[FONT="Book Antiqua"]White Weenie[/FONT]img147.imageshack.us/img147/9855/wwdn6.j...I have created a resource thread for the purpose of containing a lot of information about WW as a whole, and any deck that comes close, located here.Introduction
So what is White Weenie? White Weenie (usually abbreviated to just WW) is one of the classic archetypes, the "ultimate" ultimate in monocolor aggro. WW employs creatures that are the most efficient for their cost, the best suited to not only dealing the most damage for their cost, but surviving to do it again. The typical strategy against WW is to sweep the board, often with a Wrath of God , but over the years WW has shown a reslience to such sweepers, and now the deck has several strategies it employs to negate the effects of those strategies. You'll also get helpful hints at making your own deck using the clues in there. This thread is designed to be the place where you discuss your deck idea, deck lists others have posted, and card choices and such. Don't be shy, but don't be rude. But for now, let's introduce you to THIS deck: Spoiler:Show
The nature of WW as a deck to play requires a lot of turning cards sideways and use of the red zone. It is an aggro deck. Moreover, it is a dedicated aggro deck, meaning that the POINT of your deck is sending creatures into the red zone; it doesn't have spells to back up the attacker by shooting the opponent, like burn decks do, and you creatures are liable to be removed by a small (but heavily played) number of cards known as "sweepers". If this is not the style of deck you'd like to play, I suggest you try out variants such as GW Aggro, LFW, Little Kid, etc. Those decks are midrange, sport fewer but more resilient creatures, and more point-and-click removal cards to back them up. Those decks are designed to keep their creatures alive throughout the game. However, they lack a capability WW has: The ability to have your creatures swing, and survive combat. Because of this, WW is the deck of choice for players who like the red zone, rather than just dealing damage to their opponent. It can also win in four turns, before you opponent has much time to react, and with as few as four creatures (one each turn).
As you see in the link above, there are three basic types of WW, depending on your taste. However, some have recently fallen out of favor with the introduction of Alara to the meta. While Kithkin-oriented aggro is still prominent, and Mirrormaster wins still inevitable, the current WW builds have favored the third of our archetypes or shifted colors to or for various reasons. I will list these three, but currently the most prominent deck types are straight up Superweenie. Kithkin WW is a tribal-oriented deck designed around the synergies among all of your little Kithkin from Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks. While most of your chard choices are from those two blocks, and maybe a few pieces from the Core Set, this deck can be built for Standard with the inclusion of a couple of other card helpers. Sample ListShow
Mirrormaster is a more combo-oriented deck with the advantage of being able to drop tokens left and right, swing overhead with fliers, and drop a pump creature end of turn, then turn your field into that pumper, making each creature exponentially large. Like Kithkin WW, this deck can win quickly, decisively, but also become engaged in a long, drawn-out campaign. Sample ListShow
Superweenie is a collection of the best Kithkin and Bant weenie creatures from Shards of Alara, and combines the creature pumping advantages of the twin strategies of Goldmeadow Stalwart + Wizened Cenn and Akrasan Squire + Sigiled Paladin to enable 3 damage from a single creature on turn 2. This deck runs more creatures than the others, but runs cheaper ones, and may be considered the most consistently fastest version. Sample ListsShow
There is much confusion as to the use of this mechanic, and the technique to use is part of this confusion. On the one hand, the mechanic asks you to do something that normally WW wouldn't do: Swing with only one creature. This is not only antithetic to your overall premise of swinging for the fences each turn, but it's also easier to chump one creature than five. On the other hand, Exalted gives you a bonus you might not otherwise have should you swing with just a single creature. Spoiler:Show
So what are the cons about Exalted? First, it promotes the impression that you have to put your eggs all in one basket. A single creature is not only easier to block, it's easier to kill. Second, you're not attacking with your other creatures, and you're going to be reducing your overall damage each turn. But there are some bonuses to Exalted, as well. 1, Exalted gives a pump and sometimes an extra ability to that singular attacker. 2, the creatures that do not attack that turn stand as a defensive guard. 3, normally, you'd only want to swing with creatures that you can ensure get through the defenses your opponent has put up, or doing so with a bunch of creatures allows your opponent to pick and choose blockers and he can more easily take them out of commission this way. Exalted requires tricky playing when used, so there are some rules of thumb that may be followed, and if you use these, you may come to some interesting results. A -- Exalted adds on a little extra damage to a single creature. Because of this, the first attacker of the game will be bigger than you'd normally have gotten, and without the extra mana required of other decks. For example, WW typically can swing for 2 on turn 2 with a Goldmeadow Stalwart , but with a Wizened Cenn , this jumps to 3 damage; however, you only get 4 Stalwarts and 4 Cenns out of 60, and per game, you may only see between 0-2 of each, so insuring your opening hand an first draw are consistent, the possibility of landing this particular combo is low. Thus, use of some cards like Akrasan Squire or Sigiled Paladin , both first turn or second, can result in a similar attack, and because you run these, your chances of dealing 3 damage on your first attack turn 2 more than doubles, it can triple as you can use three Akrasan Squire , although this is incredibly rare by turn 2. B -- Attack with as many creatures as maximizes your damage output, but be wary of the ability to block. For Exalted, this means if you could swing with 4 damage turn 3 with one creature, but also for 4 with two creatures, you should choose that which is least likely to give your opponent an way out. If you could hit for five for sure turn three, and kill any possible blocker without risking one of your guys, but you have to do this with just one attacker, go for it. Never miss an alpha strike, and never forgo swinging with the team just because you have a guy with exalted. One of the biggest misconceptions about Exalted is that you HAVE to attack with just one guy. We are fortunate that the two Exalted guys mentioned above are very strong for what they do, both offensively and defensively, that their use is always a net positive. C -- WW is known for stalling on gas in the mid to late game, essentially living on the top of its deck searching for answers or threats. This is because WW in general promoted overextending to acheive board position, essentially having the best field of the game. To counteract this, of late players have been wise to play fewer threats each turn to hold into their hand back up removal, beaters, and pump, just in case. But this leads to weaker boards, even if they are more survivable. The desire is then to acheive a superior board early, while maintain a strong and survivable team. Exalted does this by maximizing damage per creature when it is neccessary, but also because if you have just one creature, it stretches a little extra damage across the field that would not have been possible otherwise. D -- Late in the game, WW usually faces a swept board, clean of its creatures, and as such development is slow. As with "C" above, development of the board position and maintenance of it is often dependant on the ability for the cards you possess to give as much as they can while retaining superiority, rather than trading 1 for 1. You want your creatures to survive, and this means when they can, if they can, they should be able to attack for the most and still take a hit and be able to swing again next turn. And you have to do this on one creature as you redevelop. Note that in some cases, you opponents will be aiming what they can at your lone beater, determined to control the board state. A single creature at this point, any creature, will be a massive threat you must maintain, and that means being able to drop pump creatures that double duty as blockers, attackers. Unfortunately, Wizened Cenn is a poor blocker, and people are loathe to throw her away because she enables an aggressive strategy. Her loss is your opponents' gain. Thus, oddly enough, your few beaters need to be expendable, but at the same time able to swing the game state the same way. Once again, Exalted provides an outlet for this strategy. In short, don't swing all out, don't only ever swing with just one creature, and use the best beaters early. During redevelopment, repeat this process as though it were the start of the game, and make sure you maintain steam.
