When I first started looking for a deck to play at States, I was really frustrated because it seemed like Kamigawa didn't contribute enough to the metagame. States was going to be more of Mirrodin Block Constructed! Reluctantly, I settled on Mono-Red Beatdown with a pretty low mana curve.
While the deck handily dealt with any control and non-Affinity aggro decks, it just couldn't get a winning percentage against Arcbound Ravager. The obvious choice was to make the deck more controllish and add Arc-Sloggers, but that would make it too much like Big Red, and I really didn't feel like playing a deck that lots of people were likely to play.
Meanwhile, my online friend Jamie Jensen (a.k.a. TeckGecko) had just regained access to a computer and started emailing me ideas for a White Weenie deck. Being a big fan of the archetype myself, I started working on it as well. At this point, I was still planning on playing the red deck due to a lack of anything better - but things were about to change.
One of the biggest things that attracted me to the deck was that it had real potential against Affinity with the addition of Samurai of the Pale Curtain. In the words of Philip Stanton and Anthony Sculimbrene, it is additionally "infinitely more subtle (and hence more interesting)" than a card like Imi Statue. Whenever I drew a Samurai against Affinity, my opponent seemed completely paralyzed and I would be able to beat him down.... But when I didn't, I usually lost. Here is what an early build looked like:
WW - Early Version
Maindeck
4 Savannah Lions
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Auriok Champion
4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
4 Leonin Skyhunter
3 Raise the Alarm
4 Bonesplitter
4 Glorious Anthem
3 Otherworldly Journey
3 Pacifism
3 Reciprocate
19 Plains
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Eiganjo Castle
Sideboard
4 Specter's Shroud
4 Purge
3 Ghostly Prison
3 Skyhunter Skirmisher
1 Otherworldly Journey
White Weenie's past successes were based on evasion creatures (Protection / Shadow), ways of generating card advantage (Cursed Scroll / Rebels) or powerful finishers (Armageddon / Cataclysm / Waylay). The current environment didn't seem to offer much to support the latter strategies, so Jamie and I quickly realized that evasion in the form of flying, especially with its lack in the format, would be crucial to the deck's success. Four Suntail Hawks and four Lantern Kamis were thusly added. As a corollary, we realized that Savannah Lions were really bad with "Ha ha, dead elf," Solemn Simulacrum and Affinity in the environment.
Another general rule we used to build the deck was to minimize on the artifacts, and therefore minimize exposure to splash damage. This meant that the equipment toolbox strategy was out, and so were the equipment-reliant Skyhunter Skirmishers. The last constraint that I decided on was that there would be no splashing other colors. Without painlands or sac/search lands, it was impossible to splash without significantly slowing the deck down and/or diluting it by removing many of the W or WW costed cards that made the deck powerful.
At this point, the deck was doing fairly against Affinity and other decks that did not contain Tooth and Nail. Mono-Blue Control and Krark-Clan Ironworks were horrible matchups as well, but I didn't expect to face them as much as T&N. Once that card resolved, it was game over (assuming they got either the Mephidross Vampire/Triskelion or Platinum Angel/Leonin Abunas combo).
I must have spent hours upon hours combing through the list of legal white cards and, to a lesser extent, artifacts in search of a "silver bullet"-type solution to Tooth and Nail. While I found no magic bullets, there were still two types of potential answers: Those that helped kill the opponent before they played the big sorcery, and those that helped afterward. Jamie insisted that proactive solutions were superior (he was correct), but in the meantime I continued the search for a card fitting both categories.
Eventually, I decided upon Stasis Cocoon. It seemed to be the flexible solution I was looking for; it prevented the following Solemn Simulacrum from blocking, a Talisman from providing much-needed green mana, Oblivion Stone from resetting my board, Mindslaver from buying the opponent time - and, finally, if the MephiTrisk combo resolved, I could Cocoon the Triskelion and hope to rebuild my army before losing to the Vampire or other fatties.
