Part 1 of this article can be found here.

Deck Creation
Philosophy
There are a lot of WW builds out there, and some are obviously better than others. Which one should we adopt? Here they are, in increasing order of power, as I see things.

Junk
Junk builds are assorted casual decks that don't expect or want tournament success, and are built because their creators enjoy exploring the road less traveled. Builds might be based on Samurai, a neat-but-fragile combo like Bushi + instants, hybrid Control decks, Vigilance decks, etc. Neat and all, but we must pass.

Spiritcraft
Spiritcraft is, admittedly, largely unexplored in Standard. As far as I can see, it isn't fast enough for today's Standard, is more susceptible to disruption, and has more trouble vs. Tooth than other WW versions. That said, Celestial Kirin is a mega-house, and I hope this deck can find a home.

Classic
Classic seeks to maximize power for mana. Here, a seminal difference is that Savannah Lions are considered better than Suntail Hawk. Pale Curtain and Raise the Alarm are other auto inclusions. This is usually the fastest, most offense-oriented deck but the ground game stalls a lot to the ubiquitous Green creatures like Elder and Witness.

Toolbox
Toolbox uses Auriok Steelshaper as a base, Leonin Shikari and Steelshaper's Gift as key support cards (usually from Mirrodin) and looks for the most synergistic Knights and Soldiers. First strike is a nice bonus because of Shikari's ability to equip at instant-speed, thus doubling the damage. It's a toolbox because it finds the right piece of equipment with Gift at the right time.

Damping
Damping Weenie is one of the two major contenders for the WW throne. It relies on 4 copies of a redundant artifact named Damping Matrix in the maindeck to single-handedly disrupt the opponent's plan, while evasion creatures fly from above. It uses the powerful instants and Anthem to supplement this theme instead of the normal equipment (though Jitte is so powerful that it is also sometimes included).

Skies
(Equipped) Skies puts efficient creatures with evasion into play, arming them with powerful equipment, and sending them to the dome. It relies on Damping's new baby brother, Pithing Needle, to supply disruption sufficient enough to stall out the opponent's own game plan.

Though the last two are similar, I consider the Skies plan slightly better than the Damping version because it is more consistent, Damping Matrix sometimes fails to hose an archetype (like B/G Cloud), sometimes arrives too late (turn 3 equipped Sword of Fire and Ice on Birds of Paradise), and prefers the Instants game-plan over Equipment which is slightly weaker. If you wish to see a Damping Matrix maindeck version with instant tricks, check out the StarCityGames forums under Standard/WW for some solid builds. However, there is no reason why not to also include Matrix in the board for either transformational purposes or to abuse it in archetypes where it especially shines.

The philosophy of WW Skies in its purest form asserts that a bird is a bird is a bird, but a bird with a stick is a threat with a clock that is not easily dealt with. My thesis is that if I can maximize this scenario, the deck's inherent speed should provide decent game no matter what deck I face.

General Impressions
This deck doesn't have any inherently good or bad matchups; they're all pretty close to 50-50, which is what makes it so fun to play. An outcome is never certain, and better play is more crucial to the result than having favorable or unfavorable matchups.

Strengths
How does the archetype win? Let's look at the its four major paths to victory. First is speed: many of the control matchups (or Tooth) lose before they are able to stabilize. Second is evasion: cards that help other decks stabilize in some matchups are complete flops against WW (for example, Vine Trellis). Third is creature enhancement, which complements the first two nicely: two 1/1 fliers are still painfully slow, even if they have evasion. But if they can hit for 2-4 instead, the game ends quickly. Fourth is color/archetype hosers: these include Matrix, Hokori, Auriok Champ, Hand of Cruelty, Paladin en-Vec, Circles (and their kin), and flying is a natural green deck hoser.

Weaknesses
For every up, there is a down. Here are the four major paths to defeat. First is zero mana-manipulation: WW, even with an under-2.0 mana curve, gets mana screwed because players typically keep one-land hands, and sometimes get unlucky; WW is also helpless to combat the occasional mana flood. (When going first, there is an 86 % chance of getting double plains; 14% hard times.) Second is lack of real card advantage: White lacks 2-for-1 spells, card-drawing, and we pitch cards at times to Mox and Shoal. Third is susceptibility to mass removal: sometimes Pyroclasm, Arc-Slogger, Night of Souls' Betrayal, Kagemaro, Death Cloud, Arashi, or Oblivion Stone (etc.) can play a number on this deck. Fourth is the stalled-out attack: having your army chip away at a life total until Shackles and Meloku stare you in the face with no other permanents on the other side is always a frustrating way to lose; at this point the five mana-spells that were sitting in their hand, look a lot better than your one-mana topdecks.

