Pioneer: Mono White Aggro Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Mono White Aggro (or Humans) is a very aggressive deck that contains a synergy between humans. We have excellent one-drops like Recruitment Officer, Hopeful Initiate and Dauntless Bodyguard, which in addition to being good early plays still have abilities that help in the late game. The deck also has Thalia's Lieutenant who serves as a lord for our humans.

It also has other cards that have great interactions with our opponents' creatures like Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute and cards that bring our creatures back with Extraction Specialist, along with Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, which is an excellent deck finisher.

Some lists run Skyclave Apparition, which despite not being human, is an excellent card to deal with the main threats of the format.

The new set Phyrexia: All Will Be One brought several additions to the deck. Let's review some of them.

Skrelv, Defector Mite is an excellent one-drop, reminiscent of cards like Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes, but being legendary and with a lower power level. It can both protect our creatures and make them unblockable.

One of the cards that was very present in the decks was Portable Hole to deal with small creatures and some other low-cost permanents, since Ossification manages to be more versatile, also managing to deal with planeswalkers and large creatures, it looks like a great replacement for the artifact.

Sword of Forge and Frontier is an equipment that can improve our late game, bringing us an excellent card advantage, being a good addition against control and attrition games.

The way you build this deck depends a lot on the Metagame you are preparing for, as this defines the amount of interactive cards that we are going to use. And that's a big advantage of this deck: it manages to play and adapt very well to the format.

For this guide, we will use the decklist of player Takumi Matsuura, who took 4th place in Pro Tour Phyrexia.

Decklist

We have a very low mana curve, and this greatly reduces the amount of mulligans, as you can keep a hand with 2/3 lands and the rest of threats. What changes, in general, is the types of creatures we look for in each game.

Being a very linear deck where we must make our creatures and beat them as quickly as possible, we must only look for the correct order to play our creatures for each game.

Against aggro, we should prioritize Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute and Ossification to remove blockers while hitting smaller creatures.

Against control and combos we should prioritize a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben on turn 2, which already makes our opponents' game very difficult, and for that, the deck now has Skrelv, Defector Mite - an excellent card for turn 1 to protect our Thalia, Guardian of Thraben from removals.

PIONEER | Deck: Mono White Humans - Pioneer Royale 171

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Azorius Control

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This is a game where we should try to “tax” our opponent as much as you can, so it's interesting to resolve a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben as soon as possible, which greatly increases the cost of their spells

Another caution we must take is against sweepers like Supreme Verdict. For this, in game 1 we must try to keep a maximum of 3/4 creatures on the field that are enough to end the game.

Pressuring the opponent in the early turns is essential, so that if the game goes on, we can finish with Mutavault.

Post-side we improved our gameplan Reidane, God of the Worthy // Valkmira, Protector's Shield which manages to increase the cost of our opponent's main cards, such as The Wandering Emperor, Supreme Verdict, among others.

In this game, I advise to keep 2 Ossification post-side to deal with some of our opponent's planeswalkers, but we don't want too many of them in our hand, so we keep only 2. In order not to change the deck's mana curve, we remove another three-drop to add new ones, which bring more value from the start.

Wedding Announcement and Guardian of Faith are key cards against sweepers, as one gives us creatures every turn and the other protects our creatures.

Mono Green Ramp

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During our game 1 we must be as fast as possible. In this list, there is an advantage in the game, since we have 4 Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute and 4 Ossification, increasing our interaction against Old-Growth Troll and Cavalier of Thorns.

On the play, I advise using Ossification on mana dorks, while on draw it can be good to use for other key creatures.

Our post-side game improved our interactions against the mana dorks, so we used Portable Hole, and Reidane, God of the Worthy comes to prevent everything from getting out of control making it difficult for our opponent to make big plays with Karn, the Great Creator and Storm the Festival.

We must run away from hands without some of these interactions, as our opponent's deck has the upper hand if left unchecked.

Rakdos Midrange

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This is a game where we are the beatdown and our opponent must respond to our plays. For this, in game 1 we must try to be very aggressive.

Prioritize using the Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute on tokens created by Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki, as any other creature would return if it dies, or if you remove another creature, try to protect it with Skrelv, Defector Mite.

Post-side we improved our card advantage plan a lot, and removed some copies of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben as we increased our pool of non-creature spells. Remember not to crowd the board, as our opponents often bring some sweepers like Ritual of Soot and/or Extinction Event. Extraction Specialist could be an interesting addition to this game if you have it.

Sultai Lotus

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During game 1 we need to try to win the game before turn 5, or have some way to delay our opponent. For this, we only have Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.

We also have some dead cards, Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute and Ossification don't have many targets, so if you have them in your hand in game 1, consider a Mulligan.

To optimize our speed, we must have 2/3 creatures in play in the first 2 turns and finish with Thalia's Lieutenant or Adeline, Resplendent Cathar.

In the post-side game we must take out our removals and put the Reidane, God of the Worthy // Valkmira, Protector's Shield to further prevent the opponent's combo.

We also bring cards against sweepers, such as Guardian of Faith, but as it is a game where we must be aggressive, if your opponent doesn't cast them, I advise you to cast Guardian of Faith during their end step to speed up your clock.

Mono White Aggro

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This is a game decided on resource management or who can create an army out of larger creatures. Always try to make favorable exchanges, avoiding chump blocks, as they end up being a waste of resources.

Use Skrelv, Defector Mite as a key piece to deal with our opponent's removals and as a way to make Adeline, Resplendent Cathar hit freely.

In the post-side game we should look for more removals and take out Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that can hinder us using our Portable Hole. If the opponent's version runs Brave the Elements, always try to be aggressive, favoring trades and reducing the amount of creatures on their board to avoid lethal damage out of nowhere.

If you have any questions about the deck, I'm available in the comments.

Until the next time!