Luca Grease
04-26-2011, 09:55 AM
Hi guys,
this is my first post here, so don't go too hard on me... :P
I have just started messing around with MTG again after almost a decade, and, even though it re-started as a very casual interest for a few games with a friend, it seems I'm getting addicted again and I'd like to take things to the next level...
Basically, since my first deck ever was a classic white weenie, ever since I've returned I've gradually tried to update it with new and better cards and synergies, constantly replacing outdated cards or introducing new strategies.
Although it is basically a weenie deck, it's not really that fast and is more of an aggro/control hybrid, if such a thing is even possible. I do not expect it to be competitive on tournament level, but I'd like it to eventually become a respectable legacy deck that's good for a little more than casual play. I know there are many existing decks that probably do the same things this one does, only faster and better, but what's the point of forking out 500$ to play someone else's deck?
Anyway, here's the current list:
Creatures:
4 Mother of Runes (W)
2 Knight of the white orchid (WW)
4 Dawn Elemental (WWWW)
4 Knight of Meadowgrain (WW)
2 Knight of the Holy Nimbus (WW)
Enchantments:
4 Pariah (W2)
4 Light From Within (WW2)
Instants:
2 Swords to Plowshares (W)
2 Path to exhile (W)
2 Enlightened Tutor (W)
Sorceries:
2 Armageddon (W3)
Artifacts:
4 Aether Vials
2 Mask of Memory
Sideboard:
2 Devout Lightcaster
4 True Believer
2 Seal of Purity
2 Aura of Silence
4 Samurai of the Pale curtain
1 Cataclysm
Lands: 22
1 Karakas
2 Flagstones of Trokair
19 Plains
Basically, the focal point of the deck is utilizing creatures that cost only white mana to maximize the effectiveness of light from within: so basically lots of knights and Dawn Elemental.
PARIAH is there to be cast on Dawn Elemental for a combo that protects you from all damage, almost game-ending against aggro and burn decks. Worst case scenario it can be utilized as a fog+creature removal by enchanting an opponent's creature.
MOTHER OF RUNES is pretty self explanatory, especially in protecting your paria'ed elemental from spot removal, and in enabling other creatures to be enchanted with Pariah and then protected from the damage source's color in case you dont have an elemental
AETHER VIALS are there for accelleration, surprise blocking, protection from countermagic, and combo well with Armageddon
ARMAGEDDON is an obvious aggro strategy, except this deck isn't all that fast. Despite that, I still find it's a powerful strategy against control decks, and combos well with Vials, Flagstones of Trokair, Knight of the Holy Nimbus and, to a lesser extent, Path to Exhile.
KNIGHTS these are general purpose creatures, they don't really combo strongly with anything and aren't usually game winning, but they all synegize well with Light From Within and form the backbone of your forces. Knight of Meadowgrain is by far the best out of those and possibly the best general purpose two drop for mono-white. The other knights, holy nimbus and white orchid, are more at risk in this deck, and are basically there because there doesn't seem to be anything that fits in better. They are usually the first to go when I'm swapping some sideboard creatures in.
REMOVAL I know StP is an overall better card than Path to Exhile, but since I have two of each, and Path synergizes slightly with Knight of the White Orchid and Armageddon, I chose to get two and two instead of 4 StP. Really on the fence on wether to just run 4 Stp instead or not.
MASK OF MEMORY basically I felt like this deck needed some way do draw more cards, since it almost always ends up with cards disadvantage in every game I play, and mask of memory was the fastest and cheapest option I had. I might have to swap these two for better equipment though, like 1 sword of fire and ice and one sword of light and shadow (lightning greaves is another option, especially on a paria'ed creature, but the haste effect doesn't really combo well with Vials).
TUTORS are there for obvious reasons
KARAKAS has no combos in this deck but I have one and it's still better than a plains so why not
SIDEBOARD
TRUE BELIEVER absolute life savers against a variety of decks such as mill, discard, storm, or cards like diabolict edict or gatekeeper of malakir, synergizes well with light from within.
SAMURAI OF THE PALE CURTAIN outright devastating against dredge, reanimators, and many other legay decks, also synergizes with light from within.