It wasn't perfect (I still had no answer to Angel/Abunas), but it was the best I could come up with. The Cocoon also had the pleasant side effect of dealing with Vedalken Shackles and slowing down KCI.
Another noteworthy card, Otherworldly Journey, proved to be excellent against removal and flexible enough to be included in the maindeck because it could get rid of blockers for a turn. It was eventually moved to the sideboard, though, to make way for another card - while another utility card, Reciprocate, was removed from the deck completely.
Reciprocate was originally there to help against Tooth & Nail, but Jamie decided it should be taken out because smart players could play around it. I objected, pointing out this was States we were talking about - but nevertheless, it was the correct decision. Reciprocate was also mediocre against Affinity, as it was useless against Cranial Plating.
One night, after a dozen matches of testing, the results were somewhat poor. The deck just seemed too inconsistent. I had thought increasing the threat count might improve the T&N matchup, so I trimmed the mana sources down to a mere twenty - but now I was mulliganing too often. I was also stalling out a lot with the opponent at a low life, so Jamie suggested replacing Isamaru with Blinkmoth Nexus for more evasion. This had the pleasant effect of giving me more mana sources while keeping up the number of creatures - but also meant reducing the number of one-drops, which hurt.
There is one problem with testing too much against Affinity - after losing enough to their god draws I started filling my deck with hate cards which weren't particularly useful in other matchups. I moved a sideboard card, Awe Strike, to the maindeck. It was a great tempo card, often affording me the time to race Ravager, but I seemed to sideboard it out for almost every other matchup. For a tournament like States, this was a bad sign, and I moved the Isamarus from the sideboard (which were moved there for the control matchup) back to the maindeck and the Awe Strikes back to the sideboard.
Pacifism was the last card remaining in the maindeck to be cut, which happened about a week before the tournament. I was still having trouble winning the race against Tooth and Nail, but had recently worked a card into the sideboard that I remembered seeing play in a really fast WW deck shortly after Mirrodin came out: Roar of the Kha. I kept bringing it in against T&N and control decks without much removal and finally moved them to the maindeck, replacing the Pacifisms. They gave me Glorious Anthems 5-7 (the eighth remained in the sideboard) and often decreased the turns needed to kill T&N.
I moved the Pacifisms to the sideboard - but they ended up being replaced by Arrests, which help against Meloku, Arc-Slogger, Kumano, and Triskelion. Arrest might also be useful against a random Kiki-Alarm deck.
Two more cards in the maindeck need to be talked about, because I've seen a lot of builds without them: Auriok Champion and Raise the Alarm. Both of these are very important against Affinity. The lifegain from the Champion gives you just enough time to race them, and she can block Atogs and Moriok Riggers all day long. Raise the Alarm works wonders at chump-blocking their Ravagers and Enforcers, is great with the Crusade effects, and gives me two life per Champion in play.
A few days before States, Magic-League ran an online tourney, and both Jamie and I entered. Unfortunately, I had to leave after the first round (which I won), but Jamie went on to win the whole thing, 6-0. This was a huge inspiration for me - but worrisome at the same time, because I was afraid that the tech would be out of the bag. My maindeck at States was the same as in Jamie's winning deck, while my sideboard had significant differences.
First of all, we found that Ethereal Haze was superior to Awe Strike. When used on an artifact creature, the opponent can simply sacrifice it to a Ravager or Atog while combat damage is on the stack, stopping me from gaining any life and damage from being prevented. Awe Strike wasn't all bad, of course; it remained useful versus Atog or Somber Hoverguard. The Haze has other benefits, though; it's useful against Rude Awakening, Beacon of Creation, and Myr Incubator.
The other change to the sideboard was putting Purges back in. Stasis Cocoons originally replaced them, but Disciple of the Vault was a problem when I didn't draw a Samurai - so I made the switch back. I ended up regretting this later on.
