Last week, in A Skred by Any Other Name, we looked at some of the newest Standard archetypes from The Brothers's War; headlined by a Mono-White Control deck by tzio.

Mono-White Control | BRO Standard | tzio, 1st Place MTGO Standard Challenge 12/4/22

• Creatures (9)
• 1 Serra Paragon
• 2 Cathar Commando
• 2 Spirited Companion
• 4 Sanctuary Warden

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 The Wandering Emperor

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

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 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 (25)
• 20 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 4 Mishra's Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Elspeth Resplendent
• 4 Anointed Peacekeeper
• 2 Farewell
• 3 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 2 Unlicensed Hearse

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I decided to give tzio's build my virgin run-through of the new format, and tested it out in a Standard Event on Magic: the Gathering Arena.

Spoilers!

I got to the seven wins and coveted Play-in Point with my first at-bat. The deck was great and I learned a ton despite largely loose play borne of unfamiliarity with a new weapon.

This is what I faced:

1. Gruul Werewolves - W; 1-0
2. Grixis Vampires - W; 2-0
3. Esper Mid-Range - L; 2-1
4. Red Aggro - W; 3-1
5. Black Mid-Range - L; 3-2
6. Soldiers - W; 4-2
7. Esper Mid-Range - W; 5-2
8. Mono-Blue Tempo - W; 6-2
9. Soldiers - W; 7 -2

The first lesson I learned was that the White deck really needs to hit its land drops, early and late. I felt that a deck like Gruul Werewolves (lots of creatures, and not necessarily the fastest ones; less staying power than we have) would be one of the best matchups. But missing a land drop inside of four turns made the contest more of a nail-biter than I would have anticipated.

For instance, I had to main-phase a Fateful Absence against a Howlpack Piper (for fear of what it might do if the opponent got an untap), meanwhile having to take a bunch of small Wolves on the jaw.

Ultimately the overwhelming amount of creature removal in the White deck bore out and I stabilized. I did get a little fortunate near the end of the game where an instant speed block forced the Werewolves opponent to make multiple inefficient decisions in the same turn.

Takeaway: Land drops are important, and missing them can cause White to fall behind. But the deck has considerable opportunities to catch up. Lay Down Arms is the whole reason the deck exists; and the fact that it can trade with almost anything going long is great. Depopulate is the quintessential "catch up" card, though.

Against any decks with Red (Mono-Red even more than one like Gruul) your life total is often more important than other even obviously important priorities. Look for ways to stay above three life. Playing Lay Down Arms on your own creature is an important part of the range, and never forget that The Wandering Emperor can gain two life out of nowhere, even if it's on your own creature.

You might remember a competing version of MWC built by Edel:

Mono-White Control | BRO Standard | Edel, 3rd Place MTGO Standard Challenge 12/4/22

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Serra Paragon
• 3 Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar
• 3 Sanctuary Warden
• 3 Spirited Companion
• 4 Anointed Peacekeeper
• 4 Steel Seraph

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (2)
• 2 Destroy Evil

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Lay Down Arms

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Lands (23)
• 19 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 3 Mishra's Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Banishing Slash
• 3 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Loran of the Third Path
• 2 Farewell
• 2 Fateful Absence
• 2 Unlicensed Hearse
• 1 Serra Paragon

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I played against this deck a few times in other Events, and successfully. One thing that I admired a lot about Edel's build is that its early turns seem smoother, despite playing fewer overall lands. A common play with tzio's version is just to run out Reckoner Bankbuster on turn two, and failing a natural third land drop, rolling the dice for two mana. Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar does a better job of this, of course. Two-land Farmhand draws look like satin from across the table.

While I ultimately beat that Werewolves deck (which is how I figured the cards should fall), I was surprised at how well the White deck could hang with Grixis Vampires.

Like we talked about a few weeks ago, my opponent even had Siphon Insight for extra card advantage!

How did we keep up?

MWC is surprisingly card advantageous.

