Modern is in an interesting place right now as a format. While some archetypes like Boros Energy and Eldrazi are a bit dominant, there are still a decent number of tier one archetypes players can have success with. Yet, on the flip side, we haven’t seen too much in the way of innovative archetypes popping up recently.
That’s why when a unique strategy does pop up, it’s worth highlighting its performance in a hostile environment. Yesterday, a unique mono-white control deck with a Land destruction focus boasted an undefeated run in a Magic Online Modern League. This deck is far from perfect, but it has some nice tools to fight against the other top decks in the format. Let’s dive in and see what it has going for it.
Playing the Long Game
At a baseline, this deck is looking to constantly interact in meaningful ways to disrupt the opponent’s gameplan. There aren’t many Creatures in the decklist, so this deck doesn’t do a good job pressuring the opponent early. However, you’re well set up to keep your opponent off-balance and win the long game.
For removal, you’ll find a plethora of extremely efficient options. Solitude and Path to Exile do a great job keeping even the largest of Modern’s Creatures in check. Due to the super high density of white cards present, this shell even gets to utilize a playset of March of Otherworldly Light.
Using March as a two-mana answer to Ocelot Pride is totally fine, but March gets its edge from being able to take care of problematic, cheap Artifacts like Amulet of Vigor or Mox Opal in an efficient manner. Being able to pitch white cards to make March cheaper is a big deal versus fast draws from Ruby Storm when you’re on the draw.
From there, Skyclave Apparition serves as a nice catch-all card. Just like March, Skyclave Apparition deals with a wide range of issues, including Cori-Steel Cutter and Goblin Bombardment.
In matchups like Boros Energy or Jeskai Ascendancy, one of your best tools is Wrath of the Skies. Wrath is an excellent catchup mechanism. Its ability to blow up Urza’s Saga on sight is very powerful. Alongside March, you have plenty of answers to the broken Land.
Sticking with only white cards does mean you don’t have a ton in the way of spell-based interaction. Nonetheless, Reprieve at least buys you some time. Reprieve is a godsend versus Living End, which is starting to pick up in popularity.
Land Destruction Package
One of the biggest weaknesses that decks that fail to apply early pressure can have in Modern, though, is getting demolished by Eldrazi ramp’s finishers. Cards like Ugin, Eye of the Storms can completely take over games by themselves.
While most control decks play blue and make great use of Consign to Memory as an amazing tool in the matchup, mono-white has little recourse once these ramp decks get their engines rolling. Fortunately, all hope is not lost.
Rather than try to counter the slew of big bombs as they come down, you’re simply trying to prevent the opponent from reaching the point where they can cast their haymakers. After all, if the opponent doesn’t have enough mana to work with, they’re in big trouble.
March and Skyclave Apparition successfully handle ramp elements like Utopia Sprawl. This leaves you with the “Sol Lands” to contend with in Ugin’s Labyrinth and Eldrazi Temple, which you have a multitude of answers to.
White Orchid Phantom successfully downgrades any nonbasic Land the opponent has. By staying mono-white, you also get to run Field of Ruin and Demolition Field at very little cost.
What makes these Lands so appealing is that in a format dominated by Fetchlands and Shocklands, many decks beyond just Eldrazi don’t play a lot of basics. Some archetypes like Belcher don’t have the luxury of running any basic Lands in game one.
So, after a certain point, Field of Ruin, Demolition Field, and Ghost Quarter will do a pretty good Strip Mine impression (you have plenty of basic Lands to search for, so no worries there). If the opponent has no basic Lands to grab, you completely mitigate the downside of Path to Exile, too.
Eventually, you’ll set up a window where you can slam Karn, the Great Creator and run away with the game. Crucible of Worlds is a neat option to tutor for that can lock the opponent out of playing big spells once they’re low on Lands. You have a variety of options to search for depending on the situation, including graveyard hate, prison elements, and win conditions. The world is your oyster as long as you can stabilize the board.
Areas of Concern
Ultimately, this archetype does a surprisingly good job at keeping a variety of different gameplans under control. All the cheap removal ensures that an early Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer or Psychic Frog doesn’t cause major problems. At the same time, your Land Destruction package lines up very well against big mana strategies and some combo decks.
Where things can get dicey is if your opponent is able to sidestep your interactive suite. For example, if you don’t have March at the ready, your Storm opponent landing a Ruby Medallion and going off on the same turn will spell doom no matter what. Your sideboard has so many slots dedicated to Karn, which makes running a playset of Orim’s Chant in the sideboard difficult.
Another deck that can completely ignore your disruptive elements is Mill. Your inability to win the game quickly coupled with your lack of spell-based interaction makes the matchup a nightmare.
Even traditional Azorius control decks can punish your removal-heavy hands by jamming a Planeswalker. In this sense, mono-white Land Destruction can definitely be exploited, and is unlikely to make up a big portion of the Modern metagame anytime soon. If you expect a lot of Boros Energy and other decks that play to the board at your next local event, though, mono-white may be a solid metacall.
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