This guide is written with the intent of 75% commander in mind. Mono white is incredibly difficult to come to the table trying to play with or against combo wincons. I will point out some mass land destruction on occasion in this guide not because I think it is acceptable in a 75% commander concept but just because it is a tool of mono white and some commanders specifically have synergy with it. I think mono white is going to have a very challenging experience standing toe to toe with combo. Generally speaking Sram, Senior Edificer cheerios and Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle might be some of the few that MAYBE can play to that level but they tend to have issues interacting with opponents so you will be primarily racing with them and using cheap spot removal hoping they are relevant. I don't play to that level of game play and this guide is not written with trying to play to that level of game play.
Introduction
For as long as I have been playing commander I have seen people have a preference towards multicolored decks over mono colored decks in large part due to having less weaknesses and a larger card pool. It is a challenge working with a smaller pool of cards and with most mono colors there are strengths and weaknesses. There are also a lot of really cool commanders to be had going mono colored and a very different play experience to be had. My hope with this guide is to give some assistance to those interested in playing mono white and to help give some guidelines and a starting point that will help you to be more successful in your attempt.
My hope is for this to be a resource to help players get some ideas on how they could play different commanders and get a start on mono white construction if it so interests them. I am trying to stay mostly neutral and not push any specific commanders but give ideas that might be relevant when examining different commander options.
Who Am I?
My name is Brian, I have been playing magic in South Dakota on and off since Ice Age. I have been an avid commander player since 2010 and I am someone who really enjoys the deckbuilding and tuning process of this game. The last time I checked I had over 150 threads that I had started in the multiplayer commander area of MTGSalvation with most of those decks having been built and some decks I built IRL not showing up here.
At this point I have played something like 10-20 different mono white commanders with several of these deck having been together for several years. I built a primer for Lin Sivvi and I probably log more games with mono white than any other types of deck. I often have 2-4 mono white decks put together at any one point in time and they often make up something like half of my constructed decks at any point.
Pros and Cons of Mono White
This is a run down on mono white pros and cons. White has a lot to offer but this is more focusing on just mono white for the relevance of the topic at hand which is building mono white.
- Emeria, the Sky Ruin - Emeria is one of the biggest advantages of mono white if you ask me. This land can give incredible staying power and punish those who don't run sufficient Strip Mine effects or continuous use graveyard hate.
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - In any mono color, Nykthos can provide a big burst to mana. The devotion you get in a mono colored deck tends to be higher and the need for fixing and thus the concerns of a colorless land is lowered.
- Utility Land Count - I have somewhat of a formula for decks that tends to go along the lines of a 3+ color commander deck I tend to only include 1-3 utility lands, 2 color commanders I will generally run 4-7 utility lands, and in mono color I tend to run 12-18 utility lands. Having less need to fix mana its easier to have a lot more utility effects in your landbase. This is space for free support and powering up that is covered by your lands. This is like free utility effects that don't take up space in your deck. I have found that it makes it much easier to support multiple Strip Mines, Mazes, and all sorts of other utility like graveyard hate that normally speaking I have a hard time including all of these things in multicolored decks.
- Weathered Wayfarer - It might be odd to point at Wayfarer but my point for doing so is because I just pointed out that we have more room for utility lands and one of white's weaknesses is card advantage. Wayfarer can keep us hitting our land drops and find sweet utility lands potentially ramping us or allowing responses to problems on board. Obviously Wayfarer is still playable in multicolored decks but I find the increase in utility lands to really deepen its usefulness in mono white.
- Emeria Shepherd - Emeria Shepherd is a very strong tool for mono white. Being that she cares more about plains than other lands I tend to find her to be something I am much more willing to run in mono white than I am in multicolored decks. The targeting potential is very high considering mono white really can't support spellslinger and tends to be more permanent based.
- Caged Sun / Gauntlet of Power - These effects work a lot better in mono colored decks even with potentially having an increase in utility lands. They tend to work a bit better for token strategies but white has both activated ability token generation and X mana token spells that both can use these quite well. These artifacts are anthems as well so overall I consider them quite often when running token strategies for mono white.
- Endless Atlas - Being that its an artifact that can be run anywhere its a bit odd to point out. White has a hard time drawing cards though and its actually fairly reasonable draw that is harder to run in multi color decks. I have found it to be a reasonable and relatively good card for mono white and mono red. I felt it worth pointing out as its not likely to be run much of anywhere else.
- Card Draw - White has always had somewhat of a problem with drawing cards. Its something that as time goes on, it does diminish some as new equipment, artifacts, and even occasionally white gets some decent draw effects. This said, white is still probably the worst color at drawing cards and pushing for card advantage. Opposing decks with a lot of card advantage, ramp, and removal can be real buggers to compete with in mono white.
- The Stack - White has a very small card pool of counter magic that can interact with the stack but most of them are not especially great. If someone is going to win without using permanents or while silencing you, its likely that there won't be a lot of room for mono white to interact with it. Sometimes what you need to stay in a game is a counterspell and its something white doesn't have much luck with.
- Noncombat Wincons - White does have a way to interact with any type of permenant but ultimately they are still stronger when opposing wincons come from combat sources. When the ability to use blockers, fogs, wraths, and propaganda effects can all be utilized they will be at an advantage. The more someone plans to win via things that do not involve combat, the more white's strengths are hard to be put to use.
- Landbase - Often when I build an optimized 3 color deck I have something like a $3,000 landbase to the deck. This is assuming I am optimizing it and using things like ABU dual lands, fetchlands, shocks, and so forth. This is obviously me optimizing and using the best I can. That said, mono colored landbases can be as cheap as a buck or two for basics but even when putting optimized utility lands in a deck I often end up with a landbase that is only $100-$200 assuming I am not putting extremely rare and expensive lands like Tabernacle or Bazaar in my lists.
- Card Impact - In a lot of decks and colors its important to keep the curve low and chain cards. Depending on the commander and style of mono white deck it is sometimes more relevant to have mana dumps and higher impact cards. If for example, you were to play a lot of cheap spot removal in mono white, it would help you against a combo style of deck but it would also probably cost you against a control or ramp deck. I like to do somewhat of a thought experiment when working on a deck and asking myself, "If I have lands, access to my commander, and just this one card drawn off of the top of my deck, will that one card help me to progress forward or not die?" Try to refrain from setting up situations where you want 3-5 cards working together to achieve something and think more along the lines of does my commander + just this card make a good outcome. Keep it simple and it will probably be more effective.
- Commander's Relevance - When you get to weaker colors its more important than ever to ask what your commander does and how well they hold up over the course of a game. I used to have a mono black deck where there would often be games I never cast my commander and the deck did fine either way. Mono white tends to be a weaker color with weaker cards that will often require you to lean on your commander and the impact that they can have on a game to hold things together. I like to ask myself a simple question of how soon could I play my commander and if someone blows everything up what will replaying my commander look like. The more simple utility your commander is with weaker stats, the weaker replaying them will likely be. Someone like Isamaru can get some fantastic work done early but his weakness is board resets as well as the number of players in the game. I think it is important to ask yourself if you don't have a hand left and someone blows up the board what are you left with recasting your commander because white is really weak with its card advantage.