After seeing commander threads filled with white hate, and pretty much what seems like a general consensus that mono-white is the worst mono-color in commander, I want to set out to prove everyone wrong. I believe mono-white is just as competitive as not just mono-red, but mono-green and mono-black as well. None of the colors holds a candle to a well-built mono-blue deck though, unfortunately. So what do I know about mono-white that no one else knows? Well, for starters, I don't believe people are playing to white's strengths. No, I'm not talking about voltron, or tokens, or pump. Running any of these is like trying to run a burn deck in commander - you're probably going to set yourself up for failure. Now I'm not saying it's impossible to win with these strategies - it's just that it doesn't play to white's commander strengths. Second, I believe white is very difficult to play because many of the strategies and synergies simply do not seem very intuitive unless you have experience playing them. Many white cards that I play get squints, rolling eyes, or downright disbelief that I'm playing that "jank"... that is, until they see what the cards can do first-hand. The bottom line is, you can't just roll out a bunch of good white cards and call it a deck - a lot of white's strengths comes more from the interactions of several cards that, while strong on their own, provide incredible synergy when put together.
What I am hoping to do is create a complete re-thinking and revisioning of how white, specifically, mono-white, is played, that not only will be more competitive, but that players might have more fun playing white as well. Be warned, however, that I'll also be criticizing a few common white favorites that I do not believe are are strong as people believe them to be (Serra Ascendant and Luminarch Ascension are two good examples of overrated cards... not saying they don't have their place, they just don't belong in every deck).
One note about mono-black and mono-green - they are not nearly as powerful as a lot of people believe them to be. Interestingly, people often overstate their advantages and understate their disadvantages, while the opposite for red and white. Mono-black is pretty much a sitting duck against artifacts, enchantments, and spells on the stack, since discard plays a much different and limited role in Commander. While black does have more mana doublers than other colors, the fact is that every color has access to enough of them that it really limits this advantage of black. Mono-black generally only can play one type of game really well, but simply folds to combo and control. Mono-green on the other hand is geared towards ramp aggro, and while it is very strong, still lacks consistent card draw and resiliency to wipes. The one major advantage I would say that they do have is more support from the general zone; mono-white has very limited choices as commander.
Who am I?
So why listen to me? Well for starters, I've played white decks pretty much the majority of my time playing MtG. I've played pretty much every form of white weenie imaginable, Soul Sisters, rebels, life.dec, Parfait, Rabid Wombat, G/W Slide, Death and Taxes, U/W Tempo, and more that I probably can't remember. In Commander, I've run four mono-white generals and I've tried a few more than that as well; currently every single commander deck I run has white as a major contributor (Saffi Eriksdotter, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Selenia, Dark Angel, Heliod, God of Sun).
Besides my love affair with everything white, I consider myself a pretty decent Magic player as well. I win a pretty good share of the tournaments at my LGS, usually with Saffi at the helm. Besides that, I've played off and on since fourth edition. Many of the older players on this forum might know who I am as I used to be extremely active on this forum. My biggest accomplishment here was creating a relatively popular Saffi Recursion Deck that simply just ramped into Primeval Titan then just sacced and recurred it upwards of 3-4 times a turn. That was, until the Titan got banned...
While I have not yet run Heliod in a tournament yet, he has posted very strong results thus far, winning at a pretty decent ratio. What's more, I am very proud of Heliod's ability to match mono-green's land ramp. Yes, you heard that right. No, I'm not smoking anything. Besides Heliod though, I've also extensively played mono white with Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero, Mangara of Corondor, and Akroma, Angel of Wrath at the helm.
White Strengths
If you guessed "sweepers", "removal", "tokens", or "pump" guess what, you're wrong! White is far, far more powerful than this. If that's all you're using white for, then it's no wonder you might see white as a weak color. While these are all traditionally white's share of the color pie, they just won't cut it for commander. Making several 1/1s just doesn't do a whole lot when players have 40 life. While it's entirely possible to use these abilities to your advantage, if we want to keep up with the rest of the field, we have to go a different route.
White is exceptionally good at supporting artifacts and enchantments, recurring any permanents (Not just creatures), flicker effects, land search, equipment, and Stax effects. A strong mono-white deck needs to take advantage of these strengths as much as humanly possible. White wants to make the most out of every possible permanent; instead of getting one use out of Solemn Simulacrum, the goal is to either blink or sac/recur it upwards of 3-4 times in order to maximize value.
So why play mono-white then? The single biggest reason to go mono-color is because of a powerful commander who can overcome the weaknesses of mono-color, because let's face it - you are at a disadvantage the moment you decide that you want to restrict yourself to one color. Unfortunately for white, we do not have any ridiculously powerful mono-white commanders, though we do have a few that are powerful enough to overcome white's weaknesses (ie. Heliod, God of Sun or Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero). The second biggest reason to go mono-color is that it gives you access to artifact mana doublers (Gauntlet of Power, Extraplanar Lens) and cards like Strata Scythe. With white, we also get all the artifact support that white provides (ie. Enlightened Tutor, Argivian Find).
The biggest reasons to play mono-white in particular is an easily activated Emeria the Sky Ruin which is one of the strongest recursion engines in the game, and Land Tax one of the strongest card advantage engines in the game (Though you can generally run Tax in non-green Wx decks as well).
The Basics
White often wins games not through alpha strikes or comboing out, but by slowly gaining incremental advantages over opponents until they simply cannot win. While white still can alpha strike (ie. Mirror Entity) or combo out (Reveillark combo), it is not always reliable for white. There are numerous ways for white to gain these incremental advantages but I'm going to simplify them into "white engines" and "control elements". White engines are one or more cards that, when put together and used over time, will net you board position or card advantage. Control elements are one or more cards that gains board position or card advantage by negating opponents' ability to use spells.
The most well known white engine is Land Tax and Scroll Rack, which, when used in conjunction, basically allows you to draw an additional three cards per turn. Another common one is a recursion engine (Sun Titan or Emeria the Sky Ruin, a sac outlet and an ETB creature. Along the same lines is a flicker effect (ie. Galepowder Mage or Skybind and an ETB creature). White is able to maximize value out of every card by what I'm going to call the "triple threat", that is, value from when a creature ETBs, value from the sacrifice, and value from the recursion. For example, a Knight of the White Orchid is pretty strong on its own - it finds an untapped plains when it ETBs for ramp. The Knight equipped with Skullclamp sacrificed to Helm of Possession, then brought back with Sun Titan and you can start to see how much advantage white can accumulate. Flicker effects are similar, but slightly slower and slightly less potent, but more difficult to hate out.
What this means is that the first goal for a mono-white player is to be able to assemble one of these engines, because this is the main method for you to gain card advantage. This also means that you might start off a match a little slower than other players, but not only will you be able to quickly catch up, but you will have an unsurmountable endgame if left unchecked. Trust me, once players see how powerful white's engines are, they will stop at nothing to be rid of them (And often fail!). If anyone played during Onslaught block, I'm sure you are well aware of Astral Slide and its power to completely bury opponents in card advantage; our goal is similar in what we are trying to accomplish.
"Control elements" is exactly what it sounds like, and probably what most players are already familiar with. Using Wrath of God creates card advantage by taking out multiple threats to very few of your own. Linvala, Keeper of Silence may disable multiple cards of an opponent's, creating psuedo-card advantage. There isn't much more for me to say on this topic because I'm sure most players are already well-versed here.