Vs. Aggro
When WW plays against decks that develop their threats at about the same speed, usually white's creatures are better (the best early creatures belong to white, right?). WW then becomes somewhat the control side of the matchup. Stop the bleeding, peck when able, and eventually win is the game plan. A hoser such as Champion significantly helps determine the outcome. But to the extent that it can't follow that game plan, it loses. The games are quite draw dependent. When the game is all about who wins the Jitte war, the matchup is in the WW favor because of the 6-8 Jittes (including Gift) on our side, Manriki-Gusari, Needles, Matrix, and Grasps.

Vs. Control
When WW plays against control decks (or Tooth), speed is Plan A. Sometimes they never find an answer to the first onslaught, but when they do, the top-decks often enough can punch through for the remaining life total because of the evasion. A lot of times Plan B, archetype hosing, with Hokori, Needle, or Matrix, supplements Plan A for critical turns and the victory.

Without further ado, let me finally present:

White Skies (pre-9^th rotation)
Mana Sources (23)
14 Plains
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Chrome Mox

Creatures (22 +4)
{4 Blinkmoth Nexus}
2 Suntail Hawk
4 Lantern Kami
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Skyhunter Skirmisher
4 Auriok Champion
4 Pteron Ghost

Disruption (3)
3 Pithing Needle

Offensive Spells (12)
3 Glorious Anthem
3 Steelshaper's Gift
3 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Bonesplitter
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Sideboard (15)
4 Hand of Honor
4 Terashi's Grasp
3 Worship
3 Damping Matrix
1 Spawning Pit

How fast is the deck? The deck has around a turn 5.5 goldfish average based on 20+ games. That would not be an impressive claim for a great number of archetypes, but since 22 of the 26 creatures here have evasion, numbers in real life won't be as dissimilar as with other decks. Mox + Skirmisher + Jitte is a turn 4 kill, which admittedly happens in only 4% of games (MTGO deck stats). The deck makes a cleaner turn 5 kill if some of the control elements (Champ, Needle, and Ghost) are substituted for corresponding Aggro elements.

Card Choices Explained
I know there are some interesting deck choices that need to be explained, and for the most part I've already done so in the previous section of individual cards. This decklist's skeleton is very similar to the winning Orlando's Regional decklist, but interestingly enough, we came up with these builds independently.

The main difference is my preference for 4 Auriok Champion maindeck vs. his 4 Hokori. I explained my current aversion to Hokori (mana plus power concerns) earlier, but also the online metagame is packed with archetypes sporting Red and Black, and maindeck Champ is almost a must.

I choose not to play Isamaru so as to maximize the evasion count. Isamaru vs. Lantern Kami obviously equals advantage Isamaru. Isamaru + equipment vs. Lantern Kami + equipment is advantage Kami because by that 3^rd/4^th turn, the defense usually already has a blocker.

I choose not to run Manriki-Gusari over the second Bonesplitter, because of the latter's speed and damage, I can win the Jitte war with Gift, and I have a lot of artifact control elements in the sideboard, as it stands.

Consider our trumps in the mirror matchup: the Orlando champion uses 8.5 Tails (one copy, non-searchable), I prefer Sword of Light and Shadow (one copy, searchable). Sword argues better here: though it may be the weaker of the two Swords, it's also deadly against Black (again the online metagame), and better against my own Shackled creatures (according to Flores and experience).

Now to explain the absence of the other Sword. In the Red matchups, if there is no burn aimed at my creature while the equip ability is on the stack; very often that could just as easily be Jitte with a similar win (and Jitte is a critical turn and mana faster).

I would have liked 4 Gifts, but I need to watch my creature count.

Pteron Ghost maximizes the flyer + stick philosophy on both grounds.

I think the most disposable card slots remaining are 2 Suntail Hawks, 2 Pteron Ghost, and 1 Nexus for what would have been 3 sideboard hosers that couldn't make the 15-card limit for example, Hokori, 8.5 Tails, or perhaps a good generic instant like Shining Shoal.

