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4.5.04  -  Standard White Control

 

 

Hey everybody its another fun installment of Jason’s Deck Garage and I of course am your handsome, daring, intelligent and humble host Jason. It has been a very successful week for me and the deck garage in that I received a record amount of emails this week. I received a lot of response for last weeks article on the top ten mistakes made in deck building and your input was appreciated. If you have not read last weeks article I would recommend doing so, because the first step in being a more successful player is to recognize your mistakes and then correct them.

This weeks deck fix is on a Standard Deck that is called Mono White Control sent to me from Chad Zeluff. Now one of the reasons that I chose Chads email above others is that Chad’s email is a prime example of what I look for in deck garage submissions. So for my rant this week I am including the submission guidelines that increase your chances of getting a response from me and a better chance of having your deck chosen for the article of the week. Now don’t take that as me being a grouch because I do try to respond to as many email as possible each week even if the email isn’t a perfect submission. So send you list and question to me at my email address pojojason@hotmail.com and I will try to help you. If you want to skip the rant feel free to go straight to the deck list and as usual I will be including a few extra deck list beyond the fix I make for Chad.

Submission Guide Line Rant

1)Neatness Counts

If I cant read your email without having to decipher it like a CIA code breaker, I may have trouble responding to you. This simply means make it easy for me to help you, by making sure your email is neat and orderly.

2)Don’t send the Deck list as an attachment.

This is just a personal issue that I have. In this day and age when computers are passing viruses around like a collection plate at church, I tend to shy away from email with attachments. I know some of you like to send your list as attachments but just put it in the body of the email and it will make me trust you a lot more. Hackers are powerful, intelligent, and superior life forms…so please don’t hack my computer Mister Hacker Sir.

3)Tell me what you like about the deck and what card you like in the deck.

I have sent numerous deck fixes to people only to have them send back a response saying that they don’t want to remove certain cards because they like the card too much. I don’t have a problem with leaving certain cards in a deck when I fix it even if I know that the card doesn’t belong in the deck. I am fan of playing cards that you enjoy and I completely understand that people will want to keep certain cards in the deck, so let me know and I will keep my grubby hands off your favorite card….unless its Shaharazad in which case it has to go.

4)Let me know what your problem is.

I need help fixing you deck. The help you can give me is to tell me why you want me to fix it. I get emails every week saying “what do you think about my deck?” or “Fix my deck.” and that does not give me much to work with. I am a positive person in most cases so will send you a positive statement about the deck if you ask me what I think about it. If you send me a email with problems that you are having I will more than likely send you some suggestions instead of just sending you a review.

5)Sideboard Issues

I can not stress this enough, if you do not send me information on what decks you have problems with, I will have trouble building you a sideboard. I have sent people multiple emails with sideboards that are sub par because I base the sideboard on my meta game. Tell me things like what decks are in your area causing problems, specific cards that hurt you, or strategies you would like to employ and I will do my best to help with side board also.

6)Tell me about yourself.

I love to here about where you are from and who you are. Magic is a game that promotes interaction between people and I like to continue that it the deck garage. One the things that draws my attention in email is learning about the people who are playing the deck. This is not a requirement but it keep me interested and I like knowing who is reading my emails. I like you don’t you like me.

Well that enough of that rant so lets get to the deck fix. What follows is an email from Chad Zeluff and he wants some help fixing up a very good deck called Mono White Control. Now I am going to add some suggestion to this list but the truth is this is a really good deck already. Chad supplied me with a lot of information so I can help him with the list anyway.

 

EMAIL

Hey Jason, I've been a constant reader of your articles and fixes, but now I have my own! It's a little tier 1 quality deck they like to call MONO-WHITE CONTROL.

Based on what I've seen, this looks like a base for the deck: (using Cloudpost rather than Urzatron)

16 Plains
4 Cloudpost
4 Temple of the False God
4 Eternal Dragon
4 Exalted Angel
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Renewed Faith
4 Wing Shards
4 Akroma's Vengeance
4 Decree of Justice
4 Wrath of God
4 Mindslaver

(as you can see i have 4 of every card. you can change the amount of ANY card, except i'd like to keep 4 Mindslavers.)