SEAL OF PURITY/AURA OF SILENCE disenchants that can be fetched via tutor, I'm considering running 3 Aura of Silence instead of 2 and 2
CATACLYSM mostly there to deal with aggro decks or to get rid of planeswalkers
DEVOTED LIGHTCASTER becomes a 5/5 with light from within and is devastating against black. Might swap for Oversoul of Dusk
PROBLEMS THIS DECK HAS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
1) Board sweepers: mother of runes is powerless against those, probably this deck's greatest weakness. Considering mana tithe as a possible counter but it's not that effective if the opponent knows you are playing it.
2) Few Creatures: currently the main deck only has 16 creatures, which is probably too little. I'd consider bringing the number up to 18 or 20, by maybe taking out one light and one pariah (3 of each should still be enought considering they can be tutored), and perhaps one aether vial (spectacular card, but not that useful to get multiples copies of it in play if you don't have many creatures to cast)
A possible solution to both problems would be to add a few Knight Exemplars to the main deck: they do nothing for Mother of runes and Dawn Elemental, but they protect the rest of my creatures (including other copies of each other) from board sweeps, and make every one of them a perfect candidate for Pariah), they also get a decent +2+2 from Light of Within. This would truly be a no-brainer if it wasn't for the fact that, against a very high percentage of decks, I'd have to take out many of my knights to play creatures from the sideboard (mostly True Believer and Samurai of the Pale Curtain), thus greatly reducing the effectiveness of the lords.
Another possible solution is to retool the whole deck to a Knight deck, playing 4 exemplars instead of the Elementals, and 4 Students of Warfare instead of the Mothers, and substituting sideboard creatures with non-creature cards with similar effects (any graveyard hate instead of samurais and Ivory Mask instead of True Believers). Even though this might potentially be a tighter, more focused deck, it would require me to radically change the aspect of the deck and to spend a significant amount of money for those cards aswell...
I guess the best short-term solution would be to get a couple of Knight Exemplars in the main board, and eventually sideboard them off in case I need to play different creatures, that way I will already have a few of them in case I decide to retool the deck to a Knights...
Thanks for reading through this, any thoughts or suggestions?
this is my first post here, so don't go too hard on me... :P
I have just started messing around with MTG again after almost a decade, and, even though it re-started as a very casual interest for a few games with a friend, it seems I'm getting addicted again and I'd like to take things to the next level...
Basically, since my first deck ever was a classic white weenie, ever since I've returned I've gradually tried to update it with new and better cards and synergies, constantly replacing outdated cards or introducing new strategies.
Although it is basically a weenie deck, it's not really that fast and is more of an aggro/control hybrid, if such a thing is even possible. I do not expect it to be competitive on tournament level, but I'd like it to eventually become a respectable legacy deck that's good for a little more than casual play. I know there are many existing decks that probably do the same things this one does, only faster and better, but what's the point of forking out 500$ to play someone else's deck?
Anyway, here's the current list:
Creatures:
4 Mother of Runes (W)
2 Knight of the white orchid (WW)
4 Dawn Elemental (WWWW)
4 Knight of Meadowgrain (WW)
2 Knight of the Holy Nimbus (WW)
Enchantments:
4 Pariah (W2)
4 Light From Within (WW2)
Instants:
2 Swords to Plowshares (W)
2 Path to exhile (W)
2 Enlightened Tutor (W)
Sorceries:
2 Armageddon (W3)
Artifacts:
4 Aether Vials
2 Mask of Memory
Sideboard:
2 Devout Lightcaster
4 True Believer
2 Seal of Purity
2 Aura of Silence
4 Samurai of the Pale curtain
1 Cataclysm
Lands: 22
1 Karakas
2 Flagstones of Trokair
19 Plains
Basically, the focal point of the deck is utilizing creatures that cost only white mana to maximize the effectiveness of light from within: so basically lots of knights and Dawn Elemental.
PARIAH is there to be cast on Dawn Elemental for a combo that protects you from all damage, almost game-ending against aggro and burn decks. Worst case scenario it can be utilized as a fog+creature removal by enchanting an opponent's creature.
