MTG Salvation

One of the qualities I love most about EDH is how maleable the format is. It can be hyper-competitive; political; self-imposed 75%; thematic; tribal, to a rules pedants paradise. Many of these decks I have build and enjoyed. This build, however, is different.

This is my nostalgia EDH deck.

I began playing magic during 4th Edition. My friends and I decided to start playing magic together in Year 7, infact it was how I formed my first friendship circle during those nervous early weeks of High School. We all picked a colour and, each time we bought a booster pack, we'd just allocate the cards out amongst ourselves according to colour. We had no idea of rarity or value then, it was just a game.

Time passed, I got out of playing magic (girls were much more interesting) and 20-odd years evaporated. Since returning to magic I've enjoyed relearning Standard (BW Heroic was the closest to White Weenie I could find) and have developed my collection considerably. However, I still didn't have a deck that captured the sensations of my first allocated colour: white.

So here is the deck I enjoy playing the most, my White Weenie EDH deck.

Self-Imposed Build Challenges

• I want to use as many cards from my childhood as possible
• Subsequently, as many post-Theros block cards from my return to magic
• In a multi-player world that is unfriendly to aggro, I want to stay true to the WW philosophy whilst keeping it relevent

First, I spent a few weeks acquiring all the original cards that I loved as a kid. My goal was to find the oldest printing possible. Many of these cards are terrible by modern standards, like many kids I was obsessed with the creatures. However, because of the childhood memories these cards would form the core un-cuttable essence of the deck.

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I promise I wont be putting every card in the 100 up in images like this. But these early cards with the early art... You've got to admit they do look pretty amazing. Of note, no Savannah Lions. I never saw one in my entire career playing as a kid and didn't even realise it existed, no point in rewriting history.

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With this above core of uncuttables, my real challenge was to find a way of breathing life back into these underpowered, old cards. Fortunately some of my work was already done for me.

Early Magic cards valued colour hate. Red hated Blue. White hated Black. Everybody hated Stasis. However, this wasn't just limited to protection from colours and emotional outbursts. Rather, early magic flourished on true hate. Order of the Sacred Torch providing card counter against black is pretty likely to be useful on a 4-player table, as is Northern Paladin's ability to destroy any black permanent. Enchantments? Creatures? Whatever, John Cleese will have none of it.

Cards like Karma and Angry Mob required a little more creatively to resurrect. Fortunately, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth doesn't have a colour identy! This allows Karma to ping all indiscriminantly whilst also allowing Angry Mob to grow to 2+total number of lands on the table! Creatures from The Dark have never felt so beefy.

Another way to allow little creatures to maintain relevance is through +1/+1 counters, specifically our general. This lead to a few other inclusions:


The other essential quality of a Weenie Deck? Anthems: Crusade, Always Watching, Gauntlet of Power, Marshal's Anthem & Cathars' Crusade are my choices (with Captain of the Watch doing a good impression). I wish I could find space for Divine Sacrament and Angelic Voices, their history would get the nod over more pragmatic inclusions like Spear of Heliod. Equally, I had considered Leonin Sun Standard for its mana-sink appeal. However I decided to prioritise creature density.

The other quality of Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit is her creature type: Soldier. I realised that coincidentally many of my favourite creatures had been errated to being either human; a solider; or best, a human soldier. As such a soldier subtheme began to develop.


Finally, I needed to build some longevity into the deck. EDH is not an aggro friendly format. 40 life and multiple opponents means that T1 1 drop, T2 2 1 drops, T3 Anthem is not going to cut it. Whilst white has access to some natural card advantage and amazing removal, I wanted as much of the deck to revolve around the creatures. As such my goal was to try and generate card advantage, with my creatures. Likewise, resilience via creatures.

Some elements were easier than others. White has a lot of virtual x-for-1 creatures that generate significant value: Argivian Archaeologist, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Mentor of the Meek, Heliod, God of the Sun, Ranger of Eos, Restoration Angel, Karmic Guide, Knight-Captain of Eos, Reveillark, Stormfront Riders, Captain of the Watch, Sun Titan, Angel of Glory's Rise.

Mastery of the Unseen is a non-creature card that also provides an ongoing source of creatures. Significantly, manifest cards are not tokens. They do trigger Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. They also trigger Archangel of Thune when flipped.

Graveyard creature recursion is a strong theme that is continued in the other spells: Cauldron of Souls, Emeria, the Sky Ruin and my personal favourite... Enduring Renewal. Yes, it is vulnerable to well timed enchantment removal. But I loved it as a kid and I still love it now.

Finally, Eldrazi Displacer allows me to repeat ETB effects whilst performing double duty as a Mother of Runes / Planar Guide / Eight-and-a-half-Tails impersonator.

