White Weenie is one of Magic's oldest deck types, heralding all the way back to Alpha. The timeless plan of quick, efficient creatures backed up by pump effects, removal spells, and a closing haymaker has found a home in nearly every format across the game’s history, and Premodern is no different. Long perceived to be not competitively viable, White Weenie variants put up an unexpected performance and notched several high-ranking finishes in late-2023 and early-2024, proving the deck a real contender and revitalizing interest in the deck.

Since winning the January 2024 webcam monthly, I've been very active in discussions about the deck, and continue to be a devoted pilot. I published this, my third primer on the deck, early in 2024. Since then, I have periodically updated it, as the format, tactics, and technology have evolved. (For older versions, please refer to the change log; I may archive an older version prior to significant revisions.)

Deck Construction

Structurally, a White Weenie deck generally consists of:

20 or more creatures, most of which have mana value 2 or less
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 or more Disenchant
17-24 lands
Mana denial, creature pump, utility cards, and/or additional removal

There is a lot of room to customize the creature selection and support spells. Many variants emphasizing different themes have seen success. The key is matching the build to the demands of the metagame. White Weenie is not a deck that can simply overpower most opponents. Success requires considering the variety of opponents likely to be faced, and creating a deck that can consistently present a reasonable plan to defeat almost all of them. For this reason, there is no “right” build in the abstract; it will vary from meta to meta.

The following are examples of historically successful deck lists, each with different emphases:

Note that despite sharing some cards with White Weenie, other decks like Clerics, Rebels, Quiet Birds, and Temporary Solution are quite different in their structure, strategy, and tactics. To maintain focus, those decks and cards specific to them will not be discussed. For more information, consult The Taxonomy of Blue White decks in Premodern.

The rest of this section will go into more detail on card selection for the deck. Cards are divided up by the role they typically play. For ease of reference, a color splash requirement is denoted by its common abbreviation in brackets ([U], [B], [R], or [G] for blue, black, red, or green, respectively), and [ET] indicates the card is potentially part of an Enlightened Tutor package.

Creatures

The core of the deck is its selection of creatures. These must be mostly cheap and efficient on the attack, and provide useful abilities to either win in combat or disrupt the opponent. Typically the deck will include more than 20 creatures (though 3- to 5-color variants may have fewer).

Core Creatures

These are the creatures that should always be considered, and are the most often included.

Mother of Runes (or “Mom”) protects your creatures from removal, makes them unblockable, and makes them invincible blockers.
Savannah Lions is the most unconditionally efficient, aggressive creature, and its point of power is well worth the absence of abilities.
Meddling Mage [U] (or “Pikula”)’s primary job is to stop combos and sweepers, and with sufficient knowledge can almost always be put to good use. Pikula is the reason to splash blue, and he can lock up some matchups on his own.
Silver Knight is a powerful blocker against aggressive (especially red) decks, resists red sweepers (e.g.: Shard Phoenix), and can attack into some small swarms (e.g.: Elves).
Soltari Priest and Soltari Monk are extremely useful as evasive threats. Priest is more common, but some fields are better for Monk.
Whipcorder is a useful combat-control card to supplement your removal. It shines against Phyrexian Dreadnoughts, Terravores, opposing Exalted Angels, and more. It can be morphed to serve as a decoy for Exalted Angel.
Exalted Angel is the battlecruiser of the format, being removal resistant, hard to outrace, and hard to outclass. Angel often represents inevitability on her own, and her power is the only reason a card of this cost is included.

Flex Creatures

The following creatures are also reasonable choices, though less common, and often more specialized.

Deftblade Elite is an option in fields with many small creatures, especially when backed by cards like Mom or Crusade. Provoke is not effective against mana-producers, though.
Devoted Caretaker provides redundancy with Mom, blocks Goblin Lackey well, but is mana intensive. Since it can protect noncreatures, it can allow you to lean more heavily on board-controlling artifacts and enchantments.
Nova Cleric is potentially devastating against decks like Enchantress and Oath (but is often too slow to answer the namesake card), and blocks Goblin Lackey well.
Ramosian Sergeant can also be appealing after you add your third Whipcorder, providing a path towards overwhelming board presence.
Weathered Wayfarer provides the possibility of a land-based toolkit; notably including the option of chaining Wastelands against decks with weak manabases.
Steadfast Guard is strong against Stasis, and can be found by Ramosian Sergeant.
True Believer stops an odd cross-section of niche effects, most importantly Oath of Druids. That said, it can be a lightning rod for removal.
White Knight is strong against Suicide Black, and decent against Elves and Goblins.
Anurid Brushhopper [G] is slow, but outclasses most aggressive creatures, and can resist removal.
Call of the Herd [G] is slow, but highly effective at overwhelming aggro or control decks.
Mystic Crusader is a slow but decent blocker against black and red decks early, and can become a strong, removal-resistant, evasive threat later.
Paladin en-Vec is a slower, more flexible Silver Knight that can be added for redundancy.
Soltari Champion is slow, but is evasive and a pseudo-Anthem for aggressive builds.
Soltari Visionary is slow, but is evasive and can suppress enchantments.

