Type II White Weenie

11.29.04  Hey y’all, hope you had a good Thanksgiving; I know I did! I let a bit of e-mail pile up over the weekend, so if I haven’t gotten around to yours yet, assume that it is buried somewhere in the stack. Anyways, on to this week’s deck…

Hi my name's Lauren I been playing magic for two years now but I can't build a deck which will win this decks ok but I need help to improve it's for a type 2 standard tournament. The deck is white weenie. What can I do to improve it?

24 creatures
1 Loxodon Anchorite
2 Loxodon Mystic
1 Myr Adapter
1 Kitsune Riftwalker
2 Auriok Transfixer
2 Skyhunter Prowler
2 Skyhunter Patrol
1 Auriok Glaivemaster
1 Leonin Den-Guard
1 Kabuto Moth
1 Skyhunter Cub
1 Leonin Squire
2 Lantern Kami
1 Slith Ascendant
2 Luminous Angel
1 Aven Flock
1 Hundred-Talon Kami
1 Konda's Hatamoto
1 Kami of Ancient Law

7 Instant
1 Hold the Line
3 Stand Firm
1 Ethereal Haze
1 Purge
1 Beacon of Immortality

7 Artifact
1 Vulshok Morningstar
1 Golem-Skin Gauntles
1 Angel's Feather
1 Bonesplitter
1 Vulshok Battlegear
1 Ensouled Scimitar
1 Leonin Scimitar

21 lands
21 plains

The first thing that I spotted while browsing through this deck is that it has a ton of 1-ofs. The problem with a single copy of any card is that you don’t have terribly good odds of drawing it up over the course of a game. Say Lauren needs to draw a Bonesplitter on her last turn to win, and if she doesn’t, she’ll lose. What are the odds of that happening with only one copy in the deck? Aren’t those odds a lot better if she has four? I’m going to spend a lot of this article sorting that out, and I’ll bet Lauren has better luck afterwards.

Right now, I’m only big on two cards in the way of equipment: Bonesplitter and Konda’s Banner. Both give a huge boon to white weenie decks, and I think both belong her. We’ll keep the Banner count at two since it’s legendary.

-1 Angel's Feather
-1 Ensouled Scimitar
-1 Golem-Skin Gauntles
-1 Leonin Scimitar
-1 Vulshok Battlegear
-1 Vulshok Morningstar
+3 Bonesplitter
+2 Konda’s Banner

Next, in a solid white weenie deck, you probably don’t want to have a lot of extra stuff. You want dudes, stuff that causes damage, and a little bit of creature control to make a hole. None of the instants currently in Lauren’s deck do this! The closest she has right now is Purge, which should really be reserved for sideboard. Thus…

-1 Beacon of Immortality
-1 Ethereal Haze
-1 Hold the Line
-1 Purge
-3 Stand Firm

In their place, I want to put in Reciprocate, which is about as good as white removal gets right now, and Glorious Anthem, which will help make the horde of creatures in Lauren’s deck a bit bigger.

+4 Glorious Anthem
+4 Reciprocate

Since we’ve cut the equipment down to just six pieces, we can probably get rid of a lot of the creatures that rely on equipment to be good. Thus, out goes…

-1 Auriok Glaivemaster
-1 Leonin Den-Guard
-1 Leonin Squire
-1 Myr Adapter
-1 Skyhunter Cub

In their place, I definitely want to put in Samurai of the Pale Curtain. For WW, you get a 2/2 with Bushido 1 and an ability that makes Modular not work, which is a Very Good Thing if you are planning on playing in Type II environments right now.

+4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain

Next, looking through the deck, I saw a few fliers, but not the one I was looking for. To make this deck faster, why don’t we cut…

-1 Aven Flock
-2 Luminous Angel
-1 Slith Ascendant

…and then we can sub in…

+4 Leonin Skyhunter

A 2/2 for WW is never a horrible thing, and when it flies, you are that much better off.

Champions of Kamigawa gave white a few too many good legendary creatures to pass up, and with Konda’s Banner in the deck, we should probably take advantage of these legends. Thus, why don’t we throw in Eight-and-a-Half Tails and Isamaru, Hound of Konda. We’ll keep the count on both below four, as they are legendary and we don’t want to see multiples in hand too often.

+3 Eight-and-a-Half Tails
+3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda

To make room, I’m going to take out a few of the more expensive (casting cost-wise) cards in the deck.

-1 Hundred-Talon Kami
-1 Loxodon Anchorite
-2 Loxodon Mystic
-2 Skyhunter patrol

I’ve got no complaints at all about either Lantern Kami or Kami of Ancient Law, so I would like to up the count on both.

+3 Kami of Ancient Law
+2 Lantern Kami

To help make room for these two, out goes…

-1 Kabuto Moth
-1 Kitsune Riftwalker
-2 Skyhunter Patrol

It took me a bit to come up with the last addition to Lauren’s deck, but I believe it is worthy: Auriok Champion, who will help keep Lauren in the game with a bit of life gain. The fact that the Champ is Pro-Red and Pro-Black can’t hurt her odds in some matches, either.

-2 Auriok Transfixer
-1 Konda’s Hatamoto
+4 Auriok Champion
+4 Raise the Alarm

As far as land goes, why don’t we keep it at 16 Plains and throw in a set of Blinkmoth Nexus, just for a little additional damage.

-5 Plains
+4 Blinkmoth Nexus

As for the sideboard, I think Lauren was on the right track with Purge earlier, so we’ll definitely include a complete set to help against Affinity and, well, Black decks.

+4 Purge

I also like Otherworldly Journey as an option against Tooth and Nail.

+4 Otherworldly Journey

If Lauren gets caught in a mirror-match, or she has to face anything with a lot of stout creatures, she might need a little bit of back-up. Thus, I suggest throwing in Roar of the Kha. For a fairly small price, Lauren can give her entire team a boost and leave them back to block on the next turn.

+4 Roar of Kha

Finally, to help combat the masses who are running Affinity, as well as any other deck relying on a lot of activated abilities, why don’t we stick in Damping Matrix as our final three sideboard cards.

+3 Damping Matrix

Here’s the final list.

CREATURES (26):
4 Auriok Champion
3 Eight-and-a-Half tails
4 Kami of Ancient Law
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Lantern Kami
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain

NON-CREATURE SPELLS (14):
4 Bonesplitter
4 Glorious Anthem
2 Konda’s Banner
4 Reciprocate

LAND (20):
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
16 Plains

SIDEBOARD (15):
3 Damping Matrix
4 Otherworldly Journey
4 Purge
4 Roar of the Kha

Hope that helps, Lauren, and good luck! I’ll see y’all next week.

-Paul Hagan