So commander/EDH players all know that Boros and monowhite have troubles in the format. Mainly from lack of two of the most important things in commander - ramp and card draw. Here are some white cards intended to help a bit in this regard, while staying true to white's share of the color pie, either historic or current (maybe with a couple of bends or bleeds). A couple notes:
1. Imagine these would be printed in one or more commander sets. Therefore they are not Modern or Standard legal, and aren't balanced as such. I didn't intend to make Legacy powerhouses either, but it is possible a couple could see Legacy play I guess.
2. Not all are explicitly ramp or card draw but some try to help in this regard, others are just interesting ideas that I think would help white.
3. Making new busted white commanders was not my goal, but here are a couple of legends in the mix.
4. Some of these have heavy white requirements, and that's the point. I'm not trying to make cards that slot into x/w decks, but cards that monowhite can use. One exception is the ninja, which definitely wants to be in a Zedruu deck or something with blue/red permanent swapping (but would also be a great card against blue theft decks).
5. A couple of these play into white's equalizing, balancing nature, so they let you do things to catch up to an opponent that is ahead of you. I view this as no more a color pie break than any of white's classic balancing cards.
Collective Meditation 1WW
Enchantment
Opponents can’t cast spells during your turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player draws a card.
-a "rule setting" card (white's thing) along with group hug card draw. The card drawn should help you more, since your opponents are turned off during your turn. I think giving everyone a card is ok for white, even though historically it has been blue. If it's essentially colorless too, I think it works on one white enchantment like this.
Archon’s Tithe WWW
Sorcery
If an opponent has more cards in hand than you, draw two cards. Then if an opponent controls more lands than you, search your library for a land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then if an opponent controls more artifacts than you, return an artifact card from your graveyard to your hand. Then shuffle your library if you searched it this way.
-intended to catch you up in a variety of ways, potentially a 4-for-1.
Arc of Justice 1WW
Instant
Choose one - exile target creature or legendary permanent; or the owner of target creature or legendary permanent puts it on top of their library, then you draw a card.
-white already has great removal, but this can hit lands (in a flavorful for white way, I believe) and can also be a white remand of sorts. This is definitely a color bleed, but I think it is fine for a one-off commander set.
Kybir, Ally of the Meek 2WW
Legendary Creature - Giant Ally
4/4
Vigilance
Creatures you control with power 1 or less have indestructible.
When Kybir enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a creature card with power 1 or less, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
-an Eos commander, if you want, or just a creature with built-in card advantage that can get important creatures in your 99.
Thruti, Master Benefactor 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
1/3
Whenever an opponent draws a card, you gain 1 life.
If an opponent would draw two or more cards, instead you and that player each draw a card.
-white is about rule setting and equalizing, so a Alms Collector legend makes sense.
Ivory Empyrion WW
Creature - Archon
1/1
Whenever an opponent draws a card, if it isn’t the first card drawn during that player’s draw step, put a +1/+1 counter on Ivory Empyrion and Ivory Empyrion gains protection from that player until end of turn.
-this is another "benefit from opponent card drawing" design. No, it doesn't get you cards itself, but it can become a pretty big threat. If you can make opponents draw cards on your turn consistently, this is a dangerous threat.
Repentant Shinobi 1W
Creature - Human Ninja
2/2
Ninjitsu 1W
Whenever Repentant Shinobi deals combat damage to a player, draw a card for each permanent you own but do not control, then gain control of those permanents.
-yes, a white ninja, but he's repentant, get it? Giving up his thieving ninja ways, so he joined your team and now he's helping you get your stuff back. It was pointed out that this is really out of color for white so I'm thinking of ways to rework it.
Serra’s Shrine
Legendary Land
Tap: Add 1.
Tap, Sacrifice a white enchantment: Add WWWW.
-a white Lake of the Dead. Probably very powerful, but definitely requires building around too.
Frostveil Plains
Snow Land - Plains
(Tap: Add W.)
Frostveil Plains enters the battlefield tapped.
Tap: Tap target creature. Use this ability only if you control two other snow permanents.
