The big issue with card draw and ramp in white is that it is difficult to justify creating options that are better than what you can get from colorless sources without worrying about breaking the color pie. So we end up with either cards that are too inefficient (Armistice, Bygone Bishop, Inheritance, etc), or are only efficient enough if you build your deck to jump through whatever hoops that need jumping through (Mentor of the Meek, Dawn of Hope, Kor Spiritdancer, Mesa Enchantress, etc).
So the answer ends up being that mono-white needs to rely on artifacts more than any other color in order to make up the difference.
I agree with the statement that mono-white is the worst mono colour but I kind of feel like as someone pointed out the issue appears to be with the commander options. Because mono red also has plenty of similar issues but their commander options are just a lot stronger, more explosive, more combo orientated that the white options.
I think what white wants is more of this type of commander.
8 1/2 tails is basically "you can't touch this" kind of commander, if as they have been doing recently replace protection/regen with indestructible but leave it at an affordable price you would allow white to do what it wants to do most, break the symmetry of its own and their opponent's effects. Avaycn is good but it's just too hard to ramp that much in white. I think its perfectly whites colour pie to protect their own things from disruption the way blue can counter anything white can counter things targeted at them/break symmetry.
Imagine a Lin Siivi but for knights or soldiers or humans or just low cmc creatures things would get completely nuts really fast (and more importantly fun). Related, what is more white card advantage than stoneforge mystic? There are plenty of cards in white that go looking for equipment plenty of commanders that care about it (or attach it or cheat it into play) but none that can be your true equipment based tutor engine. There is a lot of support of the white equipment (and aura) deck but without a good way to tutor repeatedly it cannot snowball the game.
Teshar is playing into the card advantage by recursion.. its a very strong GB mechanic but it is still within whites colour pie except white can't fill their graveyard like GB can it is reliant on casting the cards first and having them destroyed and since they can't generate card advantage easily white recursion is still tied to card advantage rather than being a sideways into advantage. I think it is outside of whites colour pie to fill the graveyard the way GB does... but I think it is inside whites colour pie to have low cost perminates that have an effect that results in them ending up in the graveyard. For example Choking Restraints imagine this as a 1 mana aura and a 1-2 mana activation cost, you can get the aura into the grave to recur it. You can do the same with creatures, I want to see more Lieutenant Kirtar effects on low cost creatures. So you can fill the grave via the battlefield then return them.
red also runs out of steam quickly, While Red does have wheel effects it does not really count as draw power. (Does not give card advantage)
that said I have yet to see white truly fall short. My friend plays mono-white and it is a problem in a casual group. Granted we can deal with it, but it is disruptive. (Plus i just love seeing him flash in Aven Mindcensor against a doomsday player.)
I think Ajani's Influence-type effects can help. (So...super scry?) Board the Weatherlight and Militia Bugler fit more specific builds, but I do think that white should get this effect more often (and, as the color that cares most for oppression, maybe always for WHITE cards).
Maybe cards like Chance for Glory, that have effects that don't end, is how you help the combat wincon? Look at Mausoleum Secrets and Hatchery Spider versus Light of the Legion. White is likely not getting card advantage in a cycle. BUT...maybe make its combat aspect stronger. LotL is trash. LotL would have a lot more power if instead those creatures received indestructible or vigilance and first strike until the end of the game. That also would make your hate bears more resilient (and your basic wraths one-sided) or stronger. Maybe limit it to nontokens. Maybe continue to limit it to WHITE cards only.
Granted this feels weird to type in this day and age, but luckily we are talking about just a card game: I do think focusing on staying WHITE and that inclusive (to the point of xenophobic) aspect of the spectrum is how you make this monocolor better.
"Everything is Crusade going forward" feels like a step backwards, though. Pushing monocolor decks by printing pushed effects that can only be used with cards of one color is such a... blunt instrument.
Otherwise we use our lands for greater effect. Mutilate cares about swamps and finds its way into monoblack decks; reward more plains like with Emeria variants, Quarry Colossus, Engulf the Shore, Scourge of Fleets, Cabal Stronghold, etc. Give me a reason to pick monowhite over other combinations.
Otherwise we use our lands for greater effect. Mutilate cares about swamps and finds its way into monoblack decks; reward more plains like with Emeria variants, Quarry Colossus, Engulf the Shore, Scourge of Fleets, Cabal Stronghold, etc. Give me a reason to pick monowhite over other combinations.
See, "Plains matters" is neat. I like Quarry Colossus a lot but there's a lot more that could or should be done with that theme.
Lots of good ideas here, so if anyone wants detailed feedback on something concrete I'd invite them to Custom Card Creation...
I don't know why people are saying white has nothing or no identity. White has a ton of tools that give them an identity.
The best sweepers. There is only a few sweepers that even kind of stand up to white's sweepers and they are few and far between. The sweepers that other colors do have that kind of or do stand up to white's sweepers in commander are essentially commander only sweepers as they see almost no play in other formats.
Strong access to spot removal. White has the most diverse targeting capability in spot removal of all the colors. It is intended to be second best at spot removal behind black for creature spot removal and with the exception of Path / Swords they tend to be slightly less efficient with more targeting options than black at this.