Things to Avoid
Too many sweepers - I understand the value of including a few sweepers to deal with insane boards, but oftentimes I see a mono-white list jam-packed with 10+ sweepers. I believe running too many sweepers is often used as a crutch that simply is not necessary. I used to play with a lot of sweepers, and as I cut down on them over time, I did not notice any difference to my win ratio. In fact, it actually allowed me to do a lot more with my deck, for a couple reasons: Running sweepers slows you down as much as it slows other players down. Not only do you have to hold mana up (Often 4+ mana) to play a sweeper, but it also discourages you from playing cards because it will be removed by the sweeper anyway. There is a huge difference between holding up one mana for a Swords to Plowshares and holding up 7 mana to cast an instant speed Rout. I understand that some players are afraid of using a card like Swords because it only trades 1-for-1, but this hardly matters - you don't need it to answer everything, you just need it to answer whatever will be killing you. This is where politics comes into play - As long as other players don't attack you or aren't about to win the game, then you shouldn't care about their board. On the contrary, if you go ahead and sweep the board when they aren't a threat to you just yet, then they might start attacking you. Bottom line is that using too many sweepers is a crutch, and it's better to diversify your answers with spot removal (Swords to Plowshares), fogs (Seht's Tiger), bombs (Comeuppance or Angel of the Dire Hour) or pre-emptive prevention (Ghostly Prison).
Efficient creatures with no value - Second mistake I see players making is including cards that only beat face or do damage. Serra Ascendant looks strong as a potential 6/6 flying lifelink on turn one, but is it going to kill anyone? Probably not. Is it worthwhile playing it after turn one? Again, probably not. Luminarch Ascension falls into this same trap - 4/4 flyers for 2 mana seems great, until you realize that all they do is just attack for 4 damage. And that's not even getting to the fact that you have to wait a full turn around for it to be active, and if you play it early, you won't even have much mana to sink into it (Not that you'd even want to since you'd want that mana for building up resources). Stay away from this trap! Ascendant and Luminarch not belong in most white decks!
Equipment - many players don't know how to use equipment properly. I see two main uses for equipment - utility, and voltron. Simple creature buffs is ineffective because 40 damage is a lot harder to deal than 21. If you're not going to voltron route, then the only purpose of your equipment is utility. So if the equipment doesn't provide utility, don't use it! On a similar note, the same thing applies for equipment generals - they should either support voltron or utility strategy. Kemba, Kha Regent does not fit as a voltron commander due to no evasion, no protection, and his ability does nothing for a voltron strategy.
Creature tokens - Yes, I understand; white has a lot of efficient token generators. This doesn't mean you should be running them though. Tokens, on their own, are your basic vanilla 1/1s. Even worse, they cannot be recurred nor can they be flickered, which takes away two of white's specialties. Now, I understand that a dedicated token deck can be a viable strategy, but this strategy needs a lot of support to make it work. What this means though is that if your deck isn't geared towards a token strategy, putting in token generators just because they're efficient and you draw cards from Clamp (Hint: Clamp is good with pretty much any creature) may not be the best idea.
Commanders
If I were to give one weakness to mono-white, white's commander selection would be it. Unfortunately, white has repeatedly gotten the shaft when it comes to interesting and powerful commanders. In DTK, black gets an awesome tutor and sac engine all rolled into one. Meanwhile, white gets... a white weenie pump commander. Yay. That said, there are a few powerful commanders that you can still utilize through a little creativity.
The Strongest Heliod, God of Sun - Surprise surprise, I list my own general here. I originally scoffed at Heliod for producing expensive four mana tokens. But the more important aspect is that Heliod is an enchantment producer, which enables white to utilize all of its enchantment support to the fullest, from Serra's Sanctum to Skybind.
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero - Lin Sivvi by herself provides tutoring, card advantage, answers at instant speed, recursion, and uncounterability. She can protect herself (Changeling Hero), can combo out (Task Force and Outrider en-Kor), can lock down hexproof voltron generals ([Bound in Silence) and can tutor at will for one of the best white creatures in the game (Mirror Entity). Only knock on Lin Sivvi is that, no matter how many cool tricks she can do, it's still rebels and they're still weak and overcosted. That said, she can hold her own at even the most competitive tables and can sneak out wins.
Mangara of Corondor - Extremely abusable, especially in white. Using an instant speed sac outlet and recursion, or instant speed flicker, you can reuse Mangara repeatedly to exile anything you want. Having an active Mangara on the board works as an incredible rattlesnake.
Jazal Goldmane - One of the best choices if you're going for a token or weenie aggro build. Jazal is pretty much a white Ezuri, Renegade Leader and provides a ton of finishing power.
Other choices Eight-and-a-half-tails - My personal choice if I were to go voltron. He protects himself and your permanents, and gives evasion as well, provided you have the mana.
Odric, Master Tactician - You can either make him unblockable or blow out the opponent's field. Another option besides Jazal for aggro depending on whether you want unblockable creatures or deadly creatures.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope - It could just be my tendency to not play removal that "destroys" but I'm not really a fan of Avacyn. That said, she's still a good choice in conjunction with a lot of sweepers and if your meta is heavy into creature combat. She can be a blowout against certain aggro decks, but at the same time, she is extremely weak against combo.
Akroma, Angel of Wrath - She provides a strong finisher for white control, allowing you to focus on other things. The main problem with her is that 8 mana can be prohibitive and all she does is beat (Though she does that very well). Even something as small as a Skullclamp makes her a three turn clock.
Darien, King of Kjeldor - One of the better token producing generals due to his interaction with Soul Warden and her sisters, which creates a nice soft lock and lets you take advantage of life gaining cards like Well of Lost Dreams, Archangel of Thune, and Felidar Sovereign. He tends to play very differently from other white decks though since he usually does best using self damage. The fact that he creates Soldiers is also nice, which allows you to play a soldier tribal theme as well. I personally just wish he were a little more efficient than a 3/3 for 6 mana.
Kemba, Kha Regent - I personally don't like Kemba. She wants equipment on her to produce tokens, which makes players want to go voltron with her. Except her ability doesn't help with voltron and she's just a 1/3 and she has no built in evasion or protection. Also, the one equipment that should always be the first go-to, Skullclamp, doesn't even work with the tokens she produces. Finally, she only produces tokens after being equipped for a full turn, which makes her really slow and clunky.
Nahiri, the Lithomancer - Although Nahiri looks like a powerful equipment general at first glance, there are several issues that make her pretty awkwar to run. First off, she's a planeswalker which means that none of your equipment can be used on her to begin with. Second, while her abilities appear to support equipment, in practice, none of them actually works that well with equipment. Her first ability only produces a 1/1 token, meaning you won't even be able to get full advantage out of it through the attack step until a full turn has passed. Besides that, very rarely would you want to equip vanilla 1/1s with your equipment. Her second ability is decent, but it's actually pretty difficult to abuse because there's very little support for it. Even in optimal scenarios, it's just way too slow - take Argentum Armor - If you use the second ability to cheat it into play, then the first ability to cheat the equip, you can attack with it after another turn - a full three turns before using the Argentum Armor. Finally, her ultimate is pretty lackluster. That said, she does provide some value primarily by giving you a free equip with utility equipment - Skullclamp basically makes her +2 read "draw 2 cards". Deathrender and a sac outlet lets you cheat creatures into play. Heartseeker, while a little slow, lets you kill a creature every other turn. Bottom line is that the best use of Nahiri, sadly, is to just try to abuse the free two cards from Clamp every turn.
Card Advantage
I define "card advantage" as any card that gives the player more physical cards in hand or more physical cards on board than the player originally started with from the library; this is to emulate what "card draw" does as closely as possible - dig further into your library while netting more cards than you started with. This is because a lot of white cards are not "card draw" but it still nets card advantage in a similar way, just conditional. While removal and recursion can net card advantage, they will be written about in another section.
