Introduction
In Standard, White Weenie (hereafter WW) is the classic archetype loved by the neophytes, scorned by the pedagogues, and ignored by the masses. This tendency to slip under the radar is the very quality that makes it a good choice for the current Standard environment. The very diversity of standard forces the Tier-One decks to eschew anti-WW cards in favor of more popular archetypes. In fact, if sideboards limits were 20 cards instead of 15, I bet WW wouldn't have a prayer. Beatdown decks always get their occasional bones, when the opponents are mana screwed, or when there is no timely answer to a timely threat. But of the beatdown choices available, I would argue that WW is the simplest to play, the most powerful, and the most fun.

Before I go on, I should explain my credentials with the deck. My online constructed rating is 1800, which is not overly impressive, but decent when you realize that only includes WW games. I own 4x of all cards online, and so could play any deck in any format, but this is the one I've fallen in love with and want to share. I've played hundreds and hundreds of games in the Tournament Practice room. I've made three Top 8s with WW this season in eight tries at Premier Events, and I have won probably over a dozen 8-man queues in not many more attempts.

In this article, I intend to offer an exhaustive primer of the choices available for deck construction (including sneak peeks at the upcoming 9^th Edition), the best build against the MTGO metagame, correct sideboarding strategies, a look at the deck's inherent weaknesses, its strengths, a perusal of its opposition, some sample game logs, and some final thoughts.

Card Evaluation (by card type, then by cost)
Rating by *'s (out of 4), based on its relevance to most WW builds

WW has no opponent it can't beat. That said, the yardstick of any current Standard deck right now is the Tooth and Nail matchup. If it can't reasonably expect to deal 20 before that sorcery (with Stone as its major disruption), then the deck folds unto itself. Thus all card evaluations below are to be borne with that in mind; but that also means that once Tooth rotates out of standard, all card evaluations are to be reconsidered.

The cards that I present here have all been mentioned at least a few times in the SCG forums as either playable or even good. Here I'll show you why that may or may not be.

Mana Sources
How many mana sources to include? WW has no acceptable mana-fixing available to it right now, so it is more likely to flood or screw than any other deck. With that in mind, as long as no more than four of your deck's spells have a casting cost of four or more, you shouldn't have too much mana screw. WW is not a safe deck, it is a solid deck that is win-big, lose-big. As such, I would rather it seek to minimize mana sources than to maximize safety. We are talking about 6 to 12 three-drops and four-drops, so you can't skimp too much. I'm putting the right number on 18-20 lands with 4 Mox. There are not enough critical two- and two-drops to make an extended quality WW and thus max lands at 16. But, remember, of those 18-20 lands, you still get 4 Nexus, which count as a lot more. Let's look at some deck stats which are here presented assuming playing first and 23 mana sources (courtesy of MTGO). You have only a 58% chance of getting a 4^th turn land drop (including Mox) on the 5^th turn, and a 68% on the 6^th turn. So remember that if you are planning to use Hokori to hose Tooth; you can add more lands, but at the cost of your threat density. Going full weenie at 20 mana sources, means you make your third-turn land drop only 71% of the time. Good luck if you have that kind of guts, but maybe in the current Standard environment WW has to maximize its luck potential to lift the victory trophy.

****Blinkmoth Nexus
It's a little slow, but it has evasion, is impossible to counter or kill at sorcery speed, and will remain unscathed from Oblivion Stone. There should be 4 included in every build even if you do not calculate it fully in your land count.

***Eiganjo Castle
It protects a variety of Legends associated with WW, and a lone copy rarely hurts you (in some builds I play it, despite having no legends). It's a potential combo "trick" as many people forget its existence. On the rare day, it nabs a Horobi, it survives Sundering Titan shenanigans, and it can actually save your legends from an opponent's creature with trample (they assign damage to your legend, additional trample damage to you, and then you respond by preventing the damage assigned to your legend). A notable downside is that it takes 2 damage on a Molten Rain, but Red decks usually side out land destruction in later games.

**Quicksand
(9^th Edition) Obviously if it doesn't interfere with your first few turns, you've just won yourself more options. That said, I'm not going to risk this inferior Nexus, and I'm already crossing fingers on land drops. Also, I won't be able to use it much during the few turns I hope the game lasts. If anything, it'll probably help WW, because it'll teach WW players to attack from the skies.

****Chrome Mox
Great at speeding up the deck before an opponent can stabilize. There is a slight risk of taking out too many of your own threats, and it spells doom with early duplicates. These negatives are somewhat mitigated by removing doubles of legends, early expensive cards, or weaker creatures.

