Pauper has a thriving selection of second-tier decks to provide options for all play styles. Mono White Heroic is a deck that has been around for a couple of years but received a strong boost from Commander Legends. We're of course talking about Benevolent Blessing. This is a strictly better Ward of Light and gives the deck a very powerful enchantment that doesn't force you into any awkward situations. This deck packs a punch and costs under $25. Today we'll be going through a list we put together, intended for competitive play in the Pauper format.
The entire deck is a fine blend of Heroic creatures, auras to trigger them, and protection spells. Benevolent Blessing is special because it offers permanent protection and works well with Ethereal Armor by being an aura. It also doesn't remove preexisting auras if we grant protection from white, which is what made it replace Ward of Light completely. Heroic Creatures:
Trailblazer is outstanding against aggro decks by giving us a 4 toughness body on turn one. It gets very big, very quickly with +1/+1 counters once we start piling auras. Akroan Skyguard has built-in evasion as a flier and becomes our most dangerous threat. Seeker of the way has Prowess instead of Heroic which means that some of the bonuses it receives are temporary for the turn, but the lifelink comes in clutch against aggressive decks. It's important to note that because of prowess triggering when we cast our auras, this makes Seeker a great companion piece as it will grow alongside the Heroic creatures as we put auras on them. Kor Skyfisher is not a threat per se, but it does bounce back auras for additional Heroic triggers. It can also be a backup threat, as it wears auras well as a flier, so putting some enchantments on it could get the job done in a pinch. Auras:
Cartouche of Solidarity is a featured card in Boggles decks as it helps insolate your side of the board from edict effects by creating a 1/1 token to sacrifice. +1/+1 and first strike for one mana is a fantastic deal and helps speed up our clock, all while making blocking miserable for the opponent. Ethereal Armor is the premier aura for this deck, as it gives us an additional +1/+1 for each enchantment we control. This means even casting a Journey to Nowhere grows our threat. It also gives the creature first strike to help us some more in combat. Lastly, we have Sentinel's Eyes. Granting a creature +1/+1 and vigilance allows us to keep the pressure on while also allowing us to block. However, the true power of the card is the Escape ability. This ensures we don't run out of gas as the game goes on and we can keep triggering heroic. Protection:
Once we stack up our enchantments on a massive threat, we're going to need to protect it from removal. Benevolent Bodyguard sits around, waiting to be sac'd in order to grant protection of any color to a creature in need. We also have Emerge Unscathed, which I do prefer over Karametra's Blessing because of the rebound ability. Rebound allows us to play defense from our hand in response to a removal spell, but then we get aggressive with it when it rebounds on our upkeep. This can flip a game by saving a lethal threat, and then we can swing back unblocked. Sideboard:
Getting into the sideboard we have plenty of options against the broad meta, with us really dunking on Burn specifically. Lifelink is a complete blowout if we connect with it, and Hallow not only effectively counters any burn spell, but it then gains us that much life. We have two Sacred Cats which are great in that match and any deck with heavy amounts of removal. Gut Shot is great at answering cheap creatures, and we have Celestial Flare for matches where the opponent is racing us with one big threat. Double Cleave is to help us end the game quickly against decks that have inevitability. Combo decks come to mind as a good example. To finish up we have a Fragmentize for artifact and enchantment removal, and an extra copy of Journey to Nowhere.
Pauper is a format that I love exploring so we hope to have some spicy homebrews coming soon. Check out the companion video for this article over on our YouTube. Make sure to like, subscribe, and leave a comment to let us know you made it over there. Follow us on Twitch which is where we stream Magic every Monday. Join the Discord to talk all things Magic and follow us on Instagram for updates on everything we're doing. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed the deck. Most importantly, thank you for joining the Fellowship.
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