Pauper: Mono White Heroic Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Today's deck is Mono White Heroic, a strong aggro, with a defined strategy, creatures that with powerful auras and protections — but which has a massive weakness called edict.

We will evaluate some points of strength of our deck, then we will discuss the weaknesses and where it is. For starters, I'll talk about the Heroic ability.

The Heroic ability says that whenever a creature is the target of your spell, it gains a +1/+1 counter and that's what our deck revolves around.

Lagonna-Band Trailblazer is our biggest example and our strongest creature, it's the best to play on turn 1 and can easily win the game very fast if our opponent doesn't interact with it.

In addition to the Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, we also have Akroan Skyguard who has as a differential flying, thus managing to dodge blockers and help closing the game.

Each creature in the deck has a critical function, let's get to know them a bit more:

Benevolent Bodyguard is a support creature, being a protection that stays in play and in the opponent's sight. With it in play, it's even possible for us to tap out and still not take a removal on our most equipped creature.

Sacred Cat ends up having 2 roles. A simple one is to help protect against edicts, since when it dies, you can have one more creature in play even if you haven't drawn a card. Its lifelink can also be very useful and turns it into a great target for auras against aggressive decks and Burn.

On the other hand, Deftblade Elite is a creature that will give the opponent some headache, with its ability to Provoke the creatures to block it — that is, after a few auras, we can use it to kill smaller creatures that our opponent have in play.

Ethereal Armor is the main Aura of the deck, it is what will make our creature huge and accelerate the clock for our victory.

Hyena Umbra is excellent against removal cards like Cast Down, or even to block and not lose the creature.

Benevolent Blessing, if I'm not mistaken, was the last aura to enter the deck and is usually the last to enter play as well. With its flash ability that can be done at any time, it's a great option to end the game or respond to a removal.

Sentinel's Eyes is an aura that I really like. I think adding vigilance to our creatures is essential, where in a game against a deck with several creatures we can be attacking and still having blocks.

And finally Cartouche of Solidarity is a decent aura, but overall important against decks that have edicts as it creates a token.

In addition to creatures and auras, we have two types of protection:

Karametra's Blessing is a protection that needs the creature to be enchanted; otherwise, it will only gain the +2/+2 which will not always help to save them, but is often used to end the game.

On the other hand, Emerge Unscathed is a pretty good protection because it's used "twice", and if it's on Lagonna-Band Trailblazer or Akroan Skyguard they will gain 2 counters.

In this version that I've been using with 16 lands, 15 Plains and 1 Secluded Steppe, it's riskier to have to mulligan. But I believe that with fewer lands, the deck becomes more aggressive and with higher odds of winning faster.

During the live, a friend asked what an ideal hand would be, and it's quite simple: having a balance between the number of creatures and auras and drawing few lands, as our highest cost is 2.

Our stance is almost always that of an aggro deck, enchant our creature and attack. We don't have much to think about, we don't want to give our opponent time. Of course, in some matches it will be necessary to play more calmly and act more wisely than just being aggressive.

It is important to always be aware of the removals that the opponent may have, keeping some response and protecting our main creature.

vs. Mono Red Burn

This matchup is a struggle for both sides, we want to have Sacred Cat in play anyway and our opponent must spend burns on it, so we don't leave it in play to gain life. In the end, whoever manages to complete the mission has a better chance of winning.

The match is a fight for who can deal faster damage, and for that reason, I've been using a Lifelink in the main deck.

In addition to being vital in this match, it also helps against other archetypes with this strategy.

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vs. Dimir Faeries

Here I could have put Ux Fairies because playing against faeries is always complicated, either against UR or Mono U, since Spellstutter Sprite can counter everything in our deck. But Dimir has Chainer's Edict, which is our greatest dread, plus, of course, Snuff Out, which works for "free" and forces us to play around it.

It's a very complicated game, but it's not impossible. We must start out fast, and of course, with protection in hand, so when they find an edict, we have more than one creature in play, and if there is a removal we try to protect ourselves.

Post-side, we have several answers, but one care is not to exchange too many cards so as not to undo our game strategy. We want to have answers, but we also wish to have creatures and auras to win the game.

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vs. Grixis Affinity

Here we have a match that could be excellent. Nowadays, Affinity ends up wanting to draw many cards and while doing that it takes a long time to put creatures into play; if we start fast we have plenty of chances to win.

If we give our opponent time to board as well, the most important aura will be Sentinel's Eyes which will allow us to attack and still block, since our opponent's creatures are pretty beefy.

On the side we have some answers like Fragmentize, but our opponent will have edict, and it is crucial to know how to play around the card.

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vs. Boros Bully

This is an incredibly complicated game, as our opponent has 2 significant answers against us: the first is having numerous creatures to block, and the second is Prismatic Strands which prevents us from dealing damage while setting up their board.

On the other hand, if we can quickly make a big creature and put Benevolent Blessing on it, it will no longer be able to block and will be dependent on preventing damage every turn.

We must be careful with their enchantment removal, as there are many lists that run Revoke Existence and/or Leave No Trace.

Side in:

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vs. Mono White Heroic

And finally, we have the mirror, which is based on who plays faster.

Maybe whoever starts ends up winning, or whoever draws in better proportions and auras. It is important to pay attention to every detail, as an inexperienced opponent may end up making a mistake.

In Game 1 there is nothing to be done but to follow your script, but after the side we end up having good answers.

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Ending another article, I want to say that the deck is good, it's fun and can bring you good results, but it has a certain limitation, and today it's not among the best in the format.

If you are starting out in Pauper, I highly recommend it, as it is a cheap deck with great mechanics, as well as easy to play.

Any questions or suggestions, just leave it here in the comments, and I'll come back to talk about it!

Thank you very much, and I hope you enjoyed the reading.