***Aether Vial
It's great at leaving mana free for tricks, thus it improves in strength for builds focusing on instants like Test of Faith, Otherworldly Journey, or Shining Shoal. It helps prevent sorcery-speed creature destruction; the threat of activation makes people double-think on an otherwise obvious attack situation, and your creatures can't be countered, which goes a long way towards knocking out Mono-Blue Control. The problem is that all your initial drops are slowed down by a critical turn, and that without any way of replenishing your hand size other than the lone draw, Vial is not that much more impressive than a basic land. Verdict: consider it if MUC is hot in your metagame, you don't run Matrix, if you need a lot of mana available during your opponent's turn, and Wizards reprints Fact or Fiction in White, otherwise you need to pass on it for now.

**Weathered Wayfarer
(9^th Edition) This is a powerful new tool for White. But I think you need to learn how to treat him correctly. If your opening draw has two or more lands, you should never hope to activate him; he should be attacking. That said, if you got stuck, this card can be the difference between winning and losing. In general, though, if you're tying up your creature drops fetching lands with this card, your other weenies are probably stalling in your hand. By the time, they come to play, you've wasted 2+ turns and your opponent's 4-6 mana creatures and sorceries are going to overwhelm your healthy mana base. This card is probably bad for WW also in the sense that it gives one necessary tool for White Control to be competitive. Bottom line: unless Wasteland gets reprinted in Ravnica (haha), skip this card.

**Gift of Estates
(9^th Edition) - Don't let this be your idea of turn 3 fun. It's certainly powerful at both thinning our deck of lands and making key drops. This deck needs to be applying pressure, not extending the game. I can't totally dismiss it, especially if you're going to play a control-hybrid with cards like Charge Across the Araba, Hokori, Kirin, etc. But I'll jump on that bandwagon when it gets here for now.

Creatures
The darlings of the archetype. The most powerful ones hose entire archetypes or have some sort of evasion. All of them like to pick up a stick and know what to do with it. This deck needs at least twenty creatures, mostly as one- or two-drops, or it will fail.

*Auriok Glaivemaster
If you have equipment, and if your opponent lets this card survive, you have an Isamaru with first strike. Even then, you'd have to want to equip this card, and not another, say, with evasion. It will only be worth inclusion if equipment can somehow draw more of itself reliably. Let him sit on the bench for now.

*Bushi Tenderfoot
It is a small beatstick whose potential is so strong it might as well read unblockable. Still, it suffers from the inherent disadvantages of all 1/1s, it is bad if they correctly call your bluff, and just plain horrible when drawn in top-deck mode, which this deck must be prepared to face every game. With no other way than a clunky Viridian Longbow to activate him safely, he is better left home. (But think about using him in Vanguard with the Flametongue Kavu ability.)

*Devoted Retainer
This card is worse than Isamaru and only better than the 8 Lantern/Suntail drops if your opponent is the aggressor (for example, Red weenie or Ponza). Otherwise, it mostly dies, and fails to get damage done when it needs to.

**Genju of the Fields
I drooled like everyone else when they first saw the Genju. Unfortunately this card is for White Control; the mana commitment is too intensive for weenie decks to handle. It's a possible sideboard card if a slow enough control deck emerges, but pass for now.

**Infantry Veteran
(9^th Edition) This requires another card that can attack for his ability to be worthwhile. Even then, most of the time, it won't matter if your attacker has +1/+1 as long as another 1/1 is beside it. Equipping him is not as impressive as with a card with evasion. With Anthem out, this card is clearly inferior to a 1/1 flier.

****Isamaru, Hound of Konda
An improved Savannah Lions, presenting us with the question of +1/+1 or flying for the same cost. With an Anthem out, this card survives basic burn spells (Jet, Shock, Slogger, and Spellbomb), as do all cards with two toughness. Legendary status probably makes it max out at three copies. If the environment turns more aggro, where raw power is more important than evasion, Isamaru increases in value; as it is, he frequently runs into Elder, Witness, Trellis, and other annoying blockers... surviving perhaps, but not reducing the opponent's life total.

***Lantern Kami/Suntail Hawk
It's a small beater with evasion that will be equipped and/or pumped. This type of card gives the deck its name. Every deck should have 4-8 copies of these two cards. Still this card is often turn one Mox fodder. Note that Kami is to be preferred of the two because of Rend Flesh. Hawk returns in 9^th.

***Savannah Lions
This is a solid one-drop. It loses optimality when playing against G/X Control decks, when it too often just runs smack into the superior Tribe-Elder, and unlike the Hound, fails to even live to fight again next turn. Bring him back in after CHK rotates out of standard. Lions return in 9^th.

*Soul Warden
(9^th Edition) Against today's Standard, life gain won't get you very far. The decks than can deal twenty can about as easily deal 30. Worry about your opponent's total instead. Besides, Auriok Champion is much better.

