Making White great again
Deck Help forum
Posted on Dec. 7, 2019, 6:05 p.m. by Magnanimous
So white is a pretty under-powered color in both modern and pioneer and I want to build a deck focusing on white cards for either of those formats, likely modern, and would like card and/or strategy suggestions.
Here's a list of cards I'm thinking about to get started, I just really don't know how to fit them together: Porphyry Nodes , Flagstones of Trokair , Recruit the Worthy , Sky Hussar , Squadron Hawk , Battle Screech , Legion's Landing Flip, Gift of Estates , Restore Balance , Generous Gift
Edit: I know the meta decks for white (D&T, Soul Sisters, Martyr Proc) and want to find a new W or Wx deck that uses weird mechanics and synergies specific to white in a semi-competitive way.
I feel like I should mention that I was working on a deck with Porphyry Nodes , Generous Gift , Flagstones of Trokair , Greater Gargadon , Restore Balance , and Electrodominance before I posted this.
Magnanimous says... #3
hungry000 I really like the Celestial Kirin idea. I saw it on against the odds, but forgot about it and think it has a chance to work. I don't really know where to go with it though. W or W/G D&T seems like a worse version of an already meta deck and a controlling variant (say, with border posts) seems pretty clunky as I'd likely need a lot of tutors to get the combo together. I've looked into spirit/arcane decks before and they just seemed bad, but with newish spirits like Spell Queller it might be better.
December 8, 2019 1:15 a.m.
Good. We need more Kirinmageddon in our lives. If you want to look, I made a GW version: Armageddon & Taxes
The things I noticed as I was building/testing:
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Getting the combo is a really strong play, but if you're behind on board, a lot of the time your opponent will just run you over before you can capitalize. So you either need mass anti-creature effects like Ghostly Prison or Ensnaring Bridge or early/mass game removal to cover for you.
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Playing the removal game usually means you can't fit as many combo tutors in, which leads to games where you kill a bunch of their threats and never find the combo.
Spirits tribal could work, but then there's the risk of blowing up your own stuff.
One color combo that I think could work is BW. You could use Ranger-Captain of Eos to tutor for Ugin's Conjurant/Giver of Runes and the removal is really good. Maybe go with some existing Stoneforge or Mardu Shadow lists for a shell.
There was also a group that posted a bunch of different Krinmageddon variants on Reddit, but I can't remember what they were called.
December 8, 2019 10:50 a.m.
Magnanimous says... #5
Funkydiscogod I really like the Tallowisp + Oppressive Rays combo. I don't like the specific Ordeal of Nylea suggestion as it seems way too slow and easily disrupted, but think something like Daybreak Coronet could be ok.
In general, I think that this Celestial Kirin idea is way too fragile and needs a ton of synergy to be effective. I have been looking at arcane and spirit spells and like Horobi's Whisper , Nether Spirit , Peer Through Depths , and Ethereal Haze just as cards. I still don't think there's quite enough, but maybe Tallowisp , Oppressive Rays , and Pacifism could make it good.
December 8, 2019 7:54 p.m.
Magnanimous says... #6
Thanks everyone!
I created this deck: Azorius Control. It's a prototype now, but I'm still pretty happy with it. It's very unique (to my knowledge) and roughly split between white and blue cards, not the mainly white deck I was hoping to make. I think I found what I was looking for but feel free to comment more in this thread/on my deck if you'd like to.
December 8, 2019 9:01 p.m.
I don't know if you're still looking for suggestions, but I've brought Solaria to my LGS a couple of times and had some fun with it, maybe you'll enjoy it if you give it a try? The fetches and the Aether Vial s are the only expensive components, the rest range from super cheap to very reasonable.
Like your deck, it's Azorius, but slightly more W than U, and it certainly catches people off guard! Thought I'd offer it up, since I think it fits what you're asking for in the op, hope you like it!
hungry000 says... #2
If you want to take inspiration from existing decks, the best purely mono w deck in modern is Martyr Proc ( Martyr of Sands + Proclamation of Rebirth + Squad Hawk). Another decent white deck to look at is Death & Taxes, especially since they unbanned Stoneforge Mystic and printed Giver of Runes .
Looking at that list of cards, a Martyr Soul Sisters deck comes to mind. You would use the token makers in conjunction with the soul sisters to gain life, then grind them out with Sky Hussar. This idea does not seem to be very competitive, but it would use a bunch of those cards.
If I had to try and build a decent mono white deck that wasn't just a copy/paste, I'd make one with the Celestial Kirin and Ugin's Conjurant combo and back it up with some D&T cards like Giver of Runes . Incidentally, a deck like that would like Flagstones of Trokair very much.
December 8, 2019 12:30 a.m.