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In The End, There
Will Only Be Cockroaches and
White Weenies
Matt Ladwig is one of our newest
writers here at Pojo. His specialty is Magic
deck history.
Feel free to e-mail him at KainTheCursed@Hotmail.com. If the title is any indication, today's lesson is on White weenies. As long as Magic has been around, there has always been a white weenie deck. In tournament play, however, the deck seems to make an appearance in a different form every year. It's also worth noting that White Weenie hasn't usually dominated, it has rather acted as a foil deck to the metagame at the time. Only recently has the deck become a major force in tournaments. Ok, enough idle chat, on to the deck! As I said before, White Weenie has been around in some form or another since the beginning of Magic, but it didn't make a true impact until the World Championships in 1996. Tom Chanpheng played a white weenie deck designed to beat the rampant Necropotence decks to become the 1996 World Champion. One thing that struck a lot of players as odd was the lack of Crusades in the deck. Even without the Crusades, Champheng still won the tournament, beating Mark Justice in the finals. White weenie World Championships 1996 2x Phyrexian War Beast 11x Plains (note, in the actual tournament, Chanpheng mislabeled the Adarkar Wastes as Plains, and had to play them as Plains for the entire tournament) There was also another White Weenie deck played at Worlds that year, during the type1.5 portion of the tournament. Scott Johns played it to a first place finish during that time, and it is similar to the current extended White Weenie deck PT Jank. Star Spangled Slaughter World Championships 1996 4x Order of Leitbur 6x Plains During the 1996/97 Pro Tour season, White Weenie went pretty much unplayed, as there were many better deck options available. During the 1997/98 season, however, there were two types of creatures printed that made White Weenie viable again. The first was shadow creatures, such as Soltari Priest and Monk. The second type was the En-Kors, which allowed them to redirect damage from burn spells to a protection from red creature. This ability was important as Sligh was the dominant decktype during this time.. Matt Linde won the US Nationals with a White Weenie deck, beating Mike Long in the finals. Brian Hacker played the deck card for card to a top eight finish at the 1998 World Championships. White weenie 1998 US Nationals and World Championships 3x Nomads En-Kor During the 1998/99 Pro Tour season, (I told you this deck's history jumps a lot) White Weenie made its presence felt by placing 2 people in the top eight and Kyle Rose won the Championship playing a White Weenie deck. Kyle Rose's White Weenie US Nationals 1999 CREATURES (26) SPELLS (14) LAND (20) SIDEBOARD Stephen McArthur's White Weenie US Nationals 1999 CREATURES (24) SPELLS (16) LAND (20) SIDEBOARD Now we jump forward to the 1999/2000 Pro Tour season, where White Weenie made its mark at Pro Tour New York. The format for this Pro Tour was Masques Block Constructed, and Rebel decks (a version of White Weenie) was by far the most popular decktype. Fifty five percent of the decks played at Pro Tour New York were Rebel, and six out of the eight decks in the top eight were Rebel. The best finishing Rebel deck was Warren Marsh's, who lost in the finals to Sigurd Eskeland's Rising Waters deck. Rebel White Weenie Pro Tour New York 2000 1x Jhovall Queen 22x Plains Sideboard 4x Defender En-Vec Then at the US Nationals that year, Elliot Fung placed in the top 8 playing Rebel. Elliot Fung's Type2 Rebel 2000 US Nationals 4x Fresh Volunteers 19x Plains Sideboard 1x Absolute Law White Weenie reached the peak of its popularity at Pro Tour Chicago 2000. The top two decks were both Rebel decks, with Pro Tour winner Kai Budde playing a White Rebel deck with a small splash of Green for Wax/Wane. Kai Budde's Rebel Pro Tour Chicago 2000 16x Plains 4x Ramosian Sergeant Sideboard 4x Armageddon The second place deck was a blue/white control deck that ran Rebels as a kill mechanism. Kamiel Cornelissen played the deck to a second place finish. Kamiel Cornelissen's Counter Rebel Pro Tour Chicago 2000 10x Island Sideboard 3x Prohibit At Nationals this year, however, Rebel decks were metagamed against, and no Rebel deck did well. Michael Turian, who was in compition for top eight at the beginning of the type two portion of the tournament, bombed with a mono-white Rebel deck. Michael Turian's Rebel US Nationals 2001 21x Plains 4x Rishadan Port 4x Ramosian Port 4x Ramosian Sergeant 2x Defiant Falcon 1x Ramosian Lieutenant 4x Longbow Archer 4x Steadfast Guard 2x Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero 1x Defiant Vanguard 4x Voice of All 4x Disenchant 3x Glorious Anthem 2x Chimeric Idol 4x Parallax Wave Sideboard 4x Wrath of God 1x Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero 2x Defiant Vanguard 1x Lightbringer 2x Defender En-Vec 1x Circle of Protection: Red 2x Seal of Cleansing 1x Rebel Informer There was also a version of the white/green Rebel deck played by several Midwestern players, including my playtest teammates Chris Krasen and Will Brinkman (even though Krasen was playing in the JSS championships). The deck was solid, but my playtest group's last minute sideboard tech of Liberate wasn't used, which cost them dearly, as Tsabo's Decree was either maindecked or sideboarded in every deck that had black in it. Several players even splashed black in their mono-blue decks just to use Decree. Oh well, you live, you learn. Will Brinkman's Rebel US Nationals 2001 17x Plains 4x Brushland 4x Rishadan Port 4x Ramosian Sergeant 3x Defiant Falcon 2x Steadfast Guard 2x Defiant Vanguard 4x Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero 1x Thermal Glider 1x Rebel Informer 1x Ramosian Sky Marshal 4x Parallax Wave 3x Wax/Wane 3x Wrath of God 3x Last Breath 2x Disenchant 2x Chimeric Idol Sideboard 3x Glorious Anthem 3x Reverant Mantra 2x Mageta the Lion 2x Chimeric Idol 1x Disenchant 1x Lightbringer 1x Last Breath 1x Wrath of God 1x Nightwind Glider That's all for today, but I think I might do a short revisit to this decktype if it does well at Worlds this year. Till next time. Matt "Hydramon" Ladwig *Thanks to Miguel Caron for the title Be sure to join us next wednesday when I cover two decktypes, Replentish and Bargain Matt Ladwig is one
of our newest writers here at Pojo. His specialty
is Magic deck history. |