Token Production - white has some of the best token production options out there. Obviously token production is also in green and red but white tends to do most of the same things at the same or better efficiency. Sacred Mesa is a bit of an outlier for the repeated pay / token production but when looking at X mana token production white is the best and in the pay / token its only second to green (whom also has ramp).
Equipment support - white has the ability to tutor and rez equipment better than any other color. It has effects that care about and improve the efficiency of equipment as well such as Kemba and Sram.
Mass Land Destruction / Stasis - Given Armageddon and the many versions as well as Hokori, Dust Drinker, land disruption is part of white's identity but its also an element that wizards seems to be avoiding supporting in card design these days.
Flickering - given a few cards like Ghostway and Eerie Interlude white is the best at flickering creatures which plays well into ETB effects.
Reanimation - its clearly not as strong at reanimation as black is but I would say its probably second in strength in its capability to reanimate creatures. Blue and red have a bit of artifact recursion and green has a few Regrowth / Eternal Witness effects but when it comes to creature recursion white is decent.
Enchantress support - given tools like Serra's Sanctum and Replenish I would say white is probably the strongest color for enchantress even over green. Green has a few more enchantress effects but I think what they lack is the big payoff cards like the two I just mentioned.
The biggest issues white has tends to start at its lack of card advantage / draw. I hear some talking about ramp in white but lets be honest here, every color other than green tends to not have ramp but their card draw allows them to justify and run more draw so we are really only talking about mono white when we talk about ramp with white. As a pickup color for any colors other than red, you eleminate most of the issue with white
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Another immediate thought (draw-wise) is a colour-shifted Coastal Piracy, give or take a detail or two perhaps. This is absolutely more White than it is Blue.
Uh... what? There are 35 Ophidian-type creature cards (counting two silver-bordered creatures and five creatures that grant the Ophidian effect to one or more of your creatures including itself), 26 of which are blue (counting Deepfathom Skulker, despite having Devoid). Of the nine non-blue Ophidians, one of the three black ones requires controlling an island in order to get the trigger, and the one white one requires controlling a blue permanent to get the trigger. None of the blue Ophidians are WUx. There are 19 noncreature cards that can effectively grant the Ophidian ability to an arbitrary creature (counting a Contraption and a Conspiracy), 10 of which are blue. Of the nine non-blue Ophidian-granters, one (the conspiracy) requires spending blue mana, four are colorless artifacts, and none are white. One of the blue Ophidian-granters is WUx.
In what way is Coastal Piracy more white than blue?
Enchantress support - given tools like Serra's Sanctum and Replenish I would say white is probably the strongest color for enchantress even over green. Green has a few more enchantress effects but I think what they lack is the big payoff cards like the two I just mentioned.
White has good support for enchantress, but almost none of the actual enchantresses. Kor Spiritdancer and Sram, Senior Edificer for auras only (Sram can do vehicles or equipment, too, but those are generally irrelevant to an actual enchantress deck), and Mesa Enchantress.
I don't know why people are saying white has nothing or no identity. White has a ton of tools that give them an identity.
The best sweepers. There is only a few sweepers that even kind of stand up to white's sweepers and they are few and far between. The sweepers that other colors do have that kind of or do stand up to white's sweepers in commander are essentially commander only sweepers as they see almost no play in other formats.
Strong access to spot removal. White has the most diverse targeting capability in spot removal of all the colors. It is intended to be second best at spot removal behind black for creature spot removal and with the exception of Path / Swords they tend to be slightly less efficient with more targeting options than black at this.
Token Production - white has some of the best token production options out there. Obviously token production is also in green and red but white tends to do most of the same things at the same or better efficiency. Sacred Mesa is a bit of an outlier for the repeated pay / token production but when looking at X mana token production white is the best and in the pay / token its only second to green (whom also has ramp).
Equipment support - white has the ability to tutor and rez equipment better than any other color. It has effects that care about and improve the efficiency of equipment as well such as Kemba and Sram.
Mass Land Destruction / Stasis - Given Armageddon and the many versions as well as Hokori, Dust Drinker, land disruption is part of white's identity but its also an element that wizards seems to be avoiding supporting in card design these days.
Flickering - given a few cards like Ghostway and Eerie Interlude white is the best at flickering creatures which plays well into ETB effects.
Reanimation - its clearly not as strong at reanimation as black is but I would say its probably second in strength in its capability to reanimate creatures. Blue and red have a bit of artifact recursion and green has a few Regrowth / Eternal Witness effects but when it comes to creature recursion white is decent.
Enchantress support - given tools like Serra's Sanctum and Replenish I would say white is probably the strongest color for enchantress even over green. Green has a few more enchantress effects but I think what they lack is the big payoff cards like the two I just mentioned.
The biggest issues white has tends to start at its lack of card advantage / draw. I hear some talking about ramp in white but lets be honest here, every color other than green tends to not have ramp but their card draw allows them to justify and run more draw so we are really only talking about mono white when we talk about ramp with white. As a pickup color for any colors other than red, you eleminate most of the issue with white
Flickering is a good way for white to get decent CA moving forward. Combine repeatable flicker effects with creatures that cantrip.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
White has good support for enchantress, but almost none of the actual enchantresses. Kor Spiritdancer and Sram, Senior Edificer for auras only (Sram can do vehicles or equipment, too, but those are generally irrelevant to an actual enchantress deck), and Mesa Enchantress.
