Super Secret Sunday #1: Why White?

Welcome back youngsters. It's your old Grandpa Growth here to bring you a new weekly segment where I share some underplayed cards, under the radar strategies, some very under-thought thoughts. This is not a list of the pillars of the format. We are down in the bottom of the bargain boxes here searching for the unsung gems that should really be in your starting 99. Today I'll share 10 all star cards that many people don't consider for Commander.

In this installment: WHITE!

So why is White good? Because of everything that it gets. So...what is White? If you ask me, everything.

White is the most egregious offender of color pie boundaries. White has cheap aggressive threats like Isamaru, truly over-powered mid-range brawlers like Mirran Crusader and Baneslayer, and game-ending curve-toppers that love to give your opponent the feel-bads (I heard you like hyphens). White has the ability to answer every type of permanent and is home of the premier removal in the format. If you like card advantage, there are plenty of opportunities to get it in this color. White's planeswalkers are among the best. It has ways to search out lands, dig things out of the bin, and tons of cheap cards to disrupt your opponents. It even has two pretty decent counterspells. In fact, that is a good place to start.

Most people look at this unassuming common and are not impressed. It doesn't even permanently deal with the card you are countering. I'll let you in on a little secret: Lapse is crazy good. Just like Memory Lapse. The key is to get out to a fast start and use this to slow down your opponent's reaction. Any time you are ahead this card is just insane, it usually turns into a time warp. They play a huge blocker to stop your threat? Put them on hold while you continue to smash for another turn. Remember, this is always a 1-for-1, you trade this card for their next drawstep and probably a whole bunch of their mana. The greatest part about this card is the surprise value. Most people don't expect counterspells from White. Even if they  know you play this card, it is still so difficult to play around because it comes up infrequently in a singleton format.


This is just the color shifted version of Force Spike. Most people get down on this card because paying an extra one mana for your spell in a format where you usually hit your 8th land drop on time doesn't seem too tough. The way I explain this to my newer players is with a question: When do you stop tapping out?  Turns out that you really never do. Even when games go long there is still a big incentive to use your mana efficiently. Two important considerations here. First, it always stops threats on curve. Second, soft counters (counters that allow a choice, like an extra mana payment) are excellent against opposing counterspells. Players typically sequence their turns either to tap out for a card on-curve or to wait until they can leave enough mana open to protect their plan. Rarely will they leave up more mana than they actually need for their own counterspell or removal spell though. Cards like Daze really shine here because it's tough to see it coming unless you know about it ahead of time. Mana Tithe is nearly impossible to telegraph. Give it a try when you see your opponent leave four islands untapped. Just go ahead and give them the business. It is really embarrassing to get your Cryptic Command shredded by some jerk with Plains.

Let's talk disruption. Much of the hate you find on White cards is conveniently attached to a body. Which is always a nice bonus. Linvala is a criminally underplayed midrange hate card. It shuts off mana producing creatures and looters which will substantially slow down your opponent's game plan. Late in the game you will be hosing all sorts of stuff. Including the great Grisly Bizzly. She is cheap enough that can put her down early or you won't have to tap out if you draw her later in the game. It is also tough to beat the stats on this girl. 4 for a 3/4 flier is a decent deal, but not so big that she will make you a huge target. For extra action suit her up with your favorite equipment and she becomes a respectable clock.





Take a look at this card. I realize that this card is going pretty deep into Magic history and I know that things were different back then. Even in the wild west days of card design this was pretty far out. "Pinging" (tap to do 1 damage) use to be a Blue ability, not a red one. Returning creatures to a player's hand was and remains Blue. So what is this spicy number doing in White? Who knows, but you should be playing it. This card is just so annoying to play against. It grinds creature decks to a halt and if they have nothing for you to bounce you can start getting them with her damage ability.

The major downside here is that this is just such a fragile body for the cost. I wouldn't want things to be too easy though. I have a feeling if something like this got printed today it'd be mythic and like a 2/4 or something silly.


Now for some hot mana fixing and card advantage or as my partner in crime Uncle Landdrops likes to call it: Land Gets. Both of the cards I am going to mention here work best on the draw, when you opponent will almost always have more lands than you (before you make your land drop for the turn). Unlike the more permanent analogues such as Land Tax, these cards give you immediate card advantage and can search out any Plains card, not just basic lands. So go for those dual lands early and often. Tithe in particular is a great in multicolor brews like UW because it allows to you leave up early counter magic. If they don't do anything worth stopping, just fetch out your next couple lands.



 

These are great budget options to substitute for the Tax and help provide functionally equivalent copies to add consistency and redundancy to your deck. I have an old saying that I like to use for cards like this: Sometimes, even the worst version of a card is still pretty good. Gift only works if you are behind a land and is a one shot, sorcery speed effect, but it gets the job done. For a multiplayer friendly version of the Land Tax mechanic check out: Oath of Lieges.









If you have a solid White deck, then it is packed to the top with high quality removal. Here's a piece that goes overlooked too often: Prison Term. Unconditional creature removal? Check. Does it stop activated abilities? Check. Well what if you blow it too early and then they play a better threat? Check.
Unlike Fiend Hunter they don't even get their threat back if they sweep the board. Awesome. Do you like bonus value? Sun Titan can bring this back into play on your attack step. No blocks for you, chump! The Term is a serious work horse in my mono White 8.5 Tails deck. It also fits right in with Bruna and Zur.






Maybe you like your removal to be of the instant speed variety. I can dig that. It never kills utility guys.... And it isn't so hot against tokens, but it sure punishes voltron style decks and players who like to build their decks threat-light. The best part about this is how sexy it gets in combo with other removal spells. True (anti) beatdowns.
This card just straight wins races. It isn't too tough to get 3 or 4 copies. So much card advantage, so much tempo. It even has a picture of an owl machine gunning down their squad with its feathers. I don't know what else you can really ask for.







Here we are back on the theme of  redundancy. Tutors help add consistency to your decklist. This lets you see your most powerful cards more often. Having more ways to tutor means that you can more reliably get to those powerful cards. The smith here does a pretty good impression of Godo. And he let's you GODO (get out, destroy opponent) with your favorite equipment. This guy is no Stoneforge, but remember the lesson from above. Sometimes....even the worst version of card, ya know?

Swordsmith is also a kitty cat, so he is a flavorful addition to many mono-white cat themed decks...which I find to be very silly, but are way more popular than I would like to admit.






Beacon of immortality is unbeatable for some decks. Are you worried about being Charbelched to death? Did you get owned by a Magister Sphinx? When you resolve this against decks with weak generals they suddenly have only a few ways to win. It gives you all of the raw power of Boon Reflection, but at instant speed.

The  weaknesses of this card are severe however. It doesn't interact well with planeswalkers. Who cares about your life total if they blow up your lands? Or maybe they exile your library. What if you are in the mono-cats mirror match and they just charge up their general with shiny white P DUBs. The various combo decks pretty much don't care at all about this card. Blue decks have all the tools to quash it, but it's even worse if they let it resolve. Then you know it isn't going to stop their plan and you have just wasted a card.

The Most Important Thing to Remember: Don't let them Mindslaver you with this in your hand.


Thanks for listening youngins'. Hope you found a new toy or two to play with the next time you brew fat stacks. Come back next weekend for some more Super Secret Tech and thanks for reading.

It's time for some Old El Paso (the turn-o).