To make a largely uncontroversial statement, white needs some form of card advantage if it ever wants to thrive in Commander... or, at the very least, better card selection. Finding a form of card advantage that "feels" white, however, is a difficult prospect. Now that "white mana" is being examined thanks to Verge Rangers and Cartographer's Hawk, however, it seemed like a decent opportunity to explore a wide array of possible options for granting white this (very basic) boon, looking at pros and cons and adding demonstrative examples of what we might expect at several rarities. While some of these options are (far) less likely than others, I hope that you will join me in examining the various options that white has at its disposal. If I missed anything obvious, feel free to help me build this list up.
Option 1) Make the cards do/stop more (Broader Answer, Stax, and Tokens)
This is the most simple answer of them all, all but ignoring the problem and essentially trying to “brute force” past it by making good cards. If you can’t guarantee drawing the “right” answer, let’s make answers that address most problems. If you can’t guarantee drawing as many creatures as an opponent, let’s give you an army of tokens to make up the difference. If your opponents keep going off, let’s chain them up with stax. Pros:
-While white would work more efficiently, it’s share of the color pie will remain unchanged.
-While wizards throws down a hate-bear every once in a while, wizards has rarely tacked a hatebear effect to an actual beater (Linvala and Thalia is basically it). Likewise, we haven’t gotten a Path to Exile-level card in quite a while.
-This strategy certainly has the most precedent among printed cards. Cons:
-No matter how broad answers and threats become, there will always be times when you need specific cards from your library and this approach does nothing to stop that primary problem.
-This strategy may make Azorius or Abzan decks stronger while failing to actually make mono-white decks more playable in general.
Examples
Call the Brigade
Sorcery (U)
Create three 1/1 white soldier creature tokens.
Absolving Wave
Instant (R)
Exile up to X nonland permanents and/or nonland cards in graveyards. For each card exiled in this way, its owner gains life equal to its converted mana cost.
Skygazer Archon
Creature- Archon (Mythic)
Flying, Vigilance
Whenever an opponent draws a card, create a 1/1 white bird creature token with flying.
3/4
Option 2) Reuse the Cards You Have (Bounce, Blink, and Reanimate)
These abilities get their own section, as they are often grouped together. The ability to reuse ETB triggers to form an extended value engine, getting the most out of every card you have drawn, is a tempting way to get “value” without getting card advantage. Reanimation in particular can be seen as a way to get card advantage (at least in regard to the board state) without needing to touch the library. Pros:
-All of these options are already supported in mono-white.
-We have seen very few cards that can implement blinking and self-bouncing in mono-white without an outside investment of mana and cards (with the odd exception of Eiganjo Free-Riders, which was part of a cycle). If white had access to reusable self-bounce/blink that didn’t require high mana expenditure (less cloudshift, more Conjurer’s Closet), we might be able to generate some real value in white.
-Even without needed ETB triggers, bounce/blink can blank kill spells and reanimation is a useful tool for certain.
-It would incentivize the creation of more “leaves the battlefield” triggers, which is a useful trigger that we haven’t seen a lot of in recent times (and that works well for commanders)
-As mentioned above, reanimation can generate board advantage without touching the library. Cons:
-Still does nothing to address the “need a card I have not drawn” problem.
-White is fighting with blue for blink effects and with both black and green for reanimation effect. The only thing it really has to itself these days is self-bounce… which is inherently mana inefficient as it requires you to pay the mana cost of the bounced creature once more.
-While the game has a heavy focus on ETB triggers already, that sort of effect may require a greater amount of focus still if white is expecting to rely on these cards… which could warp the game a fair bit.
Examples
Renegade Rescuer
Creature- Kor Warrior (U)
: Return target creature you control to its owner’s hand.
1/1
Flickersprite
Creature- Spirit (R)
Flash
When Flickersprite enters the battlefield, exile another target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Flickersprite, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
2/2
Dreambound Herald
Creature- Angel (M)
Flying
Whenever Dreambound Herald or another nontoken creature you control enters the battlefield, you may exile a nonland permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard and create a token copy of that card.
4/4
Option 3) Search Harder
While green gets the most tutors (I say that land searching counts) and black gets the best tutors, white is no joke when it comes to searching for answers. Whether it is looking for Plains, Equipment, Auras, Enchantments, Planeswalkers, Legendary Permanents, Weak Creatures, or Low CMC creatures, white has a number of ways to search for whatever silver bullets it needs. It also possesses a number of tutors that hit multiple targets (such as Three Dreams, Land Tax or Ranger of Eos), which technically generates card advantage. Focusing on this element of white, WotC could let white actually answer whatever it needs. Pros
-To a certain extent, this method does answer the problem of needing to get a card you have not drawn yet. As time, goes on, the number of answers that can be gained through even corner-case tutors will naturally increase. A Ranger of Eos can grab you protection (Mother of Runes), anti-enchantment tech (nova cleric), and/or land search (Weathered wayfarer), for example.
-This focus does not impact white’s current slice of color pie. Cons
-Wizards has been trying to move away from the constant shuffling that tutors and fetches creates and leaning into tutoring for white would run counter to that goal. Of course, this may be more of a “tutoring is an unlikely fix” thing than a “tutoring is a bad fix” thing.
-While card draw (even reusable card draw) increases the odds of getting what you want, having too much tutoring in the game plays into linear and predictable (often combo-focused) gameplay… which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Examples:
Stalward Companion
Creature- Human Soldier (U)
When Stalward companion enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature with converted mana cost 1 or less and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
1/1
Skyward Gaze
Sorcery (R)
Search your library for up to two creature cards with flying and reveal them, then shuffle your library and put those cards on top of your library in any order.
Grand Campaign
Sorcery (M)
Search your library for any number of creatures with converted mana cost 2 or less and put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. Those creatures gain indestructible until the end of your next turn.
Option 4) Cantrips! (And Death Cantrips)
Every color gets some number of cantrips and both green and blue have gotten “death-cantrips” a la Jeskai Sage. Why not utilize cantrips and “death-cantrips” to produce a steady stream of cards and help cards replace themselves. Conditional cantrips (EX: When ~this~ enters the battlefield, draw a card if you control two or more creatures) are another possible measure to make the draw feel more “white” if needed. Pros
-If we can reach a critical level of decent cantrip effects and decent blink effects, white can form a traditional card advantage engine through untraditional means.
-It allows for the traditionally borderline playable effects (combat tricks, disenchant, etc.) to replace themselves. While Wildsize isn’t a staple by any means, cheap cantrips could work with commanders like Feather or Zada.
-It can’t be a color pie violation if it’s an effect that all colors get. Cons
-While cantrips help dig for effects, they are far from the peak of efficiency and there are hardly any cantrips among high-level cards (Maybe Cryptic Command?)
-While big creatures with built in cantrips built in can work (just ask Pelakka Wurm), it doesn’t feel impressive on them.
-Because cantrip effects are thrown onto cards rather than occupying their own cards, it’s hard to do cantrip effects that don’t feel “tacked on”.