My only change in 9^th Edition will be to include 4 Paladin en-Vec main, replacing 2 Ghost and 2 Champion with the 2 Champion going to the board to replace the 2 Hand of Honor. If testing shows me that I'm cheating my two-drops and my mana curve too aggressively, I'll have to downsize that plan somewhat, perhaps to the extent of a 4 vs. 4 swap with Hand of Honor from the board.

Sideboard Notes
A lot of people make the common mistake of creating a sideboard willy-nilly with powerful hosers without properly considering what decks are the toughest to beat, which are already winnable, whether a certain matchup can fit that many sideboard answers to the point that the cards going out are nearly as powerful as the cards coming in, how flexible vs. how narrow (but more powerful) do we want our choices to be, etc.

If you are playing 23-24 mana sources, you can probably get by with siding out a Plains instead of a spell if you won the first game because you will get the extra draw in game 2.

The Big Three, as far as opposing sideboard strategies go, are grouped thusly: Tooth + MUC, red/black anti-removal or color hate, and G/X control.

Here is how my board formed. I needed 4 Grasps for a wide variety of matchups. I needed to cement the ever-prevalent Red matchup and Worship does that nicely, as does the Pit which is more flexible as a mass-destruction hoser to boot. Matrix hoses Tooth and MUC, but 4 is overkill combined with maindeck Needles. That leaves 4 slots for g/X control builds (Beacon, Gifts, Cloud, Awakening, Meloku, etc.). The two choices are Hokori, and Jinxed Choker (deadlier and available for the Mono-Black matchup, but more susceptible to Green's array of artifact removal). I personally eschewed both because of the decline of the archetype since its earlier days and because I always had good game against them. Instead I decided to focus on one of the hottest internet metagames: Black Control. Choose one of the other two if the Saviors Black cards haven't caught up to your local metagame yet. Another try is moving Hands of Honor maindeck (cutting either Ghost, Hawk or Nexus), and using those slots for Chokers and/or Hokori.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how many times the Hand of Honor, my foil against Black decks, came in against non-Black decks simply because a more powerful creature was in some matchups more important than evasion. He has played the M.V.P. in so many games, and is especially insane via a first turn Mox.

Matchup Analysis
The hardest matchup is probably against Black Control decks like Death Cloud, which usually goes: pick off one or two of my creatures early with spot removal, Death Cloud, and win with all the extra mana. MUC has historically been a problem, but it is on the decline, thankfully.

Let's look at each matchup individually. The more games I've played against an archetype will amount to the more I have to say about it.

Tooth and Nail
A game in this matchup usually boils down to the question: were you able to either deal 20 damage or drop Matrix, Needle, or Hokori by your fifth turn? If the answer is yes, you probably win 80% of the time, if the answer is no, you probably lose 80% of the time. According to MTGO Deck Statistics when going first, my Skies version has a 42% chance of landing a turn 5 or earlier Needle and remember the turn 5.5 goldfish kill. Post-board it has a 68% chance of landing either Needle or Matrix.

Fortunately, it's the deck's most goldfish-like matchup. Post-board, you have three more hosers in Matrix, and 4 Grasps to blow up Oblivion Stones or Platinum Angels or other Tooth targets. Matrix obviously doesn't work with Jitte (and Gift), but landing either should be good enough for the win on its own, and that's worth the risk. Tips for Tooth players: don't play the Soh transformation game plan against WW (so many of them do), and consider Platinum Angel + Leonin Abunas because it's the biggest auto-win you have (no Matrix interference). +4 Terashi's Grasp, +3 Damping Matrix; -4 Auriok Champion, -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -1 Bonesplitter, -1 Pteron Ghost (keep the Ghost and take out a Plains if you are drawing first).

Mono-Blue Control
This matchup usually sees WW deal 10-15 points of damage and stall as Shackles and Meloku makes up for massive virtual card advantage. Threads of Disloyalty in the board helps them. The best players counter exactly what they need to counter, absorbing the rest with their 20 life. It has been huge for WW that recently we don't have to spend as much sideboard space on this as we would normally have to, although even then I might suggest writing it off as unwinnable and moving on to the next game to conserve sideboard realty. The best strategy is not to hold back but to rush them, hopefully poking a Needle or Matrix under the counterspell radar (or Grid, if you prefer to run it). Having a high threat density is the key to proactively winning the matchup. I even board in the Pit because it has some game against both Shackles and Threads. +4 Terashi's Grasp, +3 Damping Matrix, +1 Spawning Pit; -4 Auriok Champion, -3 Steelshaper's Gift, -1 Plains

