The Deck of the Week is the winner of the Dreamhack Atlanta 2022 Pioneer Regional Championship, Mono-White Humans! With only one copy in the top eight, Matthew Saypoff battled through Rakdos Midrange, Selesnya Auras, and Izzet Phoenix to take the trophy.
Mono-White Humans is an aggro deck that plans to curve out aggressive creatures on the first couple of turns, followed by Brave the Elements to protect your team or push through the final damage needed to win. Your turn-one plays are usually Hopeful Initiate or Recruitment Officer, which are both helpful in the early game as beaters and in the long game to gain value. The deck also runs a one-of Kytheon, Hero of Akros, which protects itself and eventually turns into a deadly planeswalker.
Turn two usually involves a Luminarch Aspirant to start buffing up your attackers or a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to punish your opponent's noncreature spells and start attacking with first strike. Thalia’s Lieutenant, while a two-drop, usually does not come out on turn two because it’s much better when you can play it when there are already several creatures on the board, so you can get maximum value. However, if you are desperate for a two-drop, it sometimes is the right play to put it on the board and start making it bigger with each creature you play. Matthew also ran a one-of Tomik, Distinguished Advokist, a 2/3 flyer on turn two that helps protect all of your manlands from your opponent’s removal spells.
Turn three is when your opponent really starts to get into trouble. Unanswered, a turn-three Adeline, Resplendent Cathar means the game is nearly over. Or if your opponent has put up a wall of blockers, you can cast a Brutal Cathar to clear the way. Turn three is also an excellent time to start casting your Dauntless Bodyguards and Thalia’s Lieutenants to start buffing and protecting your team so you can begin doing some real damage.
The beautiful thing about this deck is that you should be winning by turn four. If you can put a creature out on turns one, two, and three, and then on turn four, play Thalia’s Lieutenant followed by Brave the Elements; there’s not much your opponent can do. However, suppose there is a board stall, and the game does make it past turn four. In that case, you can start activating your Recruitment Officers and Castle Ardenvales to gain incremental card advantage. Over time your Luminarch Aspirants and Thalia’s Lieutenants will make your team so big that lethal is inevitable.
This deck's sideboard helps cover all situations in which Mono-White can stall or be stopped. It’s no surprise that there are four copies of Wedding Announcement in the sideboard, as this card generates an advantage whether you are drawing cards or accruing creatures, and then it ends with pumping your entire team. This is powerful against decks that you are trying to race to lethal, but it’s also great against decks that are trying to one-for-one you, such as Rakdos. Portable Hole is another simple card that helps to clear the board of any pesky creatures that could get in your creatures way. Thalia, Heretic Cathar is a spicy addition that punishes your opponents with greedy mana bases and taps down your opponent's blockers so that you can push through damage.
Declaration in Stone is sadly the best answer that Mono-White has for large creatures, such as in Mono-Green, but it does the job. Destroy Evil also helps to remove those creatures, and it does double duty, cleaning up your Fires of Invention and Enigmatic Incarnation opponents. Rest in Peace is still hard at work helping Mono-White players stop graveyard decks, and Reidane, God of the Worthy has multiple uses. On its creature side, it punishes your opponents for playing snow-lands, and it helps to slow your control opponents. On its artifact side, it hinders your opponent's removal spells and slows your opponent’s aggressive creatures.
If you are new to Pioneer and looking for a cheap and easy deck to get started, this is the perfect one for you. The most expensive card in the list is Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and you can buy the entire deck from scratch for about $200. Compared to Izzet Phoenix decks, which are around $400, or Rakdos Midrange at about $600, Mono-White is one of the cheapest but most powerful decks you could build right now. This deck is incredible, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a die-hard Death and Taxes player!
Mono-White Humans by Matthew Saypoff
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