Last weekend, I played Season Master’s – Hour of Devastation in Hareruya, a big event in Japan. The format of the tournament was 6 rounds of Standard and 3 of HOU Draft. Around 400000\ (4000$) was distributed amongst the top 8.

Me, Shuhei Nakamura, Yuuki Ichikawa, Ken Yukuhiro, Yuuya Watanabe, Kenta Harane… many professional players joined it and the 3 first of the list made top 8.

How I went Mono White Vehildrazi?

I felt very confident in the draft format and I decide to essentially focus on the constructed part during my testing. Everything started with a discussion with my friends and new Hareruya Hopes, Anthony Lee from Australia. He was practicing a lot of Standard on Magic Online and told me how Mono-White Eldrazi was good.

“You basically beat every creature deck with it, but you are losing hard against Ramp and Control decks. Also, 《God-Pharaoh's Gift》 is not an easy match,” he said. I tried the deck and found the same conclusion.

I tried many sideboard options to have a chance in these match ups, like 《Aven Mindcensor》, but I realized that what we were missing was just pressure. Mono-White Eldrazi is not an aggressive deck: it is just a kind of control deck; this is the reason you have no chance in slow match ups, and your late game plan is never better than these decks. I tried to put aggressive cards in the sideboard like 《Heart of Kiran》, then I realized that I could just change the entire deck.

Here is the list:

The thing is, although the deck has become more aggressive, the match up against creature is not that different – even better against some. But slow decks are in big trouble against this deck.

The package of 《Toolcraft Exemplar》, 《Heart of Kiran》 and 《Scrapheap Scrounger》 was working for Mardu Vehicles and it is the same here.

But, everybody knows how Mardu can be frustratingly bad with the mana base. 12 fast lands that become tap lands on turn 4; 《Spire of Industry》 with no artifacts; 《Aether Hub》 with not enough energy… The mana is just much better here and you have utility lands that help a lot during games.

I played 3 leagues on Magic Online with the deck and went 5-0, 4-1, and 4-1 for a 13-2 total result. I won against every kind of deck: Ramp x 3, 《God-Pharaoh's Gift》, UB Control x2, UW 《Approach》, Temur x 3, Mono-White Eldrazi, and Ramunap Red x2.

My 2 losses were only against 2 Ramunap Red, each time 1-2, and that was when I had a bad sideboard plan. After I understood how the match up went, I won against the two last Ramunap Red I played against online and also 2 during the Season Master event (4 x 2-0 and further details about it in the sideboard part).

Card Choice

Let’s talk about the cards of the deck:

The Lands:

With 19 white sources (31.66% of the deck) available on the first turn, the probability to get one in your opening hand is better than a classic Mardu list which only plays 15 (25%). This increases the probability to play 《Toolcraft Exemplar》 or 《Thraben Inspector》 on turn 1 and to get the double white for 《Gideon, Ally of Zendikar》, 《Stasis Snare》 and 《Archangel Avacyn》.

2 《Sea Gate Wreckage》

So strong in an aggressive deck. A nightmare for 《Torrential Gearhulk》 decks. Also make the difference in aggressive match after a lot of “one for one” and many lands in play.

4 《Shefet Dunes》

It gives white and colorless, a dual land with an additional boost effect.

4 《Aether Hub》

It gives white and colorless, a dual land which can feed 《Aethersphere Harvester》 or produce black for 《Scrapheap Scrounger》.

4 《Concealed Courtyard》

A 《Plains》 which can bring back 《Scrapheap Scrounger》.

3 《Scavenger Grounds》

A free way to fight 《Torrential Gearhulk》, 《God-Pharaoh's Gift》, Zombies and Delirium.

3 《Scrapheap Scrounger》

Drawing too many in the wrong match up could be bad so I prefer to play only 3 with the 4th in the sideboard.

1 《Eldrazi Displacer》

The first one is very good and can be great in the late game, but you don’t want to accumulate them, having two makes the second one almost useless and it is a creature easy to kill.

2 《Matter Reshaper》

A great card, but it is not an artifact and you can’t have too many 3 mana spells. The card has a great power level in this deck. You can get cards like 《Stasis Snare》 or 《Aethersphere Harvester》 with the trigger, which is amazing.

1 《Archangel Avacyn》

With no more 《Selfless Spirit》 and 4 《Walking Ballista》, 《Archangel Avacyn》 can still do things. But 24 lands are not enough to play a second one and having both of them in hand could be really bad.

2 《Aethersphere Harvester》

Having multiple Vehicles is a way to lose, so I prefer to have only 2. But the card is great – surviving many different removal spells, and attacking with flying and lifelink which is great in races. It can block 《Glorybringer》 and 《Whirler Virtuoso》‘s tokens.

3 《Thought-Knot Seer》 / 2 《Gideon, Ally of Zendikar》

These 2 cards are most of the time for different match ups, and playing first or second is also a reason to choose one over another. I like the mix main deck and adjust it after sideboard.

1 《Blessed Alliance》

I like one maindeck as it helped against Ramunap Red, particularly 《Hazoret the Fervent》. It can also surprise 《Bristling Hydra》 or an 8/8 《Verdurous Gearhulk》.

3 《Spatial Contortion》

The card can kill many creatures in the format and even if your opponent is not playing targets, like Ramp or UB Control, you can use it as a 《Giant Growth》 on 《Heart of Kiran》 or a 《Thought-Knot Seer》 during game 1.

3 《Stasis Snare》

Instant removal against 4+ toughness creature like 《Glorybringer》, 《Torrential Gearhulk》 or 《Archangel Avacyn》. Exile is also great against many cards like 《Hazoret the Fervent》, 《Earthshaker Khenra》, 《Relentless Dead》, 《The Scarab God》, 《God-Pharaoh's Gift》 or 《World Breaker》.

How to use the sideboard, IN / OUT

Ramunap Red:

This match up is the most difficult to understand, yet when you know everything it is a very good match up. The key is: it is an aggressive mirror match, but players get more control cards after sideboard. You don’t know who will be the control or the aggressive player during games.

At the beginning of my testing I sided out every 《Scrapheap Scrounger》 and lost each time against 《Chandra, Torch of Defiance》 with many removal spells in my hand. 《Gideon, Ally of Zendikar》 is also a way to fight 《Chandra》 and you have enough removal to protect him.

《Blessed Alliance》 is doing everything – obviously killing a guy and gain life is great, but untap creatures like 《Aethersphere Harvester》 is amazing. Also, it deals most of the time with 《Hazoret the Fervent》, just because blockers and removals force your opponent to attack with it alone.

《Warping Wail》 can exile 《Bomat Courier》, 《Falkenrath Gorger》, 《Soul-Scar Mage》, and 《Kari Zev, Skyship Raider》, but is especially good on 《Earthshaker Khenra》. It can also counter 《Incendiary Flow》, 《Collective Defiance》 or 《Cut // Ribbons》 and even “Crew” your 《Aethersphere Harvester》 when your opponent does not expect it.

《Thought-Knot Seer》 is only good on the play since you can get 《Hazoret the Fervent》 or 《Chandra, Torch of Defiance》 before your opponent can play it. On the draw, the card is really bad and you should not play it anymore. 《Authority of the Consuls》 is a classic strong card against Ramunap Red, but it is much better when you are playing aggro like Mono-White Vehicles. It completely annihilates the race. Also, the synergy between 《Authority》 and 《Displacer》 is great.

I recommend that you test this match a lot: knowledge will be really relevant to make good little decisions that matter a lot. This is how you should side against Ramunap Red:

Zombies:

You are playing a lot of removal after sideboard – this makes 《Gideon, Ally of Zendikar》 better than 《Thought-Knot Seer》. If you do not play creatures before turn 4, 《Thought-Knot Seer》 could easily die to 《Fatal Push》 and 《Grasp of Darkness》.

《Warping Wail》 can exile 《Cryptbreaker》, 《Dread Wanderer》 and 《Metallic Mimic》, and also can counter 《Dark Salvation》. It can also help you to play 《Gideon》 on turn 3. Also, exiling creatures decreases the power of incoming 《Diregraf Colossus》.

《Declaration in Stone》 is a way to fight Zombie tokens from 《Liliana's Mastery》. 《Eldrazi Displacer》 is another pretty good way to exile these tokens. It is not rare to face multiple creature on the battlefield with the same name, and that also makes the card strong in this setup. Zombies can side in 《Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet》 – with 《Stasis Snare》 or 《Declaration in Stone》, you have answers to it.

