White weenies was a fun start to the Theros meta, but after losing to one too many Supreme Verdict I set out to build a more resilient white deck. Many hours of FNM and late night testing have culminated in this list.
This deck is a beef-castle. As the loading screen on DoTP14 often reminds me, "white mages love to build up a strong defense." With cards like Precinct Captain, Boros Reckoner, and Heliod, God of the Sun occupying your board, not many things are going to be able to attack back, Imposing Sovereign provides lovely disruption and slows blockers (and hasters) down while Banisher Priest eats everything from Master of Waves and Thassa, God of the Sea to Desecration Demon to opposing Banisher Priests.
The slew of planeswalkers is included because my area's metagame is control heavy - at a 4-round FNM I'll face anywhere from 1-4 U/W or Esper Control variants. Ajani, Gideon, and Elspeth all have a threatening and resilient board presence - they are usually answer soon or lose.
The three anthem effects ( a pair of Spear of Heliod and a Path of Bravery) present a lot of damage over the course of a game if they're played early, and they both have upside - I'm happy with where I've come out on the numbers on these.
Despite being forged to handle control matchups, this deck is not brittle to aggro - its lifegain and threats often make games against aggro seem unfair. Imposing Sovereign and Boros Reckoner pull their weight here. Against aggro, I usually side like this:
IN: 2x Last Breath, 1x Brave the Elements, 2x Fiendslayer Paladin, 2x Ratchet Bomb
OUT: 2x Boros Charm, 2x Ajani, Caller of the Pride, 1x Gideon, Champion of Justice, 1x elspeth, champion of the sun, 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
Glare of Heresy can be brought in against white aggro but it does get blanked by Brave the Elements.
For control, sideboarding usually follows this route (for game 2 at least):
IN: 3x Glare of Heresy (for white-based control decks, of course]]), 4x Fiendslayer Paladin, 1x Heliod, God of the Sun, 2x Boros Charm
OUT: 1x Brave the Elements1x Plains4x Banisher Priest3x Archangel of Thune1x Imposing Sovereign
For Mono-blue leave in the Banisher Priests and side in Last Breath and Ratchet Bomb - all are good answers to Master of Waves.
I plan to continue testing and tweaking this beauty for the duration the next standard season. Thanks for checking out my deck! Leave a comment and maybe a +1 if you're feeling the vibes.
P.S. When Archangel of Thune is out, always activate Mutavault before gaining life. Make land strong like ox (because it is, in fact, an ox).
