their important cards. I also resolved a Meddling Mage naming Stoneforge Mystic to make sure there was no way to get a Hammer into play.
Game 2
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Out: 4 Thalia's Lieutenant, 4 Dauntless Bodyguard
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In: 4 Hushbringer, 4 Prismatic Ending
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Reasoning: Hush stops Stoneforge and the new Ingenious Smith, Prismatic Ending deals with any equipment that makes it onto the field.
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Went largely the same way as Game 1. Sanctum Prelate on 1, Hushbringer stopped any ETB searching and kept my life total healthy. Eventually overwhelmed him after Hushbringer was beefed up by Luminarch Aspirant.
Result: 2-0, Win
Game 1
- Not a great matchup for me, if I'm honest. They have decent removal thanks to evoking mechanics and mid-game grind thanks to Omnath ramp. I was really hoping my sideboard would help me out.
Game 2
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Out: 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, 4 Esper Sentinel, 4 Sanctum Prelate, 4 Thalia's Lieutenant
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In: 4 Hushbringer, 4 Rest in Peace, 3 Sanctifier en-Vec, 3 Prismatic Ending
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Reasoning: Ok this was almost a full-on sideboard swap. Hushbringer puts in a lot of work here, it shuts off Risen Reef, both Omnaths' ETBs, all of the Incarnation Elementals ETBs (Solitude and Fury are the important ones), Flamekin Harbinger ETB and makes Ephemerate useless. Rest in Peace makes Thunderkin Awakener and Vesperlark bricks. Sanctifier can block or get past both Omnaths and is immune to Fury burn. Prismatic Ending is just good removal. Ok? Ok.
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Couldn't have asked for a better game. Pretty much everything I mentioned above happened. He was very surprised to see Hushbringer and had no answer for it since all of his removal is tied to creature ETBs or creatures dying (Spitebellows). I also had a Meddling Mage naming Omnath, Locus of Creation because they can still take advantage of its Landfall abilities which was scary to me. Eventually found a Rest in Peace as well and won shortly after.
Game 3
- Went pretty much the same as Game 2. He did resolve a Chalice of the Void on 2 but a Prismatic Ending cast with 3 colors took care of that. Hushbringer hit the board soon after and I was able to buff it constantly with Luminarch Aspirant. The Flying + Lifelink was a race he just couldn't win.
Result: 2-1, Win
If you like the theme of this deck and want to try something similar without breaking the bank, I have you covered. Here's a list you can put together for less than $90 USD
CREATURES
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4x Boros Elite
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4x Precinct Captain or 4x Consul's Lieutenant (pick a playset of either one of these)
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1x Angelic Overseer OR 1x Odric, Master Tactician (pick either one)
INSTANTS
LANDS
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18x Plains
SIDEBOARD
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3x Disenchant
While it's not quite as explosive due to the lack of Aether Vial, it's still a formidable budget aggro deck.
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Revision 4 See all
(2 years ago)
| -3 | Break Ties | side |
| -1 | Eiganjo Castle | main |
| -4 | Flagstones of Trokair | main |
| +4 | Flooded Strand | main |
| +4 | Hallowed Fountain | main |
| +4 | Hushbringer | side |
| +1 | Island | main |
| -4 | Kor Firewalker | side |
| +4 | Meddling Mage | main |
| -4 | Metallic Mimic | main |
| -4 | Path to Exile | side |
| -9 | Plains | main |
| +4 | Prismatic Ending | side |
| -2 | Ranger-Captain of Eos | main |
| +3 | Reflector Mage | main |
| +3 | Sanctifier en-Vec | side |
| +2 | Seachrome Coast | main |
| +2 | Silent Clearing | main |
| +1 | Temple Garden | main |
| -1 | Thalia, Guardian of Thraben | main |
| Date added | 2 years |
| Last updated | 1 year |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 6 - 4 Mythic Rares 43 - 7 Rares 7 - 4 Uncommons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.78 |
| Folders | deck ideas |
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