[FONT="Book Antiqua"]Running Sweepers[/FONT]
It is becoming more fancied that now that the Standard environment is centering around aggressive, creature based decks and defensive, controlling but also creature based decks, a sweeper is preferred to remove the opposition. This has automatically favored perennial favorite Wrath of God in a position to be used in WW. This is a formal response to this urge. Running SweepersShow
Wrath of God (WoG, for short) and its variants (or WoGs) are a common strategy for decks that need answers to creature decks, and are especially common as answers to WW. But the current slew of decks in standard includes Heritage Druid -fueled Elf decks, token-swarming Jund Ramp decks, wall and dragon fielding five-color control decks, and token-swarming hand-control decks, as well as the traditional opponents, white weenies and red weenies. Oh, there's also Faeries ... still, which fields growing numbers of token and nontoken flying bugs. These decks beg the response: What do I use to stop these decks? Normally, WW's answer is to speed up, to race, but this has left it weak to countermagic, since to race is to curve out, leaving little mana open to bait counters or pay for Broken Ambitions ; the latest in a field of options has been to include any of a variety of WoGs, from Wrath itself to Martial Coup . There are many reasons to favor their use, as well as discount the idea of using them in the first place. 1. WoGs are counter-intuitive to WW's strategy: they destroy all creatures, and more over, they destroy YOUR creatures. [Negative] 2. WoGs destroy your opponent's creatures, when you are clearly behind in the game, creating card advantage by destroying more of their permanents than you will of yours. Moreover, it can destroy your opponent's tempo, or resetting the pace of the game. [Positive] 3. When you WoG, your opponent gets the next first step, unless you can field something AFTER the sweep, or as a consequence of it. Some aggressive decks, therefore, can make use of Kirtar's Wrath , since in a long game it can replace itself by itself, while Martial Coup will always give you tokens, even if you destroy no creatures with it. [Positive and Negative] 4. Even when you establish board superiority, and field creatures, you opponent still gets the next step, in being able to WoG on his/her own, and therefore establish that you have lost your field with no benefit. Perhaps you will look at this and think "I have made him Wrath me, so that's one less in his hand," but this is not a positive answer. You should NOT be negatively affected by the sweep in the first place playing an intense aggro deck.[Negative] Now, I have won twice as many games as I have lost with my various WW builds over the years, but this doesn't mean I have won twice as many matches as I have lost, and in many of these matches, it has come down not to weenie rushes, but to WoGs or similar effects. This has taught me four lessons: 1) Do NOT over-extend by dropping creatures continuously just because you can, as you let yourself lose by feeding your opponent your best creatures [trust me, he/she will enjoy eating them]; 2) Hold on to several creatures as the game progresses, even if it's clear your opponent cannot beat you, since he may draw a trump and sweep your field in any of a variety of ways, including ways you cannot anticipate [if this means you win a turn later than you could if you'd dropped that creature earlier, don't worry, you still won and you played the better for it]; 3) Hold onto your own trumps for when you need them, and this means holding your BEST creatures for the end game, when it is time to push into your opponent with unstoppable weenie; and finally, 4) Don't be afraid to drop what can be your BEST early beater -- almost invariably Knight of Meadowgrain -- in order to force your opponent to sweep you, as this takes that card out early and you lose essentially little [I call this "forcing a Wrath", and just like baiting counters, it is an important tactic for WW]. These lessons are important for assessing the value of each WoG you will face, and if you need to use one, or want to, you can correctly evaluate its impact in the environment you wish to play it in. As such, one of the best WoG variants printed so far is Martial Coup , and it is by far one of the best ways for you to sweep where you will lose your own creatures. This is because even in a bad situation, you can get 3-4 tokens to swing with, block with, or even more and take out your opponent's creatures. That is, it can produce card advantage by replacing itself 5+ times over. (And just for fun, Kinsbaile Borderguard + Martial Coup makes a whole lot of little buggers.)
(Thanks go to Hodoku for the dividers, and midwest-lunatic who created the banner image, and made available for the other WW threads. Thanks also go out to the_dead, billybob8356, and lorddotm, who previously ran WW threads and contributed to the discussions and material involved here. Some (actually, a lot) of the text was derived from the theoretics thread I developed here, from which so many people helped that it is impossible to name them even close to comprehensively -- this is a blanket thank you to everyone in the boards involved in the discussions, with a focus thanks to l3loodl2aven, Momo, billybob, lorddotm, avenged_sixfold, ownage, spooky_doom, ironmagus ... and I know a lot more people unnamed. Don't even THINK that I forgot to name you!)
"Possibilities abound, too numerous to count."
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion Backs)
Some decks splash colors. Don't try it unless it tests and works. That is, if you are running blue for countermagic, make sure the deck runs Fish-style in out-tempo and aggro at the same time. If you run red, don't do it to copy Boros Deck Wins, because it's not currently possible due to the lack of support. If you splash green, it's probable you're doing it for Gaddock Teeg or something, but if you do it for, say, Feral Hydra , you'd better have a dedicated plan that works without sapping the basic strategy. And if you're running black for removal or hand-disruption, make sure it works!
In addition, in the Star City Games' 5k tourney qualifier, a WW deck splashing red placed well, so we'll include that for the purpose of showing off an unconventional color splash:
However, The best RW variant for WW has to be the RWW, or "Vengeant Weenie," which, unlike the deck recently christened Boat Brew, is a WW deck splashing red for Ajani Vengeant (often alongside it's mono-white namesake, or in a switch-out from the sideboard) and for burn. This is classic BDW-style aggro with burn, with superior creatures at each slot than the RDW matchup.
Some color splashes have developed into decks of their own. While Red splashed into why results in Vengeant Weenie, it also results in Boat Brew, which is something of a R/W Tokens deck running Reveillark (this deck is also called RW Tokens and RW Lark); splashing Black has resulted in early disruption into mass-token making in the form of WB Tokens (on these boards, called Subway Fare), which is currently one of the dominant decks in the format.
Now consider at this point that the purpose of this thread is deck discussion and card-choice discussion. List your arguments and your ideas clearly, cleanly, and openly. There are several threads for other colors of aggro, and other types of semi-aggro like midrange, aggro-control, fish, etc., which can easily be expplored here as long as they focus on the WW main core. You are free to make decks using WW with countermagic, midrange WW with Teeg or whatever, and so forth, but try to explain card choices that are unique (such as Wrath of God , Evacuation , etc.). Some of these are alien to WW, and thus are particular standouts.
If you critique someone, explain so clearly. While this is a tournament center, there will also be new players, and so simply being clear on WHY a card isn't good for a deck helps a lot of people and keeps confusion to a minimum.
I am on frequently, so the OP is going to be updated frequently, and I can keep an editing record here for that purpose. Enjoy.
(Thanks go to Hodoku for the dividers, and midwest-lunatic who created the banner image, and made available for the other WW threads. Thanks also go out to the_dead, billybob8356, and lorddotm, who previously ran WW threads and contributed to the discussions and material involved here. Some (actually, a lot) of the text was derived from the theoretics thread I developed here, from which so many people helped that it is impossible to name them even close to comprehensively -- this is a blanket thank you to everyone in the boards involved in the discussions, with a focus thanks to l3loodl2aven, Momo, billybob, lorddotm, avenged_sixfold, ownage, spooky_doom, ironmagus ... and I know a lot more people unnamed. Don't even THINK that I forgot to name you!)
"Possibilities abound, too numerous to count."
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion Backs)
What follows is a series of blocks separated by mana cost, which are themselves sorted by color intensity. Colorless cards are the last cards of their cmc blocks. After each card listed are a set of "tags" which give their use in the deck. These will become relevant soon.
-- Akrasan Squire As an aggressive 1-drop, this card can pump any previous creature, but it serves little purpose beyond the first two or maybe three turns. Akrasan Squire supports a strategy for attack for 3 on the first attack, second turn, as long as the second turn creature also has exalted. If that creature is Sigiled Paladin , then you have supported a four-power swing the next turn by holding back the Akrasan Squire that turn, and more if you drop more exalted that turn, a Glorious Anthem/c], etc. (Beater, Support) -- [c]Burrenton Forge-Tender An automatic 4-of in almost any White deck, this is your first pick for your sideboard, and possibly may make your mainboard. BFT is the foil for Red deck, allows your team to survive a fatal Firespout or Jund Charm . Against Red, there is little they can do if you begin to put all of your eggs into a basket, and saddling her up with a Loxodon Warhammer or Sigil of Distinction is just sexy. The ability to take a spell out of play, and to save your field, acts in a form of removal as much as a counter spell is removal. (Support)
-- Goldmeadow Harrier Against midrange and control decks, this creature is your best defense and can lock down Doran, the Siege Tower and Chameleon Colossus , Oona, Queen of the Fae , any of the deities, etc. If there is a creature you want out of the way on your attack, in case you need to alpha, Harrier is your girl. It is even reasonable to put it into your maindeck, though I would not put in all four main if you did, since their utility tends not to be highly relevant against superbly creature-heavy decks. (Removal)
-- Goldmeadow Stalwart Your best creature to drop turn one if you hold a Wizened Cenn in hand, it invariably hits for two on your first combat phase, and often for three. There is simply nothing to hate about this card, and it is one of the cheapest to drop in case you have no kithkin in hand at the time, although this situation may come up more often in non-Kithkin-centric builds, which tend to run only 12 or so kithkin cards. Your opening hand should have one if not two of these in it, and with a decent curve up to ensure that you can take 3--4 points of the opponent's lifetotal by the time he can mount a Firespout , Wrath of God , enough blockers to kill it, etc. (Beater)
-- Dispeller's Capsule This is a useful "anti-card", and thus not pro-strategy. The ability to drop it early, and remove something at leisure, but which is not susceptible to creature removal like Elvish Hexhunter or Wrath of God . However, it costs to activate, taking otu a lot of early mana that can be used to secure board position for the sake of removing and artifact, as well as an enchantment, which is its only use over Elvish Hexhunter . At best, sideboard material against new artifact cards of annoyance (monowhite creature kill) and Bitterblossom or even Goblin Assault and Oblivion Ring . (Removal)
-- Path to Exile And important likely replacement for Unmake in any deck that can use either, PtE is important tempo removal, although be wary of giving your opponent the additional resource it offers. Note, however, that PtE offers the opponent the ability to grab a basic land, and if they have none, this is flat removal. This is useful in highly multicolored decks that run color-intensive cards that do not favor basic lands, but it also thins their deck IF they run basics. However, for WW, PtE is also highly synergistic with Knight of the White Orchid , even when you are on the play, because it can bring them up to land equality with you, and allow you to ensure that when your Knight drops, you are more likely to fetch out a Plains on your own. This pair becomes card equality, but tempo advantage in the fielding of a 2/2 first striker to the loss of their best creature. (Removal)
-- Elvish Hexhunter Sadly, while it's not Ronom Unicorn , the Hexhunter is the best creature option for removing enchantments, with a special target for Bitterblossom , and the ability is hard to counter and may allow your opponents a second thought on dropping their favorite enchantment. Hexhunter is not a Kithkin, which makes it harder to run in Kith-based decks, but serves an important role just as easily. (Support)
-- Figure of Destiny While ordinarily a 1/1 for one is not impressive, especially since there are at least four other cards with the same cost and abilities that are always relevant. However, unlike all other one-drops Ww has available, Figure of Destiny is by itself uniquely capable of growing larger using spare mana, meaning that it does not need to have other cards to become better. This works while it is in play, does not require loss of resources, can be done end-of-turn if you have the mana open, and allows it to be useful at all times in the course of a game. These make it the most popular, albeit mana intensive, one drop in Standard currently, especially for being useful in both WW and RDW decks. (Beater)
-- Sigil of Distinction While it only provides pump, and it scales down over time, there are a host of useful qualities that are often not mentioned when even noting the existence of Sigil of Distinction : 1) its cost varies over time, meaning that later and later, it becomes bigger and bigger; 2) it costs no mana to equip, meaning you can sink all of your mana into it, equip it immediately, then swing with the newly equipped creature. Moreover, it can equip to Mistmeadow Skulk , previously at pains for being unable to wield the best equipment in Standard, Loxodon Warhammer . The main problem, which often comes up with Planeswalkers, is that it cannot be cast with a Gaddock Teeg in play, such that they are at odds with one another (while the Warhammer can). (Support)
-- Militia's Pride A useful card for primarily or extensively Kithkin decks, this card allows you to pump out 1/1 beaters for each attacker you control, and if a Wizened Cenn is available, pump them. It's mana intensive, though, but at only per creature, allows you to run a lower curve but with 24+ mana to acheive such beaters. It also allows you to recover after a sweeper at a slightly higher pace if neccessary, and the creatures avoid removal decently. Note: Militia's Pride and Windbrisk Heights do not have positive synergy, as "attacked" is a trigger that require the cards to have been in play as non-attackers first. (Support, Beater)
-- Mark of Asylum A permanent that turns off all red direct or sweeper damage, but also Hurricane -effects that may come out of nowhere, Ballista Squad and similar effects that may hurt the aggro deck, etc. While it is unlikely many of these effects will appear in a tournament-level environment, they are useful considerations for the WW deck to use the Mark. However, it is not as useful in those decks that use Burrenton Forge-Tender since the latter is fetchable with Ranger of Eos where that is also used, and this synergy is stronger than using the Mark in any way. It is, nonetheless, a useful permanent that is harder to remove than Burrenton Forge-Tender , and it sticks around "solving" red burn while BFT pops after one "save". (Support)
