What are your favourite mono-white and mono-blue generals?

[Mimicvat]

I love monocolour in EDH due to its natural building restrictions, but I'm stuck on blue and on white. Blue its hard to make an interesting deck, and white its hard to make a strong deck due to the card disadvantage.

I'm wondering what are the most interesting, coolest most effective and just outright favourite mono-white and mono-blue decks the community here either own or have played against? Gimmie some ideas!

[Mookie]

For mono-blue, I'll give a shout to Thada Adel, Acquisitor - get in a few hits with her, steal a few Sol Rings, then cast sphinxes, leviathans, robots, eldritch abominations... or whatever else you feel like. Enables a much more beatdown-focused strategy that blue usually can't pull off.

I haven't built mono-white myself, but Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle seems sweet. I've also seen some solid Bruna, the Fading Light reanimator / control lists floating around.

[Mimicvat]

Lol, Thada was my last mono-blue from a few years back and is a top contender for a remake. People got so salty about taking the sol rings, I would just make it my mission each game to get them all. If I do rebuild I'll be going for mechanized production + sol ring for the maximum rub-ins. You can also get some meme value stealing high powered equipment from one player and voltroning another, but that strategy is pretty hard to pull off.

It was a boring artifact deck besides that, that did very little to support Thada. The idea of using the rocks for ramp into dumb fatties instead of just for memes seems legit. Would also scratch the itch that disassembling my previous fatties deck has left in the collection

[rogerandover]

White is definitely the most un-interesting mono-color IMO. The better ones leans towards combo (Teshar and New-Heliod), but I've built a control deck with 8,5 Tails which is pretty janky, but it can get pretty oppressive. It's MVP's are Humility and Sacred Mesa.

In blue I have Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, blue weenies. All the Scroll Theif's you can play and loads of control-elements. It really fun to pilot, and if your board isn't disrupted it can take over games rather quickly. It plays a few extra turns spells, which can go infinite, so some might not look at it as casual (but then you just point at your commander).

There's also Hakim, Loreweaver. I havn't played that much with the deck, but it's a rather unusual deck for blue - a voltron deck geared by auras.

[folding_music]

I keep trying to build Eight-and-a-Half Tails too! my concept was an incredibly low power theme deck, to be played against other incredibly low power theme decks, though, playing lots of spells that generate multiple 1/1s that Tails could protect, plus some damage redirection tricks (Shaman en-Kor and Temper was a casual blow out a million years ago so I keep trying to bring it back, lol). Putting Ring of Thune on Tails and then waiting a zillion turns is also a valid strategy in a world where no-one attempts to play good cards <3 I think the problem with mono-white is that all the staples are point removal or plains fetchers, and being the colour with the best board clearers is meaningless, since the trend in EDH is to make your deck a synergy engine with no back-up plan, so no-one wants to see board clears. Also Legion's Landing is less impressive in multiplayer and I adore that card. Aggro sucks until they take ten points off of people's starting life totals and no-one wants to see mono-white control so its like the cards are useless until you find a low power play group.

[Rorseph]

I'd be remiss if I didn't plug Thassa as a fun mono-blue commander. There's a link to my primer in my sig. I hesitate slightly, though, since she's pricey even on her own.

I'm currently brewing a Jalira, Master Polymorphist deck that could serve as a more budget alternative to the above. It's been kind of fun in goldfishing, but it hasn't been played yet because covid-19. Hoping to convince some of my friends to start using XMage to reinstate game night, though!

In any case, I definitely recommend doing a mono-blue beatdown deck. It's fun and your friends probably won't hate you for playing it!

[Segrus]

In any case, I definitely recommend doing a mono-blue beatdown deck. It's fun and your friends probably won't hate you for playing it!

I would suggest something similar. Another option for this is Wizard tribal with Naban. Double up on stuff like Master of Waves or Gadwick. ISBPathfinder has a really good list for it here.

