This deck is based around Darien, King of Kjeldor and ways to deal yourself controlled amounts of damage to generate token armies. You could build this in a linear token aggro deck, but I have chosen not to play aggro. Aggro does not play to monowhite's strengths. This is a monowhite control deck that uses Darien to deter attacks and wins the game with tokens.
Multiplayer Advantages of Playing Darien
Since Darien makes a soldier token for each damage dealt to you, he has political value in multiplayer, encouraging players to attack each other instead of you. You can also leverage Darien to form alliances. If player A wants to hurt player B but lacks the resources, you can agree to have him attack you instead. He deals you X damage. You get X soldier tokens (probably bigger than 1/1), and then on your turn you attack player B with all the soldier tokens. At a casual table, much is possible. Even without any tokens on the board, Darien serves as a passive threat and equalizer, knowing that you can attack someone back for more or attack on someone else's behalf.
Players will probably avoid damaging you with non-lethal damage while Darien is out, unless they want you to attack someone else for them. But you can also make tokens by damaging yourself.
Main Synergies with Darien
With Darien out, people will avoid attacking you. You will usually need to damage yourself to get the ball rolling.
Jade Monolith doesn't look like much, but is an absolute house in this deck. When your tokens attack or chump block, you can redirect all damage dealt to them to you instead, using very little mana. Your token horde will grow quickly. Monolith also protects Darien from red damage-based removal like Anger of the Gods and Chain Reaction, cards that would otherwise wreck token strategies.
Something that is often missed is that Jade Monolith only takes 1 mana to activate and says target creature. Period! I bolded the punctuation for a reason. Not "you control". Monolith can target someone else's creatures! In multiplayer, this means that even if players are staying far away from you and attacking each other, you can intervene in their combat. You can save one player's creature for diplomatic reasons while also giving yourself a bunch of soldiers. Or you can just screw over everyone's attacking and blocking, making it uncertain what will and won't die.
Dealing yourself damage can get dangerous. But with Darien out, Soul Sister effects like Soul Warden compensate for any damage you take. For each 1 damage you take from an opponent or yourself, you get a 1/1 token and then gain 1 life. That means that as long as you have Darien and a Soul Sister, non-lethal non-commander damage cannot dent your life total. In fact, damage just makes you stronger by giving you more Soldiers.
The basic soft lock is Darien + any soul sister (e.g. Soul Warden, Suture Priest), which basically negates any non-lethal non-commander damage while making free creatures for you. As long as you have this combo out, players will not be attacking you. You can deal as much damage to yourself as possible to make tokens to swarm the board.
Darien + soul sister + Jade Monolith + mana open = "creatures opponents control cannot attack or block"
Well, that's what it amounts to. As described above, Jade Monolith lets you intervene in other people's combat while giving yourself Soldier tokens. With a Soul Sister to negate the damage, once opponent's clue into your deck's engine, they can't risk sending their creatures into combat even against each other. If anything blocks anything, you can redirect all the damage to yourself and make a ton of tokens without losing any life. Opponents will probably stay away from the combat phase until they find a way to answer your engine.
Darien + soul sister + Blasting Station makes an infinite loop (targeting yourself with Blasting Station)
I am not running Reservoir as it's pretty bad in multiplayer unless you can already get infinite life (win-more) or are using it like above to make infinite tokens.
Generally I'll grab at least 1 Soul Sister to set up the soft lock with Darien. Early game, Weathered Wayfarer can set up amazing card advantage and makes use of another tutor package (below). Mother of Runes can protect Darien. I have opted not to run Serra Ascendant because it's high variance and kind of win-more. This deck goes wide instead of big on one threat.
This is probably the only deck where you want to see Tarnished Citadel over City of Brass!
Outside of the main Darien engine, other land targets include: Emeria, the Sky Ruin - single best reason to play Plains Wasteland/Strip Mine - when you need to kill utility lands Karoo - ramp without upsetting your land count for future activations Kjeldoran Outpost - plan D for tokens if you cannot stick Darien Mistveil Plains - recycle cards to be tutored for again Windbrisk Heights - when you need more cards High Market - protection from exile and theft Plains - sometimes you just want ramp
On top of finding a whole range of utility lands and enabling the main Darien combo, Wayfarer still has even more synergy than usual. It's tutorable with Ranger of Eos and Recruiter of the Guard, it can be recurred with Lark or Sun Titan, and it gets incidentally buffed for combat by all the anthem effects. Wayfarer is very powerful in this deck, which is why there are so many ways to find it and recur it.