Comments: Obviously MWC needs the massive mana accel. There's a few cards I wanted to add in, but they "conflicted" with other cards. The main card i WANTED to put in was Damping Matrix due to its horrific ability to shut down goblin bidding and Ravager Affinity. But it also shuts down my Weathered Wayfarer. So what should I do?

Do you prefer Clouspost or Urzatron? If you prefer Urzatron, CHANGE THE DECK! :)

Also, I've been struggling with a sideboard. In my area, the main decks that are played are Ravager Affinity and Red/Green LD. Could you make a "mock" sideboard?

Thank you so much for all your help.
Chad Zeluff

 

Okay here is the deck that I built for Chad taking into account the cards he wanted to keep and the fact that he wanted to remain mono-white. The main issue I have with working on the deck is that Chad wanted to be able to play Dampning Matrix in the main but keep the Mindslavers also in the main deck. The problem with the Dampning Matrix going in is that you have Weathered Wayfarer and Mindslaver and both are affected by the Matrix. If you play against Ravager Affinity you really want in most cases to be able to drop the Dampning Matrix on turn three if possible. Well if you drop the Dampning Matrix on three that makes the Mindslaver and the Weathered Wayfarer pretty ineffective until you cast Akroma’s Vengence in which case you have pretty much wrecked Ravager Affinity anyway. So if you are going to play Dampning Matrix main I would pull the Weathered Wayfarer for sure. With the two decks that are most popular right now needing only three to four land to be effective you don’t get as much uses from the Wayfarer. So rather than just giving Chad one build I am giving him several small changes to several builds.

Build One (Heavy Control)

16 Plains
4 Cloudpost
4 Temple of the False God
4 Eternal Dragon
4 Exalted Angel
4 Oblivion Stone
4 Renewed Faith
4 Wing Shards
4 Akroma's Vengeance
4 Decree of Justice
4 Wrath of God
4 Mindslaver

One simple change to remove the Wayfarer and add the Oblivion Stone. This adds multiple ways to kill lots of permanent and set back both Goblins and Ravager based decks. It should be noted that although this build is only a four card change it is probably my favorite build of it.

Build Two (Harder to Play Control)

16 Plains
4 Cloudpost
4 Temple of the False God
4 Eternal Dragon
3 Exalted Angel
4 Dampning Matrix
4 Renewed Faith
3 Wing Shards

3 Oblivion Stone
4 Akroma's Vengeance
3 Decree of Justice
4 Wrath of God
4 Mindslaver

This version requires you to make a lot more judgment calls on when to play certain cards. Holding off on a Damping Matrix can be key if you want to be able to use your Mindslaver or Oblivion Stones. Not a version for the weak of heart.

Build Three (Slaver Less and not for the weak of heart)

16 Plains
4 Cloudpost
4 Temple of the False God
3 Eternal Dragon
3 Exalted Angel
4 Dampning Matrix
3 Renewed Faith
4 Wing Shards
4 Akroma's Vengeance
4 Decree of Justice
4 Wrath of God
3 Pulse of the Fields

4 Oblivion Stone

In a field with lots of goblins and Ravager Affintiy I really like this build. The extra life gain in pulse of the fields may be overkill but it can keep you going till you reach a mass removal spell. Once again the interaction of the Dampning Matrix and the Oblivion Stone is pretty bad but play it correctly and you can get around it.

 

Well those are the fixes that I have for the deck and I hope that this gives you a couple of ideas. If you are wanting to play a deck that I believe is really a better version of the deck I would recommend reading the article Jeff Zandi wrote last week entitled EVERYTHING MUST GO!

It’s a great article and an excellent deck. Don’t forget to send your emails and deck list to me at pojojason@hotmail.com and I will do my best to help you if I can.

 

Pojo.com

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