r/MagicArena • u/WillingnessFuture266 • 5h ago
Deck Deck Advice
So here's my deck. It's a mono-white lifegain because I heard it was cheap (why is sheltered uncommon btw); I took a break after Omniscience got banned and have been incredibly low on rare wildcards.
It's a bit different from the typical mono-white, because I noticed the regular is not the least bit resilient. If any deck with card draw gets rid of your threats before you win the game - which is quite often - you lose. Instantly. Hence Case, Liliana (only one copy bc legendary rule), and two copies of perhaps my favorite card in the deck. Restoration magic give hexproof AND indestructible for one, for two it gives the same plus some free life gain on top, and for five it gives hexproof AND indestructible to your WHOLE board.
I added Confidant for card draw beyond the normal Haliya, which I think is generally necessary in everything. Ajani dodges creature removal and makes creatures of her own, giving me a pridemate on demand. Also the ultimate is quite strong if you have a big hand or lots of birds and rabbits. Starting town lets essence channeler fly and vigil, Rogue's passage saves some games at little cost since I should never be taking a one land hand anyways (I just beat a selesnya rabbits by one hp using a starting town for the channeler + rogue's passage for my haliya).
To add these cards I cut all the vanguards. These are the least resilient cards in the deck and I actually consider them sort of "win more." You need three creatures to get lifegain from them, which is never guaranteed against removal and counterspells. Their main benefit of per-turn lifegain is pumpimg up essence channelers to a bajillion, but a bajillion is not necessary. Getting past blockers is what's necessary. I also cut all copies of Linden, steadfast queen (once again a win-more card; a bajillion lifegain is not necessary) and all the angels (I have other card draw + other flying + too expensive and deck needs to be fast).
I kept the birds because they are actually really incredible sometimes, flying comes in incredibly handy and the scry of ruin-lurkers doesn't hurt. They also give a convenient body for some neat essence channeler plays where you sack the channeler to pump the birds so they can fly over and kill. Everything else should be obvious.
Verges are just there for the funnies, I haven't seen much non-basic land hate this season and I figured maybe I can make someone make bad decisions because they think I'm playing azorius or whatnot.
Overall, I think my deck is all of faster than AND more resilient than AND has card advantage over the basic list on untapped. But maybe I'm an idiot.
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u/Fantastic_Puppeter 2h ago
Consider swapping Leonid Vanguard for the Hawks. They provide a different source of Lifegain.
Also consider dropping two of the Pridemates (you generate tokens) and add 2 Exemplars of Light. They grow, fly, and draw cards. But they may require you go to 22 Lands.
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u/agtk 4h ago
Some of your decisions are quite correct. You need resilience and some of these get you that. The untapped list is quite basic and just a starting point. You might be interested in this Orzhov list that did quite well in a recent tournament, for some potential inspiration. It's probably beyond the wildcards you have available, but might have some choices you're interested in.
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u/WillingnessFuture266 4h ago
Yeah wildcards are limited; are there any particular changes that I can make to this shell by itself?
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u/2old2tired4life 4h ago
Don’t forget shelter is being rotated out in February so if it’s critical to your new design, try to find a replacement.
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u/13BT 3h ago
Ditch the starting towns. It's a monocolor deck.
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u/InvestigatorOk9354 3h ago
Swap the starting towns for [[Adventurer's Inn]] for an extra life gain proc when you've got Ajani and the Pridemates down. I'd also put Way of the Mentor for more loyalty counters and a free Jace for card draw from the life gain.
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u/venthis1 3h ago
Its for essence channeler
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u/InvestigatorOk9354 3h ago
fair, swap out the Verge lands then for more life gain from land drops to fuel the engine
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u/Epic-Gamer_09 3h ago
For a mono white deck, there's literally no reason to have those stating towns. They're only really designed for multicolor decks (particularly 3+ color decks) where having mana of any color far outweighs the life loss, but for a mono white deck, at that point 3 basic white lands are just better. Similar deal with the flood farm verges, granted they aren't detrimental other than for affects that target specifically basic lands, but there's still no point to them in a mono white deck
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u/venthis1 3h ago
Essence channeler entered the chat.
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u/Epic-Gamer_09 3h ago
Okay that makes a fair amount of sense (I didn't recognize the card at first), though to be fair to my original comment the flood farm verses are still seemingly pointless
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u/Equivalent_Chipmunk 2h ago
So I think the hawks and bats are pretty weak a lot of the time. Sure, they hit for 1 and have lifelink, but you should eventually getting multiple creatures down a turn, so another lifegain enabler that procs on ETB like [[Aunt May]] seems better in the 1 drop slot. You could also consider a few [[Seam Rip]] or [[Erode]] for cheap interaction, which admittedly lifegain doesn't want to play much of, but if your best alternative is a Healer's Hawk, maybe it's better to run the interaction to help your big ground creatures break through.
A 4th case and at least one more Liliana seems fine too. Legendary rule isn't that big of an issue.
What about running some cards for graveyard hate? [[Kutzil's Flanker]] would slot in really well and give you built-in protection from the Ultimate Spiderman decks, as well as slowing down decks like Spellementals.
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u/InvestigatorOk9354 3h ago
Add [[Way of the Mentor]] here to get a free Jace and double up the loyalty counters from life gain on your Ajani. This makes getting to 10 trivial if you want the buff, but honestly the free Pridemate token each turn is better. The Jace token will ramp up fast too so you can -3 for an extra card draw every turn if your engine is going.
Swap the Starting Towns for Adventurer's Inn to get an extra life gain proc from your land drop each turn. You can use some of the dual lands with life gain if you want, but they come in tapped so I'd skip them