Choose Your Own Adventure: White

By: @MagusoftheSalt

Welcome back, Planeswalkers. Today is going to be the first installment in a series of deck techs I’m calling, “Choose Your Own Adventure.” The goal of this series is going to be to build a single deck for each color -or color combination- with multiple commander options that encapsulate that color’s identity. Before each game, you can choose your commander from within the 100, either at random or with purpose. Each deck will have somewhere around 10 commanders for you to choose from, each of which will fit the general function of the deck. In the end, the deck should feel like a fun representation of what that color does best while having a “choose your own adventure” flair. First, let’s examine the different themes for each color, discuss what commanders you could use for those certain themes, and then at the end I’ll show off my build.

We start off in WUBRG order with the undeniably most powerful mono color in Magic: White. When I think of the color white, the first thing that comes to mind are aggressive “white weenie” style decks. I see soldiers and angels being pumped by anthems. I see Soul Sisters gaining tons of life. I’m reminded of the best removal in the game like Swords to Plowshares or Wrath of God. I also see a lack of resources like three lands for the whole game and two cards in hand. So when building a mono-white deck, we want to lean into those aggressive strengths and try to mitigate those weaknesses. The first consideration is how other people are building their White decks.

To get a good idea of how other people are building Mono-White decks, I’m going to head over to EDHREC.com and take a peek at their statistics. According to EDHREC, we see the most popular theme for Mono-White is Equipment. The second is Angel tribal and finally lifegain rounds out the top three. Now let’s go through each theme one-by-one and discuss what commander options there are for each. At the end of each section, I’ll discuss which commanders I think are the most and least powerful for that theme.

Give ‘Em The Chair

The most common theme in Mono-White is Equipment. This makes a lot of sense as white has some of the best equipment synergies in the game. White has plenty of equipment tutors like Stoneforge Mystic, Steelshaper’s Gift, and Open the Armory. Cards like Sigarda’s Aid and Leonin Shikari can help you be more tricky with your equipments while Puresteel Paladin is a fantastic engine all by itself in the right shell. An equipment like Sword of the Animist can really help with the ramp problems Mono-White has as well. So what sort of commanders can you run in an equipment deck?

There are five stand out commanders that could helm an equipment focused deck. The first and most powerful is Sram, Senior Edificer. Sram is a powerful draw engine, especially when coupled with zero drop artifacts like Bone Saw and Cathar’s Shield. With his ability to draw cards, Sram is easily one of the most competitive Mono-White Commanders ever printed. Danitha Capashen, Paragon makes equipment and aura spells cost one less to cast, which is decidedly weaker than Sram but still synergizes incredibly well.

Kemba, Kha Regent is one of the original Mono-White powerhouses. She lets us go wide as we go tall, making cat tokens for each equipment attached to her. Balan, Wandering Knight can one shot opponents out of nowhere by instantly suiting himself up with all the equipment you control. These two options lead to more of a voltron strategy than the others. Meanwhile, Nahiri, the Lithomancer is a Planeswalker who can create tokens to equip onto or she can cheat equipment into play from our hand or the graveyard. 

If equipment is your jam, throwing these commanders together into a deck can give you a few more options. For a more competitive pod, Sram helps make the most of your turns, drawing you cards and helping you keep up with your opponents. In lower powered groups, Danitha Capashen is probably the least powerful of the bunch with no specific plan of attack. But for me, mono-white equipment isn’t exactly where I’d want my ultimate white deck to be.

Darling You’re My Angel

The next most common theme is a tribal one: Angels. There a lot of great angels in Mono-White, the only problem is that they have fairly expensive mana costs. Cards like Herald of War can help with that cost if you get them early enough. I also like the angel token makers like Entreat the Angels and the new Emeria’s Call (which can also be a land). Serra the Benevolent makes Serra Angel tokens and pumps your board. Cards like Angel of the Dire Hour and Sunblast Angel double as board wipes and Emeria Shepard is a powerful mono-white recursion engine. Sure angels has some powerful includes, but what sort of commander options does it have?

There are a plethora of legendary Angels in white. The most powerful is the ultra-impressive and utterly ubiquitous Avacyn, Angel of Hope. Making your entire team of beefy angels indestructible is a great way to grind out a win but at a mana cost of eight, she can seem unattainable in Mono-White. Akroma, Angel of Wrath is a similar high cost, powerful, white angel with a ton of keywords. Radiant, Archangel doesn’t care about Angels in particular but she can get incredibly big when you have a board full of flyers.