My issue with green's enchantress support is that it generally can draw cards almost better by just using green's powerful draw than it can going the synergy route with enchantresses. Why go deep on running those enchantresses when you could just dump a fatty go Greater Good? In a way white is better for enchantress because of its lack of draw normally speaking.
Also, you can play with Sram as a commander (and I happen to do that for an aura / enchantment deck). Green's options for enchantress commander are essentially multicolored commanders mainly being the new bant ones or possibly a god. Green has kind of no support in mono green for enchantress.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
For ramp, I'd be happy with "Every color gets Nature's Lore at 2M."
Anyway, for card draw, that's the harder nut to crack. The funny thing is, well, first, Dawn of Hope is fartooclosetowhatblackalreadydoes. Secondly, white is already the best color to exploit Skullclamp and can use Book of Rass to better effect than red, blue, or green. (Black wouldn't bother with it; Greed exists and is already "bad" by modern standards.) So, what do we have?
The first option is Collective Unconscious. Maybe a perfect color shift, since Shamanic Revelation is twice-better (costs 1 less and can gain you a buttload of life) in green. Okay, that was obvious.
Curiosity might be interesting, though I prefer a rule that white's Curiosity is worse, no Augury Adept-type things. Already, every other color has it. (Black has to pay life with each proc, and red has impulse drawing or looting on the proc instead of straight up drawing.)
One option is to say the creatures must be enchanted or equipped?
Beyond that, the only thing I can think of is already-broken things like Windfall.
Of course, this is what artifacts are for: Shoring up a color's weakness.
(By the way, about Lin Sivvi, um, rebels are too parasitic to be "as big a threat as Azusa or Azami", IMO. There are only three blocks with rebels other than Whipcorder: Masques, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn.)
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
(By the way, about Lin Sivvi, um, rebels are too parasitic to be "as big a threat as Azusa or Azami", IMO. There are only three blocks with rebels other than Whipcorder: Masques, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn.)
There's nothing that says rebels can't exist outside of those sets, it doesn't add any mechanical complexity and would make flavor sense for a lot of cards. The only difference between rebels and goblins is that goblins happened to get printed a lot more, so they ended up with a critical mass of good ones to support a commander deck, while rebels did not. No one complains about goblins being parasitic.
Lin, as a deck, is much worse than azami, no question. But in a vacuum I don't think she's a weaker card. The theoretical power is there in the commander, white just doesn't have the payoffs to make it work. Imagine if something like elesh norn or sun titan were a rebel.
(By the way, about Lin Sivvi, um, rebels are too parasitic to be "as big a threat as Azusa or Azami", IMO. There are only three blocks with rebels other than Whipcorder: Masques, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn.)
There's nothing that says rebels can't exist outside of those sets, it doesn't add any mechanical complexity and would make flavor sense for a lot of cards. The only difference between rebels and goblins is that goblins happened to get printed a lot more, so they ended up with a critical mass of good ones to support a commander deck, while rebels did not. No one complains about goblins being parasitic.
Lin, as a deck, is much worse than azami, no question. But in a vacuum I don't think she's a weaker card. The theoretical power is there in the commander, white just doesn't have the payoffs to make it work. Imagine if something like elesh norn or sun titan were a rebel.
Rebels don't make sense as a creature type for most things. IMO, it's a Mercadian thing and that's fine. But what's the point of arguing for it to make sense? Just slap it on the next Snapcaster Mage or any other insane-ETB creature. Rebels don't have enough ETB to make it work. If they started today, it would take a decade of printings for it to work.
For some reason, White pretty much misses out on the "this will be good in EDH" train that runs through every set. They print stupid stuff in every set, just not for white or white creature-types (e.g. soldiers, humans, rebels) bedsides high-CMC Angels.
Creature-wise: They could print an insanely power-creeped general in a CMDR set for White or a Craterhoof-level threat for white. And then just run back that benchmark goal for 4 years straights.
Spell-wise: They could print a white sorcery on the level of Torment of Hailfire and/or print a white Jace PW that's juiced-up to sell boxes.
Land-wise: Unban Karakas or power-errata it. /s
Those aren't the only options. But any of those options seem poor to me. I personally dislike the power-creep that's been EDH and the CMDR sets yearly. But that's pretty much what it'd take to make white stand out.
As a support color, white seems fine to me. It's got the best removal and some of the best enchantments. The generals and decks you get to build with Bant, Esper, Azorius, and Selesnya seem like it should be enough for people not to whine about color parity. At this point, I don't think color parity should be a design-goal of the game.
I don't think white can be fixed by adding a variant on Karakas or making more rebels. That's too narrow.
I think equalizer effects have the best shot at this. Everbody draw until everybody has an equal amount of cards in hand feels very white. If they want to prevent it ruining standard due to white being abke to dump it's hand quickly then just cost it non-competitively.
The main difficulty is finding a mechanical space that allows white to be able to be better at draw than the artifact options yet feel white.
I feel Farsight Mask would be a decent enchantment at 3 or 4 mana. I also feel Shapers' Sanctuary would be a good white card instead of green.
Additionally, a Truce variant where the life gain is high enough so the card has an actual choice could be interesting as well.
