Behold, my first ever deck post on TappedOut! I love playing fair grindy decks that are focused on interesting synergies, so a deck revolving around Oketra's Monument seemed like the perfect choice for my entry into Pioneer. I've never written one of these before, so please upvote if you enjoyed it and let me know how I did!
The Monument's Blueprints
The decks main goal is to overwhelm the opponent through a constant stream of weenies fueled by Milita Bugler, Cloudblazer, and the titular Oketra's Monument. While the deck assembles its forces, it keeps the opponent off tempo with Reflector Mage and Deputy of Detention and protects them all with Selfless Spirit. Charming Prince either smooths our draws or blinks whatever creature ETB we most need at the time, and gives the deck some reactive versatility. If we cant just kill our opponent with a stream of 2 attack dorks, the lovely Oketra the True or a flipped Westvale Abbey
can smash in for the last points of damage needed to end the game.
Overall I've found the deck to be strong when I find an Oketra's Monument, and still quite resilient without one. It's the kind of strategy that thrives against opponents with decks not built on cheating mana such as Wilderness Rec or Winota, but the lack of instant speed options can really hurt if the deck fails to get a solid start and the opponent gets to start forcing you to play at their speed through removal and annoying blockers. If you are looking for a deck you can bring out for relaxed games when friends come over, give this a try!
The Sideboard
Sideboarding is my weak point for deck building, so don't view the current list as one made with a lot of thought on the current meta! It's currently focused entirely on fighting control decks, as I think the main deck does a good job of fighting aggro and midrange thanks to our disruptive 3-mana creatures and large amounts of incidental life gain.
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The Reflector Mages and Selfless Spirits come in and out based on our opponents game plan, with the counterspells usually replacing Dusk/Dawn, the Reflector Mages, and one Angel of Invention.
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Bring in the Giant Killers against stompy decks and the especially low to the ground aggro decks like 8-Whack as blockers.
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Elspeth is meant for control decks as well, but I've been considering cutting her for another counterspell or a silver bullet for whatever deck is most popular in the format at the moment. Her ability to add pressure and keep coming back is cute, but cards like Questing Beast and Censor are such massive blowouts I'm unsure if she's worth it.
Cost of Construction
I think the deck is fairly budget friendly when compared to most popular Pioneer decks, but there are a few ways to lower it even further if you care more about cost than deck strength.
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Selfless Spirit: If you want to cut a lot off the price, the 4 Selfless Spirits in the 75 are currently almost 40 dollars! While your deck will lose a lot of resilience without them, I think it can still function if you replace them with some other 2 drop.
Apostle of Purifying Light dodges most direct removal as well as totally hosing Mono Black Aggro and slower graveyard strategies, and Tithe Taker makes it harder for control to play on your turn as well as keeping at least one weenie in play after a boardwipe.
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Westvale Abbey: This land is the second card I would cut to reduce the price. I consider it well worth the cost, but there are easy replacements already in the deck you can swap them for!
Castle Ardenvale is currently only 2 dollars, and while you wont get to summon a big flashy demon, it does give help make your mana slightly more consistent in return. Mobilized District is already my budget replacement for Mutavault, and thanks to Oketra's Monument being legendary it usually only costs 3 mana to activate.