The baseline for "playable" that I use are cards that are better than Jayemdae Tome, which acts repeatable, unconditional colorless card draw, albeit at a relatively high cost. Anything that costs the same or more as Tome I consider unplayable. Therefore, Armistice does not make the cut for being way too expensive for its activation. Keep in mind that this is just the absolute baseline; Tome isn't really playable in most decks either, so just because a card might be more efficient than Tome doesn't necessarily make it playable.
Skullclamp - This is your go-to for draw engines. White is in perfect position to take full advantage of Clamp, with equipment tutors, artifact and creature recursion, and tokens. It's absolutely brutal with a sac-recur engine going. Really, why use other card draw when you have this easy access to the best equipment in the game?
Land Tax - Tax + Scroll Rack is a pretty well known engine to draw an extra three cards a turn for one mana, provided you have fewer lands than anyone else which isn't difficult if anyone else is playing green. It's also easy to stay under the land count using mana rocks and lands such as Karoo.
Tithe - 2 cards for 1 mana at instant speed. One of the most efficient CA generators in the entire game, let alone in white. No matter what anyone tells you, this should be an auto-include. Arguments like "It doesn't do enough" or "I have no room for it" would be like telling a blue player not to play Brainstorm or Ponder for the same reasons. And I can guarantee you, Tithe is better than the worst land in your deck, so there's never a good excuse not to play it in mono-white.
Weathered Wayfarer - Wayfarer is pretty aptly named, since he comes out on turn one and does some major work throughout the rest of the game, netting you upwards of 5-6+ lands before players are sick of him and try to get rid of him. The fact that he finds any lands is also important, letting you get High Market for a sac engine and Emeria the Sky Ruin for your recur engine. Also note that you can force Wayfarer activations with fetchlands and Wasteland effects by saccing the land, then without passing priority, activate Wayfarer in response.
Endless Horizons - Get a land a turn. I usually only get between 5-10 lands depending on when I use it so that it's not a blowout if anyone destroys it. Usually, destroying it immediately is a bad play for opponents because getting a land a turn is far less dangerous than the majority of enchantments out there, but the fact it exiles your lands still makes it a juicy target for opponents. It's really a metagame call - if players leave it alone, then it's great - if players have a happy trigger finger and want to destroy it immediately, then it may not be the best option.
Gift of Estates - Similar to Tithe but not quite as good since it occasionally is a dead draw and is a sorcery. I personally don't play it because of the amount of land ramp that I play, but it's still an excellent choice.
Oblation - This used to be used mostly to tuck generals or act as removal for problem permanents. But it also happens to be a decent card draw spell. Two cards at instant speed for 3 mana isn't terrible, and it can potentially save a permanent or "sacrifice" a token. Its flexibility means there's almost always a use for it.
Mentor of the Meek - Should go in most decks for the amount of card draw that it can provide, especially if you play a lot of utility creatures and/or tokens. Be weary though - the one mana actually does hurt because it messes with your mana curve and it slows down aggro decks. Also be weary that it can be counterproductive with certain pump spells (Like Coat of Arms. It's still good enough that he should find a spot in most decks.
Mastery of the Unseen - Acts as pseudo-card draw in conjunction with library manipulation. Really amazing with flicker effects, sac outlets, and bounce, which white has all three. It's also a really good mana sink, and the life gain actually can be relevant at times. Definitely worth playing if you can abuse it.
Wall of Omens - Cantrip wall that will draw you a steady stream of cards with a sac + recur engine or a flicker engine.
Mesa Enchantress - Good if your deck plays a lot of enchantments.
Martyr's Cry - I've never actually used this card, but it's possible tech for token-based decks to draw a lot of cards.
Inheritance - Comes down very cheaply and its cost for draw isn't terrible, but because it's conditional card draw for 3 mana it's a little awkward to use at times. Decent option though I wish it were just a little cheaper to use.
Pursuit of Knowledge - While this is abusable with the help of green or blue, I have not seen many ways to abuse it in mono-white.
Scrying Sheets - Sheets is often used in mono-red and mono-white decks in conjunction with snow lands, but I personally find it too inconsistent and inefficient. It costs three mana for about a 1/3 chance of drawing a card; with the help of Top or Scroll Rack, it costs 4 mana to draw a card which is right at Jayemdae Tome level of inefficiency. Also, the bigger problem with it is that it's actually counterproductive with a lot of white engines that take lands out of your library, giving you less chances to hit on Sheets. The big advantage that it has is that it only takes up a land slot though so you won't lose much by running it.
Ramp
Wayfarer's BaubleSolemn Simulacrum, Burnished Hart - All the artifact land ramp works even better in mono-white for the potential to be abused multiple times. Burnished Hart fits right into Sun Titan range, which gets you an insane amount of lands.
Knight of the White Orchid, Kor Cartographer - True land ramp in white. White Orchid is usually better early game because it's cheaper and the land comes into play untapped, but I prefer Cartographer lategame because by then I've often outramped most other players by then. However, the Knight is in Sun Titan range while Cartographer is not.
Sun Titan - Yes, I'm listing Sun Titan here. It's incredibly easy to use him as ramp, not only by recurring Bauble, Hart and White Orchid but any fetchlands, artifact mana, or lands that were destroyed for any other means (ie. Mox Diamond or Dust Bowl.
Mox Diamond - Mox Diamond synergizes excellently with Land Tax and friends, trading a land for mana accel while keeping your land count down.
Path to Exile - Yes, I realize that Path is usually used as removal. But this doesn't always have to be the case in white. If I have an extra token sitting around early in the game, that token makes the perfect target for Path to net an extra land.
Explorer's Scope - Cheap, recurrable ramp, though inconsistent without library manipulation. But when it works, it's really good. White has great support for it with equipment tutors and cheap creatures to put it on.
Terrain Generator - Easy way to dump extra lands from all the land searching mono-white has.
Recursion
Sun Titan - The ability to recur any of your ramp, card draw, utility, lands, or whatever is amazing. Pair it with Gift of Immortality or Angelic Renewal for a near-unkillable titan. Combos out with a free sac outlet and Gift/Renewal, or Fiend Hunter.
Karmic guide/Reveillark - Guide can be used to bring back fatties reanimator style, Reveillark usually gets back utility. Put them together with a sac outlet and you have an infinite combo.
Gift of Immortality - Use this with any ETB creature and a sac outlet. It gets ridiculous fast. Even more ridiculous with Sun Titan.
Adarkar Valkyrie - Absolute force once active, but the tap activation hurts her.
Twilight Shepherd - In my experience, this angel looks a lot better than in practice. No flash means it can't really pre-emptively save you from board wipes, and returning cards to your hand makes it a little awkward to use. Potentially combos with Cauldron of Souls though.
Reya Dawnbringer - Sadly, all but replaced by a land nowadays in Emeria. The 9 mana is a little too expensive, and there are much better Loyal Retainers targets.
Nim Deathmantle - Solid option that can be tutored with equipment tutors though holding up 4 mana for recursion can be difficult.
One of white's biggest advantages is its ability to deal with pretty much anything (Yes, even spells on the stack, though this is generally in more roundabout ways). As I have stated previously, I am against running too many sweepers but instead having a diverse suite of versatile options.
Spot removal
The trick with spot removal is to not really worry about other players' boards until it really becomes a nuisance to you. Politics is key here, and you can even bluff Swords so that players know not to mess with you. Since this is a multiplayer game, a player with a scary board position doesn't necessarily need to be answered right away, as long as they are going after other players.
Swords to Plowshares - Most efficient spot removal in the game. Drawback doesn't matter. Almost aways has a target and almost always good. No reason not to run it.
Path to Exile - Almost as good as Swords, and in some cases better because it can be used as early ramp on your own creature (Or token). Don't forget that other players will occasionally give you a token as well (Terastodon).
Oblation - Made significantly worse with the new tuck rule change, but it still can be worthwhile to play since it answers anything and similar to Path, it can be used to draw cards on your own permanent/token. You can also use it in response to your commander dying, which will go to the command zone anyway for a free two cards.
Council's Judgment - Untargeted permanent removal that can occasionally deal with two permanents. Better than Oblivion Ring in most cases. Sorcery speed and three mana cost hurts it though.
Oblivion Ring - I personally would only run it if I had an instant speed sac outlet to permanently exile. Otherwise, it gets hurt badly with sweepers.
Fiend Hunter - Similar to O-Ring, but easier to abuse because it's a creature. With a sac outlet and a recursion engine, you can repeatedly and permanently exile creatures.
Unexpectedly Absent - Essentially instant speed removal for two mana. Compared to similar cards, this is the most efficient removal of its kind. Can also act as hard removal in response to any shuffle effect.
I was thinking just today about how I would go about building a mono white deck. I don't feel like playing a prison deck, so that section is shut off for me. Also, my playgroup doesn't necessarily "hate" MLD, but rather it's highly frowned upon, so Armageddon and its ilk are out as well. So this should be interesting to see.
I play quite a bit on modo and my most successful deck on there is Akroma, Angel of Wrath. A lot of decks can't deal with a 6/6 hasty pro red pro black first strike vigilance trampling monstrosity. It's practically artifact-accel.dec with card draw mana sinks.
Hastily grabbed the list, some of the slots are newer things I'm trying out.
Edit: There also used to be an excellent primer on card advantage engines available in white but I haven't seen it in a long time.
I would love to learn more about how to play monowhite better, since that's my favorite. I've figured out monowhite control works pretty well for me, but I'm sure I have room for improvement!
I think we may have been inspired by the same thing. I'm currently designing a mono-white deck to see if I'm able to get it to work at a level where people are actually trying to kill me.
Something that you'll need a fairly large section on: CARD ADVANTAGE. This is easily white's greatest weakness. I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with.
We should all only play G/x decks because they are the most objectively fun and anyone who disagrees does not know the truth about EDH. Everyone should just play their decks because interaction beyond high fiving about how many land are in play is unfun and equivalent to casting Stasis while kicking puppies. I for one will never play with anyone who casts tutors, removal spells, blue cards, or things I arbitrarily decide I don't like but will probably cast myself later.
I think we may have been inspired by the same thing. I'm currently designing a mono-white deck to see if I'm able to get it to work at a level where people are actually trying to kill me.
Something that you'll need a fairly large section on: CARD ADVANTAGE. This is easily white's greatest weakness. I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with.
that. a section on card advantage in white would be awesome. and not just "use colourless, like fool's tome", but some cool white tech for card advantage would be awesome.
I would definitely like to see this. I'm currently running Lin Sivvi so anything to improve upon would be a great resource to have. They're are many strategies mono white can have so it will be fun to see them all highlighted in depth.
I'm definitely curious to see more. To me, white has always lacked resilient engines (except for maybe a few Serra's Sanctum / Nykthos gameplans) and raw card advantage. White's CA usually comes in the form of Mentor of the Meek and Scroll Rack (which rely on other cards you play). My personal testing with Mono white and Boros is that it can "get stuck" if it's mid-game permanents are answered and your hand is depleted. I thought I had remembered that you were a mono-white evangelist - and I'd love to see some tips and insight from a veteran white player. My guess is that it requires much more subtlety and finesse than other colors to stay competitive.
*EDIT* my only concern is that your only mono-white list in the commander decklist database is your Akroma list from 2011.
Not bad, though it's more of a list of white cards that can be played, and there is a lot that I disagree with (ie. throwing Serra Ascendant into any deck).
I added a little to my primer so that you guys can get a taste of some of the things that I'll be writing about. Going to worry about formatting and everything later.
I'll also write a little about the other mono-colors as well and why mono-green and mono-black aren't quite as strong as people think they are.
Not bad, though it's more of a list of white cards that can be played, and there is a lot that I disagree with (ie. throwing Serra Ascendant into any deck).
Agreed. Gio's thread is great but the subject doesn't have a full write-up similar to our stax and token primers. More discussion is valuable and it sounds like a fun project I'd be happy to help with. I've had a mono-white deck in my collection for the full 8 or 9 years I've been playing EDH.
Something that you'll need a fairly large section on: CARD ADVANTAGE. This is easily white's greatest weakness. I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with.
that. a section on card advantage in white would be awesome. and not just "use colourless, like fool's tome", but some cool white tech for card advantage would be awesome.
I run Martyr's Cry in my mono-W deck, which has a token sub-theme.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
There are no divisions: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:28
I love my mono-white deck. It has a unique feel and play experience, and a very solid win percentage.
Here is the link: Rune-Tail Vigilance
The main advantage it has is that it skews combat drastically in my favor. The berserker in me also likes that I can attack like a demented squirrel without fear.
Not bad, though it's more of a list of white cards that can be played, and there is a lot that I disagree with (ie. throwing Serra Ascendant into any deck).
I dunno man, I hear 6/6 flying lifelinkers for 1 are pretty good in any metagame where combat damage and/or lifegain is remotely relevant.
We should all only play G/x decks because they are the most objectively fun and anyone who disagrees does not know the truth about EDH. Everyone should just play their decks because interaction beyond high fiving about how many land are in play is unfun and equivalent to casting Stasis while kicking puppies. I for one will never play with anyone who casts tutors, removal spells, blue cards, or things I arbitrarily decide I don't like but will probably cast myself later.
They are - but the skew the whole game out of your favor (even more so with 5+ players) nearly immediately (in my experience).
If you don't mind being the Archenemy all game, then go for it. I'm not sure if most mono-white builds want that kinda attention, though.
Not bad, though it's more of a list of white cards that can be played, and there is a lot that I disagree with (ie. throwing Serra Ascendant into any deck).
I dunno man, I hear 6/6 flying lifelinkers for 1 are pretty good in any metagame where combat damage and/or lifegain is remotely relevant.
All it does is beat face. Unless you're a pure aggro deck and you can take advantage of its early threat, there is no reason to run it. If you're not aggro, it's not going to help you win and it's a dead draw after turn 2-4.
Not bad, though it's more of a list of white cards that can be played, and there is a lot that I disagree with (ie. throwing Serra Ascendant into any deck).
I dunno man, I hear 6/6 flying lifelinkers for 1 are pretty good in any metagame where combat damage and/or lifegain is remotely relevant.
All it does is beat face. Unless you're a pure aggro deck and you can take advantage of its early threat, there is no reason to run it. If you're not aggro, it's not going to help you win and it's a dead draw after turn 2-4.
It's a reliable blocker and/or 6 life a turn. Granted, that's a lot more important in black decks (hello, Necropotence) but it's a very strong survivability cushion regardless of color. Even in combo decks, it's very solid for keeping you alive until you go off.
It's only lackluster if both (a) you're playing a nonblack deck, AND (b) everyone else is playing combo - because at that point attacks don't matter. Of course, in such a metagame, that's when you wouldn't be running it. Outside of that, it's good, and the weaker your opponents are, the better Serra is.