I don't know why people are saying white has nothing or no identity. White has a ton of tools that give them an identity. The best sweepers. There is only a few sweepers that even kind of stand up to white's sweepers and they are few and far between. The sweepers that other colors do have that kind of or do stand up to white's sweepers in commander are essentially commander only sweepers as they see almost no play in other formats.
White definitely has it's identity, it's just that we are saying that for multiplayer commander, these end up being the worst for winning as a single color.
Strong access to spot removal. White has the most diverse targeting capability in spot removal of all the colors. It is intended to be second best at spot removal behind black for creature spot removal and with the exception of Path / Swords they tend to be slightly less efficient with more targeting options than black at this.
Unfortunately the worst way to win multiplayer commander, is having too much one-for-one removal in a deck. So although it's efficient at that, every color now has options, and we know that you can only run a certain number of them before you weaken your ability to actually be proactive and win.
Token Production - white has some of the best token production options out there. Obviously token production is also in green and red but white tends to do most of the same things at the same or better efficiency. Sacred Mesa is a bit of an outlier for the repeated pay / token production but when looking at X mana token production white is the best and in the pay / token its only second to green (whom also has ramp).
Green is far better at Token generation with not needing to spend x to get big effects. Avenger of Zendikar, Rampaging Baloths, Titania, Protector of Argoth get the larger tokens for sort of free effects, while white has to sink mana into it, so end up being a largely late game, which ends up being too late for poor old white.
Equipment support - white has the ability to tutor and rez equipment better than any other color. It has effects that care about and improve the efficiency of equipment as well such as Kemba and Sram.
But this is one archetype, and essentially two decks. So not really inspiring for deck making. Sram is a really strong deck, very hard to stop it's engine if it get the right cards going. Kemba is not a very winning deck unfortunately.
Flickering - given a few cards like Ghostway and Eerie Interlude white is the best at flickering creatures which plays well into ETB effects.
This is true, pity a lot of the mana efficient creatures in white normally have the clause "until this creature leaves the battlefield", so you end up only being able to target one thing rather than getting multiple value out of them.
Enchantress support - given tools like Serra's Sanctum and Replenish I would say white is probably the strongest color for enchantress even over green. Green has a few more enchantress effects but I think what they lack is the big payoff cards like the two I just mentioned.
The operative word here is 'support'. You can't make an enchantress deck in mono-white, which is what thread is about.
Nobody is arguing that white is a great support color, it's about it's ability to be a competitive color on it's own.
Unfortunately the worst way to win multiplayer commander, is having too much one-for-one removal in a deck. So although it's efficient at that, every color now has options, and we know that you can only run a certain number of them before you weaken your ability to actually be proactive and win.
Phelddagrif takes offense to that. That deck is roughly 30-35% 1:1 answers. And 45% lands. And it's a very winning deck. But in terms of how most people play commander, white doesn't do the normal ramp/draw/bomb strat very well. (again, mostly because of the lack of the third category, although their relative lack of draw is also a factor)
Really although white has some very good spot removal, it's less deep than people think. After a couple really good ones, the rest of it is pretty meh. STP, PTE, unexpectedly absent, oblation...council's judgment can be sweet despite being a sorcery...skywhaler's shot is ok...and then there's some decent disenchant effects...but overall it's really pretty shallow. Drops off pretty quick after the top 3-6 imo, with really only stp, pte, and ua being especially great. In terms of good creature removal, white has the top 2 but black has much more depth.
In terms of things I wish wotc would give white, more great answers like UA are really at the top of my list. What would actually make people respect white as a color more is probably bombs and maybe some draw that doesn't require tokens, but that's not really what I'm personally interested in. I like white as a political control color that forces you to play a tight game, because you don't get any auto-wins or easy hand refills. So you have to actually, y'know, play well.
I feel like this is a sort of non-problem that really doesn't need fixing.
sure, the mono-white mages would want card drawing capabilities, but it's part of the fun, trying to figure out how to work around a colour's weakness. I have a mono-white combo deck that draws a good half the deck before combo-ing off. heck it draws more cards than my mono-u deck most games! the trade-offs of mono-colour being less mana screwed and more resilient to wasteland effects and having larger weaknesses is the fun part of the game.
The question really shouldn't be "how can we improve card draw in white", but "how do we mitigate our weakness in card draw". There are many artefacts that generally help, there are plenty of white-weenie-synergistic draw abilities, and there are plenty of card-advantage giving cards (not strictly card draw, but card advantage is still card advantage 99% of the time). But like i said, it is definitely possible to build mono-white in a way that draws tonnes of cards, and it's also possible to build mono-white in a way which relies on 1 card a turn, but applies taxes and other card advantage that it works as if one has multiple card draws a turn.
The thing that i actually do find problematic is the boros abilities in regards to EDH; mentor? it's super weak. battalion? really depends on the effect afterwards; but attacking with 3 dudes can be tough. radiance? i don't really get why its in white-red, actually. but you know, this is neither here nor there.
Why go deep on running those enchantresses when you could just dump a fatty go Greater Good?
Because an enchantress deck rarely has a fatty to make Greater Good better than Harmonize. Many enchantress decks don't even go wide enough to make something like Shamanic Revelation a strong play most of the time.
(By the way, about Lin Sivvi, um, rebels are too parasitic to be "as big a threat as Azusa or Azami", IMO. There are only three blocks with rebels other than Whipcorder: Masques, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn.)
