Mono white budget aggro
Gonna start by saying that this is a pretty budget deck. Hence the fact that Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is in the maybeboard. Obviously he's what I want to be doing here but I'm not paying for that pricetag, especially considering there is a bevy of options here.
The goal here is pretty simple. Beat face before the control and midrange decks can get online and race the aggro decks.
Stitcher's Graft
and Always Watching do some amazing things together, or even just putting
Stitcher's Graft
onto Aerial Responder, good stuff.
Captain's Claws
is also great, and makes me seriously consider playing Hanweir Militia Captain
but I don't know where I'd have room for him without cutting some
Lone Rider
s out of the mainboard. The three-of
Strength of Arms
are in here to either get
Lone Rider
flipped early or to straight up kill off a Smuggler's Copter or Fleetwheel Cruiser. There are so many good 3 toughness creatures in this set in general that it feels pretty good to get any of those 1 mana +2/+2 instants that white has, and considering I do have 5 equipments, I think the potential of getting that extra 1/1 human is the best option. I also like
Lithomancer's Focus
here to deal with those early vehicles, but decided to go with
Strength of Arms
as our trick of choice.
Also, Westvale Abbey
because it's a beast of a Magic card.
In the side, I really like Hero of Goma Fada. I know it's cute but with the amount of allies potentially coming out with
Captain's Claws
, it is a beast. I don't like the 5-mana cost, but that's why it's a one-of sideboard card. I really think
Gideon's Reproach
is underrated. It kills A LOT of things that are popular in the format, even if it is pretty conditional. I am considering
Immolating Glare
or Skywhaler's Shot instead, but considering this deck loves to swing out, the option to smash a blocker for 4 feels nice, especially with the U/W Flash running around all over the place hitting with Archangel Avacyn
or even one of the many U control decks running Thing in the Ice
, even though he's fallen out of favor in the meta, I do run into him quite a bit at my LGS.
Considerations:
I could definitely see where splashing for pretty much any color would be good.
With red I like Weapons Master but I don't think having 5 equipment cards in my deck warrants him. Hanweir Garrison is the real temptation here.
With green, there are a lot of options. Ovia Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter is a great 1-drop, I really like
Hamlet Captain
, more so than
Lambholt Pacifist
. Tireless Tracker can be absolutely nuts, and of course there is
Heron's Grace Champion
who is amazing but I don't really want 4-cost creatures.
With black, I'd be killing my human subtheme but I'd like to run Scrapheap Scrounger and switch out a 1-drop for Toolcraft Exemplar. I think this is the easiest option to keep my lands down to 22 or below, which is where I prefer, but I'd almost certainly want to run Smuggler's Copter which I absolutely do not want to buy. I know the card is busted, but I personally still don't like the vehicles.
With blue, I think this is the weakest splash possibility, but Reflector Mage is still gross. I also thing
Daring Sleuth
is quite an underrated card, but then again it's a blue aggro option which is almost never popular. Aside from that, Wharf Infiltrator is pretty interesting.