4) Idyllic Tutor
The main enchantment to go for is Cathars' Crusade. It is just nutty with Darien tokens. Other options are Marshal's Anthem for recursion, Land Tax for card advantage and ramp if it's still early in the game, Grasp of Fate to kill things, or other anthems.
5) Enlightened Tutor
Obviously this can get anything Idyllic can get or any artifact. Early game, I use this to assemble Land Tax + Scroll Rack, especially if I already have one of the two pieces. Later in the game it can find Jade Monolith to both protect Darien and start churning out a lot of tokens. Otherwise I will keep this in hand to save until I really need something, due to the sheer flexibility of the card. Answers include: Relic of Progenitus - graveyard hate Eldrazi Monument - wrath protection Grasp of Fate - spot removal Marshal's Anthem - recover from board wipe Aura of Silence - spot removal
One of monowhite's biggest advantages is the ease of graveyard recursion. Creature recursion is important since the deck functions a lot better with Soul Sisters on the table.
Marshal's Anthem's multikicker is great at giving you a board again in the lategame. The fact that it's also an anthem and this is a token deck is just incredible value.
Reveillark is not as strong in this deck as usual, but due to the importance of keeping Soul Sisters out I thought it was worth it. It can recur a lot of the same creatures as Sun Titan and even Healer of the Pride, the 5th Soul Sister.
Mistveil Plains has some utility recycling used cards to be tutored again or to dodge graveyard hate. As a Plains, it can be found with Gift of Estates or Tithe.
So I just wrote a whole bunch of sections about how "the deck can do _______ if Darien is out." Well, OK, but what if they kill Darien?
A Darien deck really needs Darien to work. Otherwise self-damage and soul sisters and anthems all look pretty lousy. Luckily, since the tuck rule was removed, you don't have to worry about Darien being lost forever. I think that makes this deck significantly more viable.
Opponents will still kill him as often as possible, so I have taken a 2-pronged approach to deal with this:
1) Mana Ramp. Build up BIG mana so that I can recast Darien a few times from the Command Zone.
2) Protection: Mother of Runes is tutorable and recurrable through the deck's engines and protects Darien from targeted removal and damage
Jade Monolith protects him from red damage-based removal and green fight-based removal while also making you a bunch of tokens.
More protection may be required as well
Since Darien will have a big target on his head and there are only finite ways to protect him and recast his clunky body, this deck needs to be able to win without Darien.
Mobilization is probably the best alternate win condition in the lategame. Fantastic mana sink. Still makes soldiers. What's not to like? It's tutorable with Enlightened Tutor and Idyllic Tutor. Although it's bad in the early game, I only need this card when you have already tried casting Darien from the command zone 4 times and don't have the mana to do it again.
Luminarch Ascension is another easy token engine and mana sink. I recently cut this, because it draws a lot of hate and sometimes just does nothing, but I may add it back in.
Captain of the Watch gives 4 bodies all in one shot. With additional anthems, it can deal significantly damage on its own.
Martial Coup is a legitimate win condition. Wiping the board and making 6 6/6 tokens is sometimes enough to win, and such a play is possible with Cathars' Crusade or Coat of Arms or multiple anthem effects working together.
When the token engine fails, the deck can try to go beatdown with utility dorks. Sun Titan + Lark + Emeria + Marshal's Anthem give a lot of ways to recur early game utility dorks. Lategame, anthem effects make them large. So you can just try to win with dorks. Simply looping Soul Warden with Sun Titan/Lark/Emeria + High Market + Archangel of Thune can let you go Soul Sister beatdown.
As a token deck with utility weenies and an embarassingly small Commander (3/3 for 6), this deck obviously wants anthems. There are a lot of choices in monowhite. It's easy to get carried away and run too many.