I was also very uncomfortable with my complete helplessness in the face of a resolved Tooth and Nail, so I considered putting Wrath of God in the sideboard against both of the deadly combos. This would dilute my sideboard, though, because I didn't foresee siding in Wraths against anything else aside from the mirror. I decided to eschew "The Fear" and just hope not to face too many T&N decks.
After a lot of flux, this is what I ended up playing:
White Weenie
Maindeck
4 Suntail Hawk
4 Lantern Kami
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Auriok Champion
4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Bonesplitter
4 Glorious Anthem
3 Roar of the Kha
2 Chrome Mox
16 Plains
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Eiganjo Castle
Sideboard
4 Otherworldly Journey
4 Purge
3 Ethereal Haze
3 Arrest
1 Roar of the Kha
One last note: I noticed a serious lack of articles about White Weenie before States. The only notable article was by Ben Stark, but he relied on an Equipment Toolbox, which I already dismissed as an inferior approach. There were plenty of articles on B/G, U/G and other seemingly second tier decks, so my original plan was to write my own article, praise White Weenie's strengths, whine about its incompetence in the face of big sorceries, and ultimately play the red deck at States. But somewhere along the line, my mind changed and my faith in the archetype's viability was renewed. I was going to play the deck and, win or lose, write a tournament report...
So here it is.
There were 133 people attending Maryland States this year, with eight rounds and a cut to the Top 8. I was planning on taking notes and writing down people's names, but you know how that works out. I had to go back and scribble notes next to life totals for each round from memory.
Round 1: Adam playing Mox Affinity
Adam is a good guy who goes to my university, so I knew what he was playing.
Game 1: I get off to a fast start with a bunch of flyers and roll him over before he can recover (this is actually an accurate description of about 80% of my victories). I keep myself alive with Champions and Samurais.
SB:
-3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
-3 Roar of the Kha
-1 Hawk
+4 Purge
+3 Ethereal Haze
Game 2: He sides in Terror and tries to kill a Champion - but I remind him that it has Protection from Black. I play my other creatures before playing the Samurai to bait the Terror, and it works. But then I stop drawing good cards while he keeps drawing artifacts and making his Ravager bigger. I draw none of my sideboard and lose.
Game 3: Same as game 2, except this time he also sides in Electrostatic Bolt.
I'm really mad because most decks that beat Affinity game 1 usually go on to win the match. This is also a reality check about shuffling more - playing with real cards is a lot different than playing on Apprentice. After looking through the deck after the match, I see that all of my sideboard cards were pretty close together. My friend, Ilya (playing U/G) who I came with, also lost the first match and tells me that we are going to rip up the loser's bracket.
Round 2: Russell playing Mono Blue Control
Another opponent, another fellow college student. Worse was that I knew what he was playing, and at 0-1 this spelled doom for me. Russell played MUC with Bottle Gnomes and Skullclamps last year at States, and was doing it again (sans Skullclamp).
Game 1: I get off to a nice start, but he curbs it right away with double Echoing Truth and double Vedalken Shackles. I scoop.
SB:
-4 Auriok Champion
-1 Suntail Hawk
-1 Lantern Kami
+4 Otherworldly Journey
+2 Arrest
Game 2: He draws another pair of Truths, and which keeps him alive against my horde of weenies. Finally he draws Shackles and then Keiga, but it becomes a stalemate due to his low life. Eventually, I cast Raise the Alarm at the end of his turn, and he has no counters left. When I attack with the Soldiers, he taps two Islands to signal a third Truth... But then he just smiles and scoops.
Game 3: He accidentally reveals a Keiga to me on the first turn, and I decide to hold the Arrest in my hand for it. I put a lot of pressure on him with weenies, but he slows me down with Spire Golem. When he skips his next land drop at 4 lands, I hesitantly decide to Arrest the Golem. He stabilizes at one life a few turns later with Shackles. After I play Blinkmoth Nexus, he forgets to untap the Shackles and I fly over "his" Isamaru for the win.
I'm 1-1, but I feel more like 5-1. Beating Shackles is like climbing Mount Improbable. I do feel slightly bad about beating Russell, who is a really nice guy.