-I think it would be cool if having utility lands with the plains land type became more of white's thing. Obvious throwback to Mistveil Plains. Tweaked it, originally it required you to tap a creature of your own as well but required less snow commitment.
I hope you like some of these. Let me know what you think!
Collective Meditation, stapling a white effect onto an artifact doesn't make it white. This is the exact type if card that should never be printed because its trying to circumvent a colors weakness by simply putting an out of color effect and an on color effect on the same card and trying ti justify it by flavor.
Archon’s Tithe, another blatant break but more along the lines of reds "red can do anything if its random" break. Just because you are trying to equalize doesn't mean you can do blatantly nonwhite things.
Arc of Justice, so its eaither hard removal or soft removal and a cantrip? This is very strong. It's not out of color, it's just very strong.
Kybir, Ally of the Meek, this is an interesting card. I think he is too big on his own but that's debatable.
Thruti, Master Benefactor, an actual white way to draw cards. Good job.
Ivory Empyrion, this is a beast. It might actually be a legacy power card. It's very hard to guess how strong this really is.
Repentant Shinobi, this is such a not white card it's crazy. The taking back things you own is a red/green ability. The drawing off this effect would probably be blue. So a red blue or green blue card could do this effect.
Serra’s Shrine, this card is obviously broken. It's so obviously broken that even you mention its strength. The exisitance of leylines makes this unprintably broken bits its probably completely broken with normal enchantments.
Frostveil Plains, this is fairly tame. It turns any creature into a master decoy which is fine. The restriction of requiring another snow is so insignificant that it's almost not a requirement. Snow lands almost make the restriction irrelevant.
A general note on white card draw, that I should have made in my initial post:
White has always been about balancing and equalizing. In the past, it has often done things to hurt players who get out ahead of you in some way. It has also done things like let you tutor for more lands if a player controls more lands than you. I think allowing white to draw cards when it is catching up to an opponent is another way to achieve this flavorfully for white. (Imagine if, instead of tutoring for a land if an opponent has more lands, Land Tax let you just draw a card if they have more cards in hand.) Likewise, I think a group hug "everyone gets a card" can fit within white, and has in distant the past, even though I agree that it is traditionally and usually more appropriately blue.
White has certainly done "blatantly nonwhite things" in order to equalize, including in the most recent commander set - Magus of the Balance. I think drawing a card is more in white's style than forcing discard (building up rather than tearing down), so I don't think conditional card draw (only if opponent has more cards in hand than you) on Archon's Tithe is too big a deal. The other abilities, land search and artifact return, are clearly white.
Repentant Shinobi - yeah, you're probably right that this doesn't really fit in white, but I'm trying to capture a "this guy was about thieving and shady stuff and now tries to fight it" and taking back stolen things made sense. I tacked on the card draw to make the card actually somewhat powerful.
I do not think Serra's Shrine is broken. Lake of the Dead exists and is a far easier cost to pay than sacrificing something you actually had to cast. I guess the leyline threat is real, in legacy or vintage. I don't take it seriously in commander. I'll tweak the card slightly so that you have to sacrifice a white enchantment.
White is much more about tearing everyone down to the same level rsther than raising everyone up to the same level. That is why board wipes have been historically white. Every color is capable of fetching their own lands, this is not the same for drawing cards.
Stealing things that were already stolen, or the chivilarous thief, is not mono white. Mono white doesn't steal because something was stolen it just doesn't steal at all. This archetype is part white but is splashing another color.
Lake of the dead is actually a lot harder to abuse than this shrine. The lake sacrifices something you can only get one of a turn and actively eats your other mana making it eventually not ramp. While this gives you mana to play more of the thing you are sacrificing. Also the lake can't be played turn one and can't be used turn two. At earliest you can use lake turn three when the most degenerate decks have already won while shrine can realistically be used turn 1 and reasonably be used turn two. Having it enter tapped with the change to only white enchantments would potentially make it reasonable.
