[Deck] Rabid Wombat - Mono-White Control

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Land:
19x Snow-Covered Plains
4x Secluded Steppe

Creatures:
4x Eternal Dragn

Spells:
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Abeyance
4x Renewed Faith
4x Decree of Justice
3x Wing Shards
3x Wrath of god
3x Humility
3x Gilded Light
3x Akroma's Vengeance
2x Rune of Protection: Red

Sideboard:
3x Phyrexian Furnace
3x Disenchant
3x Aura of Silence
3x Orim's Chant
3x Genju of the Fields



The deck is based on the tradition of Parfait/Mono White Control. The major alteration is the use of cycling as a form of card-drawing; you have 28 cards maindeck that draw a card, allowing the deck to have great digging power when it's looking for cards against a certain matchup.

Card-by-card;

Plains: They're Basic. No reason why they have to be Snow-Covered, I'm just using them as a tribute to the late, great Crazy 88's.
Secluded Steppe: The first one drawn is usually played first turn, when you lose no tempo off of it. Past that you're going to usually cycle them. Running 23 land, 4x Eternal Dragon and so many cyclers helps fight mana screw. The Steppes also help fight mana flood.

Creature Hate:

Humility: Crushes most creature-based strategies really, really fast.
Wrath of God: Clears the board.
Swords to Plowshares: Best targeted removal in the game.
Wing Shards: A bomb against aggro-control and control.

Situational Cards:

Gilded Light: Anti-combo tech. It cycles.
Abeyance: Anti-combo, anti-control tech. Amazing synergy with Wing Shards. It also cycles.
Renewed Faith: Least powerful card hardcast, but often stalls a turn against aggro while allowing you to dig deeper by cycling.
Akroma's Vengeance: Resets the board, acting as a Desert Twister that you can cycle away at worst.
Rune of Protection Red: Strictly better than CoP, really. Beats Goblins, beats Burn, which would otherwise be a hard matchup; it cycles.

Kill Conditions:

Eternal Dragon- The best Control creature in the game, hands down. Fixes mana, can swing the game in the control mirror match without ever entering play, and thwarts counters. Provides massive land stabilizing/thinning.
Decree of Justice- Less utility, but more powerful. A wrecking ball against most decks, especially with Humility on the board. Sometimes it's not even bad hardcast. It's an established fact that U/G Madness loses with 5 4/4 Flying Angels on the board.

Sideboard Cards:
Disenchant/Aura: You need Artifact and Enchantment hate. These are two of the strongest cards in that category.
Phyrexian Furnace: Cycles, and pwns graveyard recursion.
Orim's Chant: More anti-combo tech.
Genju: An extra kill condition when you need it, that can provide life gain. And it might be able to get around Humility. Still trying to figure that one out.


Matchups:

Landstill: Ridiculously easy. They can't touch your kill conditions, really. Standstill is often better for you than it is for them. Meanwhile, you have enough creature hate to keep their kill conditions from getting through. Dragon alone can wreck them. And you're maindecking Abeyance. It's hard to lose a round to Landstill with this deck short from getting completely screwed the first game and running out of time. Sideboard; Bring in Disenchants, move Humility and Wrath of God out. Possibly bring in Genju or Furnace over Gilded Light/Rune of Protection. The only card in their deck you're really at all afraid of is Crucible, which can make your Wing Shards obsolete.


ATS: Haven't been able to test this yet, results pending. Every other Survival deck has been a walk in the park, but Force/Mana Leak might change that. Undoubtedly your primary dig target is Humility, like against other Survival decks.


U/G Madness: 55-45 about. Slightly favorable, but still quite swingy. The counters can prove worrisome. Your top dig targets are Wing Shards and Abeyance. Wing Shards is vital to this match; they'll usually be able to deal with a Wrath or Humility.


Vial Goblins: Heavily in your favor. You're running a bajillion creature hate and maindecking Rune. I mean, really. Fuckin' Rune of Protection. At least 60% in your favor. They lose the late game hardcore, so they're going to want to get the God hand and hope you don't have Swords/Shards to deal with it. Find the Rune and you win. Don't, and you probably win anyway.