*Tundra Wolves
This card is a tad better if you have Leonin Shikari, a piece of equipment, and mana to spend, as you can use the equipment twice in one combat. But all those ifs don't amount to much of an impressive resume, even if running Shikari. He dies to too much and fails to penetrate against hardly anything. Nope.

**Angelic Page
It's a flier, and thus good for a lot already, but see my comments under Infantry Veteran to understand why I'll look elsewhere for the cost.

*Araba Mothrider
Bushido is pointless on fliers. There are better options.

****Auriok Champion
It's way too important against certain segments of the metagame not to include. Combine with equipment to single-handedly trump Red and Black decks. When not great, it's an expensive Eager Cadet. If this is a sideboard card though, it will be replaced by (supplemented by?) the superior en-Vec from 9^th Edition.

***Auriok Steelshaper
Although it takes one extra card, it is a semi-Anthem on legs for 1 less mana, and a lot of cards are free to equip. If it lives, it creates a whole new archetype that trumps other WW versions. But if this linchpin falls, the whole deck probably goes with it. Besides, it inhibits you from playing certain creatures that won't get its bonus. Good or bad aside, I've had more fun playing with this one card (especially with Shikari) than any other in Standard, but in my opinion it doesn't belong in the best builds.

***Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
It's one of the deck's best finishers, and only in the 2-slot. With a lot of mana open, it can shut down targeted kill, pacify would-be blockers, and chump-block infinitely. Wow - against the mirror! Legendary, so include 2-3 only. It runs into your own Matrix and it's somewhat dubious in early game, being so mana intensive, and the early game is all you hope to see, so it may not make the cut. If you run Vial though, the free mana may help you win a card with a surprise 8.5 drop.

***Hand of Honor
Here's a powerful two-drop that survives most combat with its peers, and sports a very relative color-hosing ability. That power so cheaply makes it a definite sideboard consideration.

***Kami of Ancient Law
It's a Glory Seeker with a semi-useful sacrifice ability. Relevant enchantments include Threads of Disloyalty, Blanchwood Armor, Phyrexian Arena, Night of Soul's Betrayal, and the passive White varieties. Sometimes you can even trigger your own Promise of Bunrei. However, there are many, many games in which it's just vanilla. Right now this bear needs more reason to exist to be included.

**Kataki, War's Wage
Five months too late, huh? See you in Extended, Affinity.

***Leonin Shikari
Solid simply as Glory Seeker, but its ability with both first strike and Lightning Greaves make it a fearsome threat. Multiples are somewhat redundant. Unfortunately, Shikari and Steelshaper fail the Gestalt principle, where unlike Affinity, the sum is not greater than these parts. Maybe Gift of Estates and/or Wayfarer will give it the spare mana it needs to have that extra oomph.

****Leonin Skyhunter
Creature design perfection, include 4. Coming back in 9^th.

**Master Decoy
Four copies of this little guy were included maindeck in the first place Regionals deck from Indianapolis. This guy shines when looking at an opposing equipped creature; it's an effective 2 for 1. That said, my impression is that he would just incur death from Red and Black decks if they want it, Blue decks and Tooth can effectively ignore him, and Green decks have Ascetic and Kodama (North) which can't be targeted. That's enough passivity that says I should pass for now.

***Pteron Ghost
Now here is some tech I like; for me, the most underrated card in the archetype. The third place deck from the Minneapolis Regionals ran a pair of these in the maindeck. It seems to compare unfavorably with even the lowly Glory Seeker, but if the key is to equip evasion creatures, then a premium on that type of creature makes sense. Its ability is actually a lot more deadly than those listed in the Diving Griffin (et al.) section below. Protect your biggest threats and beat at the same time.

**Raise the Alarm
With Anthem, a good card. Without it, it's barely better than a Glory Seeker. You'll get more wins off the hate/evasion cards than Raise. Even Glory Seeker with Anthem out is a 3/3, only one point of damage less. You can do better.

***Samurai of the Pale Curtain
It hated Affinity when that was viable. As it is, it shuts down most Witness, Ink-Eyes, White Bringer, Hana Kami, Genju, and W/B Sword recursion, Solemn Simulacrum card draws, and legendary dragon tricks, and survives hand-to-hand conflict with its peers. There will be some games when you wanted this ability and some where that of the Hand of Honor was preferable. In my testing, Hand of Honor has more practical use if it's a contest between the two. Just don't run this with Bunrei.

**Diving Griffin (leaving in 9^th)/Slith Ascendant/Emissary of Hope/Moonwing Moth/Pegasus Charger (9^th)
These three-mana fliers for power of two are not efficient enough to make it in a top-tier tournament deck without a significant extra ability. Vigilance, life gain, extra toughness, first strike, or ultra-slow counters do not meet this criterion.