In the order that I hashed out my thoughts on these:
Contrary to the first comment, my problem with Archon's Tithe from a design perspective is that it's a bunch of things white does get (or did get...) but all duct taped into one card. It's not a very great design in my opinion. It's the sort of thing that you'd see in a Commander product and immediately divine why it was made.
The two commanders are both very good. Thruti costs less than Alms Collector but loses flash (which is a huge deal for this ability) and gains some lifegain that's pretty solid. I like it. Kybir does what he does pretty well. 4/4 vigilance legend for 2WW is decent, and his abilities are restrictive enough for him to be a build-around.
Collective Meditation feels extremely strong (roughly half of Grand Abolisher is still ridiculous, especially the part where you're immune to counterspells on your turn), and while I think it can mostly work, be careful with giving effects from generic-only artifacts to single colors. Not every color should have a permanent that copies Nevinyrral's Disk, for example.
Serra's Shrine isn't necessarily T1 busted without leyline support, it's just busted over time. Recovering enchantments is easy because they are kind of an undervalued card type, so you have things like Starfield of Nyx. Oops, guaranteed WWWW per turn as long as Starfield stays out, and sometimes you can combo it anyway. Play Parallax Wave, remove all five counters, sac it, there you go, you've just exiled five creatures permanently for negative WWWW. And that's hardly the worst thing I could do with that, probably.
Repentant Shinobi doesn't work, but you've acknowledged as much. It's still kind of a flavor failure imo because it doesn't really fit how I think white would do this (he's still sneaking around and taking stuff back, as opposed to, say, legal action of some kind -- and drawing cards on damage is often depicted as theft, so it sounds like he's skimming a little off the top of someone's treasure horde for his boss, too!). White forms of "stealing," e.g. civil asset forfeiture, tend to be more Azorius/Esper than monowhite. The Brand effect can probably be put to use in white -- but not like this.
Frostveil Plains seems like an auto-include in any mono-white deck using Extraplanar Lens. Granted, I usually see red playing EPL, but you are going to play snow lands with EPL to provent other people from abusing it. This is more useful than Master Decoy and the like.
Ivory Empyreon is good. Very playable, can get ridiculous pretty easily.
Lastly, Arc of Justice is just a strong effect that I could kind of see get printed... kind of. It's a slightly odd effect ("target creature or legendary permanent," surely you can see that that's a slightly odd collection of effects; it does sound like something purpose-designed as a counter, you know), so I don't know how likely we are to see that get printed unless WotC somehow runs out of ideas.
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1. Imagine these would be printed in one or more commander sets. Therefore they are not Modern or Standard legal, and aren't balanced as such. I didn't intend to make Legacy powerhouses either, but it is possible a couple could see Legacy play I guess.
2. Not all are explicitly ramp or card draw but some try to help in this regard, others are just interesting ideas that I think would help white.
3. Making new busted white commanders was not my goal, but here are a couple of legends in the mix.
4. Some of these have heavy white requirements, and that's the point. I'm not trying to make cards that slot into x/w decks, but cards that monowhite can use. One exception is the ninja, which definitely wants to be in a Zedruu deck or something with blue/red permanent swapping (but would also be a great card against blue theft decks).
5. A couple of these play into white's equalizing, balancing nature, so they let you do things to catch up to an opponent that is ahead of you. I view this as no more a color pie break than any of white's classic balancing cards.
Collective Meditation 1WW
Enchantment
Opponents can’t cast spells during your turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player draws a card.
-a "rule setting" card (white's thing) along with group hug card draw. The card drawn should help you more, since your opponents are turned off during your turn. I think giving everyone a card is ok for white, even though historically it has been blue. If it's essentially colorless too, I think it works on one white enchantment like this.
Archon’s Tithe WWW
Sorcery
If an opponent has more cards in hand than you, draw two cards. Then if an opponent controls more lands than you, search your library for a land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then if an opponent controls more artifacts than you, return an artifact card from your graveyard to your hand. Then shuffle your library if you searched it this way.
-intended to catch you up in a variety of ways, potentially a 4-for-1.