Examples (Common to Rare as it feels weird on Mythics)
Protective Sigil
Sorcery (C)
Target creature gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Leonin Pride
Creature- Cat Soldier (U)
When Leonin Pride enters the battlefield, create two 1/1 white cat soldier creature tokens.
When Leonin Pride dies, draw a card.
1/1
Jeskai Ascendant
Creature- Human Monk (R)
When Jeskai Ascendant enters the battlefield, draw a card.
When Jeskai Ascendant dies, you may exile it. If you do, may cast an enchantment or artifact spell from your hand without paying its mana cost.
4/5
Option 5)Filter from the Top
While beast hunt and similar effects are most commonly found in green, every color seems to have a certain number of cards that filter through the top few cards in search of something (such as Militia Bugler or Acclaimed Contender. Also in this category is the Scry action word, which has historically appeared in every color in both Mirrodin and Theros blocks (even if it is most commonly found in blue). Pros:
-While scrying doesn’t directly add a card to your hand, white may actually be the color least bothered by this. As white has a history of using flexible sweepers to wipe out multiple threats, they are often more concerned with digging down to the “right” answer instead of picking up “enough” answers. While drawing cards is clearly better, scrying serves white pretty well.
-While they have the potential to “whiff”, card filtering effects occupy a neat mid-point between card draw and search that helps sculpt available resources. Most of the strong suits for card searching apply hear… to a limited extent.
-Unlike tutoring, these effects don’t push combo decks too far and don’t require tons of shuffling. Cons
-While both abilities have been in white in the past, card filtering abilities have the most presence in Green while scry is primarily in izzet colors. While the use of these abilities might not be a color pie “break”, it would certainly represent a shift.
-Filtering cards typically come with more deckbuilding stipulations than search cards do. You can’t use Acclaimed Contender to reliably find a single Umezawa’s Jitte as a Stoneforge Mystic could. Rather, these cards require a critical density of targets in order to function… and putting enough targets for a random trigger to give multiple choices is often overkill.
-While scrying would be something, most good cards that scry either do so incidentally (Like Path of Ancestry or Dissolve) or have card draw build in (see Serum Visions or Preordain).
Examples:
Fated Defender
Instant (U)
Scry 2, then reveal the top card of your library. If you reveal a creature card in this way, create a 1/1 white warrior creature token.
Divine Oracle
Enchantment Creature- Spirit (R)
When Divine Oracle enters the battlefield, look at the top seven cards of your library. You may cast an aura enchantment with enchant creature from among them without paying its mana cost. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
3/3
Honored Procession
Enchantment (M)
Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is that card’s power. You may reveal a creature card with power less than X from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in the order of your choice.
Option 6) Symmetrical Card Draw:
As this seems to be the direction that wizards is moving in with spells like Happily Ever After, it’s worth looking at the virtues of this strategy… especially as its value in multiplayer settings is… interesting. Pros:
-Has precedent in the form of Truce.
-Feels relatively white in flavor.
-Is good for group hug. Cons:
-Unless carefully designed, each of these cards to serve as card “disadvantage”
-Is actively worse in multiplayer settings, where the percentage of resources granted by the card to you can drop from 50% to 25% or lower.
-Relatively small design space for good cards with this effect.
Samples:
Silent Contemplation
Sorcery (U)
Players cannot case spells until your next turn.
Each player draws 2 cards.
Wealth to Wisdom
Instant (R)
Exile up to X target artifacts. For each artifact exiled in this way, each player draws a card.
Enlightenment
Sorcery (M)
Each player with fewer than seven cards in hand may draw cards equal to the difference. For the rest of the game, each player may cast no more than one spell each turn.
Option 7) Let’s Do The Time Warp Again!
Pop quiz! What do exploration, investigate, and monarch have in common? The answer, all three were primary set mechanics related to card advantage that happened to have some cards in white. I’ve seen a number of people ask on Blogatog if one of these mechanics could come back to be white’s primary form of card advantage. While the answer given is always know, one could still imagine these mechanics making a cameo in a commander deck… Note that manifest can also fit in this category… if only the morph deck from last year wasn’t Sultai… Pros
-All three of these mechanics have appeared in white before.
-All of these abilities grant card advantage in their own ways. While one of them (monarch) grants potential ongoing card advantage, the other two are effects that could theoretically be triggered reapeatedly.
-While Monarch is rated 6 or 7 on the Storm Scale, Investigate is sitting around 3 or 4. There’s a very good chance that at least that mechanic could come back. Cons
-Whether this would work or not, this is one of the few things that we’ve been flat-out told isn’t going to happen. We’re hoping for throwback cards to appear in Modern Horizons 2 or a Commander Deck or something… and for that card to be playable. It’s a pretty big long-shot.
-While at least investigate seems likely to return in the future (at least based on the storm scale), it takes a very specific design of card (*cough*tracker*cough*) to actually catch on, meaning that the “usable” design space is quite small.
Examples:
Trueblood Guard
Creature- Vampire Knight (U)
When Trueblood Guard enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
Whenever Trueblood Guard attacks the monarch, it gets +2/+0 and gains indestructible until end of turn.
1/2
Righteous Crusade
Enchantment (R)
When Righteous Crusade enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 human soldier creature token.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control fewer lands than each opponent, target creature you control explores.
Impetuous Investigator
Creature- Human Rogue (M)
Vigilance
Whenever a player is dealt combat damage, Investigate.
, Sacrifice X Clues: Exile target creature with power X or less.
4/3
Possibility 8) Stealing Top-Deck Play
Getting into highly speculative realms, I’d like to suggest stealing a mechanic from Simic for white. While most people know Futuresight or Oracle of Mul Daya to have effects that don’t seem white, getting a 1-card extension to your hand (the top of your library) that is continuously replenished and that can only be used under certain circumstances seems pretty orderly in a grand calculatron sense. While this ability would need to be paired with specific limitations (only legendary creatures, only auras and equipment, only soldiers, etc.), I’d love to see this become a tertiary effect in white. Pros
-Provides ongoing source of card advantage in the right shell.
-Has been used as the basis for several cards that see decent play. Cons
-Not sure how much card advantage you’d actually get if you were restricted beyond only using creature or only using lands from the top of your library. Might not be feasible.
-Belongs to other colors already, as stated.
-While multiple cards with similar abilities technically work together, I’d say that the way they do so (allowing you to use an aura OR a weak creature, for example) feels impactful.
-White doesn’t really get the mana needed to burn through a whole bunch of cards in a single turn.
Examples
Curio Vender
Creature- Human Artificer (U)
You play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may cast the top card of your library if it’s an artifact card with converted mana cost 1 or less.
2/2
Frontline Recruiter 2W
Creature- Human Soldier (R)
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
You may cast the top card of your library if it’s a creature card with power 2 or less.
1/1
Harbinger of Calamity
Creature- Spirit Avatar (M)
Indestructible
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
You may cast the top card of your library without paying its converted mana cost if it’s a sorcery spell with converted mana cost 4 or greater.
