White Weenie

The most straightforward deck in the format: cheap white creatures, the best removal spell ever printed, and a mana base that attacks. What keeps it competitive is that its one-drops do far more than their stats suggest.

Mother of Runes is the reason. A {W} 1/1 that taps to give a creature you control protection from a color of your choice until end of turn — she blanks Swords to Plowshares, Terminate, Smother and Lightning Bolt, and she pushes an attacker past any single blocker. Opponents have to kill her at instant speed before she untaps, which usually means spending a removal spell on a 1/1.

Silver Knight ({W}{W}, 2/2 with first strike and protection from red) is close to unbeatable for Sligh, Goblins and Zoo — nothing red can block it, target it or damage it, so it blocks their entire board forever and can’t be burned off. Soltari Priest stacks protection from red with shadow, which means it can only be blocked by other shadow creatures. Against red decks that’s a 2/1 that just wins.

Whipcorder is the tempo card. A {W}{W} 2/2 with “{W}, {T}: Tap target creature,” so it removes a blocker every turn, and morph {W} lets you play it face down as a 2/2 for {3} and flip it up cheaply later — often mid-combat, to tap a creature before blockers.

Ramosian Sergeant is the grind plan. {3} and a tap searches your library for a Rebel permanent with mana value 2 or less and puts it onto the battlefield, so against a control deck holding Wrath of God you never have to commit anything to the board.

Exalted Angel ends games. Hard cast she’s {4}{W}{W} for a 4/5 flier that gains you life equal to any damage she deals; more often she comes down face-down for {3} and flips for morph {2}{W}{W}, which is a huge swing against burn and a two-turn clock against everyone else.

Wasteland, Mishra’s Factory and Weathered Wayfarer ({W}, {T} to fetch a land from your library, but only while an opponent has more lands than you) give the deck a mana-denial angle that pairs naturally with Armageddon out of the sideboard.

The weaknesses are the obvious ones for a creature deck: sweepers, Pernicious Deed, and Engineered Plague naming Rebel or Soldier. Some lists splash green off Brushland and Windswept Heath for Nantuko Vigilante and Caller of the Claw, trading a little consistency for sweeper insurance.