This was supposed to be an article about Red-Green aggro. That deck used to be king of the hill for Pauper beatdown, largely because of Wild Mongrel and burn. Times have changed. The queues are here and two decks are out in force: Burn and The Pauper Perfect Storm (think Invasion Sac. Lands, ritual effects, card drawing, and Grapeshot). In the early days of the queues, however, the top decks were Burn and Mono-Blue Control. Of course I set upon designing a deck that would stand a chance against both without giving up too much game against the rest of the field.

But that is not where our story begins. No, our story starts on the PDCMagic.com message boards where someone began a thread inquiring as to the viability of White aggro. It began innocently enough as a discussion of the best White one drops in Pauper- Icatian Javelineers of course-but then went on to why White was not viable. The reasoning ended up as this: Red has similar creatures and better back up spells; Green has larger creatures and better ways to get them into play (think Llanowar Elves. I stood up in defense of the mono-Plains strategy and once the queues went up, I got to tinkering.

I was working with the eminent editor Joshua Claytor on the list. I was dead set on having the Javelineers and newcomer Akrasan Squire. From there we went over a variety of possibilities before settling on this build:

 

 

Creatures 4 Shade of Trokair 4 Sinew Sliver 4 Aven Riftwatcher 4 Icatian Javelineers 4 Razor Golem 4 Ballynock Cohort 4 Benalish Cavalry 4 Patrol Hound 4 Akrasan Squire 36 cards Other Spells 2 Oblivion Ring 4 Unmake 6 cards

Lands 2 Secluded Steppe 16 Plains 18 cards Sideboard 0 cards

The Hound was there because we could not think of a better two-drop (crazy, I know). I was worried about having a curve around three with running on 18 lands, but JXC said not to worry. After some test runs, I saw he was mostly correct. At the same time, I ran into someone running Order of Leitbur in the casual room, and I immediately bought my set and replaced the Hound with the pump knight of yore. I took the new build to the queues and promptly beat Burn. I then played some more, and lost miserably to anything packing an Armadillo Cloak. Upset, I made some final changes and increased the land count to minimize poor draws and ended up with:

White Weenie

 

Creatures 4 Shade of Trokair 4 Kami of Ancient Law 4 Aven Riftwatcher 4 Icatian Javelineers 4 Razor Golem 3 Ballynock Cohort 4 Benalish Cavalry 4 Order of Leitbur 4 Akrasan Squire 35 cards Other Spells 2 Oblivion Ring 4 Unmake 6 cards

Lands 2 Secluded Steppe 17 Plains 19 cards Sideboard 1 Oblivion Ring 3 Fire at Will 1 Ballynock Cohort 4 Dispeller's Capsule 3 Prismatic Strands 3 Obsidian Acolyte 15 cards

The extra land was swapped in to help with the new two sets of mana sinks- Shade and Order- and help increase the consistency of early draws. This build has been very good in the queues, racing Burn very well, fighting MUC on the ground, and it is not a total dog to Storm. The addition of the Kamis now leave me with more action against Cloak decks without being dead against the field. PDC regular lathspel took this very list to the finals of a recent TPDC Classic event, losing to his own misplays as he so eloquently described.

Time to SWOT!

Strengths: This deck is consistent. It has numerous redundancies that help most games play out in similar fashion as you curve out early and pick off blockers late. This curve is also highly aggressive, and there have been times where you start swinging for three on turn two thanks to a double Squire draw.

This deck also can maximize on its mana. Unlike other aggressive swarm decks, this one has two fantastic mana sinks. Both Shade and Order of Lite Beer mean every late Plains becomes more potential damage. These two cards also make blocking difficult in the late game as they will often require an army to take down. Other cards that make blocking difficult include the Calvary and the Cohort. Cohort and Lite Beer also do a fantastic job on defense, holding off armies of lesser minions.

The removal team is also quite good, if slow. O-Ring and Unmake both do a great job of making sure their targets go away and stay that way. The idea of course to use Unmake of the really scary cards and the Ring on the pesky ones.

The final strength of the deck comes from White itself. Due to shifts in the color pie, White in Classic has access to an immense amount of sideboard material. It is the best at taking out enchantments and very strong at taking out artifacts as well, thanks to Disenchant. Eventide has brought amazing removal in the form of Unmake and the aggro hating Fire at Will. Prismatic Strands is a great catchall against Burn and Storm, while not being totally dead against Corrupt decks. Running mono-White gives you access to some of the best sideboard options in Pauper.

