Monowhite: Things to do with a fist full of lands

[gilrad]

So I've been revising my mono-white Akroma deck for the first time in years, and I realize there is now a really nice selection of mono-W cards that can fill your hand with plains (especially with Lotus Field shenanigans). Neat, less reliance on Enlightened Tutor --> land tax is always welcome.

On the other side of the coin, I'm still relying on the same three tricks:
scroll rack - The most predictable and most likely to draw the table's attention because of how well known it is
Teferi's Puzzle Box - My personal favorite deck tech, messes with peoples' hands while pitching all those lands
Terrain Generator - Kinda reaching here but if there's nothing better to do with mana I might as well prepare for that big X spell I might draw later. Plus it's a utility land so relatively low opportunity cost including it in the deck.

There's gotta be more things that turn those lands into resources out there. Anything I'm missing?

[Dunharrow]

Discarding big permanents due to full hand size and reanimating them with Emeria Shepherd?
Walking Atlas?

I don't think you are missing any of the ways to abuse this in monowhite.

[Sinis]

There's gotta be more things that turn those lands into resources out there. Anything I'm missing?

I have a soft spot for spellshapers, especially Devout Witness and Mageta the Lion. I've never played it, but Icatian Crier might also be fun/goodish.

I think Terrain Generator is absolutely acceptable/good, and just hitting your land drops is also important. A lot of mana is needed for White's big haymakers, like Akroma or Avacyn, and and having mana up to threaten removal or something like Teferi's Protection.

[xeroxedfool]

You could use extra lands to exile with Azor's Gateway.

[Sinis]

How about Grimoire of the Dead? Vengeful Dreams?

How frequently do you find yourself with a glut?

[darrenhabib]

• Bag of Holding
• Deal Broker
• Gate to the Afterlife
• Hazoret's Monument
• Key to the City
• Mask of Memory
• Mindless Automaton
• Skeleton Key
• Smuggler's Copter

[Sinis]

• Bag of Holding
• Deal Broker
• Gate to the Afterlife
• Hazoret's Monument
• Key to the City
• Mask of Memory
• Mindless Automaton
• Skeleton Key
• Smuggler's Copter

I agree with almost all of these...

... but is Hazoret's Monument/Gate to the Afterlife really worth running in monowhite? How many loots do you need to get for it to be worth 3 mana?

[SocorroTortoise]

If you're already looting or otherwise discarding, Planar Birth is pretty cute.

[toctheyounger]

If you're already looting or otherwise discarding, Planar Birth is pretty cute.

Second time I've heard this come up today - do you have any play history with the card? I'd love to hear whether it's worth running.

On topic, can confirm Azor's Gateway is decent for filtering. Emeria Shepherd is straight up boss-level mono white tech, that girl is nuts. I've had reasonably good results with Vengeful Dreams too, but it's very much a reactive card, so I could understand it not seeing a spot in more aggro/proactive builds.

[mention]weltkrieg[/mention] has a Mageta the Lion list, so maybe could weigh in with some options for a grip full of lands or how good Mageta has been for him.

Also, Mask of Memory is decent. I use it to top up hand and drop reanimation targets, but you could just as easily use it to filter excess land to pick up later with Sun Titan/Sevinne's Reclamation/Crucible of Worlds.

[SocorroTortoise]

Second time I've heard this come up today - do you have any play history with the card? I'd love to hear whether it's worth running.

I've seen it used to great effect with Land Tax in the past through nothing beyond discarding to hand size. I'm not a big fan of running that kind of small two card combo and Birth is frequently a dead card outside of that scenario unless you're discarding in other ways, so I've shied away from it. If you can reliably get 2-3 basics off of it that's already a great return, especially because basic lands in the yard are a relatively uncommon thing at most tables I've played at and it's likely to be asymmetrical. I do try and keep it in mind when I'm building because it feels like it has a lot of potential if you find the niche where it fits well.

You can also use it in conjunction with Armageddon to build your own Ruination if your group rolls that way. Lotus Field is also making me want to revisit it. Previous versions of that effect have left you very vulnerable to Strip Mine and friends so I'm interested in trying out the one that mitigates that weakness.

[toctheyounger]

Second time I've heard this come up today - do you have any play history with the card? I'd love to hear whether it's worth running.

I've seen it used to great effect with Land Tax in the past through nothing beyond discarding to hand size. I'm not a big fan of running that kind of small two card combo and Birth is frequently a dead card outside of that scenario unless you're discarding in other ways, so I've shied away from it. If you can reliably get 2-3 basics off of it that's already a great return, especially because basic lands in the yard are a relatively uncommon thing at most tables I've played at and it's likely to be asymmetrical. I do try and keep it in mind when I'm building because it feels like it has a lot of potential if you find the niche where it fits well.

You can also use it in conjunction with Armageddon to build your own Ruination if your group rolls that way. Lotus Field is also making me want to revisit it. Previous versions of that effect have left you very vulnerable to Strip Mine and friends so I'm interested in trying out the one that mitigates that weakness.