We should all only play G/x decks because they are the most objectively fun and anyone who disagrees does not know the truth about EDH. Everyone should just play their decks because interaction beyond high fiving about how many land are in play is unfun and equivalent to casting Stasis while kicking puppies. I for one will never play with anyone who casts tutors, removal spells, blue cards, or things I arbitrarily decide I don't like but will probably cast myself later.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Introduction
After seeing commander threads filled with white hate, and pretty much what seems like a general consensus that mono-white is the worst mono-color in commander, I want to set out to prove everyone wrong. I believe mono-white is just as competitive as not just mono-red, but mono-green and mono-black as well. None of the colors holds a candle to a well-built mono-blue deck though, unfortunately. So what do I know about mono-white that no one else knows? Well, for starters, I don't believe people are playing to white's strengths. No, I'm not talking about voltron, or tokens, or pump. Running any of these is like trying to run a burn deck in commander - you're probably going to set yourself up for failure. Now I'm not saying it's impossible to win with these strategies - it's just that it doesn't play to white's commander strengths. Second, I believe white is very difficult to play because many of the strategies and synergies simply do not seem very intuitive unless you have experience playing them. Many white cards that I play get squints, rolling eyes, or downright disbelief that I'm playing that "jank"... that is, until they see what the cards can do first-hand. The bottom line is, you can't just roll out a bunch of good white cards and call it a deck - a lot of white's strengths comes more from the interactions of several cards that, while strong on their own, provide incredible synergy when put together.
What I am hoping to do is create a complete re-thinking and revisioning of how white, specifically, mono-white, is played, that not only will be more competitive, but that players might have more fun playing white as well. Be warned, however, that I'll also be criticizing a few common white favorites that I do not believe are are strong as people believe them to be (Serra Ascendant and Luminarch Ascension are two good examples of overrated cards... not saying they don't have their place, they just don't belong in every deck).
One note about mono-black and mono-green - they are not nearly as powerful as a lot of people believe them to be. Interestingly, people often overstate their advantages and understate their disadvantages, while the opposite for red and white. Mono-black is pretty much a sitting duck against artifacts, enchantments, and spells on the stack, since discard plays a much different and limited role in Commander. While black does have more mana doublers than other colors, the fact is that every color has access to enough of them that it really limits this advantage of black. Mono-black generally only can play one type of game really well, but simply folds to combo and control. Mono-green on the other hand is geared towards ramp aggro, and while it is very strong, still lacks consistent card draw and resiliency to wipes. The one major advantage I would say that they do have is more support from the general zone; mono-white has very limited choices as commander.
Who am I?
So why listen to me? Well for starters, I've played white decks pretty much the majority of my time playing MtG. I've played pretty much every form of white weenie imaginable, Soul Sisters, rebels, life.dec, Parfait, Rabid Wombat, G/W Slide, Death and Taxes, U/W Tempo, and more that I probably can't remember. In Commander, I've run four mono-white generals and I've tried a few more than that as well; currently every single commander deck I run has white as a major contributor (Saffi Eriksdotter, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Selenia, Dark Angel, Heliod, God of Sun).
Besides my love affair with everything white, I consider myself a pretty decent Magic player as well. I win a pretty good share of the tournaments at my LGS, usually with Saffi at the helm. Besides that, I've played off and on since fourth edition. Many of the older players on this forum might know who I am as I used to be extremely active on this forum. My biggest accomplishment here was creating a relatively popular Saffi Recursion Deck that simply just ramped into Primeval Titan then just sacced and recurred it upwards of 3-4 times a turn. That was, until the Titan got banned...
While I have not yet run Heliod in a tournament yet, he has posted very strong results thus far, winning at a pretty decent ratio. What's more, I am very proud of Heliod's ability to match mono-green's land ramp. Yes, you heard that right. No, I'm not smoking anything. Besides Heliod though, I've also extensively played mono white with Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero, Mangara of Corondor, and Akroma, Angel of Wrath at the helm.
White Strengths
If you guessed "sweepers", "removal", "tokens", or "pump" guess what, you're wrong! White is far, far more powerful than this. If that's all you're using white for, then it's no wonder you might see white as a weak color. While these are all traditionally white's share of the color pie, they just won't cut it for commander. Making several 1/1s just doesn't do a whole lot when players have 40 life. While it's entirely possible to use these abilities to your advantage, if we want to keep up with the rest of the field, we have to go a different route.
White is exceptionally good at supporting artifacts and enchantments, recurring any permanents (Not just creatures), flicker effects, land search, equipment, and Stax effects. A strong mono-white deck needs to take advantage of these strengths as much as humanly possible. White wants to make the most out of every possible permanent; instead of getting one use out of Solemn Simulacrum, the goal is to either blink or sac/recur it upwards of 3-4 times in order to maximize value.
So why play mono-white then? The single biggest reason to go mono-color is because of a powerful commander who can overcome the weaknesses of mono-color, because let's face it - you are at a disadvantage the moment you decide that you want to restrict yourself to one color. Unfortunately for white, we do not have any ridiculously powerful mono-white commanders, though we do have a few that are powerful enough to overcome white's weaknesses (ie. Heliod, God of Sun or Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero). The second biggest reason to go mono-color is that it gives you access to artifact mana doublers (Gauntlet of Power, Extraplanar Lens) and cards like Strata Scythe. With white, we also get all the artifact support that white provides (ie. Enlightened Tutor, Argivian Find).
The biggest reasons to play mono-white in particular is an easily activated Emeria the Sky Ruin which is one of the strongest recursion engines in the game, and Land Tax one of the strongest card advantage engines in the game (Though you can generally run Tax in non-green Wx decks as well).
The Basics
White often wins games not through alpha strikes or comboing out, but by slowly gaining incremental advantages over opponents until they simply cannot win. While white still can alpha strike (ie. Mirror Entity) or combo out (Reveillark combo), it is not always reliable for white. There are numerous ways for white to gain these incremental advantages but I'm going to simplify them into "white engines" and "control elements". White engines are one or more cards that, when put together and used over time, will net you board position or card advantage. Control elements are one or more cards that gains board position or card advantage by negating opponents' ability to use spells.
The most well known white engine is Land Tax and Scroll Rack, which, when used in conjunction, basically allows you to draw an additional three cards per turn. Another common one is a recursion engine (Sun Titan or Emeria the Sky Ruin, a sac outlet and an ETB creature. Along the same lines is a flicker effect (ie. Galepowder Mage or Skybind and an ETB creature). White is able to maximize value out of every card by what I'm going to call the "triple threat", that is, value from when a creature ETBs, value from the sacrifice, and value from the recursion. For example, a Knight of the White Orchid is pretty strong on its own - it finds an untapped plains when it ETBs for ramp. The Knight equipped with Skullclamp sacrificed to Helm of Possession, then brought back with Sun Titan and you can start to see how much advantage white can accumulate. Flicker effects are similar, but slightly slower and slightly less potent, but more difficult to hate out.
What this means is that the first goal for a mono-white player is to be able to assemble one of these engines, because this is the main method for you to gain card advantage. This also means that you might start off a match a little slower than other players, but not only will you be able to quickly catch up, but you will have an unsurmountable endgame if left unchecked. Trust me, once players see how powerful white's engines are, they will stop at nothing to be rid of them (And often fail!). If anyone played during Onslaught block, I'm sure you are well aware of Astral Slide and its power to completely bury opponents in card advantage; our goal is similar in what we are trying to accomplish.
"Control elements" is exactly what it sounds like, and probably what most players are already familiar with. Using Wrath of God creates card advantage by taking out multiple threats to very few of your own. Linvala, Keeper of Silence may disable multiple cards of an opponent's, creating psuedo-card advantage. There isn't much more for me to say on this topic because I'm sure most players are already well-versed here.