As for mono White, I've been having a lot of fun with a Zetalpa build. My goal in building the deck was to try to avoid using artifact ramp and instead ramp with cards like Lotus Field, Ancient Tomb, and Scorched Ruins. Thespian's Stage and Vesuva helps in this too. I also try to take advantage of the double-faced cards that flip into lands. I suppose it doesn't exactly fix any of mono White's disadvantages, but I like playing it.

[KMA_Again]

It's very stereotypical, but Talrand, Sky Summoner was one I played years ago. Swarms of drakes can get out of hand very quickly while you don't need to commit much to the board, and you can use the powerful blue token support like Opposition and Bident of Thassa. I still feel like he is a powerful choice compared to a lot of the new cards out there because he fits well with what blue wants to do anyways.

[Dunharrow]

I built one around Kefnet, the Mindful. I like it a lot. Basically a high tide deck that wins by infinite mana combo to draw the deck and Blue Sun's Zenith my opponents (I still like this more than Lab Maniac or Jace or the Oracle).

Mono-white - honestly, I have no ideas. the new Heliod? Thalia?

[RedCheese]

I made a Old Heliod mono white Tokens/enchantments deck. Nothing special but i really like it in its simplicity. Got a couple off wins with it suprisinglly.

My mono blue deck is helmed by Memnarch and its very nasty, even without the broken stuff. Stealing your opponent's cards makes you an instant archnemesis so won't recommend it.

Used to have a Sai deck. It was Thopter tribal so no storm sillyness.

[Sinis]

For mono-white, I wanna plug for Bruna, the Fading Light. She's good for card advantage on account of reanimating, and has a great flying vigilant body. The meld option is pretty great, but it's only one part in a vast arsenal. Both toctheyounger and ISBPathfinder have excellent threads the deckbuilding forum for it.

For mono-blue, the one that's caught my fancy the most is God-Eternal Kefnet. There is some obvious build-around options and top-of-deck shenanigans, but I think the choice of free spells can make it something unique and exciting.

[toctheyounger]

For mono-white, I wanna plug for Bruna, the Fading Light. She's good for card advantage on account of reanimating, and has a great flying vigilant body. The meld option is pretty great, but it's only one part in a vast arsenal. Both toctheyounger and ISBPathfinder have excellent threads the deckbuilding forum for it.

Aw, stop it, you've contributed just as much to both threads! The way I see it they're just as much think tanks as they are spicy brews, it's the discussion that makes those threads worthwhile.

But yes, Bruna is excellent. She's definitely worth looking at.

Pros:

• Strong beater in the command zone
• Vigilance for defensive strats
• Reanimation on cast is super strong
• Relevant tribes give a lot of options for control
• Does things literally no other commander at present can (meld)

Cons:

• Looks ugly in the morning
• High CMC
• Supposedly in colours weak for ramp and draw

Also for what it's worth (and I feel like a broken record saying it), ramping and drawing in mono white is not nearly as bad as the community thinks it is. Literally 9/10 games I will have more lands in play mid-game than any other player at the table. It's that reliable. You don't get as many options for burst mana, but that forces you to get lands from your deck into play, which significantly improves the quality of your draws anyway. I also find mono white quite fun to play too - you have to be relatively careful with your plays and treat your control options like a toolbox. You want to put the pinch on people but not to the point where you're an archenemy, so maintaining a delicate balance while still building threats become a challenge, and it's something that only the pilot can do. The tools are all there in the deck, but it's up to the individual how well that plays out.

[Segrus]

Also for what it's worth (and I feel like a broken record saying it), ramping and drawing in mono white is not nearly as bad as the community thinks it is.

I don't think it's nearly as bad either, although I do think it takes more forethought during deck building than in other colors. And as you say, it relies heavily on the pilot to know how to use its control options in the right way at the right time. Decks that play themselves or have really easy includes/obvious staples are going to be more popular.

