Recently I've been thinking about ways to go broken with Mono W in EDH other than with Stax. I tried drawing up a few lists centered around the few infinite two-card combos that exist in Mono W, e.g.Rest in Peace/Helm of Obedience and Goblin Charbelcher/Endless Horizons, but it never really felt like there was enough cheap library manipulation to reliably assemble a combo. Then I thought about how to go finite, but still broken, and it lead me to reanimator. The advantage of such a strategy is that you're still basically playing a two-card combo deck, but there's a whole lot more redundancy. Even though they're not nearly as good as black's options, white has a surprisingly large number of reanimate effects. Likewise, so many of the staple reanimation targets aren't playable in Mono W but there's still a good number of beefy threats that are worth reanimating.
I chose to put Mageta the Lion in charge because he's a discard outlet; occasionally sweeping the board is just gravy. A case could be made for promoting Reya Dawnbringer to Commander, but I wanted to have her in the 99 because she's a serviceable fatty. As constructed right now, I can see that this deck will have some draws which are just about unbeatable, but also that these draws will be relatively few and far between. What I hope to get out of this thread is advice on how to improve the consistency and resiliency of the deck. But first, some words on a few of the card choices.
Petra Sphinx. Ok, not going to lie, I've just always wanted to play this card. Combo's with Top, Sheets, and New Benalia. Strangely, the sphinx probably isn't even the most suspect card in the Discard Outlet category. Turns out that if you want to discard cards for a relevant effect in Mono W it's pretty slim pickings. Should I be running Lion's Eye Diamond? Emmessi Tome and Jandor's Ring cost about twelve thousand mana to loot but I couldn't find anything better. Maybe these aren't worth it since it would be pretty awful to have a Legendary fatty and Loyal Retainers in your opening hand but still have to wait to reanimate said fatty until about turn 60 because Emmessi Tome is your only discard outlet.
1 Mageta the Lion
Fatties
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Angelic Arbiter
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Blazing Archon
1 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 It That Betrays
1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1 Reya Dawnbringer
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Void Winnower
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Duplicant
1 Admonition Angel
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Luminate Primordial
Reanimation
1 Breath of Life
1 Death or Glory
1 Defy Death
1 False Defeat
1 Karmic Guide
1 Loyal Retainers
1 Mistmoon Griffin
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Resurrection
1 Jalum Tome
1 Deal Broker
1 Mindless Automaton
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Memory Jar
1 Petra Sphinx
1 Emmessi Tome
1 Jandor's Ring
1 Trading Post
Misc.
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Defense Grid
1 Land Tax
1 Tithe
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Expedition Map
1 Sensei's Divining Top
Ramp
1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Mind Stone
1 Marble Diamond
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Palladium Myr
1 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
1 Crystal Vein
1 Remote Farm
1 Ruins of Trokair
1 Mage-Ring Network
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Terrain Generator
1 New Benalia
1 High Market
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Ancient Den
1 Darksteel Citadel
21 Snow-Covered Plains
I chose to put Mageta the Lion in charge because he's a discard outlet; occasionally sweeping the board is just gravy. A case could be made for promoting Reya Dawnbringer to Commander, but I wanted to have her in the 99 because she's a serviceable fatty. As constructed right now, I can see that this deck will have some draws which are just about unbeatable, but also that these draws will be relatively few and far between. What I hope to get out of this thread is advice on how to improve the consistency and resiliency of the deck. But first, some words on a few of the card choices.
Petra Sphinx. Ok, not going to lie, I've just always wanted to play this card. Combo's with Top, Sheets, and New Benalia. Strangely, the sphinx probably isn't even the most suspect card in the Discard Outlet category. Turns out that if you want to discard cards for a relevant effect in Mono W it's pretty slim pickings. Should I be running Lion's Eye Diamond? Emmessi Tome and Jandor's Ring cost about twelve thousand mana to loot but I couldn't find anything better. Maybe these aren't worth it since it would be pretty awful to have a Legendary fatty and Loyal Retainers in your opening hand but still have to wait to reanimate said fatty until about turn 60 because Emmessi Tome is your only discard outlet.
For reanimation, you're missing Marshal's Anthem and Profound Journey (though Journey is much worse).