-- Mistmeadow Skulk The most evasive 2 mana creature available, but very hard to pump even if it's hard to kill. Had the Mistmeadow Skulk allowed you to equip or enchant it more easily, it would feature more prominently. As such, in predominately kithkin-based decks that seek a midrange strategy, this card should be considered heavily, and it already features in decks using Cairn Wanderer , although that is not this deck. It is easily equipped by Sigil of Distinction , however, and even a 2/2 unblockable lifelinker hitting your opponent each turn while your field sits and holds the rest back is an eventual win strategy, and Mistmeadow Skulk is, for most intents and purposes, inevitability. (Beater)
-- Knight of Meadowgrain Your best 2/2 for 2, this card alone provokes sweepers and is your best feint towards an attack strategy that takes removal out of your opponents hands. And a Knight of Meadowgrain with a Loxodon Warhammer is one of the scariest beaters in the history of scary beaters, due to the synergy of first strike + trample. 2 power first strike, in a deck that can make use of pump like this one can, can hold off most blockers unless they are desperate, and the amount of pressure that Knight of Meadowgrain provides for this reason makes it a key component in most decks that field white beaters on their own. (Beater)
-- Knight of the White Orchid Very useful, but limited in the extent to which it can be useful, for while it is accelleration, that is conditional. We want certainty, and a 2/2 for 2, even with first strike, while useful, does little unless it has a lot of back up. Putting this in can potentially allow you to use 2 in place of one Plains , helping to shore up the deck while allowing you consistent beats. It can also thin the deck, and enable a secondary drop larger than you'd otherwise do. And while it has many tricks, they are all limited. If this is included, it should be used main deck, at least 3 of them, and probably a full 4-of. (Beater, Enabler)
-- Gaddock Teeg Gaddock Teeg is one of the most useful sideboard cards that occassionally come in to the maindeck (Burrenton Forge-Tender might come in more frequently), as it stops a substantial number of cards from all of the Commands, Broken Ambitions for control, WW nemesis Wrath of God (probably one of the most salient qualities), cards pulled out from under Hideaway lands (which are often fairly expensive), and opposing Planeswalkers. Gaddock Teeg can shut down your own 4-cmc enchantments and Planeswalkers, so while Glorious Anthem is usually a poorer fit to a standard WW deck than Ajani Goldmane , it may be the best option to include if you tend to have Gaddock Teeg out often and early. While he may stall you, he most certainly stalls your opponent, and do not give up this utility just because you want an Ajani AND a Teeg out. Yes, Gaddock Teeg requires a splash for Green, but this can be done easily and painlessly using either a rare Vivid Meadow or (my recommendation) a Wooded Bastion , and never affect your mana development at all towards monowhite. (Support, Enabler)
-- Dolmen Gate At two mana, this card allows you to easily, and safely, alpha strike without fear the deaths of your team. However, it only works on the offense. Dolmen Gate is useful when the attack will not yield a win, and your creatures are not already superiorly equipped for combat, such that they can kill whatever blocks them and live, instead relying on the Gate to keep them safe. It is a useful card when the deck lacks a lot of pump, or when you run vigilant cards, so as to play the offense without a drawback (thus it works out well with Ajani Goldmane ). Dolmen Gate is also extremely useful in WW vs WW, as the two teams should be close to evenly matched. You can use the lifelinked attackers to support a buffer for the defense, and you can put in damage your own opponent cannot absolve easily. If WW rears its head even more and mirrormatches are more evident, then this will be a strong card for the sideboard. (Support)
-- Crib Swap Efficient, permanent removal, monowhite, and not very dedicated at that, either. The one major issue with Crib Swap is that if gives the opponent a token. Do not use if you play against Faeries, Elves, or Merfolk, as to do so is to give them a tool that they can use, in which case Unmake is better (and since both are in block, this negates the issue of availability). Against control and midrange however, this is ordinarily a very good spell, especially if you splash colors. Also useful if you run a deck that can find tribal cards, return them from a graveyard, or care about tribal being cast (Merfolk Fish uses it, if it exists anymore). (Removal)
-- Excommunicate The idea behind the 3 mana removal spell is that it removes that creature from the game state and then you go to town. Excommunicate says "Take out the best creature, then swing". It's a sorcery, but it serves a powerful function here as does Oblivion Ring , in removing a defensive blocker. But unlike Oblivion Ring , it will Time Walk your opponent, setting them back while you strive on ahead, and they must debate recasting their creature, or changing strategy. The lack of being able to play at instant speed is offset for creature-Time Ebb in white. Thus it may serve to function as a 3/2 split with Oblivion Ring as a removal suite, and 3/3/2 with Unmake , Excommunicate , and Oblivion Ring , with back up in the sideboard. This still skews the 3-slot as a response curve, but Excommunicate enforces a more proactive method than Unmake . It also tends to be better in midrange and control decks, since weenie aggro has enough creature removal in the form of its creatures. (Removal)
-- Oblivion Ring I'm not sure it's possible to argue against this card for virtually any reason... Okay, so it's multi-valent removal at sorcery speed, can get rid of anything up to and including Planeswalkers, and they MAY be able to get it back if they're packing removal of their own like this, but otherwise, it's permanent. (Removal)
-- Glorious Anthem Since Urza's Block, the in play support of choice for weenie decks running white, it has featured in the Core Set as the support of choice until redently. Unfortunately, Ajani Goldmane and Glorious Anthem compete for the same function, but while Ajani Goldmane gives you an eventual +4/+4 permanent boost to your field, Glorious Anthem gives you a static pump that effects your creatures even if you play them on the defense, as an instant, without having to use Ajani's ability, and it costs less. This can be important, as long as it doesn't detract from the other three- and four-slots. (Support)
-- Kinsbaile Borderguard In Kithkin-centric decks, you can expect to potentially drop Kinsbaile Borderguard as a 4/4 on turn 3, both with a one-drop, two-drop Wizened Cenn , and itself, or two one-drops on turn 2. If the next turn your opponent shoots the Borderguard, or sweeps the board clean, the Borderguard replaces itself with a token for each other creature that died. But this scenario only works in a limited perspective, and the opportunity of getting big requires such a strong focus on Kithkin as to remove the current flexibility of many new weenie beaters and enablers as to disimprove its place in the deck for their sake. It is still quite useful, and synergistic with tribal and +1/+1 counter matters cards, such as Militia's Pride , Cenn's Tactitian . (Beater)
-- Mirror Entity The ability to gradually, or in large increments, pump your field into monstrous hugeness often belies this Anthem variant that can swing on it's own. Useful in Kithkin builds, for the most part, Entity enables swings for extremely large, if you are ever permitted to untap with it in play, and is highly synergistic with token production and the ability to field an enourmous amount of creatures. Do not ue this creature unless you plan to use him the turn he drops or can assure you won't get your board wiped the next turn; otherwise, he is extreme pressure and will often also eat removal rather than the rest of the team, so don't rely on him either. (Beater, Enabler, Support)