6/6
Solution 9) Playing Catch-Up
Ever since Balance, white has had a thing for evening the odds, whether that means tearing opponents down to your level… or building yourself up. Timely Reinforcements and Linvala, the Preserver help you catch up with creatures and life while Land Tax, Oreskos Explorer, and so forth help you catch up with lands. The only thing that white can’t catch up with, it seems, is hand size… as slithermuse is a blue effect. I am willing to argue that the slither muse effect should be white as well, whether it means fully catching up in hand or just drawing a single card. Pros
-It makes sense from a flavorful perspective.
-It gives white card draw but doesn’t allow the player to “pull ahead’, much like white ramp. Cons
-Unlike with white ramp spells, a player who tosses out all of their cards onto the field before “catching up” with another player is actually getting a significant boost instead of simply removing a handicap. This might just be too much.
-On a similar line of thought, this effect may play too well with the traditional White Weenie strategy… which some people may see as a strength as that strategy doesn’t really do much in commander. A matter of perspective, I guess.
-Again, this isn’t currently a white effect.
Examples:
Wise Investment
Sorcery (U)
If you have at least two fewer cards in hand than target opponent, draw two cards.
If you control at least two fewer lands than target opponent, create two treasure tokens.
Elevation
Sorcery (R)
Choose target player with more cards in hand than you. You draw cards equal to the difference and gain 1 life for each card drawn in this way. You may not cast spells until your next turn.
Voice of Generosity :swmw:
Creature- Angel (M)
Flying, Lifelink
At the beginning of your upkeep, any number of target opponent with fewer cards in hand than you may draw 2 cards
At the beginning of your end step, you may draw a card for each opponent with more cards in hand than you.
4/6
Solution 10) Combat Trigger
Okay, now we’re getting kind of “out there”. While this “solution” certainly can’t solve white’s problem all on its own, it allows white to get better value out of its cards… which may well be a necessary step. I have noticed that combat step triggers, currently found in every color, aren’t really that common… In spite of being one of the best times to have triggers. Unlike an upkeep or EoT trigger, this is a trigger that can go off on the turn you play it… before giving you a chance to cast more spells in the same turn. Compared with an ETB trigger, a combat trigger gives opponents a chance to respond with instant-speed kill but triggers every single turn without any need for outside resources (possibly several times per round if the ability triggers at the beginning of each combat like Odric instead of just combat on your turn). Pros
-It isn’t out of color/flavor for white
-As discussed above, it’s a pretty good trigger for getting value.
-No need for a bounce/blink/reanimation engine to keep getting this value. Cons
-As mentioned, it doesn’t fix the fundamental problem of needing a card that you haven’t drawn yet. It’s a quantitative value boost when we really need a qualitative shift.
-Making more triggers throughout the turn more common can make for memory issues.
Examples
Dazzling Decoy
Creature- Human Soldier (U)
At the beginning of combat on your turn, tap target creature.
2/1
Sigilbearer
Creature- Elephant Soldier (R)
Exalted
At the beginning of each combat, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. That creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
2/2
Fabled Fiendbinder
Creature- Human Cleric (M)
At the beginning of combat on your turn, exile another target permanent with converted mana cost 4 or higher until Fabled Fiendbinder leaves the battlefield.
2/3
Option 11) Self-Mill
As I’m going through every option I can think of, it was only a matter of time until I reached this one. To be perfectly clear going in, I realize why white doesn’t have this effect. Sultai already has dominion over this ability (in fact, it’s one of the few common abilities that sultai colors possess) and white has more than one graveyard sweeper.
With that said, I wanted to take a deeper look at this. While blue has Dredge cards from Khans, Flashback (including Snappy and Baby-Jace), Labman effects, and Archaeomancer effects… white is the only color with straight-up reanimation that utterly lacks the means to put things into the graveyard. While it’s true that white has some of the best graveyard sweepers, those effects also exist in Black and Green… which do have access to self-mill. While it can truthfully be said that the reanimation theme is underplayed in white and that several of its cards focus on reviving things that just died (which wouldn’t flavorfully work with self-mill), I feel that there is an argument for putting in at least a few self-mill cards as blue really doesn’t need an additional form of card advantage on top of everything else it does.
What would self-mill look like in white, then? I personally imagine it being a rare effect in the color (maybe 1-2 cards per year) that uses self-mill as part of a cost rather than being a primary effect or an incidental byproduct, flavorfully tying back to themes of martyrdom, atonement, self-mortification, Personal Sacrifice, and Bittersweet Memories. Pros
-Provides digging and indirect card advantage without putting cards in hand. Cons
-Effect is well established as not belonging in this color so far.
-Limited cards in white can meaningfully take advantage of this effect at this time.
Examples:
Martyr’s Resolve
Instant (U)
Target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. Whenever that creature takes damage this turn, you gain that much life and put that many cards from the top of your library into your graveyard.
Beloved Ancestor
Creature- Spirit (R)
Flying
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
, put the top card of your library into your graveyard: target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
3/3
Future’s Promise
Enchantment (M)
Whenever you would be dealt damage by a source an opponent controls, instead put that many cards from the top of your library into your graveyard.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are no cards in your library, exile Future’s Promise and creature a 6/6 white avatar creature token with Doublestrike, Haste, and Flying.
Option 12) Bureaucracy (New Ability)
Yeah, I wouldn’t be doing my job as a homebrewer if I didn’t come up with at least one brand new mechanism for white to access cards. While I call it “bureaucracy”, this ability is not keyworded in the same way that red’s impulse card draw isn’t keyworded. As a matter of fact, bureaucracy was highly inspired by red’s impulse.
As with impulse, this ability exiles a number of cards from the top of your library. Unlike impulse, however, you do not possess the ability to cast these cards from exile. Instead, the card comes with some condition wherein one of the exiled cards is added to your hand, at which point the card can be cast normally. Certain cards with Bureaucracy can also reference statistics of cards they have exiled (such as a knight gaining protection from all colors among cards it has exiled), making bureaucracy an odd mixture of Imprint and Hideaway. While this card provides a decent degree of selection by exiling multiple cards at once, it functions as an extremely slow version of permanent-based card draw… which seems about right for white card-advantage. Pros
-Doesn’t belong elsewhere in color pie.
-Can imitate passable card draw engines in other colors but the loss of surprise and speed, coupled with the fact that you lose those cards if your engine is destroyed, prevents this ability from truly matching other colors.
-Lots of open design space. Cons
-High potential for “feel-bad” moments.
-Mostly restricted to permanents
Examples (doubled amount for demonstrative purposes)
Beneficent Banker
Creature- Human Citizen (U)
When Beneficent Banker enters the battlefield, exile the top three cards of your library.
, : Place a card exiled by Beneficent Banker into it’s owner’s hand, then exile a card from your hand.
0/3
Questing Knight
Creature- Human Knight (U)
When Questing Knight enters the battlefield, exile the top four cards of your library.
Questing Knight has protection from all colors among cards its has exiled.
The first time Questing Knight deals combat damage to a player, put a card exiled by questing knight into its owner’s hand.
3/3
Guardian of the Scales
Creature- Angel (R)
Flying
When Guardian of the Scales enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top two cards of your library.
At the beginning of your end step, put a card exiled by Guardian of the Scales of target opponent’s choice into its owner’s hand.