Solidarity: Your best bet here is to pick up their deck, replace it with one of your own design that doesn't have lands, and hope they can't tell the difference. Otherwise, I recommend grasping their knees and supplicating for mercy. At least 80% in their favor. Once in a while you can draw triple Abeyance and hope to win that way, but it's not looking great. Your best bet is to try to win first or second game and then hope to stall into a Time draw. Cycle and early Decree for 2-3 soldiers, keep digging for Abeyance and Gilded Light, bluff them if you don't have them, and hope to God their draws suck and/or they don't know what they're doing.


Tog/Hulk: It's like Landstill, only Wrath of God and Humility become a lot better. Once in a while they can get a good aggro hand and a couple Duress's, but generally this is an easy matchup with very little stress on you to do anything but mock your opponent's ancestry. Most of your cards are good in this matchup. If you really want it to, Gilded Light can even counter a Duress that would strip away a useful Decree or Wing Shards.


Nausea: About even. The fact that their kill condition can never be used in response to an Abeyance, and that they don't run Force of Will, makes all the difference in the World. You're still only running seven cards maindeck against them, but those seven cards are very effective at doing their job. The fact that Gilded Light actually counters Tendrils is amazing, since they can't even hope to go off in small bursts. Renewed Faith can also fuck with their math sucessfully.


MoSH/Darwin's Revenge: I'm something like 2-7 against this deck, and I have no idea why. Maybe I'm much worse at drawing cards than Brian is. Humility seems like it should wreck them, but instead it sits in your hand or gets discarded to the Night's Reach bitch. Unfavorable matchup. Sideboard might help with Disenchant/Aura.



I'll get some more detailed matchups once I get to actally play ATS, and I'll probably post my tournament report from the Dual Land Draft tourny.


Edit: New list, as of 1/20/06


9x Snow-Covered Plains
10x Plains
3x Secluded Steppe

4x Eternal Dragon
4x Decree of Justice

4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Humility
3x Wrath of God
4x Wing Shards

4x Abeyance
4x Renewed Faith
4x Bandage
2x Akroma's Vengeance
2x Rune of Protection: Red

[cheeseman]

I'm really not seeing how this deck deals with counters, but I suppose that I should test it first :;):

Anyways, I'm really glad to see that you put in the time to test out a MWC variant in Legacy. I was always a big fan of Parfait, so this is great. So, how about that Belcher being an auto-loss?

[Slay]

I fail to see how this deck can beat Landstill. Landstill has Swords to Plowshares for your Dragons, and you have nothing to protect them with. They have Wrath of God and Disk for your Decree tokens. And with a far superior draw engine than you, they'll see thsoe cards quicker than you'll see threats. Not to mention how your threats cost assloads of mana to use. Your only real hope of winning is by decking them, and that seems very difficult to do.
-Slay

[Kadishack]

@ landstill matchup

When landstill drops a standstill all he does is, sits there compiles his mana and then cycles decree for an ASS-TON and wins. The factorys and such can be dealt with by cycling earlier decrees to block.

[Slay]

If Landstill decided to remove the usual Mishra's Factories and Faerie Conclaves for Forbidding Watchtowers, you might have a point. Until then, TIBA has to get enough mana to beat the ten-turn clock going on without casting a spell.
-Slay

[Silverdragon]

Since „Astroglide“ (the R/W Cyclingdeck by Fakespam) was posted in this forum I have been working on a very similar deck using Humility to hose Survival and Cycling to hose Landstill. What I found out during my testing is that this deck can easily use Enlightened Tutor to build a toolbox of Enchantments and Artifacts. Before I give you a list I want to make some comments on cards that could be used in this deck instead of weaker ones (imho).
First, you said that you have a weak matchup against Solidarity but a strong one against Vial Goblins. So why not take those Runes to the Sideboard and play some Rule of Law main instead?
As Slay said your Matchup against Landstill doesn't seem to be as good as it looks on paper so I'd suggest to cut one or two of the more expensive cards (Akromas Vengeance [seriously who wants to cycle this bomb?]) and add some Disenchants or Seal of Cleansing. You could even cut all Vengeances and try out Crucible of Worlds.
For reference here is my list:
Not so Parfait (Michael Schreiner)

Manabase (30)

2 Wasteland (playing only one color makes this possible)
4 City of Traitors (see above + they make cool Enchantments and Artifacts possible on turn 2)
1 Ancient Den (can be tutored for but be careful against Welder)
3 Windswept Heath (some Fetchlands for Crucible)
12 Plains
4 Mox Diamond (close call with 22 lands but amazing with Tithe)
4 Tithe (why Wizards? Where's our Tax?)

