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Pioneer Monowhite Humans deck guide
Intro
Hello!
Even though Dominaria United had a big impact on Pioneer, some decks are still standing out without the presence of almost any or any cards from the set. One of those decks is Monowhite Humans, one of the best aggro decks in the format.
Current version of the deck
$210/78.05 Tix
Maindeck (60)
| Creature [32] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 Soldier of the Pantheon | $0.49 | |
| 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben | $0.99 | |
| 4 Luminarch Aspirant | $0.49 | |
| 4 Dauntless Bodyguard | $0.39 | |
| 4 Thalia's Lieutenant | $1.99 | |
| 1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros | $3.49 | |
| 2 Extraction Specialist | $0.59 | |
| 4 Hopeful Initiate | $3.49 | |
| 3 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar | $12.99 | |
| 4 Brutal Cathar | $1.29 | |
| Instant [4] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Brave the Elements | $0.59 | |
| Enchantment [2] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 Wedding Announcement | $13.99 | |
| Land [22] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Mutavault | $11.99 | |
| 2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire | $9.99 | |
| 2 Shefet Dunes | $0.39 | |
| 1 Castle Ardenvale | $0.49 | |
| 13 Plains | $0.01 | |
| Sideboard [15] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Portable Hole | $0.99 | |
| 2 Reidane, God of the Worthy | $0.79 | |
| 2 Declaration in Stone | $0.49 | |
| 2 Wedding Announcement | $13.99 | |
| 3 Rest in Peace | $0.99 | |
| 2 Extraction Specialist | $0.59 | |
$26.11 Tix @cardhoarder
$0.99 / Week @cardhoarder
$158.34 @tcgplayer
$217.51 @cardkingdom
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Similar Decks
Proxies
Archetype Analysis
Magic online format
Apprentice and MWS .dec
Card choices
Dauntless Bodyguard
Dauntless Bodyguard is a one drop creature that might seem weak, but it plays a very important role, both as an aggressor and as a protector of more important creatures. It also combos with Extraction Specialist, coming back from the graveyard and protecting something over and over.
Hopeful Initiate
Some lists prefer to use Thraben Inspector, which I believe is a big mistake. This card can grow and train enough to be the biggest creature on the table and its ability to destroy artifacts and enchantments is very useful in a world with Fable of the Mirror Breaker, Parhelion II and Esika's Chariot.
Soldier of the Pantheon
Soldier of the Pantheon is an aggressive creature, but weaker in relation to others, so we only use two copies to maintain the deck's aggressiveness. But its abilities are useful in certain situations, such as gaining life against Monored decks with Burning-Tree Emissary and blocking while not taking damage from Mayhem Devil. Remember that an aggro deck needs to put pressure from the early turns, so I believe that at least 10 turn one drops are ideal.
Kytheon, Hero of Akros
The great problem with Kytheon, Hero of Akros is that it is a legend, so starting with two of him in your hand is like a mulligan, which is not ideal for an aggro deck that needs all the resources and cards to not run out of gas. But besides that, it is a very good card, with the ability to protect itself from removal and that can easily transform into Gideon, becoming an even greater threat.
Brave the Elements
Brave the Elements gives protection to creatures of a certain color, allowing for lethal attacks and key turns that other decks wouldn't have. This is essential against decks that like to play with the board locked, as is the case with Monogreen Devotion. Basically, Brave the Elements is the card that justifies the deck being monowhite and giving up other powerful cards for the archetype, like Collected Company.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a powerful card that can easily disrupt many decks that rely heavily on spells, such as UR Phoenix, Lotus Field, and control decks. I've played with and without her, but I find that her presence makes the deck much more dangerous and feared. In this list, with such a large creature base, she doesn't hinder anything and actually makes some matchups that could be unfavored a bit more fair.
Thalia's Lieutenant
Thalia's Lieutenant is one of the most important cards in the deck. It makes your army stronger and also strengthens itself every time another human enters the battlefield. This card is essential for the deck.
Luminarch Aspirant
Luminarch Aspirant has already shown its power in Standard, and it would be no different in Pioneer. Each turn, it makes one of your creatures a greater threat, and even though it comes down on turn two, it can benefit itself. It's not as powerful as Thalia's Lieutenant, but it's still a creature that must be respected.
