White Onesies, or Can Twenty One-Drops Be Any Good?

I was watching coverage of a Star City Games Open, enjoying yet another control vs control snoozefest, when one of the commentators mentioned he had tried a mono-white deck with twenty one-drops. I liked the idea, and since one mana creatures tend to be relatively budget friendly I put together a list. I was able to trade for most of the more expensive cards and the rest cost me ~$40. Not too shabby. Here's that list:

Creatures
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Loyal Pegasus
4 Dryad Militant
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Boros Elite
4 Eidolon of Countless Battles
4 Precinct Captain
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth

Other Spells
2 Spear of Heliod
2 Banishing Light
4 Brave the elements

Land
20 Plains

Sideboard
2 Archetype of Courage
2 Banisher Priest
2 Banishing Light
2 Gift of Orzhova
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Oppressive Rays
3 Pacifism

(Check out the deck at Tapped Out.)

Creatures, creatures, and a few more creatures, please! This deck wants a ton of creatures out by turn 3 or 4, which is easy to do with so many one-drops. The rule I had for one-drops was that each one needed to have at least 2 power, or a useful effect on the board.

Judge's Familiar has only 1 power, but it forces my opponent to play differently. Hopefully it gives me one more turn before a Dissolve or a Supreme Verdict. In the late game, it is a flier that can wear a bestow pretty well to get in some evasive damage. The angry owl is usually sideboarded out against non-control decks.

Boros Elite also only has 1 power, but his battalion ability is pretty potent if I can get it to trigger on turn 3. Alone he's pretty weak. Along with Loyal Pegasus, I try not to have the Elite out on turn 1.

Precinct Captain is a surprise all-star to me. I didn't play during the previous block (RTR) so I haven't seen him in play too often. His first strike keyword makes him very difficult to block and when he gets through he leaves a creature to chump block if I need, or help boost the Eidolon of Countless Battles.

Speaking of the Eidolon, Mr Countless Battles is what this deck wants to build up to.I prefer to bestow him, but even as a creature he has the potential to do huge amounts of damage. It is easy to have 5 creatures out by turn 4, when he can be bestowed, perhaps on the turn 1 Judge's Familiar to boost it with a +6/+6. Turn 4 wins are definitely possible with this deck.

Moving from the creatures in the main deck, I have Spear of Heliod, Banishing Light and Brave the Elements.The spear is an easy include for the +1/+1 to help my creatures deal more damage/survive a little longer. Brave the Elements is an auto-include; it works to save my creatures from wrath effects and makes them near-unblockable if I need to swing in for the win. Banishing Light is the only card in the main deck from Journey Into Nyx mostly because I wanted a way to get rid of Detention Spheres and planeswalkers. It's a pretty strong and flexible card in many situations.

I'm not going to go too deep into the sideboard except to note that the 'soft' removal cards Oppressive Rays and Pacifism count as auras when determining the strength of the Eidolon of Countless Battles.

I have had several hands with both Spears of Heliod, meaning unless my opponent gets rid of the first one somehow, the second is a dead card due to the legendary rule. I'm considering swapping one out for the Hall of Triumph for another +1/+1 effect that can be on the board at the same time.

A Newbie's Thoughts on Journey Into Nyx

My intention for this blog was to go over my FNM matches to analyze my mistakes and get to be a better player. Unfortunately, my memory for details about matches has made that nearly impossible and I really don't want to record my games or take notes. So, I think I will just use this for my occasional niave thoughts about all things Magic related, and sometimes discuss how I'm progressing in a more general sense.

Journey Into Nyx just came out and it has had a pretty big impact on my decks. I will post about those in the next week or two. Today, I'm going to talk about my top five favorite cards from the set.

1. Prophetic Flamespeaker - I loves me a "Red Deck Wins" deck. I love the simplicity. I love the speed. I even kind of like the groan that escapes my opponent when he or she is down to 6 life on turn three. This card makes me so happy. Red doesn't get card draw like Blue, and I'm usually out of cards by turn four or five, but this guy will get me another card each turn to play. Turn three this guy, turn four play a land and Titan's Strength him to pretty much guarantee a hit, plus a bonus scry. Also, I don't have anything that costs more than three so I'm pretty much guaranteed to be able to play whatever flips. I can't wait.

2. Satyr Hoplite - I don't remember which podcast it was, either Monday Night Magic or The Manapool, but someone said it right: "We got there." Finally, the one-drop red heroic creature we all wanted.

3. Mogis's Warhound - This guy may be a new all-star for my red deck. Requiring attacks is not really a draw back as that is what my deck wants to do anyway, but it might come back to get me. I'm more excited about a event cheap bestow. Besides the almost useless Nyxborn Rollicker from Born of the Gods, Red had no good cheap bestow creatures. I like the idea of this guy sticking around after a Supreme Verdict, which usually destroys my deck. I'll let you know how he works for me after a few plays.

4. Banishing Light - A couple weeks ago I started wondering about other decks besides my Red Deck Wins. I put together a White Weenie list with a bunch of one drops. This card went straight in as soon as I saw it. People are calling "the fixed Oblivion Ring" and I think it has potential to be the best card in the set.

5. Master of the Feast - In addition to my new mono-white deck, I've been thinking up ideas for mono-black aggro. Master of the Feast is the centerpiece of that deck. A 5/5 flyer for 3 is just so hard to resist. I plan on pairing him with Grim Guardian for bonus Constellation value and Fate Unraveler to punish the extra card draw. I don't know if it will be good, but it seems fun.


My next post will be my thoughts on my new White Weenie list, which went 2-2 at last FNM-- way better than the 0-4 I expected.