Medium-Big Red (Not Flores Red or Ponza)
This matchup boils down to the creature matchup. As long as you can answer the Sliths and Sorcerers, the matchup is probably swaying in your favor. Their trump is Arc-Slogger; yours is Auriok Champion. From the sideboard, they bring in Choker, you bring in everything, but especially Worship. Matrix also turns off a lot of their threats (Slogger, Sorcerer, Hearth Kami, and sometimes Stone, Jitte, and Frostling), and Grasp also helps a bit with life gain. Hand of Honor is better than your 1-toughness creatures, and it has more of a chance of stopping Slith (I can't wait until the Hand is instead a Paladin en-Vec). One key strategy is to play Anthem as soon as possible so that a lone Shock, Jet, Sorcerer, or Slogger doesn't kill them in one swoop. +3 Worship, +1 Spawning Pit, +3 Damping Matrix, +4 Terashi's Grasp, +4 Hand of Honor; -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -4 Pteron Ghost, -2 Suntail Hawk, -4 Skyhunter Skirmisher, -3 Pithing Needle, -1 Bonesplitter

Flores Red
This is the biggest headache of all time, not because the matchup favors one or the other (he lost 4-6 in his testing), but because it's almost impossible to calculate how safely you can bring down their life total without worrying about Pulse of the Forge reprisal. If they get an early Jet or two, it helps them out a lot. Two things to remember: they will be bringing in Unforge from the board, and they have practically no answer post-board for Worship. Save your Grasps for Stone, Culling, or an otherwise dangerous Sword of Fire and Ice. +3 Worship, +1 Spawning Pit, +3 Hand of Honor, +3 Terashi's Grasp,+2 Damping Matrix; -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -2 Bonesplitter, -4 Pteron Ghost, -2 Suntail Hawk, -3 Steelshaper's Gift

Mono-Black Aggro (Rats)
Watch out for ninja, spot kill, and any sort of Chittering Rats recursion if Blue is splashed. One of the keys is to make them play honest and shut down their Vials, the other is to win the Jitte war. +4 Hand of Honor, +4 Terashi's Grasp, +1 Spawning Pit, +3 Worship; -2 Skirmisher, -4 Pteron Ghost, -3 Pithing Needle, -3 Glorious Anthem

Mono-Black Control
They don't have too many guys, but they do pack a wallop. Yukora, Kagemaro, Kokusho, and sometimes assorted 3-power underlings (O-Naginata shines for them) are fearsome, though beatable. They also have lots of spot and mass removal. The key is speed and finding your haters. To a certain extent if you know the mass removal spell involved, that will determine how you play. Against Cloud, you play out everything fast. Against Betrayal and Laughter, you play out Anthems first if they are in your hand. Against Barter in Blood, you try to play one creature with an equip spell. Against Kagemaro you set your Needle, and try not to lay out all your threats. +4 Hand of Honor, +1 Spawning Pit; -2 Pteron Ghost, -3 Pithing Needle

Black/Green Cloud
They have a lot of hate for this matchup both for your creatures and for your artifacts. One of the keys is speed, getting out your threats; Cloud shines for them when you have half your threats in hand and half in play. Cloud is not so effective when their life total is too low or you have all your threats out. Nexus more often than not will be the reason you win some games. Not much strategy here, just hit as often as you can and hit hard. +4 Hand of Honor, +1 Spawning Pit; -3 Pithing Needle, -2 Suntail Hawk (-2 Ghost instead of Hawk if mono-black Cloud)

Mono-Green Aggro/Beacon Green
Generally, they have a hard time with your fliers, especially if they have a Mox boost under them. The more ground fliers the WW build has, the easier it gets for them. They usually handle the equipment with Naturalize, Oxidize, Zealot, Slug and Shaman (Witness, wash, rinse, repeat). This is where the Pteron Ghost especially shines. Post-board they are going to play Arashi, so set your Needles accordingly, and don't overcommit if you don't have to. +4 Terashi's Grasp, +1 Spawning Pit; -4 Auriok Champion, -1 Sword of Light and Shadow

G/X Control
These decks seek to ramp up to 5+ mana and play a variety of finishers such as Kumano, Awakening, Meloku, etc. Shackles, Sword, and Plow, are nasty disruption cards, but on the spot removal from Condescend or Magma Jet is likely as well. There is a lot of artifact hate as well from the boards. These decks are hard to predict. Hopefully the big chunk of damage you do early will be enough. Here, I wish I had Hokori or Choker available to me from the board. +4 Terashi's Grasp, +1 Spawning Pit; -4 Auriok Champion, -1 Sword of Light and Shadow

