Playing Pauper: Mono White Tokens

by Jake Stiles // Dec 21, 2016

Welcome to another fun week of Playing Pauper! This week's deck is brought to us by a published 5-0 Pauper league finish from sakkra on Magic Online. It's a sweet Mono White Tokens list that dumps its hand quickly then finishes things off with a Guardians' Pledge. It's also among the cheaper Pauper decks with an online price of only 7 tickets.

Check out the matches, then read the discussion below. If you enjoy Playing Pauper, subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube channel! It helps us draw more people to the channel, and it helps you to never miss any of our great video content.

Mono White Tokens Intro

Mono White Tokens vs Slivers

Mono White Tokens vs Dimir Control

Mono White Tokens vs Brainstorm Barrens

Mono White Tokens vs Elves

Mono White Tokens vs Mono White Provoke

The Deck

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The token makers in the deck are hyper-efficient, with the two mana choices smoothing out the curve and the top end being Battle Screech, which gives four flying tokens for four mana (and a creature tap).

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The pump spells range from the great Guardians' Pledge to the decent Borrowed Grace to the only okay Ramosian Rally. Ramosian Rally is more expensive for a smaller effect, but its alternate cost is quite manageable and can surprise opponents who expect you not to be able to cast spells while tapped out.

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Other creatures in the deck include Selfless Cathar which is a backup pump spell, and Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant which help race against aggressive decks.

Lumithread Field pops up as a one-of in the main deck but if I played the deck again, I'd probably leave it in the sideboard.

The Sideboard

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Out of the sideboard, we have more Soul's Attendant and a few Journey to Nowhere to help in the race against aggro.

Lumithread Field comes in to stop Electrickery and Shrivel from ruining our day.

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Sundering Growth works well against Affinity and the populate ability will usually give us an extra creature.

Holy Light can kill swarms of opposing Elves or Mono Blue Delver creatures while leaving our creatures alive.

The Matchups

Against decks playing Gurmag Angler or Diabolic Edict, tokens prove very effective at being good chump blockers and efficient against sacrifice effects. Unfortunately those same decks are often playing Evincar's Justice, which you have to watch out for.

Against other aggressive decks, this deck's lifegain can give it the edge it needs to survive until a turn when Guardians' Pledge will win the game.

The worst possible matchup for this deck would probably be Izzet Blitz given its aggressive creatures that you have to remove and the access to red for Electrickery in the sideboard. Luckily for Mono White Tokens, Izzet Blitz is less popular now than in the past.

Conclusion

For such a cheap deck, Mono White Tokens packs a great win percentage, and our 4-1 finish in the league is evidence that this deck may be a good contender in the current metagame. Whether the correct choice is to stay monocolor and consistent or splash red for Rally the Peasants or blue for Keep Watch remains to be seen.

Submissions

Viewer submissions are open! I'll still be playing known decks occasionally, but I'll mostly be playing:

Decks submitted by viewers

Decks created from viewer challenges (e.g. build a deck around Horned Kavu)

Decks created by Jake (especially ones comprised of cards from new sets such as Aether Revolt)

Email me at pauper@mtggoldfish.com or Tweet to me @JakeStilesMTG with your decklist or challenge, and I'll give you a shout-out if I use your submission!