A lot of the old favorites unambiguously draw cards. Reckoner Bankbuster - four copies of Reckoner Bankbuster - really give this deck staying power... Especially against powerhouses with obviously lopsided engines like Corpse Appraiser or Invoke Despair.

But the one card you might underrate is Serra Paragon.

This card isn't new, exactly... But it's one I had never played; only played against.

If there is a four mana creature you're apt to misplay in your first couple of go-rounds, it's going to be this one. Which is also a singleton! Meaning you're least likely to get reps in with it.

You can stow cards with The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration in your graveyard that that Saga can't naturally bring back. You can also buy back a Reckoner Bankbuster that the opponent has wisely destroyed with an Abrade (or in combat). An uncontested Paragon doesn't run away with the game by itself, exactly... More than that it magnifies the other cards that are building your advantages and snowballs them.

Creature removal generally tends to be weak against the Control. But contextually it's surprisingly effective against Standard's three-color Black decks. Lay Down Arms can take the edge off of Tenacious Underdog. It's also right-costed to dodge the Ward on Raffine, Scheming Seer.

For MWC to contend with three-color Black decks, it often requires eking out every gram of value.

Takeaway: Look for ways to get the most out of specifically Serra Paragon.

I think ideally, you'll want to play this card and immediately play a land out of the graveyard (this is where I screwed up the first time). That way even if the opponent has a good removal spell, you can have gotten two-for-one to start. Another good time to play it is if you already have six or seven lands and you can buy back something on the order of a The Restoration of Eiganjo or at least Spirited Companion.

Also think about playing Serra Paragon after you've already attacked. If you can play a Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity to draw a card, that can be an overwhelming amount of value and presence for one card... Though I guess you should expect a nice swing in assets for seven mana.

I both lost to and beat Esper in my opening Event.

The first match was pretty close, but I ultimately got bitten by the drawback on Depopulate. Esper's creatures are fundamentally card advantageous on a per-unit basis. The fact that they're largely multicolored means that the opponent often has a built-in second wind even after what should have been a good sweep.

Because Lay Down Arms is such a perfect foil to Dennick, Pious Apprentice // Dennick, Pious Apparition I feel like MWC is actually the Control in this matchup, despite the opponent's Blue mana. It is also really good against Toluz, Clever Conductor if the opponent goes that way.

Exile is subtly relevant across many of Esper's threats; but Toluz may be the most surprising example. The opponent just doesn't get to buy back all those extra extra cards if Toluz doesn't "die" in the usual way. All bets are off if the multicolored Toluz is just in a scrum of the unsorted Depopulated.

Takeaway: At the end of the day, despite all its incredible card quality, Esper is mostly a pile of guys.

They don't have any reach; and even though they sometimes draw a ton of cards - often in a single turn - those cards tend mostly to be more guys.

This is a classic matchup where if you kill all their creatures they can't really win. So, look not only for removal and sweepers, but also even blocks. Killing creatures undermines the opponent's strategy. Even with Raffine filtering their hand... They can run out.

Ultimately, you'll want to avoid below average trades. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Resolute Reinforcements are examples of two cards that can get the better of you from a volume standpoint. Be mindful.

One card I initially underrated was Cathar Commando.

This card doesn't look like much. I've played more Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Limited than almost anyone, yet I'm not sure I ever had this card in a forty-card deck.

In this one, though? It does a ton of things shockingly well. It is so not-spectacular at anything. But on the other hand it does basically anything and everything, while costing a whopping two mana.

First of all, Cathar Commando is a passable Terror. The opponent is sending with some random 2/2 for two... It can jump in the way and prevent them from accomplishing further mischief (when it does this, keep in mind the Human Soldier is perfectly costed for The Restoration of Eiganjo or Serra Paragon to bring back).

At two mana, a flashy Cathar Commando is the perfect playmate to Reckoner Bankbuster. Imagine the opponent foolishly attacks into your open Bankbuster with, say, a 3/3... It's not going to be a happy combat when Cathar Commando jumps into the Vehicle instead of jumping straight in front of the attacker. There are variations from two to five mana that are all progressively worse for the bad guys.