Some Angels that actually care about their tribe include the understandably popular Lyra Dawnbringer who buffs your Angels and gives them lifelink. Sephara, Sky’s Blade is like a watered down Avacyn that can make all of your other fliers indestructible; the upside is that Sephara costs less to cast, even if she doesn’t have indestructible herself. Bruna, the Fading Light can return an Angel from the graveyard to the battlefield when she ETBs. There’s also the added bonus of being able to meld with Gisela, the Broken Blade to create the monstrous Brisela, Voice of Nightmares.

If you wanted to build an Angels deck, I think any of these legendary angels would be a good choice for you. I think that Avacyn, Angel of Hope has the highest power ceiling of any of the Angel commanders because of the inevitability. If you get to eight mana, you’re probably going to win that game. Similarly, I think the most casual of the bunch is Bruna, the Fading Light. You’ll have games where you meld Brisela early, but the games you don’t you’ll just be casting Angels for value and reanimating one in the late game (because good luck casting Bruna twice). But as iconic as Angels are in magic, they’re not the way I would choose to build my one white deck either.

Who’s in the Lead

Archidekt Link: https://archidekt.com/decks/685679#The_Mono-White_Deck

I decided to focus my build on the third most popular Mono-White theme: Lifegain. There’s also a heavy token theme to the deck because I feel like they both work well together. There are Soul Sisters cards to gain us life as creatures enter the battlefield. Anointed Procession will double the amount of tokens we make while Divine Visitation turns those tokens into Serra Angels.We’ve got Dawn of Hope to help draw cards and Smothering Tithe to help us ramp into those more expensive cards. So who are the commanders for this jamboree?

The first list of commanders are the pure lifegain commanders. Linden, Steadfast Queen is going to gain us one life for each attacking creature you control. Whenever we gain life, Heliod Sun-Crowned will put a +1/+1 counter on a creature we control. And Daxos, Blessed by the Sun is going to gain us life whenever a creature we control enters the battlefield or dies. Daxos plays well with our secondary theme: tokens.

For our token synergies, we start off with Brimaz, King of Oreskos who is going to make a token whenever he attacks or blocks. God-Eternal Oketra makes a 4/4 black zombie whenever we cast a creature spell. Lena, Selfless Champion is going to enter the battlefield and create a small army. Lena can also be used to make our smaller creatures indestructible in a pinch. With all these token creatures, we move into the third and final category for the deck: commanders that buff our army.

With all of the token synergies in the deck, we need a way to get them through for large swaths of damage at a time. Kongming, “Sleeping Dragon” is an anthem effect in the command zone. Jazal Goldmane can buff our team for the number of attacking creatures we control. And as long as we’re swinging with at least three other creatures, Odric, Master Tactician can make our whole board unblockable. 

Finally there’s our honorable mention: Mangara, the Diplomat. He doesn’t really fit any of the other themes but he’s a solid draw engine that will probably make the cut in any Mono-White commander deck. And, since he’s legendary, I’d be remiss if I didn’t list him as a potential commander for the deck.

Any of these legendary creatures could be our commander and they all do a great job of synergizing in the 99 as well. If you’re looking for the most powerful option in the deck, I’d go with God-Eternal Oketra. Those 4/4 tokens are nothing to sneeze at. If you’re looking to power down the deck, Lena, Selfless Champion and Kongming, “Sleeping Dragon” are easily the lowest powered options. But in my opinion, the best way to play the deck is to either select the commander at random or have one of your friends pick instead. Those are the Commanders, let’s end things with some general tips for playing mono-white in EDH.

Tips and Tricks

Now for some final considerations when building your ultimate Mono-White deck. First up: Removal. White is the best color at removing problem permanents so we want to make sure to pack a good removal suite. Swords to Plowshares and Generous Gift are excellent spot removal while Heliod’s Intervention can remove multiple artifacts and enchantments at instant speed. For board wipes, you can’t get any better than the super flexible Austere Command or the iconic Wrath of God.

White does a fantastic job of protecting its own boardstate. New from commander 2020 is Flawless Maneuver, a spell that makes our team indestructible for free if we control our Commander. Idol of Endurance is a new card from Core Set 2021 that allows us to rebuild after a board wipe if we weren’t able to protect our creatures.Teferi’s Protection is one of the best instant speed protection spells and stands alongside Cyclonic Rift as a staple of the format.

 

The last consideration for Mono-White is ramp. You’re probably going to want to run at least 10 mana rocks like Sol Ring, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Worn Powerstone and anything else that can generate you extra mana. Since we don’t have many options outside of mana rocks, we want to be aware of our deck’s mana curve. Most color combinations can get away with ignoring their curve but White doesn’t have that luxury. So you’ll want to keep your mana curve as close to 3.0 as you can. Wizards has been helping print better ramp options for White like Verge Rangers, Isolated Watchtower, and Cartographer’s Hawk but it’s still better to err on the side of caution and keep the curve as low as possible.

One Deck to Find Them

Archidekt Link: https://archidekt.com/decks/685679#The_Mono-White_Deck

And that’s the deck! I feel like this list really feels White for me. It’s got strong weenie synergies and gains life to stay alive. It may not be the most powerful deck, and some of the commander options definitely aren’t the best, but if we’re just looking for a good time playing White in Commander, I feel like this is a unique experience. If you choose to play a deck like this one, you can have a lot of fun selecting which Commander you feel like having helm the deck each game. This adds a replayability that makes each game unique and uniqueness is one of the Commander format’s specialties. Are there any Mono-White Commanders I didn’t include that you would have? Would you build around a different theme that I left off the list? No matter your opinion, let me know what you think. As always you can find me on twitter @MagusoftheSalt. That’s all I’ve got for you this week so until next time, make the most of whatever adventure you choose. 

The WarGames Combo

The WarGames Combo
By @MagusoftheSalt

Hey Planeswalkers, welcome back to the Top Down Commander Blog. I'm your Sensei, the Magus of the Salt. Today we're going to be looking at a deck I'm calling the WarGames Combo.

I'm a big fan of interactivity in my commander games. After all, Commander is the "Social Format." So my goal is to get my friends involved in the game as much as I can. This deck is built around giving our opponents all the choices in the world while hiding the fact that those choices don't really matter in the end. Because, like we learned from the classic movie WarGames, the only winning move is not to play the game. First off, let's take a look at the Top Down Commander of Today's Deck.

The Top Down Commander

Okay, okay, so I know Fact or Fiction can't actually be our commander but it's the card our deck is built around. FoF is going to let our opponents divide our top 5 cards into two piles and we'll put one into our hand and the other into our graveyard. These kinds of effects define our deck all the way up to our namesake combo. But we'll get there. Until then, the actual commander of today's deck.

Kess is a powerhouse commander and admittedly more powerful than I'd usually like but the entire WarGames combo hinges on her ability to replay spells from the yard. So we're going to use Kess to keep casting FoF effects until we find our combo and pull back the curtain on our diabolical plan.

Do you really want to do that?

We're going to start off by offering our opponents choices when it comes to combat. Do you want to pay two to attack us? Do you want to pay 3 or can we have a 3/3 ogre to block with? Propaganda and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs are simple, but effective combat deterrents.

Captive Audience serves to remind our opponents that we are the masterminds of this deathtrap and that they are merely playing along in our game. They're making choices every turn, but really they're just watching the fun commence. And speaking of fun, Cruel Entertainment will have our opponents dancing like marionettes for our pleasure.

And the mother of all choice cards is, of course, Expropriate. I heard your groans through the screen. I know, this card is bonkers and very powerful but it's also on theme with the deck, so you'll have to forgive me. Also, pro-tip, always always ALWAYS choose money. (Unless I'm casting the spell. Then disregard everything I said and give me extra turns).

This one or that one?

All of the card draw in this deck is going to come at the behest of our opponents. Alongside Fact or Fiction, we're also running Fortune's Favor and Epiphany at the Drownyard. Epiphany is especially cool since we reveal the top X cards and we get to make the piles. Put your political game to the test and see if you can get the cards you want in your hand.

One of the best reasons to run Red in this deck is the inclusion of Allure of the Unknown, a new card from Theros: Beyond Death with sick Sea McKinnon art. Allure has us reveal the top 6 cards of our library. An opponent can cast one of them for free and then we get the other five into our hands. Similarly, Covenant of Minds will let us reveal the top 3 cards of our library; an opponent either lets us have those cards or we bin those and draw five instead.

Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign and Sphinx of Uthuun both do an FoF impression when they enter the battlefield while Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths does a Fortune's Favor. All of these creatures play into the theme and in another world, Atris was the commander of this deck. But the WarGames Combo doesn't exist with Atris, so I moved him to the 99 where he's still a fun include.

Some red creatures are also going to generate card advantage for us. Every upkeep, Sin Prodder can either draw us an extra card or it'll burn our opponents faces. Combustible Gearhulk will either draw us three cards or, hopefully, ping our opponents for a good chunk of damage. And both of these creatures put cards into the yard where we can use them again later with Kess or our recursion package.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

We start off our recursion package with three creatures that return a spell from our graveyard to our hand. Archaeomancer, Possessed Skaab, and Izzet Chronarch all like our spells so much they want to play them again and again.

Past in Flames is mass instant and sorcery recursion like no other. Giving all of the spells in our yard flashback could get us out of a pinch if we find ourselves in one. Underworld Breach fulfills a similar, albeit different, function. Breach could (and probably should) be Yawgmoth's Will but at a fraction of the price, I thought it'd be fun to give Underworld Breach a shot and this seemed like a heck of a deck to include it in.

Stitch Together and Phyrexian Delver are going to bring creatures back from the yard. Stitch Together will only put them on the field if we have seven or more cards in our graveyard but that shouldn't be too difficult since we're filling our yard with all the FoF effects already.

Boneyard Parley is the reanimator version of Fact or Fiction. It allows us to choose five creatures from any graveyard, have an opponent put them in two piles and then put one of those piles onto the battlefield under our control. Very on theme and surprisingly useful late in the game.

Finally, we've got my favorite recursion spell in the deck, Shrouded Lore. For one black mana, target opponent is going to pick a spell out of our graveyard to return to our hand. But if we don't like that card, we can pay one black and make them choose another, different, card. We can repeat this process as many times as we have the mana until we get what we want. Remember what I said about our opponents not really having a choice?

Which of your toys do you like more?

The next section of the deck is all about forcing our opponents to consider Sophie's choice. Which of your babies would you sacrifice if you had to. We start off with classics like Fleshbag Marauder and Plaguecrafter but we get more creative as time goes on.

Next up are Do or Die and Breaking Point. Do or Die has us sort an opponents creatures into two piles and then they choose which pile to keep and which to destroy. Besides being where are our opponents are with all these choices, Breaking Point is a spell that's going to destroy all creatures unless an opponent wants to take 6 damage.

We're also running Killing Wave and Torment of Hailfire as big X spells that can clear the board. Once again, we're not killing any of our opponents creatures without offering them a choice first. Do you want to lose life or sacrifice those creatures? It's not my fault what you choose, is it? Torment of Hailfire can also act as a finisher in this deck, especially since we can cast it twice or more between Kess and all of the spell recursion in the deck.

My favorite piece of "removal" for this deck is Choice of Damnations. This is an interesting card that I don't see nearly enough of. If an opponent chooses a large enough number, we can just make them lose that much life but if they choose a small enough number, we'll just wipe away the majority of their board instead. If your plan is to have your opponents make choices, you can't leave out this one.

The WarGames Combo

Okay, okay, I've strung you along for long enough. Without further ado, the WarGames Combo. We start with Kess, Dissident Mage on the battlefield and cast Intuition, which allows us to search up 3 cards from our library. An opponent will put one on of those cards into our hands and then the other two go into the yard.

SHOW KESS AND INTUITION

With intuition we search up Reanimate, Demonic Consultation, and Thassa's Oracle. (Barring counter spells). No matter which card our opponent gives us, we win the game! Don't believe me? I'll prove it.

Ex. 1: They put reanimate into our hands. We cast the reanimate from our hands putting Thassa's Oracle back onto the battlefield. With the Oracle trigger on the stack, we cast Demonic Consultation from the graveyard (thanks to Kess), naming a card that isn't in our deck, and win the game!

Ex. 2: They put Demonic Consultation into our hands. We cast reanimate from the graveyard (thanks to Kess) targeting Thassa's Oracle. With the Oracle's enter the battlefield trigger on the stack, we cast Demonic Consultation from our hand, naming a card that isn't in our deck, and win the game!

Ex. 3: They put Thassa's Oracle into our hands. We cast the Oracle from our hand and with its ETB trigger on the stack, we cast Demonic Consultation from the yard (thanks to Kess)... you get it by now right?

So what have we learned from this combo? That's right! I'm a scumbag. No, wait, that the only winning move is not to play the game. Well with all that in mind, what could possibly Sensei's Top Pick of the deck?

Sensei's Top Pick

Sensei's Top Pick of the Deck is my choice for the best card in the deck and, hands down, the Top Pick for this deck is Demonic Consultation.

Demonic Consultation is so good in this deck, it borders on unfair. In fact, if it wasn't integral to the namesake combo, I probably wouldn't have included it at all. Kess allowing you to essentially double cast Consultation means that the deck feels especially degenerate. With Kess on the field, you can cast Consultation to find Thassa's Oracle, then recast consultation from the yard (thanks to Kess) and win the game, fun theme be damned. Even without Kess, there's enough recursion in this deck that you can usually get Demonic Consultation back even if without Kess. It definitely gives the deck a win condition, but it can make the deck more competitive than fun. So player beware!

For the full decklist, check out the Archidekt link here.

That's All Folks

And that's my deck review for Kess, Dissident Mage aka The WarGames Combo aka Fact or Fiction Tribal. I hope you enjoyed this deck overview. For the full list, head over to Archidekt. If you can, I'd love for you to check out my youtube channel below. For this video deck tech, click HERE. I'd also love to interact with you on twitter or facebook.

Until next time, Keep Kicking Ass!

YouTube: Top Down Commander
Twitter: @MagusoftheSalt
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