2/4
Sunsculptor
Creature- Giant Artificer (R)
Whenever you cast an artifact or enchantment spell, choose one:
Exile the top four cards of your library.
Put an artifact or enchantment card exiled by Sunsculptor into its owner’s hand.
6/6
Deepburrow Slumber
Enchantment (M)
At the beginning of each upkeep, exile the top card of your library face down.
Whenever you take damage, you may sacrifice Deepburrow Slumber. If you do, reveal all cards exiled from it and put all creature cards revealed in this way into their owners’ hands.
Soulcarver Paladin
Creature- Human Knight (M)
Doublestrike, Vigilance
When Soulcarver Paladin enters the battlefield, exile the top 7 cards of your library.
Whenever Soulcarver Paladin deals combat damage to a player, you may put a card exiled by Soulcarver Paladin on top of it’s owner’s library.
2/2
Option 13) Wait for Bends
If I’m trying to cover all of my bases, there is one simple option that I really can’t ignore… and that would be waiting. While white “doesn’t do card draw”, there have been a number of flavorful bends over time. Sram, Truesteel Paladin, Mesa Enchantress, Alms Collector, Mentor of the Meek are all excellent examples of flavorful “one-of” bends to fit certain decks. If we flat-out need direct card draw and no replacement will do, it feels like we only need to wait for the slow drip of white card advantage to eventually give us the small card advantage engine we need for an enchantress deck, white weenie deck, or equipment deck. Building a card advantage suite out of mistakes, color bends, and minor breaks may be a realistic possibility in the future… if anyone has that kind of patience. Pros
-Even with all of the new teams testing out cards, it feels like this is all but inevitable. Cons
-Ain’t nobody has time for that.
-Even those flavorful bends will likely silo players into very specific deck archetypes, which isn’t the ultimate desire here.
-Again, waiting is for chumps.
Examples:
Cleansing Adept
Creature- Human Cleric (U)
The first time each turn that an artifact or enchantment is destroyed, draw a card.
2/2
Generous Patron
Creature- Human Noble (R)
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell, its controller may draw a card.
1/2
Enlightened Armsmaster
Creature- Human Monk Warrior (M)
Equip costs you pay cost less.
When Enlightened Armsmaster dies, draw a card for each equipment that was attached to Enlightened Armsmaster.
4/3
Sigiled Skink should be a white card. Red already has impulsive draw and doesn't need this design space. White generally should be allowed to use scry in places that other colors use draw. Scry is weaker than looting because it can't fix a bad hand where looting can. This still leaves white with the intended weakness of not having card draw while still letting white find the pieces it wants to use in commander or in synergistic limited decks.
For commander specifically, I want to see more Monarch-generating designs in the space of Palace Jailer: Cards that simultaneously bring monarch into the game and care about when you lose/gain it. It is a semi-symmetrical card draw effect that you can build around and encourages the game to move forward and also allow's white's overabundance of life gain to become relevant as it is attacked repeatedly while being the monarch as well as helping passively whittle down its opponents as they fight over the monarchy as well.
I don't think white needs much help beyond that since you just pick a power level to play at before the game starts. Card flow IS necessary to make 100-card singleton decks function and raw card draw is also necessary to acquire enough lands / overcome 1 for 1s, so I think both of these are needed in sufficient quantities for white-heavy decks to have deckbuilding options as opposed to all white decks playing the same staples.
What I'd like to see:
2W
Legendary Creature
When THIS enters the battlefield, if you control a commander, target opponent becomes the monarch.
Fill in the blank type, P/T, other ability. Getting monarch in play on turn 3 every game makes this immediately build around in a way that Marchesa isn't and would be interesting and useful in a mono-white shell. If only white could do treasures too...
When you become the monarch, create a treasure token.
I wouldn't be surprised to see variants of Rhystic Study in Commander supplements or Conspiracy or the like in the future. Maybe also cards that reward you for chump-blocking with card draw- "For the greater good" flavor. Sacrificing Plains for card draw could work well in concert with all of the Land Tax flavored stuff they keep printing; the problem with a critical mass of those abilities is that they do stop working.
I wouldn't be surprised to see variants of Rhystic Study in Commander supplements or Conspiracy or the like in the future. Maybe also cards that reward you for chump-blocking with card draw- "For the greater good" flavor. Sacrificing Plains for card draw could work well in concert with all of the Land Tax flavored stuff they keep printing; the problem with a critical mass of those abilities is that they do stop working.
I think taxing/punishing effects fit white very well in commander, as it falls within white flavorfully and mechanically. On the other hand, sacrificing lands for card draw fits white neither flavorfully nor mechanically. The land searchers you alluded to are certainly no justification for something in the line of Aggressive Mining no more than white's token strategies justify a white Goblin Bombardment. Sacrificing lands for resources is so indelibly red that it would take a fairly tortuous twist to cram such a mechanic into white. As far as lands themselves that draw cards, white-based EDH decks have access to a number of decent colorless options.
I wouldn't be surprised to see variants of Rhystic Study in Commander supplements or Conspiracy or the like in the future. Maybe also cards that reward you for chump-blocking with card draw- "For the greater good" flavor. Sacrificing Plains for card draw could work well in concert with all of the Land Tax flavored stuff they keep printing; the problem with a critical mass of those abilities is that they do stop working.
I think taxing/punishing effects fit white very well in commander, as it falls within white flavorfully and mechanically. On the other hand, sacrificing lands for card draw fits white neither flavorfully nor mechanically. The land searchers you alluded to are certainly no justification for something in the line of Aggressive Mining no more than white's token strategies justify a white Goblin Bombardment. Sacrificing lands for resources is so indelibly red that it would take a fairly tortuous twist to cram such a mechanic into white. As far as lands themselves that draw cards, white-based EDH decks have access to a number of decent colorless options.
I agree that taxing is very in white. Maybe also non symmetric effects like some conditional wraths but might it more weigthed to white's strength (maybe weenies? or gain 2 life for each of your creature destroyed?). Or more chaining creatures like the rebels, which is kinda like card advantage. Or more effects that give an extra body (probably too abusable with blink)
The land searchers you alluded to are certainly no justification for something in the line of Aggressive Mining no more than white's token strategies justify a white Goblin Bombardment. Sacrificing lands for resources is so indelibly red that it would take a fairly tortuous twist to cram such a mechanic into white. As far as lands themselves that draw cards, white-based EDH decks have access to a number of decent colorless options.
I think you could spin it as agriculture or farming. Maybe you don't sacrifice the lands, but they get exiled temporarily?
I actually like the way WotC does recent white cards, they just need to pack more punch. A perfect example would be Land Tax, it let you search THREE lands even when you're down by one/two, so I don't see why Cartographer's Hawk can't search for at least two lands.
That, and I think white should utilize more of its Balance effect, allowing it to do LD/Discard base on how behind you are. That way, white would have an unique "advantage" of equalizing the game, without imitating other colors like Harmonize did.