-- Order of Whiteclay At 1/4, it doesn't do much to attack, but can resist a variety of sweeper effects, and can recur any of the primarily included creatures that do get swept away. Thus, Order of Whiteclay is a useful anti-sweeper card, as well as a post-sweeper card. The problem with Order of Whiteclay is that it requires a way to tap to be effective, and the normal method is to attack. There are a few other ways to acheive a tapped Order of Whiteclay without attacking, but aside from using a few conspire spells, they are fairly few and far between, such as Topan Ascetic or Springleaf Drum . (Recursion, Enabler)
-- Paladin en-Vec A combination of White Knight and Silver Knight , Paladin en-Vec has been a favorite for wielding equipment against foes since equipment was around, making it a useful beater in virtually any deck that would use him. However, Paladin en-Vec 's usefulness begins to wear a little in comparison to other 2/2 first strikers for cheaper and with some additional abilities, and usually at uncommon. Curving up for a body with two relevant protections are nice, but Paladin en-Vec as a 2/2 for three is rather weak when the promise for aggro is that spending 3 mana should begin to net you more superior body size: Paladin en-Vec can block Boggart Ram-Gang , but neither will be able to kill the other, despite en-Vec being a rare with first strike. This simply tells you that you must supply equipment or other external pump in order to validate his use, and this means he is not a powerful card on his own, merely useful. (Beater)
-- Kitchen Finks Enough cannot be said of Finks, for its usefulness against a variety of creature-based decks, its aggresiveness against control decks, and it's overall recursive capabilities, that allow it to derserve a place in the list of the most useful creatures ever printed. The card is just good. (Beater, Recursion)
-- Stillmoon Cavalier The versatility of the creature is extremely good, with the ability to jump and gaining first strike being the ultimate combination of two sets of White/Black knight variants (Ice Age and Coldsnap). On top of that it can pump itself for the sake of jumping into the way of any attacker (except Chameleon Colossus ), and its pump scales with time, allowing it to be more and more threatening, and with first strike at the drop of a pin to boot. The problem with Stillmoon, however, is the presence of a single toughness: Direct damage in any form is his foil. (Beater) -- Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers Highly efficient aggro, Cavaliers not only beats for large, it's hard to block safely, and it can swing and block turn after turn. With four toughness, it's also hard to Firespout , Pyroclasm , or Jund Charm , unlike most of the rest of your field, so this makes him a great midgame beater. On top of which, while it is NOT a Kithkin, any form of pump on him, from Light from Within or Wilt-Leaf Liege , will affect him above that of most other creatures you could run for 3 mana, which makes him useful in decks that employ those supporters, but he's useful without them, although not so much with tribal-matters cards such as Cloudgoat Ranger or Wizened Cenn . (Beater)
-- Unmake Flat removal at instant speed for the low, low price of being virtually completely dedicated to White. Of all the three mana targetted creature removal cards in White, Unmake is generally considered the best because of the lack of conditions or extras that mitigate the flat removal (giving an opponent a token, giving life, limited speed, requiring more colors, or being restricted in the size of the creature). Unmake suffers only one real drawback, however, and that is pro:Black creatures. (Removal)
-- Loxodon Warhammer Loxodon Warhammer helps enable the principle of "reach", being able to get damage through an opponent's defenses by granting the creature trample. An expensive permanent that does nothing the turn it comes into play, when it comes online it becomes a house no matter what it's attached to. In a pinch, it can also gain you a substantial portion of life. But the cost is prohibitive for its effect, so it is best to run less than three, either 1 or 2 at most. (Support)
-- Angelic Benediction For 4 mana, it gives a bonus to only a single creature, but it gives that creature the ability to lock opposing creatures down. However, the bonus tends to favor a midrange to an aggro-control type deck, and few WW styles can favor this strategy, but it also works where you end up needing to send a creature in for the kill, and also positively with Equipped creatures, making it easier to put your eggs into a basket. (Support)
-- Kinsbaile Cavalier Giving all of your knights double strike can be powerful, since quite a lot of the currently viable weenies are also knights. Thus, it can act like a combat Anthem with alarming and sometimes humorous results. If you are focusing on the Knight theme, which decks which make use of Light from Within sometimes do, then I strongly urge you to take that direction and avoid WW, since the creature is effectively only a 4/2 for 4cmc, and this is pretty weak compared to some of the other knights in the deck, especially since at 4 mana it deprives you of a slot normally given to pumping all of your creatures, including their toughness.
-- Ajani Goldmane Probably the best aggro Planeswalker for White, the first ability should rarely if ever come in to play, which means the typical strategy is going to be removing counters to pump your creatures. Choose wisely. You should in the turns when you are creature light or recovering, or cannot draw a card, gain life to restore a counter, but most of the time you will move progressively toward depletion, and then just end with dropping another Ajani Goldmane and begin the process. You should never, ever aim towards putting the Avatar into play since, unless it is protected from point removal or can swing for fatal that turn, is completely useless to you (although I hear Avatar into Soul's Fire can be pretty cruel), in which case, use the second ability first and if at all time always, then only the first ability when you cannot use the second effectively. (Support)
-- Elspeth, Knight Errant Elspeth, Knight Errant , unfortunately, really, really wants you to have just a few creatures, and then pump the hell out of them, and this is narrow. The trade off, 8 counters, has to be arrived at over four turns of steady attacking, and she doesn't work defensively. Sure, eventually all my stuff will be indestructible, but it's gonna be too late. Either my opponent or I will have won the game by them. Elspeth, Knight Errant belongs in a deck either with smaller creatures like tokens plus Knight-Captain of Eos for a Fog-machine, few but large creatures that love the singular +3/+3 flying pump she confers. It is important to note that she does not fit in a weenie deck, which can make use of this slot by supporting all creatures evenly. (Support)
-- Light from Within Enchantments pumping your field come pretty frequently, but this Glorious Anthem variant has the potential, for one more mana, of pumping all of your white creatures equal to the density of their white costs. This card, unfortunately for some WW decks, tells you to focus on -heavy creatures, including the "Triples", nearly all of which are not useful for this deck. Many of those creatures, with the exception of Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers , will not succeed with a substantive in play synergy, and detract from the ability to use -light and offcolor creatures, such as Ranger of Eos . There is a deck for Light from Within , but it tends towards midrange, focusing on creatures with or more in their costs. Still, it is useful as it can provide a static +2/+2 pump to your more useful beaters, but little else, and none to tokens at all. (Support)
-- Ajani Vengeant One of the more useful cards from Shards of Alara, Ajani Vengeant enables a useful strategy for the -style aggro decks. His first ability allows you to control your opponent's ability to keep up responsive or proactive mana by locking a land down, or with Goldmeadow Harrier the ability to keep several creatures locked down turn after turn, permitting a alpha strike. You will amost always use his +1 ability before his -2, and you will rarely use the latter except where you need the life or must remove something. The final ability recalls the WW decks of old which used Armageddon to destroy the oppositions ability to respond to anything you do from that point onward, although Ajani Vengeant takes this a step further in that it keeps your lands safe.