MOTHER OF RUNES is pretty self explanatory, especially in protecting your paria'ed elemental from spot removal, and in enabling other creatures to be enchanted with Pariah and then protected from the damage source's color in case you dont have an elemental
AETHER VIALS are there for accelleration, surprise blocking, protection from countermagic, and combo well with Armageddon
ARMAGEDDON is an obvious aggro strategy, except this deck isn't all that fast. Despite that, I still find it's a powerful strategy against control decks, and combos well with Vials, Flagstones of Trokair, Knight of the Holy Nimbus and, to a lesser extent, Path to Exhile.
KNIGHTS these are general purpose creatures, they don't really combo strongly with anything and aren't usually game winning, but they all synegize well with Light From Within and form the backbone of your forces. Knight of Meadowgrain is by far the best out of those and possibly the best general purpose two drop for mono-white. The other knights, holy nimbus and white orchid, are more at risk in this deck, and are basically there because there doesn't seem to be anything that fits in better. They are usually the first to go when I'm swapping some sideboard creatures in.
REMOVAL I know StP is an overall better card than Path to Exhile, but since I have two of each, and Path synergizes slightly with Knight of the White Orchid and Armageddon, I chose to get two and two instead of 4 StP. Really on the fence on wether to just run 4 Stp instead or not.
MASK OF MEMORY basically I felt like this deck needed some way do draw more cards, since it almost always ends up with cards disadvantage in every game I play, and mask of memory was the fastest and cheapest option I had. I might have to swap these two for better equipment though, like 1 sword of fire and ice and one sword of light and shadow (lightning greaves is another option, especially on a paria'ed creature, but the haste effect doesn't really combo well with Vials).
TUTORS are there for obvious reasons
KARAKAS has no combos in this deck but I have one and it's still better than a plains so why not
SIDEBOARD
TRUE BELIEVER absolute life savers against a variety of decks such as mill, discard, storm, or cards like diabolict edict or gatekeeper of malakir, synergizes well with light from within.
SAMURAI OF THE PALE CURTAIN outright devastating against dredge, reanimators, and many other legay decks, also synergizes with light from within.
SEAL OF PURITY/AURA OF SILENCE disenchants that can be fetched via tutor, I'm considering running 3 Aura of Silence instead of 2 and 2
CATACLYSM mostly there to deal with aggro decks or to get rid of planeswalkers
DEVOTED LIGHTCASTER becomes a 5/5 with light from within and is devastating against black. Might swap for Oversoul of Dusk
PROBLEMS THIS DECK HAS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
1) Board sweepers: mother of runes is powerless against those, probably this deck's greatest weakness. Considering mana tithe as a possible counter but it's not that effective if the opponent knows you are playing it.
2) Few Creatures: currently the main deck only has 16 creatures, which is probably too little. I'd consider bringing the number up to 18 or 20, by maybe taking out one light and one pariah (3 of each should still be enought considering they can be tutored), and perhaps one aether vial (spectacular card, but not that useful to get multiples copies of it in play if you don't have many creatures to cast)
A possible solution to both problems would be to add a few Knight Exemplars to the main deck: they do nothing for Mother of runes and Dawn Elemental, but they protect the rest of my creatures (including other copies of each other) from board sweeps, and make every one of them a perfect candidate for Pariah), they also get a decent +2+2 from Light of Within. This would truly be a no-brainer if it wasn't for the fact that, against a very high percentage of decks, I'd have to take out many of my knights to play creatures from the sideboard (mostly True Believer and Samurai of the Pale Curtain), thus greatly reducing the effectiveness of the lords.
Another possible solution is to retool the whole deck to a Knight deck, playing 4 exemplars instead of the Elementals, and 4 Students of Warfare instead of the Mothers, and substituting sideboard creatures with non-creature cards with similar effects (any graveyard hate instead of samurais and Ivory Mask instead of True Believers). Even though this might potentially be a tighter, more focused deck, it would require me to radically change the aspect of the deck and to spend a significant amount of money for those cards aswell...
I guess the best short-term solution would be to get a couple of Knight Exemplars in the main board, and eventually sideboard them off in case I need to play different creatures, that way I will already have a few of them in case I decide to retool the deck to a Knights...
Thanks for reading through this, any thoughts or suggestions?