The hitting of the ban hammer on the two powerful cards in Cawblade has left the Standard format open to new brew and build of decks. Though previous tier 1 decks like Valakut Ramp is seen to rise back in popularity, we can’t deny that there are other decks waiting to be discovered and polished to fit in the new metagame.

Recent articles on several mtg sites (TCGPlayer and Starcity Games) introduced new possible deck builds and improvements of the throne-declined Blue White Control. Deck ideas concerning two to three mana colors might be interesting to discuss, but my article today will focus back on a single color aggro deck.

The Mono White Aggro

White aggro (commonly termed as “weenie”) has been one of the greatest builds in the history of Magic, and has continued to see some fans in every new expansion. The current Standard introduced a Mono White Soul Sisters deck, which focus more on the infinite-life combo. The next list I’m going to introduce is more on the aggressive (and bashing) approach. Here it is:

Lands
16 Plains
4 Arid Mesa

Creatures
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Blade Splicer
2 Hero of Bladehold
4 Elite Vanguard
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Kazandu Blademaster
4 Squadron Hawk
4 White Knight

Spells
2 Dismember
4 Brave the Elements
4 Honor of the Pure

The Creature Choices

The current expansions in Standard have actually introduced a lot of options for the deck. I’ve considered a few that directly answers Mono-Red (Kor Firewalker) or Valakut (Leonin Arbiter) but choose rather to have them on the sideboard. White Knight made the cut because it can still make use of the first strike against non-Black creatures.

Squadron Hawk is one of my favorite two-drops since its appearance in Caw-go. Its hand-refilling card advantage is just remarkable and is very useful in the deck. With Honor of the Pure, the birds can turn into a fast clock.

You might ask, “What’s with the Blade Splicer? I’d rather have Mirran Crusader there.” Yes, the crusader is a very strong three-drop, but the board advantage that the splicer can give cannot be denied. Imagine having two Honor of the Pure in play, you cast a splicer and you get two 3/3s. Make sense? 🙂

As for the Hero of Bladehold, she got the spot as there’s no more Jace the Mind Sculptor to bounce her back to your hand. Also, she’s a late game bomb that can add Battle cry to your other creatures.

Dismember?

As one pro tweeted a few weeks ago, the more he plays with or against Dismember, the more he can say that Wizards made a mistake in printing the card. I really agree. It seems that all of the decks, whether aggro, control or combo, have this powerful removal. Two would be the right number in the deck, to have answer against Twin pre-board.

The Sideboard

My personal choices would be:

4 Kor Firewalkers – In against RDW (obviously). In cases they have Dismember to board in, you still have Brave the Elements to protect it.

4 Leonin Arbiter – For the Valakut Combo to slow them down a bit.

2 Dismember – For random aggro decks and for Twin.

2 Divine Offering – In cases of Hawkward matchups and Kibler Tezzeret.

3 Spellskite – Twin is a bad matchup for the deck so it’s better prepared in the sideboard.

2 Refraction Trap – Pyroclasm is also a problem so you’d know what to do.

So there you have it. Until next post. For comments and suggestions, you know the drill *points down*. 🙂