I also believe white should have a sense of "civilization" in its feel, since Land Tax + Scrollrack is a common white card advantage symbolizing trades and exchange. Trading Post should've been a white card really. Armistice follows that idea but it could use a buff. I created a card in the past that goes like this (hope I remember it correctly):
Dawn of Civilization 1W
Enchantment
W, sacrifice a creature: Return target artifact with converted mana cost 1 or less to the battlefield. W, sacrifice an artifact: Search your library for a basic lands and put them into your hand. 2W, sacrifice a land: Create two 1/1 white Citizen tokens.
The flavor of the card goes like: People died build a home -> Tools used to create lands -> Land feeds people. It's within white's flavor to work with lands, small creatures, and small artifacts (eggs).
Another one being:
Government Dealings 1W
Instant
Choose one:
- Search your library for a permanent card and reveal it, then put it into your hand. Target opponent gains control of a permanent you control of the same type as the card revealed this way.
- Search your library for an instant or sorcery card and reveal it, then put it into your hand. Target opponent may cast a card in your graveyard of the same type this turn without paying its mana cost.
It looks bad on the front, but at instant speed Government Dealings offers tremendous amount of politics in addition to card search, which means that unlike the self-serving blue or black tutors1 you are able to make a bargain with potential allies. Besides, if you don't have the right card for your opponent to steal, this would just be a powerful tutor.
Political Prisoner | 1W
Instant
Target opponent becomes the monarch.
Exile target creature until the monarch changes.
A flicker effect with built-in monarchy introduction that can be used in a variety of ways is extremely palatable to me. I would play this in everything just to get the monarch draw engine going. You typically can't benefit from it it as early as a Phyrexian Arena but it doesn't cost your whole turn when you finally get to start drawing cards with it.
Option 1) Make the cards do/stop more (Broader Answer, Stax, and Tokens)
This is the most simple answer of them all, all but ignoring the problem and essentially trying to “brute force” past it by making good cards. If you can’t guarantee drawing the “right” answer, let’s make answers that address most problems. If you can’t guarantee drawing as many creatures as an opponent, let’s give you an army of tokens to make up the difference. If your opponents keep going off, let’s chain them up with stax.
Pros:
-While white would work more efficiently, it’s share of the color pie will remain unchanged.
-While wizards throws down a hate-bear every once in a while, wizards has rarely tacked a hatebear effect to an actual beater (Linvala and Thalia is basically it). Likewise, we haven’t gotten a Path to Exile-level card in quite a while.
-This strategy certainly has the most precedent among printed cards.
Cons:
-No matter how broad answers and threats become, there will always be times when you need specific cards from your library and this approach does nothing to stop that primary problem.
-This strategy may make Azorius or Abzan decks stronger while failing to actually make mono-white decks more playable in general.
Examples
Call the Brigade
Sorcery (U)
Create three 1/1 white soldier creature tokens.
Absolving Wave
Instant (R)
Exile up to X nonland permanents and/or nonland cards in graveyards. For each card exiled in this way, its owner gains life equal to its converted mana cost.
Skygazer Archon
Creature- Archon (Mythic)
Flying, Vigilance
Whenever an opponent draws a card, create a 1/1 white bird creature token with flying.
3/4
Option 2) Reuse the Cards You Have (Bounce, Blink, and Reanimate)
These abilities get their own section, as they are often grouped together. The ability to reuse ETB triggers to form an extended value engine, getting the most out of every card you have drawn, is a tempting way to get “value” without getting card advantage. Reanimation in particular can be seen as a way to get card advantage (at least in regard to the board state) without needing to touch the library.
Pros:
-All of these options are already supported in mono-white.
-We have seen very few cards that can implement blinking and self-bouncing in mono-white without an outside investment of mana and cards (with the odd exception of Eiganjo Free-Riders, which was part of a cycle). If white had access to reusable self-bounce/blink that didn’t require high mana expenditure (less cloudshift, more Conjurer’s Closet), we might be able to generate some real value in white.
-Even without needed ETB triggers, bounce/blink can blank kill spells and reanimation is a useful tool for certain.
-It would incentivize the creation of more “leaves the battlefield” triggers, which is a useful trigger that we haven’t seen a lot of in recent times (and that works well for commanders)
-As mentioned above, reanimation can generate board advantage without touching the library.
Cons:
-Still does nothing to address the “need a card I have not drawn” problem.
-White is fighting with blue for blink effects and with both black and green for reanimation effect. The only thing it really has to itself these days is self-bounce… which is inherently mana inefficient as it requires you to pay the mana cost of the bounced creature once more.
-While the game has a heavy focus on ETB triggers already, that sort of effect may require a greater amount of focus still if white is expecting to rely on these cards… which could warp the game a fair bit.
Examples
Renegade Rescuer
Creature- Kor Warrior (U)
: Return target creature you control to its owner’s hand.
1/1
Flickersprite
Creature- Spirit (R)
Flash
When Flickersprite enters the battlefield, exile another target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Flickersprite, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
2/2
Dreambound Herald
Creature- Angel (M)
Flying
Whenever Dreambound Herald or another nontoken creature you control enters the battlefield, you may exile a nonland permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard and create a token copy of that card.
4/4
Option 3) Search Harder
While green gets the most tutors (I say that land searching counts) and black gets the best tutors, white is no joke when it comes to searching for answers. Whether it is looking for Plains, Equipment, Auras, Enchantments, Planeswalkers, Legendary Permanents, Weak Creatures, or Low CMC creatures, white has a number of ways to search for whatever silver bullets it needs. It also possesses a number of tutors that hit multiple targets (such as Three Dreams, Land Tax or Ranger of Eos), which technically generates card advantage. Focusing on this element of white, WotC could let white actually answer whatever it needs.
Pros
-To a certain extent, this method does answer the problem of needing to get a card you have not drawn yet. As time, goes on, the number of answers that can be gained through even corner-case tutors will naturally increase. A Ranger of Eos can grab you protection (Mother of Runes), anti-enchantment tech (nova cleric), and/or land search (Weathered wayfarer), for example.
-This focus does not impact white’s current slice of color pie.
Cons
-Wizards has been trying to move away from the constant shuffling that tutors and fetches creates and leaning into tutoring for white would run counter to that goal. Of course, this may be more of a “tutoring is an unlikely fix” thing than a “tutoring is a bad fix” thing.
-While card draw (even reusable card draw) increases the odds of getting what you want, having too much tutoring in the game plays into linear and predictable (often combo-focused) gameplay… which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Examples:
Stalward Companion
Creature- Human Soldier (U)
When Stalward companion enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature with converted mana cost 1 or less and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
1/1
Skyward Gaze
Sorcery (R)
Search your library for up to two creature cards with flying and reveal them, then shuffle your library and put those cards on top of your library in any order.
Grand Campaign
Sorcery (M)
Search your library for any number of creatures with converted mana cost 2 or less and put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. Those creatures gain indestructible until the end of your next turn.
Option 4) Cantrips! (And Death Cantrips)
Every color gets some number of cantrips and both green and blue have gotten “death-cantrips” a la Jeskai Sage. Why not utilize cantrips and “death-cantrips” to produce a steady stream of cards and help cards replace themselves. Conditional cantrips (EX: When ~this~ enters the battlefield, draw a card if you control two or more creatures) are another possible measure to make the draw feel more “white” if needed.