Noncreature Spells

Removal Spells

Swords to Plowshares (“STP”) is the best creature removal spell of all time. In Premodern, few decks truly have no targets.
Disenchant or Seal of Cleansing [ET] is critical in a format saturated with artifacts and enchantments requiring immediate answers. Disenchant is usually more effective, but Seal has synergy with Enlightened Tutor and Parallax Wave.
Radiant's Judgment is a specialized answer to big creatures, with cycling to hedge.
Parallax Wave [ET] can temporarily remove opposing threats, clear blockers to push damage, or protect your own creatures. It can also combo with enchantment removal to exile opposing creatures permanently (holding priority, use Wave to target the opponent's creatures, then respond by removing your own Wave).
Cursed Scroll [ET] is mana intensive, but provides a good tool to control creatures, and reach to close the game.
Lightning Bolt [R] can efficiently remove small creatures, and provide reach to end a game.
Earthquake [R] is mana-intensive, but can wipe out swarms of creatures, and provide reach to end a game. Symmetry can be broken with pump spells, or creatures with protection from red.
Fire//Ice [R] can remove small creatures, and provides a bit of reach to end the game.
Smother [B] is a fairly versatile option, though it misses some important targets.
Engineered Plague [B] [ET] is useful against tribal decks (e.g.: Elves, Goblins) and some combo decks (e.g.: Argothian Enchantress, Hermit Druid, Phyrexian Devourer).

Pump Spells

Global “pump” or “buff” effects are a mainstay of White Weenie. They provide “haste” damage, help to win combat with opposing creatures, and mitigate some removal (e.g.: burn spells, Engineered Plague). Extremely lean and hyper-aggressive builds may play up to 5 of these effects; more balanced builds (especially those with Enlightened Tutor) want 2 at most.

Crusade [ET] is most efficient and iconic, but is occasionally not permitted (in the MTGO Community Premodern Series, you can play Honor of the Pure instead).
Divine Sacrament [ET] is less efficient than Crusade, but can be double-strength in a long game.
Glorious Anthem [ET] will not backfire in the mirror, against opposing Exalted Angels, or against Decree of Justice. It also buffs your face-down morphs, or Mishra’s Factories.
Shared Triumph [ET] is a better Anthem, if you have a tribal theme (e.g.: Human).

Auras are generally too situational and risky to use, as they risk severe tempo loss and card disadvantage against creature removal. The ones worth considering need to mitigate those downsides, or generate enough immediate impact to be worth the risk.

Rancor [G] [ET] costs only 1 mana, and provides a significant power-boost, pseudo-evasion, returns if the creature is later removed, and will not fall off if Mom is used to shield the bearer from removal. This makes it perhaps the least risky aura.
Armadillo Cloak [G] [ET] provides a significant power boost, pseudo-evasion, and lifegain enough to potentially swing a damage race in your favor immediately.
Empyrial Armor [ET] has the potential to provide the largest possible power boost, but is very conditional.

Mana-Denial

Mana denial is a core tool that the White Weenie deck uses to buy time to close the game once it is a bit ahead. These can be very powerful, but can have tension with mana-intensive finishers (e.g.: Exalted Angel), and may not be as effective in all fields (e.g.: a field dominated by Gush decks). For this reason, they can be main deck or sideboard cards.

Dust Bowl is slow, but can dominate some matchups where the opponent depends on their nonbasic lands in a long game.
Wasteland is very useful to remove man-lands, and off-balance combo decks. It’s often less useful against pure control decks, which have excess lands, and also benefit from slowing the deck’s own progression to Armageddon or Cataclysm.
Rishadan Port is more costly than Wasteland, but is very flexible, especially with a good knowledge of the opponent’s deck to effectively foreclose specific plays. It also allows the deck to pivot between mana denial and advancing its own plan. Finally, it can force the opponent to commit harder into Armageddon or Cataclysm.
Armageddon is the classic haymaker, and usually often seals the win for whoever is ahead on board. The deck’s lower curve also gives it an easier recovery. Armageddon is best against control decks, and certain combo decks. It can sometimes work against midrange decks.
Cataclysm can be devastating to a broad cross-section of decks (e.g.: The Rock, MUD, Enchantress, UW Control, Elves, or Goblins). This versatility is offset by being relatively weaker against control and combo when compared to Armageddon. Cataclysm can also wipe out the White Weenie deck’s own creatures, and breaking symmetry favors having larger threats (e.g.: Exalted Angel, auras) over threat quantity (e.g.: rebels, global enchantments).
Winter Orb [ET] is less powerful or durable than Armageddon or Cataclysm, but is also cheaper and can be fetched with Enlightened Tutor.

Tutor Package

Enlightened Tutor has received a lot of mention already, and rightfully so. It lets the deck get away with investing fewer slots in niche answers, and increases the flexibility of the deck’s draws. The downside is that Tutor costs a mana, a draw step, and usually comes with putting more conditional cards into the deck. These costs might be too steep for the most aggressive builds. Tutor also gets significantly worse against opponents that can counter or remove whatever you get, gaining card and tempo advantage. Up to 3 Tutor in the deck is fine, and they can be in any combination of the main deck or the sideboard. A good Tutor package includes at least 4 and preferably more unique effects. Good items for inclusion are:

Seal of Cleansing (see Removal Spells)
Parallax Wave (see Removal Spells)
Cursed Scroll (see Removal Spells)
Winter Orb (see Mana-Denial)
Crusade or other pump spells (see Pump Spells)
Phyrexian Furnace (see Miscellaneous)

Worship (see Miscellaneous)
Engineered Plague (see Removal Spells)
Favoring artifacts and enchantments in the sideboard.