Things to Avoid
Too many sweepers - I understand the value of including a few sweepers to deal with insane boards, but oftentimes I see a mono-white list jam-packed with 10+ sweepers. I believe running too many sweepers is often used as a crutch that simply is not necessary. I used to play with a lot of sweepers, and as I cut down on them over time, I did not notice any difference to my win ratio. In fact, it actually allowed me to do a lot more with my deck, for a couple reasons: Running sweepers slows you down as much as it slows other players down. Not only do you have to hold mana up (Often 4+ mana) to play a sweeper, but it also discourages you from playing cards because it will be removed by the sweeper anyway. There is a huge difference between holding up one mana for a Swords to Plowshares and holding up 7 mana to cast an instant speed Rout. I understand that some players are afraid of using a card like Swords because it only trades 1-for-1, but this hardly matters - you don't need it to answer everything, you just need it to answer whatever will be killing you. This is where politics comes into play - As long as other players don't attack you or aren't about to win the game, then you shouldn't care about their board. On the contrary, if you go ahead and sweep the board when they aren't a threat to you just yet, then they might start attacking you. Bottom line is that using too many sweepers is a crutch, and it's better to diversify your answers with spot removal (Swords to Plowshares), fogs (Seht's Tiger), bombs (Comeuppance or Angel of the Dire Hour) or pre-emptive prevention (Ghostly Prison).
Efficient creatures with no value - Second mistake I see players making is including cards that only beat face or do damage. Serra Ascendant looks strong as a potential 6/6 flying lifelink on turn one, but is it going to kill anyone? Probably not. Is it worthwhile playing it after turn one? Again, probably not. Luminarch Ascension falls into this same trap - 4/4 flyers for 2 mana seems great, until you realize that all they do is just attack for 4 damage. And that's not even getting to the fact that you have to wait a full turn around for it to be active, and if you play it early, you won't even have much mana to sink into it (Not that you'd even want to since you'd want that mana for building up resources). Stay away from this trap! Ascendant and Luminarch not belong in most white decks!
Equipment - many players don't know how to use equipment properly. I see two main uses for equipment - utility, and voltron. Simple creature buffs is ineffective because 40 damage is a lot harder to deal than 21. If you're not going to voltron route, then the only purpose of your equipment is utility. So if the equipment doesn't provide utility, don't use it! On a similar note, the same thing applies for equipment generals - they should either support voltron or utility strategy. Kemba, Kha Regent does not fit as a voltron commander due to no evasion, no protection, and his ability does nothing for a voltron strategy.
Creature tokens - Yes, I understand; white has a lot of efficient token generators. This doesn't mean you should be running them though. Tokens, on their own, are your basic vanilla 1/1s. Even worse, they cannot be recurred nor can they be flickered, which takes away two of white's specialties. Now, I understand that a dedicated token deck can be a viable strategy, but this strategy needs a lot of support to make it work. What this means though is that if your deck isn't geared towards a token strategy, putting in token generators just because they're efficient and you draw cards from Clamp (Hint: Clamp is good with pretty much any creature) may not be the best idea.
Commanders
If I were to give one weakness to mono-white, white's commander selection would be it. Unfortunately, white has repeatedly gotten the shaft when it comes to interesting and powerful commanders. In DTK, black gets an awesome tutor and sac engine all rolled into one. Meanwhile, white gets... a white weenie pump commander. Yay. That said, there are a few powerful commanders that you can still utilize through a little creativity.
The Strongest
Heliod, God of Sun - Surprise surprise, I list my own general here. I originally scoffed at Heliod for producing expensive four mana tokens. But the more important aspect is that Heliod is an enchantment producer, which enables white to utilize all of its enchantment support to the fullest, from Serra's Sanctum to Skybind.
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero - Lin Sivvi by herself provides tutoring, card advantage, answers at instant speed, recursion, and uncounterability. She can protect herself (Changeling Hero), can combo out (Task Force and Outrider en-Kor), can lock down hexproof voltron generals ([Bound in Silence) and can tutor at will for one of the best white creatures in the game (Mirror Entity). Only knock on Lin Sivvi is that, no matter how many cool tricks she can do, it's still rebels and they're still weak and overcosted. That said, she can hold her own at even the most competitive tables and can sneak out wins.
Mangara of Corondor - Extremely abusable, especially in white. Using an instant speed sac outlet and recursion, or instant speed flicker, you can reuse Mangara repeatedly to exile anything you want. Having an active Mangara on the board works as an incredible rattlesnake.
Jazal Goldmane - One of the best choices if you're going for a token or weenie aggro build. Jazal is pretty much a white Ezuri, Renegade Leader and provides a ton of finishing power.
Hokori, Dust Drinker - Winter Orb on a stick is about as oppressive as it gets for Stax generals.
Other choices
Eight-and-a-half-tails - My personal choice if I were to go voltron. He protects himself and your permanents, and gives evasion as well, provided you have the mana.
Odric, Master Tactician - You can either make him unblockable or blow out the opponent's field. Another option besides Jazal for aggro depending on whether you want unblockable creatures or deadly creatures.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope - It could just be my tendency to not play removal that "destroys" but I'm not really a fan of Avacyn. That said, she's still a good choice in conjunction with a lot of sweepers and if your meta is heavy into creature combat. She can be a blowout against certain aggro decks, but at the same time, she is extremely weak against combo.
Akroma, Angel of Wrath - She provides a strong finisher for white control, allowing you to focus on other things. The main problem with her is that 8 mana can be prohibitive and all she does is beat (Though she does that very well). Even something as small as a Skullclamp makes her a three turn clock.
Darien, King of Kjeldor - One of the better token producing generals due to his interaction with Soul Warden and her sisters, which creates a nice soft lock and lets you take advantage of life gaining cards like Well of Lost Dreams, Archangel of Thune, and Felidar Sovereign. He tends to play very differently from other white decks though since he usually does best using self damage. The fact that he creates Soldiers is also nice, which allows you to play a soldier tribal theme as well. I personally just wish he were a little more efficient than a 3/3 for 6 mana.
Kemba, Kha Regent - I personally don't like Kemba. She wants equipment on her to produce tokens, which makes players want to go voltron with her. Except her ability doesn't help with voltron and she's just a 1/3 and she has no built in evasion or protection. Also, the one equipment that should always be the first go-to, Skullclamp, doesn't even work with the tokens she produces. Finally, she only produces tokens after being equipped for a full turn, which makes her really slow and clunky.
Nahiri, the Lithomancer - Although Nahiri looks like a powerful equipment general at first glance, there are several issues that make her pretty awkwar to run. First off, she's a planeswalker which means that none of your equipment can be used on her to begin with. Second, while her abilities appear to support equipment, in practice, none of them actually works that well with equipment. Her first ability only produces a 1/1 token, meaning you won't even be able to get full advantage out of it through the attack step until a full turn has passed. Besides that, very rarely would you want to equip vanilla 1/1s with your equipment. Her second ability is decent, but it's actually pretty difficult to abuse because there's very little support for it. Even in optimal scenarios, it's just way too slow - take Argentum Armor - If you use the second ability to cheat it into play, then the first ability to cheat the equip, you can attack with it after another turn - a full three turns before using the Argentum Armor. Finally, her ultimate is pretty lackluster. That said, she does provide some value primarily by giving you a free equip with utility equipment - Skullclamp basically makes her +2 read "draw 2 cards". Deathrender and a sac outlet lets you cheat creatures into play. Heartseeker, while a little slow, lets you kill a creature every other turn. Bottom line is that the best use of Nahiri, sadly, is to just try to abuse the free two cards from Clamp every turn.
Card Advantage
I define "card advantage" as any card that gives the player more physical cards in hand or more physical cards on board than the player originally started with from the library; this is to emulate what "card draw" does as closely as possible - dig further into your library while netting more cards than you started with. This is because a lot of white cards are not "card draw" but it still nets card advantage in a similar way, just conditional. While removal and recursion can net card advantage, they will be written about in another section.
The baseline for "playable" that I use are cards that are better than Jayemdae Tome, which acts repeatable, unconditional colorless card draw, albeit at a relatively high cost. Anything that costs the same or more as Tome I consider unplayable. Therefore, Armistice does not make the cut for being way too expensive for its activation. Keep in mind that this is just the absolute baseline; Tome isn't really playable in most decks either, so just because a card might be more efficient than Tome doesn't necessarily make it playable.
