Mono White Exalted Deck from a White Weenie Master

July 21, 2012 | Posted by Dee

Craig Wescoe is one of the best White Weenie deck builders in recent history. He’s done well with the deck in Pro Tours. Last week on TCGplayer, he wrote about a new Standard deck for the archetype, Mono White Exalted.

The deck takes advantage of exalted creatures from Magic 2013 (M13).

Then, earlier this week, someone took the deck, modified it a bit, and got top eight with it in a 66 player tournament on Magic-League. The player did an interview where he said he chose the deck because it is super aggressive.

Check out his decklist below.

Mono White Exalted
Creatures (28)
Spells (8)
Lands (24)
Sideboard (15)

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Knight of Glory and Sublime Archangel provide the exalted abilities. To take advantage of exalted, you have to attack with only one creature. This can be a drawback if your opponent has something to deal with the attacker like Vapor Snag or Go for the Throat.

That’s where Grand Abolisher comes in. With him on the battlefied, your opponent can’t surprise you with removal spells for your lone attacker.

In the same way, Grand Abolisher also protects creatures that get enchanted with Angelic Destiny (the protection lasts for one turn) or become targeted with Ajani’s second ability.

The deck is basically a Humans deck with Sublime Archangel, Ajani, Angelic Destiny, and Faith’s Shield. Other than these four cards, the rest of the main deck is just lands and 24 Humans.

With all the Human creatures, Champion of the Parish can become big very quickly. Also, just 1 Cavern of Souls can protect most of the creatures from counterspells like Mana Leak.

Doomed Traveler might not seem very threatening but he’s good against removal and Liliana of the Veil. Also, he’s another one-drop to make Champion of the Parish bigger quickly.

With eight one-drops instead of four, you have a much higher chance of the Champion nut draw. This is the draw where you go turn one Champion. Then, play two one-drop Humans on turn two and attack with a 3/3 Champion.

Thalia slows down decks with a lot of noncreature spells like Blue/White (UW) Delver. Thalia was not in Craig Wescoe’s original build. He had Nearheath Pilgrim instead. This creature is better than Thalia if your metagame has a lot of decks that don’t have many noncreature spells.

Mirran Crusader has double strike, which goes very well with exalted, Ajani’s first ability, and Angelic Destiny. Once you start buffing this guy, he becomes very hard to kill by blocking.

Ajani fits the deck well because his abilities are very good in an aggressive deck. His first ability buffs your creatures while his second ability can be devastating with exalted.

With Sublime Archangel and a couple of other creatures, you can easily be attacking for 16 damage in the air with one creature because of exalted and double strike.

Ajani’s ultimate ability gives you strong option if the game goes long.

Faith’s Shield gives you a way to attack past chump blockers like Spirit tokens from Lingering Souls. This spell also protects your creatures at a cheap cost.

You’ll definitely find this card useful whenever your opponent tries to kill Sublime Archangel with a spell like Dismember. Also, Faith’s Shield is great at protecting the creature you enchant with Angelic Destiny.

Filed Under Standard 

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12 Responses to “Mono White Exalted Deck from a White Weenie Master”

  1. ALUCARDAFK on July 31st, 2012 9:54 am

    What a great deck, thanks for posting

  2. Wagner on August 7th, 2012 11:23 am

    Hey guys, what do you think about replacing Thalia for Elite Inquisitor that has first strike? And don’t you think that could be cool to add 1 or 2 Cathedral of War?

  3. Dee on August 7th, 2012 11:45 am

    Depending on the metagame, Elite Inquisitor could be better than Thalia. I like Thalia against Delver, Infect, and control decks. Elite Inquisitor is probably better against most of the other decks.

    Adding Cathedral of War seems like an excellent idea.

  4. Walsen on August 13th, 2012 10:53 pm

    Hello, I’m very new on this, can you explain how the sideboard works on this deck, what should be replaced and when?

    Thank you very much.

  5. Dee on August 14th, 2012 3:15 pm

    It depends on what you’re playing against. Give me three decks from your local metagame and I’ll try to give you sideboard strategies for them.

  6. John2x on August 18th, 2012 12:24 am

    What’s your thoughts in adding lingering souls for exalted deck? Does it have synergy in this?

  7. Dee on August 18th, 2012 9:57 am

    In this deck, I don’t think Lingering Souls is better than the other three drops.

    Mirran Crusader and Ajani seem like better cards. Lingering Souls is good with Sublime Archangel but I’ve found that she doesn’t need much help.

    Also, you’re not always going to draw the mythic rare Angel. In those games, I’d definitely much rather have Mirran Crusader and Ajani.

    Bonfire of the Damned has become a popular card, which made Lingering Souls worse.

  8. Ryan on August 28th, 2012 4:59 am

    Questions about side boarding. Here’s my local meta game.
    Delver
    Aggro w/ rancor
    Pods
    Blood artist creature decks

    Thanks

  9. Ryan on August 28th, 2012 5:05 am

    Another question. I don’t have any angelic destiny, is there something else you would switch them out for, something that won’t be leaving standard in a month?

    Thanks again

  10. Dee on August 30th, 2012 5:05 pm

    @ Ryan

    You can replace Angelic Destiny with another powerful card like Hero of Bladehold. If you want a budget alternative, try Bonds of Faith.

    Here are some sideboard strategies.

    Delver

    +2 Divine Offering
    -2 Angelic Destiny

    Rancor Aggro

    It depends on the deck. I need to know what the other cards in the deck are.

    Pod

    +2 Divine Offering
    + Oblivion Ring
    +1 Grafdigger’s Cage

    -4 Thalia
    -1 Faith’s Shield
    -1 Grand Abolisher

    Blood Artist

    +2 Celestial Purge

    -2 Thalia

  11. Walsen on October 7th, 2012 3:11 pm

    Now that Mirrodin and M12 are gone which cards would be a good replacement for mirran crusader, angelic destiny, divine offering, etc?

  12. Dee on October 7th, 2012 9:20 pm

    @ Walsen

    Try Precinct Captain for Grand Abolisher and Silverblade Paladin for Mirran Crusader.

    Angelic Destiny is a pretty unique card so it will be hard to replace it. I guess I would go with Bonds of Faith.

    Same with Dismember. I guess you can try Arrest.

    Try Sundering Growth for Divine Offering. Hero of Bladehold is pretty hard to replace because it has unique abilities. I guess you could try Riders of Gavony.

    For Celestial Purge, you can add the fourth Oblivion Ring and an Elite Inquisitor.