5-Color Gifts
I like the matchup on paper, but experience has not shown it to be as easy as it looks. The best plan is to get as much damage before Gifts is cast, and examine your options afterwards. Watch out for Engineered Explosives and/or Pyroclasm. The Sunburst Kids are a real pain: Etched Oracle, Black and White Bringers, and Clearwater Goblet. +4 Terashi's Grasp, +1 Spawning Pit; -4 Auriok Champion, -1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Mono-Blue Tron Control
This deck is a cakewalk: once Matrix lands, it's impossible to lose. Game one is usually yours unless they can do something nasty with an early completed Tron set. The second game will find you having to overcome multiple Thunderstaffs or Sun Droplets, which is doable. You can usually provoke one of their few counters with a creature, before dropping Matrix. +3 Damping Matrix, +4 Terashi's Grasp, +3 Hand of Honor; -4 Auriok Champion, -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -2 Bonesplitter, -3 Steelshaper's Gift

Kiki Alarm
Occasionally you can out race this deck, but more often than not it depends on whether or not you can stop them from going off. Try to provoke counterspells on creatures if you draw into Needle or Matrix. Keep excess lands in hand, should they try the Lifespark Spellbomb trick. +3 Damping Matrix, +4 Terashi's Grasp; -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -1 Bonesplitter, -1 Steelshaper's Gift, -4 Auriok Champion

Red Weenie/Ponza
Basically this is not so much a race, as trying to stem the bleeding. Both have little in the way of creature burn, concentrating instead on either direct damage or blowing up your lands, respectively. You are the control player in this matchup. +3 Worship, +4 Hand of Honor, +1 Spawning Pit; -1 Sword of Light and Shadow, -3 Pithing Needle, -2 Suntail Hawk, -2 Bonesplitter

Erayo
In principal this should not be too difficult to bear as even if everything works for them (In about five games, I've never seen Erayo flipped.), you should be able to play out a basic creature + Jitte game plan. The most dangerous card is probably Cranial Plating. So you should definitely board in Grasp and probably Matrix to be on the safe side. +4 Terashi's Grasp, +3 Damping Matrix; -4 Auriok Champion, -1 Sword of Light and Darkness, -1 Bonesplitter, -1 Chrome Mox

White Weenie Mirror
The non-equip builds are going to do well against you, especially if they play Eight-and-a-Half Tails, Kami of the Ancient Law, Shining Shoal, and Damping Matrix main. You can expect some rough times. Don't bring out your equipment, just hope that you can draw Grasp and Anthem. The sideboard plan isn't going to change for either main version, you will probably see Worship or Circle on the other side in game 2. +4 Terashi's Grasp, +1 Spawning Pit, +2 Worship; -3 Pithing Needle, -3 Auriok Champion, -1 Chrome Mox

Game Logs
Monday, July 25, 2005 I decided to try some Standard 8-man queues before the evening IPA Qualifying Premier Event.

Queue 1 - First round loss

Round 1 - Tooth and Nail - (Game 1) This was close, I flooded with three extra lands, top-decked a critical Anthem, until he stabilized at three life with turn 5 Tooth (Platinum & Abunas). Funnily enough, I would have won with a different first turn play when I Moxed away a Lantern Kami instead of Auriok Champion having no clue what he was playing. The Kami would have come out a turn earlier, and would not have been chump blocked by an Elder, thus giving me the win. (Game 2) I had a turn 3 Matrix which trumped his turn 2 Bauble. With no forests he lost quickly, despite full Tron on turn 4. (Game 3) We both played our games. I would have won on turn 5 had I gone first, but instead he Toothed that turn.

Queue 2 - Champion!

Round 1 - Mono-Black Aggro Rats - (Game 1) Sword of Light and Shadow on a Skyhunter and a smaller flier for backup cruised for the win, despite his impressive army of flipping rats. (Game 2) I played a 2^nd turn Hand of Honor and a few fliers to do the same number with Matrix backup.

Round 2 - Mono-Blue Tron - (Game 1) I thought he was Tooth because he just managed two Urza lands as permanents. (Game 2) I won on turn 6 with 1/1 flying weenies backed up by Jitte and Bonesplitter. The turn he cast Triskelion, I drew Needle. This made him declare his damage early so that I could reorganize the attack for the win.