Engine (7)

4 Enlightened Tutor (6 Humility main sounds good)
3 Argivian Find (can be reduced or cut but is always useful against Counters and Naturalizes etc)

Staying Alive (9)

4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Wrath of God
3 Pulse of the Fields (can also be Renewed Faith but often you get 8 Life out of a Pulse before they figure how to counteract it)

Hosing (10)
2 Humility
1 Crucible of Worlds (works with Wasteland, Fetchies, City of Traitors and also against opposing LD)
1 Aura of Silence (erhaps better off being Null Rod)
1 Seal of Cleansing (cheaper Aura)
1 Rule of Law (at least Solidarity has to find its bounce now)
4 Abeyance

Kill (4)

3 Decree of Justice
1 Mobilization (see below)

Sideboard

x Null Rod
x Orim's Chant
x Karmic Justice
x cards already in mainboard (to complete the playset after boarding)
x other

It's obviously more based on old Parfait with the Tithes replacing Land Tax and the Argivian Finds saving destroyed Enchantments but it's definately a direction to consider for MWC.
I know it's a bit random without the Enlightened Tutors ready in hand but most of the cards are useful in more than one matchup so it's not all bad.
There are some slots that can easily be changed for your meta. Most involve the toolbox but the Pulses for example are only necessary main if your meta has many Slighvariants or is heavy aggro in general.
Another questionable spot is the one Mobilization but I prefer it to the forth Decree because once you've cast all Decrees they won't come back. This can be brought back thanks to Argivian Find and can create tokens over and over.
I havent figured out a good sideboard yet. Perhaps adding Scepters and trying for the Chant lock might be good, but I think it would be better to find something against other Controldecks like more recursion.

Hope that inspires a bit and we can come up with a really good MonoWhiteControl.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

For God's sake, if you're going to question the results of someone that's spent dozens of hours playtesting a deck, play it once or twice first. The Landstill matchup doesn't need to be helped. I've played dozens of games against Landstill and lost perhaps twice. I've stalled out on two lands for six turns against Landstill and still beat the living shit out of them. They can't do much to you at all. They don't have any good counter targets- the only good cards that can be effectively countered are the Abeyances and the Swords, which cost as much or less than the cards doing the countering.

[GRAH]

I think Disenchant merits maindeck spots, especially since your matchup against Belcher is mediocre at best. You've got all this maindeck ATS and Landstill hate, but nothing to deal with combo beyond the barely-helpful Abeyance and Gilded Light.

Null Rods in the board could help, too.

[cheeseman]

I agree with GRAH on this one... Disenchant is an important maindeck inclusion. I would go so far as to say the full set of four, but whatever you like workds. You COULD take the Parfait route and add some Enlightened Tutors, in which case Seal of Cleansing would be a good bet. The Scepter/Chant lock would also be maindecked then.

"Here's my 10 cents, my 2 cents is free."
-Eminem

[martyr]

Why, if you're running both Abeyance and Orim's Chant between board and main, and with all the cheap instants, are you not playing Isochron Scepter, at least in the sb? Siding them in against any form of aggro or combo is sick.

This deck is so clunky. I love it.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

I was originally running six maindeck disenchant effects, but as time wore on I realized more and more just how few decks they're actually useful against that I don't already beat. Belcher is really about it, but Belcher sucks. The two aggro-combo decks I consider highly viable right now are Solidarity and Nausea, and the deck's running cards that give it a fighting chance against those decks.

Enlightened Tutor causes card disadvantage and causes me to run too many cards that I just don't want to draw most of the time. The cantrip-engine is simply much stronger, since it maintains card parity while generating greater card quality.