[toctheyounger]

Also for what it's worth (and I feel like a broken record saying it), ramping and drawing in mono white is not nearly as bad as the community thinks it is.

I don't think it's nearly as bad either, although I do think it takes more forethought during deck building than in other colors. And as you say, it relies heavily on the pilot to know how to use its control options in the right way at the right time.

That's the key word, really. Be mindful of it and it won't be a problem, and can in fact be great.

Decks that play themselves or have really easy includes/obvious staples are going to be more popular.

True. I generally find decks that require a bit of input from the pilot to be far more fun anyway. 'Set and forget' seems a relatively boring way to play to me.

[Toshi]

w is a tough cookie if you really want to build a strong deck.

I think the most crucial thing is to manage expectations. w can be great, but the commander options are far worse and less diverse than most colors. Given you put enough effort into it you'll only have to find out what to build.

I love my Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle deck. But just like God-Eternal Oketra, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Sram, Senior Edificer there is more or less a single version of each of them to build, unless you conciously want to sacrifice a lot of deck strength.
Sure, you don't have all the ultra broken tools for it, but with plenty of great walkers and proliferate cards from WAR Djeru, With Eyes Open might be underrated. Especially with loads of flickers and a good board wipe suite.
I more or less love everything about Bruna, the Fading Light - aside from her CMC. I don't want to repeat what others have said, though.
On top of that, there are several solid Voltron options of different types with Balan, Wandering Knight, Danitha Capashen, Paragon, Gisela, the Broken Blade, Zetalpa, Primal Dawn and others.

u is laughably different. Plenty of "open" Commanders, an absurd card pool and so on. You rather should be concerned about not building an oppressive and uninspiring deck.

Thada Adel, Acquisitor has been mentioned and scales very well with your opponents' deck strength.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist can be anything you want and i'm always fond of creature-based, non-Wizard decks in this color.
Of course, you're gambling with Braids, Conjurer Adept, but come on now, how great is she!?
Baral, Chief of Compliance and Talrand, Sky Summoner require some discipline, not to build both of them inherently oppressive and non-responsive. But from Talent of the Telepath, Gather Specimens to Long-Term Plans, there are just so many interesting toys for non-Spikes.

As a big fan of mono decks myself, i'm curious what you'll end up with!

[toctheyounger]

Of course, you're gambling with Braids, Conjurer Adept, but come on now, how great is she!?

Not gonna lie, blue Braids is a lot of fun. Sure you can slap a whole lot of Eldrazi and Colossi in it, but it's just as fun to throw weird control stuff onto the board and see what happens.

[Cyberium]

Celestial Kirin

[OCPunisher]

I've had a lot of success with God-Eternal Oketra in mono-white. You can do lots of fun things with self-bouncing creatures, Soul Sisters, anthems, etc. It's certainly not the most absurdly powerful deck, but it can create a sizeable army.

Conversely, mono-blue has been an eternal struggle for me. I've tried to make Urza work for months, but it's either way too strong or super watered-down, and there's no middle ground. None of the other mono-blue guys I've tried seem to work out either (Thada, Padeem, Sai, etc). If there's a better answer out there, I'd love to hear it...

[Mimicvat]

Thanks for all the replies people, gonna respond with quotes and put the wall of text in a spoiler In the meantime, a general question - what are your favourite effects for EDH in white? Ideally the non-staxy ones as my group is very averse to that type of thing and I personally don't like the asymmetrical ones either.

I've had a lot of success with my red deck that is based around artifacts and on making token copies for value, so been thinking of blink style effects to game ETB in a similar fashion. Yeah blink isn't the most unique deck idea, but its my favourite strategy in constructed and who has ever seen mono-white blink compared to UW or Bant in EDH?

But I'm not as experienced with white as I am with red and not sure what the 'hidden gems' and powerful lines of play are.