**Intrepid Hero
Not returning in 9^th, this creature can be stellar, and it was included in the first place Orlando Regionals deck's sideboard. Slogger, Kumano, Memnarch, Slug, Myojin, Platinum, Arashi, Ink-Eyes, Iwamori, Dragons, Yukora, Kagemaro, and Titan are all relative targets. But like Master Decoy, Red and Black are not going to be fooled, MUC is unaffected, and Tooth has other answers. It is good against Green though, especially when creatures are equipped or (Blanchwood) Armored. Maybe the champion will read this article and post his reasoning.

**Kitsune Blademaster
For a whole mana cheaper, you get the choice of Protection from Black or Pale Curtain's remove-from-game shenanigans. This guy eats up a lot of things in his path, and he makes for a solid defender, but he is way too slow at dealing damage to the head to be very noteworthy in tournament builds, and WW never wants to be on the defensive.

****Paladin en-Vec
(9^th Edition) This is Auriok Champion's big daddy! The extra power/toughness is much more important than Auriok's life gain as it can now get past an opposing Blinkmoth Nexus, survive a Night of Soul's Betrayal, and hold its own against off-color creatures. Some people are running this main while dropping Skirmishers. I can't agree or disagree at this time, but running both would be quite mana intensive.

****Skyhunter Skirmisher
It's fantastic with any power boosts. It's the one creature, more than any other, which will most likely win you games. The trade-off is more susceptibility per cost to burn removal; I usually side these out against dedicated creature burn (not Flores Red) and possibly counterspell decks.

****Hokori, Dust Drinker
Hokori works as a fantastic finisher to beat most control and mana-intensive decks. Early on it's pitchable to both Mox and Shining Shoal (one of Hokori's best friends). All but one of all the Regionals decks that finished 3^rd or higher, played 3 or more copies of Hokori - with mana source counts of 24, 23, 22, 20, 20 (and Vial versions which are more Hokori friendly). This just goes to show that WW has to push to win; it has to be lucky.

According to MTGO deck stats, when playing first with 20 mana sources, you are likely to have your 4^th mana drop on the 4^th turn 33% of the time, 5^th turn 45%, 6^th turn 53%, 7^th turn 62%, 8^th turn 70%. Tooth (unmolested) goes off a lot of times way back at that 5^th turn spot. How do these people stomach these percentages? Some guts and some fancy shuffling! Sadly, not for me though. I've played with Hokori a lot, and when I can cast him, sometimes he doesn't play the role as finisher as often as I'd like. If Tooth wasn't tapped out the time before, they can just Tooth and win. Even if they had two untapped lands, they can untap one and play another and still have chances of causing mischief. Burn decks handle him with ease, as does timely black hate. He's not very useful against weenie strategies and artificial mana sources. In short, while perhaps less spectacular, I've been able to have a more stable mana base and more reliable finishers without him. If I were running Vials over Moxes, or my metagame was filled with the slower G/x builds, I'd be more likely to run Hokori.

***Celestial Kirin
I haven't played with the Kirin yet in Standard. In most builds I run, I don't play many spirits except Lantern Kami and sometimes a Ghost or a two-mana Arcane instant. And I'm not in favor of wiping out my army of 1- and 2-drops for the power harnessed in the Kirin. Shining Shoal gives some nice flexibility with the Kirin. But I tend to shy away from the 4-drops in favor of more solid inclusions.

***Leonin Abunas
I played these awhile from the board to counteract Red and Green creatures and the artifact hate. I had some nice results but at four mana you should be getting more bang for your buck. I'll have to stick to Pteron Ghost for now.

**Taj-Nar Swordsmith
No one ever mentions him, but combined with Aether Vial, it has a chance for good card advantage, and against MUC this may be the key drop. There's not much play without Vial, and against other decks it's too slow.

Instants (usually Combat Tricks)
Three of the best four instants (Journey, Test, and Shoal) are reactive in nature, expecting to trade 1:1 with a removal spell or in combat for a creature, and still give you a bonus. In practice though, since WW sports mostly creatures with flying and therefore experiences little combat interaction, the latter point is weakened. And with regards to red damage spells, until the next rotation, as long as Arc-Slogger haunts the other side of the table, they'll usually just stack an extra activation on top of your spell, thus nullifying it. All three are mostly useless against Tooth.

**Ethereal Haze
Unless someone can show me how the Arcane aspect can be useful, I would be willing to bet that about 50% of the time it is cast, you will just die next turn. That extra turn can be critical sometimes, and stopping your opponents from activating their Swords or Jittes can be huge, but I remain unconvinced - there is simply still too much control in the environment to warrant inclusion.

*Hallow
Pyroclasm aside, Circle of Protection: Red is almost strictly better.

