Preamble
Why Weenies? Weenies has the means to fight off burn decks, decks with few creatures, artifact decks as well as graveyard decks. With life gain and damage prevention in the main deck, burn decks have a hard time burning out white weenies. Jund Wildfire and Terror might be too slow presenting blockers and threads before being overrun and Graveyard related strategies have to fight off 4 Thraben Charms in the main deck. With explosive swings thanks to Chocobo/Mog and a variety of pump spells, White Weenies can hit hard and consistently.
I decided to bring 4 Squadron Hawks to reduce the efficiency of Krark Clan Shaman, have more blockers for MonoU Faeries and also have a consistent way to deploy evasive bodies on the board. With 4 Battle Screech as well as 4 Sky Fishers in addition, this deck forces opponents to play reach creatures, flyers or otherwise perish. This doesn’t apply to combo decks though. Especially High Tide can be considered an auto loss, but creature based combo decks such as Walls, Tireless Tribe or Goblins are really hard matchups..
Find my decklist here: https://moxfield.com/decks/afMdkfxazUCVEyPXI6vfJA
Round 1: White Weenie Mirror
We start the day with a banger, the weenie mirror. This is all about getting more creatures (preferably flyers) and pump spells. Game 1 is quickly over, my opponent finds a Summon: Choco/Mog as well as a Guardians Pledge, while also exiling my Battle Screech in the yard, keeping my board small.
Game 2 I find more creatures and cleanly execute the white weenie game plan, we go to Game 3.
This one was a real grind fest. While I deploy my fair share of Squadron Hawks and Battle Screech birds, my opponent finds a Kor Skyfisher and attaches a Greatsword of Tyr. Their Kor Skyfisher starts shipping in, but my swingbacks don’t pull any punches. I slam down several Summon: Choco/Mog, attacking 3/1 flyers. Though in the meanwhile, they found two Lunarch Veterans as well as Battle Screech and other creatures, My attacks for 25-30 damage get reduced to 6 or 9, while they regain the damage dealt in their turn. In the end we draw.
0-0-1 to start the day.
Round 2: Dredge
After this super sweaty 1st round, I got handed a very favoured matchup in Dredge. First Game I win by exiling their graveyard twice and while also killing their Lotleth Giant. I really drew the nuts this game with 3(!!!) Thraben Charms.
Game 2 I also find 2 Thraben Charms while gumming up the board with birds. Clean 2-0 for me, also this matchup must have been their personal nightmare.
1-0-1, yet to be defeated!
Round 3: Inside Out Combo
Last time I went against this deck, I lost 1-2 in really sweaty games. Can I get my revenge? First game, not so much. They combo off pretty early, I try to blast off my Thraben Charm but they have protection for my flimsy interaction.
Game 2 I can deploy a super early Flagbearer, rendering their combo useless for now. Still scared, I am hesitant to tap out for max board presence, but I can get a grip of myself and play to the board. They search for Blacksmiths Skill to get around the Flagbearer but don’t find it, so I push it to Game 3.
This game I go down to six cards in hand, sadly a tapped land but a Thraben Charm in hand. They deploy a turn one Tireless Tribe. I have to play my sad, sad tap land in my 2nd turn, they tap out to Brainstorm. If only I would have drawn a Plains, I could use Thraben Charm, but I didn’t. Snap back to reality, they play a Escape Tunnel, make their Tireless Tribe unblockable and I take 21 burger to the dome in turn 3.
1-1-1 so far, but we can bounce back!
Round 4: UW Familiars
This is uncharted territory for me, honestly no clue how this matchup looks for Weenies, but Familiars plays High Tide and can gain infinite life, sooo it might get rough. Game 1 they find their Familiars but not much else, while I can deploy birds and Raffines Informant, chipping in every turn. When they try to Ephemerate on their Archaeomancer I get rid of it with a Thraben Charm in response and win Game 1.
Game 2 They find early life gain in two God-Pharaohs Faithful, but not much more. I play to the board, again chipping in with flyers and Summon: Choco/Mog seals the deal. Clean 2-0, but I think I got lucky here by curving out perfectly and my opponent getting a bit screwed in not assembling their flicker loop.
2-1-1, time for the final match of the day!
Round 5: Jund Wildfire
Jund Wilfire BABY. This might be the most 50/50 matchup for White Weenies. And this is where the decision to play Squadron Hawks really gets rewarded. KCS hits almost nothing here. I start the round with my Journey to Nowhere in the starting hand, this Chrysalis gets shipped off, right after it lands on the battlefield. I find Squadron Hawks and other flyers, starting to nibble on my opponents life total. Their turn 4 Chrysalis eats the Journey, leaving them wide open. Their only other creature is a Refurbished Familiar that they get back once from the graveyard with a Blood Fountain (honestly a bit sad), while I take them down with Summon: Choco/Mog.
White Weenie offers a messed up sideboard here: Dust to Dust, Revoke Existence, Greatsword of Tyr and Journey to Nowhere. And I draw the nuts, chilling with my best friends Dust to Dust and Journey to Nowhere in my starting hand. I luckily draw land 3 and 4 and start rolling. Exiling bridges screwing their mana and sending their first Chrysalis to the shadow realm right when it tries to stabilize. With Summon: Choco/Mog and Kor Skyfisher I put them to 1. KCS comes down and kills my Summon:Choco/Mog, but they paid a steep cost for that with barely any artifacts left on the board. They deploy a Makeshift Munition afterwards. In the final turn I present two birds and a Skyfisher. They can’t get rid of all three creatures and I bring it home.
In the end I went 3-1-1, placing 8th.
Closing Words
Looking back, this was a wild league day. It felt like lots of combo decks were running around, which is awful for Weenies. Luckily I faced only one. The LPL meta feels incredibly diverse and almost unpredictable, and I love that so much. Even if that means not playing the matchups you prepared for, it’s always exciting to see what people are cooking up or what secret sideboard sauce they brought. Awesome tournament, awesome people!