Weaknesses: For all of the fantastic options in the sideboard, all of White Weenie's options are preventative or reactionary; it has no way to actually attack other decks. Yes, it's sideboard options are amazing, but aside from Riftwatcher, which is in the main here, the options rarely interact with the one of the target decks of the format (Storm) in a meaningful way. White's best offense here is a good defense, and that leaves it prone to a deck that can take advantage of this deck's slow defensive speed.

The removal cards are also rather slow and contribute to a choke point at three mana. As many have noted, ideally you want to cast a removal spell and a creature to keep a tempo advantage, but with only 19 lands, this is a rare occurrence. It is slightly mitigated by the fact that if you are ever in a position to cast a creature and remove one on the same turn, there is a very good chance you are already winning.

The choke point at three can be a very real issue. While most of the time you will be able to have a real three drop and then a Golem and a two drop on turn four, sometimes your hand just gets clogged and you find yourself behind. Trying to catch up with consistent but underpowered cards is a difficult obstacle.

Although not prevalent currently, this deck has issues with sweepers. While there are not many in Pauper, a well timed Crypt Rats or Martyr of Ashes can wreak havoc on your game plan. Be prepared with Strands for games two and three. Similarly, board control decks can be very hard to beat. While MBC can be sidestepped somewhat thanks to Strands and Acolyte, any deck that uses burn to take out creatures should be watched like a hawk. This, of course, can be changed in the sideboard with siding in Crimson Acolyte.

White Weenie also has problems against decks with dominant late games. While Corrupt is easy to stop with Strands or a Circle of Protection, strategies like Cloak and looping Death Denied can be more problematic as this deck has few ways to disrupt such terminal strategies. While KoALa helps against Cloak, Parlor Tricks is a much more difficult nut to crack.

Opportunities: This deck thrives in a metagame featuring both Burn and MUC. While not a slam dunk win, White Weenie is has a plus match up against both these decks. Burn is a straight race, except you have cards main that interact with their strategy at no cost to your own in Riftwatcher. If Burn wants to interact with your path to victory, they subtract from their own. Side in Strands for removal, and any extra creatures you may have.

MUC in its current build is vulnerable to the white rush. The threats in this deck are on cost with MUC's answers, so they are unable to build a mana advantage. Squire shines here, making any blocking decisions with their few creatures exceedingly difficult. Suspending a Shade early goes a long way, as you can build up mana and threats and then vomit up an army. Remember against MUC to wait and bait; it is very difficult for them to answer every threat you have. Side out Javelineers for removal, in this case Capsule, as it is very hard for them to effectively stop it from hitting the board.

Traditional aggressive strategies are also something you want to look for, as you just have more threats than they do. Riftwatcher also absorbs a turn or two and too many of your creatures make great blockers. Side in some number of Fires and the Cohort for these pairings. Do not side out Javelineers, as they can fudge combat math.

Threats: Board control is bad times for you. Parlor Tricks is rough, as they have the diversity of removal that can really throw White Weenie off of its horse. You have to win before turn five or chances are you are not going to win at all. Side out a Unmake for a Cohort and hope to race. Mono Black Control is better since you have cards that render their removal useless. Game one is a straight race, but if you can stick an Order they are going to have a hard time. In sideboarded, bring in Acolytes and two to three Strands for some amount of Squires and Kamis. This deck has won against MBC without and targeted help, once dealing in excess of 40 damage to get the job done.

Storm is a coin flip, plain and simple. You want to apply the pressure as fast as you can game one and force them to go off early. Hopefully, they will fizzle. Rift is good here as it forces them to dig for more spells, which can be hard to come by (but not an insurmountable endeavor). Bring in your Strands for removal, as they are cold to a prevention effect.

If, however, they are Goblin Storm with Skirk Prospector, do everything in your power to keep the popping Goblin off the board. Use your White Fanatic on defense, as in never attack with it, to make sure you can pick off the pesky critter as soon as he hits the board. Against these builds, keep some Unmakes in to hit Prospector as soon as it hits the table, if you can.

Traditional Armadillo Cloak and RG Cloak decks are both hard matchups. Usually, White Weenie will get the Cloak deck very low on life, but then the namesake card shows up to go all Matt Linde on your face. Try to avoid using Rings and Kamis early, holding them for the namesake aura. Against RG Cloak, side in Cohort, Ring, and some number of Fire for Squires and something else. Against Traditional Cloak, you want to try and fit in some Capsules as they are likely to be running Rings of their own.

White Weenie is a powerful tool in your Pauper arsenal. It is highly adaptable to nearly any metagame and has some of the best sideboard options in the format. It also can race just about any traditional aggro deck out there. Remember, this deck dominates the combat phase thanks to First Strike and pumps. So join the Crusade and pick up the Plains.

Keep slingin' commons-

-Alex