《Aethersphere Harvester》 doesn’t die to 《Fatal Push》, 《Grasp of Darkness》 and 《Dark Salvation》 and is the most annoying card for Zombies.

Temur Energy:

Against Temur you are the aggressor. It is a good match up because both 《Bristling Hydra》 and 《Glorybringer》 are not very strong against Mono-White. Even if your opponent draws the dragon after you cast 《Thought-Knot Seer》, it is still not enough for him to survive. The dynamic of the game is just very bad for Temur: they are playing cards which don’t have enough impact on the game. By the time 《Glorybringer》 arrives into play, your opponent can’t race you, so they should “Exert” which mean it is just a removal for 5 mana, nothing more, and it is too expensive. Most of the time the best play is to play it and keep it as a blocker, which is not great but still better that attacking with it.

《Hydra》 doesn’t help against 《Heart of Kiran》 and 《Aethersphere Harvester》 and it could be a very bad turn 4. Temur Energy is playing 《Abrade》, 《Harnessed Lightning》 and 《Glorybringer》 as removal spells. None of their cards are good against 《Scrapheap Scrounger》 and 《Matter Reshaper》. With so many enters the battlefield triggers in their deck, 《Eldrazi Displacer》 is not great in this match, and you prefer a less expensive card like the 4th 《Scrapheap Scrounger》 instead.

《Solemnity》 is the spicy card for the match up, this is the list of cards which are affected by it:

28 / 38 cards are not working so well anymore just because this enchantment. It is just a nightmare for them to play against. Just don’t forget to side out your 4 《Walking Ballista》.

Green Black:

You have to know after game one if your opponent is playing GB Energy or Delirium. 《Solemnity》 is helping anyway but much more so against Energy version.

The match up against Delirium with 《Catacomb Sifter》 and 《Grim Flayer》 is more difficult than the Energy one, but I think the way to sideboard is the same.

Jeskai 《God-Pharaoh's Gift》:

The match-up is great. You have a lot of pressure and in the same time you can exile creature with 《Stasis Snare》, exile an important card with 《Thought-Knot Seer》 or exile the graveyard with 《Scavenger Grounds》. 《Warping Wail》 is an additional way to exile creatures but also counter 《Cathartic Reunion》 or 《Refurbish》. 《Declaration in Stone》 is great against them. 《Eldrazi Displacer》 can exile the tokens of 《God-Pharaoh's Gift》.

Mono White Eldrazi:

The beginning and midgame is much at your advantage. You will lead the game for sure and it will be a long way to stabilize for the control version. 《Heart of Kiran》 is great card until they can cast 《Archangel Avacyn》. I’m believing that our own 《Archangel Avacyn》 is bad against 《Selfless Spirit》, 4 《Avacyn》, 《Thought-Knot Seer》…

GW or GR Ramp:

Ramp is basically doing nothing at the beginning. You can put a lot of damage with your Vehicles, even after 《Hour of Promise》. If your opponent play 《Fumigate》 or 《Hour of Devastation》 and if you didn’t exile it with 《Thought-Knot Seer》, you can still “Crew” Vehicles after it. 《Matter Reshaper》 can put a new guy into play and 《Warping Wail》 can counter these cards after sideboard. It is a very good match up for Mono White Vehicles.

UB Control:

With 3 《The Scarab God》 and 3 《Torrential Gearhulk》, 《Stasis Snare》 and 《Scavenger Grounds》 are great cards against UB. 《Warping Wail》 could counter 《Flaying Tendrils》 or 《Never // Return》 still better than 《Spatial Contortion》. You could board in 《Declaration in Stone》, but even if it is good immediately I feel you will pay the price afterwards.

UW 《Approach》:

Having Vehicles, Planeswalkers, hand disruptions and counterspells after sideboard make this match up very good. A deck which wants to play 7 mana sorcery is just terrible when you play 《Warping Wail》.

Season Master Standard results:

Conclusion

I can see 《Fragmentize》 in sideboard if Mardu Vehicles is popular but this is probably the only thing I would change.

I hope you can practice and use this deck for your Nationals, as I think this is an amazing deck for it.

Thank you for reading,

Jeremy DEZANI