Exploring Hipster White Weenie: A Fresh Take on Standard

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Much Abrew About Nothing! When I think of White Weenie, I think of a deck that mindlessly turns Savannah Lions sideways and hopes for the best. But the archetype can be so much more! Today, we're playing White Weenie but for hipsters! Rather than just being an aggro-beatdown deck, the deck is overflowing with cute synergies that let us play the long game or be the aggro deck, depending on the situation. What sweet tricks does our hipster White Weenie deck have? Let's get to the video and find out!

On paper, I know the deck looks a bit weird, but it plays super well. Record-wise, we went 7-2 with the deck for a 78% match-win percentage, which is obviously great. But even more importantly, the deck is incredibly fun to play because there are so many little tricks, triggers, and synergies built into it! It's the kind of deck that takes seven game actions to eventually end up putting a 2/2 on the battlefield, which makes you feel super smart for making the biggest-brained Grizzly Bears ever!

So, what's the deck's actual plan? In many ways, the goal is to cast at least two spells a turn as often as possible. Our biggest payoffs are Cosmogrand Zenith, Haliya, Guided by Light, and Sage of the Skies, all of which require us to cast at least two (and in Haliya, Guided by Light's case, often three) things in a turn for them to work. Our deck is built to trigger these cards as consistently as possible, as quickly as possible.

The primary way we do this involves Momo, Friendly Flier to reduce the cost of the first non-Lemur flier we play each turn by one, and its interaction with cards like Starfield Shepherd. Ideally, we'll have a Momo, Friendly Flier on Turn 1, which allows us to warp Starfield Shepherd on Turn 2 to snag a one-drop (or a card-ref:Plains, if we are stuck on mana). While we have a little one-drop toolbox featuring Curious Farm Animals for blowing up artifacts and enchantments, and Novice Inspector for card advantage alongside Momo, Friendly Flier, our most common tutor target is Nurturing Pixie. With a Momo, Friendly Flier on the battlefield, we can warp Starfield Shepherd for one mana, use it to find a Nurturing Pixie, play it for one more mana (giving us two spells in the turn to trigger all of our payoffs), and then bounce the Starfield Shepherd back to our hand so we can do it again the next turn. This grindy engine offers a ton of card advantage, and doubly so once it's also making tokens with Cosmogrand Zenith or drawing cards thanks to Haliya, Guided by Light.

The other key card in the deck is Sage of the Skies, which is actually super powerful. Assuming we can have Sage of the Skies be the second spell we cast for the turn (which is basically our deck's entire gimmick), we get two copies of the 2/3 lifelinking flier for three mana, which is an absurdly good deal. The lifelink helps us stabilize against aggro decks. And once we start pumping our team with Cosmogrand Zenith or Abandoned Air Temple, Sage of the Skies quickly puts the game out of reach for our opponent. It's also super synergistic with Nurturing Pixie since we can cast Pixie to pick up the non-token Sage of the Skies and immediately cast it again as our second spell, giving us two more copies to build a massive air force at lightning speed.

The strangest-looking card in the deck is likely Springleaf Drum, but after playing the deck a bunch, I can say it's super important to the deck's play. It's essentially a free spell (since we can immediately tap a creature to make back the mana we spend to cast it), making it a great way to trigger our "cast multiple spells" stuff while also just speeding up the deck. If we have a Springleaf Drum on Turn 1, we can do things like cast a Momo, Friendly Flier on Turn 2, tap it to make a mana, and (thanks to Momo, Friendly Flier's discount) follow it up with a Sage of the Skies, which is a super-fast start.

And that's basically the deck, and I have to say: I absolutely love playing this deck. It really hits all the marks I'm looking for in a Standard deck. It's competitive enough to get a bunch of wins, but it's also super fun to play thanks to all the synergies, tricks, and triggers. As a bonus, it's also pretty cheap, at least in paper, where you can build it for around $170. (The price drops to $130 if you cut the single Elspeth, Storm Slayer from the sideboard—which I think I brought in a single time in all nine matches—so this probably should count as a Budget Magic deck thanks to inflation and the super-high cost of current Standard.) While it isn't as cheap on Arena since it plays a total of 37 rares, I do think the deck is a very solid budget-ish option if you are looking for a new paper Standard deck!

Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments.