Introduction
Dubbed Simpleton (as mono-white should be) this is a deck I've been tinkering with on and off for a few years to show my love to mono-white. It's a midrange, hatebear & ramp deck that's a fun and surprisingly reliable legacy deck considering it is, after all, mono-white (admittedly with a teeny tiny bit of green splash). At first glance it's easy to underestimate, but the deck has several strengths that help it stand tall against the big dogs (and at an affordable price compared to many legacy decks).
Design Overview
Uses Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx color devotion to ramp mana into big creatures. Light from Within synergizes with the strategy by boosting power and toughness across the field. Hatebears and select instants disrupt the opponent's strategy while Wasteland and mana ramp give us the edge.
Card Selection and Reasoning
Lands
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8x Plains and 1x Forest provides reasonable access to basics to help mitigate non-basic hate (i.e. Blood Moon and Wasteland). This is an often overlooked necessity in legacy where non-basic disruption is rampant.
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4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is the deck's linchpin and must be on the board for the deck to function properly. Pulling multiples is not as bad as it seems: activate the first, drop the second, sac the first, activate the second with the mana generated from the first and you get double the mana ramp.
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4x Wasteland is included as a necessary evil against Maverick's own wasteland abuse, and as a strong tool against Eldrazi/Sliver/multicolored decks (and is just all-around very strong in Legacy).
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1x Savannah provides reliable mana-fixing for the few times we need a forest (there are 3 {G} in the whole deck).
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4x Windswept Heath provides mana-fixing and deck thinning, ramps our Knight of the Reliquary and can be a convenient recursive deck thinner with Sun Titan around.
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1x Karakas gives us an answer to opponent legendary creatures at very little drawback.
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1x Cavern of Souls helps us to get our relevant hatebears out, such as Grand Abolisher, which in turn ensures that all other drops resolve.
1-drops
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4x Mother of Runes protect as chump blockers, protect your field from removal and provide white devotion.
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4x Swords to Plowshares disrupt opponent creatures and combos at a very low cost.
2-drops
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4x Longbow Archer are your 2-drop backbone, provide an exceptional two-drop for both defense and attack, synergize well with Mother of Runes and give 2 white devotion each.
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1x Grand Abolisher keeps your opponents off the stack during your turn and gives 2 white devotion. Incredible anti-blue hatebear, it's almost never a bad pull as a one-of.
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1x True Believer protects you from player targeted effects, a great anti-black or red hatebear, gives 2 devotion. Almost never a bad pull as a one-of.
3-drops
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4x Aura of Silence provide an exceptional answer to artifacts and enchantments while boosting devotion. The vast majority of opponents will have enough artifacts and/or enchantments to make these shine (it doesn't take many). This is included as a 4-of because you can't afford to have an active Blood Moon or Humility in play for long.
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2x Knight of the Reliquary help ensure that we find our Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and allows us to: dig up a second Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to ramp mana faster (generate two mana, activate Nykthos, sac a land with the Knight, find a new Nykthos, sac the tapped one, tap the new Nykthos with the mana available from the first) as well as basic ramp (tap a land for mana, sac it, find a new land, tap it) and allows us to search for Karakas, Wasteland, and Cavern of Souls.
4-drops
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2x Angel of Jubilation is exceptional against black, and boosts your army's power/toughness while providing three white devotion.
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2x Archangel of Tithes gives you a pillow fort effect and can hinder opponent blocking, all while providing three white devotion. Combined with Wasteland they can often push your army through when they otherwise might be blocked. Exceptional against zoo/weenie decks.
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2x Light from Within gives +1/+1 based on creature devotion, which fits the deck perfectly. Notably provides a counter to Humility since our creatures will still get their buffs.
5-drops
6-drops
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2x Sun Titan provide for recursive Wasteland use, recursive Aura of Silence use, recursive Windswept Heath use, recursive Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx stacking (as described above, activate one, bring back the second, sac the first, activate the second with the mana from the first) and enable us to dredge up other ≤ 3-drops as needed, especially True Believer, Grand Abolisher and Gaddock Teeg hatebears.
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1x Archon of Valor's Reach provides a degree of control and board wipe protection (call sorcery against most decks with the notable exception of instants vs mono blue).
8-drops
9-drops
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1x Blazing Archon shuts down all kinds of zoo decks. Sliver, Eldrazi, you name it. An incredible global.
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1x Iona, Shield of Emeria hoses mono-colored decks, and drastically weakens almost every deck type there is.
Sideboard
You will primarily sideboard out Mother of Runes, Swords to Plowshares, Longbow Archer, and Archangel of Tithes / Angel of Jubilation and replace them with their corresponding one, two or four drops.
Sideboard Matchup Examples (these are general guidelines, actual ideal swaps will be more complex):
NOTE: Any time an opponent plays with zero artifacts and zero echantments, swap out 4x Aura of Silence for any relevant sideboard. This is most likely to occur vs various zoo decks, Eldrazi, Sliver etc. For example, in the case of Eldrazi or Sliver, consider swapping the 4x Aura of Silence for 4x Surgical Extraction. You can then use Wasteland on your opponent's non-basic lands followed by Surgical Extraction to decimate their mana base.
I'm open to suggestions and constructive criticism. Thank you!
P.S. - I am considering porting this deck to Modern. I'm currently researching suitable replacements for Longbow Archer and Mother of Runes and a few others, which is why the maybeboard is so big (these are currently considered as replacements). When I finish I will post both Legacy and Modern builds.