Round 3: John playing R/G/u Land Destruction
Finally - someone I've never seen before in my life! The blue was for Gifts Ungiven, as I came to find out.
Game 1: I play a pair of Skyhunters and he responds by playing and activating Engineered Explosives for two on the third turn with the help of a Birds of Paradise. Then he starts working on my land. I stall completely in the face of a pair of Plow Unders and he finishes me off with a couple of Molder Slugs.
SB:
-3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
-4 Bonesplitter
+4 Otherworldly Journey
+3 Arrest
Game 2: I keep a hand of four Plains and three Raise the Alarm. I play them one at a time to make sure Explosives or Pyroclasm doesn't wipe them out. After I have six in play, I draw a Roar and swing for fourteen, including my Nexus. That's game.
Game 3: I get off to a quick start with flyers. He casts Gifts Ungiven, and this is where he makes a mistake: He searches out Plow Under, Pyroclasm, Kumano and Rude Awakening (he only had about five mana at that point). He definitely should have replaced the Plow Under and Rude Awakening with a Magma Jet and Trinisphere, which seemed to slow me down a bit in the last game.
As it was, I let him keep the two green cards. He cast Eternal Witness next turn, getting back Pyroclasm, but I'm ready for it with a Journey. I finished him off soon after. He lamented that he should've gotten back the Kumano with the Witness.
I'm 2-1 and feeling good.
Round 4: Brentley, playing Mox Affinity
It seemed like Brentley hadn't been playing with this deck for long, because he was making inferior plays - like sacrificing artifacts to the Ravager before attacking.
Game 1: He sacrifices most of his board to his Ravager, and then sacrifices the Ravager to itself to put five counters on his Ornithopter and starts beating me down. Meanwhile, I just attacked him with impunity, because he has no blockers at all. When the time comes, I start chumping the Ornithopter until he can no longer attack me with it or he would die. Soon I draw more creatures and overrun him.
SB:
-3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
-3 Roar of the Kha
-1 Hawk
+4 Purge
+3 Ethereal Haze
Game 2: Brentley's deck was the version with lots of zero casting-cost artifacts; it's great when it works, but when it fizzles, it really fizzles. He had lots of Welding Jars and Ornithopters and just a single Enforcer. I had two Champions in play, so I easily raced him with Bonesplittered flyers.
I'm 3-1 now, but still feeling annoyed for losing the first match.
Round 5: Benjamin playing Mox Affinity
My third Affinity match of the day! Well, at least no Tooth & Nail yet.
Game 1: I cast two Champions in my first two turns and then a Samurai. I beat him down with flyers. He mentions something about my deck owning Affinity.
SB:
-3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
-3 Roar of the Kha
-1 Hawk
+4 Purge
+3 Ethereal Haze
Game 2: Ben riskily keeps a one-land hand. He draws a land two turns later, and casts Cranial Plating (with a Welding Jar out) and a couple of Frogmites, which explains why he kept the hand - but by that time, I'm controlling the tempo. I Purge the Plated Frogmite and swing, bringing him down to five. After he equips his other Frogmite, I wait until I draw a flyer and finish him off.
I'm 4-1 and need at least two more match wins to Top 8.
Round 6: Semion playing Vial Affinity
I remember Semion from last year's States, when we both Top'8ed with Broodstar affinity. This time he is playing the Ravager variety, my fourth match of the day. I've seen him referred to as "a machine" in the past, so I was worried.
Game 1: Here is when I really miss those Cocoons. He plays a whole bunch of Workers and Frogmites with a Plating out and ends up slowrolling me by equipping, attacking, and equipping a blocker. Also, it didn't help that the only flyer I drew was killed by a maindeck Electrostatic Bolt (a great metagame choice against Samurai, Horobi, and the mirror). Seimon complains at my slow play, but to me it like he played as slow at times and was just trying to pressure me when I was in a dire situation.