Miscellaneous

Phyrexian Furnace [ET] provides anti-graveyard utility, with built in pseudo-cycling to make it nearly free to include.
Deep Analysis [U], Fact or Fiction [U], and Standstill [U] are options to allow the deck to grind further into the long game. They are usually overshadowed by the short term value of presenting another threat, or landing a big mana-denial spell. In some metas though, they can be justified.
Reverent Mantra is a very flexible card, protecting creatures from targeted or damage-based removal, making them unblockable, or invincible when blocking. While its affecting all creatures may be a downside against white decks, it adds some interesting use cases (e.g.: “protecting” an opposing Phyrexian Dreadnought from Vision Charm).
Worship [ET] can steal games from decks that aren’t equipped with enchantment removal or sufficient creature removal, notably Stiflenought, Burn, and Madness decks.

Lands and Mana

White Weenie’s mana demands are to reliably produce double-W on turn 2, support any splashes, and eventually be able to resolve 4-mana effects. Taking Frank Karsten’s writings on land counts and color sources as a guide, the deck wants between 21 and 24 lands, with between 18 and 21 W-sources, and 10-12 sources of splash colors. While you can trim slightly, these are good numbers to keep in mind. There are four common approaches to the manabase.

Mono-white decks can simply include enough Plains. I recommend at least 17. A single Kjeldoran Outpost is common in these configurations.
A traditional fetchland/painland approach can support either a blue or green splash (but not usually both). An example for blue might be: 1 Island, 4 Flooded Strand, 4 Adarkar Wastes, 1 Skycloud Expanse, and 9 Plains. Playing a few extra Plains helps compensate for when you need to fetch your off-color, and reduce reliance on painlands.
Rainbow lands can support up to 5 colors. An example might be: 3 City of Brass, 4 Gemstone Mine, 3 Undiscovered Paradise, and 10 Plains. Though flexible, mana development is slow and costly, and limits support for mana-intensive cards like Cursed Scroll and Exalted Angel. Paradise does have a natural synergy with Winter Orb, though. Alternatively, Dromar’s Cavern, Rith’s Grove, or Treva’s Ruins can substitute for some Paradises, which will reduce flexibility but improve development.
Mox Diamond can be added over the necessary land-count to improve consistent access to colors, accelerate into powerful plays like a turn 1 Meddling Mage, and recover better from Armageddon or Cataclysm. The tradeoff is that Mox Diamond may be a dead draw if the game goes longer.

Utility lands generally produce colorless mana, which may support curve-toppers but is not helpful for casting early creatures. They should only be added after color-requirements are met, and should be treated as spells for mulligan decisions. Good options include:

Dust Bowl (see Mana-Denial)
Kjeldoran Outpost is a slow but relentless source of additional creatures against control decks, commonly played as a single copy in mono-white configurations.
Mishra’s Factory can attack through Oath of Druids and Wrath of God, and be played through cards like Standstill.
Rishadan Port (see Mana-Denial)
Wasteland (see Mana-Denial)

You can also supplement your mana with additional nonland cards. Common options include Tithe, Eternal Dragon, and Weathered Wayfarer. Note that while these all have additional utility, they also have costs and conditions over just running additional lands; simply running additional Plains is often better, and reduces mulligan frequency.

Sideboard

The sideboard should be tailored to address the metagame, and to address weaknesses of the deck. Thankfully, white has some of the best sideboard options, and Enlightened Tutor can help stretch how far one or two copies of a niche card can go. Note that many of these cards are reasonable main-deck choices as well, and sometimes a typical main-deck choice will instead be fitted to the sideboard.

Artifact & Enchantment Removal

In the current era of Premodern, it’s almost impossible to have too much artifact and enchantment removal. I generally want at least 5 total enchantment removal effects in my full list, though I’m willing to go a bit lighter against artifacts.

Disenchant or Seal of Cleansing (see Removal Spells)
Aura Blast, Clear, Demystify, Erase, Monk Realist and especially Ray of Revelation [G] are options for supplemental enchantment removal.
Abolish provides mono-white builds with a strong tool against decks that leverage mana bottlenecks, like Stasis, Ponza-Oath, and Stiflenought.
Aura of Silence [ET] is an effective lock-piece against decks like Stiflenought, and Enchantress; in addition to removal.
Devout Witness can overwhelm most artifact- or enchantment-dependent decks in the long game.

Creature Removal

Additional creature removal is nearly always helpful. The challenge is that while there are many options, almost all of them are conditional and/or require a splash.

Parallax Wave, Cursed Scroll, Lightning Bolt, Earthquake, Fire//Ice, Smother, or Engineered Plague (see Removal Spells)
Last Breath is an option against small, utility creatures. Gaining life by targeting your own creature in response to removal is occasionally relevant.
Pyroclasm [R] can wipe out swarms of creatures. Symmetry can be broken with pump spells, or creatures with protection from red.
Reprisal is an efficient option against big creatures.
Hibernation [U] being instant speed is useful, and it can also clear Survival of the Fittest, Sylvan Library, and Oath of Druids.
Perish [B] can crush green creature decks like Elves and The Rock.
Cataclysm (see Mana-Denial) can conditionally help recover games against decks with a stronger board presence, usually depending on who has the best creature on-board.
Wrath of God can recover games against decks with a stronger board presence (e.g.: Elves, Goblins, The Rock).