Pros
-If we can reach a critical level of decent cantrip effects and decent blink effects, white can form a traditional card advantage engine through untraditional means.
-It allows for the traditionally borderline playable effects (combat tricks, disenchant, etc.) to replace themselves. While Wildsize isn’t a staple by any means, cheap cantrips could work with commanders like Feather or Zada.
-It can’t be a color pie violation if it’s an effect that all colors get.
Cons
-While cantrips help dig for effects, they are far from the peak of efficiency and there are hardly any cantrips among high-level cards (Maybe Cryptic Command?)
-While big creatures with built in cantrips built in can work (just ask Pelakka Wurm), it doesn’t feel impressive on them.
-Because cantrip effects are thrown onto cards rather than occupying their own cards, it’s hard to do cantrip effects that don’t feel “tacked on”.
Examples (Common to Rare as it feels weird on Mythics)
Protective Sigil
Sorcery (C)
Target creature gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Leonin Pride
Creature- Cat Soldier (U)
When Leonin Pride enters the battlefield, create two 1/1 white cat soldier creature tokens.
When Leonin Pride dies, draw a card.
1/1
Jeskai Ascendant
Creature- Human Monk (R)
When Jeskai Ascendant enters the battlefield, draw a card.
When Jeskai Ascendant dies, you may exile it. If you do, may cast an enchantment or artifact spell from your hand without paying its mana cost.
4/5
Option 5)Filter from the Top
While beast hunt and similar effects are most commonly found in green, every color seems to have a certain number of cards that filter through the top few cards in search of something (such as Militia Bugler or Acclaimed Contender. Also in this category is the Scry action word, which has historically appeared in every color in both Mirrodin and Theros blocks (even if it is most commonly found in blue).
Pros:
-While scrying doesn’t directly add a card to your hand, white may actually be the color least bothered by this. As white has a history of using flexible sweepers to wipe out multiple threats, they are often more concerned with digging down to the “right” answer instead of picking up “enough” answers. While drawing cards is clearly better, scrying serves white pretty well.
-While they have the potential to “whiff”, card filtering effects occupy a neat mid-point between card draw and search that helps sculpt available resources. Most of the strong suits for card searching apply hear… to a limited extent.
-Unlike tutoring, these effects don’t push combo decks too far and don’t require tons of shuffling.
Cons
-While both abilities have been in white in the past, card filtering abilities have the most presence in Green while scry is primarily in izzet colors. While the use of these abilities might not be a color pie “break”, it would certainly represent a shift.
-Filtering cards typically come with more deckbuilding stipulations than search cards do. You can’t use Acclaimed Contender to reliably find a single Umezawa’s Jitte as a Stoneforge Mystic could. Rather, these cards require a critical density of targets in order to function… and putting enough targets for a random trigger to give multiple choices is often overkill.
-While scrying would be something, most good cards that scry either do so incidentally (Like Path of Ancestry or Dissolve) or have card draw build in (see Serum Visions or Preordain).
Examples:
Fated Defender
Instant (U)
Scry 2, then reveal the top card of your library. If you reveal a creature card in this way, create a 1/1 white warrior creature token.
Divine Oracle
Enchantment Creature- Spirit (R)
When Divine Oracle enters the battlefield, look at the top seven cards of your library. You may cast an aura enchantment with enchant creature from among them without paying its mana cost. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
3/3
Honored Procession
Enchantment (M)
Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is that card’s power. You may reveal a creature card with power less than X from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in the order of your choice.
Option 6) Symmetrical Card Draw:
As this seems to be the direction that wizards is moving in with spells like Happily Ever After, it’s worth looking at the virtues of this strategy… especially as its value in multiplayer settings is… interesting.
Pros:
-Has precedent in the form of Truce.
-Feels relatively white in flavor.
-Is good for group hug.
Cons:
-Unless carefully designed, each of these cards to serve as card “disadvantage”
-Is actively worse in multiplayer settings, where the percentage of resources granted by the card to you can drop from 50% to 25% or lower.
-Relatively small design space for good cards with this effect.
Samples:
Silent Contemplation
Sorcery (U)
Players cannot case spells until your next turn.
Each player draws 2 cards.
Wealth to Wisdom
Instant (R)
Exile up to X target artifacts. For each artifact exiled in this way, each player draws a card.
Enlightenment
Sorcery (M)
Each player with fewer than seven cards in hand may draw cards equal to the difference. For the rest of the game, each player may cast no more than one spell each turn.
Option 7) Let’s Do The Time Warp Again!
Pop quiz! What do exploration, investigate, and monarch have in common? The answer, all three were primary set mechanics related to card advantage that happened to have some cards in white. I’ve seen a number of people ask on Blogatog if one of these mechanics could come back to be white’s primary form of card advantage. While the answer given is always know, one could still imagine these mechanics making a cameo in a commander deck… Note that manifest can also fit in this category… if only the morph deck from last year wasn’t Sultai…
Pros
-All three of these mechanics have appeared in white before.
-All of these abilities grant card advantage in their own ways. While one of them (monarch) grants potential ongoing card advantage, the other two are effects that could theoretically be triggered reapeatedly.
-While Monarch is rated 6 or 7 on the Storm Scale, Investigate is sitting around 3 or 4. There’s a very good chance that at least that mechanic could come back.
Cons
-Whether this would work or not, this is one of the few things that we’ve been flat-out told isn’t going to happen. We’re hoping for throwback cards to appear in Modern Horizons 2 or a Commander Deck or something… and for that card to be playable. It’s a pretty big long-shot.
-While at least investigate seems likely to return in the future (at least based on the storm scale), it takes a very specific design of card (*cough*tracker*cough*) to actually catch on, meaning that the “usable” design space is quite small.
Examples:
Trueblood Guard
Creature- Vampire Knight (U)
When Trueblood Guard enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
Whenever Trueblood Guard attacks the monarch, it gets +2/+0 and gains indestructible until end of turn.
1/2
Righteous Crusade
Enchantment (R)
When Righteous Crusade enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 human soldier creature token.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control fewer lands than each opponent, target creature you control explores.
Impetuous Investigator
Creature- Human Rogue (M)
Vigilance
Whenever a player is dealt combat damage, Investigate.
, Sacrifice X Clues: Exile target creature with power X or less.
4/3
Possibility 8) Stealing Top-Deck Play
Getting into highly speculative realms, I’d like to suggest stealing a mechanic from Simic for white. While most people know Futuresight or Oracle of Mul Daya to have effects that don’t seem white, getting a 1-card extension to your hand (the top of your library) that is continuously replenished and that can only be used under certain circumstances seems pretty orderly in a grand calculatron sense. While this ability would need to be paired with specific limitations (only legendary creatures, only auras and equipment, only soldiers, etc.), I’d love to see this become a tertiary effect in white.
Pros
-Provides ongoing source of card advantage in the right shell.
-Has been used as the basis for several cards that see decent play.
Cons
-Not sure how much card advantage you’d actually get if you were restricted beyond only using creature or only using lands from the top of your library. Might not be feasible.
-Belongs to other colors already, as stated.
