So most of us know about white's main problem for Commander: it doesn't draw enough cards, leaving it with a poor late game compared to other colors. In the recent Command Zone episode aout gameplay stats regarding win % white also came out as the worst color for EDH by far. Regardless of wether their methods are fair, it is a known problem. Red used to have it as well but ever since Khans of Tarkir block red has gotten impulse-draw technology (exile a card and play it this turn or lose it forever) that has significantly improved red's late game. Now I wonder, what could WotC realistically do to improve white's card flow? Remember, anything they do must be within color pie and must realistically be printable in standard legal sets. Mark Rosewater repeatedly stated that white must be the worst at drawing cards because it has the best universal answers; this is the niche how white gets designed so any effect we come up with should not undercut this, because then it is not realistic WotC will print it. Draw effects in white, as far as they are allowed now, are designed as narrow cards that require some deckbuilding around it in order to make it work - no goodstuff card draw.
The more I think about the harder it seems to become as everything I come up with is eiter too general or out of color pie. Dawn of Hope is a good start but trigger on life gain is not as deep as impulse draw is, and while white does lifegain more than any other color, not all white decks are about life gain so something more universally applicable would be desired. But how?
Some thoughts:
Fair sharing style card draw: white is about equalization, perhaps an enchantment with "whenever an opponent draws his or her third card in a turn, draw a card" or "at the beginning of each end step, if at least two players drew a card this turn, draw a card" allowing you to keep up with someone who does excessive drawing.
White is also good in retribution: "Whenever an effect an opponent controls destroys a permanent you control, draw a card" seems good (wrath Insurance) or something along the lines of "At the beginning of end step, if you were dealt 4 or more damage by sources your opponents control, draw a card".
There are many options that just require, shall we say, massaging of the current color pie. Mentor of the Meek is I think by now accepted as a fully white effect, so more "draw from small creatures" is a possibility. A straight colorshifted Balance of Power might be possible with only a little color pie finagling, although it would be whiter as an Arbiter of Knollridge "everybody equalizes to the highest value" effect.
It's a tough question. My first instinct is to look for ways to be "up a card" without drawing cards, but so far that hasn't proven super effective. If the ability to "break symmetry" on sweepers did it, white would already be winning thanks to Austere Command, Mass Calcify, Martial Coup, Retribution of the Meek, and Sunblast Angel. While some of those cards are among white's best, they simply pale in comparison to Cyclonic Rift from blue. More of these effects could help, especially Modal and/or at Instant Speed, but alone it probably isn't enough.
Having "stickier" cards and more graveyard manipulation would also help a lot. Sun Titan and Reveillark are awesome, but some way to reliably loop permanents in monowhite alone would help a lot. How neat would it be for white to have an enchantment that was basically Phyrexian Reclamation but it cost no life and could get any permanent CMC 2 or less instead?
If White got a boatload of Scry (including some sort of enchantment version of Sensei's Divining Top) that'd also be gas, as scrying enough is almost like drawing cards. Imagine a 1 CMC enchantment with "at the beginning of your upkeep, Scry 2".
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
White is interested in balance (quiteliterally, actually). But rather than making it a negative, they could make it a positive - something like you draw cards to match your opponent's hand with the most cards. They've done ramp and land search along these lines (Knight of the White Orchid and Land Tax only work if an opponent has more land than you, Tithe works better if they control more), so I don't see why they couldn't do it with card draw.
There are many options that just require, shall we say, massaging of the current color pie. Mentor of the Meek is I think by now accepted as a fully white effect, so more "draw from small creatures" is a possibility. A straight colorshifted Balance of Power might be possible with only a little color pie finagling, although it would be whiter as an Arbiter of Knollridge "everybody equalizes to the highest value" effect.
White is interested in balance (quiteliterally, actually). But rather than making it a negative, they could make it a positive - something like you draw cards to match your opponent's hand with the most cards. They've done ramp and land search along these lines (Knight of the White Orchid and Land Tax only work if an opponent has more land than you, Tithe works better if they control more), so I don't see why they couldn't do it with card draw.
MaRo has recently said that while this makes flavorful sense (especially a colorshifted Balance of Power), it still is a major concern from a color pie preservation standpoint. White is the best weenie color with the most efficient one mana spells - not only hyper-efficient one mana creatures, but also powerful one-mana instants, sorceries, and auras. As a result, vomiting out their hand to draw seven is trivial to white in older formats.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
MaRo has recently said that while this makes flavorful sense (especially a colorshifted Balance of Power), it still is a major concern from a color pie preservation standpoint. White is the best weenie color with the most efficient one mana spells - not only hyper-efficient one mana creatures, but also powerful one-mana instants, sorceries, and auras. As a result, vomiting out their hand to draw seven is trivial to white in older formats.
An understandable concern.
I think it'd be worth it to put Balance Guy on the colorshift artwork though.