SPOILER

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White is definitely the most un-interesting mono-color IMO. The better ones leans towards combo (Teshar and New-Heliod), but I've built a control deck with 8,5 Tails which is pretty janky, but it can get pretty oppressive. It's MVP's are Humility and Sacred Mesa.

In blue I have Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, blue weenies. All the Scroll Theif's you can play and loads of control-elements. It really fun to pilot, and if your board isn't disrupted it can take over games rather quickly. It plays a few extra turns spells, which can go infinite, so some might not look at it as casual (but then you just point at your commander).

There's also Hakim, Loreweaver. I havn't played that much with the deck, but it's a rather unusual deck for blue - a voltron deck geared by auras.

I'm inclined to agree on mono-white not being interesting. My white decks have all been essentially 'card advantage tribal' with almost the whole deck dedicated to just trying to see more cards. My last white deck was the zombie oketra, but before that I ran 8.5 tails with the idea of his ability being a mana sink to troll people when I have no cards to play.

I have three decks dedicated to 'hit people, draw cards' and extra turns are a houserule ban in my group so Tesuko doesn't scratch an itch for me personally.

A friend of mine runs Hakim which puts him out of the running. A shame because he does something no other blue commander does.

I'd be remiss if I didn't plug Thassa as a fun mono-blue commander. There's a link to my primer in my sig. I hesitate slightly, though, since she's pricey even on her own.

I'm currently brewing a Jalira, Master Polymorphist deck that could serve as a more budget alternative to the above. It's been kind of fun in goldfishing, but it hasn't been played yet because covid-19. Hoping to convince some of my friends to start using XMage to reinstate game night, though!

In any case, I definitely recommend doing a mono-blue beatdown deck. It's fun and your friends probably won't hate you for playing it!

A friend of mine runs Thassa, which puts her out of the running. Jalira is a really cool idea, a general who makes the blue deck do something weird. I agree with blue beats, its a great way to power blue down relative to all the combo and synergy out there and frankly the blue beaters are the ones with evasion, protection or card advantage built in and therefore the best ones lol.

I'd be remiss if I didn't plug Thassa as a fun mono-blue commander. There's a link to my primer in my sig. I hesitate slightly, though, since she's pricey even on her own.

I'm currently brewing a Jalira, Master Polymorphist deck that could serve as a more budget alternative to the above. It's been kind of fun in goldfishing, but it hasn't been played yet because covid-19. Hoping to convince some of my friends to start using XMage to reinstate game night, though!

In any case, I definitely recommend doing a mono-blue beatdown deck. It's fun and your friends probably won't hate you for playing it!

In any case, I definitely recommend doing a mono-blue beatdown deck. It's fun and your friends probably won't hate you for playing it!

I would suggest something similar. Another option for this is Wizard tribal with Naban. Double up on stuff like Master of Waves or Gadwick. ISBPathfinder has a really good list for it here.

As for mono White, I've been having a lot of fun with a Zetalpa build. My goal in building the deck was to try to avoid using artifact ramp and instead ramp with cards like Lotus Field, Ancient Tomb, and Scorched Ruins. Thespian's Stage and Vesuva helps in this too. I also try to take advantage of the double-faced cards that flip into lands. I suppose it doesn't exactly fix any of mono White's disadvantages, but I like playing it.

Gadwick seems incredibly boring. My tipping point with quitting my last white deck was when I realized that he would be a far better commander for that deck than any of the white generals. My problem with Naban is that tribal decks tend to build themselves a lot, which massively cuts the fun factor for me. I'd rather play him as a colourshifted general to run like mono-red wizards or something, so its not things I've seen before.

Zetalpa doesn't fix any of the problems white has, as you say. But man when that card hits the table it gives many of my decks a hard time, which is surprising for a 'dumb fatty'.

It's very stereotypical, but Talrand, Sky Summoner was one I played years ago. Swarms of drakes can get out of hand very quickly while you don't need to commit much to the board, and you can use the powerful blue token support like Opposition and Bident of Thassa. I still feel like he is a powerful choice compared to a lot of the new cards out there because he fits well with what blue wants to do anyways.