There is a caveat: Having Ajani Vengeant and Ajani Goldmage in the game together causes both to be put into graveyards due to the planeswalker's "legend" rule. Excercise caution when employing this creature. (Enabler, Removal)
-- Wilt-Leaf Liege Gives all your beaters +1/+1, and can give Gaddock Teeg +2/+2. Extremely useful against hand removal. It's an Elf, but also a Knight, which makes it useful in a Knight tribal WW. In a WW deck, without tribal aspirations, this is the Liege to use, as a 4/4 for 4cmc is very useful, especially as a walking Glorious Anthem , potential double Anthem, and strong resilience to some of the preferred Black removal (e.g., Thoughtseize , though it allows you to have them take a less useful card to prevent you from pitching the Liege into play). (Beater, Support)
-- Thistledown Liege A kithkin, and it has flash, but 1/3 is an extremely weak body for 4cmc despite its versatile playing conditions. While it provides +1/+1 to Wizened Cenn , it receives only as much in return, and even a 2/4 is weak at 4-cmc. However, the ability to end of turn it into play, then follow next turn with a Mirrorweave has led to its favorability over Wilt-Leaf Liege , even though Wilt-Leaf Liege has the ability to provide a stronger static pump when all creatures are 'Woven into it. (Support)
-- Door of Destinies I'd first like to point out that Door of Destinies has limited usefulness because each relies on you playing spells, but even a single spell played after it in a Tribal deck begins reaping rewards, and getting it down faster than turn four is possible in some tribal decks, such as Elves. One can go WW Soldiers to use it with Mobilization , but this is not often the best option, and Door of Destinies is usually left to the sideline. But don't discount it too easily ... it's primary drawback is the 4cmc, for were it cheaper, by the time it could come down as with Ajani Goldmane , it would provide the same pump, and scale permanently higher, more akin to Glorious Anthem . It's a strong card as long as you are tribally on-theme, and this can be useful in some scenarios. (Support)
-- Reveillark As the 'Lark deck combos sink with the loss of several enablers, Reveillark finds itself entering the field as a supplemental card in many decks, and WW is no exception, especially with the additional gain in several useful 1 and 2 power creatures that can affect the game state immediately (such as Knight of the White Orchid , one of the more immediate combos that come to players' minds). Reveillark can also bring back creatures that tend to die or be hated on, such as Gaddock Teeg and Knight of Meadowgrain . The ability to drop a 4-power flier enables air-attacks when the ground is stalled, another weakness for WW. (Beater, Support, Recursion)
-- Cloudgoat Ranger What at first seems pretty small and anti synergistic for its costs greatly increases the utility of the deck as it 1) provides three aggressive beaters that can trigger Windbrisk Heights , 2) four creatures that can receive the pump from Ajani Goldmane or Glorious Anthem , and 3) a finisher than can use those tokens to jump it into a 5/3 flying win condition. Ranger is never used by itself, and in a tight spot can be used to tap our field down to swing as it's ability is cumulative, rather than just singularly transformative. (Beater, Enabler)
-- Battlegrace Angel Some have heralded this as the second coming of Exalted Angel , but this is nothing of the sort. As a matter of fact, Exalted eats Battlegraces for breakfast (no, really, I saw it once on Discovery Channel!). Being a 5/5 flying lifelinker, but only on the attack, for 5 is nice. Being a 4/5 flying lifelinker on the defense for 4 is better. It's useful, again, in that exalted deck you're running. All that aside, like Reveillark , the Angel enables a useful flying beater, but unlike Reveillark , it has more toughness, and can pump itself if it ends up as the only attacker. not only can it seal the deal, it can enable you to survive long enough to do it again. However, at its cost, it is more useful in a midrange deck. (Beater, Support)
-- Spectral Procession The premier token producer for your deck. If anything, this hammers out a 3-cost slot hiatus that this deck traditionally lacks. Useful in a variety of was, Procession is an almsot guaranteed include in your deck if you wish to play competitively. It enables Windbrisk Heights , provides aerial pump from Ajani Goldmane , three chump blockers, can block Faeries tokens, and possibly better than trade with them, and provides hard-to-block pressure on your opponent. It is also very useful in case you need to damage a Planeswalker, as the fliers are highly evasive in the current environment. (Beater, Support)
-- Flame Javelin Being offcolor, Javelin requires you to have a fair amount of manafixing in the appropriate colors to be efficient, but when it is, it becomes superior to many other secondary removal spells aside from Unmake due to its abilit to hit the oppossing player directly. If you want to run this, I would highly recommend 12 lands that can produce , not just , so this means Battlefield Forge s, Rugged Prairie s, and probably several Mountain s. (Removal)
Lands. That's all that's needed. While Plains are important in any deck, the actual use of the nonbasic lands you also include differ from deck to deck. This OP does not care that you can or cannot get any of these lands, and so makes room for discussing any of them.
Painlands -- Brushland , Adarkar Wastes , Caves of Koilos , and Battlefield Forge Painlands provide the best mana fixing for their effect, which is the early-on-negligible effect of losing life per use, but this becomes more difficult in war of attrition. If you have a lot of secondary color intensity, you will need a fair number of these.
Filterlands -- Wooded Bastion , Mystic Gate , Fetid Heath , and Rugged Prairie Filterlands provide you with the painless and immediate (cip untapped) use of alternate mana, and can channel mana from into if neccessary. These are probably more important for a color-splashing deck, despite adding on their own early on, because they do not cause pain to use, and are thus extremely useful when fighting aggro, since the lifeloss must be immediately counteractive to avoid giving your opponent an edge. If your aggro is superior, it is permissible to use more painlands than filterlands, but in this case, filters are more highly preferred because the colorsplash tends to be relatively small.