Arc of Justice 1WW
Instant
Choose one - exile target creature or legendary permanent; or the owner of target creature or legendary permanent puts it on top of their library, then you draw a card.
-white already has great removal, but this can hit lands (in a flavorful for white way, I believe) and can also be a white remand of sorts. This is definitely a color bleed, but I think it is fine for a one-off commander set.
Kybir, Ally of the Meek 2WW
Legendary Creature - Giant Ally
4/4
Vigilance
Creatures you control with power 1 or less have indestructible.
When Kybir enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a creature card with power 1 or less, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
-an Eos commander, if you want, or just a creature with built-in card advantage that can get important creatures in your 99.
Thruti, Master Benefactor 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
1/3
Whenever an opponent draws a card, you gain 1 life.
If an opponent would draw two or more cards, instead you and that player each draw a card.
-white is about rule setting and equalizing, so a Alms Collector legend makes sense.
Ivory Empyrion WW
Creature - Archon
1/1
Whenever an opponent draws a card, if it isn’t the first card drawn during that player’s draw step, put a +1/+1 counter on Ivory Empyrion and Ivory Empyrion gains protection from that player until end of turn.
-this is another "benefit from opponent card drawing" design. No, it doesn't get you cards itself, but it can become a pretty big threat. If you can make opponents draw cards on your turn consistently, this is a dangerous threat.
Repentant Shinobi 1W
Creature - Human Ninja
2/2
Ninjitsu 1W
Whenever Repentant Shinobi deals combat damage to a player, draw a card for each permanent you own but do not control, then gain control of those permanents.
-yes, a white ninja, but he's repentant, get it? Giving up his thieving ninja ways, so he joined your team and now he's helping you get your stuff back. It was pointed out that this is really out of color for white so I'm thinking of ways to rework it.
Serra’s Shrine
Legendary Land
Tap: Add 1.
Tap, Sacrifice a white enchantment: Add WWWW.
-a white Lake of the Dead. Probably very powerful, but definitely requires building around too.
Frostveil Plains
Snow Land - Plains
(Tap: Add W.)
Frostveil Plains enters the battlefield tapped.
Tap: Tap target creature. Use this ability only if you control two other snow permanents.
-I think it would be cool if having utility lands with the plains land type became more of white's thing. Obvious throwback to Mistveil Plains. Tweaked it, originally it required you to tap a creature of your own as well but required less snow commitment.
I hope you like some of these. Let me know what you think!
Archon’s Tithe, another blatant break but more along the lines of reds "red can do anything if its random" break. Just because you are trying to equalize doesn't mean you can do blatantly nonwhite things.
Arc of Justice, so its eaither hard removal or soft removal and a cantrip? This is very strong. It's not out of color, it's just very strong.
Kybir, Ally of the Meek, this is an interesting card. I think he is too big on his own but that's debatable.
Thruti, Master Benefactor, an actual white way to draw cards. Good job.
Ivory Empyrion, this is a beast. It might actually be a legacy power card. It's very hard to guess how strong this really is.
Repentant Shinobi, this is such a not white card it's crazy. The taking back things you own is a red/green ability. The drawing off this effect would probably be blue. So a red blue or green blue card could do this effect.
Serra’s Shrine, this card is obviously broken. It's so obviously broken that even you mention its strength. The exisitance of leylines makes this unprintably broken bits its probably completely broken with normal enchantments.
Frostveil Plains, this is fairly tame. It turns any creature into a master decoy which is fine. The restriction of requiring another snow is so insignificant that it's almost not a requirement. Snow lands almost make the restriction irrelevant.
A general note on white card draw, that I should have made in my initial post:
White has always been about balancing and equalizing. In the past, it has often done things to hurt players who get out ahead of you in some way. It has also done things like let you tutor for more lands if a player controls more lands than you. I think allowing white to draw cards when it is catching up to an opponent is another way to achieve this flavorfully for white. (Imagine if, instead of tutoring for a land if an opponent has more lands, Land Tax let you just draw a card if they have more cards in hand.) Likewise, I think a group hug "everyone gets a card" can fit within white, and has in distant the past, even though I agree that it is traditionally and usually more appropriately blue.
