Basics matter theme - Mono White
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Jan. 3, 2023, 7:07 p.m. by Arrzarrina
Hey all, Looking for some advice. I'm trying to put a cycle of "Basics matter"* decks together, one for each colour. I've got red, green, black and blue sorted with Ben-Ben, Akki Hermit, Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant  Flip, Charix, the Raging Isle and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade but I'm really struggling with white.
Aside from running some sort of voltron list (Strata scythe + blackblade is plains enough, right?), does anybody have any ideas on the direction I take the deck? I've already got one Voltron style deck with Charix who is a pretty sweet commander for that theme, so unwilling to have two voltrons in the cycle.
Any ideas on the direction I could take with white are welcome as all the concepts I can come up with seem really poor compared to reliable turn 6-8 activations on the other four.
Thanks!
(On a side note, White is the problem colour. Who saw that coming?)
plakjekaas says... #3
Planar Birth after Armageddon? With Emeria Shepherd in play for some fun.
January 4, 2023 12:12 a.m.
Necrosis24 says... #5
Personally I'd run a token generator or blink cmdr like Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward (with your choice of background) as I like the idea of using Settle the Wreckage as a ramp spell and I think it works well with him. Basri Ket and Launch the Fleet are similar effects as Abdel.
You could also use Swords to Plowshares as a Rampant Growth.
Expedition Map to get Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Kormus Bell to turn your plains into creatures which you can now flicker more easily as well and benefit on etbs.
Tomik, Distinguished Advokist is worth considering to add to the deck if you go the Kormus Bell route as your land creatures basically have hexproof now.
Additionally you could use cards like Zuran Orb or Troubled Healer in combination with Faith's Reward/Second Sunrise/Planar Birth for extra landfall triggers. If you are running the Kormus Bell combo you could use creature sac-outlets like Altar of Dementia or Phyrexian Altar. But if the sac outlets don't play into the rest of the deck you might be better of running Oswald Fiddlebender as your cmdr to ensure you get the right combination of artifacts.
Zuran Orb also pairs well with Aetherflux Reservoir.
A roundabout and rather inefficient lands-matter removal would be Soul Sculptor + Aura Fracture.
Also can't go wrong with Sun Titan + fetch lands (i.e. Fabled Passage). If you go the flicker route you can get some great value out of this. Alternatively Sevinne's Reclamation/Crucible of Worlds also work well with fetch-lands and landfall
TLDR: Landfall-Flicker or Landfall-Recursion or combination of both.
January 4, 2023 3:19 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #6
I have an idea that might be a little far off, bug hear me out:
White is good in catching up to opposing land counts. There are especially colourless ways to allow opponents to get more lands, which you could use to ramp using white "catch-up" ramp. The commander for that? Thalia, Heretic Cathar.
January 4, 2023 7:51 a.m.
Last_Laugh says... #7
Armored Ascension cares about your Plains count and turns pretty much anything into a threat. I'd personally suggest going wide with mono white rather than voltron. It opens up some cheap but very effective wincons like Mirror Entity, Jazal Goldmane, and Felidar Retreat.
January 4, 2023 1:41 p.m.
Arrzarrina says... #8
Hey all, Thanks for the ideas and advice. The first draft of the deck can be found here for any of you who are curious. I genuinely thought this would be impossible but I'm quite pleased with the concept of how the whole deck fits together. Thanks, Arrzarr
Delphen7 says... #2
There is nothing in white that cares about specific lands, just quantity of lands.
That said, Nadaar, Selfless Paladin at the helm of an Initiative list could possibly 'work' since The Initiative cares about having basics.
January 3, 2023 11:15 p.m.