The white weenie is a super-aggressive and successful aggro archetype. It combines the most efficient creatures from white with a bit of pump, denial and removals to kill players really easily and quickly.
The Reason to Play the Archetype:
The best reason is probably to open an Armageddon or Ravages of War in the first pack. Most deck just start being generally white and going weenie when the cards flow correctly, taking removals and bombs (see in the "Top Picks section") first. If you see a lot of low efficient drops, it might be a sign to draft this deck.
Top Picks
Removals –Swords to Plowshares etc. are the best removals, but really any piece will do the job (even Icy Manipulator). You are forced to draft removals high in this archetype, for they are rare and sought after.
Denial – Armageddon, Mana Tithe and Hokori, Dust Drinker are good denial effects. They are meant to foil any late-game the opponent has and keep the early advantage you have gained long enough to win.
Card Advantage - ~ is always good, so I am obliged to mention here cards like Land Tax, Bottled Cloister etc. are great.
Acceleration – While not a must-have, this archetype does value a steady acceleration much higher than most. A Mox Pearl is sometimes worth it over a beater, because that extra turn will get you there many times. Aether Vial and Tithe are other highly-sought after cards.
At the Draft Table – You'll need to be the only white-weenie deck at your table for a good shot to win. It's safe to assume you won't be the only aggro deck playing white, but you really depend on those White Knights doing table.
Deck Building – There are two common mistakes in this archetype. The first is being tempted to draft expensive cards. Your curve should be four, 90% of your deck below it. It's hart to believe Yosei is worse than Spectral Lynx, but it is for this deck. Your curve should be really low to overwhelm your opponents fast. The 4-roof can be broken sometimes, for example with Cloudgoat Ranger, but it shouldn't be broken more than once at most and it should be game-winning on it's own, not situational and offer card advantage or a way to protect itself.
The second is to play a monotone curve. Many white creatures are 2/2 for WW. You should resist the temptation and pick Ballynock Cohort over them if you have enough two-drops. I sometimes see deck with 10+ creatures as 2-drops, and they have no chance to win.
One of the nice about this archetype is that 90% of the time you can go 16 lands and even 15 is not rare. OTOH, you will want to avoid most CITP tapped lands.
This fact and the heavy-white cost of most of your beaters will prevent heavy splashing techs. That said small splashes do happen. Usually, if you will bother splashing, it's a single first-pick game-winning card like Glare of Subdual or Ancestral Recall and will likely splash it with pain/dual/fetch/filter. This deck really dislikes to splash.
If you find out you want to splash for removals, then you should probably draft another archetype that play better to both color's strengths and is less parasitic. R/W aggro and B/W aggro are good options.
Matchups –
Since you have drafted most white aggro cards, it's safe to assume the rest of the aggro deck will be red- based, and that's fortunate since they are probably your best MU. Asking why?
1) Your creature have protection from their colors or at least their removals. Pro. Red creature 2nd turn can go almost all the distance alone.
2) They generally cannot deal with your tokens efficiently.
3) Your creature often have first-strike and that means they cannot attack you without burning the creature.
Blue-based control poses more problems, but ultimately, it's a decent+ MU. If you have drafted denial effects and disruption, they'll shine here (Mana Tithe, Armageddon). Your creatures will go down and demand a quick answer, and it will probably come. Your creatures are cheaper then their answers and you play less lands in your deck so as long as they don't gain card advantage this is generally not too bad. Your few removals can hopefully deal with their first few real threats and give you enough time to win. The real problem comes when they play a mass removal against you and literally kill you on the fourth turn. Don't ever go into it. Be patient. If you are ahead in the game state there's no need to overextend. A good rule of thumb is to have only two creatures in play at a time, barring tokens. Speaking of tokens, they are one of your main ways to outwit their mass removals, because each token generating card will generally require a mass-removal card. They are a good way to pull it out, and a good way to recover after it. Lifegain from the opponent's side is bad news, but your creatures can usually just hit one more time to negate it.
Midrange green-based decks are the hardest matchup. You don't have enough ways to deal with their cheap fatties, and they'll come down quick enough most of the time. They usually have ways to deal with tokens, be it Arashi, the Sky Asunder, red Earthquake effects or just tokens of their own. Even Armageddon is less effective here because they have some non-land accelerators. Ways to try to fight back are equipment (So your creature can trade with their) and evasion (preferably shadow creatures, as they might have flier or a way to deal with them).
I've found that the token producers are what the deck needs to beat the control decks. Being able to respond to a Wrath with a next turn Spectral Procession or Cloudgoat ranger is great.
As far as splash colors go, red is your best bet, even if it's only for Lightning Helix. Generally I'll splash red for Helix, Lightning Bolts, and Viashino Slaughtermaster if I have equipment...Boros decks do well in my cube.
Boros does well in my cube too. Burn is the best splashable removal and its also a great finisher. Plus, cards like Goblin Legionnaire and Goblin Trenches are great for the archetype.
Splashing for a lightning Helix is easy, but if you need to splash for red burn because you don't have enough removal you need to start looking for less White Knight and more splashable stuff, more fixing and slower bombs (costing four or five). I'd call that a new archetype and it's beyond the scope of this thread.
