What we got here is an aggressive set of creatures and powerful removal to take control of a board, and then using Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Ajani, Caller of the Pride or a Brave the Elements alpha strike to finish the game. This deck is an evolution of my mono - white deck, Mono - White Smackdown. I had been playing with that deck for months, and I noticed that its biggest weakness was against planeswalker heavy decks, I often couldn't keep up with getting rid of them. So I decided a black splash for Hero's Downfall looks like a good idea. I also added some xathrid necromancers I had lying around for the cool interaction with most of my creatures. Lemme know what ya'll think!
| card review |
| lands |
4 Temples of Silence and a Godless Shrine for smoother land, I very rarely find color issues aside from the occasional late
Precinct Captain
or Hero's Downfall. More Godless shrines are great, but I don't have any more currently. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is also rather powerful, but not for producing 6 or 7 mana at once, but for producing 1 or 2 extra mana to play an early Elspeth, Sun's Champion that has to be dealt with. only 2 because you don't desperately need it to play elspeth and because more will cause a very rough mana base. fill the rest of the land with swamps and plains
| creatures |
Soldier of the Pantheon
- very powerful and aggressive card that can be the bane of quite a few creatures and all the multicolor gods. the lifegain is also surprisingly significant in some games
Precinct Captain
- very powerful 2 drop that must be dealt with or he will take control of the game by himself. even with the double white in his cost, you will often be able to play him turn two, but slow rolling him isn't bad, especially with a Spear of Heliod or Ajani, Caller of the Pride in play.
Daring Skyjek
- this guy is in here mostly for the easier casting cost and the 3 power, which is extremely important with the prevelence of Sylvan Caryatid. His evasion is also quite nice. take him out against other white decks though because first strike will counter him hard.
Frontline Medic - Some may wonder why him and not Brimaz, King of Oreskos? aside from brimaz being a stealthy MF that I can't get a hold of, frontline medic is a human and his easy casting cost means you will always be able to play him with three mana (unless you kept an impossibly terrible hand w/ no white mana at all) and is good at keeping early creatures significant by being able to attack, even if they would normally be out traded with his battalion.
Banisher Priest
- Great tempo creature who you can throw down to throw the opponents whole defense plan through a loop, getting another favorable attack in. aside from boros burn decks, cheap burn isn't very common, making this guy very powerful by forcing the opponent to use a heavy removal spell like Banishing Light or Hero's Downfall to get rid of him. Even is your opponent does try to Bile Blight him, play that Brave the Elements breh!
Xathrid Necromancer - whoa, an actual black card. This guy is just straight value. creature trades become infinitely better and if your opponent does remove it, you keep the bear and they lose the spell. His casting cost is also very easy and you should almost always be able to play him when you want.
| removal |
Banishing Light - very powerful, gets rid of any huge monster, but more importantly, planewalkers and annoying enchantments (opponent's Banishing Light). against decks with a lot of enchantment removal, he is still good, but can be replaced with glare or heresy, Gild or renounce the gilds if you really need something to stay gone.
Hero's Downfall - this is the other half of the black splash. This deck was originally mono - white (check out Mono - White Smackdown), but the weakness mono white had was the lack of definitive planeswalker removal. This guy fixes that and is still great at killing big guys in a pinch, esspecially that pesky Stormbreath Dragon. The double black can be hard on you early, but you will often grab a swamp or second temple during the first few turns. you generally won't need it early anyways because your just throwing your soldiers out to apply early pressure.
| creature enhancement |
Spear of Heliod - very nice value that keeps my early creatures significant later and keeps big guys off my back later in the game with his ability. One of the best uses for this is to play turn 3 and allow my
Precinct Captain
and
Soldier of the Pantheon
to swing into a Sylvan Caryatid.
Brave the Elements - This slot is very flexible, and could be one of three things, Brave the Elements, Gods Willing or
Ajani's Presence
. When comparing these, Brave the Elements protects everything but Xathrid Necromancer and his tokens, which you generally don't need to protect. Whats most important about this card is the ability to protect ALL white creatures, allowing alpha strikes through a defense and protection from Anger of the Gods and Mizzium Mortars. Gods Willing protects any creature, but not all at once. The scry is definitely important though, making sure you get the lands you need or you draw fuel. Lastly,
Ajani's Presence
is also an option. you choose how many creatures to protect (which can become a large amount with [[nykthos, shrine to nyx]), can protect any creature and also gives them a minor buff, which can be a big deal. What I don't like about this card is indestructible is worse more often than better, by not protecting targeting like exile. When indestructible is way better than protection is against board wipes like Supreme Verdict. I choose Brave the Elements for game ending power, but YOU choose what you're most comfortable with.
| finishers |
Ajani, Caller of the Pride - This guy is very versatile, either play him early to pump a creature or fly it over to kill a planeswalker, or play him late to kill the opponent with surprise evasion. Rarely ults, but if he does, pray your opponent doesn't have bile blight
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - Whoa boy, she is your super mega death card. Slam her down and create fodder for your Xathrid Necromancer, get rid of those polukranos' and Stormbreath Dragons and then force your opponent to do something or get overrun by the emblem. Just flat out wins games and thats this decks goal, get on the board early and slam her later to win.
| side board |
Dark Betrayal - mono black doesn't play many planeswalkers, so replacing a couple Hero's Downfall with these guys for cheaper removal is nice. Most importantly prevents the double black in the casting cost from being a big deal.
Fiendslayer Paladin
- This guy is great against heavy burn and mono - black decks by being extremely hard to kill. The lifelink is also very good against RDW. Generally throw in over frontline medic in those matchups
Gild - I dunno about this card, more just experimenting with him. he helps ramp to elspeth and kills gods/indestructible creatures. I'll see if anything pops out for making this card do work
Glare of Heresy
- kills elspeth and is great against other white based decks. Be warned though, those white decks will also have this card, so don't forget to keep that in mind after game 1
Renounce the Guilds
- I like this guy. He's a fairly reliable way to kill Blood Baron of Vizkopa and is more planeswalker hate against Xenagos, the Reveler and Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Revoke Existence
- just solid enchantment removal. could be
Deicide
, but i don't have any and you never know when you go against the Trading Post deck