I did mono-blue control and everyone *hated* it, even when I ran no-counterspell control to derp it out a little. If I played Talrand I'd be actively weakening the deck to not play it as a control deck, which would feel bad. Probably won't work for me.

I built one around Kefnet, the Mindful. I like it a lot. Basically a high tide deck that wins by infinite mana combo to draw the deck and Blue Sun's Zenith my opponents (I still like this more than Lab Maniac or Jace or the Oracle).

Mono-white - honestly, I have no ideas. the new Heliod? Thalia?

I'm typically not into infinite combo or into commanders that are an outlet for infinite mana. Thanks for the suggestion though!

I made a Old Heliod mono white Tokens/enchantments deck. Nothing special but i really like it in its simplicity. Got a couple off wins with it suprisinglly.

My mono blue deck is helmed by Memnarch and its very nasty, even without the broken stuff. Stealing your opponent's cards makes you an instant archnemesis so won't recommend it.

Used to have a Sai deck. It was Thopter tribal so no storm sillyness.

I tried Heliod way back, thought it would work well but spending your turns buying 2/1s for 4 mana is just so weak compared to what everyone else is doing at that point in the game. Even skullclamp etc didn't make it worthwhile.

My group is too soft for Memnarch, would get hated out so bad lol.

For mono-white, I wanna plug for Bruna, the Fading Light. She's good for card advantage on account of reanimating, and has a great flying vigilant body. The meld option is pretty great, but it's only one part in a vast arsenal. Both toctheyounger and ISBPathfinder have excellent threads the deckbuilding forum for it.

For mono-blue, the one that's caught my fancy the most is God-Eternal Kefnet. There is some obvious build-around options and top-of-deck shenanigans, but I think the choice of free spells can make it something unique and exciting.

I ran Kefnet as no-counterspell control with no turn spells either. Everyone *hated* it and targeted it or moaned when I played it. Couldn't think of another good way to run him except for maybe token spells, which is similar to something else I have.

I will take a look at Bruna. She seems bad, but white reanimation is something I haven't explored fully and getting the meld off would be badass.

For mono-white, I wanna plug for Bruna, the Fading Light. She's good for card advantage on account of reanimating, and has a great flying vigilant body. The meld option is pretty great, but it's only one part in a vast arsenal. Both toctheyounger and ISBPathfinder have excellent threads the deckbuilding forum for it.

Aw, stop it, you've contributed just as much to both threads! The way I see it they're just as much think tanks as they are spicy brews, it's the discussion that makes those threads worthwhile.

But yes, Bruna is excellent. She's definitely worth looking at.

Pros:

• Strong beater in the command zone
• Vigilance for defensive strats
• Reanimation on cast is super strong
• Relevant tribes give a lot of options for control
• Does things literally no other commander at present can (meld)

Cons:

• Looks ugly in the morning
• High CMC
• Supposedly in colours weak for ramp and draw

Also for what it's worth (and I feel like a broken record saying it), ramping and drawing in mono white is not nearly as bad as the community thinks it is. Literally 9/10 games I will have more lands in play mid-game than any other player at the table. It's that reliable. You don't get as many options for burst mana, but that forces you to get lands from your deck into play, which significantly improves the quality of your draws anyway. I also find mono white quite fun to play too - you have to be relatively careful with your plays and treat your control options like a toolbox. You want to put the pinch on people but not to the point where you're an archenemy, so maintaining a delicate balance while still building threats become a challenge, and it's something that only the pilot can do. The tools are all there in the deck, but it's up to the individual how well that plays out.

I believe you for ramp, but you'll need to convince me on draw. I just don't see it. And this is coming from a diehard mono-red player - we have it nearly as bad as you do lol. I saw the Bruna thread already which put her on the radar, but after these two shout outs I'll definitely consider her more carefully.

w is a tough cookie if you really want to build a strong deck.

