Arguably the biggest draw to this deck, alongside its consistency, is that it’s one of the few aggro decks in the format that isn’t poorly positioned against Rakdos Midrange. Rakdos is essentially designed to beat creature decks, with bigger creatures and a lot of removal spells, but weirdly it doesn’t fare so well against this deck.

In fact, I may be biased, but I think it’s even slightly favored for Mono White Humans, especially this list with Thraben Inspectors. The reason is that Mono White Humans is good at “going big”. Luminarch Aspirant and Thalia’s Lieutenant allows you to size your creatures bigger than theirs, while Adeline, Resplendent Cathar is already big on its own.

This means that Rakdos needs to kill all your key creatures, which they are pretty good at doing, but luckily you have more of these key creatures than they have removal spells – especially if you account for Brave the Elements as being a counterspell to their removal spells. Post-board, you then gain Wedding Announcement, which is one of the best cards against Rakdos as it provides three bodies while also possibly turning your small creatures into relevant threats with the anthem effect on the back. This is difficult for Rakdos to keep up with, primarily because their removal spells are one-to-one outside of Extinction Event (which this deck is fairly good at playing around). 

As for my list above, it is fairly stock, but I still prefer Thraben Inspectors to Soldier of the Pantheon and Kytheon, Hero of Akros. I’m likely wrong on this since the consensus seems to be that the two-powered creatures are better, especially as the Inspector doesn’t train Hopeful Initiate, but I really like the Inspectors because against the midrange and control decks the games often go long and having the clue is helpful, while against Mono Green Devotion and the mirror, the board often stalls and being able to dig deeper for a Brave the Elements can be the winning factor.

In the sideboard, I also like having a split on the two-mana removal spells because I think Declaration in Stone is better overall, but Fateful Absence is better against Abzan Greasefang. I also still like Reidane, God of the Worthy because the backside, Valkmira, Protector’s Shield, is excellent against Rakdos Sacrifice and that is one of your worst matchups.

In general, you want to keep hands that curve out well. Your ideal start is to play a one-drop creature into a two-drop creature into a three-drop creature, or a one-drop creature and a two-drop creature. Not every opening hand will look like this, but I would be hesitant to keep a hand without a one-drop creature, especially in pre-board games. This deck does mulligan well and can win on five cards, so don’t be scared to mulligan aggressively.

• I would also be hesitant to keep any hand with four lands. I would likely only keep it if it curves out perfectly with the three non-land spells, and one of the lands was a Mutavault.

• The sequencing with this deck can be quite challenging. Should I play Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Luminarch Aspirant on turn two? How should I allocate the counters from the Aspirant? There aren’t easy answers to these questions as they’re highly contextual, but think carefully before you take any actions and try to think a few turns ahead.

• Always be thinking about how much damage you can deal! This deck can deal a lot of combat damage, and often you can find a path to victory over two combat phases. Don’t be afraid to run one of your smaller creatures into their bigger creature, so you can get in for some damage now – if you can follow it up with another creature and/or have Brave the Elements, getting that damage in now may be what lets you win two turns later.

• Dauntless Bodyguard can be played on turn one, but generally I prefer to use it as a pseudo-protection spell for my key creatures. If you have another one-drop creature you can play instead, then play that. 

• Dauntless Bodyguard can target an animated Mutavault, and that protection will still remain if you activate that Mutavault on another turn. The same applies if you choose a Brutal Cathar – it will provide protection to both sides of the creature. 

• Hopeful Initiate’s ability comes up often to deal with problematic artifacts and enchantments, such as Witch’s Oven and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. It’s also good against Abzan Greasefang, where you can hold up three mana to destroy Esika’s Chariot or Parhelion II. The +1/+1 counters can be removed from any of your creatures, so it also works well with Luminarch Aspirant and Thalia’s Lieutenant. Often, you can destroy something pre-combat to shrink Hopeful Initiate, so that when you attack with it, you get back a +1/+1 counter thanks to the training ability. 

• Generally, you want to play Thalia’s Lieutenant after the other two-drop creatures so that you can make the most of the +1/+1 counters on all your other human creatures. 

• When it comes to Luminarch Aspirant, you need to figure out whether you want to “go tall” and make one big creature, or “go wide” and spread the counters amongst multiple creatures. Generally you want to “go wide” to reduce the consequences of a spot removal spell, and so you want to make your whole team bigger, but sometimes you may want to go all-in on one creature if they have burn removal spells and/or one big creature you need to get through. Usually you want to put the counters on other creatures instead of the Aspirant itself, so that your opponent is forced to decide whether they want to kill the bigger creature or the source of the problem. 

• If you have both a Thalia’s Lieutenant and a Dauntless Bodyguard, you generally want to lead with the Lieutenant first and then cast the Bodyguard to protect the Lieutenant. Having protection and growing the Lieutenant is usually more relevant than making the Bodyguard a 3/2 creature. However, if they are already representing an instant-speed removal spell, then cast the Bodyguard first.

• Brutal Cathar is one of the key cards in creature mirrors like Mono Blue Spirits and the mirror, as they do not have many removal spells. Often the game comes down to flipping Brutal Cathar back and forth numerous times to try to exile multiple creatures.

• Remember to keep track of Day/Night! If it is Night, the Brutal Cathar comes into play on the backside, which means you will not get to exile any creature or trigger Thalia’s Lieutenant, and the werewolf is red, so you cannot protect it with Brave the Elements.

• Against decks with Rending Volley, try to put a +1/+1 counter on Adeline, Resplendent Cathar as soon as you can to put it out of the four-damage burn range. 

• You cannot avoid getting the 1/1 attacking token from Adeline, Resplendent Cathar. This may be an issue if they control a creature with lifelink such as Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.

• Cast Brave the Elements after you have declared attackers, but before declared blockers. This way, you can give protection to the 1/1 token you get from Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and you can also get the +1+1 counter from Luminarch Aspirant (if you give your creatures protection from white before the trigger, you would not be able to give a counter to one of your creatures). 

• In line with the thinking about calculating combat damage, always be thinking about how to set up your Brave the Elements. You may be happy for one of your creatures to die to a removal spell now if that means you can set up a lethal attack in a turn or two. Also, always be mindful about how a topdecked Brave the Elements can impact the game.

• Mutavault is a human, so it can be pumped by Thalia’s Lieutenant. You can tap itself for mana to activate itself to get a counter from the Lieutenant’s enter-the-battlefield trigger. Against decks with sweepers, allocating counters onto your Mutavaults is generally a good idea. You can also tap it to activate itself to deal an additional damage with Adeline, Resplendent Cathar. 

• Mutavault is also a horror, so it does not get bounced by a Thing in the Ice flipping. 

• Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire costs one less for each legendary creature you control. This is very relevant in this deck – if you have a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar in play, then it costs just one mana to use. 

• Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire is also colorless. This means that it can kill Unchained Berserker or creatures protected by Brave the Elements or God’s Willing. 

• Always make your land drops, as you may draw into Thraben Inspector, unless you’re playing against Liliana of the Veil and have a card in hand you want to protect. 

• Portable Hole can hit any nonland spells. Witch’s Oven and Wolfwillow Haven are two key targets in this format. 

• The 1/1 attacking creature you get from Adeline, Resplendent Cathar does not get checked by Wedding Announcement. So if you attacked with one creature, then got the attacking token from Adeline, you will still get a token instead of drawing a card on your end step.