*Pure Intentions
Besides sideboard space being too valuable, I wouldn't even bring it in because weenie drops arrive faster than discard, and you don't want to be holding back your mana on defense - you want to be creating your own threats.

**Reciprocate
I understand it gets rid of Colossus, but at the cost of 11 life, and they can just bring down another monster next turn. Why sit around waiting for something to kill you when you should be playing your own game plan? If you think WW is fragile enough that you need to play tricks like these to survive, go find another deck. Besides, Arrest is almost strictly better because you will often have 3+ mana by the time it's worth casting this type of card.

*Stand Firm
It's good if it can trade 1 for 1 with a removal spell or enemy creature during combat, and it's awesome if it kept you from land flood or screw. WW desperately needs deck manipulation, but this card is still too situationally dependent and not powerful enough to warrant inclusion.

***Otherworldly Journey
This is a very flexible combat trick used for offense and defense. It is golden against Death Cloud decks and similar mass destruction spells. It will sometimes remove a critical blocker, and even more than once, I've removed a Platinum Angel for the win. Keeping open mana though is something this deck is reluctant to do, and if your opponent's deck was lacking removal, it looks silly.

**Plow Through Reito
Since eight of your 22-24 mana sources will most likely be Mox and Nexus, you only have around a 30% chance of having 4 Plains on turn 7 (playing first, MTGO deck statistics). Having those kind of odds of giving a solitary +4/+4 is not my idea of a great card.

***Test of Faith
This is slightly more powerful than OWJ, but also slightly less flexible. Making a 2/2 flyer into a 4/4 as a byproduct of trading with a burn spell is good times. However it is useless against black removal and mass removal. A good comparison for this card as a sideboard slot is Circle of Protection: Red. The Circle is much more powerful in that situation, but the tempo gained by ToF can be amazing when the circle will likely eventually be destroyed by an eventual Scales or Stone.

***Roar of the Kha
This is the weakest of the four good instants, but the only proactive one (and thus great vs. Tooth especially). In a pinch it can sometimes trade 1:1 with a burn spell or save a creature from combat damage. But it basically acts as a mini-Anthem that confuses the opponent's combat math. If you can hide one of those under a Mox, they'll be asking themselves the rest of the game if you're holding another. Messing with a person's head is good. However, it creates no new threats on its own, so beware that sometimes it is a dud. As much as I loved it maindecked, it was almost always one of the first cards out for the post-sideboard games no matter which deck I played against, as I needed to keep up my creature count, but then knew which correct reactive cards to wield.

*Warrior's Honor
It was funny how many people on the message boards forgot Roar of the Kha still existed. This card is much worse.

***Shining Shoal
Great in keeping up the tempo, protecting threats, and eliminating others, it supports the ground game. It takes on less importance if most of your threats are fliers (less combat interaction) or if your opponent's removal is non-damage based (or too much damage). It is bad against Slogger, when you don't have sufficient mana for your needs, and through early draws, thus maxing out on 4 copies is probably bad. Weigh those negatives against it being a key spell to winning out an otherwise stalled attack. Personally, I'd opt for offense.

**Charge Across the Araba
According to MTGO deck stats, when playing first with 23 mana sources, it's only at turn seven where you are more likely than not to have enough mana to cast Charge. Ideally WW wants to be somewhere in game 2 by the seventh turn of the match.

Disruption
WW can rarely devote much space to disruption, especially in the maindeck as it seeks to maximize its threat density. White gets the least disruption of all colors (green has artifact kill), and it is often underwhelming when it comes. So if it does get included, it better have a spectacular cost:effect ratio.

***Pithing Needle
Without interfering with an equip strategy as Matrix does, it accomplishes a lot of the same things, and more cheaply. The negative is that you won't always know what to set it on until it's too late.

***Spawning Pit
It's great against dedicated burn and mass removal; Death Cloud loses its punch in a hurry. It's also great for chump blocking against a Jitte to prevent it from gaining counters. Since it has awful redundancy in multiples, it does nothing for the Tooth matchup, and there are other powerful cards. I haven't been able to play it much, but I am not in a position here to condemn a lone copy in a decklist, especially a sideboard. Unlike Promise of Bunrei, the card to which it will most often be compared, it can't be triggered, and then followed by a mass destruction spell. On the other hand, timely artifact destruction and your own Matrix will undo a lot of the Pit's strengths.

**Pacifism
As powerful as it is, wouldn't you hate to be holding this card while taking your final 8 damage to Arc-Slogger or giving up your army when your opponent taps out to land Kagemaro? Thought so, but what about Arrest?

