Sorry I didn’t reply to this earlier!

I don’t think the Ally subtheme is supported enough yet. Blademaster is good, but I have a strong aversion to 2 drops in a deck like this, and I don’t feel there’s a strong enough payoff. If we get another solid 1-drop Human Ally in Oath, though, then I would strongly consider running it, Freeblade, and Envoy in place of things like Soldier of the Pantheon and Mardu Woe-Reaper.

If you aren’t going to play Lynxes and fetches, then I would actually recommend you drop down to 18 lands and possibly 16, though I haven’t tested 16. The only reason to run 20 lands is to power up Lynx, and having fetches effectively means you’re not really running 20 lands anyway. Without fetches, 20 lands is overkill.

Lynx is a very tough card to replace, as it is the single most explosive turn 1 play White has access to. It’s a bit like playing Burn without Goblin Guide, or Zoo without Wild Nacatl. I think Honor of the Pure is actually a pretty sensible replacement, since your hope is to compensate for the loss of a more explosive turn 1 play with a global pump ability. It’s possible you’d be better off running more 1 mana 2/1’s in its place, or even something like Accorder Paladin, but Honor would probably be my first try.

-Catmix

If I was going to splash, I’d probably start with red to test out adding burn to the deck in place of the Dismembers and Braves, but I’d probably leave the creatures alone. I’m not crazy about Swiftspear in a 6-spell deck, and once you start cutting creatures for more spells, you’re making Boros Elite/Kytheon worse, and if you start cutting those for more spells, you’re making Champion worse, and if you start cutting those for more spells, you really ought to playing Burn at that point.

Great points here. I’m looking forward to reading more of your articles!

Honestly, I’m not crazy about it, but I can understand why it’s appealing. Generally speaking, you don’t want to board in value cards, so if you’re bringing in graveyard hate it should be to win the game more or less on the spot.

The funny thing about Grunt: even though it has an excellent power-to-card ratio, it doesn’t have a particularly impressive power-to-mana-cost ratio. For the same amount of mana, you could play 2 Mardu Woe-Reapers, which are thoroughly unimpressive, and be representing the same amount of damage. Yes, that’s 2 cards instead of 1, but that’s actually going to be beneficial for you more often than not (pumping Champion, turning on Boros Elite/Kytheon, etc.). I think there’s a temptation to play “good cards” in a deck like this, but when the deck is as sensitive to its internal synergies as this one is, it’s often better to play “bad cards” if they work better with the deck’s plan. I mean, take another look at Ornithopter’s text: it is an atrocious Magic card, but it is crucial to Affinity’s synergies.

Those are all really good points.

Glad to hear it! I have a thread on MTG Salvation on this deck (it’s in the Modern Deck Creation section, called Mono-White One-Drop Goyfs), so that might be a better place for future collaborative discussion on the deck itself.

As for Warden of the First Tree: I think it’s more in line with the deck’s original intent than some of the other splash suggestions (it’s a 1-drop Human that gets bigger than a Savnnah Lions, which this deck is always on the lookout for!), but it’s not without its own downsides. It doesn’t get protected by Brave the Elements, which I think is actually pretty significant, and the 3/3 vanilla body, while large, is probably sliiiightly too small for the mana cost, and given the amount of mana it would take to get bigger (especially considering that the trample/lifelink don’t increase power or toughness), I don’t think you’re realistically getting it bigger than an active Boros Elite. It would obviously be better on defense once you’ve activated it the first time, but overall I’m not convinced it’s worth taking the 2 damage from Temple Garden.

But definitely give it a try if you want! I don’t have the time to tinker around too much with the deck, so I tend to try to stick to core theoretical principles as much as possible, but I’m sure there’s plenty of room for experimentation.

I’m building this in paper myself and might test out Warden.

Wow! That was awesome, thanks for the detailed answers!

I will get some free time today to start testing, is great to know how good is the Lynx!