Skullclamp - This is your go-to for draw engines. White is in perfect position to take full advantage of Clamp, with equipment tutors, artifact and creature recursion, and tokens. It's absolutely brutal with a sac-recur engine going. Really, why use other card draw when you have this easy access to the best equipment in the game?
Land Tax - Tax + Scroll Rack is a pretty well known engine to draw an extra three cards a turn for one mana, provided you have fewer lands than anyone else which isn't difficult if anyone else is playing green. It's also easy to stay under the land count using mana rocks and lands such as Karoo.
Tithe - 2 cards for 1 mana at instant speed. One of the most efficient CA generators in the entire game, let alone in white. No matter what anyone tells you, this should be an auto-include. Arguments like "It doesn't do enough" or "I have no room for it" would be like telling a blue player not to play Brainstorm or Ponder for the same reasons. And I can guarantee you, Tithe is better than the worst land in your deck, so there's never a good excuse not to play it in mono-white.
Weathered Wayfarer - Wayfarer is pretty aptly named, since he comes out on turn one and does some major work throughout the rest of the game, netting you upwards of 5-6+ lands before players are sick of him and try to get rid of him. The fact that he finds any lands is also important, letting you get High Market for a sac engine and Emeria the Sky Ruin for your recur engine. Also note that you can force Wayfarer activations with fetchlands and Wasteland effects by saccing the land, then without passing priority, activate Wayfarer in response.
Endless Horizons - Get a land a turn. I usually only get between 5-10 lands depending on when I use it so that it's not a blowout if anyone destroys it. Usually, destroying it immediately is a bad play for opponents because getting a land a turn is far less dangerous than the majority of enchantments out there, but the fact it exiles your lands still makes it a juicy target for opponents. It's really a metagame call - if players leave it alone, then it's great - if players have a happy trigger finger and want to destroy it immediately, then it may not be the best option.
Gift of Estates - Similar to Tithe but not quite as good since it occasionally is a dead draw and is a sorcery. I personally don't play it because of the amount of land ramp that I play, but it's still an excellent choice.
Oblation - This used to be used mostly to tuck generals or act as removal for problem permanents. But it also happens to be a decent card draw spell. Two cards at instant speed for 3 mana isn't terrible, and it can potentially save a permanent or "sacrifice" a token. Its flexibility means there's almost always a use for it.
Mentor of the Meek - Should go in most decks for the amount of card draw that it can provide, especially if you play a lot of utility creatures and/or tokens. Be weary though - the one mana actually does hurt because it messes with your mana curve and it slows down aggro decks. Also be weary that it can be counterproductive with certain pump spells (Like Coat of Arms. It's still good enough that he should find a spot in most decks.
Mastery of the Unseen - Acts as pseudo-card draw in conjunction with library manipulation. Really amazing with flicker effects, sac outlets, and bounce, which white has all three. It's also a really good mana sink, and the life gain actually can be relevant at times. Definitely worth playing if you can abuse it.
Wall of Omens - Cantrip wall that will draw you a steady stream of cards with a sac + recur engine or a flicker engine.
Mesa Enchantress - Good if your deck plays a lot of enchantments.
Martyr's Cry - I've never actually used this card, but it's possible tech for token-based decks to draw a lot of cards.
Inheritance - Comes down very cheaply and its cost for draw isn't terrible, but because it's conditional card draw for 3 mana it's a little awkward to use at times. Decent option though I wish it were just a little cheaper to use.
Pursuit of Knowledge - While this is abusable with the help of green or blue, I have not seen many ways to abuse it in mono-white.
Ranger of Eos - 1-drop package could include Weathered Wayfarer, Mother of Runes, Serra Ascendant, Kami of False Hope, Soul Warden, Children of Korlis, and Signal Pest, among others. I personally don't usually find Ranger to be worth it, because Wayfarer and maybe Mother of Runes are the only auto-includes that I'd use. The rest are good only in certain decks and/or metas.
Scrying Sheets - Sheets is often used in mono-red and mono-white decks in conjunction with snow lands, but I personally find it too inconsistent and inefficient. It costs three mana for about a 1/3 chance of drawing a card; with the help of Top or Scroll Rack, it costs 4 mana to draw a card which is right at Jayemdae Tome level of inefficiency. Also, the bigger problem with it is that it's actually counterproductive with a lot of white engines that take lands out of your library, giving you less chances to hit on Sheets. The big advantage that it has is that it only takes up a land slot though so you won't lose much by running it.
Ramp
Wayfarer's Bauble Solemn Simulacrum, Burnished Hart - All the artifact land ramp works even better in mono-white for the potential to be abused multiple times. Burnished Hart fits right into Sun Titan range, which gets you an insane amount of lands.
Knight of the White Orchid, Kor Cartographer - True land ramp in white. White Orchid is usually better early game because it's cheaper and the land comes into play untapped, but I prefer Cartographer lategame because by then I've often outramped most other players by then. However, the Knight is in Sun Titan range while Cartographer is not.
Sun Titan - Yes, I'm listing Sun Titan here. It's incredibly easy to use him as ramp, not only by recurring Bauble, Hart and White Orchid but any fetchlands, artifact mana, or lands that were destroyed for any other means (ie. Mox Diamond or Dust Bowl.
Mox Diamond - Mox Diamond synergizes excellently with Land Tax and friends, trading a land for mana accel while keeping your land count down.
Path to Exile - Yes, I realize that Path is usually used as removal. But this doesn't always have to be the case in white. If I have an extra token sitting around early in the game, that token makes the perfect target for Path to net an extra land.
Explorer's Scope - Cheap, recurrable ramp, though inconsistent without library manipulation. But when it works, it's really good. White has great support for it with equipment tutors and cheap creatures to put it on.
Terrain Generator - Easy way to dump extra lands from all the land searching mono-white has.
Recursion
Sun Titan - The ability to recur any of your ramp, card draw, utility, lands, or whatever is amazing. Pair it with Gift of Immortality or Angelic Renewal for a near-unkillable titan. Combos out with a free sac outlet and Gift/Renewal, or Fiend Hunter.
Karmic guide/Reveillark - Guide can be used to bring back fatties reanimator style, Reveillark usually gets back utility. Put them together with a sac outlet and you have an infinite combo.
Gift of Immortality - Use this with any ETB creature and a sac outlet. It gets ridiculous fast. Even more ridiculous with Sun Titan.
Emeria the Sky Ruin - Requires very little investment in mono-white. This, along with High Market, are usually my first targets with Weathered Wayfarer.
Marshal's Anthem - No one cares about the "anthem" part, it's really just used to bring back creatures.
Loyal Retainers - Only worth playing if you have multiple legends worth reanimating, particularly Yosei, the Morning Star, Iona, Shield of Emeria, and Avacyn, Angel of Hope. Usually better with black support though.
Order of Whiteclay - Has a ton of potential, but the untap and mana cost makes it difficult to abuse. Playable, but there are better options.
Sigil of the New Dawn - Very solid but not spectacular option for repeatable recursion since it returns to hand, not to the battlefield.
Enduring Renewal - Due to its restrictions, usually used as a combo piece with a 0-drop creature and a free sac outlet.
Open the Vaults/Replenish/Roar of Reclamation - White mass reanimation. Excellent if you're heavy in artifacts/enchantments.
Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward - Usually known more for combo pieces, they can also be used to cancel out board wipes. The cleanest way that I know of to combo with them is using Codex Shredder, Krark-Clan Ironworks, and Altar of the Brood.
Adarkar Valkyrie - Absolute force once active, but the tap activation hurts her.