Played this in the Frog tournament Saturday.


Round 1 vs. Brian (Ewokslayer) playing SD Zoo.

Game 1- I mean, what kind of cruel and vindictive asshole maindecks Rune of Protection Red? Humility, Wrath, etc. Steamroll him.

Game 2- I get off some Wraths, a Humility, a couple DoJ's... he draws every burn spell in his deck and I can't find a Renewed Faith, Rune, or Gilded Light. He also Swords a Genju that might or might not have made a difference. Both of us express mild surprise as I lose.

Game 3- We get called on five turns when I have a single Plains out. Yeah, that ain't going to happen.

Record 0-0-1


Round 2: Seamus/Brian O'Reilly, playing BigRedSligh

Game 1: He's playing the standard allotment of burns pells, Slith Firewalkers, Flames of the Blood Hand. All in all it's not a bad deck, really, considering Seamus is a developing player with a limited budget. Gilded Light counters a Fireblast, and then the lock comes down. What kind of asshole maindecks Rune of Protection: Red?

Game 2: See above, but with Genju.

Record: 1-0-1


Round 3: Seth (BoTS), playing ATS.

Round 1: He doesn't get Survival out until the fourth turn, but has a counter for my Wrath... and my Abeyance... and my Humility. And then the Mystic Snake lock comes down. He wins the game with three Tradewinds RFG, but damned if the last one doesn't want to kick my ass.

Round 2: "Hi, I'm Seth Perrin. I draw two Force of Wills and a Survival every game. Unstable mana base? What's that? I draw all the colors I need all the time. I'm Seth Perrin. Mulliganing? What's that. I always draw the cards I need off the top. I'm a professional player of magical cards. I'm Seth Perrin."

Record 1-1-1

Round 3: Jesse Hatfield (Mad Zur), playing UGRo

Game 1: Struggle for a while, but am not quite able to slow down the assault of thresholdy creatures enough. He finds his last Stifle at a crucial point to stop my getting Soldiery blockers, and I don't think I saw a Wing Shards all game. Le sigh.

Game 2: I lose basically because I didn't realize he played Counterspell. I hardcast a Decree for 3 when he's already used two Forces, only has two cards in hand, and I have untapped mana. Well, crap.

1-2-1


I'm much more dissapointed in the deck's performance on Saturday than at the April 16th Dual Land draft. Then the only decks I lost to were Solidarity, which is supposed to beat me, and that one terrible U/G Madness build running fricking Sword of Light and Shadow when I couldn't draw anything useful. I feel I should've, if not all of these matchups, at least all but one on average.

Double posts merged. Stampy is dead. -Zilla

[cartman34]

I could imagine that Genju MD might be better than Rune in the maindeck spot because it is alsa good against red Decks and against many other Decks as well.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Rune is ten times better against Red strategies, and cycles is the main thing.

---------------

I've switched out Genjus in the side for Exalted Angels, which are working out much better. The faster clock and ability to swing without tapping out every turn are critical. It also allows me to play a neat guessing game with the opponent to see if they'll bring in 8 Disenchant effects while I side out Humilities for Angels.

---------------

Brief Tournament Report:

Round 1, mynameisscott playing Raffinity.

Game 1: Steamroll with Wraths, Humility, Vengeance, Humility, in that order.

Game 2: Brought in the six disenchants and Scrabbling Claws (still haven't found Furnaces that aren't being used by someone). More of the same. I did draw a ridiculous number of DoJ's this game, though, to be fair.

Record: 1-0-0

Round 2: Calosso, playing Vial Goblins.

Game 1: Did I mention I maindeck Rune of Protection: Red? I also manage to draw it every game it's useful. I cheat so savagely.

Game 2: Humility becomes Angel. See Angel go. Go, Angel, go. See Angel beat. Beat, Angel, beat. See Angel win. Win, Angel, win.

Record: 2-0-0

Round 3: Guy I can't remember the name of, playing Sui-Black with some weird spins and twists that make it suck substantially less than normal Sui-Black. Still, the deck can fight through disruption, and does just that. I win 2-1, after bringing in Angels, Auras, and Scrabbling Claws.