SB:
-3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
-3 Roar of the Kha
-1 Hawk
+4 Purge
+3 Ethereal Haze
Game 2: Seimon calls a judge to watch my "slow play" at this point. This is a pure race, which I end up winning due to drawing more creatures. He hits me twice with a Plated creature, but that was about it. I also take this opportunity to point out to the fact that Semion isn't exactly pacing himself, either. Normally, I'd never do something like this, but... He started it!
Game 3: This game was definitely the highlight of the match (and probably my day). I have two Soldier tokens, two Lantern Kamis, and an Anthem in play, while he has a Frogmite, Ravager, and a Nexus with enough mana to pump itself. I attack with all four of my guys and he blocks one of my Kamis with the Nexus, blocking the Soldiers with the Frog and Ravager. He pumps his Nexus and sacrifices a couple of lands to the Ravager before damage went on stack. After damage goes on stack, he sacrifices the Nexus and Frogmite to the Ravager.
I respond to the last sacrifice by casting... Ethereal Haze. This leaves all my creatures alive, while most of his are already dead. Then I Purge his Ravager, and his board is cleared except for a land and another Nexus (he was tapped out and couldn't activate the Nexus to move the counters from the Ravager to it). Two turns, later he scoops.
I have to give Semion a lot of credit. He is one cool player - anyone else in his situation might have freaked out when the Haze/Purge hit, but he showed no emotion whatsoever.
I'm now 5-1 and riding the awesome high from the last game.
Round 7: David or Nick playing Mono-Green Beacon
I can't remember if his name was David or Nick - I wrote down "Nick," but Ilya tells me his name was David, so that's what I will call him from here on.
I didn't see Blasting Station or Fecundity, but I did see Echoing Courage and Coat of Arms. David was playing a match next to me in round 5, but I was concentrating on my match and I couldn't remember what he was playing. He, on the other hand, knows what I'm playing and tells me that he is playing Black Control. When he sees that I caught a glance of his Forest when he was shuffling, he tells me that he is playing B/G.
Game 1: I play out lots of flyers and Bonesplitters and bash face. Surprisingly, he has no answers for the 'Splitters. Meanwhile, he is landsearching for nothing but Forests. I ask him if the Swamps are coming. Nick assures me that they are. He can't stop my flyers.
I still have no idea what he is playing. I'm pretty sure he is bluffing about playing black - but is he playing Tooth & Nail or something else? I board in for that matchup.
SB:
-4 Auriok Champion
+3 Arrest
+1 Roar of the Kha
Game 2: In the middle of this game, Ilya comes over and asks loudly what the game count is, and I tell him. David tells Ilya to "Go away please, we are trying to play." He searches out lots of forests and Beacon of Creations for seven. Next turn he attacks me with them, I block 2, and he casts Echoing Courage. I was under 15 life, so I die. Still no swamps.
SB: -3 Arrest +3 Ethereal Haze
Game 3: Ilya comes back to watch, this time from David's side, so he wouldn't see him. He still sees him, somehow, and calls the judge to complain that Ilya is bothering him. Truthfully, this time Ilya was just standing there, completely silent and not doing anything... But the judge had no choice but to tell him he couldn't watch.
I get my patented explosive start with a bunch of flyers and Anthem. He just can't kill me fast enough, and he has practically no defense. He does cast Beacon and his next draw would have been Coat of Arms. He says "no" when I ask him if he plays black.
I find Ilya steaming at what happened, so he was happy when I told him that I beat David. Later, Ilya tells me that David apologized, so it was hard for him to be mad at him anymore. David also wishes me luck after the match and tells me to win the tournament.
At this point, there were quite a few people who've heard that White Weenie was causing havoc at the top tables, so I had people coming up and asking me questions about the deck here and there. I've talked to some other people playing WW and compared our decks. There was a controllish version with Solar Tide and a couple of Equipment toolbox variants.
I'm now 6-1 and can draw into the Top 8.
Round 8: Craig playing U/G
I've never drawn before at a big tournament, so I wasn't sure about the etiquette. Fortunately, Craig just asked me if I wanted to draw and I happily complied.