Manlands -- Mutavault , Forbidding Watchtower , Faerie Conclave , Spawning Pool , Ghitu Encampment , and Treetop Village Manlands provide one major advancement over all other creatures in the deck: They cannot be removed by sorcery-speed spells, or by Wrath effects, unless those can hit lands. As such, manlands are "insurance" for aggro. But they do not crop up that often because they offer some draw backs to their inclusion. It is almost incontrivertible that Mutavault is the best manland available. It provides an aggressive tribal-matters beater that can make due with [c]Wizened Cenn, unlike the other manlands. This allows you to get a 2/2 for 2 that will also be capable of blocking. However, Vaults deprive you of mana in an otherwise color intensive deck, and this is a factor to watch out for. On the other hand, while Watchtowers provide the mana, they come into play tapped, and this is a difficult drawback to utilize unless your deck is deliberately slow (Fish style decks MAY be able to utilize him better). The most aggressive manlands (Vault, Conclave, Encampment, and Village) are useful means of triggering Windbrisk Heights , but they are slow for that purpose save the Vaults, and even then, Vaults are slow as they deprive you of early drops while in play). Mutavault (Beater, Enabler) Forbidding Watchtower (Support) Faerie Conclave (Beater, Enabler) Spawning Pool (Support) Ghitu Encampment (Beater, Support) Treetop Village (Beater, Enabler)
Vivids -- Vivid Meadow , Vivid Creek , Vivid Marsh , Vivid Crag , Vivid Grove Of the five vivids, the only reliable mana fixer is Meadow, as this will always allow you to add , but can be used in a pinch. However, all vivids come into play tapped, and this is cautionary on their use, as this prevents you from using it early on, midgame, etc., and the deck is very color dependant for the sake of its efficiency. If you use a vivid, I would argue that you use less than 4.
Other than that, several other lands are available as utility lands:
Windbrisk Heights -- For the low cost of being the only assured cipt land you'll ever run, Heights gives you the abilit to cheat cards into play by costing anything you drop with it . You need not play its ability during your attack step, but it can be handy for pulling in Spectral Procession , Glorious Anthem , or offcolor spells like Ajani Vengeant and Flame Javelin . Run Heights if you run Procession, and almost certainly if you run Cloudgoat Ranger . (Enabler, Mana)
Rustic Clachan -- This essentially is a uncounterable permanent pump for that can be played as a land in a pinch, and often untapped if you run ~12 Kithkin (it is almost assured you'd be running Knight of Meadowgrain , but the rest is up to you). (Support, Mana)
Reflecting Pool -- For a land that in most cases can only ever produce one color of mana, if you're playing a two-color deck, Pools may be very important as they give you a non-pain-inducing and cip untapped means of making mana. Use this ONLY if you have at least ~8 other ways of producing the other colors of mana you need, as otherwise it will only be as good as the land for which you have most in your deck (i.e., Plains). (Mana)
(Thanks go to Hodoku for the dividers, and midwest-lunatic who created the banner image, and made available for the other WW threads. Thanks also go out to the_dead, billybob8356, and lorddotm, who previously ran WW threads and contributed to the discussions and material involved here. Some (actually, a lot) of the text was derived from the theoretics thread I developed here, from which so many people helped that it is impossible to name them even close to comprehensively -- this is a blanket thank you to everyone in the boards involved in the discussions, with a focus thanks to l3loodl2aven, Momo, billybob, lorddotm, avenged_sixfold, ownage, spooky_doom, ironmagus ... and I know a lot more people unnamed. Don't even THINK that I forgot to name you!)
"Possibilities abound, too numerous to count."
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion Backs)
Your matchups are your weaknesses. Some of them are brutal, and some of them are push overs. This isn't to say that those decks are weak overall, but aggro traditionally and mechanically has an advantage over control decks; but some of those decks are designed to take down aggro like WW fairly quickly. In today's environment, decks are more color-heavy than they have been in years, leading to the common splashing of anti-weenie cards like Firespout and Infest . You should expect to see these cards played against you if you play anyone, and because of this, a strategy for matchups will require not only what you will face, but how to prepare for it. Use this guide to help devise your sideboard and play strategy.
Five Color Control (5CC), Quick 'n' Toast, Bant Control Spoiler:Show
5CC decks seek to attain control of the game using tempo and countermagic to deprive the opponent of his strategy, and finish using a few huge and assuredly hard to resolve finishers. These cards only require a few turns to defeat you, so your goal is to attain the upper hand versus the control game, and not let the finishers swing long enough to defeat you, especially heavy hitters like Oona, Queen of the Fae and Chameleon Colossus , which is immune to Unmake . Early aggro is your goal. You must focus on the earliest drops, putting pressure on them faster and faster; they must wipe the board repeatedly against our threat density, nearly all of which are superior creatures on the whole than virtually anything they drop, and nothing they use can kill you.
Use: Knight of the White Orchid -- The land drops it enables allows you to repeat threads earlier and faster than you'd normally want, offsetting the tempo they attempt to gain. Oblivion Ring -- Perhaps your best answer to Chameleon Colossus , but also Oona. Use wisely, and bait cards out for it so that they counter stuff, since you need to put aside those fat creatures and stop their ability to go for the game. Ranger of Eos -- It brings out Figure of Destiny and Goldmeadow Harrier , both important in dropping a growable creature that uses lands you already have to pump it up, and Harrier, locking down their win con. Order of Whiteclay -- It recurs early countered or killed creatures, allowing you to reset up against control, especially with Kitchen Finks after it dies with a -1/-1 counter.
RDW and Demigod decks use repeated and cheap removal in the form of highly aggressive and powerful damage to take out threats at a cost comparable to the cards they are removing. Early on, RDW takes the upper hand, but runs out of steam, which is usually finished with a Demigod of Revenge or Hell's Thunder fed back into play for the finish. RDW decks use burn as a form of tempo advantage, and typically come into the midgame on one or two cards in hand. Keep the threats going, and only deal with holding back when doing so deprives them of the ability to kill you. You may need to hold the game enough on your field until your team is strong enough to resist RDW's board, or you can field evasion.
Use: Burrenton Forge-Tender -- It has immunity to their deck, barring Mutavault , and they will tempt you to pop them to save another creature, then shoot that creature again. Instead, let other creatures die and use them only when they would sweep the board or otherwise try to take out multiple creatures at once; the virtual CA (aka, CQ) BFT provides is virtually impossible to top. Ranger of Eos -- For no other reason than to bring up BFTs and possibly Harriers. Also, they are big enough to take out Boggart Ram-Gang s while replacing themselves twice over. Reveillark -- Brings back deck blockers, while removing threats on the defense. Can kill Demigods and replaces itself twice over.
WB Tokens seeks to dominate using an early token-heavy strategy to aggro the opponent to death, backed by cheap fast removal and early disruption. Thoughtseize into Tidehollow Sculler are accompanied by a plan to use Reveillark for card-advantage and eventual board superiority. Out of the sideboard, Tokens runs Wrath of God and pulls out the removal stops in order to take out the opposing force, which is equal to theirs in numbers, but superior is size individually. It's plan is attrition, raw and brutal.
Use: Stillmoon Cavalier -- Aside from Wrath, there is nothing in their deck that can stop this card. It is, in fact, something that forces them to race you or peel it out of your hand before you can land it. If you do, even an eventual Zealous Persecution should be mitigated by Ajani counters. Gaddock Teeg -- Teeg stops Wrath, but that's about it; he is useful because he eats removal, instead of other beaters, forcing a 2:1 in terms of extension. Dauntless Escort -- Like Teeg, Escort stops Wrath, in as much as simply eating it while all other removal is pointed at it to stop it doing its thing; Escort also turns off advantageous blocking: all of your creatures will survive combat, forcing the opponent to spend tokens.