Record: 3-0-0

Round 4: finley, playing U/W Landstill.

Game 1: This deck just steamrolls Landstill pre-board. I don't even draw well (I end the game with all 3 Wraths in hand), and he gets out a Crucible (the only card in his deck I'm really scared of), and I even have to break a Standstill as I can't find a Decree, but I still win without ever really getting worried.

Game 2: Well, as Charles, who was watching the game, pointed out, the matchup gets much better post-board for Landstill. I also sided in too many Disenchant effects- I wind up sitting on four of them in hand with no targets while Conclave and Eternal Dragons kick my ass.

Game 3: We get called on five turns with about three lands in play each. Yeah, that's going to happen.

Record: 3-0-1

Top 8: ... finley, playing U/W Landstill (again)

Apparently we're playing best out of 5.

Game 1: See above.

Game 2: This time, I keep the Aura of Silence in the board, just bringing in Disenchants. Sided out Humility for Angels, and Wraths, Runes, and a Gilded Light for Disenchant/Scrabbling Claws. This time I draw a bit better. The game gets better for Landstill game 2-3, but I still think it's heavily in my favor. I run more Dragons/Decrees, and I can draw them faster. I'm running 2 less land overall, with 6 less disincluding the Steppes that I never want to drop, but I still miss far less landdrops than they do.

Have I mentioned DoJ is busted? It is. Have I mentioned Eternal Dragon is the best creature in the game? It is.


Top 4: Alix Hatfield (Obfuscate Freely), playing U/G/r o

Round 1: Abeyance + Wing Shards = gg

Round 2: Angels come in for Humility, Claws come in... even though they never really prove able to keep him from Threshold. Stupid cantripping nonsense. I even get two of them active at one point. Not that it matters, as I win anyway. You know who's deck has no way of dealing with Exalted Angel?


Top 2: Jesse Hatfield (Mad Zur), playing B/w Pox.

Oh, how I hate the Clan of Hatfield.

Game 1: Cantrips and land fetchers and Gilded Light and Renewed Faith fight through a steady stream of hand disruption and land destruction, even letting me build up to mana to drop a Vengeance. I think I end up winning because of a misplay on his part, at two life or something. Or maybe not. I'm not all too sure of Jesse's retroactive math skills.

Game 2: Angels and Claws and Auras come in. But this isn't a good thing;

IBA, sitting on one land: Draw, discard Akroma's Vengeance. Go.

IBA, still sitting on one land: Draw, discard Akroma's Vengeance. Go.

Yeah... gg, good chum.

Game 3: Opening hand is 4 Plains, a Steppe, a Renewed Faith, and an StP. I draw land for the next three draws. Against any other deck it would be terrible. As it is, I win without hassle. Pox scoops to it's opponent's all-land hands.


Yeah, so I win the tourny, getting out of it a Molder Slug, a Patron of the Akki, a fattie (MM) Disenchant, 5th Edition Stone Rain, and a slight dent in the massive tab I owe Pete.

Observations: Scrabbling Claws and Exalted Angel were my sideboard MVPs all day long. Most of the time I brought in Claws just because it's effectively cheaper to cycle than a Gilded Light or Rune. Angel will definitely stay in the board, but maybe I should maindeck Furnaces. It reminds me of old R/G Land-Destruction in Standard that was running Krosan Tusker in the side, and always brought them in Game 2-3, but didn't MD them because it didn't know what to drop. Renewed Faith is probably the closest card to cuttable, but the life gain saves my ass a lot of times.

I would like to thank most of all whoever likes me in Heaven enough not to pair me against Jesse Krieger, playing the hated Solidarity, and Steve Paleos for dragging Spat down to Blacksburg so I didn't have to deal with stupid Solitaire. And David Gearhart for just being too lazy to show up and play his own twisted creation. I definitely feel better about the deck after this week, but I recognize that it's partially due to the luck of Solidarity and Solitaire just not showing up (except for 1 deck) this time.