-While multiple cards with similar abilities technically work together, I’d say that the way they do so (allowing you to use an aura OR a weak creature, for example) feels impactful.
-White doesn’t really get the mana needed to burn through a whole bunch of cards in a single turn.
Examples
Curio Vender
Creature- Human Artificer (U)
You play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may cast the top card of your library if it’s an artifact card with converted mana cost 1 or less.
2/2
Frontline Recruiter 2W
Creature- Human Soldier (R)
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
You may cast the top card of your library if it’s a creature card with power 2 or less.
1/1
Harbinger of Calamity
Creature- Spirit Avatar (M)
Indestructible
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
You may cast the top card of your library without paying its converted mana cost if it’s a sorcery spell with converted mana cost 4 or greater.
6/6
Solution 9) Playing Catch-Up
Ever since Balance, white has had a thing for evening the odds, whether that means tearing opponents down to your level… or building yourself up. Timely Reinforcements and Linvala, the Preserver help you catch up with creatures and life while Land Tax, Oreskos Explorer, and so forth help you catch up with lands. The only thing that white can’t catch up with, it seems, is hand size… as slithermuse is a blue effect. I am willing to argue that the slither muse effect should be white as well, whether it means fully catching up in hand or just drawing a single card.
Pros
-It makes sense from a flavorful perspective.
-It gives white card draw but doesn’t allow the player to “pull ahead’, much like white ramp.
Cons
-Unlike with white ramp spells, a player who tosses out all of their cards onto the field before “catching up” with another player is actually getting a significant boost instead of simply removing a handicap. This might just be too much.
-On a similar line of thought, this effect may play too well with the traditional White Weenie strategy… which some people may see as a strength as that strategy doesn’t really do much in commander. A matter of perspective, I guess.
-Again, this isn’t currently a white effect.
Examples:
Wise Investment
Sorcery (U)
If you have at least two fewer cards in hand than target opponent, draw two cards.
If you control at least two fewer lands than target opponent, create two treasure tokens.
Elevation
Sorcery (R)
Choose target player with more cards in hand than you. You draw cards equal to the difference and gain 1 life for each card drawn in this way. You may not cast spells until your next turn.
Voice of Generosity :swmw:
Creature- Angel (M)
Flying, Lifelink
At the beginning of your upkeep, any number of target opponent with fewer cards in hand than you may draw 2 cards
At the beginning of your end step, you may draw a card for each opponent with more cards in hand than you.
4/6
Solution 10) Combat Trigger
Okay, now we’re getting kind of “out there”. While this “solution” certainly can’t solve white’s problem all on its own, it allows white to get better value out of its cards… which may well be a necessary step. I have noticed that combat step triggers, currently found in every color, aren’t really that common… In spite of being one of the best times to have triggers. Unlike an upkeep or EoT trigger, this is a trigger that can go off on the turn you play it… before giving you a chance to cast more spells in the same turn. Compared with an ETB trigger, a combat trigger gives opponents a chance to respond with instant-speed kill but triggers every single turn without any need for outside resources (possibly several times per round if the ability triggers at the beginning of each combat like Odric instead of just combat on your turn).
Pros
-It isn’t out of color/flavor for white
-As discussed above, it’s a pretty good trigger for getting value.
-No need for a bounce/blink/reanimation engine to keep getting this value.
Cons
-As mentioned, it doesn’t fix the fundamental problem of needing a card that you haven’t drawn yet. It’s a quantitative value boost when we really need a qualitative shift.
-Making more triggers throughout the turn more common can make for memory issues.
Examples
Dazzling Decoy
Creature- Human Soldier (U)
At the beginning of combat on your turn, tap target creature.
2/1
Sigilbearer
Creature- Elephant Soldier (R)
Exalted
At the beginning of each combat, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. That creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
2/2
Fabled Fiendbinder
Creature- Human Cleric (M)
At the beginning of combat on your turn, exile another target permanent with converted mana cost 4 or higher until Fabled Fiendbinder leaves the battlefield.
2/3
Option 11) Self-Mill
As I’m going through every option I can think of, it was only a matter of time until I reached this one. To be perfectly clear going in, I realize why white doesn’t have this effect. Sultai already has dominion over this ability (in fact, it’s one of the few common abilities that sultai colors possess) and white has more than one graveyard sweeper.
With that said, I wanted to take a deeper look at this. While blue has Dredge cards from Khans, Flashback (including Snappy and Baby-Jace), Labman effects, and Archaeomancer effects… white is the only color with straight-up reanimation that utterly lacks the means to put things into the graveyard. While it’s true that white has some of the best graveyard sweepers, those effects also exist in Black and Green… which do have access to self-mill. While it can truthfully be said that the reanimation theme is underplayed in white and that several of its cards focus on reviving things that just died (which wouldn’t flavorfully work with self-mill), I feel that there is an argument for putting in at least a few self-mill cards as blue really doesn’t need an additional form of card advantage on top of everything else it does.
What would self-mill look like in white, then? I personally imagine it being a rare effect in the color (maybe 1-2 cards per year) that uses self-mill as part of a cost rather than being a primary effect or an incidental byproduct, flavorfully tying back to themes of martyrdom, atonement, self-mortification, Personal Sacrifice, and Bittersweet Memories.
Pros
-Provides digging and indirect card advantage without putting cards in hand.
Cons
-Effect is well established as not belonging in this color so far.
-Limited cards in white can meaningfully take advantage of this effect at this time.
Examples:
Martyr’s Resolve
Instant (U)
Target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. Whenever that creature takes damage this turn, you gain that much life and put that many cards from the top of your library into your graveyard.
Beloved Ancestor
Creature- Spirit (R)
Flying
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
, put the top card of your library into your graveyard: target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
3/3
Future’s Promise
Enchantment (M)
Whenever you would be dealt damage by a source an opponent controls, instead put that many cards from the top of your library into your graveyard.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are no cards in your library, exile Future’s Promise and creature a 6/6 white avatar creature token with Doublestrike, Haste, and Flying.
Option 12) Bureaucracy (New Ability)
Yeah, I wouldn’t be doing my job as a homebrewer if I didn’t come up with at least one brand new mechanism for white to access cards. While I call it “bureaucracy”, this ability is not keyworded in the same way that red’s impulse card draw isn’t keyworded. As a matter of fact, bureaucracy was highly inspired by red’s impulse.
As with impulse, this ability exiles a number of cards from the top of your library. Unlike impulse, however, you do not possess the ability to cast these cards from exile. Instead, the card comes with some condition wherein one of the exiled cards is added to your hand, at which point the card can be cast normally. Certain cards with Bureaucracy can also reference statistics of cards they have exiled (such as a knight gaining protection from all colors among cards it has exiled), making bureaucracy an odd mixture of Imprint and Hideaway. While this card provides a decent degree of selection by exiling multiple cards at once, it functions as an extremely slow version of permanent-based card draw… which seems about right for white card-advantage.
Pros
-Doesn’t belong elsewhere in color pie.
-Can imitate passable card draw engines in other colors but the loss of surprise and speed, coupled with the fact that you lose those cards if your engine is destroyed, prevents this ability from truly matching other colors.