The Rock, Doran, Jund Rock, Elf-Rock are all variations on a theme: using Black disruption and removal, Green fat, Black and Green recursion, and splashing white for two powerhouse cards, Doran, the Siege Tower and Tidehollow Sculler , and some will use red for Jund Charm and Firespout . It seeks to deny resources early on and landing fat a turn or two earlier than it would normally be viable. You need to use a few specialized creatures to deal with their fat and bulk, and graveyard handling to deal with their recursion.
Use: Stillmoon Cavalier -- Since virtually all of their deck is either black or white, including a keynote creature and most of their removal, Stillmoon is protected from virtually their entire removal suite and is a powerhouse. Condemn -- While this gives Doran's controller 5 life, it stops reanimation. Giving them the card back with Excommunicate is also problematic, leaving you with Unmake and Condemn , as well as possibly just Crib Swap , but cheaper. Relic of Progenitus -- Makeshift Mannequin sometimes features in Rock decks, but more importantly, Profane Command more so, as a virtual staple. This card almost invariably brings back Shriekmaw , from which none but Stillmoon can deal with. Oblivion Ring -- Its highly probable that Rock decks will splash Red for Sarkhan Vol and Jund Charm , and using Orings for Garruk Wildspeaker on top of Sarkhan steals their wind in a highly tempo-advantageous manner.
Big Mana, Mana Ramp, and Naya and Jund Ramp Spoiler:Show
Early mana advantage feeds into land accelleration and creatures to drop huge fat much earlier than they'd normally be expected, and they run classic removal in Red to clear the way. Primal Command features heavily, and you may see Dramatic Entrance . They may even run a toolbox of creatures to fetch up, while at the same time, running something classic and huge in the form of Empyrial Archangel or (more likely) Hellkite Overlord , which can end the game right then. Archangel has protection from your removal, in being untouchable, which will require a blocker, or by winning the game faster than you can handle.
Use: Goldmeadow Harrier -- Lock down what you can, force them to use their mana creatures early or slow them. You need to play a controllish game this time. Excommunicate -- Some ramp decks run offcolor creatures that they fetch up and dump into play. Your best strategy is going to be to give them that creature again, this time when they can't use it, timewalking them. First Strikers -- You need all of them this time: Sigiled Paladin , Knight of Meadowgrain , and Knight of the White Orchid . The first strike damage will pierce Archangel's defenses, and since you alreayd run pump, including Ajani or such, you can muster enough to kill Archangel, even if it blocks, before it can take out anything you swing with.
Aggro with control is still strong, this time it needs to splash another color. But whether that color is White or Red depends on the usefulness of the requisite cards. For the most part, splashing red gives you better board sweepers that avoid your guys, but going white gives you better control and resource removal that isn't creatures. You have to face the same things you have always done: Bitterblossom into Spellstutter Sprite into Mistbind Clique . But now you have to face more definite removal and disruption. Faeries may have lost Ancestral Vision , but this may not hurt as much with dedicated instant speed draw with Esper Charm , Ponder for set up, Grixis Charm , etc. Faeries almost wants you to splash another color to sideboard in the best utility against them.
Use: Mistmeadow Skulk -- No kidding. This card has protection from Faeries as a deck, able to swing through for the win repeatedly, offsetting Bitterblossom each turn. Excommunicate -- Giving your opponent a token they can use, very well, with Crib Swap or giving them life as a resource for Blossom while keeping the card with Ponder shuffling it back up doesn't work, while Excommunicate can set them back a well-planned turn. Sorcery speed may hurt, but the instant speed stuff, aside from Unmake , doesn't look too good either. Elspeth, Knight Errant -- Almost certainly, Elspeth's second ability will produce creatures as big as, if not bigger, than anything Faeries musters, even with Scion of Oona in play; a jumped/pumped Knight of Meadowgrain tears through a Mistbind Clique . Oversoul of Dusk -- ... will raise the curve. But it stops virtually any blocking, can't be removed, and they must deal with it with Command set to tap, or Thoughtseize /Tidehollow Sculler it (the last being an option for Esper Faeries). Stillmoon Cavalier -- ... will eat and stop any Blossom token, but works best on the response, and is also a target for early hand disruption.
(If you splash a color, also: Firespout -- If you splash Green, you need this card. It should be able to wipe the field with the faeries barring a Mistbind Clique in play, and their Vendillion Clique or Thoughtseize will definately hurt. Hindering Light -- They target your stuff, you stop them. While creatures that target hurt, it stops two of Cryptic Command 's modes, both of which are useful for Faeries against you.)
Makes tonnes of tokens, uses them to burn with Furystoke Giant and Siege-Gang Commander , using Bitterblossom early and Goblin Assault bn later, then treats them as resources for aggression, recurs token makers with Profane Command , then uses Torrent of Souls to pull anything back and swarm the ground with 3/1s or better to overwhelm. Or ... just swing with a SGC and his little buddies for 9 with Sarkhan Vol 's first ability. You have your work cut out here for the amount of tokens this can produce, and it is designed to use them in any way possible, including eat them for Predator Dragon . Beware!
Use: Burrenton Forge-Tender -- They can probably shoot it with black removal, but otherwise this guy can hold off the largest nonflier they have or deal with a sweeper they used to wipe your field. Ranger of Eos -- You'll need Burrenton Forge-Tender , Figure of Destiny , and maybe even Goldmeadow Harrier , at which point Ruel has done his job. Reveillark -- If they kill your stuff, you'll need it all back, and it should be able to kill anything they Torrent out and swing with. Relic of Progenitus -- The anti-Torrent/Profane/Mannequin card of choice.
(Thanks go to Hodoku for the dividers, and midwest-lunatic who created the banner image, and made available for the other WW threads. Thanks also go out to the_dead, billybob8356, and lorddotm, who previously ran WW threads and contributed to the discussions and material involved here. Some (actually, a lot) of the text was derived from the theoretics thread I developed here, from which so many people helped that it is impossible to name them even close to comprehensively -- this is a blanket thank you to everyone in the boards involved in the discussions, with a focus thanks to l3loodl2aven, Momo, billybob, lorddotm, avenged_sixfold, ownage, spooky_doom, ironmagus ... and I know a lot more people unnamed. Don't even THINK that I forgot to name you!)
"Possibilities abound, too numerous to count."
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion Backs)
This topic is better then the original WW OP in the DTB section. That's why he posted another.
Great job, Qilong. Kinda wants me to play WW.
Well, it's actually the "same" as the old one, but this time I separated the subsections into posts, since there were times when the added content exceeded the limits of the post's size, so now it's all fitted neatly with plenty of room for expansion. Anyways, threads are usually retired when they hit 1000 posts, so I started a new one. This should be switched into the DtB and the old one out.
And I'm the same Qilongia ... I just had issues with my email and login in problems, so I used an old backup email.
"Possibilities abound, too numerous to count."
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion Backs)