Triple posts merged. Stampy is dead. -Zilla

[Peter_Rotten]

I'm sorry, but have I just noticed the super techy triple post? Did you think that you could escape my ever watchful eye just because you spaced them seven days apart? Mwuahahaha.

Anyway, something slightly more productive: I played Astroglide last Friday to a miserable 2/2 - losing to a Tog fluke and then to a Green fattie deck backed up with burn. Considering the similar natures of Astroglide and your MWC (I refuse to call it Rabd Wombat), I would hate to cut the main deck Faiths. They seemed to prove useful in just about all match-ups.

Main deck Furnaces would be a very interesting choice - I could have used them for the Tog fluke.

The stupid school proxy server/filter thingy won't let me on the first page of this thread, so right now I am unsure about how many Runes you run main, but they do seem to scream SB card to me. How do you feel about keeping them main - even though they cycle, I would hate to see any dead cards in my game one match up. Could the Furnaces replace the Runes? I think that maybe the graveyard hate would be more useful on more occasions than the Rune. Then again, this theory is highly meta-game dependant.

[bigredmeanie]

Have you guys considered running Mishras Factory? Under a Humility, multiple Factories get real big. Seems very synergetic to me. Also, why no wasteland? This is a monocolor deck it could easily support a compliment of Wastelands.

[AnwarA101]

Have you guys considered running Mishras Factory? Under a Humility, multiple Factories get real big. Seems very synergetic to me. Also, why no wasteland? This is a monocolor deck it could easily support a compliment of Wastelands.

Running wasteland would do very little for this deck. Wasteland is best with other disruption or with a way to utilize the tempo loss your opponent suffers from by not having a land available that turn. This deck has no other form of disruption that compares to what wasteland would do. And it really can't utilize the tempo that might be gained from your opponent not having a land in play.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

The thing I really like about Rune, though, is it Just Wins. I don't have to worry about keeping off Goblin hordes with a mix of Wrath, Swords, and Shards, while putting decent pressure on. I can just drop Rune and Goblins/Sligh can't win anymore. If people stopped playing Mountains so much at the Frog, though, Furance would definitely replace Runes, but as is, I don't think it's the best thing to cut.


Yeah, Anwar pretty much sums up the problem with Wasteland. Wasteland is a tempo card, and trying to win via tempo with the Rabid Wombat is like melting the polar ice caps with a hair dryer. In example; Once, I got three turns in a row against Nausea after he fizzle with Meditates, and I still lost. Those extra three turns didn't matter in the slightest.

On non-basics; we've considered running Kjeldoran Outpost or Dust Bowl for a while now, but the main problem is that the deck is already only running 19 real land. That's a very low land count for a contron deck, and actually losing a land to Wasteland can be devastating for your game plan. Any non-basics would have to serve a vital function to deserve their slot, and none of the options I've gone over really do.

[Alfred]

If Solidarity is such a problem, why not put Rule of Law in the sideboard? I understand that Solidarity can bounce it the turn before going off, but it works well as a speed bump, and when coupled with Guilded Light and Abeyance, might make the Solidarity matchup a bit more palitable.

[AnwarA101]

This weekend I was completely destroyed by this deck. I was playing UR fish (I was playing NeoMike's list) and I thought that this might be a decent matchup, but it wasn't. I went turn 2 standstill (with a Mishra's Factory in play) and Jack almost laughed in my face. About 5 turns later, it was over he cycled DoJ and that was it. Game 2 wasn't much different.

Overall, I think this deck is pretty solid. It seems like it destroys aggro/survival based decks. It does pretty well against aggro control and ofcourse its worse matchup is combo specifically Solidarity. I don't disagree with the maindeck Rune because we have alot of Vial Goblins and Goblin Sligh running around at the Frog. Unfortunately, we also have at least 1-2 Solidarity players almost every week. I think its pretty hard to fix the Solidarity matchup, I think Jack is running the Abeyances, Chants, and Gilded Light (I think some of these are in the board). On a side note, I'm not sure LandStill has a very good matchup against this deck either, seems like the StandStill engine is terrible against a deck that cycles all day.

[dontbiteitholmes]

What about chalice of the void sideboard? It puts the hurt on solidarity...