Desert of the True

Land — Desert

Desert of the True enters the battlefield tapped.

{T}: Add {W}.

Cycling {1}{W} ({1}{W}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (45)

plakjekaas on So Dominaria

1 year ago

Oh and all deserts you can play:

Cradle of the Accursed

Desert

Desert of the Fervent

Desert of the Indomitable

Desert of the True

Dunes of the Dead

Endless Sands

Grasping Dunes

Hashep Oasis

Hostile Desert

Painted Bluffs

Ramunap Ruins

Scavenger Grounds

Shefet Dunes

Sunscorched Desert

Survivors' Encampment

Which is 16 total, plus I guess Vesuva can count as well.

griffstick on Elspeth is the cmdr

1 year ago

Thanks for the upvote

White has gotten some great toys of card draw.

• Esper Sentinel
• Ranger-Captain of Eos
• Recruiter of the Guard
• Welcoming Vampire
• Wedding Ring

Other cards like.

• Skullclamp
• Endless Atlas
• Idol of Oblivion
• Slate of Ancestry

And to a lesser degree.

• War Room
• Mind Stone
• Desert of the True
• Drifting Meadow
• Secluded Steppe

Also my cmdr Djeru, With Eyes Open will always replace its self with elspeth.

Guerric on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 year ago

Major Update 1: May 14, 2022

The first major update to the deck has been completed, the major theme being more draw. All of my initial testing showed that this deck goldfishes very quickly, but is hungry for resources, and that just drawing one extra card per turn, which it was consistently able to do, wasn't enough to feel like we had options and could easily rebuild after a blow out. Burst card draw pieces like Well of Lost Dreams and Thorough Investigation (which builds up tokens to be used as burst draw later) have been the powerhouse pieces. As such, the idea with this update is to add either more of those, or more one card per turn pieces so that it is likely we can have two of them out most games. Below are the lists of cuts and adds with justification.

1) Burnished Hart OUT Pearl Medallion IN

Hart is a great card, and research suggests it's one of the winningest cards in EDH, so naturally in a monowhite deck that a land ramp piece like this would seem to be great. I think the issue for it here is it just isn't fast enough for the deck. Giada doesn't need to ramp a lot to be relevant, and in testing I've found that we often have something more urgent to do cast it initially or sac it to get the lands. It's still a great card, but likely better suited to more controlling decks. What is amazing in this deck, however, are cards that discount creature spells like Herald's Horn, as we can use them to more easily put out multiple pieces in a turn at discount. Making your four drops three drops is incredible acceleration that suits our gameplan just fine. And Medallion does this not just for our creature spells, but any spell in white. It's fabulous!

2) Cosmos Elixir OUT Vanquisher's Banner IN

Elixir is theoretically a good card in this deck as it can draw cards off life-gain or gain life. The problem is it never does both, it draws one extra card per turn at most, and costs 4 mana for the privilege. It's equivalent card would be Sigarda's Splendor, but that always gains us life, and is simply based on not having lost life from the last noted turn, which is more reliable. Banner costs more, but its floor is replacing every angel we cast with a card, and its ceiling is drawing several cards in a turn, so it's better all around. The anthem is just gravy.

3) Welcoming Vampire OUT Mask of Memory IN

While a fabulous card, Giada's ability ensures that we won't draw cards with angels off of vampire. It will definitely find a home in a new deck. Mask of Memory, however, is great. It costs two and equips for one, meaning an easy early line of play would be to cast it turn three, attack it to Giada, and get an engine going. We get to draw two cards and then discard the one in our hand we need least, which allows us to be up a card while moving through the deck to what we need. Sometimes we might even discard a good card only to recur it with another later, so there are lots of nice little possibilities with this one.

4) Mirror Entity OUT Sanctuary Warden IN

So far we've replaced subpar draw with better draw, but no we are upping our count. I've never like entity, but I thought it might be better here since Giada gives it counters that make it more resilient when not being pumped. Still though, like all changelings, its an angel that doesn't fly, which is wicked annoying. Moreover, while its ability is a powerhouse with 1/1 tokens which can be turned to 4 power with 4 mana, it's not so great when the average power of an angel is already 3/3 or 4/4. It will weaken some of your angels, and where it improve them it takes a monstrous amount of mana to do so. Finally, while one might be tempted to add Reveillark to complete the combo with entity and Karmic Guide, we have to remember that Giada shuts entity off from killing the board, effectively shutting down the combo. It's just bad, trust me. This is where a lot of online deck tech's fail. They just throw it in because its an "angel" and a generically good card without thinking through the consequences! Meanwhile, while costly Sanctuary Warden is an absolute powerhouse. It immediately replaces itself, and can draw cards more cards this way for free by being blinked with Sword of Hearth and Home. It's an engine that draws us cards every turn, and we can use our plentiful supply of +1/+1 counters to power it, leaving the shield counters to protect it from most removal and board wipes. It's an all-star card.

5) Plains OUT Tome of Legends IN

I'm hoping I don't regret going down to 35 lands, but I think the deck can sustain it, especially when we are upping the draw. Tome is an amazingly good and underrated card. It can net us an extra card the turn we cast it, and can draw one every turn as long as we attack with out commmander, something that isn't too hard to do here. Keep in mind, Giada has vigilance, so even if we want to tap her to cast an angel we can always do so on our second main phase! The best part of this card is that it costs only two mana, allowing us often to ramp it out turn three with another angel or put it out early with another two drop. It's been great in other decks and I expect no less here!

6) Archaeomancer's Map OUT Eye of Vecna IN

This might be a more controversial cut, but I don't think I need the ramp map theoretically provides, and it can be a tricky card to play here. Ideally you'd want to get this down turn three, in order to ramp lands based upon your opponent's turns, but you'll have to discard if you do unless you played a one drop turn one. It's not as great late game, and the ramp is conditional based on having the extra land in hand and not missing a land drop, which can happen without enough draw. Eye immediately replaces itself and draws one card every turn for the low cost of 2 life, which we aren't worried about at all here. The only downside is that Angel of Jubilation shuts it down, but that is a narrow enough case that it isn't worth not playing a 2cmc draw spell over.

7) Disenchant OUT Together Forever IN

We have plenty of removal and I think we can afford to cut our least relevant piece. Together Forever is amazing, cheap, efficient protection for our entire board, including Giada. It can save our stuff from being destroyed by removal or damage, and has value as repeatable single-target protection and board wipe protection. I expect this to be an all-star piece.

8) Desert of the True and Drifting Meadow OUT War Room and Bonders' Enclave IN

I hated these cycling lands in early testing because they are just not worth having the lands come into play tapped. War Room and Enclave actually draw us cards, and come into play untapped. Sure, 4 mana is a lot for a single card, but there are times we will be happy for it, and in a monocolored deck the colorless nature isn't too much of a drawback.

9) 2x Plains OUT Emergence Zone and Seraph Sanctuary IN

Why not attack lifegain to a land? Sanctuary is just an obvious card for this build that I somehow missed the first time around. Zone is a deeply underrated card that allows you once in a game to get the jump on your opponents by becoming a one turn Vedalken Orrery. The element of surprise is what often wins you games in aggressive decks, and this card allows for that!

So that's the first update! I'll have updates to the primer coming later today or tomorrow. Hope this helps all of you as you build and play the deck!

LilMissWiz on Brisela's Terrible Mono-White EDH ($50 Budget)

3 years ago

Arch of Orazca , Secluded Steppe , Desert of the True are cheap lands that can help you get a couple extra card draws if you get too many lands out.

Tropical_December on None

3 years ago

Not already mentioned - Bad River, Cascading Cataracts has a silhouette of Kefnet, Desert of the True, Mutavault technically is a bird, Seaside Haven is a must play, Swarmyard can regenerate any prey. As for basics Island has a bird in the middle, Island has a good number of birds and is part of a panorama, not sure how to tag it but Secret Lair Godzilla Island has birds, Island, Island birds with a sunset, Island, Island, as for plains, Plains, Plains, Plains, Plains, Plains, and Plains.

taofuerza on Equenauts

3 years ago

I am trending away from global enchantments in favor of repeated life gain or creature generation in this batch of edits. I made sweeping edits in several categories:

• Lands

Swapped out 8 Plains for Cryptic Caves, Desert of the True, Encroaching Wastes, Idyllic Grange, Karn's Bastion, Labyrinth of Skophos, Radiant Fountain and Secluded Steppe.

• Defensive Auras

Upgraded Pious Interdiction to Recumbent Bliss (which would potentially provide many instances of life gain instead of 1) and dropped Bonds of Faith in favor of Gossamer Chains.

• Offensive Auras

Upgraded Chosen by Heliod to Soaring Hope, Hope Against Hope to Spirit Mantle, Indomitable Will to Gift of Immortality and Ordeal of Heliod to Sunbond.

• Sorceries

Upgraded from Blessed Reversal to Aetherflux Reservoir, Plea for Guidance to Silent Sentinel and added Pegasus Stampede for more ETB creature triggers.

• Vanilla Creatures

Swapped out generic flyers (Armored Pegasus, Concordia Pegasus, Loyal Pegasus, Mistral Charger, Stormfront Pegasus, Wingsteed Rider) for ones with more ability or utility (Pegasus Charger, Plated Pegasus, Eiganjo Free-Riders).

• Relevance

Bigger is not necessarily better so I opted to swap out Serra Avatar for Danitha Capashen, Paragon.

• Defense and Removal

I swapped out Elspeth Conquers Death and Ghostly Prison in favor of Sacred Mesa and Monastery Mentor and Giant Killer for Frontline Medic.

• Boost

I also replaced 3 boost effects (Commander's Insignia, Dictate of Heliod, Honor of the Pure) with 3 alternate win conditions (Test of Endurance, Felidar Sovereign, Archon of Redemption).

• Life Gain

Replaced 3 less efficient or reliable life gain sources (Soldier of the Pantheon, Righteous Cause, Honden of Cleansing Fire) with better ones (Soul's Attendant, Auriok Champion, Pious Evangel / Wayward Disciple, Linden, the Steadfast Queen, Answered Prayers).

Spell_Slam on

4 years ago

I would think about including as many Soul Sisters as possible: Anointer Priest, Soul Warden, Impassioned Orator, Soul's Attendant, Suture Priest and maybe Answered Prayers. These will gain you a lot of time. There is also lump life gain like Conclave Phalanx and Dwarven Priest that work very well with all your blink effects. Peach Garden Oath is also a pretty amazing common. These creatures could easily replace many of your filler creatures, like Ancestral Statue (doesn't provide enough advantage for the cost), Aven Skirmisher, Devoted Hero, Kor Outfitter, Leonin Elder, Savannah Lions and Segovian Angel.

In your lands, you could be running a lot more non-basics to help you out. All the cycling lands, Secluded Steppe, Drifting Meadow and Desert of the True, are great options for filtering through your deck. Other good options are Idyllic Grange, Kabira Crossroads, Radiant Fountain, Remote Farm and Sejiri Steppe.

I hope some of this was helpful!

Andrew30001 on Heliod Sun-Crowned

4 years ago

If you are running Felidar Soverign than you will also want to run Test of Endurance. Aetherflux Resivoir is a great card that can gain you a ton and help shoot down opponents. Check out all of the Ajani planswalker cards if you can afford them but especially Ajani, Strength of the Pride. Ajani's Welcome, Auriok Champion, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, Healer of the Pride, Impassioned Orator, and Pious Evangel  ^Flip can all be extra copies of Soul Warden. You have a lot of untapped potential in the landbase (pun intended) and it wouldn't hurt to replace some of those Plains with other cards that you can get extra value from. Drifting Meadow, Desert of the True, and Secluded Steppe can all replace themselves for a card if you draw them late game. Myriad Landscape can help ramp you, and Rogue's Passage is a great way of getting extra damage through. Idyllic Grange can get you one extra counter, Castle Ardenvale and Westvale Abbey  ^Flip can both pump out creatures if you lacking some, and lastly Buried Ruin and Emeria, The Sky Ruin can get back cards from the graveyard. The deck looks fun to play and functions pretty well. Let me know if you want to suggest more cards, these were just a few off the top of my head!