I'm 6-1-1. Top 8, baby! It consists of 2 U/G, G/b Beacon, G/w control, Big Red, KCI, T&N and me. That's right - no Ravagers in the Top 8. I know I did my part, beating three of them.
Quarterfinals: Jim playing Mono-Green Tooth and Nail w/Cloudpost
I knew I couldn't avoid it all day long; here's where my ride would end. As soon as Jim saw what I was playing, he said that this was a real tough matchup for him in testing. I exchanged looks with Ilya, who was watching, but didn't say anything.
Game 1: I play flyers, he has no blockers, and I kill him before he casts anything big. Fortunately, the Cloudpost version is significantly slower than Urzatron, which is good for me. I don't see why he is playing Mono-Green, though, since one of the bigger reasons to run Cloudpost is so you can splash.
SB:
-4 Auriok Champion
+3 Arrest
+1 Roar of the Kha
Game 2: Same as game 1. This game, I misrecord the life totals, which happened several times in the Top 8. I attribute this to being hungry and my massive headache. This is, indeed, a marathon.
I've beaten MUC and T&N already. Anything seems possible now!
Semifinals: Jonathan playing G/b Beacon
Jonathan was Semion's friend, who told him everything he knew about my deck, and continued telling him even between the games; the judge actually had to tell him to stop.
Game 1: I get off to a real quick start with flyers and Anthem. He casts Cranial Extraction against me, naming... Ethereal Haze. This happened in the several minutes in which Semion wasn't watching; otherwise, he might have said something. Jonathan said that he isn't really worried about the Hazes, as much as he wants to just look through my deck for the next game, since he doesn't think he can win this one. As it turns out, I have no Hazes maindeck; I finish him off and we go to the next game.
SB:
-4 Auriok Champion
+3 Ethereal Haze
+1 Roar of the Kha
Game 2: I get him down to six before he stabilizes with Beacon. I have no flyers. He casts Rude Awakening with about nine lands and attacks with everything except for three Beacon tokens - but I have the Haze. I attack him, and he has to block with all three tokens to survive. On his turn he casts another Rude Awakening and that's game.
Game 3: I play a bunch of flyers with Anthem and Bonesplitter, but he starts picking off my guys with Echoing Decay and Bonesplitters/Nexuses with Wear Away. I play an Anthem so he can't Decay my remaining Skyhunter, which goes all the way.
This was a very good match, because I wasn't sure what to expect from his deck and I knew I had to rush him before he cast Rude Awakening - but getting past the early game doesn't ensure a loss for me, like it does with Tooth & Nail.
While we were playing, the other semifinal was being played out between U/G with Shackles and KCI. Both were nightmare matchups for me, but U/G won 2-1.
Finals: Sean playing U/G w/Shackles
Sean is a judge and works at DreamWizards, the store that hosts all of the big tournaments in the MD area (including this one). I've played him at the Kamigawa prerelease before, and he is one of the nicer players I've met. He was playing a modified Block Championship deck, with Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kodama's Reach.
Sean offered to split with me - he would give me half of his box and I would concede the title, so the store could proclaim that it has the State champion. Being slightly taken back by the offer, and not completely taking it seriously yet, I asked if he would give me more than half. He asked me to make him an offer. We negotiated a bit more, but then I realized I was wasting time.
I would have no use for the cards besides drafting or selling them, since I barely play with real cards, while winning with White Weenie would be priceless. I knew that I had little chance of winning this match - but then again, I had gotten this far. I was going to play.
Game 1: I rush him with weenies while he tries to stave off death with Viridian Shamans and Witnesses. At this point, I'm pretty sure that I made an error that cost me the game. During one of my alpha strikes (call it a beta strike), my Isamaru got blocked by a Shaman, with Eiganjo Castle still in my hand. The situation in which the Castle would actually be used to prevent damage happened a total of one times in my testing, so I regarded it completely as a Plains. I kept attacking him and brought him down to two. Next turn, he cast Rude Awakening for lethal damage.