I tried to avoid generic anthems like Glorious Anthem and Honor of the Pure. Despite the low mana costs, these cards do nothing when you don't already have the Darien engine working, so it is questionable spending a whole card on them. Instead, I focused on anthems that also provide other value.
Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power provide the lategame mana ramp this deck will need to cast Darien more than once from the Command Zone. They also fuel manasinks/alternate win conditions like Mobilization.
Eldrazi Monument provides Wrath protection. It also lets you cast Rout without killing your own team, boosting the control angles this deck can play.
The others are still good but potentially worth cutting if the deck already has too many anthems. Angel of Jubilation shuts down many strong engines in other decks, especially black decks. Archangel of Thune interacts well with Soul Sisters. Spear of Heliod kills attackers.
Coat of Arms can be very strong in theory but it was cut as it can easily backfire.
I am trying to play monowhite control. Obviously Wraths have to be a part of it. Again, I am trying to avoid running too many so that I am not leaning on wiping the board as my only form of interaction.
Mass Calcify and Hour of Recknoning don't touch my soldier tokens, so most of the time these cards should just be amazing.
Retribution of the Meek, Elspeth, Sun's Champion's -3 ability, and Austere Command can also selectively kill the opponent's fat creatures without touching my weenies. With many anthems, though, there could be board states where Retribution and Elspeth would also kill my whole team.
Martial Coup will kill my board but at least leaves me with a bunch of 1/1 white soldier tokens, so in the end it's still a big win.
I am very partial towards the instant speed flexibility of Rout and prefer to run this before Wrath of God/Day of Judgment in casual multiplayer circles.
Notably absent is Oblivion Stone, even though I have an artifact tutor to find it and Sun Titan to reuse it. My rationale was that I have enough ways to kill things and I don't want to kill my own enchantments and artifacts, but I may change my mind about this later.
For a deck that relies on it's commander so much, you are light on protection for Darien with regards to bounce or exile. You basically only run Lightning Greaves and have no way to go and find it. I'd add at least one equipment like Swiftfoot Boots or Champion's Helm and maybe replace Idyllic Tutor with Enlightened Tutor so it can find this for you as well.
You already run Sun Titan, so I'd suggest adding Command Beacon to the deck for when Darien becomes to expensive to cast from the command zone. You can cut Kjeldoran Outpost for it. While flavorful, its quite underwhelming imo.
This deck definitly needs Angel's Trumpet. It speeds up the entire game which is a nice thing for multiplayer anyway, plus the damage always gives you blockers so you are never without defense. It also gives the deck some form of reach and allows it grow exponentially all by itself in case the board is locked.
Retribution of the Meek can also seriously hurt you when you have 2+ anthems out. Maybe replace it with Crackdown for a more permanent answer to big troublesome creatures. It also combos really well with Angels Trumpet, since the Trumpet will tap all nonwhite creatures without haste at the end of the turn they are cast, while Crackdown keeps them that way.
Not sure but maybe Altar of Dementia is a nice second victory option vs pillowforts? With lots of tokens and anthems, it's not that hard to just mill someone out.
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1) I recently cut Swiftfoot Boots (since it forces you to wait an extra land drop before you can cast Darien, which can be very costly as the cost increases) but I should probably add it back in. As you said, I need the protection. I'm already running both Enlightened and Idyllic Tutor. I could also add Stoneforge Mystic to help find protection equipment.
3) Angel's Trumpet seems good. Never even heard of this card before. I wonder how bad it will be when Darien is not out? But the speed boost seems important. It also stops people from dodging the soft lock by just not attacking.
4) Crackdown could work. It will lock out generic fatties (e.g. fat green tokens), but it doesn't answer powerful abilities and without Angel's Trumpet a lot of creatures can still get through. I wonder if I should just run Wrath of God instead of trying to get cute with Retribution. Whenever I don't have Darien (or a lot of Darien's tokens still standing), I will be happy to wrath the board.