Other Disruption

Tormod’s Crypt [ET] is the most powerful graveyard-denial effect against combo decks.
Abeyance and Orim’s Chant can disrupt combo decks, like Stiflenought, Frantic Storm, and Enchantress. They can also force a spell through countermagic.
Annul [U] is especially useful against artifacts and enchantments which may have impact even if immediately removed, like Survival of the Fittest, and Parallax Tide.
Cabal Therapy [B] and Duress [B] can break up combos, like Stiflenought, Frantic Storm, and Enchantress. They also have applications against control decks in general.
Phyrexian Furnace [ET] (see Miscellaneous)
Pyroblast [R] and Red Elemental Blast [R] can stop blue combo decks, like Stiflenought, Frantic Storm, and TinkUR. They also have applications against blue decks in general.
Cursed Totem [ET] is one of the best lock-pieces against combo in the format, and against combo is generally worth the tension it creates with your own creatures.
Mana Leak [U] and Memory Lapse [U] are versatile, fairly easy for the deck to cast, and combine well with its mana-denial elements. Countermagic is usually in tension with the tap-out nature of the deck, but there are certain matchups where countering a single key spell can deliver victory.
Tsabo’s Web [ET] is a good way to disrupt man-lands, and opposing Rishadan Ports and Dust Bowls if you’re not running them
Arcane Laboratory [U] [ET] is a hard-lock against Phyrexian Dreadnought, Enchantress, and a number of combo decks.
Engineered Plague [B] [ET] (see Removal Spells)

Anti-Red

Burn and Goblins are both popular and a real threat. Unfortunately, they also prefer different answers, mostly because Burn has reach and often lacks enchantment removal, while Goblins is combat-focused and frequently has enchantment removal.

Zuran Orb [ET] is useless against Goblins, but potentially powerful against Burn. It allows threats to be deployed in relative safety, and provides a use for excess lands. For splash builds, the additional protection against Price of Progress can also be relevant.
Blue Elemental Blast [U] and Hydroblast [U] are efficient and flexible, but not usually game-defining. Against Goblins, the main uses are destroying an early Goblin Lackey, or countering a Goblin Ringleader or Siege-Gang Commander. Against Burn, after removing Grim Lavamancer to protect your creatures, it's best traded for the most damage-prevention possible.
Absolute Law [ET] protects your creatures for minimal mana investment, but cannot itself block. It’s hard for Burn to remove, but they can often ignore it. Goblins cannot ignore it, but can often remove it.
Chill [U] can cripple Burn if it lands early, but is less effective late. It's less effective or reliable against Goblins.
Circle of Protection: Red [ET] and Rune of Protection: Red [ET] plays defense so your creatures can play offense. It's often very good against Burn, though they still have colorless sources of damage, and it’s certainly weaker against those who have adopted Naturalize and/or Call of the Herd. It's less effective against Goblins due to their ability to remove or overwhelm it.
Crimson Acolyte is a nearly-invulnerable blocker, and protects your other creatures. It is excellent against Goblins, which often cannot remove it or ignore it. It's serviceable but less impactful against Burn, which can sometimes remove it or ignore your creatures.
Honorable Passage and Samite Ministration can surprise opponents and steal games, especially against Burn. Though weaker against Goblins, stopping a single large damage packet has applications against other decks (e.g: Stiflenought, Fling decks).
Warmth [ET] can be very effective against Burn if it lands early, but is less effective late. It is almost useless against Goblins.
Armadillo Cloak [G] [ET] (see Pump Spells) can combine with a removal-resistant creature to immediately get a major edge in the damage race. It is conditional, but potentially very strong against Burn, and perfectly serviceable against Goblins.
Worship [ET] (see Miscellaneous) can lock up the game, but often results in an immediate game loss when answered. Historically great against Burn, it’s far riskier now that some pilots have adopted Naturalize. It’s always been questionable against Goblins.

Mana-Denial

If these cards aren’t in the main deck, they typically belong in the sideboard. Even if they are in the main deck, you may want additional copies.

Card Advantage

White Weenie can often do without card advantage, but in certain matchups those extra cards can push the deck over the top.

Deep Analysis [U], Fact or Fiction [U], and Standstill [U] (see Miscellaneous)
Oath of Ghouls [B] [ET], and Oversold Cemetery [B] [ET] can provide a relentless stream of creatures in the long game.
Oath of Lieges [ET] can be used to insulate against mana-denial strategies, improve your late-game draws, and ensure you recover from Armageddon or Cataclysm at least as well as your opponent.

Off-White Splashes

The following is a short list of notable cards that each color grants access to. Especially important cards will be italicized, and presented out of alphabetical order.

Blue

Meddling Mage
Annul
Arcane Laboratory
Blue Elemental Blast, and Hydroblast
Chill
Deep Analysis, Fact or Fiction, and Standstill
Hibernation
Mana Leak, and Memory Lapse

Black

Engineered Plague
Cabal Therapy, and Duress
Oath of Ghouls, and Oversold Cemetery
Perish
Smother

Red

Lightning Bolt
Earthquake, and Pyroclasm
Fire//Ice
Pyroblast, and Red Elemental Blast

Green

Ray of Revelation
Anurid Brushhopper
Armadillo Cloak
Call of the Herd
Rancor
Wax//Wane

Piloting The Deck

Strategy

White Weenie is typically an aggro-prison deck. Though filled with cheap creatures, it is not capable of the blistering-fast starts other colors can manage. Instead, it relies on higher card quality, card synergies, and disruption to make its comparatively slower offense sufficiently threatening. Its role will vary by matchup, and may also change over the course of a given game. Borrowing from the language of Finding the Three Gears of Modern Burn, its gears are:

“Beatdown,” where the deck just attempts to deal damage as fast as it can, throwing in disruption where it may;
“Sword and shield,” in which an evasive creature chips away while the deck’s other creatures and disruption provide defense and buy time;
“Card Superiority,” where you identify a key card or collection of cards that your opponent cannot defeat, and tailor your strategy to assembling those key cards.

Correctly selecting the proper gear requires both format knowledge (for the matchup) and tactical acumen (for the moment). It’s often useful to think in terms how the deck fares over the matchup in terms of early, middle, and late game. Most matchups follow one of two arcs:

The White Weenie deck is at significant risk early, but is much more secure once it reaches the midgame (usually because it has had time to establish its mana, defensive creatures, and removal). At this point, the White Weenie deck needs to pivot toward offense, because its opponent can potentially still overwhelm it if given long enough.
The White Weenie deck is relatively strong early, and free to push damage. This is followed by a perilous midgame, usually resulting from an extremely powerful threat for which the White Weenie deck has limited ability to disrupt. Finally, the White Weenie deck has an extremely strong late game, generally because of some unbeatable card or combination of cards on its side.

Being able to identify the relevant arc of your matchup, and where you are positioned along it at a given moment can help to select the right gear, and plan for necessary pivots.

Mulligans

In the blind, it’s most important to be able to present a threat and get on the board. You won’t know what the key spells are, so aim for a hand that can cast four points of power on its own. Stable mana is more important than creatures (which your deck will probably give you) or interaction (of which you will not yet know which type is most relevant). Curving out is ideal, but not absolutely necessary.

In sideboard games, this changes. Typically your creature and pump count drop (and your kill-speed with it), your disruption improves, and you have a clearer idea what cards matter and how much time you have. Speed often becomes less important than interaction. Five lands, a Ramosian Sergeant, and a Disenchant would never cut it in the blind, but it’s a perfectly serviceable opener against mono-blue Stiflenought.

Tactics

Don’t miss opportunities for free damage. Every bit makes it easier to close those long, grindy affairs.
When in doubt, prioritize disruption. There are only a few decks you can beat by raw speed. Disruption is your strength.
Prioritize evasion. Gear 2: Sword and Shield doesn’t fully open until you have it.
Pump spells are haste damage. You can use them to unexpectedly attack for lethal a turn early.
Morphs are tricky.

Your opponent will always suspect Exalted Angel, so morphing a Whipcorder can be a good way to bait removal.
You also shouldn’t always flip a morph at first opportunity, especially if you just think it will get removed.
Morphs are also good ways to get around Meddling Mages, Plagues, and similar effects; the morph on the stack has no name or creature type.
Finally, remember that flipping a morph face up is a game action that just works: is not an activated ability, and it cannot be responded to.

Certain creatures (e.g.: Deftblade Elite, Ramosian Sergeant) have the potential to dominate longer, battlefield-centric games. If you have them, play towards them.
“Protect the Queen” is a viable strategy for the deck. It usually involves Mom protecting a key Mage, or either Mom or Mage protecting an Angel. It tends to be more effective against white decks than against black or red.
One of the best ways to force a card through countermagic is to put the opponent under enough pressure that they have to spend mana defensively. If they’re forced to cast Wrath of God, they’re often left open to Armageddon.
Learn to use your lands to their fullest.

Entire essays have been written on The Dynamics of Rishadan Port. Learn when to Port opponents in the upkeep to deny main-phase plays, when to Port other times to deny interaction, and what colors are most effective to target.
Unless you have a good reason not to, Wasteland your opponent the moment you decide it’s the right move.
Given the choice to cast a blue spell by either (a) using Strand to fetch Island or (b) to take damage from Wastes, it’s usually better to tap Wastes (unless your life total is under attack).
Don’t play Kjeldoran Outpost unless you’re intending to immediately activate or use the mana to cast something.
Lair (e.g.: Dromar’s Cavern) triggers can be used to your advantage. Lairs can be used to refresh Gemstone Mine. You can also float mana, then drop a Lair as your 4th land before casting Armageddon or Cataclysm to preserve a land. Finally, you can decide not to return a Lair land if you want the card in your graveyard (e.g.: for threshold reasons).

When sideboarding, try to maintain a high creature count. When you trim creatures, only do so for reliably high-impact effects. Whatever else, pressure remains important.

Specific Matchups

Burn

Burn versus White Weenie is a classic matchup. White Weenie’s threats are inexorable, but slower; therefore damage mitigation is important to buying time. It's mostly a Gear 2: Sword and Shield matchup, with the caveat that the Burn deck’s reach means you're rarely entirely safe. In fact, every draw step on average is worth over a point of direct damage, even once the combat step is locked out. There's a real tension between offense and defense, especially where Silver Knight and the danger of Ball Lightning are concerned. Mana denial can be an important defensive tool.

After sideboarding, you may have access to a variety of Anti-Red cards, some of which may be nearly unbeatable. To make room, you can cut less efficient or impactful creatures (e.g.: Soltari Monk, Whipcorder) and spells (Cataclysm, Parallax Wave). You will want to keep enough answers for Sulfuric Vortex and Cursed Scroll. Meanwhile, the red deck will likely reduce their number of combat-dependent creatures (Jackal Pup, Ball Lightning) to add more direct damage and/or removal (Lava Dart, Pyroclasm, Price of Progress). This tends to result in slower games. Anarchy is rare, but it is important to be aware of the possibility.

Finally, in late 2024 some Burn pilots began succumbing to The Fear and adding Naturalize, Tranquil Domain, and even Call of the Herd to their sideboards. These significantly change the effectiveness of your sideboard cards, but dilute their deck’s effectiveness overall. Provided you can handle elephants and do not depend too much on artifacts and enchantments, this shouldn't affect the outcome much.

