Hello! Welcome to your guide to Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice, a one-stop shop where I’ll teach you about how this flawless fox takes your opponents by surprise, often taking someone out by turn 3. This is a stax based list, using the effects to slow down our opponents and control the tempo of the game until we can swing with lethal.
INTRO
Light-Paws gives mono white the boost it's always deserved. Mono-white has often been ridiculed as the worst mono color in EDH, with little access to ramp, draw, and specific removal, when compared to other colors. Recently this has changed, with new printings like Smothering Tithe, Esper Sentinel, and Drannith Magistrate, but some hold the opinion that white is still scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to competitiveness.
RAMP: Light-Paws is an effective mana doubler in terms of auras. two mana spent casting an aura results in four mana worth of auras. Once we throw in Nykthos and Serra’s Sanctum, she can ramp harder than Omnath could throw her
CARD ADVANTAGE: Light-Paws is a powerful card advantage engine, with almost any hand we draw into, we can find whatever response is needed at any time using her ability.
RESILIENCE: This fantastic fox protects herself and pumps herself as needed, side-stepping the classic glass-canon feature of other aura-based lists. If we play smartly, we can avoid ever having a window for removal.
INTERACTION: Not only do we run eight instant-speed auras to protect Light-Paws, our aura-based removal results in us 2-for-1'ing our opponents. So even our removal spells give us an advantageous boost of tempo
In general, the auras that show up almost every game are All That Glitters, Ethereal Armor, Spirit Mantle, & Flickering Ward
Notable seconds include Mask of Law and Grace and Shield of Duty and Reason
Gameplay
Piloting Light-Paws is no easy feat, but the key to playing her well is knowing what to tutor for, and why. We run 30 auras, which can tutor into between 11 and 29 different auras. The choice you make will depend on your opponents’ and the board state; prioritizing protection vs. power, evasion, and whether you want to bring your opponents to their knees with lethal efficiency or bide your time and wait for the perfect moment to strike.
As mentioned before, this is where mono-white's weaknesses are brought to light. So what can we do about that?
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Expedition Map and Search for Glory will almost always grab Serra's Sanctum for a MASSIVE mana boost. If we aren’t ramping, Urza's Saga can grab Expedition, which will find Sanctum. And obviously, Saga can fetch Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, or Mox Amber
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Flickering Ward lets us tutor repeatedly, and is a powerful draw engine with Sram, Senior Artificer or Kor Spiritdancer
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Esper Sentinel. Do I even need to say anything? With rampant power-boosting auras, we can almost guarantee a card draw every turn
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if we control Cloudstone Curio, we’ll never run out of auras to cast. We can also stack triggers to bounce the aura you cast, the one you tutored, or both! Details under the Combo tab
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If we have a lot of auras in the grave, we can use Mantle of the Ancients, which will also grab Sage's Reverie to give us draw power as we try to rebuild our boardstate. Replenish also helps us recover from that scenario
1 Mana tutors
2 mana tutors
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in the rare case we come across targeted white removal, we grab Benevolent Blessing. This is a temporary fix, as we won’t be able to attach more auras to LP as long as we have Blessing attached. We have a chance of fixing this with Cloudstone Curio by bouncing it to hand
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If someone tries to crack back at us after we swing, Triclopean Sight can catch our attacker off guard
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Saving Grace gives us a one-turn reprieve from damage if LP is protected
3 mana tutors
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in repeatable destruction effects like Attrition, we can tutor Timely Ward for better protection than the umbras
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Responding to lethal damage, getting Pariah attached with other protection or indestructibility makes us immortal as long as we control Light-Paws
start with
Cloudstone Curio on the field
- Cast a 2-drop aura and fetch Lashknife, and bounce it back to your hand with Cloudstone
- Tap Light-Paws to cast Lashknife
- Grab Cartouche of Solidarity and make a token
- Use the Cloudstone triggers to bounce both Cartouche and Lashknife back to hand
- Tape the token to cast Lashknife. Fetch Triclopean Sight, untapping Light-Paws so she can attack. Bounce Lashknife back to hand
- Cast Cartouche to fetch Etheral Armor. Make a token, bounce Lashknife
- Tap the token, cast Lashknife, grab All That Glitters. Bounce Lashknife
You can repeat steps 6 and 7 for every mana available. For each you get a 1-drop and a 2-drop aura of your choosing. With auras that pump our commander,(Ethereal Armor, All That Glitters, Daybreak Coronet, etc., etc.) it’s extremely easy to get Light-Paws big enough to kill an opponent with one swing.
Conclusion
Overall, this deck presents a powerful voltron threat from white, with tons of interaction to keep our opponents at bay. Let me know your thoughts! I've only been playing about a decade, so there are probably cards that I'm that not aware of that may go well in this deck. Feel free to leave a comment if you have suggestions :) Thanks for reading!