Secondarily, I think more and better stuff that incidentally scries more than 1, to fix card quality problems, and a slate of efficient hate cantrips could make a difference. So, indeed, could Phyrexian Reclamation But For Low Cost Permanents.
White was traditionally the color that "had the most answers". But as time has gone on, and more cards are printed, every color has some sort of ability to answer what people are doing.
Thus white has just become weaker and weaker color in commander, as you're not the incentivized to use it as a means of interaction.
At the end of the day the two most powerful and really winning ways of playing commander is Mana + Draw.
Yup and it turns out that white is literally the worst at doing both these things. So it makes sense that it is the bottom of the color pie for mono-colored approach.
Fair sharing style card draw: white is about equalization, perhaps an enchantment with "whenever an opponent draws his or her third card in a turn, draw a card" or "at the beginning of each end step, if at least two players drew a card this turn, draw a card" allowing you to keep up with someone who does excessive drawing.
There is Alms Collector that does something to this effect.
I agree more cards like this would help to balance it out. Rather than just giving white big mana producers and big draw cards (which is easy to do, but poor design approach), they need to be printing more cards like these.
But this just pushes people into a particular archetype, that honestly doesn't work in pure mono-white. I've seen people try it and it just doesn't have enough punch in multiplayer to consistently win, if it can win at all.
White could use some more land matters/land interaction stuff; more of the tertiary color pie of "search for lands if I am short of them" effects. Some of the best cards in white in EDH are Tithe and Weathered wayfarer. Honestly, a color shifted Burgeoning might be solid, and more in-color White than Green.
Could also use some more Recruiter of the Guard stuff interacting with low CMC cards or low toughness/power cards--maybe some more Sun Titan effects.
More cost-aggressive reanimation might be nice.
Could also really use a Reclamation Sage effect - just a 1WW Leonin relic-Warder that exiles permanently for example.
More [card}Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card] effects might be solid too, especially at low costs.
I think white is basically fine as a support color. Sure, other colors have good answers for a lot of stuff, but they don't have the density and quality of white. And frankly nothing touches white's sweepers, except I suppose toxic deluge and damnation. Plus there's mass LD that's far more efficient and reliable than other colors.
The biggest problem is how bad mono-white sucks on its own, but I don't think people have hit the nail on the head as to why. Its lack of ramp is pretty irrelevant considering all the excellent mana rocks that exist, and really only green has non-rock ramp. Besides, with geddon et al, you'd rather have rocks than land ramp anyway. Lack of draw is definitely part of the issue, but there are quite a few serviceable colorless options at this point.
I think the real issue is simply how difficult it is to close out a game in white. Few of the wincons are explosive, which is something that red is actually quite good at and why I think it's the superior mono-color (though imo worse as a support color). In terms of things that actually win games, being able to win suddenly, before people get the chance to untap and answer your stuff, is a big deal, and white suuuuuucks at winning out of nowhere on its own. Its best shot is to have board superiority and then drop a geddon, but that requires being able to get board superiority AND it's often frowned upon. It's also exacerbated by the lack of draw and tutor, which makes it a very unreliable strat.
So I think what white needs, more than anything, is good finishers that don't break the social contract. Maybe something like comeuppance except everything punches its controller instead of itself? Get some good retaliatory stuff in there, which punishes people for overextending. Some sort of socially-acceptable LD, like maybe a fixed-for-multiplayer limited resources could be good. Making powerful enchantments seems like a good way to go, since white can most easily tutor for enchantments (and equipment, but those are usually colorless). Maybe humility except it makes everything a 2/2, to buff tokens while shrinking enemies? Or maybe it only removes etb effects and not other abilities? That's obviously less explosive, but it's really hard for some decks to deal with humility.
White could use some more land matters/land interaction stuff; more of the tertiary color pie of "search for lands if I am short of them" effects. Some of the best cards in white in EDH are Tithe and Weathered wayfarer. Honestly, a color shifted Burgeoning might be solid, and more in-color White than Green.
But as you can see they are either making sure that opponents are already ahead, so that you can't string together a lot of these effects. You're always going to be the same or behind your opponent, which just means you can't make explosive mono-white decks.
White does have good curve end toppers that can do stuff like this in; Emeria Shepherd, Angel of Glory's Rise.
But as white doesn't have mana acceleration, these cards are not likely to be consistently used during fast games.
Another way to help white with draw is to make more good artifact draw cards and ecspecially equipments which white is good at fetching. Yes, this helps all colors, but white is worst so is helped the most.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has understood, delight to they who have listened." - Odin
I really thought the Parley mechanic in Conspiracy had potential. As long as it is not Windfall, I think global card draw is okay... and as long as there is a cost to activating it (other than tapping)... white should not be able to draw its deck, ever. There were only a few Parley cards made and the only repeatable ones are multicolour.
I think the only other thing white should be able to do for card advantage is the way it brings back small things from the graveyard. So far, I think the effects bring cards back to the battlefield. This is obviously highly abusable (Sun Titan, Teshar, Reveillark). Maybe a powered down version, like regrowth effects for low CMC cards.
I think that the main problem of white is that there aren't enough good general. The existing general are either too expensive (considering that white is the worst at ramping) or too "small", meaning that their effect as little impact on EDH tables, especially during late game.
Name a white commander that is on par with Azami or Azusa... you can't.
I think that the biggest challenge is not to find white color pie space, but to find legendary design space: design something that is "big" without being too expensive.
I'll name one: lin sivvi, defiant hero. She's an INSANE card. Kind of a sisay except costs 1 less, with a different type restriction, and puts it directly into play as an instant. It's the rebels themselves that let her down - if she could search for a creature type that didn't suck she'd actually be great. Wotc just needs to print rebels that aren't total garbage.
Also I don't get this "white sucks at ramping" thing. How do you ramp in blue? mana rocks. How do you ramp in red? mana rocks. How do you ramp in black? Mana rocks and like a couple other cards. White even has land tax and such that ensures consistent land drops. White is "the worst at ramp" in the sense of being 3rd in a three-way, almost four-way, tie. So basically the complaint is "white isn't green".
Also I don't get this "white sucks at ramping" thing. How do you ramp in blue? mana rocks. How do you ramp in red? mana rocks. How do you ramp in black? Mana rocks and like a couple other cards. White even has land tax and such that ensures consistent land drops. White is "the worst at ramp" in the sense of being 3rd in a three-way, almost four-way, tie. So basically the complaint is "white isn't green".
Blue and red have a lot of artifact synergies.
Lots of tutors for artifacts, cost reduction for artifacts, draw from casting artifacts, and ways to cheat in artifacts, graveyard recursion for artifacts, etc, etc.
Red also has spells which can generate a lot of mana. Storm is an archetype in Izzet, cost reduction and spells which generate mana.
Blue has High Tide, and in combination with spells which allow you to untap lands and artifacts is potent. Although white can also play cards like Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, it just doesn't have any color specific cards to untap your artifacts and lands the same way that blue does.
Black has a lot of double your mana creatures as well. Cabal Coffers, etc.
I remember when we first heard that we were getting enemy color pair commanders, I was hoping for something like this:
Tectonic Knight 2RW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
First strike
When ~ enters the battlefield, if an opponent controls at least four lands, you may destroy target nonbasic land that opponent controls. Then, if that opponent controls more lands than you, you may search your library for a Plains card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
3/3
Doesn't help mono-white, but RW is the color pair that's worst off, and it would have given us a Boros commander that's not rawr combat combat combat!
give it SOME kind of focus. anything really at this point.
it does too much of everything but excels at absolutely nothing. its a decent support color to every other color, but as an identity its just too messy. they should really push ANY aspect of it. it just pulls punches everywhere. on top of that, it doesn't actually have very good synergy with any other color. yeah, its a good support color, but it rarely pushes anything into better territory, instead being used for a couple of toys, or removal, but no real all in strategy. even the strategies its known for are outclassed by other colors in edh sometimes.
it doesn't need to focus on the land destruction aspect to work, it needs to focus on any aspect. anything. even red has more focus, and its supposed to be the damn chaos color.
The easiest path for me would be to play up one thing that white already has: Its ramp. So far, they've really gone out of their way to make it so much worse than green. It's always conditional, it's often expensive and/or mana intensive, it frequently only gets plains and even then you sometimes get them onto the battlefield. To top ot off, there's very few cards that do it. I realize that green is meant to be best here, but I do feel this is an area where white could easily be improved without damaging the color pie too much. Give white an almost full Cultivate for example, just add one of the usual restrictions instead of all them: Either it's Cultivate only for Plains, or it's a full Cultivate that only works if someone has more lands. Personally, I'd prefer dropping the Plains restrictions because that limits deckbuilding and keep the "balance" restriction, because that's more unique. This way, you could take away one of White's two biggest weaknesses and even turn it into a new strength. I feel the mana issue is much easier to solve in color pie than the draw issue.
In a similiar vein, playing up White's recursion could help make it more resilient. It already does have some, but it needs more cards on the level of Sun Titan that are powerful without being too conditional.
Furthermore, I'm thinking some more land destruction effects that are more there to punish green players than just make the game miserable for everyone could help. Fall of the Thran is a good example of this: Let everyone keep some lands, but destroy the advantage of that green guy with 20 lands or the black player with a full sawmp + coffers suite.