Goblins

Goblins is consistent, powerful, flexible, and perennially popular. To defeat them, you first need to be prepared to answer an early Goblin Lackey attack (note that Goblins can often remove a 1-toughness blocker). After this, you will likely enter a Gear 2: Sword and Shield game, in which you leverage your larger, first strike, or protection from red creatures for combat dominance. You then need to close before you are overwhelmed by the power of Goblin Ringleader and/or Siege-Gang Commander. Mana denial will be present on both sides. For Goblins, it's a tool to slow down your often while they develop. For you, it helps delay their heavy hitters and give you time to close.

After sideboarding, you may have access to a variety of Anti-Red cards. Mass removal such as Cataclysm, Wrath of God, Engineered Plague, Pyroclasm, or Earthquake can be even more impactful. To make room, cut your artifact and enchantment removal (a rare case where it is useless), and then your least efficient or combat effective creatures. What the Goblins player adds will depend on their configuration. Builds with green may increase their quantity of enchantment removal. Builds with black may add Dralnu's Crusade, removal spells, or graveyard recursion. Mono-red is most likely to have multiple Anarchy. Any build can have Pyrokinesis, or additional Goblin Sharpshooters or Gempalm Incinerators. In most cases though, they will prefer to SB lightly, since any non-Goblin card weakens the synergy the deck depends on.

Stiflenought

The menace of the format, Stiflenought knows no fear … except perhaps White Weenie. The deck focused on generating a single massive artifact creature is faced with Swords to Plowshares and Disenchant (or Seal of Cleansing) at a minimum, plus some mixture of Meddling Mage, Whipcorder, Parallax Wave, and Worship; all complemented by a fast offense. The biggest risk is simply that the Dreadnought player gets lucky, and is able to present a fast 12/12 with just a bit more protection than the White Weenie player has removal. That said they do have a lot of protection, and can put together a lot of it given long enough. Gear 1: Beatdown is the order of the day. Besides this, when the Dreadnought inevitably comes, the White Weenie player should consider how to time and sequence their removal to most reduce the effectiveness of protection (playing around Daze where possible, forcing a Vision Charm on upkeep to prevent an attack, etc.).

There are four popular versions of the deck, each with different splash colors and considerations.

Mono-blue is extremely fast and consistent. Historically, their alternative plan was Brain Freeze (a strategy you could usually outrace). Recent innovations have added Mishra’s Factory (which may slow your offense), and Parallax Tide to attack your mana (a thing you can often recover from). Their sideboards may add Misdirection or Cursed Totem, and their removal is typically in the form of bounce spells.
Blue-white (Argennought) is generally considered the “best” version, and uses Meddling Mage to defend the combo proactively while adding Swords to Plowshares and other removal of its own. Their sideboards will likely have Cursed Totem, Disenchant, additional Swords to Plowshares, and Last Breath.
Blue-red is less common, but surprisingly challenging due to the presence of Grim Lavamancer (which can remove your Mages and Whipcorders) and Fling (which can let the deck win a turn faster, and reduces the effectiveness of your removal). Their sideboards will likely include significant removal, including potentially Pyroclasm.
Blue-black (Psychanought) has Psychatog as a redundant threat and a challenging blocker. It also has discard to clear a path through interaction. Their sideboard will likely include additional removal, including Engineered Plague.

You'll want to bring in relevant creature and artifact removal, plus interaction like discard and countermagic if you have it. Your worst cards are those that are mana-intensive and don’t answer a threat. Mana denial is also weak against the lean, Gush deck; and Enlightened Tutor is generally weak against countermagic and Vision Charm.

Note that however favored you are, they do have unbeatable draws. You will just lose some games to a turn 2 Dreadnought with Foil and Counterspell backup. Accept this, but don’t dwell on it.

The Rock

The Rock endures. You usually want to do as much damage as you can early, before they stabilize with green blockers and Pernicious Deed. If they do stabilize, their creatures often overclass yours, and the value generated by Recurring Nightmare and Genesis can cause the game to slip away quickly. Sometimes you can use mana denial to delay this, but this tactic can fail in the face of on-board Birds of Paradise, Wall of Roots, and Ravenous Baloths. In this case, your only hope is to figure out how to sneak through enough damage before you are overwhelmed, or have a card in your deck that can overwhelm them instead (Exalted Angel is a great candidate). For this reason, it can be a Gear 1: Beatdown or Gear 3: Card Superiority game.

Mana denial and evasive, hard to answer creatures like Soltari Monk and Exalted Angel are excellent cards to bring in. Enchantment removal is not great against Recurring Nightmare, but may occasionally be useful against Pernicious Deed. And can be very handy against Engineered Plague. Aura of Silence’s tax make it particularly relevant, though. Parallax Wave can be used to counter a Deed, or clear a path for continued attacks. Glorious Anthem or Divine Sacrament can also negate Plague, and cannot be swept up by Deed without also clearing on-board Plagues. Your weakest cards beyond this tend to be cheap enchantments, artifacts, and non-evasive creatures that get swept up by Deed. Beyond Plague, the opponent may bring in additional removal, cutting weaker or situational cards like Duress.

Elves

Elves has long been White Weenie’s nemesis across many formats. Elves is at least a turn faster than White Weenie’s best draws. It can kill through any number of blockers. It generates so much mana that mana-denial is almost irrelevant. Its value engines can overpower White Weenie in a fair game. Cards like Masticore can chew through the best positions White Weenie can establish. It’s a damn nightmare. Without main deck Cataclysm, Engineered Plague, or a heavy red splash, Game 1 is nearly unwinnable. If you can keep Survival of the Fittest, Masticore, and Kamahl off the table, it is remotely possible to win with a Gear 1: Beatdown, or Gear 2: Sword and Shield strategy.