Round 3 - Flores Red - (Game 1) He stalls slightly; that and three Auriok Champions pumped by Anthems pushed through for the win despite his two Simulacrums. (Game 2) This was tight, but I drew nothing useful against Culling Scales and Slogger, so the attack stalled with him at 5. (Game 3) I have the nuts draw, double Champion, double Anthem, Worship, Grasp, and the mana to cast them. Double Nexus early also helped his life total go very low. Sure enough he cast Scales which was promptly Grasped. Slogger activations brought him down to 10 cards while at 3 life to stabilize, but when he saw Worship, he conceded. I finished with 25 life.

Queue 3 - Champion!

Round 1 - Mono-Blue Tron - (Game 1) I have an unimpressive attack with a couple of unimpressive fliers. I also waste a turn 1 Needle on Shackles (because the risk is too great if he is MUC). But he complements this with an equally unimpressive follow-up. He counters Jitte, but Anthem and a second Needle set on his opposing Oblivion Stone ensure victory. (Game 2) He has a first turn Sun Droplet, counters 2 Skyhunters (I suspecteded he would, but I needed to bait him, if ever Matrix came online). Yet, he's staring at my other 4 fliers with 2 life on turn 5 - thanks Anthem! He concedes.

Round 2 - Tooth and Nail - (Game 1) Despite 5 lands and 2 useless Mox, a Hawk and a Skyhunter equipped with Bonesplitter and Jitte deal the 20 on turn 5 unmolested. (Game 2) I have an opening hand Matrix, but he stalls on one Urza's land which is slow enough to let me play Skirimisher + Bonesplitter first. Anthem and other fliers easily overcome Sun Droplet and 2 Vine Trellis.

Round 3 - Medium/Big Red - (Game 1) First turn Kami, 2^nd turn Bonesplitter for 3, 3^rd turn Anthem for 4, and my Skyhunters come out a lot safer on turn 4. I stall out with him at 3 life, taking a little damage in the meanwhile, but double Splitter on Auriok Champion finishes things. (Game 2) I have to double mulligan, and take a ton of damage, lots more than 20, but I remember something about Auriok Champion with Worship being helpful.

Standard Premier Event (569189) - Semifinals

Round 1 - Medium/Big Red - (Game 1) I have some early flood, but a Champ takes the day when a Gift finds me a Jitte. My opponent made the mistake of attacking with Nexus, letting Champ live with Jitte counters. (Game 2) Here, I show off a first turn Champion. He plays an early Choker, but my life-game and board control should favor me. Sure enough, Anthem + Matrix secures things: I continue to gain life, peck in the skies, and his own Choker makes short work of him.

Round 2 - Tooth and Nail - (Game 1) I got the 4^th turn kill (going first) via Gift for Jitte, Mox for turn 2 Skirmisher, turn 3 equip and attack. He was helpless. (Game 2) He double-mulliganed, and his turn 3 Stone was nullified by my Needle. Skyhunter, Skirmisher, and Anthem did a number on him in the air. I could have killed him a turn earlier, but elected to delay Anthem to play out a Ghost, protecting my Needle in case he had artifact hate. I won the next turn.

Round 3 - White Weenie (Damping) (Game 1) He's playing a bad form of the Mirror, but he has Matrix main on turn 3, after my turn 2 Jitte. His 8 creatures look at my 6, and we both know whoever draws Anthem first wins. His Hound and Retainer did some damage to me, but my two Auriok Champions gained like 20 life. Finally I found Anthem on turn 14. I won three turns later, but I was lucky: the deck percentages were in his favor despite his bad build of Retainers and Alarms. (Game 2): He plays third turn Matrix again, but I have Anthem coming. He plays 4^th turn Story Circle. Still my 7 fliers and colorless Nexus are able to overwhelm it. Luckily, Skirimisher deals damage twice per turn, an extra activation of the Circle.

Round 4 - Mono-Green Weenie I was playing against a clan mate whose concentration was less than perfect as he was also playing in a limited tournament at the same time. (Game 1) I won the Jitte War thanks to Gift. I was able to successfully chump block his Troll and Sword three times in a row while I piled on the damage in the air. (Game 2) This was looking close until he made a huge mistake by tapping his Bird to play Iwamori and consecutive Beacons. It was going to be a damage calculation game that I think I was barely winning when the tapped Bird suddenly meant he no longer had a chump blocker for damage through the air.