Looking a bit further, I think White could also use a couple more powerful synergistic themes of its own. It's often good at limiting what others do through control and hatebears, but less good at creating explosive turns by itself. Token strategies are its best bet here, but they are vulnerable and slow. White needs something akin to what Daretti did for red: Open up a new powerful and very general theme that allows White to be more degenerate itself. I'm not sure what this might be though, as the large themes are all divvied up pretty well. Perhaps more enchantress cards?
Blue and red have a lot of artifact synergies.
Lots of tutors for artifacts, cost reduction for artifacts, draw from casting artifacts, and ways to cheat in artifacts, graveyard recursion for artifacts, etc, etc.
Red also has spells which can generate a lot of mana. Storm is an archetype in Izzet, cost reduction and spells which generate mana.
Blue has High Tide, and in combination with spells which allow you to untap lands and artifacts is potent. Although white can also play cards like Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, it just doesn't have any color specific cards to untap your artifacts and lands the same way that blue does.
Black has a lot of double your mana creatures as well. Cabal Coffers, etc.
I didn't include black in the tie because of coffers and ritual and such.
Blue has a couple cards that search for artifacts, neither of which exactly reek of efficiency when you're tutoring for a mana rock of some sort (enlightened for a sol ring/crypt, on the other hand, pretty good t1). Red even less so (although I do like gamble). As far as artifact cost reducers I'm seeing etherium sculptor and that's about it. draw from casting artifacts is, y'know, draw, not ramp. With a few interesting exceptions like goblin welder I'm also not really seeing how this artifact synergy really RAMPS you. Sure, it's nice to get synergy from your artifacts but in terms of getting X mana on turn Y I don't see hardly any of them changing the equation.
Red does have a couple rituals but, outside of tuned storm lists and a few combos with reiterate or w/e, they're pretty awful imo. I don't think I've run a single one in the hundred-odd decks I've made.
Are there some really minor ways that red and blue can get extra ramp? I mean, kind of. White also has knight of the white orchid, land tax, tithe, and a bunch of other land-draw cards. I don't really see any of them being obviously ahead of the others in any significant way. If I had to pick a last place I guess it'd be white, but they're all pretty equivalent imo.
I think the bigger problem is that white has nothing to ramp INTO. People don't have ramp-heavy white decks, not because ramp is less available in white, but because there aren't adequate payoffs for it. Explanar lens does the same thing in black as it does in white, but it shows up in a LOT more black decks than white decks, because black actually has good finishers worth dumping mana into. And then people assume white is worse at ramp because white doesn't tend to ramp, but it's correlation, not causation.
So, I think it is true that mono white is the worst mono color but for the most part white is a FAR better splash color in a multicolored deck than red is. Red's valuable bits do go up a little bit against CEDH decks where its cheap and fast artifact removal as well as access to Red Elemental Blast does push it up quite a bit I think the value of those cards in your average deck on a pickup color are vastly inferior to the removal that white gives you.
The card draw capabilities of both colors tend to be quite lacking when you look at splashing them. Generally when you are splashing them you are mostly comparing Land Tax and equipment tutors to Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of fortune is an amazing and powerful card but it tends to come down to decks focused on combo or fast tempo things as to what makes that card good when you look at picking it up when already having access to blue, green, or black.
If you are talking about mono color I think there are valid arguments for why red is superior to white and that comes down to a few very key commanders like Kiki, Krenko, and a few others that can be incredibly fast, powerful, and build off of combo tactics. There are a few mono white commanders who can still do somewhat competitive things like say Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle but in general I would say red's commanders seem like they probably run a bit smoother with more cards that you are probably more likely to want outside of assembling a commander combo cannon.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
[rant]
Yeah the white dont ramp thing is a dead horse.
Now white dont draw....
Black, Blue, Green all draw well and have many, many spells to choose from.
Red got its looting and wheels thing going.
White...Mentor of the Meek? Could probably give it a handfull, if that.
So problem no.1
Problem no.2, Whites big finisher spells are combat step and creature reliant, rather clunky.
Problem no. 3 Red took its Armageddon, and has many variants to do this. White has 4? Maybe
Red and white lack in tutors, red more so.
So, this we all know.
How do we address it? Here is my thoughts.
Give white more draw (not artifact based)
Give white more counter magic, interaction to the stack. Its no.2 by a faaaaar margin. Barely ahead of other colours. This part of the game should not be dominated by one colour. Cant think of another element in game that doesnt spalsh into the other colours, Except maybe green land ramp, which white would be no2, barely.
Stop being babies about interacting with mana sources. Vandalblast all your rocks fine, murder all the dorks darn, but touch my land....a mana source, is a mana source, is a mana source.
White needs MLD back so it can drop effecient threats and try close out the game.
Give white an identity.
Black tutors like nobodies business and murders every creature, blue king of bounce and countermagic, green mana dorks and land ramp.
Red blows up the world like Obliterate and burns things down with direct damage.
White?? What are they best at?? Protection? Then Heroic Intervention should of been White, screwed that one up WotC.