I think the most crucial thing is to manage expectations. w can be great, but the commander options are far worse and less diverse than most colors. Given you put enough effort into it you'll only have to find out what to build.

I love my Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle deck. But just like God-Eternal Oketra, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Sram, Senior Edificer there is more or less a single version of each of them to build, unless you conciously want to sacrifice a lot of deck strength.
Sure, you don't have all the ultra broken tools for it, but with plenty of great walkers and proliferate cards from WAR Djeru, With Eyes Open might be underrated. Especially with loads of flickers and a good board wipe suite.
I more or less love everything about Bruna, the Fading Light - aside from her CMC. I don't want to repeat what others have said, though.
On top of that, there are several solid Voltron options of different types with Balan, Wandering Knight, Danitha Capashen, Paragon, Gisela, the Broken Blade, Zetalpa, Primal Dawn and others.

u is laughably different. Plenty of "open" Commanders, an absurd card pool and so on. You rather should be concerned about not building an oppressive and uninspiring deck.

Thada Adel, Acquisitor has been mentioned and scales very well with your opponents' deck strength.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist can be anything you want and i'm always fond of creature-based, non-Wizard decks in this color.
Of course, you're gambling with Braids, Conjurer Adept, but come on now, how great is she!?
Baral, Chief of Compliance and Talrand, Sky Summoner require some discipline, not to build both of them inherently oppressive and non-responsive. But from Talent of the Telepath, Gather Specimens to Long-Term Plans, there are just so many interesting toys for non-Spikes.

As a big fan of mono decks myself, i'm curious what you'll end up with!

I absolutely agree with all of this. Blue is hard to make interesting, white is hard to make strong. The 'good' white cards are monobuilds which is something I've been distinctly aware of when considering them, and which makes them super uninteresting. I'm not really big on voltron options in white or any colour, aggression is already an uphill battle without committing to commander damage too!

Seems like we are homing in on a couple of stand out options - Bruna, Thada, Jalira. Maybe Braids. I had ruled out Blue Braids as a friend of mine had played her extensively a few years back, but re-reading it she seems legit awesome.

Celestial Kirin

No land-D allowed sadly. Not my rules, theirs. Same reason I can't run that Kamigawa winter orb thing. I'm all for it but the group says no.

I've had a lot of success with God-Eternal Oketra in mono-white. You can do lots of fun things with self-bouncing creatures, Soul Sisters, anthems, etc. It's certainly not the most absurdly powerful deck, but it can create a sizeable army.

Conversely, mono-blue has been an eternal struggle for me. I've tried to make Urza work for months, but it's either way too strong or super watered-down, and there's no middle ground. None of the other mono-blue guys I've tried seem to work out either (Thada, Padeem, Sai, etc). If there's a better answer out there, I'd love to hear it...

I've tried Oketra, but it never seemed to click. Playing terrible creatures to get vanilla 4/4 worked way worse in practice than in theory. It could be my deckbuilding skill (I'm pretty trash) but I think other value decks just outpace her way too much. I'm more inclined to put Oketra in a white deck that likes creatures and then farm the triggers while doing something else.

[pokken]

thassa, deep-dwelling and JVP are my favorite blue generals.

teshar, ancestor's apostle and heliod, sun-crowned are my favorite mono quite.

Everything is after...golos, of course

golos, tireless pilgrim is the best mono colored general. See my thread on the subject:

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=14483

[toctheyounger]

In the meantime, a general question - what are your favourite effects for EDH in white? Ideally the non-staxy ones as my group is very averse to that type of thing and I personally don't like the asymmetrical ones either.

Same answer for most of my decks, tbh - reanimation. I guess it's why I chose Bruna. It's the sort of deck that just will not die, I love how resilient it is.

[Myllior]

I quite enjoy Kefnet the Mindful as a Voltron commander. Turns out a flying, indestructible 5/5 for 3 is pretty good at murdering people. Who'd have thought?

