I generally dislike potpourri articles.

But here we are.

Mishra's Foundry or Roadside Reliquary?

The initial builds of Mono-White Control when The Brothers' War Standard deck lists started to come out were all on 3-4 copies of Mishra's Foundry. Most of the Mono-White reporting I've done in the past couple of weeks has been around 4x Mishra's Foundry decks. It was in fact the first card I spent The Brothers' War wildcards on.

Mishra's Foundry is, sadly, thoroughly unexciting. It is not, in fact, Mishra's Factory. But Mishra's Foundry occasionally gets a good combat in, and can be a serviceable second attacker for a creature-poor (but not creature-less) deck that wants to trigger Wedding Invitation.

Roadside Reliquary replaced Mishra's Foundry as a four-of in some builds. One of the obvious swaps was to take out the solo Serra Paragon for a flapper Elspeth, leaning into Roadside Reliquary over Mishra's Foundry. Again, the Foundry is not very exciting. For a single colored deck, Faceless Haven this creature land is not.

In my old age (or, three weeks or so into playing a lot of Standard), I've gone to two and two. I was just losing more with Reliquary than I was with Mishra's Foundry, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me. The Reliquary comes up a lot and I wasn't attacking with the Foundry hardly ever. I will say one of the cool things that has occurred more than once is activating Mishra's Foundry (which can be an artifact) to turn on the double-draw on the Reliquary... A land that is but rarely seen next to Mishra's Foundry.

Now that's some using every part of the buffalo!

Depopulate or Farewell?

This morning I lost a long, Long, LOOOOONG game to triple Farewell. It was not to damage. Oh no. I got decked. I just couldn't believe the opponent was playing more than two Farewell! I was ahead on every metric. I got everything swept. Then I was ahead on every metric again. The third Farewell didn't even sink me... But I probably shouldn't have played into it.

In my early builds I copied the 3x Depopulate status quo. For what I think the MWC deck wants to do, you want Depopulate. The reality is that while I think some version of MWC is the best deck to play in Standard, it is inextricably draw-dependent. You win a lot against Soldiers when you draw Lay Down Arms in your opening hand; but you lose terribly if you don't draw at least one early. Depopulate is a good hedge there.

Now if you actually are aiming in another direction: Sweeping not just creatures, taking advantage of the Green identity of your Citizens not only to draw an extra card yourself... But to hit the Treasure tokens and Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivitys and future basic Plains re-buys of an opposing Mono-White Control deck... I think Farewell becomes very serviceable.

At this point I can't wrap my head around just not having the faster Depopulate for Soldiers but having a super over the top card for the mirror when there are other options.

I'm on team Depopulate, but I'm down to one copy. Lots and lots of singletons in my current list, in part as a reaction to the increased volatility of Standard itself.

A note on volatility: Standard has become wild. The card options are not so different than they were two weeks ago, but Mono-White has started to aggressively metagame against itself (hello four copies of Loran of the Third Path MAIN DECK); and Mono-Blue has come back in force.

Mono-Blue coming back has done so with more than one identity as well. I like seeing the return of Delver of Secrets in about half the Mono-Blue decks. Which, ironically, makes it a better choice against Mono-White. (In most games Mono-White can just manage to kill eight big threats. Twelve stretches the removal somewhat).

The increase in Mono-Blue - more specifically the influx of both four-toughness Haughty Djinn and 5 toughness Tolarian Terror - makes for terrible combats for Mono-Red. It's a tough and increasingly volatile time to be tapping basic Mountain in Standard.

Spirited Companion or Ambitious Farmhand?

I was on team good doggy until about this week; but now I'm firmly in the camp of Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar.

What was I thinking?

1. I literally won with a one lander on the draw against Mono-Black just before writing this article. If I get a second land at all, that implies the third land; and given my hand (which included at least one copy of The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration)... I probably was never going to miss another land drop
2. Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar fixes one of the deck's other big problems. Mono-White is mostly a control deck, but it can't control every aspect of the game. It can bog down The Red Zone and make attacking look foolish... But it is difficult to keep the opponent from sending one too many copies of Lightning Strike at your face. Enter Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar! You flip this one-time 1/1 and connect one time? It's like Gnarled Mass meets Ophidian (or perhaps Hypnotic Specter?) in all the best ways.

I liked Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar in testing so much I cut a land and added a third Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar. It's pretty exciting with The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration, too!

Loran of the Third Path or no?

Loran was initially mostly a sideboard card in Mono-White, but has graduated to as much as a four-of in at least some builds.

At this point, I don't think you can really get away with playing zero copies of Loran of the Third Path, but I also can't wrap my head around four copies main deck. It just doesn't synergize with The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration as well as the various two-mana plays!

On the other hand, I think you're too far behind maniacs who do play a ton of Lorans if you don't play any at all. It also has some nice text in random cases... Take that Hallowed Haunting! Bet getting that Portal to Phyrexia took a lot of effort! Even takes a little of the edge off of Cityscape Leveler.

Steel Seraph or No?

In the beginning [of the format] it seemed like Mono-White was in one corner starting out on good doggies and topping up on Sanctuary Warden; and Mono-White was answering from the other corner with Steel Seraph from the middle-top, subbing a couple of cards, but mostly approaching from a lower land count.

It would not be accurate to say that the Mono-White builds have homogenized. They're kind of all over the place. Some of them think they're White Weenie with Intrepid Adversary in the main; and some really, really want to win the mirror with four copies of Loran of the Third Path, again in the main. But the various Mono-White builds do seem to have learned from one another.

I've complained a couple of times about how Mono-White can be so good at controlling the battlefield... But is kind of lax at defending its own life total directly. Steel Seraph (like Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar) can buoy your life total a bit before you get burned out by Red or even Black. Consequently, I've become a fan, or at least a conservative adopter.

Now, I don't think Steel Seraph is better than Sanctuary Warden. I would not recommend cutting even one Sanctuary Warden to try to test or fit Steel Seraph. The reason is Sanctuary Warden offers immediate card advantage, battlefield defensive presence, and even a colorful creature to blunt the downside of your own Depopulate.

Steel Seraph offers a bunch too... But the sum of it doesn't exceed the Titan-like 187 and first attack by the Sanctuary Warden... Let alone the rest of its kit.

Steel Seraph is a flexible card that is certainly worth consideration. It's just not better than the other 6-drop Angel. But one thing Steel Seraph can boast is simply that it is an artifact. This makes for a great way to turn on Roadside Reliquary. MWC (the Reliquary players, at least) rely on their Reckoner Bankbusters staying in play... But this isn't always up to you. Steel Seraph could be any artifact for this upside purpose... But it happens to be in a great Gnarled Mass along the way.

Right now I'm on one Steel Seraph. I like it quite a bit, but the deck is absolutely glutted at three between The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration and Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity.

How About This Deck List You Keep Alluding To?

Mono-White | BRO Standard | Michael Flores

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 Serra Paragon
• 1 Steel Seraph
• 2 Cathar Commando
• 3 Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar
• 4 Sanctuary Warden

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (3)
• 1 Fateful Absence
• 2 Destroy Evil

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Depopulate
• 4 Lay Down Arms

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Lands (24)
• 19 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 2 Mishra's Foundry
• 2 Roadside Reliquary

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The biggest moves for me are switching to Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar to create more keep-able opening hands; and mixing up a lot of singletons. As we've said, Standard has become volatile. Answering volatility with maximum four-of steadiness is a great way to lose an outsized number of coin flips.

"One is a miracle."

"Fight fire with fire!"

LOVE

MIKE