****Damping Matrix
Here is an impressive list of activations it shuts down, and note that the first three are perhaps the three most common ways to kill artifacts in Standard these days: Hearth Kami, Viridian Zealot, Oblivion Stone, Sensei's Divining Top, Elder, Troll regeneration, Nezumi Shortfang, Goblin Charbelcher, Kagemaro, Mindslaver, Vedalken Shackles, Slogger, Sorcerer, Kumano, Triskelion, Kiki-Jiki, Meloku, Vial, Jitte, and equipping things. When it lands, it auto-wins against Mono-U Tron, and makes wins against Tooth, MUC closer to 80% or higher. The negatives are shutting down the equip game plan which is a natural companion to WW, being a dud in a few matchups like Death Cloud, red-weenie, and Rats (mostly), and failing to occasionally stop a turn 3 equipped Sword of Fire and Ice on Birds of Paradise. Multiples are redundant (unless they blow up the first, of course). Jitte is powerful enough that I would risk running both together, but other than that, those who run this powerful artifact need to focus on the somewhat less powerful Instants game plan over Equipment. Run this main, if you do.

***Jinxed Choker
This is a powerful sideboard option, borrowed tech from RDW. Basically the idea is to get your creatures to deal the first 10-15 damage, and ride this out to victory as the control decks stabilize. Its limitations are that it cannot come in against Red decks, you have to have made a dent in their life-totals first, and decks with sufficient mana (Tooth anyone?) can easily remove the counters or out-burn you by adding on lots more counters on one critical turn (unless Matrix is turned on!).

**Thunderstaff
It trivializes Meloku tokens, late Sliths, and Magpies while reducing the impact of Rude Awakening, and weenie strategies. Likewise it can cause significant extra crucial damage. However this is not my idea of Charge Across the Araba which causes a lot more damage and your opponent doesn't see what's coming.

**Arrest
It effectively trades with most fatties 1:1, though at sorcery speed. That and its cost make its inclusion doubtful. It probably would have been better before an era of little guys wielding equipment. That said, if you are concentrating on a ground-based weenie attack, then Arrest will help clear annoying blockers.

***Promise of Bunrei
Disruption disruption - gotta love it. While powerful in its own right, and extraordinary with Anthem or against Cloud, it's not all pie-in-the-sky. Here are the reasons why I choose not to run it currently. Without Anthem, it's a bit bland. Sometimes, they don't have to trigger it, and if you trigger it with your own Kami of the Ancient Law, you've used two cards and five mana for four 1/1s. A lot of Black and Red decks will be able to trigger it, then play a mass removal spell (even Echoing Truth in Blue counts). And finally, when I run disruption, I want it to work immediately. WW has little interest in sitting around waiting for bigger sharks to stabilize. Tooth does not fear this card.

***Terashi's Grasp
Here is your choice for artifact/enchantment removal with life gain; still it's no Disenchant (Go Zvi!). Sorcery speed is a huge drawback, but the effect is much too relevant to today's Standard, not to play it. The one mana saved vs. Altar's Light is significant, and the life gain can sometimes be crucial, especially against Red decks.

**Altar's Light
Getting to four mana is always a problem for WW decks, and for that amount, there better be a lot of oomph. Even when Shackles, wreaked havoc on WW, the instant-speed Light was sometimes still countered, and against every other archetype, it lost badly in comparison to Grasp.

Equipment (and other creature/deck enhancements)
Equipment is the easiest card type to test for in this deck. Just cast Steelshaper's Gift for a given board situation, and ask yourself which card would most likely win you the game.

****Steelshaper's Gift
Gift reduces the deck size to 56 cards at the bargain cost of W each. While doing so, it finds the correct sword/equipment, such as Greaves, Jitte, a good Sword, or Manriki-Gusari. In a Jitte war, having 6-8 copies of the artifact is sure more impressive than the other guy's 3-4 copies. In the same vein, it allows you to include a lone copy of several pieces of "toolbox" equipment. Since Jitte + Skirimisher is a two-turn win, making this option as redundant as possible wins games. The only negative is that it reduces the creature count though, when sometimes you are staring at an empty battlefield, filled with rusting equipment.

****Bonesplitter
The fastest of the decent equipment choices. As long as you have a flyer, Bonesplitter usually equals a generic 2/2 flyer with haste for 2 (and if that creature was a Skirmisher, remember to calculate an extra 2 damage), that can't itself be removed by creature kill. Even after mass sorcery destruction, an extra mana still lets it piggyback a Nexus for the final damage. What's not to like?

*Leonin Bola
This can be an emergency toolbox card (see Gift) to shut down fatties. Not strong or flexible enough to make a sufficient answer in non-Pauper decks.

