New Mono-White Humans Build Taking Modern By Storm - See What's Enabling It!

Gameplay Video By 
Electricbob31

Human tribal and other creature-based aggro decks have not been well positioned in Modern recently. Between the well-costed removal like Unholy Heat & Lightning Bolt and the MH2 "Incantations" Fury & Solitude small, aggressive creatures have had a hard time sticking around long enough to get the job done. However, this is all changing with the new Mono-White Humans deck charging into Modern.

As someone who loves turning creatures sideways, I'm quite fond of this news. Today I'll be going over the general archetype, what the deck wants to be doing, and discussing the spicy new tech that's protecting the deck from the pitfalls mentioned above. And I'll of course show a full deck list too. So, let's jump right in.

Mono-White Humans

Human tribal is not new to the Modern format. But usually, the deck contains all five colors, and features a rather motley crew - playing things like Meddling Mage, Reflector Mage, Kitesail Freebooter, and at some point Mantis Rider with payoffs like Thalia's Lieutenant and Champion of the Parish.

This mono-white version obviously doesn't have most of that. So, let's start by looking at what it does contain. Here's a full deck list.

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Main 60 cards (17 distinct)

Lands - 16

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

Main 60 cards (17 distinct)

Lands - 16

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

$€Tix

Main 60 cards (17 distinct)

Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (8)
4 Shining Shoal			$4.38€3.030.02
4 Emeria's Call			$4.691.35
Creature (36)
2 Raffine's Informant			$0.20€0.190.01
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben			$0.500.02
4 Chancellor of the Annex			$2.31€2.290.02
4 Champion of the Parish			$1.45€1.620.02
4 Thalia's Lieutenant			$1.45€0.960.02
4 Dauntless Bodyguard			$0.26€0.170.03
4 Luminarch Aspirant			$0.34€0.48
4 Esper Sentinel			$34.95
4 Solitude			$28.69€33.828.21
4 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar			$8.400.36
Land (16)
1 Eiganjo Castle			$15.42€8.210.02
2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
3 Mutavault			$12.94€8.801.75
4 Cavern of Souls			$42.98€34.576.16
6 Plains			$0.140.03

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

2 Loran of the Third Path			$9.17
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn			$15.81€16.473.42
4 Sanctifier en-Vec			$1.450.68
2 Containment Priest			$0.50€0.341.36
2 Drannith Magistrate			$18.49€15.501.62
2 Sanctum Prelate			$2.41€2.60
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender			$0.35€0.250.04

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MTG Arena Format MTG Online File download Text List Registration PDF

Breakdown

As you can see the core payoff cards are all still present and accounted for. There are playsets of Thalia's Lieutenant and Champion of the Parish along with the few copies of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that you'd expect. Furthermore, there are playsets of powerhouse humans like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar (which is great for growing the Lieutenant on turn three) and Esper Sentinel.

I mentioned above that aggro decks were not in a great spot right now thanks to the plethora of efficient removal in the format. While all these cards mentioned are good they're not what's allowing the deck to shine. So, what is? A bulk rare from Betrayers of Kamigawa called Shining Shoal.

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It allows you to negate damage from a source of your choosing and deal it to a creature or player instead. What's fantastic about the card is that you can exile a white card from your hand instead of paying its mana cost. So, if you have a white card to pitch to the Shoal, you can not only save your spells from damage-based removal like Fury and Unholy Heat but deal that damage directly to your opponent too, all for zero mana.

The deck plays a total of eight spells (four Chancellor of the Annex and four Solitude) that are great to discard to the Shoal. Imagine an opponent casts a Fury that would decimate your board and instead, you negate the damage and they take the four damage. Not only does this save your creatures but it puts you four points closer to victory, which is a huge momentum swing. Countering an Unholy Heat this way represents even more damage for opponents.

 Conclusion

I love aggro, and I'm glad to see it find the tools it needs to do well in the meta. Shining Shoal is that tool for Mono-White Humans. And after playing this deck, I can confirm that it's a lot of fun to hurl removal spells back at opponents' faces all the while bringing their life total lower. If you've been avoiding playing your aggressive creature-based decks because of the removal spells mentioned give this deck/card a try.