[/rant]
Dawn of Hope is solid. Though it triggers off life gain, it does create a source of life gain on its own. It's expensive if that's your only option, but if your commander gains you life I'd say it's enough. Bygone Bishop is another decent draw source if you go for weenies.
I think supplementing these restricted trigger sources with 'balance' draw, where you have to choose a player with more cards than you in order to activate it, would be good. White shouldn't be able to jump out ahead on cards unless it's following a narrow strategy. Being able to draw a bunch off of mentor and bygone Bishop being out and casting a bunch of weenies is fine, because it's a Mana intensive strategy that requires a deep commitment to something that white really wants to do and which isn't very strong in edh. For just general draw though, it should have effects that let it catch up. Being restricted from being able to get ahead is fine, but being unable to get out of a hole because of it is too much. Weaker effects could have smaller restrictions: a creature that draws 2 when it enters the battlefield could just check to see if one player has more cards than you, but an enchantment that draws you two during your upkeep would check to see that you have the fewest cards out of all players.
Also cool would be reparations effects, named after the card. Draw based on bad things happening to you. Get counters for being dealt damage by sources opponents control and and exchange them for cards. Draw when a creature you control is targeted by an opponents effect. Draw when an opponent destroys a permanent you control. Ghostly Prison, except they can always attack but you draw if they don't pay. Enchant an opponents creature and draw when it does damage. Draw when someone draws more than one card at a time. Draw when someone casts more than one spell a turn. Etc etc etc. It could fit white well flavor wise, drawing wisdom from adversity.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
I didn't include black in the tie because of coffers and ritual and such.
Blue has a couple cards that search for artifacts, neither of which exactly reek of efficiency when you're tutoring for a mana rock of some sort (enlightened for a sol ring/crypt, on the other hand, pretty good t1). Red even less so (although I do like gamble). As far as artifact cost reducers I'm seeing etherium sculptor and that's about it. draw from casting artifacts is, y'know, draw, not ramp. With a few interesting exceptions like goblin welder I'm also not really seeing how this artifact synergy really RAMPS you. Sure, it's nice to get synergy from your artifacts but in terms of getting X mana on turn Y I don't see hardly any of them changing the equation.
Red does have a couple rituals but, outside of tuned storm lists and a few combos with reiterate or w/e, they're pretty awful imo. I don't think I've run a single one in the hundred-odd decks I've made.
Are there some really minor ways that red and blue can get extra ramp? I mean, kind of. White also has knight of the white orchid, land tax, tithe, and a bunch of other land-draw cards. I don't really see any of them being obviously ahead of the others in any significant way. If I had to pick a last place I guess it'd be white, but they're all pretty equivalent imo.
Blue has tons of untapping artifact spells and planewalkers, too numerous to list.
I think the bigger problem is that white has nothing to ramp INTO. People don't have ramp-heavy white decks, not because ramp is less available in white, but because there aren't adequate payoffs for it. Explanar lens does the same thing in black as it does in white, but it shows up in a LOT more black decks than white decks, because black actually has good finishers worth dumping mana into. And then people assume white is worse at ramp because white doesn't tend to ramp, but it's correlation, not causation.
This is true. I've been trying to sculpt a mono-white deck, based off this discussion. But it's actually the "what do you ramp into" that's causing me the most problems. It's not entirely without hope, but ramping into Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Avacyn, Angel of Hope is not the same as drawing 7 cards.
The other big problem is that if you are playing a heavy artifact deck, you are prone to board wipes, and at least blue can counter the Vandalblast type cards.
Unfortunately white is just a bit prone to getting completely blown out.
Red at least has the cheat back into play from graveyard cards like Goblin Welder, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Scrap Mastery.
White does have Open the Vaults, so there is that.
A straight colorshifted Balance of Power might be possible with only a little color pie finagling, although it would be whiter as an Arbiter of Knollridge "everybody equalizes to the highest value" effect.
I was going to post a very similar idea, that being a ‘reverse Balance’ of sorts: Timely Reinforcements meets Balance of Power, but also using the opponent with the lowest in each case, for comparison purposes (a la Balance).
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. I mean, they even shifted Curiosity to Green, so... close?
Oh, and something ‘taxes-like’ could work too. Along the lines of Rhystic Study, perhaps, but not as broken (of course). Strikes me as very White, actually.
Overall though, if not for draw (a lack of), I think White has plenty of power and flexibility. *shrug*
The more I think about the harder it seems to become as everything I come up with is eiter too general or out of color pie. Dawn of Hope is a good start but trigger on life gain is not as deep as impulse draw is, and while white does lifegain more than any other color, not all white decks are about life gain so something more universally applicable would be desired. But how?
Some thoughts:
Fair sharing style card draw: white is about equalization, perhaps an enchantment with "whenever an opponent draws his or her third card in a turn, draw a card" or "at the beginning of each end step, if at least two players drew a card this turn, draw a card" allowing you to keep up with someone who does excessive drawing.
White is also good in retribution: "Whenever an effect an opponent controls destroys a permanent you control, draw a card" seems good (wrath Insurance) or something along the lines of "At the beginning of end step, if you were dealt 4 or more damage by sources your opponents control, draw a card".
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Having "stickier" cards and more graveyard manipulation would also help a lot. Sun Titan and Reveillark are awesome, but some way to reliably loop permanents in monowhite alone would help a lot. How neat would it be for white to have an enchantment that was basically Phyrexian Reclamation but it cost no life and could get any permanent CMC 2 or less instead?
If White got a boatload of Scry (including some sort of enchantment version of Sensei's Divining Top) that'd also be gas, as scrying enough is almost like drawing cards. Imagine a 1 CMC enchantment with "at the beginning of your upkeep, Scry 2".
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
MaRo has recently said that while this makes flavorful sense (especially a colorshifted Balance of Power), it still is a major concern from a color pie preservation standpoint. White is the best weenie color with the most efficient one mana spells - not only hyper-efficient one mana creatures, but also powerful one-mana instants, sorceries, and auras. As a result, vomiting out their hand to draw seven is trivial to white in older formats.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I think it'd be worth it to put Balance Guy on the colorshift artwork though.
Secondarily, I think more and better stuff that incidentally scries more than 1, to fix card quality problems, and a slate of efficient hate cantrips could make a difference. So, indeed, could Phyrexian Reclamation But For Low Cost Permanents.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Thus white has just become weaker and weaker color in commander, as you're not the incentivized to use it as a means of interaction.
At the end of the day the two most powerful and really winning ways of playing commander is Mana + Draw.
Yup and it turns out that white is literally the worst at doing both these things. So it makes sense that it is the bottom of the color pie for mono-colored approach.
There is Alms Collector that does something to this effect.
I agree more cards like this would help to balance it out. Rather than just giving white big mana producers and big draw cards (which is easy to do, but poor design approach), they need to be printing more cards like these.
Now you could say that whites answer to balancing out mana producing is by using Stax approach. Armageddon, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, etc.
Then for draw, you also have Spirit of the Labyrinth.
But this just pushes people into a particular archetype, that honestly doesn't work in pure mono-white. I've seen people try it and it just doesn't have enough punch in multiplayer to consistently win, if it can win at all.
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
Could also use some more Recruiter of the Guard stuff interacting with low CMC cards or low toughness/power cards--maybe some more Sun Titan effects.
More cost-aggressive reanimation might be nice.
Could also really use a Reclamation Sage effect - just a 1WW Leonin relic-Warder that exiles permanently for example.
More [card}Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card] effects might be solid too, especially at low costs.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The biggest problem is how bad mono-white sucks on its own, but I don't think people have hit the nail on the head as to why. Its lack of ramp is pretty irrelevant considering all the excellent mana rocks that exist, and really only green has non-rock ramp. Besides, with geddon et al, you'd rather have rocks than land ramp anyway. Lack of draw is definitely part of the issue, but there are quite a few serviceable colorless options at this point.
I think the real issue is simply how difficult it is to close out a game in white. Few of the wincons are explosive, which is something that red is actually quite good at and why I think it's the superior mono-color (though imo worse as a support color). In terms of things that actually win games, being able to win suddenly, before people get the chance to untap and answer your stuff, is a big deal, and white suuuuuucks at winning out of nowhere on its own. Its best shot is to have board superiority and then drop a geddon, but that requires being able to get board superiority AND it's often frowned upon. It's also exacerbated by the lack of draw and tutor, which makes it a very unreliable strat.
So I think what white needs, more than anything, is good finishers that don't break the social contract. Maybe something like comeuppance except everything punches its controller instead of itself? Get some good retaliatory stuff in there, which punishes people for overextending. Some sort of socially-acceptable LD, like maybe a fixed-for-multiplayer limited resources could be good. Making powerful enchantments seems like a good way to go, since white can most easily tutor for enchantments (and equipment, but those are usually colorless). Maybe humility except it makes everything a 2/2, to buff tokens while shrinking enemies? Or maybe it only removes etb effects and not other abilities? That's obviously less explosive, but it's really hard for some decks to deal with humility.
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
There is Kor Cartographer and Solemn Simulacrum without restriction.
But as you can see they are either making sure that opponents are already ahead, so that you can't string together a lot of these effects. You're always going to be the same or behind your opponent, which just means you can't make explosive mono-white decks.
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and Bishop of Rebirth keep up this theme, but once again it's making sure you're restricted to converted mana cost 3 or less.
White does have good curve end toppers that can do stuff like this in; Emeria Shepherd, Angel of Glory's Rise.
But as white doesn't have mana acceleration, these cards are not likely to be consistently used during fast games.
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 the only other thing white should be able to do for card advantage is the way it brings back small things from the graveyard. So far, I think the effects bring cards back to the battlefield. This is obviously highly abusable (Sun Titan, Teshar, Reveillark). Maybe a powered down version, like regrowth effects for low CMC cards.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Also I don't get this "white sucks at ramping" thing. How do you ramp in blue? mana rocks. How do you ramp in red? mana rocks. How do you ramp in black? Mana rocks and like a couple other cards. White even has land tax and such that ensures consistent land drops. White is "the worst at ramp" in the sense of being 3rd in a three-way, almost four-way, tie. So basically the complaint is "white isn't green".
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
Lots of tutors for artifacts, cost reduction for artifacts, draw from casting artifacts, and ways to cheat in artifacts, graveyard recursion for artifacts, etc, etc.
Red also has spells which can generate a lot of mana. Storm is an archetype in Izzet, cost reduction and spells which generate mana.
Blue has High Tide, and in combination with spells which allow you to untap lands and artifacts is potent. Although white can also play cards like Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun, it just doesn't have any color specific cards to untap your artifacts and lands the same way that blue does.
Black has a lot of double your mana creatures as well. Cabal Coffers, etc.
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
Tectonic Knight 2RW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
First strike
When ~ enters the battlefield, if an opponent controls at least four lands, you may destroy target nonbasic land that opponent controls. Then, if that opponent controls more lands than you, you may search your library for a Plains card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
3/3
Doesn't help mono-white, but RW is the color pair that's worst off, and it would have given us a Boros commander that's not rawr combat combat combat!
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
it does too much of everything but excels at absolutely nothing. its a decent support color to every other color, but as an identity its just too messy. they should really push ANY aspect of it. it just pulls punches everywhere. on top of that, it doesn't actually have very good synergy with any other color. yeah, its a good support color, but it rarely pushes anything into better territory, instead being used for a couple of toys, or removal, but no real all in strategy. even the strategies its known for are outclassed by other colors in edh sometimes.
it doesn't need to focus on the land destruction aspect to work, it needs to focus on any aspect. anything. even red has more focus, and its supposed to be the damn chaos color.
In a similiar vein, playing up White's recursion could help make it more resilient. It already does have some, but it needs more cards on the level of Sun Titan that are powerful without being too conditional.
Furthermore, I'm thinking some more land destruction effects that are more there to punish green players than just make the game miserable for everyone could help. Fall of the Thran is a good example of this: Let everyone keep some lands, but destroy the advantage of that green guy with 20 lands or the black player with a full sawmp + coffers suite.
Looking a bit further, I think White could also use a couple more powerful synergistic themes of its own. It's often good at limiting what others do through control and hatebears, but less good at creating explosive turns by itself. Token strategies are its best bet here, but they are vulnerable and slow. White needs something akin to what Daretti did for red: Open up a new powerful and very general theme that allows White to be more degenerate itself. I'm not sure what this might be though, as the large themes are all divvied up pretty well. Perhaps more enchantress cards?
Blue has a couple cards that search for artifacts, neither of which exactly reek of efficiency when you're tutoring for a mana rock of some sort (enlightened for a sol ring/crypt, on the other hand, pretty good t1). Red even less so (although I do like gamble). As far as artifact cost reducers I'm seeing etherium sculptor and that's about it. draw from casting artifacts is, y'know, draw, not ramp. With a few interesting exceptions like goblin welder I'm also not really seeing how this artifact synergy really RAMPS you. Sure, it's nice to get synergy from your artifacts but in terms of getting X mana on turn Y I don't see hardly any of them changing the equation.
Red does have a couple rituals but, outside of tuned storm lists and a few combos with reiterate or w/e, they're pretty awful imo. I don't think I've run a single one in the hundred-odd decks I've made.
Are there some really minor ways that red and blue can get extra ramp? I mean, kind of. White also has knight of the white orchid, land tax, tithe, and a bunch of other land-draw cards. I don't really see any of them being obviously ahead of the others in any significant way. If I had to pick a last place I guess it'd be white, but they're all pretty equivalent imo.
I think the bigger problem is that white has nothing to ramp INTO. People don't have ramp-heavy white decks, not because ramp is less available in white, but because there aren't adequate payoffs for it. Explanar lens does the same thing in black as it does in white, but it shows up in a LOT more black decks than white decks, because black actually has good finishers worth dumping mana into. And then people assume white is worse at ramp because white doesn't tend to ramp, but it's correlation, not causation.
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
The card draw capabilities of both colors tend to be quite lacking when you look at splashing them. Generally when you are splashing them you are mostly comparing Land Tax and equipment tutors to Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of fortune is an amazing and powerful card but it tends to come down to decks focused on combo or fast tempo things as to what makes that card good when you look at picking it up when already having access to blue, green, or black.
If you are talking about mono color I think there are valid arguments for why red is superior to white and that comes down to a few very key commanders like Kiki, Krenko, and a few others that can be incredibly fast, powerful, and build off of combo tactics. There are a few mono white commanders who can still do somewhat competitive things like say Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle but in general I would say red's commanders seem like they probably run a bit smoother with more cards that you are probably more likely to want outside of assembling a commander combo cannon.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Yeah the white dont ramp thing is a dead horse.
Now white dont draw....
Black, Blue, Green all draw well and have many, many spells to choose from.
Red got its looting and wheels thing going.
White...Mentor of the Meek? Could probably give it a handfull, if that.
So problem no.1
Problem no.2, Whites big finisher spells are combat step and creature reliant, rather clunky.
Problem no. 3 Red took its Armageddon, and has many variants to do this. White has 4? Maybe
Red and white lack in tutors, red more so.
So, this we all know.
How do we address it? Here is my thoughts.
Give white more draw (not artifact based)
Give white more counter magic, interaction to the stack. Its no.2 by a faaaaar margin. Barely ahead of other colours. This part of the game should not be dominated by one colour. Cant think of another element in game that doesnt spalsh into the other colours, Except maybe green land ramp, which white would be no2, barely.
Stop being babies about interacting with mana sources. Vandalblast all your rocks fine, murder all the dorks darn, but touch my land....a mana source, is a mana source, is a mana source.
White needs MLD back so it can drop effecient threats and try close out the game.
Give white an identity.
Black tutors like nobodies business and murders every creature, blue king of bounce and countermagic, green mana dorks and land ramp.
Red blows up the world like Obliterate and burns things down with direct damage.
White?? What are they best at?? Protection? Then Heroic Intervention should of been White, screwed that one up WotC.
[/rant]
I think supplementing these restricted trigger sources with 'balance' draw, where you have to choose a player with more cards than you in order to activate it, would be good. White shouldn't be able to jump out ahead on cards unless it's following a narrow strategy. Being able to draw a bunch off of mentor and bygone Bishop being out and casting a bunch of weenies is fine, because it's a Mana intensive strategy that requires a deep commitment to something that white really wants to do and which isn't very strong in edh. For just general draw though, it should have effects that let it catch up. Being restricted from being able to get ahead is fine, but being unable to get out of a hole because of it is too much. Weaker effects could have smaller restrictions: a creature that draws 2 when it enters the battlefield could just check to see if one player has more cards than you, but an enchantment that draws you two during your upkeep would check to see that you have the fewest cards out of all players.
Also cool would be reparations effects, named after the card. Draw based on bad things happening to you. Get counters for being dealt damage by sources opponents control and and exchange them for cards. Draw when a creature you control is targeted by an opponents effect. Draw when an opponent destroys a permanent you control. Ghostly Prison, except they can always attack but you draw if they don't pay. Enchant an opponents creature and draw when it does damage. Draw when someone draws more than one card at a time. Draw when someone casts more than one spell a turn. Etc etc etc. It could fit white well flavor wise, drawing wisdom from adversity.
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!
Trinket Mage, Trophy Mage, Power Artifact, Grand Architect, Chief Engineer, Phyrexian Metamorph, Thada Adel, Acquisitor, Herald of Kozilek, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Scrap Mastery, Treasure Nabber, Hellkite Tyrant.
Battle Hymn and Mana Geyser are reliable ways to generate mana, and then you have access to stringing lots of rituals together again, with Mizzix's Mastery or Past in Flames.
Red even has planeswalkers that help with mana; Jaya Ballard, Koth of the Hammer, Chandra, Torch of Defiance (there are more).
The other important thing is that Red and Blue have a lot of cards that say "without paying their mana-cost". You are able to mitigate paying mana at all.
Runaway Steam Kin is a new one.
Blue has tons of untapping artifact spells and planewalkers, too numerous to list.
This is true. I've been trying to sculpt a mono-white deck, based off this discussion. But it's actually the "what do you ramp into" that's causing me the most problems. It's not entirely without hope, but ramping into Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Avacyn, Angel of Hope is not the same as drawing 7 cards.
The other big problem is that if you are playing a heavy artifact deck, you are prone to board wipes, and at least blue can counter the Vandalblast type cards.
Unfortunately white is just a bit prone to getting completely blown out.
Red at least has the cheat back into play from graveyard cards like Goblin Welder, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Scrap Mastery.
White does have Open the Vaults, so there is that.
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
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. I mean, they even shifted Curiosity to Green, so... close?
Oh, and something ‘taxes-like’ could work too. Along the lines of Rhystic Study, perhaps, but not as broken (of course). Strikes me as very White, actually.
Overall though, if not for draw (a lack of), I think White has plenty of power and flexibility. *shrug*