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When we last spoke, I was extolling the virtues of and expounding upon my latest fad- a Boros Aggro deck. While some people claimed success with the archetype, I had already moved on to something new.

Two things: My job... (which I love. I'm the Assistant Director of Student Activities at a college in upstate New York and it is more or less my dream job. We just finished orientation and Welcome Week, so after two straight weeks of work, I was finally able to relax and get some games in. For those of you attending college, don't do as I did when I was a student and just disregard the orientation materials- not because they're vital, but because that will make a week of twelve hour days worthless. My job also requires me to work a lot of Friday nights, which means the recent offer from my local store to make me a Tournament Organizer a difficult decision. How can I grow a community if I can't be there during the times we all get together? Now, where was I?). My job prevents me from always writing a weekly article, so often times , the reader, do not always get a contiguous train of thought. I am going to try and remedy that so you understand the thought process that I go through.

The other thing is, I get tired of decks quickly. I know I have spoken to this before, but for some reason once I win with a deck, I have to put it down and start on my next project. This is terrible. If something is winning, why should I put it down, especially if I think it is the best deck in a format? After the Third Premier Event, I all but stopped playing Blightning Husk, but if you had spoken to me that day, I would have told you I felt it to be the best aggressive deck in the format. Why do I have this compulsion? I believe part of it stems from my early success in Pauper. In my first four weeks of competitive PDC play, I had a first, second, fourth, and first place finish, all with different decks. Now that Pauper is sanctioned, the “gotcha” factor I used to my advantage so long ago is a distant memory. Currently, if a deck is good, there are no ifs ands or buts, it is a good deck.

So what does this have to do with Boros? Is it a good deck? Yes, from a certain point of view. Boros operated on a very fair spectrum. It attacked and blocked better than most decks out there and could put up a serious fight, but was often outclassed by decks that could do unfair things. Even with a perfectly sculpted Kaervek's Torch, the deck could often fall flat. Why was this?

My creatures were all good, but at the same time, I would sometimes have trouble hitting them on optimal turns. While my removal would allow me to outrace other aggressive decks and make up for this issue of tempo, Boros would often be too slow against the Tendrils of Corruptions and Diabolic Edicts of the world. The deck would often die with a Torch in hand, since one Corrupt would often be the end of things.

I looked over older versions of Boros, and wondered if (Scourge of the Noblis) could be an answer. As fun as that card seemed, it was also poorly positioned, since it would require a critical mass of Boros creatures, and the ones available are mostly bad. I am not even sold on Skyknight Legionnaire anymore, as he is just a 2/2.

Game after game I realized that if I wanted to beat aggro decks, Boros could do it. Creatures were rarely a problem, but as the weekend challenges continue to show, aggro makes up a small (but important) aspect of the Pauper meta. But Boros did show me something- that attacking and blocking was still a good, clean way to win a match of Pauper.

For what it is worth, I am planning on revisiting the deck after Zendikar is released. The addition of Plated Geopede and Teetering Peaks give the deck some additional explosive potential and potential reach, while falling easily in line with the Torch end game. Additionally, this deck runs both Boros Garrison and Terramorphic Expanse, helping to increase the number of times Landfall could trigger for value, and Garrison plus Peaks seems like it could be fun. I mean, uncounterable pump effects are good, amiright?

Attacking, however, is incredibly exciting to me right now. The leading decks right now rarely black, and rather try to set up through card advantage and a dominating late game with something like Consume Spirit or Capsize lock. Whittling your opponent to zero before they can enact this plan seems strong.

The best aggressive decks do not block. Both Goblins and Slivers are great at turning men sideways, but when put into a position where they have to assume the control role, the decks lose some of their potency. This is less true for those Goblin decks with Firebolt, but the current crop leans towards a Goblin overload, with a smattering of burn. As numidar has stated over on the PDC Magic forums, as long as the meta skews towards control, more Goblins is better. At the same time, taken individually, the creatures of Goblins, Slivers, and even Affinity, are bad. It is only in context that they become good, as for the most part, they do not curve into anything. Instead, they can just do broken things, but that is a separate point.

We are currently at a metagame of extremes, so it seems. The aggressive decks are all very aggressive, and the control decks quite controlling. I enjoyed the curve of Boros when it worked, but wanted my creatures to scale more. So I turned to an old standby, I returned to White Weenie.

Why? White Weenie runs some of the best attacking creatures in Pauper. This may be an exaggeration, but not by much. Very few other creatures convert mana into damage like Order of Leitbur and Shade of Trokair. At the same, time, the deck can maximize its mana output by running creatures with Suspend. It took my a long time to come around on Knight of Sursi, and I regret my obstinate stance, as I am sure I would have been able to pad my account with more profits if I had come around sooner. Stormfront Pegasus is another card that slots in quite well, providing an evasive beater that has shown its worth in the Affinity match up, providing another body that can trade with Somber Hoverguard.

An aside: I often get asked why I run Pegasus over Soltari Trooper, and the ability to block when required is one reason, but another is because I like Temporal Isolation for my go to instant speed removal spell. This is because White Weenie rarely needs to take something off the battlefield.

White Weenie also suits how I want to attack the current metagame. I want to be able to put pressure on those decks that want to set up, and White Weenie can do that. I also want to be able to better defend against the decks that attack, and White Weenie is quite strong in this department as well, often Abyssing a creature every turn thanks to a defensive Shade.

White Weenie deck construction can be broken down into three simple, yet incredibly deep, components: Mana, Threats, Answers.

Mana: You should be running Plains. Next!

Okay, okay, in all seriousness, White Weenie wants to run Plains, and nothing but Plains. I have found 22 to be the right number. Terramorphic Expanse is a waste, since you want to be running out a one drop or Suspending a creature right away, and Expanse slows you down. Secluded Steppe is great late, but on turns one through three, the land is horribly awkward. The added value of having Steppe late is negated by how awkward they are in the early game. White Weenie wants to win starting on turn one, and stunting your own growth by running a tapped land does no coincide with how you want to win.

Threats: This is the most diverse area in White Weenie, due to the abundance of efficient White creatures. In my opinion, there are only four creature slots that are immutable: Four Shade of Trokair. White Weenie's damage engine is closely tied to its mana, and Shade is the best way to turn your old investments into damage. This concept means that both Order of Leitbur and Razor Golem make the cut just about all the time. Order is a way to convert damage to mana while also providing a creature that is difficult to trump in combat, thanks to First Strike, and one that dodges quite a bit of removal. Razor Golem is wonderful since he requires a minimal investment and is a fine attacker and blocker. Vigilance should not be underrated, especially in a field with Goblins, since you can apply pressure without giving up an opening without trading.

I personally, like 22 lands and eight disruptive spells for my White Weenie builds, meaning that after these twelve creatures, there are spots for 18 more. I have already spoken on the Trooper/Pegasus question and Knight of Sursi, so that lowers the number of creature slots to ten, and we have not even approached true one drops.

There are only four creatures that should be seriously considered for the one drop slot: Akrasan Squire, Benevolent Bodyguard, Icatian Javelineers, and Martyr of Sands. Even the last one should only be considered in a Burn heavy metagame, and is rarely the right call. I like Squire in almost all cases, as it can swing for two on the second turn while also turning Golems into Myr Enforcer eating machines and also providing a significant boost to both Shade and Order.

This leaves the deck with six slots for creatures. Since hitting the one drop is so important now, and since the deck has quite a few ways to spend turns two through infinity, I want to be active on these turns. Javelineers is a fine card, as it is not better than Mogg Fanatic after it loses summoning sickness, being able to trade with two one toughness creatures or one two toughness creature on defense. For my last one drop, I have recently settled on Ivory Giant.

Yes, that Ivory Giant.

Here me out. First off, it is another three power creature that is quite good on defense that also can be “cast” for one mana. On top of that, when it comes into play it has an immediate impact against most decks, wilting their defenses. Yes, you will sometimes lose a Golem or two, but that rarely matters as WW will then be able to swing in unmolested. Giant has performed superbly against, of all decks, Affinity, as those matches usually end up as a ground stall. Once Giant enters the battlefield, however, they have no blockers and succumb to the Plains fueled forces.

Answers: In most instances, this means removal, but in heavy combo metagames I would not hesitate to consider both Mana Tithe and Lapse of Certainty for these slots. Fog effects like Prismatic Strands and Safe Passage are low right now, since so many decks are prepared with Flaring Pain. I would not spend precious maindeck slots on such reactive cards. As I see it, here is the short list for answering creatures, currently:

Gelid Shackles

Oblivion Ring

Sunlance

Temporal Isolation

Unmake

Shackles is nice, and the Snow Mana base is not a strain on the deck at all. The real issues with Shackles is that to get the maximum effect, you have to invest a mana every turn, and since the damage output directly correlates to mana available in White Weenie, this spell often gets left on the sidelines.

O-Ring is a fantastic catch all, of which I used to be a fan. However, the problem with the Ring is that it is slow and cannot be cast at instant speed. It is also not a permanent answer, and against a card like Capsize, is more or less useless.

Sunlance oscillates between absolutely amazing, and absolutely terrible. As long as decks like Slivers, White Weenie, and Cloak are not dominating a metagame, then the Lance does a wonderful job of answering most threats that can be presented. The current crop of creatures are vulnerable to Lance, so I would recommend the Whitening Bolt. The low cost to damage ratio helps to clear out threats while also leaving your lands available to pump out more damage.

Temporal Isolation is pretty good. This deck is pretty fast and does not need to actually clear creatures away permanently. As long as you can prevent the damage from their main threat and keep your life total at a healthy level, you can outrace most decks. For White Weenie, preventing damage is almost as good as actually getting rid of the creature. This card also has the capability to turn off both Crypt Rats and Krark-Clan Shaman, helping to protect your army.

Unmake is fantastic card. However, I consider it a huge risk to run such a card as a four-of if you are only running 22 land. I would want at least 23, and quite possibly 24 if this were to be a card for the 60. You want your removal to preserve your life total, and Unmake is a hair slow for the current format. If Sunlance falls out of favor, however, I could see running two Unmake alongside two Niveous Wisps to ensure you can get there.

As for the sideboard, there are only three decks I am concerned about: Affinity, Storm, and Goblins. Teachings, MBC, and MBCu are fairly easy, as you can sneak in under their answers, and sticking an Order is often game over. Slivers is a pure race, but you can actually remove some of their offenders and Javelineers can also help pick off creatures. That said, if they have a nut draw, you are in dire straights. If Slivers becomes a major player again, I would attempt to find space for Safe Passage, as it is a far bigger blowout than Prismatic Strands. Due to the abundance of Black removal, running Obsidian Acolyte is the right call, even if you do have a strong match up against these control decks. Acolyte is a card that just throws a kink into their plans, making you that much stronger against some of the most popular decks in the field.

Affinity is a race. Your creatures, on actual mana cost, are better than theirs. However, they never pay full price, so White Weenie is often at a disadvantage. In addition, Isolation is great for stopping damage, but terrible at taking creatures that cost six or seven off the battlefield and thereby weakening Rush of Knowledge. However, after sideboarding, Dust to Dust is a back breaker. Early on you can use it to pull a double Stone Rain and late it takes away two of their best threats. It also bypasses the Disciple of the Vault trigger, and can leave them in the weeds. However, do not just keep a hand with DtD and expect to win. Dust is at its best when it is preceded and followed by significant pressure. Your key to this pairing is Shade, and using it to eat their blockers until Giant comes into play and leaves them with their pants down.

Goblins is troublesome, and the bullets I have kept in my board have been less than optimal. In theory (and a few practice games), Holy Light has been a standout, halving their forces at the most opportune time. All that being said, this is another flat out race, and one to which I wish I could dedicate more cards. Passage or Strands have been alright, as has Aven Riftwatcher, however, until the deck makes a huge dent in the meta, White Weenie cannot afford to waste space, since Goblins is winnable without help from the board.

Storm, on the other hand, is atrocious. They have to fizzle for you to have a chance game one. Game two and three, you have access to great sideboard options, but the damage prevention cards are worthless since all Storm decks bring in Flaring Pain. Personally, I go for both Holy Light and Benevolent Unicorn, since they are able to answer whatever Storm throws at you. Unicorn is not a damage prevention effect but rather a damage reduction effect that turns Grapeshot off. Unicorn also shines against The Burn Deck, as a deck full of Shocks is far less scary than a deck full of Lightning Bolts. Holy Light answers Empty the Warrens. Even with these eight cards in place of removal, you still have to draw them, but if you do, it is difficult to lose, unless Storm starts running bounce again.

That being said, here is the deck I am currently running the queues:

 

 

Now here is the important thing: if I was preparing for a Pauper Challenge, I would reduce the amount of Storm hate in the sideboard. This is because Storm is far more popular in the two-man queues than it is in the weekend events. This is because the queues tend to feature decks that want to win quickly and do not have adequate answers to Storm. The larger events, however, tend to feature more decks with access to disruption, making it far more likely for Storm to falter. In these cases, I would likely switch Unicorn for Safe Passage or Prismatic Strands.

In the past ten days with White Weenie I lost twice to Affinity, four times to Storm, and once to Goblins. Out of those losses, four times I was ill prepared with an improper sideboard. I had wins over Slivers, Affinity, MBCu, Teachings, Burn, and more random decks. My overall record over the past ten days or so is around 12-6. During that span I got up to 1700 (from 1660) before suffering two loses that knocked me down 20 or so points. Considering four of those loses came with a wrong sideboard and I think I could have pulled out two to three of those games with proper play (I targeted two creatures with Dust to Dust when I should have nuked lands. He eventually recovered and smashed my face), I am confident in the deck as presented in this article for the coming days. I was going to share notes from those games, but am having issues accessing those replays. Instead, I'm going to present some new games from the deck that was also running Turn to Mist. Game one I keep a six card one lander that has a Lance, a Shade and a Giant on the play. Risky, for sure, but better than a five card hand. A second Shade soon follows. The good news is I draw a second land on turn four and start baiting counters. On turn six a Giant and Shade phase in, but he counters the Shade. No worries, as I swing and then play out an Order. At this point I haven't seen a Swamp, but he lays one and then has a Blind Hunter. He Mists the Hunter after blockers and tries to gain an advantage, but is never able to deal with my creatures. He is forced into bad blocks and I turn mana into damage through order and win relatively easily.

Game two I keep a Plains, Lance, two Shade, Sursi, and Giant, on the draw. I draw a Plains, suspending a Giant on turn one, casting a Pegasus on turn two, and then suspend the Shades and Knight on turn three. He musters some impressive defense, drawing a ton of cards off of Mulldrifter, but is absolutely unable to prevent me from killing him. My Shades and Giants go the distance as he is unable to deal with four creatures coming into play on turn six.

Suspend shows its value here, allowing you to maximize your mana later for your pump creatures while not necessarily having to wait until a sub-optimal turn to have those particular creatures come into play.

Game two is against Goblins. This is my first test against the new Red Menace since adding Holy Light to my sideboard, so I am anxious to give it a real test. Game one I keep what would be a decent hand against anything else, with three Plains, two Javelineers, an Order and a Squire. He, however, goes Cohort into War Marshall, putting me on the back food creature and card advantage wise. I try to stem the bleeding with Javelineer pings and right when I think I can stabilize with an Order, casts a Mogg Raider. I try to get him to eat Goblins by blocking and think I have him when I had cast a Shade. He then has a Song of Blood for lethal.

Game two I take out the Isolations for the Holy Lights. I keep a hand with two lands, Knight of Sursi, Pegaus, Shade, Holy Light, and Golem. I lead with the Shade and he leads with a Cohort. I then run out the Pegasus after drawing a Plain, which is quickly met with Fanatic dying for the bad guys' cause, followed by a Sledder. On turn three I run out my Golem, which is worth his weight in gold in this scenario, and stall his attack. Shade rolls into play and I swing with the team. He gangs up on Golem, and I order Sledder, Raider, Cohort. I then Light away his guy. He replies with an Initiate, I swing with Shade and hard cast a Sursi. I then continue to swing out, pumping my Shade, but leaving mana over to keep it out of Lightning Bolt range. I draw a Lance which handles his latest Raider, and then he scoops.

I am a bit anxious about game three, since he is on the play and leads with Mogg Conscripts. My hand is good, but not great, with three land, a Golem, a Javelineer, and two Pegasi. I lead with the 1/1, which he immediately Fanatics and follows that up with a Raider and a swing. I answer with flying horse number one. He has Intimidator and a Sledder to leave me unable to block. I rip a Lance and go for the Initiate, and run out the second flying horse. He has Flunkies and I end up trading a Pegasus for his Conscripts. I rip another Lance to take out the 3/3 and then drop my Razor Golem and suspend a Giant. He answers my Golem with an Electrostatic Bolt and drops a second Conscripts. My horse dies to take out the Raider, leaving him with a Sledder and Conscripts to my four Plains and suspended Giant. We both start playing off the top.

My next draw is a Sursi which I hard cast to block with, but all he can muster is a Mountain. I rip my third Lance (so lucky) and swing before bolting his Sledder. He then rips War Marshal and is able to eat two points. I rip a Plains and pass. He pays the echo and then draws another Sledder; my Giant is still two turns away. He swings with Conscripts, Marshal, and a token, and I block the token. He trades a War Marshal to take out my Knight. My next draw is a Shade, so I play my fifth land and Shade and start to think I have stabilized. He has another Raider and attacks, and I trade my shade for a token and a Raider. Next turn I get the Giant and draw a second one, suspending him.

As it stands, the life totals are 14-8 in his favor, and I have to play defense and hope he does not draw a Song. He keeps ripping creatures, but he cannot attack for value into my defenders, and I eventually amass an army to block his. I eventually manage to get a Golem backed up with Squire into play, and start eating four points out of his life total as I have set up a wall of White blockers. Once he hits six life, he scoops them up.

This one was a pure race. Sunlance and Golem are key cards, followed by Shade. Holy Light is great if you can get it, but watch out for blowout wins from no where. I suspect that this favors Goblins slightly, but is not a blow out, thankfully.

The next Queue yields a GW Cloak deck. Game one he pumps his Mongrel to survive combat so it can wear Cloak, but I am holding the Isolation. He has a second pair of pants for a Llanowar Knight, but cannot defend against a Golem with Squire back up.

Game two he manages to get Shield of the Oversoul on a Pridemage. Right when I climb back into the game with an Isolation on the Q-Cat, he has an Oblivion Ring for my Isolation, and Cloak to help the Cat go the distance.

Game three he applies pressure early, but I can reestablish control and win on the crack back if he does not have a Naturalize for the Isolation I cast on his Shielded Cat. He does and I fold.

There was not much I could do there. Naturalize is a card that makes little sense, as there are very few decks in Pauper that it is actually good against. If you are spending slots on Naturalize against decks like Affinity and Nightsky Aggro, then, in my opinion, you are not doing your job. Trading one-for-one against those decks is not a great plan.

My final queue match is against Mono-Blue Fish. This build is running both Ponder and Brainstorm, which as I have said, I believe to be wrong. Game one is fairly academic, as I overload on creatures and he cannot block for value, despite having three Golems. Granted, two of them had been Isolated, and he never finds a way to block effectively.

Games two and three are all about Piracy Charm. While he has Man-o'-War to keep me off balance, it is the Charms that decimate my team. This build seems specifically designed to beat creature decks with the Jellyfish and Charm. I wonder how it would do in a field full of control. I also make a mistake by bringing in my Lights for games two and three, and keeping a hand with one land game three on tilt. Regardless, I am once again beat by a bad sideboard card.

What do I mean when I say that Piracy Charm is a bad sideboard card? Like Naturalize, currently it is a catch all. Also like Naturalize, there is no heavily played deck in Pauper where you really want a Piracy Charm. Against the aggressive decks, like Affinity, Nightsky, or Goblins, it does relatively little. Rather, it is great against the random creature decks, which well tuned decks should be able to beat with out help.

I am also confident that if I played this last match with a respect for Piracy Charm, not on tilt, and did not walk into obvious Spellstutter Sprites, and also make a misplay with Javelineer, I could have won.

All of this is a long way of saying that the loss against Fish rests squarely on my shoulders. I played poorly and made mistakes. Could I have won? Yes, I feel Fish is a good match up as my creatures are, again, better than theirs. I still consider a White Weenie a good call for the current meta. Do not let these defeats fool you, this deck is a contender.

Keep slingin' commons-

-Alex