White has certainly done "blatantly nonwhite things" in order to equalize, including in the most recent commander set - Magus of the Balance. I think drawing a card is more in white's style than forcing discard (building up rather than tearing down), so I don't think conditional card draw (only if opponent has more cards in hand than you) on Archon's Tithe is too big a deal. The other abilities, land search and artifact return, are clearly white.
Repentant Shinobi - yeah, you're probably right that this doesn't really fit in white, but I'm trying to capture a "this guy was about thieving and shady stuff and now tries to fight it" and taking back stolen things made sense. I tacked on the card draw to make the card actually somewhat powerful.
I do not think Serra's Shrine is broken. Lake of the Dead exists and is a far easier cost to pay than sacrificing something you actually had to cast. I guess the leyline threat is real, in legacy or vintage. I don't take it seriously in commander. I'll tweak the card slightly so that you have to sacrifice a white enchantment.
Stealing things that were already stolen, or the chivilarous thief, is not mono white. Mono white doesn't steal because something was stolen it just doesn't steal at all. This archetype is part white but is splashing another color.
Lake of the dead is actually a lot harder to abuse than this shrine. The lake sacrifices something you can only get one of a turn and actively eats your other mana making it eventually not ramp. While this gives you mana to play more of the thing you are sacrificing. Also the lake can't be played turn one and can't be used turn two. At earliest you can use lake turn three when the most degenerate decks have already won while shrine can realistically be used turn 1 and reasonably be used turn two. Having it enter tapped with the change to only white enchantments would potentially make it reasonable.
Contrary to the first comment, my problem with Archon's Tithe from a design perspective is that it's a bunch of things white does get (or did get...) but all duct taped into one card. It's not a very great design in my opinion. It's the sort of thing that you'd see in a Commander product and immediately divine why it was made.
The two commanders are both very good. Thruti costs less than Alms Collector but loses flash (which is a huge deal for this ability) and gains some lifegain that's pretty solid. I like it. Kybir does what he does pretty well. 4/4 vigilance legend for 2WW is decent, and his abilities are restrictive enough for him to be a build-around.
Collective Meditation feels extremely strong (roughly half of Grand Abolisher is still ridiculous, especially the part where you're immune to counterspells on your turn), and while I think it can mostly work, be careful with giving effects from generic-only artifacts to single colors. Not every color should have a permanent that copies Nevinyrral's Disk, for example.
Serra's Shrine isn't necessarily T1 busted without leyline support, it's just busted over time. Recovering enchantments is easy because they are kind of an undervalued card type, so you have things like Starfield of Nyx. Oops, guaranteed WWWW per turn as long as Starfield stays out, and sometimes you can combo it anyway. Play Parallax Wave, remove all five counters, sac it, there you go, you've just exiled five creatures permanently for negative WWWW. And that's hardly the worst thing I could do with that, probably.
Repentant Shinobi doesn't work, but you've acknowledged as much. It's still kind of a flavor failure imo because it doesn't really fit how I think white would do this (he's still sneaking around and taking stuff back, as opposed to, say, legal action of some kind -- and drawing cards on damage is often depicted as theft, so it sounds like he's skimming a little off the top of someone's treasure horde for his boss, too!). White forms of "stealing," e.g. civil asset forfeiture, tend to be more Azorius/Esper than monowhite. The Brand effect can probably be put to use in white -- but not like this.
Frostveil Plains seems like an auto-include in any mono-white deck using Extraplanar Lens. Granted, I usually see red playing EPL, but you are going to play snow lands with EPL to provent other people from abusing it. This is more useful than Master Decoy and the like.
Ivory Empyreon is good. Very playable, can get ridiculous pretty easily.
Lastly, Arc of Justice is just a strong effect that I could kind of see get printed... kind of. It's a slightly odd effect ("target creature or legendary permanent," surely you can see that that's a slightly odd collection of effects; it does sound like something purpose-designed as a counter, you know), so I don't know how likely we are to see that get printed unless WotC somehow runs out of ideas.