Jund: I’d agree that Jund is probably a sliiiiightly better matchup than Grixis, and 50/50 might be closer to correct. My experience has been that despite White Goyfs’ redundancy, Jund’s discard can completely destroy our hand. It could be that moving up to 34 creatures from 29 moves those percentage points up enough, but I agree that it does feel a bit coin-flippy.

Merfolk: you may be right. I haven’t played this matchup in a while, so I’m mostly trying to use my experience with the Merfolk vs. Death and Taxes games I’ve played recently and extrapolate from there. I think early disruption is crucial from the Merfolk player; otherwise, I think their lords come down too late to matter. Chalice is an evil card, but unlike something like Engineered Explosives, it doesn’t clean up what’s already been dumped onto the battlefield. The hope would always be that the Merfolk player never draws it, of course.

I agree that Grishoalbrand would be a problematic matchup. You have some tools to deal with it in the sideboard, but all-in combo has never really been a good matchup for aggro swarm. Elves also feels like it would be at least slightly unfavorable. I’ve had some success against Tron, but it’s tricky trying to balance playing around Pyroclasm/O-Stone while also trying to kill them quickly. Wurmcoil Engine is also a problem, but Karn not so much. I actually think Abzan could be a worse matchup than Jund: this deck has a number of draws that have trouble against Lingering Souls, especially if they’re on the play.

I wish I had more time to playtest the deck and give more concrete answers on the matchups, but I just don’t have that much free time on my hands anymore. I’m lucky if I can get out to my LGS every other week to battle in a 12-or-so person Modern tournament. Regardless, I would pretty much always rather be on the side presenting the threats rather than being on the side that has to try to draw the right answers (usually costing more mana) on time.

Thanks!

Fetches are pretty crucial, since they power up Steppe Lynx. If you took out the Lynx, you wouldn’t need to run any fetches, but that’s a huge sacrifice. Lynx gets in for a ton of damage in this deck, and cutting it means Champion is really your only potentially explosive turn 1 play.

Thanks! A splash seems reasonable, though I’m not sure that the extra 2 damage off of a shock is worth the upgrade over Mana Tithe to a Spell Snare or Spell Pierce. My gut says that Day’s Undoing would be better as a 1-of, and even then I’m not sure it’s worth it. 3 mana is a ton in this deck.

Red also seems like a good choice, and Bolt would be one of the obvious reasons. White Weenie with reach has been a good combination for me in the past.

I disagree with the assessments on some of these matchups.

I’d call Jund about 50/50 with Kytheon’s ability to go indestructible and Student of Warfare’s first strike coming up huge, plus any deck that can neutralize the likes of Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse (via Brave in this case) and make Dark Confidant (mostly) a sacrificial blocker as opposed to a card advantage powerhouse is going to do at least OK against Jund. Note that these do not apply to Grixis Control, so I feel your assessment on that matchup is pretty spot-on.

I also think Merfolk will give you more issues than you anticipate – Brave is a huge trump card, but they pack counterspells (including Chalice of the Void, which can basically lock you out of the game), and Spreading Seas/Vapor Snag/Harbinger of the Tides can disrupt your tempo (especially if they bounce a Champion of the Parish or deny you a 2nd white source). And if they manage to do that, you’re in big trouble – their creatures are quite easily larger than yours, and tend to be harder to block. Furthermore, they’re less likely to run out of gas because of all of the native cantrips they have (8 to your 0). I’m not going to say that they’re favored against you (the speed of White Weenie is definitely a concern), but I’ll say that it feels 50/50.

I’d also like to hear what you think of the Tier 2s – a quick glance tells me that Grishoalbrand could be tough for you without something like Rest in Peace or Mana Tithe, and that Elves’ linearity could also pose a problem. On the other hand, RG Tron has to pray for Pyroclasm or be overwhelmed, and Abzan is probably weaker against you than Jund is.

Also awesome write up, congrats on your finish!