5) Hmm if I am adding Altar of Dementia to deal with pillowforts, then I really need to add Karmic Guide too. Then I also get a Darien-free plan B: Altar + Karmic Guide + Reveillark loop. Even if someone has Eldrazi to protect against mill, Lark combo also gives infinite life with a Soul Sister. Adding Fiend Hunter would give more pairs to make Lark combo work (Sun Titan+Hunter, Guide+Hunter). And it's not like Karmic Guide or Fiend Hunter are terrible cards to run outside of the combo.
Excellent deck and well detailed! I run a Darien deck myself that originally focused more on dealing self pain with Darien but I shyd away from it because I found out either opponents would play around things or tuck my commander (this was before the rules change), thus nullifying all the cards I had dedicated to him. Now I run more of an aggro/token build that can function without Darien, but has a few ways to deal self damage without taking up dedicated slots (painlands, manacrypt/vault, etc).
That said, there are two cards I have in my deck that are mostly dedicated for just Darien that I think are totally worth it. Sivvi's Valor and Scout's Warning.
The former is a one time use Jade Monolith. However, what I believe makes this card special is that it's very sneaky. It's instant, it's free (in most scenarios) and your opponents will not see it coming. Jade seems better for 1 vs 1 because if your opponent doesn't have an answer to it or Darien then it puts a lot of pressure on them. However, Jade does not seem very good for multiplayer because it's a lot of open information that you opponents can play around and most likely have an answer to. They could easily in response destroy/exile/bounce Darien to your Jade trigger, causing you to shoot yourself in the foot. This is where I think Sivvi's valor shines over Jade in multiplayer. There is so much you can do with it, even when your opponents aren't attacking you! Even at it's worst, you can use it to save a key creature of not just your own, but an opponent's/ally's creature as well.
As for the latter, well, I think flashing in Darien for some surprise tokens is pretty good, but it might not be worth it if you don't have many other creatures you could utilize with it
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Multiplayer Advantages of Playing Darien
Since Darien makes a soldier token for each damage dealt to you, he has political value in multiplayer, encouraging players to attack each other instead of you. You can also leverage Darien to form alliances. If player A wants to hurt player B but lacks the resources, you can agree to have him attack you instead. He deals you X damage. You get X soldier tokens (probably bigger than 1/1), and then on your turn you attack player B with all the soldier tokens. At a casual table, much is possible. Even without any tokens on the board, Darien serves as a passive threat and equalizer, knowing that you can attack someone back for more or attack on someone else's behalf.
Players will probably avoid damaging you with non-lethal damage while Darien is out, unless they want you to attack someone else for them. But you can also make tokens by damaging yourself.
Main Synergies with Darien
With Darien out, people will avoid attacking you. You will usually need to damage yourself to get the ball rolling.
Self-damage can occur with cards like:
Jade Monolith (also protecting your team)
Ancient Tomb
Tarnished Citadel
Staff of Nin
Jade Monolith doesn't look like much, but is an absolute house in this deck. When your tokens attack or chump block, you can redirect all damage dealt to them to you instead, using very little mana. Your token horde will grow quickly. Monolith also protects Darien from red damage-based removal like Anger of the Gods and Chain Reaction, cards that would otherwise wreck token strategies.
Something that is often missed is that Jade Monolith only takes 1 mana to activate and says target creature. Period! I bolded the punctuation for a reason. Not "you control". Monolith can target someone else's creatures! In multiplayer, this means that even if players are staying far away from you and attacking each other, you can intervene in their combat. You can save one player's creature for diplomatic reasons while also giving yourself a bunch of soldiers. Or you can just screw over everyone's attacking and blocking, making it uncertain what will and won't die.
Dealing yourself damage can get dangerous. But with Darien out, Soul Sister effects like Soul Warden compensate for any damage you take. For each 1 damage you take from an opponent or yourself, you get a 1/1 token and then gain 1 life. That means that as long as you have Darien and a Soul Sister, non-lethal non-commander damage cannot dent your life total. In fact, damage just makes you stronger by giving you more Soldiers.
The soldier tokens can be used for many things.