There's nothing that says rebels can't exist outside of those sets, it doesn't add any mechanical complexity and would make flavor sense for a lot of cards. The only difference between rebels and goblins is that goblins happened to get printed a lot more, so they ended up with a critical mass of good ones to support a commander deck, while rebels did not. No one complains about goblins being parasitic.
Lin, as a deck, is much worse than azami, no question. But in a vacuum I don't think she's a weaker card. The theoretical power is there in the commander, white just doesn't have the payoffs to make it work. Imagine if something like elesh norn or sun titan were a rebel.
It would, but if wishes were horses we'd all be nigh-unblocakble. Playing Sivvi (I was always under the impression "Lin" was a title, or surname first à la Chinese or Hungarian, e.g. Sivvi's Ruse.) is also bad politics because all that tutoring (and shuffling) takes added time, and while I have no problem with bad politics that keeps opponents from doing things, I draw the line at bad politics that just annoys people. I do think rebels could come back, but it would be something like, on a creature with CMC X, "2X: Look at the top N cards of your library. You may put a Rebel with CMC X+1 or less on the battlefield. Shuffle your library afterward." N could be a constant, or also related to X, e.g. "Rebel Sergeant" gives you the top 3 cards, "Rebel Lieutenant" gives you the top 4, "Rebel Captain" gives you the top 5, etc. Also, some might look in the graveyard. There are several ways to get the recruitment flavor of rebels, which I would love to see the game use.
And of course, also rebels could expand colors. Black ones could be the smarmy faux-populist whose plans help him, not you; or the smugglers, mercenaries, pirates, and other types who are the lifeblood of rebellions but are hated at all other times. Red ones could be the "goblin rebellion", if you will: Rebelling just for the sake of rebelling. (Also, rebelling against oppressive theocracies.) Green ones could be a sort of return to tradition, or, you know, ecoterrorists. I have trouble imagining blue rebels, but I'd imagine they'd be holding out against an inquisition, Lysenkoism (the denial of scientific consensus for political reasons, named after the Soviet denial of heredity), or some other "government wants to hide the truth" situation. Different settings, different colors. (Since, obviously, totalitarian states are always at least partially white.)
As it is, it is parasitic, though. Tribes with a go-to mechanic that doesn't easily fit in every set tend to be parasitic just because they're only in a small number of sets. (I mean, tapping creatures for mana, sacrificing creatures for effects, returning creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield, and various expressions of hunger, those types of things will be in every set, so for elves, goblins, zombies, and vampires, it's more a matter of flavor if they're not included.) Though as they're printed more, they may become less parasitic.
Though to be fair, we do clones in every set, but again, this doesn't help rebels because 1) white (and black) lack clones, and 2) clones aren't clones outside the battlefield.
Anyway, back on topic, I think what's forgotten (and this talk about rebels reminded me of it) is the flavor reason as well. White can't get as good card draw (and as long as it's significantly worse and white stays in its lane, e.g., white gets enchantresses and Collective Unconscious, but worse than green, or "something green wouldn't do", e.g. equipped creatures, artifact creatures, I have no issues) because white is the color most opposed to learning. Red actually can learn by experimentation, but generally doesn't care to much for fancy book-learning. Blue learns by research (and experimentation and observation). Green learns by observation, much more (typical green) passively than red or blue. Black...doesn't care how it learns, just the old adage, "knowledge is power", is enough for black to be interested. White, as I said, white believes in the noble lie. It's white's biggest weakness, and one of the things typical of "evil white". (The other is suppressing all individuality.) So, the balance reason is, white has all the answers, and the flavor reason is...white has all the answers.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I personally prefer the color pie doesn't get disrupted solely for EDH's sake. They can make card-draws for white that befits the format in an EDH product, but it ought to stay within the boundary of its color design. I hate to see white card draws en mass in standard when it already has great number of creature advantages.
I believe that each color should have its own advantages, not necessary has to be card draws, though artifact tends to bypass that... with limitations of course. Endless Atlas is a great card that helps mono-color and 2-color decks which favorably benefit white because white is known for basic land search, second only to green.
Rather than buffing white on "drawing" specifically, I second many people's idea that it should focus on "balancing" disadvantage, such as draw/fetch/tutor in response to other people's advantage, because it suits white's "help the weak, uphold the fairness" theme. Of course, cards with Balance would work too. For example:
Education Fund W
Instant
Cast this spell only if your opponents have drawn three or more cards total since your last turn.
Search your library for a card and put it into your hand.
It is the duty of government to provide education for all.
Cards like this one suit white's flavor and grows in power in multiplayer format likely EDH) without hurting other format. Power level could be adjusted accordingly.
Another example:
Search for Car Key 5W
Sorcery
Convoke
Search your library for a card and put it into your hand.
It helps when everyone look together.
Again, another card that suits white's flavor of power in number, allowing it to gain access to cards that otherwise outside of color pie.
Cast this spell only if your opponents have drawn three or more cards total since your last turn.
Search your library for a card and put it into your hand.
It is the duty of government to provide education for all.
Cards like this one suit white's flavor and grows in power in multiplayer format likely EDH) without hurting other format. Power level could be adjusted accordingly.
I'm not sure if you've got the wording right, because in a 4 player game that would trigger just from normal draws Meaning Turn 1 playable.