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar is the card you most want to play on turn three, even though she's a legend. Getting bigger each time a creature comes into play and putting more pressure on each attack, she changed the landscape of the deck after Innistrad was released.
Brutal Cathar
Brutal Cathar is another card from Innistrad. It's the removal that the deck needs in certain situations, and if it goes unresponded for a turn, it can become a true snowball, exiling more and more creatures.
Wedding Announcement
Wedding Announcement is another Innistrad card on the list. This one has been surprising me quite a bit each game. Its presence in the 75 makes your deck a little more midrange, putting more threats on the table, having the possibility to give you card advantage and still increasing the power of all your creatures. This card is the terror of decks like Rakdos Mid, which are good at making one for one trades, but have difficulty dealing with the board.
Extraction Specialist
One of the latest additions to the card pool, it has a lot of synergy with other ETB effects, like Thalia's Lieutenant, and brings down other cards that have a target on their forehead, like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Luminarch Aspirant. In addition, its combo with Dauntless Bodyguard can make one of your creatures an even bigger threat, being able to be protected by him.
Portable Hole
The white's Fatal Push, it is one of the main removal in the color, you will need it in the matches where making a big board is not enough and you need to remove creatures and permanents, like Mirror, Monored and versus other aggro decks.
Rest in Peace
The graveyard is still heavily used in Pioneer and this deck doesn't deal very well with threats coming from there. It really messes up some decks like Abzan Greasefang and UR Phoenix and has utility against Rakdos Sacrifice, taking away the Witch's Oven and Cauldron Familiar engine.
Declaration in Stone
Brutal Cathar is a really good card, but it can be fragile against certain decks. To solve these problems, we use this card which, even though it's a card draw, takes care of really complicated cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.
Reidane, God of the Worthy
Reidane, God of the Worthy: Both sides of her are quite useful, being a very versatile card. The goddess side hinders decks like Lotus Field and UW Control, taxing high-cost cards and the Valkmira side helps protect your creatures against Monored and Rakdos Sacrifice.
Sideboard guide
Below I will list the 10 main decks in the format and how I have sided against them.
MONOGREEN DEVOTION
- OUT: - 2 Wedding Announcement
- IN: + 2 Declaration in Stone
One of the best matchups in the deck. Try to be as aggressive as possible and mulligan aggressively as well, looking for curves that put your opponent up against the wall. Brave the Elements is the key card here, so don't be afraid to flood the board, he's unlikely to have anything to deal with it. Some people like to run Portable Hole, but I personally think it's a mistake, since we want to curve our creatures and not spend a turn just to get an elf out of the way, especially since the opponent can develop his game very easily even without it.
RAKDOS MID
- OUT: - 4 Brave the Elements, - 2 Soldier of the Pantheon
- IN: + 2 Declaration in Stone, + 2 Wedding Announcement, + 2 Extraction Specialist
This match-up depends a lot on how many removal spells your opponent has and how much pressure their three-drops can apply. All of our creatures shine here, especially Adeline and Wedding Announcement. As stated before, Rakdos has a hard time dealing with a board, making better trades one-for-one, so the best way to beat them is by flooding the board and applying as much pressure as possible. The most recent lists have included four copies of Extinction Event and even Kaervek, the Spiteful, so this plan has become a little more complicated, but it's still the best we can do.
IZZET PHOENIX
- OUT: - 4 Brutal Cathar, - 4 Brave the Elements, - 1 Extraction Specialist
- IN: + 3 Rest in Peace, + 4 Portable Hole, + 2 Declaration in Stone
This is a favorable match-up, as there are also few mass removal spells being played. Creatures are definitely a problem for our aggressive game-plan, so we need to have Portable Hole to deal with Thing in the Ice and Ledger Shredder. Rest in Peace really hampers their ability to keep Arclight Phoenix and Treasure Cruise in play, which allows the deck to have a ton of resources. Brutal Cathar is extremely fragile and Brave the Elements is not very useful when the opponent has a lot of spot removal.
UW CONTROL
- OUT: - 2 Brave the Elements, - 4 Brutal Cathar
- IN: + 2 Reidane, God of the Worthy, + 2 Wedding Announcement, + 2 Extraction Specialist
Portable Hole can be a real pain in the early game, but Thalia really shines here, slowing down Supreme Verdict and taxing counters, allowing us to fill up the board. Post-side, Reidane helps even more with our plan to tax spells. We still have a couple of Brave the Elements in the main, which can sometimes allow us a lethal attack against tokens left by The Wandering Emperor and Shark Typhoon.