Oh yeah, this definitely wouldn't be in a MLD context. It was suggested for a Varina build I have which does a fair bit of looting and reanimation, and often I will turf lands in favour of answer cards, knowing that I can turn them into zombies. But having the ability to pull them all back to play cheaply could be helpful.

[darrenhabib]

I agree with almost all of these...

... but is Hazoret's Monument/Gate to the Afterlife really worth running in monowhite? How many loots do you need to get for it to be worth 3 mana?

Depends on the build. If you are running a weenie deck then the rapid filter effect is realistically stronger than Mentor of the Meek simple due to not having to invest mana. Not having to spend mana on a filter effect is extremely underrated by players.
Sure you don't get the front half of cost reduction, but if you cast 5 small creatures in a turn, and are able to discard lands, then it's putting you 5 turns ahead of regular top decks, which can be an entire mid to late games worth of draws.

Gate to the Afterlife obviously would be better in a deck that uses God-Pharaoh's Gift to great effect. You need a creature heavy deck with probably sacrifice creatures for value as well. It's going to be a pretty specific deck I'd imagine, but one that I can already conceptualize working.

Boreas Charger, Oreskos Explorer, Pilgrim's Eye, Skittering Surveyor, Weathered Wayfarer are obvious creatures for these cards.

[darrenhabib]

If you're already looting or otherwise discarding, Planar Birth is pretty cute.

Second time I've heard this come up today - do you have any play history with the card? I'd love to hear whether it's worth running.

I had a deck that I built around Necrologia and Confessor. The idea was to cast Necrologia with Confessor in play and just spend all your life total, as you'd get it back straight away discarding in your discard phase. You'd discard a bunch of basic lands, and then one play I'd use is Planar Birth to bring all the lands I'd discarded into play (getting like 10 of them on average).
This was a 60 card constructed deck back when Odyssey was released however, so not commander related at all.

[toctheyounger]

If you're already looting or otherwise discarding, Planar Birth is pretty cute.

Second time I've heard this come up today - do you have any play history with the card? I'd love to hear whether it's worth running.

I had a deck that I built around Necrologia and Confessor. The idea was to cast Necrologia with Confessor in play and just spend all your life total, as you'd get it back straight away discarding in your discard phase. You'd discard a bunch of basic lands, and then one play I'd use is Planar Birth to bring all the lands I'd discarded into play (getting like 10 of them on average).
This was a 60 card constructed deck back when Odyssey was released however, so not commander related at all.

Yeah, it could be good. Or it could be way too niche. One of the guys following my Varina is going to playtest it, so I think I'll wait for feedback before jumping to any rapid additions.

[Toshi]

My top 3 suggestions would be:

Deal Broker
Geier Reach Sanitarium
Solitary Confinement

The first two are solid, yet not amazing, but i'm sure, if unchecked they'll help you spiral out of control.
Solitary Confinement can draw some hate, but in the right meta it's game winning if you're able to hold a full grip.

[weltkrieg]

Actually, while I usually do have a hand full of lands in mageta, which allows me to pitch creatures to reanimate with emeria (or other means), the best things I have found to do with them are empyrial plate and empyrial armor to allow a general to swing for quite lethal in a turn or two.

Ghirapur orrery and playing those lands faster than your opponents ( or more consistently) has proven to be an interesting thing. Yes, I know that green players benefit quicker, but if you're taxing them with a land tax or similar, you catch up in a hurry. Balance effects go a long way towards making the land tax effect nasty, too.

If you really want to run teferi's puzzlebox, might as well run psychosis crawler. Kiyomaro, first to stand might be an option, too.

Presence of the wise or gerrard's wisdom gain life for cards in hand. That lifegain can be used for other options (like more card draw primarily).

It's not white specific, but anvil of bogardan gives you an unconditional looting effect. Granted, your opponents will get to use it first, but if you're like myself of toc, reanimator is a thing that white does. Scaretiller is a card coming out from the new commander release. I know a lot of folks think it's not great, but you can put the land into play after discarding it to something like looter scooter, errr smuggler's copter.


With regards to the previously mentioned looting effects, I understand that mono white akroma might not be something you want to use these guys in. However, in the right deck, they are flat busted. The new oketra comes to mind as an example of where repeated looting is a good thing, and if you're casting whitemane lion or similar, looting away lands becomes pretty nasty and a good way to draw cards. Eventually, that planar birth starts to look pretty good with all the lands in your hand that you're going through quickly.


Long story short, the extra lands are most often used for effects, whether it is something like looting (the most common effect) or making your general very lethal (I mentioned the two best ways) to spellshapers to enchantments that discard cards (to the top of your library) for effects to retrace ( I think only cenn's enlistment, but not the worst card ever).

There are tons of ways to make use of the extra cards in hand. Good luck!

[Sinis]

Have we talked about just having a big hand? Empyrial Plate and Empyrial Armor is kinda cute. Kiyomaro, First to Stand as well?

[TheMagicWord]

yep the post above talks about that lol.
I know its not mono-white but i slotted Heartwarming Redemption into firesong and sunspeaker. Yet to draw it though..