Drawing more cards:
Skullclamp
Mentor of the Meek
Beating down in combat:
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Cathars' Crusade
Coat of Arms
Fueling Soldier-specific abilities:
Knight-Captain of Eos
Catapult Master
Enabling 1-sided Wraths:
Hour of Reckoning
Mass Calcify
The basic soft lock is Darien + any soul sister (e.g. Soul Warden, Suture Priest), which basically negates any non-lethal non-commander damage while making free creatures for you. As long as you have this combo out, players will not be attacking you. You can deal as much damage to yourself as possible to make tokens to swarm the board.
Darien + soul sister + Jade Monolith + mana open = "creatures opponents control cannot attack or block"
Well, that's what it amounts to. As described above, Jade Monolith lets you intervene in other people's combat while giving yourself Soldier tokens. With a Soul Sister to negate the damage, once opponent's clue into your deck's engine, they can't risk sending their creatures into combat even against each other. If anything blocks anything, you can redirect all the damage to yourself and make a ton of tokens without losing any life. Opponents will probably stay away from the combat phase until they find a way to answer your engine.
Darien + soul sister + Blasting Station makes an infinite loop (targeting yourself with Blasting Station)
By adding another piece to the loop, you can win in a few different ways:
+2nd soul sister = infinite life
+Court Street Denizen = tap out enemy boards
+Aetherflux Reservoir = infinite tokens (deal 50 to yourself)
+Cathars' Crusade / Archangel of Thune = add infinite +1/+1 counters to your army
I am not running Reservoir as it's pretty bad in multiplayer unless you can already get infinite life (win-more) or are using it like above to make infinite tokens.
The Deck
Here's what I have so far. Any suggestions?
6 Darien, King of Kjeldor
//Self-Damage: 10
0 Ancient Tomb
0 City of Brass
0 Grand Coliseum
0 Nomad Stadium
0 Tarnished Citadel
0 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
3 Blasting Station
4 Jade Monolith
6 Staff of Nin
//Soul Sisters: 5
1 Soul Warden
1 Soul's Attendant
2 Auriok Champion
2 Suture Priest
4 Healer of the Pride
//Anthems: 12
2 Intangible Virtue
3 Spear of Heliod
4 Angel of Jubilation
4 Marshal's Anthem
5 Eldrazi Monument
5 Cathars' Crusade
5 Archangel of Thune
5 Gauntlet of Power
6 Caged Sun
6 Captain of the Watch
6 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
7 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
0 Kjeldoran Outpost
3 Mobilization
5 Catapult Master
5 Knight-Captain of Eos
5 Elspeth Tirel
6 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
//Other Ramp: 8
0 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Land Tax
1 Tithe
2 Gift of Estates
2 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Burnished Hart
//Card Draw and Tutors: 10
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Expedition Map
2 Scroll Rack
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Recruiter of the Guard
3 Idyllic Tutor
4 Ranger of Eos
//Protection: 3
1 Mother of Runes
2 Lightning Greaves
8 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
3 Retribution of the Meek
5 Rout
6 Austere Command
7 Mass Calcify
7 Hour of Reckoning
7 Martial Coup
//Other Removal: 7
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Unexpectedly Absent
3 Grasp of Fate
3 Council's Judgment
3 Aura of Silence
4 Return to Dust
//Recursion: 5
0 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
0 Mistveil Plains
4 Marshal's Anthem
5 Reveillark
6 Sun Titan
//Other Lands: 29
0 Wasteland
0 Strip Mine
0 High Market
0 Windbrisk Heights
0 Karoo
24 Plains
Decklist sorted by card type instead.