Round 5 - Tooth and Nail (Game 1) With a mulligan, he succeeds in casting 3 BoPs, 2 Elders, and playing Forests. Then on turn 5, with no cards in hand, at 7 life, and facing my huge army, he topdecks a Tooth with exactly 9 mana for Angel and Witness for the repeat. I drop him to 1, and pray for Jitte. He Tooths this time for Duplicant and Witness, and it's all over. (Game 2) He plays 2 Droplets early. His 4^th turn with two Urza lands in play, he casts Scrying for a third Forest!?! My fifth turn I have to decide between Jitte on skirmisher or Needle. Uncomfortably I go for Jitte, having no clue what to Needle. He Shamans my Jitte, but doesn't play the third piece of Tron, I gift into another Jitte and equip. It's apparently enough for him to concede. Did he not have the full Urzatron? (Game 3) I have to mulligan a triple Mox, getting a solid, but less than stellar hand of Ghost, 2 Skirimishers, and lands. He has turn 1 top, but plays both Birds and Mox next? This time he has turn 3 Tron with Sword of Fire and Ice, which I can fortunately Grasp, but his topdecks are 3 deep with Top. Turn 4 Tooth retrieves Colossus and Kiki for the win. Darn, now a Damping version of WW is actually 5-0 ahead of mine!

Round 6 - Medium/Big Red (Game 1) Turn. 2. Slogger. (Game 2) Turn-3 Slogger faced Champion; I had Matrix out quickly, but he had Shatter. But I topdeck another Matrix, minimizing damage until hopefully Worship shows up. On Turn 11, that happens, and he immediately concedes, tough I duly note his two Sloger activations show 2 Swords of Fire and Ice which is critical knowledge for the next game. (Game 3) I keep a one-land hand with Champion. I get my 2^nd-land turn 4. On turn 9 I play Worship, but he does have at least a couple of Swords somewhere in his library. Turn 13 is Damping which means he must also get Shatter first, but I'm at 1 life. On turn 43 I get my first Anthem, on turn 45 I get my second, and my Champs can finally attack in safety for the victory. Worship + Champion is crazy. Another point in Worship's favor over CoP: Red is that I would have timed out had I had to activate the Circle that many times (not that his Nexus wouldn't have killed me first). Oh well, Damping Weenie is now 6-0.

Round 7 - Mono-Red Aggro At 6-1 and good breaks we can comfortably draw into the top 8 and qualify for the IPA. 19 points: Damping White Weenie; 18 points: Beacon Green; 17 points: Tooth and Nail, Mono-Blue Tron; 16 points: Mono-Blue Control, White Weenie Skies, Mono-Red Aggro, Flores Red

Round 8 - Mono-Blue Tron (Game 1) I come out a little slow. He counters one Skirmisher, but I still would have beaten him had he not Leaked a 5^th turn Anthem. Turn 6 Triskelion followed by Oblivion Stone was too much. He found the Reclaimer for the Lock. (Game 2) I have four fliers backed up by Anthem deal 20 effortlessly thanks to a second turn Matrix, though he did cast double Droplet early. (Game 3) Again he has double Droplet. I have a few fliers, but a turn-1 Jitte is hit by Truth then Annul. But my I dump 2 Needles right before he gets Tron, naming Stone and Triskelion. My Needles were already set correctly, as he immediately play Stone and Triskelion. I'm only dealing 2 a turn net with 4 fliers because of the Droplets. He finds Fabricate, gets the Staff of Domination which meets my third and final Needle. My topdecking skills are better than his, because Jitte on Skirmisher ends the game in two more turns.

Round 9 - Flores-Red (Game 1) He beat the other WW version in the previous round. I keep an o.k. hand, thinking I might sneak an easy one with Bonesplitter on Champ for 3. But 4^th turn Simulacrum returns me to reality. He's spinning the Top like crazy. I force a couple of Slogger activations as I get him to 3 life, but he finally finds Pulse on turn 10 for the 18 point damage swing (Game 2) This was pretty funny. I end up winning around turn 8 with 2 lands and three other permanents which are a Kami and a Jitte. The final key was setting my one Needle on Blinkmoth Nexus which he thought was going to chump block my Jitte the first time. Once it gets counters Jitte keeps going and going and going. (Game 3) I kept a 1-land hand and stall on it for 4 turns before my second Plains arrives. I am able to somewhat stabilize the board on turn 8 after an Anthem cleared the way for my 2-toughness creatures. But that's the turn that sees me go from 14 to 0 once again with Blast and Slogger activations. The next turn I would have come close to sealing it with my own Jitte activations, and three more cards down was the Worship I needed! Oh, the groans! I suppose I should bring in Matrix from the board to stop Slogger, but it doesn't stop much else.