-Lots of open design space.
Cons
-High potential for “feel-bad” moments.
-Mostly restricted to permanents
Examples (doubled amount for demonstrative purposes)
Beneficent Banker
Creature- Human Citizen (U)
When Beneficent Banker enters the battlefield, exile the top three cards of your library.
, : Place a card exiled by Beneficent Banker into it’s owner’s hand, then exile a card from your hand.
0/3
Questing Knight
Creature- Human Knight (U)
When Questing Knight enters the battlefield, exile the top four cards of your library.
Questing Knight has protection from all colors among cards its has exiled.
The first time Questing Knight deals combat damage to a player, put a card exiled by questing knight into its owner’s hand.
3/3
Guardian of the Scales
Creature- Angel (R)
Flying
When Guardian of the Scales enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top two cards of your library.
At the beginning of your end step, put a card exiled by Guardian of the Scales of target opponent’s choice into its owner’s hand.
2/4
Sunsculptor
Creature- Giant Artificer (R)
Whenever you cast an artifact or enchantment spell, choose one:
Deepburrow Slumber
Enchantment (M)
At the beginning of each upkeep, exile the top card of your library face down.
Whenever you take damage, you may sacrifice Deepburrow Slumber. If you do, reveal all cards exiled from it and put all creature cards revealed in this way into their owners’ hands.
Soulcarver Paladin
Creature- Human Knight (M)
Doublestrike, Vigilance
When Soulcarver Paladin enters the battlefield, exile the top 7 cards of your library.
Whenever Soulcarver Paladin deals combat damage to a player, you may put a card exiled by Soulcarver Paladin on top of it’s owner’s library.
2/2
Option 13) Wait for Bends
If I’m trying to cover all of my bases, there is one simple option that I really can’t ignore… and that would be waiting. While white “doesn’t do card draw”, there have been a number of flavorful bends over time. Sram, Truesteel Paladin, Mesa Enchantress, Alms Collector, Mentor of the Meek are all excellent examples of flavorful “one-of” bends to fit certain decks. If we flat-out need direct card draw and no replacement will do, it feels like we only need to wait for the slow drip of white card advantage to eventually give us the small card advantage engine we need for an enchantress deck, white weenie deck, or equipment deck. Building a card advantage suite out of mistakes, color bends, and minor breaks may be a realistic possibility in the future… if anyone has that kind of patience.
Pros
-Even with all of the new teams testing out cards, it feels like this is all but inevitable.
Cons
-Ain’t nobody has time for that.
-Even those flavorful bends will likely silo players into very specific deck archetypes, which isn’t the ultimate desire here.
-Again, waiting is for chumps.
Examples:
Cleansing Adept
Creature- Human Cleric (U)
The first time each turn that an artifact or enchantment is destroyed, draw a card.
2/2
Generous Patron
Creature- Human Noble (R)
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell, its controller may draw a card.
1/2
Enlightened Armsmaster
Creature- Human Monk Warrior (M)
Equip costs you pay cost less.
When Enlightened Armsmaster dies, draw a card for each equipment that was attached to Enlightened Armsmaster.
4/3
For commander specifically, I want to see more Monarch-generating designs in the space of Palace Jailer: Cards that simultaneously bring monarch into the game and care about when you lose/gain it. It is a semi-symmetrical card draw effect that you can build around and encourages the game to move forward and also allow's white's overabundance of life gain to become relevant as it is attacked repeatedly while being the monarch as well as helping passively whittle down its opponents as they fight over the monarchy as well.
I don't think white needs much help beyond that since you just pick a power level to play at before the game starts. Card flow IS necessary to make 100-card singleton decks function and raw card draw is also necessary to acquire enough lands / overcome 1 for 1s, so I think both of these are needed in sufficient quantities for white-heavy decks to have deckbuilding options as opposed to all white decks playing the same staples.
What I'd like to see:
2W
Legendary Creature
When THIS enters the battlefield, if you control a commander, target opponent becomes the monarch.
Fill in the blank type, P/T, other ability. Getting monarch in play on turn 3 every game makes this immediately build around in a way that Marchesa isn't and would be interesting and useful in a mono-white shell. If only white could do treasures too...
When you become the monarch, create a treasure token.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
I think taxing/punishing effects fit white very well in commander, as it falls within white flavorfully and mechanically. On the other hand, sacrificing lands for card draw fits white neither flavorfully nor mechanically. The land searchers you alluded to are certainly no justification for something in the line of Aggressive Mining no more than white's token strategies justify a white Goblin Bombardment. Sacrificing lands for resources is so indelibly red that it would take a fairly tortuous twist to cram such a mechanic into white. As far as lands themselves that draw cards, white-based EDH decks have access to a number of decent colorless options.
I agree that taxing is very in white. Maybe also non symmetric effects like some conditional wraths but might it more weigthed to white's strength (maybe weenies? or gain 2 life for each of your creature destroyed?). Or more chaining creatures like the rebels, which is kinda like card advantage. Or more effects that give an extra body (probably too abusable with blink)
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Oooh Dicey:
[dice=1]100[/dice]
I think you could spin it as agriculture or farming. Maybe you don't sacrifice the lands, but they get exiled temporarily?
That, and I think white should utilize more of its Balance effect, allowing it to do LD/Discard base on how behind you are. That way, white would have an unique "advantage" of equalizing the game, without imitating other colors like Harmonize did.
I also believe white should have a sense of "civilization" in its feel, since Land Tax + Scrollrack is a common white card advantage symbolizing trades and exchange. Trading Post should've been a white card really. Armistice follows that idea but it could use a buff. I created a card in the past that goes like this (hope I remember it correctly):
Dawn of Civilization
1W
Enchantment
W, sacrifice a creature: Return target artifact with converted mana cost 1 or less to the battlefield.
W, sacrifice an artifact: Search your library for a basic lands and put them into your hand.
2W, sacrifice a land: Create two 1/1 white Citizen tokens.
The flavor of the card goes like: People died build a home -> Tools used to create lands -> Land feeds people. It's within white's flavor to work with lands, small creatures, and small artifacts (eggs).
Another one being:
Government Dealings
1W
Instant
Choose one:
- Search your library for a permanent card and reveal it, then put it into your hand. Target opponent gains control of a permanent you control of the same type as the card revealed this way.
- Search your library for an instant or sorcery card and reveal it, then put it into your hand. Target opponent may cast a card in your graveyard of the same type this turn without paying its mana cost.
It looks bad on the front, but at instant speed Government Dealings offers tremendous amount of politics in addition to card search, which means that unlike the self-serving blue or black tutors1 you are able to make a bargain with potential allies. Besides, if you don't have the right card for your opponent to steal, this would just be a powerful tutor.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Instant
Target opponent becomes the monarch.
Exile target creature until the monarch changes.
A flicker effect with built-in monarchy introduction that can be used in a variety of ways is extremely palatable to me. I would play this in everything just to get the monarch draw engine going. You typically can't benefit from it it as early as a Phyrexian Arena but it doesn't cost your whole turn when you finally get to start drawing cards with it.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill