The Mono White Compendium

[toctheyounger]

Maybe!

Part of me also wants to try building Djeru. It's too bad there aren't more toolbox-ish planeswalkers in mono-white; White walkers almost entirely buff/create/remove creatures or gain life, and their functional interchangeability makes the tutoring aspect less entertaining. I think WAR really helped with both Teyo, the Shieldmage and The Wanderer (in terms of their passive abilities) to make Djeru potentially a real deck.

I've played against a Djeru superfriends toolbox build before, and it actually played pretty well. You'd be surprised how much resilience the deck has, it basically kept going until everyone else ran out of steam. I only played against the guy the once but he won the game, seemingly without breaking a sweat. It seemed like a fun build - but then I do like the idea of unconventional superfriends.

Well, that's heartening. I wonder what pieces they used; esp. which Karns. I have the OG one (as well as OG Ugin), but have none of the new ones. I have a suspicion that the deck uses new Ugin and Dominaria Karn for card advantage.

It was a little while ago, so new Ugin wasn't even a card then. There's was definitely a heavy reliance on Elspeth. Particularly Suns champion was a stalwart in the deck. Great walker anyway.

[Sinis]

It was a little while ago, so new Ugin wasn't even a card then. There's was definitely a heavy reliance on Elspeth. Particularly Suns champion was a stalwart in the deck. Great walker anyway.

I bought some WAR Ugins today, haha

I think Elspeth, Sun's Champion is the best mono-w walker, hands down. 3 1/1s a turn is such an uphill battle when you can also just kill all the midrangeish guys out.

In Djeru in particular, killing all the big guy means that there are only little guys left, and Djeru protects against little guys pretty admirably.

[Toshi]

No need to be humble. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is propably my favorite walker in the whole format. Only very few ones work as well in a vacuum as she does.

[Sinis]

No need to be humble. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is propably my favorite walker in the whole format. Only very few ones work as well in a vacuum as she does.

She's no OG Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. No prisoners, there.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Something to say about Emeria, the Sky Ruin: Don't think of it as a reanimator spell. You're going to need it and seven plains to use it. Same thing with Emeria Shepherd, which costs seven mana. Rather, they let you bring creatures, or in Shepherd's case, nonland permanents back for free.

Also, you can use Sun Titan as pseudoramp with fetches, but it just ramps you somewhat more. It's still cute with Emeria Shepherd, though. Or something you can do after Armageddon or Cataclysm.

For card draw, Mask of Memory is good, arguably better than Sword of Fire and Ice, though the latter just does so much. But the best is of course Skullclamp, and with white's love of 1/1s, white can probably use it better than any other color (except green, where it's a good use for elves). But you are going to be using inferior cards (or just plain synergies) for card draw. Be aware of that.

[toctheyounger]

Something to say about Emeria, the Sky Ruin: Don't think of it as a reanimator spell. You're going to need it and seven plains to use it. Same thing with Emeria Shepherd, which costs seven mana. Rather, they let you bring creatures, or in Shepherd's case, nonland permanents back for free.

Also, you can use Sun Titan as pseudoramp with fetches, but it just ramps you somewhat more. It's still cute with Emeria Shepherd, though. Or something you can do after Armageddon or Cataclysm.

For card draw, Mask of Memory is good, arguably better than Sword of Fire and Ice, though the latter just does so much. But the best is of course Skullclamp, and with white's love of 1/1s, white can probably use it better than any other color (except green, where it's a good use for elves). But you are going to be using inferior cards (or just plain synergies) for card draw. Be aware of that.

Sword of the Animist is my go to for getting Emeria on line and triggering the Shepherd. Or even just the humbleGift of Estates.

As an aside, I honestly think that white gets a bad rap for being 'the worst at ramping'. Like, green is obviously #1, but black blue and red fall far behind comparably. In white it's something to consider, sure, and something to make sure you build around. But once you've taken it into account you can definitely hit your land drops and keep a full grip. Most games with my Bruna build I have more lands in play than the rest of the table mid game.

[RxPhantom]

I've been running a Kemba, Kha Regent deck since I got back into MtG ~8 years ago. Mono-white needs to lean on artifacts and maybe a tiny bit of stax, but it has so many great answers that I've never felt behind the 8 ball. I really like Tithe, and Endless Horizons is pretty neat.

[hyalopterouslemur]

As an aside, I honestly think that white gets a bad rap for being 'the worst at ramping'. Like, green is obviously #1, but black blue and red fall far behind comparably. In white it's something to consider, sure, and something to make sure you build around. But once you've taken it into account you can definitely hit your land drops and keep a full grip. Most games with my Bruna build I have more lands in play than the rest of the table mid game.

Fair. Black does have Black Market, though. Blue has High Tide, and black has Bubbling Muck. Blue also has a lot of cards which ramp for colorless. Black and red have rituals, to varying degrees, and black has a lot of mana doublers. Red has Koth of the Hammer and Gauntlet of Might (and Mana Flare, but it helps everyone) in terms of mana doublers.

White, generally speaking. doesn't need ramp as badly as other colors. The exception is, of course, things like Emeria, where you specifically need the lands. And white's standard ramp trick is cards in the vein of Land Tax (namely, you can catch up if you're behind, but it does nothing if you're ahead or equal).

[pokken]

umm, black is the second best ramp color in EDH. Coffers baby

not to mention swamp specific mana doublers (crypt ghast, etc.).

[toctheyounger]

As an aside, I honestly think that white gets a bad rap for being 'the worst at ramping'. Like, green is obviously #1, but black blue and red fall far behind comparably. In white it's something to consider, sure, and something to make sure you build around. But once you've taken it into account you can definitely hit your land drops and keep a full grip. Most games with my Bruna build I have more lands in play than the rest of the table mid game.

Fair. Black does have Black Market, though. Blue has High Tide, and black has Bubbling Muck. Blue also has a lot of cards which ramp for colorless. Black and red have rituals, to varying degrees, and black has a lot of mana doublers. Red has Koth of the Hammer and Gauntlet of Might (and Mana Flare, but it helps everyone) in terms of mana doublers.

White, generally speaking. doesn't need ramp as badly as other colors. The exception is, of course, things like Emeria, where you specifically need the lands. And white's standard ramp trick is cards in the vein of Land Tax (namely, you can catch up if you're behind, but it does nothing if you're ahead or equal).

There is that. Land Tax variants are a tough bargain to my mind. Most of them are pretty conditional and I've found them lackluster. The OG is very nice though, especially with Scroll Rack. As far as the doublers in other colours go, yeah they're good, but they do need some building around, and they're no substitute in the long run for actually dropping lands into play. Black Market in particular I've had really mixed results with - when it goes off the burst mana is great, but it's still fairly conditional; you can only use it pre combat during main, only during your turn, and it's entirely dependent on a setup to abuse it. Even then it's all for naught if someone runs Krosan Grip or Return to Dust. I've just found the times it goes off are not worth the times it doesn't. By comparison, Smothering Tithe is great value even if it bites removal pretty quickly.

umm, black is the second best ramp color in EDH. Coffers baby

not to mention swamp specific mana doublers (crypt ghast, etc.).

Well, yeah, but those aren't 'really' ramp, those are burst mana. If we're talking mana doublers a la Ghast/Revenant, green is still easily top of the pile - Mana Reflection, Regal Behemoth, Zendikar Resurgent, and so on. There's more but these are top of my head. As far as coffers goes, it's good when it goes off, sure, but it does need to be in the right build, and it's SUPER dependent on Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. In terms of actually tutoring lands to play, there are three cards I can think of in black - Liliana of the Dark Realms, Corpse Harvester, Liliana's Shade. There's also the Map, and of these 4 it's the only one that can grab Coffers.

I get what you guys are saying though. These chinks in the armour are where rocks come in to supplement, and white is no exception in that respect.

[pokken]

umm, black is the second best ramp color in EDH. Coffers baby

not to mention swamp specific mana doublers (crypt ghast, etc.).

Well, yeah, but those aren't 'really' ramp, those are burst mana. If we're talking mana doublers a la Ghast/Revenant, green is still easily top of the pile - Mana Reflection, Regal Behemoth, Zendikar Resurgent, and so on. There's more but these are top of my head. As far as coffers goes, it's good when it goes off, sure, but it does need to be in the right build, and it's SUPER dependent on Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. In terms of actually tutoring lands to play, there are three cards I can think of in black - Liliana of the Dark Realms, Corpse Harvester, Liliana's Shade. There's also the Map, and of these 4 it's the only one that can grab Coffers.

I get what you guys are saying though. These chunks in the armpit are where rocks come in to supplement, and white is no exception in that respect.

vampiric tutor, beseech the queen, demonic tutor, scheming symmetry, dark petition, final parting (for crucible + coffers, oof:))

Ramp is ending up with more mana than you had before the action was taken. Tutoring for Urborg and Coffers is ramp the same as playing Cultivate is. And green is definitely the best at doubling but black is the second best ramp color and it's not particularly close.

White is probably third with weathered wayfarer (WHO IS RAMP PLEASE AND THANK YOU, he gets nykthos or ancient tomb or serra's sanctum), knight of the white orchid, kor cartographer, smothering tithe, boreas charger, oath of lieges, sun titan etc.

Red and blue are both very poor at consistent ramp. They can burst (high tide, seething song, tutoring for artifacts/recurring artifacts, etc.).

In the end you can actually play mono black without any rocks at all if you want--and it'll be decent! Just cheap card draw, accel, tutors, and coffers. It shares with Green being the only color you can really mono-ramp without serious rocks.

White almost always requires supplements from rocks or doublers. And Black is much better with the whole caged sun set too.

[hyalopterouslemur]

umm, black is the second best ramp color in EDH. Coffers baby

not to mention swamp specific mana doublers (crypt ghast, etc.).

Well, yeah, but those aren't 'really' ramp, those are burst mana. If we're talking mana doublers a la Ghast/Revenant, green is still easily top of the pile - Mana Reflection, Regal Behemoth, Zendikar Resurgent, and so on. There's more but these are top of my head. As far as coffers goes, it's good when it goes off, sure, but it does need to be in the right build, and it's SUPER dependent on Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

If you're in monoblack, that dependency is reduced to zero. (In fact, a lot of what I've said about black ramp only applies to monoblack.)

White honestly doesn't need that much ramp. Sure, you might use it for, e.g., Decree of Justice (and even then, once you hit Divine Visitation, you're cycling that), but with Iona gone, my monowhite mana curve is pretty much topped out at 8, possibly even as low as 6. That's something you can deal with with plain old mana rocks.

[ISBPathfinder]

Thanks everyone who is putting in suggestions. I am going to refrain from responding to every post (mostly for my own sanity) but I love that people are kicking ideas and help back and forth to each other. I am totally all for that. I hope I am not missing much else for suggestions but I wanted to respond to the ones that I fixed that I saw directed at omissions in the list.

Awesome Job, man!

I play Lin-Sivvi and Celestial Kirin in mono white.

In Kirin, getting the appropriate Mana cost is tricky sometimes, but soulshift can be very helpful. Angel of Flight Alabaster is also good if it manages to stay and your graveyard isn't blown up in the turn cycle. I'm not what are the most important CMC's for it (from tje top of my head I would say tbat 3 is the one I get the most, but that might be annimpression). It's actually a good question, I'll try to keep a record on it from now on.

Angel of Flight Alabaster does seem like she should be referenced. I am.... not really sure on the soulshift ones because they all kind of look terrible but I added it in anyways. I avoided 4 cost soulshift because that kills the commander but if you think otherwise let me know.

Truly, truly amazing work. One of the most ambitious and wonderful projects out there and I'd be curious to see you tackle other monos.

I've rarely played Mono-white, just Darien, King of Kjeldor for a small spell. It may be too obvious but I was surprised to see no mention of The Soul Sisters (Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Ajani's Welcome, etc etc) in his synergy write-up. These are powerful with Darien because it can make hitting you ineffective, and multiple such effects actually cause you to gain instead of lose life. It was so obnoxious that I actually dropped them from my Darien list, since it was supposed to be a Mirror Strike/Fateful hour jank-fest.

EDIT: I've never played Celestial Kirin before (I'm tempted now!) but I wonder if Celestial Crusader and Drogskol Shieldmate deserve special mention as two of the few spirits with remotely playable gametext that also have Flash? Nikko-Onna also seems good since you can "reload" her somewhat reliably.

I added soul sisters to Darien and added those two random spirits. For the most part I am not trying to name every possible inclusion but having flash seems fine I guess. That crusader will kill Kirin which seems questionable but whatever I already put it in there so meh.

Some recent changes I made to the OPs:

• Added God-Eternal Oketra. He came out after I passed him in the list so I had to go back and catch him.
• Added Aetherflux Reservoir to most lifegain synergy card suggestions.
• Celestial Kirin - added Angel of Flight Alabaster, Celestial Crusader, Drogskol Shieldmate, and some soulshift stuffs.
• Update Isamaru, Hound of Konda - the details looked a bit sparse so I looked deeper into other lists and added more suggestions and ideas.
• Darien, King of Kjeldor - Added Soul Sister suggestion
• I split the commander breakdowns off after L to start on post three. Realistically I don't think I want to push all of this content into one post as it becomes really hard to work on it. I had planned to split it I just didn't really know where. I might later move it to be after M given that A-M is 13 characters and the alphabet is 26 characters long but I am fairly certain there are more legends who start earlier in the alphabet than later so its a cleaner split to break a bit early. Poor OCD suckers.
• Added Mangara of Corondor, Masako the Humorless, and Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle. I needed a break after this though because man.... these were not easy ones to do a write up for.
• Added more legends with empty space for their contents when I get there. I considered trying to fill in all of the remaining legends but I am not sure if it looks better or worse to have them there and blank vs missing.

So, going forward, my objectives for this will be:

1. Catch any glaring omissions that users point out. Those with hands on knowledge of commanders please let me know if I totally skip over something big please and I will try to go back and add it.
2. Finish all the legends as I have been doing right now.
3. Create a write up on types of cards and suggestions of good ways to utilize them / good cards to consider within them.
4. Give some sort of grading scale to commanders. I think as of right now I plan to add another section to each before the conclusion where I will have several categories and a grade for each. The hard part will be coming up with an overall grade for each legend that makes sense because obviously there are a lot of considerations on which to consider. Hopefully I can come up with something that makes sense that doesn't over or under value things. I am still working on this. Once I figure it out I plan to have the overall grading of a commander outside of the spoiler next to the commander's name for those interested in skimming through and just looking for some more powerful options. I am still not sure how I feel about this all in all given much of this will be a biased viewpoint of mine based on power. I think that all in all at least half of the mono white legends are at least viable in that they are not just worse versions of other legends but obviously there are still stronger and weaker options. I will do my best but this is also the last on my list because I feel that it is incredibly difficult to judge a commander I have never built and played based on my thoughts and observations of never having played or seen it played.

Random side note to leave everyone on. Has anyone put any testing into Lotus Field in mono white yet? It has some cool synergy with Land Tax / Weathered Wayfarer effects as it puts you behind on land count and it has some cool synergy with Thespian's Stage and possibly Crucible of Worlds if you are crazy enough to run fetchlands in mono white. I had done a little bit of testing similarly with Karoo in a similar role previously but this new land looks interesting.

[toctheyounger]

Random side note to leave everyone on. Has anyone put any testing into Lotus Field in mono white yet? It has some cool synergy with Land Tax / Weathered Wayfarer effects as it puts you behind on land count

That's pretty neat, I hadn't considered this. I'll look into this for sure.

[umtiger]

I know Sram is at S but he's pretty good. isbpathfinder, I know you'll clean this up and add a ton.

Build Options:
Equipment ("Cheerios") - can use Ancient Tomb, Mishra's Workshop
Auras Voltron ("Bogles") - can abuse Serra's Sanctum and Nykthos but cannot use non-white producing utility lands.

Synergistic Cards:
Puresteel Paladin
Kor Spirit Dancer
Monastery Mentor
Aetherflux Reservoir
Recruiter of the Guard

Weaknesses:
Spot Removal
Edict Effects
Rule of Law/Chalice of the Void
Null Rod/Stony Silence for cheerios build

[Henlock]

Angel of Flight Alabaster does seem like she should be referenced. I am.... not really sure on the soulshift ones because they all kind of look terrible but I added it in anyways. I avoided 4 cost soulshift because that kills the commander but if you think otherwise let me know.

Well, they are only synergy cards so outside of something like Kirin tjey do look quite awful, and paying 6 mana for a 3/2 flier feels overwhelming, but getting back a certain spirit can be crucial. Horizon Seed is a 2/1 for 5 mana, but it does its job in Kirin. On CMC 4, well, you have to blow your kirin sometimes but you still have the tools in white to deal with it.

[Couver]

This thread is amazing!

I can't even imagine the amount of time and effort put in.

I especially appreciate the detailed breakdown of each mono white legend you are providing. I love a lot of the legends in white but the colours' downsides sometimes make it prohibitive to brew a lot of them.

I'm curious to see your take on Oketra, The True. She's my current mono white deck. But her mix of voltron and needing to sort of go wide to keep her on is tricky to balance.

[ISBPathfinder]

I know Sram is at S but he's pretty good. isbpathfinder, I know you'll clean this up and add a ton.

Build Options:
Equipment ("Cheerios") - can use Ancient Tomb, Mishra's Workshop
Auras Voltron ("Bogles") - can abuse Serra's Sanctum and Nykthos but cannot use non-white producing utility lands.

Synergistic Cards:
Puresteel Paladin
Kor Spirit Dancer
Monastery Mentor
Aetherflux Reservoir
Recruiter of the Guard

Weaknesses:
Spot Removal
Edict Effects
Rule of Law/Chalice of the Void
Null Rod/Stony Silence for cheerios build

Yea, I am also excited for Sram. I have an auras list myself. He is a bit of an oddball because there is quite a bit of difference between building with equipment and building cheerios so it will be an interesting one with a lot of depth to him.

This thread is amazing!

I can't even imagine the amount of time and effort put in.

I especially appreciate the detailed breakdown of each mono white legend you are providing. I love a lot of the legends in white but the colours' downsides sometimes make it prohibitive to brew a lot of them.

I'm curious to see your take on Oketra, The True. She's my current mono white deck. But her mix of voltron and needing to sort of go wide to keep her on is tricky to balance.

Its been an absolute beast. I had been working on it on and off for like 4-6 months when I just decided that I would put up what I had so far and take suggestions and keep adding to it lol. I am already into the Ns so Oketra should be soonish. The ones that I have to really scrape the bottom of the barrel are by far the hardest and make me struggle to find the will to write lol.

I didn't get as far this week. I am trying to keep making some advancements each week though and putting up some updates with responses. I managed to add Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker, Mikaeus, the Lunarch, Myojin of Cleansing Fire, and Nagao, Bound by Honor this week. I will see if I can get some work in this weekend for this. I know its slow going but if I just started with the interesting ones I would literally never finish this project.

[gilrad]

Some thoughts on my own Akroma deck:

I run it as a big-mana control deck that basically tries to start killing people once I have like 16 mana on lands. Since she has haste and I have so much mana, I don't mind re-casting her if she gets spot-removed, meanwhile people have a very limited slice of cards that can deal with her that they generally run out of before Akroma starts to get taxed out of the game.

[Sinis]

As long as we have a bunch of gurus in this thread; what are your favourite Sac outlets in Monowhite, outside High Market?

[Toshi]

As long as we have a bunch of gurus in this thread; what are your favourite Sac outlets in Monowhite, outside High Market?

Not including cards that say "sacrifice an artifact" exclusively:


1. Martyr's Cause
2. Fanatical Devotion
3. Scapegoat
4. Martyred Rusalka


1. Ashnod's Altar
2. Phyrexian Altar
3. Altar of Dementia
4. Spawning Pit
5. Claws of Gix
6. Grafted Wargear
7. Culling Dais
8. Trading Post
9. Blasting Station


1. High Market
2. Diamond Valley (if i were so unreasonable to buy one)
3. Miren, the Moaning Well

These are the ones i've played in the last 7 years and found to be (somewhat) playable.

[ISBPathfinder]

As long as we have a bunch of gurus in this thread; what are your favourite Sac outlets in Monowhite, outside High Market?

Ashnod's Altar
Phyrexian Altar
Altar of Dementia
Martyr's Cause
Fanatical Devotion
Diamond Valley

EDIT: Brago's list is more in depth. Beyond the ones I listed + High Market though I often don't see a need to play them given how little mono white has that would care about sacrificing. Its unfortunate as there are some sweet enablers for sacing just not a commander who really cares.

My biggest issue is more that there are almost no mono white legends that care about being sacrificed / dying. Generally speaking things like Homeward Path or Sanctum of Eternity are better at fighting theft. I would love to see a mono white legend with a dies trigger (worth running).

Sorry I haven't had much for updates here recently. Hopefully I can get some more done on it soon. All of these new sets coming out has been a big distracting.

[Sinis]

I would love to see a mono white legend with a dies trigger (worth running).

Mostly, I want to loop Mangara of Corondor by activating them, sacrificing them with their ability on the stack, and then digging them up with Sun Titan or Emeria.

In w/u, you can activate Riptide Laboratory in response which seems okay. Mangara works with Sanctum of Eternity as well.

[Toshi]

Beyond the ones I listed + High Market though I often don't see a need to play them given how little mono white has that would care about sacrificing. Its unfortunate as there are some sweet enablers for sacing just not a commander who really cares.

My beloved Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle would like to have a word with you!

Mangara of Corondor, Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero, Bruna, the Fading Light, Reya Dawnbringer and Yomiji, Who Bars the Way could all utilize sac outlets, despite the latter 3 having akward CMCs.

Given the amount of equipment tutors, token strategies and Skullclamp being one of the most broken cards the format has to offer, you would be able to plug sac outlets in basically every deck - if only you'd want to. Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Kemba, Kha Regent, God-Eternal Oketra and Darien, King of Kjeldor all could make use of solid sac outlets.

Sorry for smart assing.

[ISBPathfinder]

Beyond the ones I listed + High Market though I often don't see a need to play them given how little mono white has that would care about sacrificing. Its unfortunate as there are some sweet enablers for sacing just not a commander who really cares.

My beloved Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle would like to have a word with you!

Mangara of Corondor, Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero, Bruna, the Fading Light, Reya Dawnbringer and Yomiji, Who Bars the Way could all utilize sac outlets, despite the latter 3 having akward CMCs.

Given the amount of equipment tutors, token strategies and Skullclamp being one of the most broken cards the format has to offer, you would be able to plug sac outlets in basically every deck - if only you'd want to. Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Kemba, Kha Regent, God-Eternal Oketra and Darien, King of Kjeldor all could make use of solid sac outlets.

Sorry for smart assing.

NP, you are correct in that Teshar has synergy with sac. I kind of forget about him even though I built him once myself. You can build sac effects into a lot of commanders potentially but I would really enjoy to see more dedicated sac focused commanders for mono white.