Of course much of white's natural card advantage has been in Magic since the beginning: Land Tutoring. Land Tax & Tithe ensure a relatively comfortable curve. Managing lands has become more important since the changing of of-colour lands too. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth used to allow me to tap plains for black, which became colourless, to activate Eldrazi Displacer. Now it is a bit more tricky. Being a mono-coloured deck I don't have the same access to filter lands to create my colourless mana which is why I've leant heavily of underpowered fetches that can create colourless immediately and find plains if i'm in a pinch.

Finally, interraction.

There are wraths and spot removal like any other deck. However I decided that if this were to be a weenie deck (granted bigger weenies than usual), I wanted to try and push the size matters concept. As such, I wanted to include a few Meekstone effects. Crackdown also got the nod along with Elspeth, Sun's Champion. One of the cute interractions is that Eldrazi Displacer returns the creature it tagets to the battlefield tapped in the end step. Equally the tap down ability of Elite Scaleguard takes on a new meaning with one of these effects on the table.

Yes, there is a strong element of a nonbo here. It is mitigated to some degree by many of my creatures having Vigilance to begin with as well as cards like Always Watching, Captain of the Watch & Heliod, God of the Sun providing Vigilance to the team. This doesn't help when cards like Catapult Master require the tapping down of my cards. To be honest, in these circumstances I'm likely just to not play them, they represent 2 cards out of 100 which is fine for casual EDH. Elspeth, Sun's Champion also proves plenty useful enough with her +1 and -7 abilities alone.

Significantly, Heliod, God of the Sun is an enchantment and can always be found via Enlightened Tutor. Speaking of which, this has to be the best card to see in your opening hand. Short on lands? Find Land Tax. Fearful of Wipes? Mastery of the Unseen. Clamp down Fatties? Meekstone. Make Fatties? Cathars' Crusade. Happiness is...

So there's the overview, here is the final list.

I've had some good memories with this deck already. Generally they involve people needed to read, then re-read the old cards in awesome new circumstances. Here are some of my favourites:

• I have Mastery of the Unseen and a gummed up board with ground creatures, notably including two manifested creatures from previous turns. My Prossh, Skyraider of Kher opponent attempts to kill me in the manner that most Prossh decks try to do, lethal commander damage. He attacks, I declare no blocks. He sacrifices more than enough kobolds for lethal. "Are you dead?" It was a good question, as I take priority and unmanifest Rashida Scalebane.
• I attack with Angry Mob, no blocks. "Are you sure?" I ask, giving my opponent an opportunity to double check the board state. He declines to change his mind. "Take 48". He picks up the card and reads it, confusion. I point out the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth the player on his right played in the previous turn.
• Clogged boardstate including Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, Mastery of the Unseen, manifest creatures, +1/+1 tokens galore and open mana (this is always the starting ingredients for a good story). One opponent has had enough. Damnation. In flashes Restoration Angel exiling a manifest creature. The face up side that returns? Cauldron of Souls.
• General Jarkeld. Just the general, nothing else. So many times people read the card and assume he only swaps blockers of creatures attacking me. Not at all, he works on any attack step. Politics, anyone?
• Cathars' Crusade + Elspeth, Sun's Champion = Borrowing dice.
• Explaining how banding works whilst players looked bemused at a 7/7 Mesa Pegasus
• Dropping Elite Scaleguard in Main 1 before tapping all the creatures in my attack step
• Watching my opponents get excited seeing a Beta Disenchant, then go nuts when I play my Beta Serra Angel

Is this deck hyper-competitive. Nope.

Am I proud with tight-rope dance of maintaining a White Weenie feeling deck in a multiplayer environment. 100%

This deck definitely isn't a specialist deck, its not like other monowhite decks that have dedicated themselves to the art of token generation or enchantments. Perhaps it is fair to call this build a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, but I think that adds to the charm of playing it. For a creature based deck that likes to turn cards sideways it still presents a surprisingly varied series of lines and options.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this writeup on my current favourite deck, perhaps there is some inspiration there to diverge from classic EDH builds and dip your toes in quirkier waters. If so, it is definitely a rewarding challenge to try and strike a balance between priorities other than power and efficiency.

If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. Doubly so if it tightens the deck thematically.

Awesome deck to see. Makes EDH games that much more intresting and enjoyable. Only thing I could suggest is Knight of the White Orchid. Its White Weenie so lands are not that huge deal. But it triggers Emeria, first strikes and helps out if you are getting mana screwed. White weenie was my first tournament deck and I had no idea what I was doing, I was 9, but remember beating the Necropotence players with my protection from black "cheese" they called it.

Thanks for the kind words folks.

Glad to see there are some other EDH players floating around who love the experience of Commander more than winning.

As for Knight of the White Orchid, yeah it is strictly better than White Knight which competes in that spot. And that is why it doesn't get a spot, who can go past the high-fantasy art of the original.

Finally, black players... Our black player used to have the most unbeatable deck if he curved out well. T1 Will-O'-The-Wisp into T2-4 regenerate the blocker. T5 Sengir Vampire, T6 Nightmare. Who could beat that?

Simpler times.