In general though, the more white you are the better you perform in this kind of deck. Boros decks, B/W aggro, G/W aggro and U/W were always weaker than white weenie. It may not appear in every draft, as you need a specific set of conditions for that to happen, but when it does you just don't want/need to splash anything.
Splashing for a lightning Helix is easy, but if you need to splash for red burn because you don't have enough removal you need to start looking for less White Knight and more splashable stuff, more fixing and slower bombs (costing four or five). I'd call that a new archetype and it's beyond the scope of this thread.
In general though, the more white you are the better you perform in this kind of deck. Boros decks, B/W aggro, G/W aggro and U/W were always weaker than white weenie. It may not appear in every draft, as you need a specific set of conditions for that to happen, but when it does you just don't want/need to splash anything.
I'd disagree with this, drafting a good boros deck is almost always better then white weenie.
Let's just say that you manage to pull all the good white removal - Swords, Path to Exile, whatever. Then you see a Plateau. So you take it. Then you see a Lightning Helix. So you take it. Then you see Lightning Bolt. I dunno about you, but I'd take it, especially if I had picked a fetchland earlier.
The key to drafting Boros is to keep the Red strictly as a splash, and only play the cards that fit into the strategy seamlessly - Efficient Beaters (Goblin Legionnaire, Boros Swiftblade, Figure of Destiny (Though obviously WW will pick this also)), efficient removal (Lightning Helix, Lightning Bolt, Char).
A good Boros deck will play a maximum of 5-6 red cards...It basically keeps the power of white weenie and adds a little reach with the burn cards, as well as some more efficient creatures. The minute you start adding things like Firemane Angel, Ajani Vengeant and Banefire well, yeah, you have a different deck.
Let's just say that you manage to pull all the good white removal - Swords, Path to Exile, whatever. Then you see a Plateau. So you take it. Then you see a Lightning Helix. So you take it. Then you see Lightning Bolt. I dunno about you, but I'd take it, especially if I had picked a fetchland earlier.
Easy to make a point in this assumption. If you didn't have anything else4 relevant in the pack, take it, but I'd have a lot of things I'd take above it, like Spectral Proccession, Soltari Priest, Unmake, Calciderm and more which should come in the middle-picks for you. Not to mention it's the strongest red removal spell ever, so that doesn't say much about the average cases.
Also, why did you take that Plateau to begin with? Nothing else relevant? If you have nothing else relevant in many of your picks, you are forced to it rather than forcing it, which is what usually happens if you end up B/R. Not to say you cannot win with it, but the average performance of WW is higher (and the chance to draft it is lower).
A good Boros deck will play a maximum of 5-6 red cards...It basically keeps the power of white weenie and adds a little reach with the burn cards, as well as some more efficient creatures. The minute you start adding things like Firemane Angel, Ajani Vengeant and Banefire well, yeah, you have a different deck.
Agreed and not agreed. R/W aggro deck I've seen could and did include more red cards, it was just a different deck than white weenie. The moment you include Reveillark you know your deck isn't like the previous two decks, however.
The white weenie is a super-aggressive and successful aggro archetype. It combines the most efficient creatures from white with a bit of pump, denial and removals to kill players really easily and quickly.
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As far as splash colors go, red is your best bet, even if it's only for Lightning Helix. Generally I'll splash red for Helix, Lightning Bolts, and Viashino Slaughtermaster if I have equipment...Boros decks do well in my cube.
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Currently 62/265 cards.
In general though, the more white you are the better you perform in this kind of deck. Boros decks, B/W aggro, G/W aggro and U/W were always weaker than white weenie. It may not appear in every draft, as you need a specific set of conditions for that to happen, but when it does you just don't want/need to splash anything.
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I'd disagree with this, drafting a good boros deck is almost always better then white weenie.
Let's just say that you manage to pull all the good white removal - Swords, Path to Exile, whatever. Then you see a Plateau. So you take it. Then you see a Lightning Helix. So you take it. Then you see Lightning Bolt. I dunno about you, but I'd take it, especially if I had picked a fetchland earlier.
The key to drafting Boros is to keep the Red strictly as a splash, and only play the cards that fit into the strategy seamlessly - Efficient Beaters (Goblin Legionnaire, Boros Swiftblade, Figure of Destiny (Though obviously WW will pick this also)), efficient removal (Lightning Helix, Lightning Bolt, Char).
A good Boros deck will play a maximum of 5-6 red cards...It basically keeps the power of white weenie and adds a little reach with the burn cards, as well as some more efficient creatures. The minute you start adding things like Firemane Angel, Ajani Vengeant and Banefire well, yeah, you have a different deck.
Currently 62/265 cards.
Also, why did you take that Plateau to begin with? Nothing else relevant? If you have nothing else relevant in many of your picks, you are forced to it rather than forcing it, which is what usually happens if you end up B/R. Not to say you cannot win with it, but the average performance of WW is higher (and the chance to draft it is lower).
Agreed and not agreed. R/W aggro deck I've seen could and did include more red cards, it was just a different deck than white weenie. The moment you include Reveillark you know your deck isn't like the previous two decks, however.
The list on cube cobra
Read my blog on cube - Latest post June 2nd 2022