Are you meaning if a single player draws three or more cards?
I tried out Alms Collector and too be honest it's below average as far as when you actually get it to trigger.
So the answer ends up being that mono-white needs to rely on artifacts more than any other color in order to make up the difference.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist | Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder | Bosh, Iron Golem | Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Brago, King Eternal | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Wort, Boggart Auntie | Wort, the Raidmother
Captain Sisay | Rhys, the Redeemed | Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight | Obzedat, Ghost Council | Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind | Vorel of the Hull Clade
Uril, the Miststalker | Prossh, Skyraider of Kher | Nicol Bolas | Progenitus
Ghave, Guru of Spores | Zedruu the Greathearted | Damia, Sage of Stone | Riku of Two Reflections
The mono-white commander I am most scared of is probably Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, lin sivvi, defiant hero and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle are pretty neat as well.
I think what white wants is more of this type of commander.
8 1/2 tails is basically "you can't touch this" kind of commander, if as they have been doing recently replace protection/regen with indestructible but leave it at an affordable price you would allow white to do what it wants to do most, break the symmetry of its own and their opponent's effects. Avaycn is good but it's just too hard to ramp that much in white. I think its perfectly whites colour pie to protect their own things from disruption the way blue can counter anything white can counter things targeted at them/break symmetry.
Imagine a Lin Siivi but for knights or soldiers or humans or just low cmc creatures things would get completely nuts really fast (and more importantly fun). Related, what is more white card advantage than stoneforge mystic? There are plenty of cards in white that go looking for equipment plenty of commanders that care about it (or attach it or cheat it into play) but none that can be your true equipment based tutor engine. There is a lot of support of the white equipment (and aura) deck but without a good way to tutor repeatedly it cannot snowball the game.
Teshar is playing into the card advantage by recursion.. its a very strong GB mechanic but it is still within whites colour pie except white can't fill their graveyard like GB can it is reliant on casting the cards first and having them destroyed and since they can't generate card advantage easily white recursion is still tied to card advantage rather than being a sideways into advantage. I think it is outside of whites colour pie to fill the graveyard the way GB does... but I think it is inside whites colour pie to have low cost perminates that have an effect that results in them ending up in the graveyard. For example Choking Restraints imagine this as a 1 mana aura and a 1-2 mana activation cost, you can get the aura into the grave to recur it. You can do the same with creatures, I want to see more Lieutenant Kirtar effects on low cost creatures. So you can fill the grave via the battlefield then return them.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
that said I have yet to see white truly fall short. My friend plays mono-white and it is a problem in a casual group. Granted we can deal with it, but it is disruptive. (Plus i just love seeing him flash in Aven Mindcensor against a doomsday player.)
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
I think Ajani's Influence-type effects can help. (So...super scry?) Board the Weatherlight and Militia Bugler fit more specific builds, but I do think that white should get this effect more often (and, as the color that cares most for oppression, maybe always for WHITE cards).
Maybe cards like Chance for Glory, that have effects that don't end, is how you help the combat wincon? Look at Mausoleum Secrets and Hatchery Spider versus Light of the Legion. White is likely not getting card advantage in a cycle. BUT...maybe make its combat aspect stronger. LotL is trash. LotL would have a lot more power if instead those creatures received indestructible or vigilance and first strike until the end of the game. That also would make your hate bears more resilient (and your basic wraths one-sided) or stronger. Maybe limit it to nontokens. Maybe continue to limit it to WHITE cards only.
Granted this feels weird to type in this day and age, but luckily we are talking about just a card game: I do think focusing on staying WHITE and that inclusive (to the point of xenophobic) aspect of the spectrum is how you make this monocolor better.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
Lots of good ideas here, so if anyone wants detailed feedback on something concrete I'd invite them to Custom Card Creation...
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
The biggest issues white has tends to start at its lack of card advantage / draw. I hear some talking about ramp in white but lets be honest here, every color other than green tends to not have ramp but their card draw allows them to justify and run more draw so we are really only talking about mono white when we talk about ramp with white. As a pickup color for any colors other than red, you eleminate most of the issue with white
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
In what way is Coastal Piracy more white than blue?
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Point stands. Just because something involves combat doesn't make it nonblue. Curiosity is solidly (G/U).
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
OTOH, green gets Argothian Enchantress, Eidolon of Blossoms (which triggers off of itself, or from blinking/recurring enchantments!), Enchantress's Presence, and Verduran Enchantress. GW also gets Satyr Enchanter and GWU gets Tuvasa the Sunlit.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Flickering is a good way for white to get decent CA moving forward. Combine repeatable flicker effects with creatures that cantrip.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
My issue with green's enchantress support is that it generally can draw cards almost better by just using green's powerful draw than it can going the synergy route with enchantresses. Why go deep on running those enchantresses when you could just dump a fatty go Greater Good? In a way white is better for enchantress because of its lack of draw normally speaking.
Also, you can play with Sram as a commander (and I happen to do that for an aura / enchantment deck). Green's options for enchantress commander are essentially multicolored commanders mainly being the new bant ones or possibly a god. Green has kind of no support in mono green for enchantress.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Anyway, for card draw, that's the harder nut to crack. The funny thing is, well, first, Dawn of Hope is far too close to what black already does. Secondly, white is already the best color to exploit Skullclamp and can use Book of Rass to better effect than red, blue, or green. (Black wouldn't bother with it; Greed exists and is already "bad" by modern standards.) So, what do we have?
