Topic: Mono-White lockdown (Advice/Opinion Standard)

I made another standard deck, this one focuses on not letting opponents do anything fun, it hoses graveyards, flicker, tokens, most decks that aren't just make something big and trample all over my face.

http://deckbox.org/sets/187256

The main cards of the deck are the artifacts grafdigger's cage, torpor orb, isolation cell, witchbane orb, and Norn's Annex the idea being my opponent cannot do anything to me without having to pay for it, Norn's Annex is kindof the star, if my opponent has one pumped  up creature I'll just tap it during their upkeep with Gideon's Lawkeeper or Blinding Souleater. This way I can (hopefully) make sure that them attacking me hurts them more than it hurts me. With the addition of Isolation Cell they're going to have to wait a few turns to cast or lose more life. Torpor Orb can shut down Snapcaster Mage decks which almost everyone I faced had. Lastly Grafdigger's Cage is pretty obvious, stops up bring back stuff from graveyards, so Snapcasters, Flashback, Undying, and other fun stuff. Angel of Jubilation is just more insurance that my opponent can't do anything.

The other lockdown combo is Norn's Annex comboed with Grand Abolisher or Stony Silence, they cannot pay you attack because it is an ability of an artifact so they can't attack me, and if I add an Indomitable Archangel then my artifacts are removal proof.     [EDIT] this combo doesn't work, the Annex is a static ability not activated sad

Issues I forsee: one well timed Devastation tide would wipe me out
My creatures are vulnerable
I don't really have a finisher type creature aside from Gideon's Avenger and that's risky
Mana ramp green decks will just laugh at my attempts to stop their attacks
Other things I can't think of right now
Thoughts I had
Splash blue, it has as good if not better creature tapping abilities and counters
Splash Black mainly for Painful Quandary
Gideon Jura, if they have no white and I force them to attack with everything if could finish them off without risking myself

Any thoughts?

Major credit to shade36 for suggesting Knowledge Pool with curse of Exhaustion!! My opponent can no longer successfully cast spells smile

Last edited by imsully2 (2012-06-17 04:30:56)

Re: Mono-White lockdown (Advice/Opinion Standard)

No one has any thoughts? I know its a fairly boring and un-creative one

Re: Mono-White lockdown (Advice/Opinion Standard)

Sorry for the delayed response.  Sometimes it lights up the little dialogue bubble when there are new posts and sometimes it doesn't (or it clears them all out when you look at one post) so I totally missed it when you put this one up.

So the idea is just to frustrate and lock them down until... I'm not really seeing the winning play here.  I'm seeing a lot of ways to piss the opponent off, but not a lot to WIN the game.

A few other cards you might want to include (note that some might not be standard legal to my knowledge):

Meekstone - For one, you can certainly stop anything large that gets out onto the battlefield.  When paired with your creature tappers, you can essentially cripple their creatures.  To that end, I would almost look to see if you could pump up THEIR creatures.

Terminus would be some good board clearing fun.  Any other white board clearing effects would be great (Wrath of God or even Mass Calcify if you're up to the seven casting cost).

Norn's Annex NEEDS to be in here.  Island Sanctuary could work in a pinch.  Don't forget your COPs in the sideboard either!

Let us not forget classics like Eye For An Eye and Reverse Damage.

Beyond those, you might want some flyer generation or something, whether they be spirits or something else (like Pegusi), as those might be your best bet to hit back.

Lastly, I would actually advocate moving up to 65 cards in the off chance your game comes down to who has more cards wink.

Re: Mono-White lockdown (Advice/Opinion Standard)

There are 2 main combos that I'm hoping will allow me to win, having a couple Gideon's Avengers get really pumped up and smash face hopefully not being blocked because I used real Gideon's +2 last turn or If I do get out the Knowledge Pool and Curse of Exhaustion because at that point they're pretty screwed I figure that if they can't cast spells then I should be in pretty good shape because if they can't cast any spells then I should be able to win without much of an issue

I'm hoping that with the life taxes that I put in that I should be able to use my angels as big attackers, I also have 2 Mirran Crusaders in my sideboard which I'm considering putting in as powerful attackers, especially with an Angel of Jubilation out.

I also have considered Dispatch for removal since I use a lot of static artifacts.

In regards to producing fliers I agree, it's a pretty big issue but I don't know if I should use Lingering Souls or Midnight Haunting or Requiem Angel I'm leaning towards the Angel because it punishes them for attacking again but it takes so long to enter the battlefield that I don't know how useful it is.

I hadn't really thought about running out of cards but in this kind of stasis deck it's actually very possible that one of us would run out of cards before the game ends so I think that 65-70 would be a good idea, but now i need to get more good cards, lol

The only card that you suggested that is standard legal is Terminus and it's a good idea, however I don't know if I'll be able to trade for a playset since my tradelist is a little on the skimpy side right now...

Once I get a chance to test it out I'll let everyone know how it works and if I'm going to scrap it or not which is fairly likely if it sucks

Last edited by imsully2 (2012-06-23 20:10:15)