Scott Honigmann's Mono-White Control 2009

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/td/21

The main deck is pretty straightforward for a deck of this type, with the numbers queered somewhat by the addition of Runed Halo chomping up four main deck slots (though it must be nicely effective against Sulfuric Vortex).

The Mono-White Control deck—this style anyway, rather than the Ranger of Eos build that Brian David-Marshall wrote about last week—is built blending two highly compatible models: 1) Onslaught MWC and 2) Martyr of Sands as a Stage Three strategy.

The Onslaught plan is based on the big spells and big cyclers, like Eternal Dragon, Decree of Justice, and Akroma's Vengeance. It is supplemented along the way by cards that fit into the big spell strategy, such as Crovax, Ascendant Hero.

The second model the deck is built on is a Martyr of Sands plan. Just gain 18 per turn (or even 24 ... or even 48 ... or even ... How many Temples is that?) until the opponent gives up! (That's a plan, anyway ... plus few decks can actually interact with this combination).

Chalice of the Void is there as a kind of main-deck resistance to Elves. You can set the Chalice to one and probably not win (immediately), but gain sufficient time to lock down the game with removal and / or an incremental Chalice set to one.

The unusual stuff is present in Scott's sideboard: Two wildly "off-color" options in Boil and Extirpate. Were they worth the limiting splashes?


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Scott's deck has very little in the way of card advantage and card drawing ... just the added value on Decree of Justice and the relentless grinding mana draw of Eternal Dragon. What he does have is a kind of two-card combo in Martyr of Sands + Proclamation of Rebirth. When Martyr of Sands is in the graveyard (and remember it can jump into the graveyard with a single mana), it becomes eligible for recursion with Proclamation of Rebirth.

Now when these two puzzle pieces find themselves next to one another, not even a Counterspell can stop the bleeding ... err ... un-bleeding. Life for the white deck can grow literally limitless, given sufficient time. And time, for a deck like this, can ultimately be just as limitless thanks to Mistveil Plains (which, as a Plains, can be obtained with Eternal Dragon).

I can tell you how the interactions between these two decks will usually go.

If Osyp's deck has a Lightning Rift, Scott's deck can hold it off—if it even has to—with Runed Halo. Creatures are not going to pose a significant enough threat early, most of the time. Osyp's deck is not offensively very fast, and Scott's deck doesn't actually have to have the Runed Halo .... That's just there to buy time. If Scott's deck is very clever, it will bide time; hopefully Osyp's deck will flip over one or more Engineered Explosives, or given sufficient certainty, Scott's deck will be able to get Osyp's deck to blow an Explosives.

Why do these things matter?

Scott's deck wants to draw out as much time as possible.

Engineered Explosives is the problem—kind of—but only in the sense that it can blow up Chalice of the Void, which as a three-of is useful in holding off Life from the Loam; now, Life from the Loam is unconditionally awesome but in this case it is particularly awesome because Osyp's deck has got a pair of Ghost Quarters. The Ghost Quarters can be turned against Scott's one Mistveil Plains.

Now I don't know how often it will actually come to Mistveil Plains, because Scott has also got Akroma's Vengeance and Oblivion Ring while Osyp's deck is doing more cycling, and that whole dredge mechanic is going to whittle down the Slide deck more quickly than Scott's deck will ever deplete (even when drawing two cards per turn, which will be common come turn nine or so). But the fact of the matter is, if Scott is allowed to marry Martyr with Proclamation ... Osyp's deck will have a difficult time assembling anywhere near sufficient damage to win the game conventionally. Even without the Mistveil Plains, Scott's deck will likely be able to wait out Osyp's.

The game itself will be grueling and awful. Playing perfectly, Osyp's deck will probably have just enough resources to get Scott's deck to do something on some turns. Then the Slide deck will have to regroup and reassemble some kind of offense. Certainly it will be more friendly in sideboarded games where there are Eternal Witnesses to help; then again Martyr-Proclamation will be able to trade in point removal for Extirpate; I think Scott's deck will still have the edge.

Now all the games are not going to go exactly the same way, because Osyp's deck might slap down second- and third-turn Rifts, and just race through all that Scott's deck has to hide behind. Scott, after all, plays only two Proclamations, so it is possible Osyp gets some balls-to-the-wall victories.

But not many, I think. Most will go to Scott's deck, and sadly via decking. I find it highly unlikely that Scott's deck will win very often with damage, though it is actually pretty hard for Osyp's deck to beat Crovax, Ascendant Hero and Decree of Justice when backed up by Akroma's Vengeance and Oblivion Ring.

The key factor here is speed—specifically, the Slide deck's offensive speed. Under very specific conditions, that is, fast Lightning Rift, maybe a little creature damage shaving off a turn, possibly against a land-light Martyr-Proclamation draw, Osyp's deck can win. But Osyp's deck is among the slowest offensive decks in the format, notorious for going to time in PTQ rounds. Given sufficient time, Scott's deck will almost always be able to muster a little defense ... and a little defense is enough when it is a recurring source of essentially limitless life gain. If the lists were just a little bit different (say, Osyp's deck didn't have any Ghost Quarters or Scott's deck had more Mistveil Plains) the results would be even more lopsided.