The first option is Collective Unconscious. Maybe a perfect color shift, since Shamanic Revelation is twice-better (costs 1 less and can gain you a buttload of life) in green. Okay, that was obvious.
Curiosity might be interesting, though I prefer a rule that white's Curiosity is worse, no Augury Adept-type things. Already, every other color has it. (Black has to pay life with each proc, and red has impulse drawing or looting on the proc instead of straight up drawing.)
One option is to say the creatures must be enchanted or equipped?
Beyond that, the only thing I can think of is already-broken things like Windfall.
Of course, this is what artifacts are for: Shoring up a color's weakness.
(By the way, about Lin Sivvi, um, rebels are too parasitic to be "as big a threat as Azusa or Azami", IMO. There are only three blocks with rebels other than Whipcorder: Masques, Time Spiral, and Lorwyn.)
On phasing:
Lin, as a deck, is much worse than azami, no question. But in a vacuum I don't think she's a weaker card. The theoretical power is there in the commander, white just doesn't have the payoffs to make it work. Imagine if something like elesh norn or sun titan were a rebel.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Rebels don't make sense as a creature type for most things. IMO, it's a Mercadian thing and that's fine. But what's the point of arguing for it to make sense? Just slap it on the next Snapcaster Mage or any other insane-ETB creature. Rebels don't have enough ETB to make it work. If they started today, it would take a decade of printings for it to work.
For some reason, White pretty much misses out on the "this will be good in EDH" train that runs through every set. They print stupid stuff in every set, just not for white or white creature-types (e.g. soldiers, humans, rebels) bedsides high-CMC Angels.
Creature-wise: They could print an insanely power-creeped general in a CMDR set for White or a Craterhoof-level threat for white. And then just run back that benchmark goal for 4 years straights.
Spell-wise: They could print a white sorcery on the level of Torment of Hailfire and/or print a white Jace PW that's juiced-up to sell boxes.
Land-wise: Unban Karakas or power-errata it. /s
Those aren't the only options. But any of those options seem poor to me. I personally dislike the power-creep that's been EDH and the CMDR sets yearly. But that's pretty much what it'd take to make white stand out.
As a support color, white seems fine to me. It's got the best removal and some of the best enchantments. The generals and decks you get to build with Bant, Esper, Azorius, and Selesnya seem like it should be enough for people not to whine about color parity. At this point, I don't think color parity should be a design-goal of the game.
But yeah it could literally be
Tivan Desert
t: Add W.
T: Return target legendary creature you control to its owner's hand.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I think equalizer effects have the best shot at this. Everbody draw until everybody has an equal amount of cards in hand feels very white. If they want to prevent it ruining standard due to white being abke to dump it's hand quickly then just cost it non-competitively.
The main difficulty is finding a mechanical space that allows white to be able to be better at draw than the artifact options yet feel white.
I feel Farsight Mask would be a decent enchantment at 3 or 4 mana. I also feel Shapers' Sanctuary would be a good white card instead of green.
Additionally, a Truce variant where the life gain is high enough so the card has an actual choice could be interesting as well.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Unfortunately the worst way to win multiplayer commander, is having too much one-for-one removal in a deck. So although it's efficient at that, every color now has options, and we know that you can only run a certain number of them before you weaken your ability to actually be proactive and win.
Green is far better at Token generation with not needing to spend x to get big effects. Avenger of Zendikar, Rampaging Baloths, Titania, Protector of Argoth get the larger tokens for sort of free effects, while white has to sink mana into it, so end up being a largely late game, which ends up being too late for poor old white.
But this is one archetype, and essentially two decks. So not really inspiring for deck making. Sram is a really strong deck, very hard to stop it's engine if it get the right cards going. Kemba is not a very winning deck unfortunately.
This is true, pity a lot of the mana efficient creatures in white normally have the clause "until this creature leaves the battlefield", so you end up only being able to target one thing rather than getting multiple value out of them.
The operative word here is 'support'. You can't make an enchantress deck in mono-white, which is what thread is about.
Nobody is arguing that white is a great support color, it's about it's ability to be a competitive color on it's own.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
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-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Really although white has some very good spot removal, it's less deep than people think. After a couple really good ones, the rest of it is pretty meh. STP, PTE, unexpectedly absent, oblation...council's judgment can be sweet despite being a sorcery...skywhaler's shot is ok...and then there's some decent disenchant effects...but overall it's really pretty shallow. Drops off pretty quick after the top 3-6 imo, with really only stp, pte, and ua being especially great. In terms of good creature removal, white has the top 2 but black has much more depth.
In terms of things I wish wotc would give white, more great answers like UA are really at the top of my list. What would actually make people respect white as a color more is probably bombs and maybe some draw that doesn't require tokens, but that's not really what I'm personally interested in. I like white as a political control color that forces you to play a tight game, because you don't get any auto-wins or easy hand refills. So you have to actually, y'know, play well.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
sure, the mono-white mages would want card drawing capabilities, but it's part of the fun, trying to figure out how to work around a colour's weakness. I have a mono-white combo deck that draws a good half the deck before combo-ing off. heck it draws more cards than my mono-u deck most games! the trade-offs of mono-colour being less mana screwed and more resilient to wasteland effects and having larger weaknesses is the fun part of the game.
The question really shouldn't be "how can we improve card draw in white", but "how do we mitigate our weakness in card draw". There are many artefacts that generally help, there are plenty of white-weenie-synergistic draw abilities, and there are plenty of card-advantage giving cards (not strictly card draw, but card advantage is still card advantage 99% of the time). But like i said, it is definitely possible to build mono-white in a way that draws tonnes of cards, and it's also possible to build mono-white in a way which relies on 1 card a turn, but applies taxes and other card advantage that it works as if one has multiple card draws a turn.
The thing that i actually do find problematic is the boros abilities in regards to EDH; mentor? it's super weak. battalion? really depends on the effect afterwards; but attacking with 3 dudes can be tough. radiance? i don't really get why its in white-red, actually. but you know, this is neither here nor there.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
It would, but if wishes were horses we'd all be nigh-unblocakble. Playing Sivvi (I was always under the impression "Lin" was a title, or surname first à la Chinese or Hungarian, e.g. Sivvi's Ruse.) is also bad politics because all that tutoring (and shuffling) takes added time, and while I have no problem with bad politics that keeps opponents from doing things, I draw the line at bad politics that just annoys people. I do think rebels could come back, but it would be something like, on a creature with CMC X, "2X: Look at the top N cards of your library. You may put a Rebel with CMC X+1 or less on the battlefield. Shuffle your library afterward." N could be a constant, or also related to X, e.g. "Rebel Sergeant" gives you the top 3 cards, "Rebel Lieutenant" gives you the top 4, "Rebel Captain" gives you the top 5, etc. Also, some might look in the graveyard. There are several ways to get the recruitment flavor of rebels, which I would love to see the game use.
And of course, also rebels could expand colors. Black ones could be the smarmy faux-populist whose plans help him, not you; or the smugglers, mercenaries, pirates, and other types who are the lifeblood of rebellions but are hated at all other times. Red ones could be the "goblin rebellion", if you will: Rebelling just for the sake of rebelling. (Also, rebelling against oppressive theocracies.) Green ones could be a sort of return to tradition, or, you know, ecoterrorists. I have trouble imagining blue rebels, but I'd imagine they'd be holding out against an inquisition, Lysenkoism (the denial of scientific consensus for political reasons, named after the Soviet denial of heredity), or some other "government wants to hide the truth" situation. Different settings, different colors. (Since, obviously, totalitarian states are always at least partially white.)
As it is, it is parasitic, though. Tribes with a go-to mechanic that doesn't easily fit in every set tend to be parasitic just because they're only in a small number of sets. (I mean, tapping creatures for mana, sacrificing creatures for effects, returning creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield, and various expressions of hunger, those types of things will be in every set, so for elves, goblins, zombies, and vampires, it's more a matter of flavor if they're not included.) Though as they're printed more, they may become less parasitic.
Though to be fair, we do clones in every set, but again, this doesn't help rebels because 1) white (and black) lack clones, and 2) clones aren't clones outside the battlefield.
Anyway, back on topic, I think what's forgotten (and this talk about rebels reminded me of it) is the flavor reason as well. White can't get as good card draw (and as long as it's significantly worse and white stays in its lane, e.g., white gets enchantresses and Collective Unconscious, but worse than green, or "something green wouldn't do", e.g. equipped creatures, artifact creatures, I have no issues) because white is the color most opposed to learning. Red actually can learn by experimentation, but generally doesn't care to much for fancy book-learning. Blue learns by research (and experimentation and observation). Green learns by observation, much more (typical green) passively than red or blue. Black...doesn't care how it learns, just the old adage, "knowledge is power", is enough for black to be interested. White, as I said, white believes in the noble lie. It's white's biggest weakness, and one of the things typical of "evil white". (The other is suppressing all individuality.) So, the balance reason is, white has all the answers, and the flavor reason is...white has all the answers.
On phasing:
I believe that each color should have its own advantages, not necessary has to be card draws, though artifact tends to bypass that... with limitations of course. Endless Atlas is a great card that helps mono-color and 2-color decks which favorably benefit white because white is known for basic land search, second only to green.
Rather than buffing white on "drawing" specifically, I second many people's idea that it should focus on "balancing" disadvantage, such as draw/fetch/tutor in response to other people's advantage, because it suits white's "help the weak, uphold the fairness" theme. Of course, cards with Balance would work too. For example:
Education Fund
W
Instant
Cast this spell only if your opponents have drawn three or more cards total since your last turn.
Search your library for a card and put it into your hand.
It is the duty of government to provide education for all.
Cards like this one suit white's flavor and grows in power in multiplayer format likely EDH) without hurting other format. Power level could be adjusted accordingly.
Another example:
Search for Car Key
5W
Sorcery
Convoke
Search your library for a card and put it into your hand.
It helps when everyone look together.
Again, another card that suits white's flavor of power in number, allowing it to gain access to cards that otherwise outside of color pie.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
I'm not sure if you've got the wording right, because in a 4 player game that would trigger just from normal draws Meaning Turn 1 playable.
Are you meaning if a single player draws three or more cards?
I tried out Alms Collector and too be honest it's below average as far as when you actually get it to trigger.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith