I'm either crazy Aura genius! (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

I made this deck as part of a challenge I gave myself; to brew 5 unique/strong mono-colored decks. Mono-White is often harped on as the weakest of the colors with many people playing it closer to mono-brown than mono-white. I wanted to challenge some of the preconceived notions of EDH. First, that mono-white is unreliable and weak. Second, that Voltron is an unreliable win condition. Third, that equipment is stronger than Auras(this one being my personal favorite challenge to take on).

This deck seeks to utilize Sram’s card drawing ability to acquire key game ending pieces while keeping up with land drops, ramp, and disruption.

Supporting Sram

These are the cards that support Sram in keeping the card draw engine running:

Alhammarret's Archive
Kor Spiritdancer
Mesa Enchantress
Flickering Ward and Conviction: these cards create repeatable card draw with Sram on the board. Sending them back to hand and recasting them will trigger Sram and any of the following card draw engines on this list.
Saga’s Reverie: The more Aura’s, the more cards!
Pursuit of Knowledge: Drawing three cards in a turn is no problem for this deck. Turning that into 7 before the table has a turn cycle to respond to it is very strong in mono-white.
Crystal Chimes: Quite simple, it puts all of the aura/enchantment cards that have been removed from your board back into your hand.

Main Objective

This deck's main objective is to resolve game ending pieces. Heavenly Blademaster and Serra Avatar serve as voltron candidates to take players out in one shot. However, almost any creature in this deck can turn into a monster with a stack of Auras on them. Cards like Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist, Kitsune Mystic , Nomad Mythmaker, and Holy Avenger make this even easier to attain. Replenish, Retether, and Mantle of the Ancients can serve as win conditions as well. Stacking a creature or two with a plethora of auras and swinging in for a swift, unexpected victory. Other win conditions include Axis of Mortality, Felidar Sovereign, Grafted Exoskeleton, and Sigil of the Empty Throne.

Secondary Objective

This deck’s secondary objective is to hold out for the win conditions. Token creators such as Anjani’s Chosen, Archon of Sun's Grace, and Sigil of the Empty Throne are perfect for this, creating a veritable army of tokens that can even lead to a victory on their own. Auras such as Darksteel Mutation, Minimus Containment and On Thin Ice keep other player’s troublesome cards locked down while Auras such as Gift of Immortality, Indestructibility, and Hyena Umbra keep your powerful cards on board.

Third Objective

This deck’s third objective is the surprise! Many of whites win conditions need to stay on the board for a whole turn cycle which is a huge weakness. However, flash enablers such as Sigarda's Aid, Emergence Zone, and Scout's Warning can help you resolve cards like Felidar Sovereign, Axis of Immortality, Celestial Mantle, or Serra Avatar completely out of the blue.

Brewing Process

-This deck may honestly be my favorite deck I have had the chance to brew. Although I am sure there will be many changes as I test it and get a feel for it, I am proud of its creativity and its ability to challenge preconceived notions about EDH.

-This deck was a little more challenging to brew since most of EDHrec and TappedOut Sram decks are equipment decks. I had to truly dig to find some of the stand out cards in this deck. A card like Pursuit of Knowledge which seems like an auto include in this deck doesn’t even show up on EDHrec under Sram. However, if anyone hasn’t had the chance to look through the long list of white auras and enchantments you may very well find some powerful, slept-on cards!

-I am excited to see where this deck takes me and how well it performs. But before then, please let me know any thoughts or recommendations you may have, I am all ears! Update: This deck has been performing better than I could have ever hoped. It's mana curve creates consistency game to game and the pure value the deck generates is absurd. Finally, the countless win conditions have all been out performing my expectations.

-Heavenly Blademaster: Though this card is very flavorful, it has sadly been underperforming. Due to lack of haste and need for a specific board state when it is cast, it lacks consistency. If this card took Auras from graveyard as well it would be worth it, but as is it does not make the cut. I am currently debating on replacing it with something like Esper Sentinel which would speed up this decks game plan.

-Hero of Iroas for Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist: It became clear that the amount of cost reducers was somewhat redundant. With an overall low cmc on enchantments/auras, having 5 cost reducers seemed excessive. I also learned the power of being able to move auras around after playing with Kitsune Mystic for awhile now. Arden was an obvious choice for inclusion do to his versatility and cost reduction of moving equipment and some auras.

-Battle Mastery for Halvar, God of Battle : As soon as I saw Halvar spoiled this seemed like an obvious choice. Battle Mastery really doesn't power up till later in the game when you have a pumped up creature on the board. At that point the 1 cmc difference isn't an issue and Halvar powers up most, if not all, of your team. Halvar also gives you versatility, being a modal double-faced card. His reverse side is a 2 drop equipment, Sword of the Realms which triggers Sram's draw ability and can keep the creature it's equipped to in the game for longer.

-Evra, Halcyon Witness for Holy Avenger: I have always loved Evra as a card and my original intention for a mono-white deck was to have Evra as my commander. However, I have learned that in the 99 she is risky. This deck is often able to double, triple, quadruple, etc. its life total. Giving Evra 120 damage and putting your own life total to 4 seems dangerous and mana intensive. In this case, Serra Avatar accomplishes the job better. Holy Avenger works out to be far cheaper in its cmc, cantrips with Sram, and can definitely lead to surprise wins.

-Approach of the Second Sun for Mantle of the Ancients: I had Approach of the Second Sun in the deck as an additional alternative win condition to the many in the deck, but it always felt off flavor. The moment I saw Mantle of Ancients spoiled it was obvious that it needed to be in the deck as an on flavor win condition. The obvious choice for a card to remove was Approach.

-Mirror Shield for Robe of Stars: I was at first hesitant of Robe of Stars due to its repeated activation cost. However, once I realized it also protects all the equipment and auras attached to the creature I was sold. The hexproof of Mirror Shield only protects the creature. Robe of Stars protects all the investments on the creature as well.

Feel free to check out the other decks in my mono-colored deck series.

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99% Casual

Competitive

Top Ranked	Achieved #11 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #9 position in Commander / EDH 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Casual 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Enchant 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.80
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Cat 2/2 W, Pegasus 2/2 W, Plant 0/2 G
Folders	Explore more, Mono, Cool Deck Concepts, Fun EDH Ideas, Commander, Decks for tts, Decks I Like, Commander, Witty Bulger & The Witty Hill Gang, Bookmarked CMDR
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