There's also Unesh Sphinx Storm. I'll admit I've never seen the deck, but with a name like that it's got to be pretty cool.

[Mookie]

In the meantime, a general question - what are your favourite effects for EDH in white? Ideally the non-staxy ones as my group is very averse to that type of thing and I personally don't like the asymmetrical ones either.

Same answer for most of my decks, tbh - reanimation. I guess it's why I chose Bruna. It's the sort of deck that just will not die, I love how resilient it is.

I'll echo this - I'm a sucker for vaaaalue and 2-for-1s, which white tends to lack... with one significant exception: its ability to recur creatures with other creatures. Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Angel of Glory's Rise, Sun Titan, Emeria Shepherd, Twilight Shepherd, Dawnbreak Reclaimer... White actually has a lot of options. It's pretty satisfying to have your board be wiped, only to chain a bunch of recursive creatures to immediately rebuild it. And if we branch into recurring things via flicker effects like Charming Prince and Felidar Guardian, you have even more ways to reuse your creatures.

....of course, you're stuck recurring white creatures, and recurring recursion effects is sort of just wheel-spinning, but that's an entirely separate topic.

[schweinefett]

For purely 'fun' (and silly), yomiji, who bars the way is great. ramp with flagstones of trokaire, do silly things like lieutenant kirtar loops and even stuff like smokestack becomes great!

Otherwise, i don't think i've run any other mono white general outside of teshar. It's a good combo deck, but it gets seriously boring pretty quickly.

Mono blue wise though, my fav has been blind seer. plus stuff like king crab and hydroblast and mana maze (with painter and isocron scepter). its the worst control deck ever, but it really allows some awesomely-fun and hard to see lines that reward tight play.

[Segrus]

I would suggest something similar. Another option for this is Wizard tribal with Naban. Double up on stuff like Master of Waves or Gadwick. ISBPathfinder has a really good list for it here.

As for mono White, I've been having a lot of fun with a Zetalpa build. My goal in building the deck was to try to avoid using artifact ramp and instead ramp with cards like Lotus Field, Ancient Tomb, and Scorched Ruins. Thespian's Stage and Vesuva helps in this too. I also try to take advantage of the double-faced cards that flip into lands. I suppose it doesn't exactly fix any of mono White's disadvantages, but I like playing it.

Gadwick seems incredibly boring. My tipping point with quitting my last white deck was when I realized that he would be a far better commander for that deck than any of the white generals. My problem with Naban is that tribal decks tend to build themselves a lot, which massively cuts the fun factor for me. I'd rather play him as a colourshifted general to run like mono-red wizards or something, so its not things I've seen before.

Zetalpa doesn't fix any of the problems white has, as you say. But man when that card hits the table it gives many of my decks a hard time, which is surprising for a 'dumb fatty'.

Fair enough about tribal decks. Mono Blue is a tough nut to crack for me, actually. It has felt, in the past, that it too often devolves into building around a particular combo (Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator, for example) and then slamming a bunch of counter spells. All of my mono Blue decks happen to be tribal--wizards, thopters, and sphinxes. While they can somewhat build themselves, I think that is somewhat of an oversimplification and I don't necessarily feel like it ultimately diminishes the fun that particular type of synergy brings.

While I haven't tried to build her yet, maybe trying to build something for Emry deck could be interesting?

And with Zetalpa, the point wasn't necessarily to suggest building Zetalpa exactly as much as introduce the concept of subverting expectations by not running a slew of artifact mana to power out Zetalpa. I've gotten Zetalpa out on turn 5 this way.

I do think mono White blink effects could be interesting. It causes me to wonder if something like Enduring Renewal would be good. Since you'll be mostly focusing on a few creatures consistently coming in and out of play, then it wouldn't be good if they died--which Renewal would automatically protect from. There's obvious downsides to this, of course, but still. I think there's a few different paths you could take with flicker effects.