6 Darien, King of Kjeldor
//Creatures: 22
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Mother of Runes
1 Soul Warden
1 Soul's Attendant
2 Auriok Champion
2 Suture Priest
2 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Burnished Hart
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Recruiter of the Guard
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Angel of Jubilation
4 Healer of the Pride
5 Catapult Master
5 Knight-Captain of Eos
5 Reveillark
5 Archangel of Thune
6 Captain of the Watch
6 Sun Titan
6 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
7 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
8 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
//Enchantments: 8
1 Land Tax
2 Intangible Virtue
3 Mobilization
3 Spear of Heliod
3 Grasp of Fate
3 Aura of Silence
4 Marshal's Anthem
5 Cathars' Crusade
0 Mana Crypt
0 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Expedition Map
2 Scroll Rack
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Blasting Station
4 Jade Monolith
5 Eldrazi Monument
5 Gauntlet of Power
6 Caged Sun
6 Staff of Nin
//Planeswalker: 2
5 Elspeth Tirel
6 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
//Instant: 5
1 Tithe
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Unexpectedly Absent
4 Return to Dust
//Sorcery: 9
2 Gift of Estates
3 Idyllic Tutor
3 Council's Judgment
3 Retribution of the Meek
5 Rout
6 Austere Command
7 Mass Calcify
7 Hour of Reckoning
7 Martial Coup
0 Ancient Tomb
0 City of Brass
0 Grand Coliseum
0 Nomad Stadium
0 Tarnished Citadel
0 Kjeldoran Outpost
0 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
0 Mistveil Plains
0 Windbrisk Heights
0 High Market
0 Karoo
0 Wasteland
0 Strip Mine
24 Plains
Mana Curve:
0 - ss
1 - ccccsssssssssss
2 - cccsssss
3 - cccssssssss
4 - cccsss
5 - ccccsssss
6 - cccssss
7 - csss
8 - c
Mana Sources:
37 lands + 8 cheap ramp
Card Explanations
This list makes few of a few tutor engines and tutor packages.
1) Ranger of Eos
Ranger can find 2 of the following: Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Mother of Runes, Weathered Wayfarer
Generally I'll grab at least 1 Soul Sister to set up the soft lock with Darien. Early game, Weathered Wayfarer can set up amazing card advantage and makes use of another tutor package (below). Mother of Runes can protect Darien. I have opted not to run Serra Ascendant because it's high variance and kind of win-more. This deck goes wide instead of big on one threat.
2) Weathered Wayfarer / Expedition Map
As usual, these cards grab utility lands. But even more importantly they grab the self-damaging lands to make Darien work:
This is probably the only deck where you want to see Tarnished Citadel over City of Brass!
Outside of the main Darien engine, other land targets include:
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - single best reason to play Plains
Wasteland/Strip Mine - when you need to kill utility lands
Karoo - ramp without upsetting your land count for future activations
Kjeldoran Outpost - plan D for tokens if you cannot stick Darien
Mistveil Plains - recycle cards to be tutored for again
Windbrisk Heights - when you need more cards
High Market - protection from exile and theft
Plains - sometimes you just want ramp
On top of finding a whole range of utility lands and enabling the main Darien combo, Wayfarer still has even more synergy than usual. It's tutorable with Ranger of Eos and Recruiter of the Guard, it can be recurred with Lark or Sun Titan, and it gets incidentally buffed for combat by all the anthem effects. Wayfarer is very powerful in this deck, which is why there are so many ways to find it and recur it.
3) Recruiter of the Guard
This deck has many low-toughness creatures. Recruiter can grab Ranger of Eos or any of its targets directly, plus 2 other Soul Sisters (Suture Priest and Auriok Champion). It can also find Mentor of the Meek for card draw, Burnished Hart or Knight of the White Orchid for ramp, or Knight-Captain of Eos for fogs. Most of these targets and Recruiter itself are in the sweet spot to be recurred with both Reveillark and Sun Titan.
Other options (not included in this deck) are Grand Abolisher for protection against interference, Aegis of the Gods for protection against discard and combo, Court Street Denizen for a tap engine, Thalia, Heretic Cathar to slow down opponents, Benalish Commander for a token engine/fatty, or Mirror Entity to alpha strike.
4) Idyllic Tutor
The main enchantment to go for is Cathars' Crusade. It is just nutty with Darien tokens. Other options are Marshal's Anthem for recursion, Land Tax for card advantage and ramp if it's still early in the game, Grasp of Fate to kill things, or other anthems.
5) Enlightened Tutor
Obviously this can get anything Idyllic can get or any artifact. Early game, I use this to assemble Land Tax + Scroll Rack, especially if I already have one of the two pieces. Later in the game it can find Jade Monolith to both protect Darien and start churning out a lot of tokens. Otherwise I will keep this in hand to save until I really need something, due to the sheer flexibility of the card. Answers include:
Relic of Progenitus - graveyard hate
Eldrazi Monument - wrath protection
Grasp of Fate - spot removal
Marshal's Anthem - recover from board wipe
Aura of Silence - spot removal
One of monowhite's biggest advantages is the ease of graveyard recursion. Creature recursion is important since the deck functions a lot better with Soul Sisters on the table.
