Blade of Whiteplain

5 Mana 4/4 Epic Anubian Creature
Once per turn, after a weaker enemy creature is destroyed, draw a card.
Roar: Destroy an enemy creature with 3 strength or less.

Blade of Whiteplain is one of the Epic Chase cards from Light's Verdict and one everyone has been in awe of. Blade is one of the most pushed cards I have ever seen. It is removal, card draw, and a decent body all in one, an easy 3 for 1 in card advantage when you play it, and it is neutral too so every god can run it. It is incredibly versatile being able to go in almost every deck. The only decks that wouldn't run Blade are combo decks or decks that play only very few 5-drops like Hidden Rush or Viking War. Although, you could argue that Blade is so strong you always make room for it in your deck.

The "Best" Deck

Finding the "best deck" for Blade is difficult since it's so versatile it's hard to find a deck that makes the most use out of Blade. A deck that lacks removal, draw, and 5-drops would make Blade shine the most. Control decks aren't starved for removal or card advantage and have options for 5-drops like Guild Enforcer, Stormstress, or Orcish Elite. Some aggro decks like Deception or Magic have removal and draw, plus faster aggro decks want 5-drops that kill the opponent. Midrange decks that run the opponent out of cards with card advantage would be a great home for Blade but they haven't historically seen play since they weren't strong enough getting outpaced by faster aggro decks and not having enough pressure against control decks. Let's see how the meta turns out in the future and if there is room for value decks but let's find the best deck currently that can use Blade well.

Looking at the top meta decks that could use Blade. Any Control deck can slot it in but that isn't interesting to write about. Heirloom and Rockdrake Death don't have room for it. Viking War and Hidden Rush Deception want to kill quickly. Aggro Nature is focused on the big buff spells like Wildfire and Trial of the Hydra. Not to say you wouldn't run Blade in them but I'm finding the "best deck for Blade of Whiteplain", well any good deck I want to play and write about. A meta deck that wants all the things that Blade provides is Aggro Light.

Decklist

This decklist is from Clutch.

GU_1_3_KABKABKALKALHAFHAFKDQKDQCFfCFfCCsCCsBEXBEXCBHCBHGAfCFbCFbICkICkBDlBDlICbCFaCFaLALLALBGPBGP

Aggro Light works great with Blade of Whiteplain. Blade covers a lot of weaknesses the deck has. Light lacks any way to draw cards and can have difficulty with frontlines like Guild Enforcer and Stormstress. Blade solves both of these problems. The deck doesn't have much top end aside from Canonize and sometimes Asterius so there is a lot of room in the deck for Blade.

You can use Light's plethora of buffs to increase Blade's strength so you can draw cards with it when you destroy large creatures. Frontlines like Pyramid Warden and Highborn Knight can protect Blade and you can draw more cards on your opponent's turn when you their creature trade into your frontline.

The deck is typical aggro light stuff, lots of creatures and buffs. It doesn't run high-cost creatures with 3 strength or less like Guild Enforcer that die to opponent's Blade of Whiteplain except Sern because Sern is OP.

The gameplan is to establish board presence and get value from good trades and buffs. The buffs let you make good trades e.g. using Felid Janissary to make your Vanguard Axewoman a 3/3 to kill a 1/3 Pyreshell and live.

Militant Theist is strong, the roar is flexible, either buffing your creature or weakening your opponents. Stat reduction is powerful, bypassing ward and protected, neutering 1/X creatures, and letting you kill X/1 creatures. You can even reduce the strength of an opponent's creature to be weaker than Blade so you can kill it and draw.

Lysander's Spear has been seeing a lot more play in Aggro Light recently. The buff effect gives you so much gas letting you last much longer. The +2/+2 lets you turn any creature into a threat. You can go tall with your buffs to play around board wipes or go wipe to dodge spot removal. You can use the buff almost every turn since you can easily play two cards a turn to keep up your spear's durability.

Wrong Path lets you get around big creatures and set back your opponent's next draw.

Counters to Blade of Whiteplain

Even though Blade is one of the most overpowered cards, there are some things you can do to play around it.

Ward blocks the roar so your creature will live and your opponent won't get to draw a card.

4 or higher strength creatures don't die to Blade's roar and without the roar Blade is just a 5 mana 4/4 that might draw a card. People have been cutting Guild Enforcers and replace them with Dead Sentry a 4 mana 4/4 frontline to have a frontline creature to avoids Blade's roar.

Blade's 4 health dies to common removal like Starshard Bolt and Canopy Barrage so you have an easy way to kill Blade and avoid drawing your opponent a card on your turn.

Hidden creatures dodge Blade, you can't kill the opponent's creature if you can't target it.

Hyper aggro decks can rush your opponent down. Blade doesn't have frontline to protect your face from getting beaten in. It doesn't matter how many cards your opponent draws if you can kill them before they can get to use the cards.

A funny problem that players run into is hand size. Blade draws so much you are at risk at overdrawing cards.

Bugs

There are a few known bugs with Blade of Whiteplain.

It draws when it trades and dies to a weaker creature e.g. trading your 4/3 Blade into a 3/3 Black Jaguar will draw you a card. I'm not sure if this is intended since it is Blade is dead too when the opponent creatures dies.

I've heard that strength reduction on Blade doesn't stop its draw effect from happening e.g. a 0 strength Blade will still draw cards if an opponent's creature with 3 strength or less dies.

Conclusion

Blade of Whiteplain is an incredibly strong and versatile creature. Blade's 3 for 1 in removal, card draw, and a body gives unbelievable card advantage for any deck that has them. Aggro Light is just one deck I've highlighted that gains a lot from Blade.