Takeaway: Cathar Commando can be a non-intuiitve card to play against. I underestimated it in my early games, but came to really appreciate it by the time I beat my first Mono-Red deck.

My opponent came in with multiple 1-drops, and I dropped the Commando.

Worried about the life of Feldon, Ronom Excavator, the opponent sent a Play with Fire at my 3/1 before I could block with it. Clearly this was a misplay. It gets worse.

In response, I turned on Reckoner Bankbuster (and got an even more advantageous block in, despite the Play with Fire.

Remember how I said that it gets worse?

With one open, I could respond to the Play with Fire before it resolved (but after I had made Reckoner Bankbuster into a 4/4). That one took out an incoming Etching of Kumano, as well.

Did I say Cathar Commando is not spectacular? I guess sometimes it can be!

After beating Grixis - which I assumed to be the most card advantageous possible opponent - I was surprised to lose my first time up against Mono-Black. In this case the opponent had the tempo with Gix, Yawgmoth's Praetor so I was playing on the back foot.

They used the creature presence on the battlefield to not only get damage (and card drawing!) in; but to protect Sorin the Mirthless; eventually setting up that Planeswalker's [-7] Limit Break.

This was some tough opposition to navigate! The opponent had powerhouse direct damage in the form of the ubiquitous Invoke Despair in addition to Sorin's "brain you for 13" ability... Meaning that even if I played right against everything I'd probably eventually lose to Sheoldred's drain.

Takeaway: You can't do much against Black's direct damage, but you can do more than nothing.

You have good interplay against Sheoldred between Fateful Absence and Destroy Evil (and sometimes you just take two and get it off the board with Depopulate or Lay Down Arms)... But there isn't much you can do about an opponent who draws like three copies of Sheoldred. Stay above two!

You can do even less about Invoke Despair... But this deck can keep the opponent from flat out-killing you when you have a low life total.

You have tons of creatures, including dopey 1/1 and 2/2 tokens that aren't that painful to sacrifice. Just think about when the opponent might be pulling back the hammer for Invoke Despair. Make sure you get Wedding Announcement or The Restoration of Eiganjo down to blunt two points (and prevent the opponent from getting one draw closer to the next Invoke Despair). Finally, it sucks to sacrifice The Wandering Emperor, but you can prioritize getting a copy down if two points of life are going to matter.

I figured Mono-Blue would be a tough matchup, but I haven't managed to lose to it yet.

The typical Mono-Blue deck has eight burly threats these days. They're good threats! But there are only eight of them. Tolarian Terror is actually pretty manageable by Lay Down Arms; and if you can get the opponent to trade off a few times, Depopulate can get the job done.

MWC has more removal than Mono-Blue has threats; and a lot of the point removal (most especially Destroy Evil) lines up well against their interplay.

Takeaway: Be mindful of how many swings the opponent will need with Haughty Djinn to kill you.

There is nothing like managing a ton of creatures well for several turns, but waltz into a two-turn clock.

One way to limit the opponent's ability to kill you in two swings with a Haughty Djinn is to force them to block. Reckoner Bankbuster is perfectly sized to force a trade with the much more power-ful Djinn.

There is one internal combo that I learned about in the MWC mirror. My opponent got paid instead of me... But I later realized I could play in such a way to make my own assets a little more effective.

Sanctuary Warden is this deck's ace. It's the end game. It trades with Haughty Djinn or Tolarian Terror; maybe even dominates them. There is nothing better than resolving it in a matchup where cards matter... And drawing an extra while making a 1/1 Citizen.

That Citizen is a half-card combo for you!

Notice that a Citizen is both White and Green. That means that if you Depopulate with one in play, you get to draw a card!

Isn't that awesome? You drew a card and then you get to draw another while sweeping the opponent's resources entirely. You can of course leave a Shield on your Sanctuary Warden to ensure it survives the Depopulate.

Mondo combo, am I right? This is just the beginning for MWC, I think. Fun little deck. Great starting point!

LOVE

MIKE