BOROS PROWESS
- OUT:- 2 Wedding Announcement, - 2 Soldier of the Pantheon
- IN: + 4 Portable Hole
A favorable match up due to the presence of Thalia, as she really hampers the deck's ability to play multiple spells in a turn. After siding, the removal spells help a lot, as they don't have many creatures and for just one mana we can get rid of some creature that is attacking us.
LOTUS FIELD
- OUT: - 4 Brutal Cathar
- IN: + 2 Reidane, God of the Worthy, + 2 Rest in Peace
Once again, Thalia shines here. Arboreal Grazer is a card that really hampers the aggressive plan. Stockpile the board and grind behind aggressive hands. Brave the Elements isn't one of the best cards here, but it has some utility, like allowing attacks through tables that have the presence of Sloth. Post-side Reidane compliments the plan of taxing magic and Rest in Peace has utility against Lier, Disciple of the Drowned and Bala Ged Recovery.
RAKDOS SACRIFICE
- OUT: - 4 Dauntless Bodyguard, - 4 Brave the Elements, - 2 Extraction Specialist, - 1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
- IN: + 4 Portable Hole, + 3 Rest in Peace, + 2 Wedding Announcement, + 2 Reidane, God of the Worthy
We're one of the worst match-ups in the format, so we ran eleven hate cards. We cut some of the creatures that are easy pickings for Mayhem Devil and Brave the Elements, which does nothing to help our gameplan. Here we have to be aggressive, but also have a midrange plan for our three-drops. Valkmira is our key card here, as it turns off his entire plan of killing our creatures on turn four.
MONOBLUE SPIRITS
- OUT: - 4 Brave the Elements, - 2 Extraction Specialist, - 2 Wedding Announcement
- IN: + 4 Portable Hole, + 2 Declaration in Stone, + 2 Reidane, God of the Worthy
Filling the board with our creatures is really good here--they don't have much in the way of removal and they're relying on the plan of making a creature with Curious Obsession, which we can usually ignore when we have a lot of creatures. Post-side, Portable Hole is great for removing creatures and Reidane is a good blocker on top that taxes Snow-Covered lands.
MONORED AGGRO
- OUT: - 4 Dauntless Bodyguard, - 2 Brutal Cathar, - 1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros, - 2 Soldier of the Pantheon, - 1 Wedding Announcement
- IN: + 4 Portable Hole, + 2 Declaration in Stone, + 2 Reidane, God of the Worthy, + 2 Extraction Specialist
Some cards, like Goblin Chainwhirler and Rampaging Ferocidon, are really complicated to deal with after sideboarding, but depending on the number of removals he has, the match becomes favorable for us. Thalia also helps a lot by taxing his burn spells, but without a doubt the main card is Adeline. Few lists have a really efficient way to deal with her and we still have the advantage of using Brave the Elements. After sideboarding we add more removals and Valkmira, which is practically game over, and take out some creatures with low toughness to not be so vulnerable to Chainwhirler.
MONOWHITE HUMANS (MIRROR)
- OUT: - 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, - 2 Soldier of the Pantheon
- IN: + 4 Portable Hole, + 2 Declaration in Stone
Mirror doesn't have much of a secret, being on the play or the draw matters a lot. And curving out creatures every turn, holding Brave the Elements for a lethal attack. Post-side we bring in more removal and take out Thalia, who really doesn't help at all and Soldier of the Pantheon, who is the weakest creature.
Final words
Monowhite Humans might look like a fragile deck on paper, but the combinations of synergy, resiliency and aggressiveness make it one of the best aggro decks in the format. See you next time!
If you liked this article maybe you will also find interesting on of the following ones Grixis Midrange sideboard guide by Mogged
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Hi, my name is Lucas de Almeida Hervás. I'm 31 years old, married, and I live in Indaiatuba/SP, Brazil. I've been playing Magic the Gathering since 2009, but I've been making a living off of it since 2019 through leagues and tournaments on Magic Online. For those who don't know me, I'm 2.17 meters tall, hence the nickname "the tallest Magic player in Brazil."
