Source
r/magicTCG•
0Max00

Inexperienced player needs help improving his standard deck.

Deck Discussion

Hello!

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I don't know whether this is the right sub for this question or not.

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I'm fearly new to deckbuilding and i've been working on this budget mono-white deck based on popular decks found on mtggoldfish to play competitive standard at my LGS.

link to a more legible viewer: https://archidekt.com/decks/2557685#Mono_White_aggro

I would like to ask you for advice on how to improve my deck to make it competitive enough. Any advice would be very much appreciated! :)

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My decklist is:

4x [[Voice of the Blessed]]

3x [[Usher of the Fallen]]

4x [[Traveling Minister]]

4x [[Lunarch Veteran]]

4x [[Lumincarch Aspirant]]

3x [[Righteous Valkyrie]]

2x [[Adeline, Resplendent Cathar]]

1x [[Guardian of Faith]]

3x [[Cleric Class]]

2x [[Portable Hole]]

2x [[Fateful Absence]]

2x [[Sigarda's Splendor]]

2x [[Felidar Retreat]]

2x [[Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire]]

2x [[Field of Ruin]]

1x [[Roadside Reliquary]] // 1x[[Cave of the Frost Dragon]] (Planning to replace colorless)

19x [[Plains]]

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Sideboard:

2x [[Banishing Slash]]

2x [[Skyclave Apparition]]

2x [[Angel of Destiny]]

2x [[Portable Hole]]

2x [[Loyal Warhound]]

2x [[Selfless Samurai]]

2x [[Guardian of Faith]]

1x [[Fateful Absence]]

Posted Apr 5, 2022, 2:34 AM UTC

19
Midarenkov•

My strategy advice would be to focus on one aspect of your deck. Do you want to be about life gain and triggers keying off that? Go wide weenie? Just low to the ground aggro? Build towards your decks strengths :) also, I would just replace the portable holes with more skyclave apparitions, if you can. The holes are very narrow and should be in the sideboard, if anywhere. :)

2
0Max00OP•

I will replace the Portable holes with 2 more Skyclaves and and move them to the sideboard. I thought about the manacost when i was deciding whether to use them or skyclave, should i had give more priority to flexibility over being a 1 drop? I can also switch them for other removal altogether.

My idea was to make Voice of the Blessed my win-con, so i put a bit of lifegain and enablers to trigger counters to give to something. Maybe i'm sidetracking to much, what would you suggest me to focus on? Either lifegain or going wide works fine, since all i really need are the luminarch and lunarch to use more effectibly Ushers ability, the rest is just filler doing the job of both sides of the strategy.

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Thanks for the advice! :)

1
Midarenkov•

I would say the best wincon your deck has is reducing your opponent to 0 life through a combination of creature attacks, which is to say no wincon cards, just a solid consistent aggro strategy. Felidar retreat is very slow, its a 4 drop that does nothing on the turn you play it, and only something on turn 5 if you have a land drop.

I agree that curve is a consideration but it's better to make those either proactive threats, or interaction that helps you vs the deck you face (your local meta). Portable hole is great when your opponent plays 1 and 2 drops you have to remove, but it's not good when their 1 and 2 drops are not essential to their plan. It is also never a turn 1 play so you're not getting the big benefit of being 1 mana.

If you want a way to close out games then I prefer something like Maul of the Skyclaves as it goes with anything you have on the board and helps close out games by making it a flier.

2
0Max00OP•

Ok, i think i undertand my deck a bit better now. I'll be making the changes you suggested to red rid of slow cards and the ones which don't help me with that startegy. I'll be putting the portable holes and felidars on the sideboard for now and replacing them with 2 Skyclaves and 2 Mauls, or 4 Skyclaves.

I'll too try to add more creatures then, given that i have to close out the game as fast as possible.

Thanks for the input! Really appreciated.

1
ddojima•

It's certainly a good job if you're new. Retreat makes very little sense in a deck that wants to close out games quicker. The Wandering Emporer might be a decent replacement, but honestly I might just go with the more common Mono White lists that doesn't rely on lifegain. GW is usually the colors for more powerful consistent lifegain decks but they all still have the issue of being beaten easily by boardwipes.

2
0Max00OP•

It's certainly a good job if you're new

Thanks!

Retreat makes very little sense in a deck that wants to close out games quicker

Yeah, it just happened to be a card that my LGS had in one of the binders that fitted somewhat with the strategy i had in mind, in my head, since the average manacost in my deck is barely 2, i wanted to make better "use" of drawn lands in later turns if i couldn't finish the game sooner, but they can go if i find a more sinergistic replacemanet. After all things considered, my deck revolves around putting a lot of creatures in the battlefield and making Voice my win-con.

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honestly I might just go with the more common Mono White lists that doesn't rely on lifegain

Using lifegain as a enabler wasn't something i had planned, but with what i found, it was the most consistent way to make voice indeestructible between the 2.

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they all still have the issue of being beaten easily by boardwipes

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Boardwipes are the one thing i have not much to do about, all i have is guardian of faith to phase out my creatures if necesary, but yes, wipes are thing i kinda have to sort out with my sideboard.

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GW is usually the colors for more powerful consistent lifegain decks

I would go double color, i really would, but nonbasic lands are pricey, pathways + dual alone would match the price of my whole deck, that's the main reason i went mono.

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If my reasoning is wrong, please let me know, so i can improve in the future :)

I'll keep in mind your advice, i really appreciate it! :)

1
MTGCardFetcher•

#####

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Voice of the Blessed - (G) (SF) (txt)
Usher of the Fallen - (G) (SF) (txt)
Traveling Minister - (G) (SF) (txt)
Lunarch Veteran/Luminous Phantom - (G) (SF) (txt)
Lumincarch Aspirant - (G) (SF) (txt)
Righteous Valkyrie - (G) (SF) (txt)
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar - (G) (SF) (txt)
Guardian of Faith - (G) (SF) (txt)
Cleric Class - (G) (SF) (txt)
Portable Hole - (G) (SF) (txt)
Fateful Absence - (G) (SF) (txt)
Sigarda's Splendor - (G) (SF) (txt)
Felidar Retreat - (G) (SF) (txt)
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire - (G) (SF) (txt)
Field of Ruin - (G) (SF) (txt)
Roadside Reliquary - (G) (SF) (txt)
Cave of the Frost Dragon - (G) (SF) (txt)
Plains - (G) (SF) (txt)
Banishing Slash - (G) (SF) (txt)
Skyclave Apparition - (G) (SF) (txt)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call

1
0Max00OP•

[[Angel of Destiny]]

[[Loyal Warhound]]

[[Banishing Slash]]

[[Selfless Samurai]]

1
MTGCardFetcher•

#####

######

####

Angel of Destiny - (G) (SF) (txt)
Loyal Warhound - (G) (SF) (txt)
Banishing Slash - (G) (SF) (txt)
Selfless Samurai - (G) (SF) (txt)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call

1