SB:
-4 Auriok Champion
-4 Bonesplitter
+3 Ethereal Haze
+1 Roar of the Kha
+4 Otherworldly Journey
I told Sean that I planned to write a report, and he offered to record his sideboarding for me.
Here it is:
-3 Hinder
-1 Oxidize
-1 Forest
+3 Engineered Explosives
+1 Echoing Truth
+1 Plains.
The Plains was just in case he needed to pop Explosives for three.
Game 2: Wow, what a massacre. He brings in Engineered Explosives and starts killing my guys and recursing it with Witness. Then he draws Shackles and I'm completely locked down. Rude Awakening a few turns later seals the game and the match. I feel slightly better about making the error in game 1, seeing as it got significantly worse for me after sideboard and I really had no chance to win the match.
I get second place.
Summary
Affinity and green decks were everywhere. The format is still Ravager vs. Anti-Ravager, with little in between. I played four Affinity decks, two Beacon decks, one MUC, one R/G/u LD, one T&N, one U/G.
I wished I had included Stasis Cocoon, as I could have used it on the Platings and against the two decks with Shackles. A couple of Otherworldly Journeys should have probably been in the maindeck; they are good against Modular and Atogs, and they help out against Shackles. At least a couple of Wraths do belong in the sideboard, because the T&N matchup is bad. The Ethereal Haze was my MVP from the sideboard, while Leonin Skyhunter was the guy I was most happy to see from the maindeck, against the field of green.
This is the deck I would have played, had I to do it over again:
White Weenie - Post States
Maindeck
4 Suntail Hawk
4 Lantern Kami
2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Auriok Champion
4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Bonesplitter
4 Glorious Anthem
2 Roar of the Kha
2 Otherworldly Journey
2 Chrome Mox
16 Plains
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Eiganjo Castle
Sideboard
2 Wrath of God
1 Otherworldly Journey
2 Arrest
3 Stasis Cocoon
2 Purge
3 Ethereal Haze
2 Roar of the Kha
You really need to have no fear when playing this deck. You have be very aggressive and go straight for the throat. I definitely wouldn't recommend playing it in your local metagame if it has lots of T&N or decks with Shackles. If there are lots of Big Red or decks with Meloku, add more Arrests. If more people start playing with enchantments, as the metagame evolves, Kami of Ancient Law might find a place.
A strong possibility is cutting the Bonesplitters from the maindeck, to get rid of almost all of the artifacts, and then put four Grafted Wargears in the sideboard. You can side in against pretty much everything - green decks will side out their artifact removal, most likely, after no equipment Game 1. I would replace the Bonesplitters with another Isamaru, a Nexus and 2 Arrests. Another alternative is putting the Wargears maindeck, moving the Champions to the sideboard and replacing them with Pteron Ghost to protect the 'Gear.
Here is a quick rundown of the major matchups:
Affinity: Hold the ground with non-flyers and beatdown with flyers. Don't be overaggressive, though.
Tooth & Nail: Here, on the other hand, it's impossible to be overaggressive. You must go all out and hope to kill them before they cast T&N or you lose.
Other G/x decks: Same as Tooth & Nail, but this time you can afford to pick your spots in the midgame, since there are no autolose cards against you (even Death Cloud stops being good when they are at low life).
MBC / Big Red: Champions and Journeys are key here. Otherwise, just beat them down.
Unfortunately, it looks like Tooth & Nail is alive and well despite Cranial Extraction - and that's bad news for WW. Hopefully the next two sets in the block will give the deck some tools against it.
Overall, I am really happy with the result. Seeing peoples' reactions to a WW deck having made it this far was great. People were calling me the "White Weenie guy," and one judge said that my success will be the inspiration of White Weenie players everywhere. Looking at the States decklists, I see a dozen sightings of some version of WW in the Top 8, so I won't be the only source of inspiration.
Alex Nastetsky
ktulu- on IRC