Twilight Shepherd - In my experience, this angel looks a lot better than in practice. No flash means it can't really pre-emptively save you from board wipes, and returning cards to your hand makes it a little awkward to use. Potentially combos with Cauldron of Souls though.
Reya Dawnbringer - Sadly, all but replaced by a land nowadays in Emeria. The 9 mana is a little too expensive, and there are much better Loyal Retainers targets.
Nim Deathmantle - Solid option that can be tutored with equipment tutors though holding up 4 mana for recursion can be difficult.
Sword of Light and Shadow - Great option if you like attacking with creatures.
Protection/Removal
One of white's biggest advantages is its ability to deal with pretty much anything (Yes, even spells on the stack, though this is generally in more roundabout ways). As I have stated previously, I am against running too many sweepers but instead having a diverse suite of versatile options.
Spot removal
The trick with spot removal is to not really worry about other players' boards until it really becomes a nuisance to you. Politics is key here, and you can even bluff Swords so that players know not to mess with you. Since this is a multiplayer game, a player with a scary board position doesn't necessarily need to be answered right away, as long as they are going after other players.
Swords to Plowshares - Most efficient spot removal in the game. Drawback doesn't matter. Almost aways has a target and almost always good. No reason not to run it.
Path to Exile - Almost as good as Swords, and in some cases better because it can be used as early ramp on your own creature (Or token). Don't forget that other players will occasionally give you a token as well (Terastodon).
Oblation - Made significantly worse with the new tuck rule change, but it still can be worthwhile to play since it answers anything and similar to Path, it can be used to draw cards on your own permanent/token. You can also use it in response to your commander dying, which will go to the command zone anyway for a free two cards.
Council's Judgment - Untargeted permanent removal that can occasionally deal with two permanents. Better than Oblivion Ring in most cases. Sorcery speed and three mana cost hurts it though.
Oblivion Ring - I personally would only run it if I had an instant speed sac outlet to permanently exile. Otherwise, it gets hurt badly with sweepers.
Fiend Hunter - Similar to O-Ring, but easier to abuse because it's a creature. With a sac outlet and a recursion engine, you can repeatedly and permanently exile creatures.
Unexpectedly Absent - Essentially instant speed removal for two mana. Compared to similar cards, this is the most efficient removal of its kind. Can also act as hard removal in response to any shuffle effect.
Commander/EDH:
WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator WU
GW Saffi Eriksdotter GW
BW Selenia, Dark Angel BW
W Heliod, God of Sun W
Retired:
Jenara, Asura of War Thada Adel, Acquisitor Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero Lyzolda, the Blood Witch Akroma, Angel of Wrath Nath of the Gilt-Leaf Tajic, Blade of the Legion Selvala, Explorer Returned Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Tiny Leaders:
W Mangara of Corondor W
Before I continue writing more, are people interested in this? I'd like to get some feedback before I continue.
Also, sorry for the teasingly short intro. I don't have much time on my hands right now, but this is definitely a project that I want to get done.
Commander/EDH:
WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator WU
GW Saffi Eriksdotter GW
BW Selenia, Dark Angel BW
W Heliod, God of Sun W
Retired:
Jenara, Asura of War Thada Adel, Acquisitor Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero Lyzolda, the Blood Witch Akroma, Angel of Wrath Nath of the Gilt-Leaf Tajic, Blade of the Legion Selvala, Explorer Returned Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Tiny Leaders:
W Mangara of Corondor W
Hastily grabbed the list, some of the slots are newer things I'm trying out.
Edit: There also used to be an excellent primer on card advantage engines available in white but I haven't seen it in a long time.
1 Scroll Rack
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Grim Monolith
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Kor Haven
1 Temple of the False God
1 Wing Shards
1 Wrath of God
1 Fireshrieker
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Return to Dust
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Stonehewer Giant
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Mana Crypt
1 Swords to Plowshares
22 Plains
1 Condemn
1 Terrain Generator
1 Path to Exile
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Land Tax
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Mystifying Maze
1 True Conviction
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Mana Vault
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Caged Sun
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sol Ring
1 Day of Judgment
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Terminus
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Opal Palace
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Ur-Golem's Eye
1 Sisay's Ring
1 Aura of Silence
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Stonecloaker
1 Mind's Eye
1 Mind Stone
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Duplicant
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Expedition Map
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Sun Titan
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Urza's Armor
1 Burnished Hart
1 Staff of Nin
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Khalni Gem
1 Comeuppance
1 Loreseeker's Stone
White is my favorite color in Magic, so yes, go on, for sure; I'd love to hear your thoughts ( or anyone's, for that matter ).
I'm building my first white EDH deck along control lines, and having a lot of fun with it.
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
Mizzix Of The Izmagnus : wheels on fire... rolling down the road...
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
In Progress: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV duel; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Doomsday.
Something that you'll need a fairly large section on: CARD ADVANTAGE. This is easily white's greatest weakness. I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with.
that. a section on card advantage in white would be awesome. and not just "use colourless, like fool's tome", but some cool white tech for card advantage would be awesome.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
*EDIT* my only concern is that your only mono-white list in the commander decklist database is your Akroma list from 2011.
Not bad, though it's more of a list of white cards that can be played, and there is a lot that I disagree with (ie. throwing Serra Ascendant into any deck).
I added a little to my primer so that you guys can get a taste of some of the things that I'll be writing about. Going to worry about formatting and everything later.
I'll also write a little about the other mono-colors as well and why mono-green and mono-black aren't quite as strong as people think they are.
Commander/EDH:
WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator WU
GW Saffi Eriksdotter GW
BW Selenia, Dark Angel BW
W Heliod, God of Sun W
Retired:
Jenara, Asura of War Thada Adel, Acquisitor Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero Lyzolda, the Blood Witch Akroma, Angel of Wrath Nath of the Gilt-Leaf Tajic, Blade of the Legion Selvala, Explorer Returned Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Tiny Leaders:
W Mangara of Corondor W
Agreed. Gio's thread is great but the subject doesn't have a full write-up similar to our stax and token primers. More discussion is valuable and it sounds like a fun project I'd be happy to help with. I've had a mono-white deck in my collection for the full 8 or 9 years I've been playing EDH.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Here is the link: Rune-Tail Vigilance
The main advantage it has is that it skews combat drastically in my favor. The berserker in me also likes that I can attack like a demented squirrel without fear.
That's the thread I mentioned! Really good stuff in there.
I dunno man, I hear 6/6 flying lifelinkers for 1 are pretty good in any metagame where combat damage and/or lifegain is remotely relevant.
If you don't mind being the Archenemy all game, then go for it. I'm not sure if most mono-white builds want that kinda attention, though.
All it does is beat face. Unless you're a pure aggro deck and you can take advantage of its early threat, there is no reason to run it. If you're not aggro, it's not going to help you win and it's a dead draw after turn 2-4.
Commander/EDH:
WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator WU
GW Saffi Eriksdotter GW
BW Selenia, Dark Angel BW
W Heliod, God of Sun W
Retired:
Jenara, Asura of War Thada Adel, Acquisitor Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero Lyzolda, the Blood Witch Akroma, Angel of Wrath Nath of the Gilt-Leaf Tajic, Blade of the Legion Selvala, Explorer Returned Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Tiny Leaders:
W Mangara of Corondor W
It's a reliable blocker and/or 6 life a turn. Granted, that's a lot more important in black decks (hello, Necropotence) but it's a very strong survivability cushion regardless of color. Even in combo decks, it's very solid for keeping you alive until you go off.
It's only lackluster if both (a) you're playing a nonblack deck, AND (b) everyone else is playing combo - because at that point attacks don't matter. Of course, in such a metagame, that's when you wouldn't be running it. Outside of that, it's good, and the weaker your opponents are, the better Serra is.