Emeria, the Sky Ruin is of course in the decklist, accompanied by many plains. It can be tutored with Weathered Wayfarer and Expedition Map.
Marshal's Anthem's multikicker is great at giving you a board again in the lategame. The fact that it's also an anthem and this is a token deck is just incredible value.
Sun Titan. How could a deck with Plains not run Sun Titan? I tried to, but just couldn't do it. It recurs so many useful things: Emeria, Soul Sisters, artifact ramp (Mana Crypt, Wayfarer's Bauble), creature-based ramp (Burnished Hart, Knight of the White Orchid), Land Tax/Scroll Rack, Strip Mine/Wasteland, Aura of Silence, Recruiter of the Guard, Weathered Wayfarer, Skullclamp... Good card is good.
Reveillark is not as strong in this deck as usual, but due to the importance of keeping Soul Sisters out I thought it was worth it. It can recur a lot of the same creatures as Sun Titan and even Healer of the Pride, the 5th Soul Sister.
Mistveil Plains has some utility recycling used cards to be tutored again or to dodge graveyard hate. As a Plains, it can be found with Gift of Estates or Tithe.
So I just wrote a whole bunch of sections about how "the deck can do _______ if Darien is out." Well, OK, but what if they kill Darien?
A Darien deck really needs Darien to work. Otherwise self-damage and soul sisters and anthems all look pretty lousy. Luckily, since the tuck rule was removed, you don't have to worry about Darien being lost forever. I think that makes this deck significantly more viable.
Opponents will still kill him as often as possible, so I have taken a 2-pronged approach to deal with this:
1) Mana Ramp. Build up BIG mana so that I can recast Darien a few times from the Command Zone.
2) Protection:
Mother of Runes is tutorable and recurrable through the deck's engines and protects Darien from targeted removal and damage
Lightning Greaves also protects Darien from spot removal
Eldrazi Monument and Avacyn, Angel of Hope make him indestructible
Jade Monolith protects him from red damage-based removal and green fight-based removal while also making you a bunch of tokens.
More protection may be required as well
Since Darien will have a big target on his head and there are only finite ways to protect him and recast his clunky body, this deck needs to be able to win without Darien.
Mobilization is probably the best alternate win condition in the lategame. Fantastic mana sink. Still makes soldiers. What's not to like? It's tutorable with Enlightened Tutor and Idyllic Tutor. Although it's bad in the early game, I only need this card when you have already tried casting Darien from the command zone 4 times and don't have the mana to do it again.
Luminarch Ascension is another easy token engine and mana sink. I recently cut this, because it draws a lot of hate and sometimes just does nothing, but I may add it back in.
Captain of the Watch gives 4 bodies all in one shot. With additional anthems, it can deal significantly damage on its own.
Martial Coup is a legitimate win condition. Wiping the board and making 6 6/6 tokens is sometimes enough to win, and such a play is possible with Cathars' Crusade or Coat of Arms or multiple anthem effects working together.
When the token engine fails, the deck can try to go beatdown with utility dorks. Sun Titan + Lark + Emeria + Marshal's Anthem give a lot of ways to recur early game utility dorks. Lategame, anthem effects make them large. So you can just try to win with dorks. Simply looping Soul Warden with Sun Titan/Lark/Emeria + High Market + Archangel of Thune can let you go Soul Sister beatdown.
As a token deck with utility weenies and an embarassingly small Commander (3/3 for 6), this deck obviously wants anthems. There are a lot of choices in monowhite. It's easy to get carried away and run too many.
I tried to avoid generic anthems like Glorious Anthem and Honor of the Pure. Despite the low mana costs, these cards do nothing when you don't already have the Darien engine working, so it is questionable spending a whole card on them. Instead, I focused on anthems that also provide other value.
Crovax, Ascendant Hero and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite hate on enemy boards, thwarting enemy token strategies. Crovax is nearly impossible to kill too.
Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power provide the lategame mana ramp this deck will need to cast Darien more than once from the Command Zone. They also fuel manasinks/alternate win conditions like Mobilization.
Eldrazi Monument provides Wrath protection. It also lets you cast Rout without killing your own team, boosting the control angles this deck can play.
Marshal's Anthem has a lot of added value with recursion.
The others are still good but potentially worth cutting if the deck already has too many anthems. Angel of Jubilation shuts down many strong engines in other decks, especially black decks. Archangel of Thune interacts well with Soul Sisters. Spear of Heliod kills attackers.
Coat of Arms can be very strong in theory but it was cut as it can easily backfire.
I am trying to play monowhite control. Obviously Wraths have to be a part of it. Again, I am trying to avoid running too many so that I am not leaning on wiping the board as my only form of interaction.
Mass Calcify and Hour of Recknoning don't touch my soldier tokens, so most of the time these cards should just be amazing.
Retribution of the Meek, Elspeth, Sun's Champion's -3 ability, and Austere Command can also selectively kill the opponent's fat creatures without touching my weenies. With many anthems, though, there could be board states where Retribution and Elspeth would also kill my whole team.
Martial Coup will kill my board but at least leaves me with a bunch of 1/1 white soldier tokens, so in the end it's still a big win.
I am very partial towards the instant speed flexibility of Rout and prefer to run this before Wrath of God/Day of Judgment in casual multiplayer circles.
Notably absent is Oblivion Stone, even though I have an artifact tutor to find it and Sun Titan to reuse it. My rationale was that I have enough ways to kill things and I don't want to kill my own enchantments and artifacts, but I may change my mind about this later.
EDIT: Card choice explanations added
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
1) I recently cut Swiftfoot Boots (since it forces you to wait an extra land drop before you can cast Darien, which can be very costly as the cost increases) but I should probably add it back in. As you said, I need the protection. I'm already running both Enlightened and Idyllic Tutor. I could also add Stoneforge Mystic to help find protection equipment.
2) +1 Command Beacon
3) Angel's Trumpet seems good. Never even heard of this card before. I wonder how bad it will be when Darien is not out? But the speed boost seems important. It also stops people from dodging the soft lock by just not attacking.
4) Crackdown could work. It will lock out generic fatties (e.g. fat green tokens), but it doesn't answer powerful abilities and without Angel's Trumpet a lot of creatures can still get through. I wonder if I should just run Wrath of God instead of trying to get cute with Retribution. Whenever I don't have Darien (or a lot of Darien's tokens still standing), I will be happy to wrath the board.
5) Hmm if I am adding Altar of Dementia to deal with pillowforts, then I really need to add Karmic Guide too. Then I also get a Darien-free plan B: Altar + Karmic Guide + Reveillark loop. Even if someone has Eldrazi to protect against mill, Lark combo also gives infinite life with a Soul Sister. Adding Fiend Hunter would give more pairs to make Lark combo work (Sun Titan+Hunter, Guide+Hunter). And it's not like Karmic Guide or Fiend Hunter are terrible cards to run outside of the combo.
That said, there are two cards I have in my deck that are mostly dedicated for just Darien that I think are totally worth it. Sivvi's Valor and Scout's Warning.
The former is a one time use Jade Monolith. However, what I believe makes this card special is that it's very sneaky. It's instant, it's free (in most scenarios) and your opponents will not see it coming. Jade seems better for 1 vs 1 because if your opponent doesn't have an answer to it or Darien then it puts a lot of pressure on them. However, Jade does not seem very good for multiplayer because it's a lot of open information that you opponents can play around and most likely have an answer to. They could easily in response destroy/exile/bounce Darien to your Jade trigger, causing you to shoot yourself in the foot. This is where I think Sivvi's valor shines over Jade in multiplayer. There is so much you can do with it, even when your opponents aren't attacking you! Even at it's worst, you can use it to save a key creature of not just your own, but an opponent's/ally's creature as well.
As for the latter, well, I think flashing in Darien for some surprise tokens is pretty good, but it might not be worth it if you don't have many other creatures you could utilize with it