Post-board, White Weenie gets many great tools: additional graveyard interaction to suppress Squee and Anger, Cursed Totems to suppress all their creatures, and perhaps mass creature removal (especially Engineered Plague). Your weaker cards are mana denial, creatures which cannot either beat elves in combat or evade them, and anything slow in general. Elves will bring in removal for Totem (they will assume it is there), and may also bring in anti-creature cards like Goblin Sharpshooter or additional Masticore. If they expect black or red spells, they may also have Caller of the Claw.

While your sideboard cards have the potential to win the game if they stick, there’s no guarantee; Elves is the proactive deck in the matchup and can still just win outright. The best recommendation is not to warp the deck to beat Elves, but to switch decks if Elves is too popular in your field. If it is necessary to play White Weenie into an Elves-heavy field, a black or red splash is strongly recommended.

Landstill (and other UW Control)

Landstill is the iconic control deck of Premodern, adequately prepared to handle a variety of strategies. With Swords to Plowshares, Wrath of God, Humility, Mishra’s Factory, countermagic, plus Standstill and Fact or Fiction to keep stocked, it seems especially suited to handle fair creature decks. Yet White Weenie is advantaged in the matchup. Gear 1: Beatdown is the plan. The objective is to get down a few threats; then to either use mana denial or Meddling Mage to keep the opponent off Wrath of God and Humility, or counter-punch with Armageddon. It is sometimes possible to keep them off their big stabilizing effect forever, or otherwise to finish a game after they resolve it (provided you dealt enough damage early). If you don't, they will try to swing the game all at once with a big Decree of Justice, or a Parallax Tide combo.

Their deck tends not to improve dramatically post-board, due to a tendency to hyperfocus on the red decks and combo decks. An additional Wrath or Humility, and maybe a drop of other supplemental removal is to be expected. Your weakest cards are your Tutors, situational cards like Worship, and pump spells (with the possible exception of Rancor). Maximizing your threat count and mana denial is what it’s about. While your removal won’t have many targets, it is still useful to target Factories and Humility. Keep in mind that they may have Teferi’s Response, however.

Hermit-FEB (Hermit Druid–Full English Breakfast)

Hermit-FEB is one of the most consistent and fast combo decks, and one of the hardest to interact with. It is also the hardest deck I have personally ever tried to pilot. It contains two “one card combos” in Hermit Druid and Survival of the Fittest. It can win as soon as turn 2, though turn 3 is more likely. It can also grind with a utility toolbox, and use its own interaction to punch through disruption. Your plan is Gear 2: Sword and Shield, though your shield here is less about blockers and more about disruption (which must be your highest priority). It is also remotely possible to assemble Gear 3: Inevitability (at least in game 1).

Your first priority is preventing activation of Hermit Druid; failing that, you must prevent Voltath’s Shapeshifter from being on the battlefield (by being cast, targeted by Unearth, or just already present). If you don't, your opponent will likely turn Shapeshifter into a Psychatog, pump that Psychatog by eating most of their graveyard, and then turn Shapeshifter into Akroma to kill you. This can occur as soon as turn 2. Removing Druid immediately is a good plan, waiting can cause you to lose to Cabal Therapy flashback. The Druid line requires both the graveyard and combat, so an active Furnace or Whipcorder (plus open mana) can be an effective defense, as can Parallax Wave or Worship. Mage can also cut this line off if your opponent needs to cast one of Shapeshifter, Krosan Reclamation, or Unearth, and you can block it (but you may lose if you guess wrong). Wasteland or Dust Bowl can also interfere with the combo by affecting graveyard order, but your opponent can defeat that with extra mana and Coffin Purge or Reclamation.

Your second priority is to prevent Survival and Shapeshifter from being on the battlefield at the same time. If you fail to prevent this, your opponent will typically turn Shapeshifter into Phyrexian Devourer, make it huge, and then turn it into Triskelion to kill you. This can happen as soon as turn 3, and there is almost no meaningful way to interact with this sequence once it starts. Because Survival can fetch Shapeshifter or any number of utility creatures, it becomes the most important thing to keep off the table; a top priority for Mage and justifying any quantity of Disenchant-effects.

In addition to relevant enchantment removal, creature removal, and graveyard denial, permanents like Cursed Totem and to a lesser extent Engineered Plague are effective tools against Hermit-FEB. Note these are not unbeatable; Engineered Plague can be maneuvered through with enough mana, and Naturalize or Uktabi Orangutan are likely present. Your opponent will almost certainly have creature removal and discard as well. For this reason, closing the game needs to be a priority: given too long they will find a way. Trim your least efficient threats and interaction (Angels especially).

One final avenue of potential attack is that Hermit decks of all kinds often have fairly fragile manabases. If Birds of Paradise and Wall of Roots aren't present, it is possible to disable Hermit-FEB with a combination of Wasteland, Rishadan Port, Dust Bowl, and Armageddon.

Replenish Combo

Replenish Combo is a hard matchup for White Weenie. It aims to assemble Parallax Wave and Opalescence to lock out all opposing creatures and enchantments, and then add Parallax Tide to lock out opposing lands as well. They can do this piecemeal; or all at once by loading the graveyard (using Attunement, Frantic Search, Intuition, and/or Fact or Fiction), and then resolving Replenish. Once in place, interaction becomes difficult (see: How to break the standing Wave). While you have some mechanisms to keep them off their combo, their robust removal and/or countermagic can answer most individual permanents, and their Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, and Frantic Search can leapfrog mana denial (especially Port). Your plan is Gear 1: Beatdown, backed by as much disruption as you can muster. Unfortunately, they usually get there before you do. If you can reach Armageddon though, you're often in good shape.

Post-board, you tend to improve more than they. You can bring in relevant mana-denial and graveyard denial. More enchantment removal is also potentially useful, though not generally decisive. Countermagic and discard is good, if available. Finally, Cursed Totem is an option which can shut down the combo, but often needs to land in advance, is vulnerable to removal, and still leaves you in the position of contending with very large creatures. To make room, cut your least mana-efficient creatures (e.g.: Exalted Angel). You also want to cut creature removal, but there is a catch: the opponent may board in Exalted Angel. While less common these days, it is a threat you may need to answer. Ideally you can do so with Whipcorder, Lightning Bolt, or something flexible; otherwise you may need to retain some number of otherwise useless StP. Generally though, they will likely increase their quantity of removal and countermagic. They might also have Tsabo’s Web to interfere with some of your mana denial.

Ponza-Oath

Ponza-Oath is a surprisingly straightforward matchup for White Weenie, but depends heavily on the build. White Weenie decks built mostly with enough basic Plains and Wastelands can shrug off a surprising amount of Thermokarsts. The GW version with only StP can often be overwhelmed, while the GR version with Pyroclasms often cannot answer a Soltari Priest at all, and struggles with handling pump spells. Oath of Druids producing a large Terravore can be scary, but the deck has enchantment removal and True Believer to defend against Oath. And a single natural Terravore is often a thing the White Weenie deck can naturally handle. The upshot is that many build of White Weenie have the advantage, and can plan on a Gear 3: Card Superiority long game. The trouble is often in the middle, when the mana denial tends to off-balance the White Weenie player, who may lose to Factories and Treetop Villages before they regain the initiative. Obviously, builds with less stable mana, protection from red, evasion, and enchantment removal will tend to fare worse.

In the sideboard games, White Weenie can often identify less impactful creatures to remove. Cards like Savannah Lions can be very bad to play into Oath of Druids, and it’s usually worth picking and choosing. Splash cards and expensive cards can also be more difficult to cast and are often worth cutting. In exchange, the deck can beef up its removal for enchantments, artifacts, and large creatures. Cards like Phyrexian Furnace, Tsabo’s Web, or Oath of Lieges can completely invalidate the opposing strategy, if not handled quickly. Finally, while 4-mana sorceries are a tall order, Cataclysm is a very powerful effect, clearing out multiple Diamonds, Spheres, Totems, Libraries, Oaths, and manlands in one swoop (I do not recommend Armageddon, as they maintain most of their board, including Diamonds, and have a high amount of lands to recover). Meanwhile, the opponent will likely lean less on Oath, adding cards like Call of the Herd and additional creature removal. They may also add more artifact and enchantment removal, if they sense it will be useful. To make room, they often lean less on their mana denial plan, so you can expect a bit less pressure on your mana post board.

Changelog

2025.07.16

Added Gabe Menendez’s White Lightning deck to the set of examples.

2024.12.25

Minor changes to introduction
Updates to deck construction: new sample deck list, new cards, new sections, new notation, and lists of relevant splash cards. General reorganization and rewriting of some content.
Added strategy discussion relating to the arc of specific matchups.
Rewrote most matchups. Added Ponza-Oath as a matchup.
Minor wording and other changes throughout.
Archived previous version.

2024.04.24

Removed personal preference information regarding Seal of Cleansing.
Added link to article “The Taxonomy of Blue White decks in Premodern” in Introduction.
Added Deck Construction\Noncreature Spells\Miscellaneous to the primer; includes Reverent Mantra.
Cleaned language in Deck Construction\Noncreature Spells\Tutor Package.
Added to Deck Construction\Sideboard\Artifact and Enchantment Removal: Annul, Aura Blast, Clear, Demystify, Devout Witness, Erase, Monk Realist.
Added to Deck Construction\Sideboard\Anti-Red: Honorable Passage, Samite Ministration.
Added Deck Construction\Sideboard\Anti-Spell to the primer; includes Abeyance, Orim’s Chant, Cabal Therapy, Duress, Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast.

2024.03.10

Removed list of extra matchups not yet covered. More will be added as I have time and knowledge to do so.

2024.03.07

Added Weathered Wayfarer to Deck Construction\Creatures\Flex Creatures.

2024.03.06

Updated link to Wu White Weenie to point to TC Decks, now that it is available.

2024.03.05

Added Replenish Combo and Hermit-FEB matchups.

2024.03.01

Minor wording cleanup.
Added Deck Construction\Sideboard\Creature Removal to the primer, including Swords to Plowshares, Parallax Wave, Lightning Bolt, Cursed Scroll, Last Breath, Reprisal, Smother, Fire//Ice, Wrath of God, Cataclysm, Engineered Plague, Perish, Hibernation, and Pyroclasm.
Added Absolute Law to Deck Construction\Sideboard: Anti-Red.

2024.02.26

Added Deck Construction\Creatures\Fringe Creatures to the primer, including Mystic Crusader, Nova Cleric, Paladin en-Vec, Soltari Visionary, Soltari Champion, Steadfast Guard, and White Knight.
Added Abolish to Deck Construction\Sideboard: Artifact and Enchantment Removal.

2024.02.24

Published first draft to the web, shared to Discord and Facebook.
Added composite banner image.