**O-Naginata
This is a hugely powerful equipment that any attacker would love to fit in. Unfortunately, WW offers Celestial Kirin (maybe) and not much else. Of course, if a creature were already enhanced by another piece of equipment or by Anthem, it would work, but the problem is that there you need a creature, an appropriate equipment, both to survive, equip the one, then this, and only then win. Probably easier done than said, granted, but in that case you probably were already winning with the first two cards. Until WW gets more creatures with power of 3, it's too risky to include here.

**Empyrial Plate
Dream scenario: Turn 1: Mox (+ White card) + Plains + Plate. Turn 2: Plains + Skirmisher. Turn 3: equip and attack with a 4/4 double-striker. Don't give them that many turns to shatter your dreams, especially when reality is a lot tougher. Since WW has a tendency to be in top-deck mode, this card is not so great, although it combos nicely with Plow, Araba, and Gift of Estates.

**Leonin Sun Standard
This card is too mana intensive to get best use; you have to spend four mana each turn to have it improve over Anthem. It's an artifact and thus slightly more vulnerable, and the surprise factor is often what makes these types of cards work.

***Lightning Greaves
This plus Shikari is a combo that can outright win games. It gives the deck extra damage with the haste ability and protects against direct creature kill. Not great in multiples. Other limitations include only sorcery-speed protection and if you draw a second equipment, you need a second creature in order to take off Greaves. Lastly, its power level is sometimes underwhelming. Including one copy with Steelshaper's Gift is not a horrible idea.

***Manriki-Gusari
If nothing else, it's cheap to play, giving you a small stats bonus that takes you out of basic burn range. It can amass important card advantage as well. I would never play it however in this deck unless as a Gift find.

***Mask of Memory
I haven't tested this as much as I would have liked, but under no circumstances should it be included if most of your creatures don't have evasion because it has to go to the dome. Unfortunately, Mask has to contend with Jitte, Swords, and Bonesplitter, before it even begins to get consideration.

***Specter's Shroud
This could be a nice Toolbox card with Gift, quite useful against control/combo decks. I thought for awhile that it would be awesome against MUC and Tooth and similar slow decks, but if it landed, they almost always found ways to eventually stabilize, discarding non-important cards. I have learned that it's better to take away turns from them (via 20 damage) than cards.

*Surestrike Trident
Back when MUC was king I thought about this coming in via Vial + Taj-Nar Swordsmith for an unstoppable win. Amusing, huh?

****Umezawa's Jitte
The definitive utility equipment. It clogs down turns 2 & 3 somewhat, but the turns become very explosive afterwards. No need to sing its praises here. Jitte + Skirmisher equals a 2-turn win. Don't let legendary status fool you into reducing your count to 3 copies, unless you play Steelshaper's Gift.

*Vulshok Gauntlets
Spending five mana on a piece of equipment when you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere is bad, especially if it forces you to play the overcosted Vigilance creatures.

*Serra's Blessing
(9^th Edition) Do not waste a card and a turn playing this card. Your creatures are designed for attacking (weenies make poor blockers), plus if the strategy goes correctly and you win in the first few turns, there will be no need to block. Lastly if they kill all your creatures, this card is pointless besides bad. Even if you have one creature, Vigilance, one of the worst cards in existence, is better.

*Angelic Blessing
This compares unfavorably with a lot of cards at its cost. This card works best with a Classic build dominated by ground creatures, but those are bad builds. Sorcery speed nullifies it even as a combat trick.

***Grafted Wargear
This is a powerhouse at a big risk. I've seen it crunch people fast, and I've seen it lose me games. The "unattached" drawback doesn't seem too big, until you realize that Oxidize is now a 2 for 1 for your opponent (even attaching to Nexus will kill the Nexus at end of turn). In my opinion, Bonesplitter is the better card that costs one mana less with no drawbacks for almost the same damage. The first place Orlando Regionals deck ran a pair with Gift-search capability, but if the acceptable number is above zero, it's exactly one (with Gift).

*Helm of Kaldra
Since most of your creatures will already have evasion, the first strike and trample abilities are almost meaningless, and there are more powerful abilities than haste to be found at that cost.

**Loxodon Warhammer
This is powerful, but it usually fails the Steelshaper Gift test in favor of one of the slightly cheaper Swords, if not something else as well.

**Mindstorm Crown
A personal innovation. Unfortunately, more often than not, I would have at least one card in hand or it would be destroyed. There are more solid options available at its cost.

****Sword of Light and Shadow
Though the abilities are much less impressive than on its brother, the colors are better. Mono-black has big problems with this card, as does mono-white. Also, as Flores once pointed out, this may even be better against MUC, because when they Shackles one of your creatures, you can sail right by it. Against Red, the other Sword often just wastes mana equipping it to an immediate burn victim.