Oh well, I had a good time - I can look forward to the IPA championships now. Not bad for today...13-2-1 in matchups against good opposition. I only lost to some crazy Tooth situations and a Flores Red matchup that could have easily gone my way. My deck was sufficiently fast, it won the Jitte war, the maindeck Champ was constantly useful, and the anti-control elements played smoothly enough.

Conclusion (and a little bonus)
Final Thoughts
Most of the popular archetypes could kill WW if they wanted. For example, Matrix shuts down Kiki-Jiki and Triskelion against Tooth giving you time to sneak in damage post-Tooth. However, if they ran the "outdated" Abunas + Angel combo, we'd have to immediately concede. Thankfully the diversity in Standard keeps decks from honing in. WW has no horrible matchups due to its speed and evasion, yet none are particularly easy either.

At the end of the day, the decks that placed in their Regional Top 8s were the ones that cheated on lands. They probably got draws they had no right to expect. However, it is important for this deck to push the envelope, especially since the mana curve lets WW soak up the consequences better than, say, a Tooth deck that stalls on 1-2 lands.

The deck is remarkably easy to play because of the lack of interaction. Sometimes you have to measure up an opponent's ability to use mass-destruction spells, but normally straightforward attacking is all that is required. The challenge is more in making the correct build, both main and side, but hopefully this article has helped you out a lot there.

Changes to the Decklist
Would I make any changes to the deck? Well, I didn't face any Black in the PE, but more than that, there was only one mono-Black deck in the whole tournament. Paladin replacing Hand of Honor in the sideboard will be huge. With regards to the Pteron Ghost, its sacking ability was only needed once, but only once would I have done extra damage if it had been an extra Suntail Hawk. In no game did I wish they were Hounds. I think my anti-Sword of Fire and Ice prediction was correct: Jitte or an occasional Bonesplitter was all I wanted with my searches against the red and blue decks. The easiest replacement however is to up the relevance of the Spawning Pit sideboard spot by making it an equipment and thus searchable by Gift. My gut says Grafted Wargear (the drawback is much less dangerous with 4 Pteron Ghost), but the Sword of Fire and Ice is well worth it as well. Both get in if I substitute one maindeck Bonesplitter for either. This is the direction my next testing will take.

The other idea playing in the back of my head is to thumb my nose at synergy, and to simply substitute the three Needles for 3 Damping Matrix (with a 4^th in the board). My hypothesis is that if I draw Matrix and have Jitte, I then simply calculate if Jitte can win on its own. If it can, that Matrix could just be any other card in my deck and it won't really matter. Instead, if Matrix will hose my opponent for a sufficient amount of turns that my fliers will deal enough damage (and that Jitte would just be overkill), then I will play Matrix. Hopefully with Bonesplitter (and Wargear/Sword) I can equip before Matrix and enjoy the fruits of both. It's risky (typical cost would be 1-2 dead cards in hand), but the total power of both cards may make it the best build in the end. From the sideboard I will sometimes even have a Terashi's Grasp to shatter my own Matrix during a critical turn to equip and win.

Finally, a little bonus. Here is a decklist for the Toolbox deck described earlier. It is extremely fun to play tossing Jittes and Greaves around at instant speed, with many other combos, as well. No commentary, just have fun.

Send comments to bbentrup@hotmail.com. Thanks for all your patience. Ben Bentrup

White Weenie Toolbox
Mana Sources (23)
14 Plains
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Aether Vial

Creatures (20 +4)
{4 Blinkmoth Nexus}
2 Auriok Bladewarden
4 Auriok Steelshaper
3 Leonin Shikari
4 Leonin Skyhunter
2 Master Decoy
1 Intrepid Hero
4 Skyhunter Skirmisher

Disruption (4)
4 Pithing Needle

Offensive Spells (12)
4 Steelshaper's Gift
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Bonesplitter
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 O-Naginata
1 Mask of Memory

Sideboard (15)
4 Terashi's Grasp (only if Matrix seen)
4 Auriok Champion
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Eight-and-a-Half Tails
1 Leonin Shikari