****Sword of Fire and Ice
With Jitte, the best equipment in game. It adds removal and card drawing, both of which are otherwise absent in the deck. Protection from red and blue can respectively win games against those colors. Five mana up front is somewhat prohibitive, especially considering the artifact hate out these days.

**Whispersilk Cloak
It's an amusing combo with Blinding Angel, but this deck has better options than either card.

****Glorious Anthem
With a possible exception in the Equipment version, this card should be a 4-of in every build as a fantastic finisher and foil to burn spells. Its only weakness is failing to protect against targeted Black kill. Returning in 9^th.

*Shield of Kaldra
It combos nicely with Worship, but even so, and with Gift, it's too unwieldy for serious consideration.

Sideboard
The sideboard cards you use will vary wildly from stopgaps for your deck's holes to deck strategy to the preferences of your metagame. I'll talk later about the sideboard strategies once we have a maindeck. But first, a note about the many passive options for WW in the sideboard - Circles, Prison, and Worship. It is very dangerous to just sit behind one of these and expect to win. All tier one decks have answers. Here's a quick survey by color: Blue will be bounce the enchantment when appropriate, then counter it. Green will Naturalize it. The Circles/Worship don't prevent Black from causing life loss from Kokusho or Death Cloud. Red can sometimes overwhelm a Circle, and has access to Oblivion Stone, Culling Scales, and colorless damage sources. CoP: White might be good (Terashi's Grasp notwithstanding), but no one plays White, remember? These enchantments can buy you some turns, but be happy if you are that lucky. Remember, threats are better than answers.

***Defense Grid
This card is certainly a Blue hoser, and I would aver that MUC is our hardest matchup (though maybe Needle has changed that). If it lands, it wins; the only problem is that thanks to Troll Ascetic, Boseiju, Flores Red decks, and others, MUC has almost disappeared from the tournament scene. The other deck against which it has some use is Flores Red, where it prevents the Big Turn, and gives WW sufficient time to recover. Don't use at your own risk, but if you do, first ask if Vial is better in your board.

***Circle of Protection: Red
If Red decks do not run/draw their five possible answers to this card, they lose: Oblivion Stone, Culling Scales, Pithing Needle, colorless damage sources (like Nexus and Simulacrum) and damage overload. Matrix and our Needle can handle the first, but Grasp hits all three with life gain! Damage overload, especially against the Flores Big Turn, can sometimes overwhelm the poor hoser. Returning in 9^th.

**Purge
Affinity is gone; but Black is on the rise. On the other hand, Hand of Honor, Auriok Champion, and Paladin en-Vec are such better options.

*Sacred Ground
This is tempting to skip because of its narrow use, and WW needs so few land drops anyway. Recurring a Nexus is a minor point in its favor.

**Ghostly Prison
This card doesn't usually work. Control decks kill it when appropriate or ignore it. And even weenie decks can afford to pay 2 to have one of their little guys pick up a big stick and send it across time and time again.

***Story Circle
Beautiful flexibility, and a lot of decks in Standard are mono-colored, so if this card is to shine it would be now. The colored-mana requirement is not too hard. See my Sideboard comments above for the main reasons not to run this card, colorless damage and the few decks running two colors being others. It returns in 9^th.

**Jester's Cap
(9^th Edition) This card has got to be considered when it becomes available. You can take out Tooth, Death Cloud, Arc-Slogger, Meloku, or any variety of finishers. I suspect though, that WW's biggest concern is the board and the cards the opponent has already drawn, as the clock ticks fast for both sides. To deal 20 or not to deal 20 - that is the question! And this card says: let's wait awhile.

****Worship
Decks are too flexible these days for this card to really shine. They can bounce the Worship, cause loss of life, Naturalize, etc., all at the critical moment and take the game. There is only one popular deck that this card is almost invulnerable to: Red Deck Wins/Flores Red. These controllish decks are slow enough that you will be able to cast it, even at four mana. Compare this with the CoP: Red - colorless damage doesn't change the outcome, damage overload is pointless, Scales kills itself, only if they run Stone (and activate it!) can they win. Your Anthems, Champions, and en-Vecs will be the insurance you will have creatures on the board. I would be somewhat hesitant to board this in against other decks though. Returning in 9^th.

**Wrath of God
Finally this has to be mentioned as a sideboard spot against other aggro decks or against Tooth after they cast the sorcery, it's also decent against decks with heavy creature kill. Some people swear by it, but the ant-synergy is so great that I'll look elsewhere. Returning in 9^th.

**Karma
Probably not enough Swamps running around to merit its inclusion as there are other good sideboard hosers against Black anyway (Champ, Hand, en-Vec, Sword of Light and Shadow). They can even minimize damage via Death Cloud by sacking excess Swamps. Too narrow and expensive for our purposes, and leaving in 9^th.