Glowing Ranks: White Legends

It's Thor's Day, and we're back continuing to sort out these mono-colored power rankings.

In case you've forgotten, here's what we've done so far.
Green Commanders
Red Commanders
Blue Commanders

Time to Rank!

Honorable Mentions

Jareth, Leonine Titan

Jareth is a cool card, and often a handful to deal with.

As part of the Onslaught cycle of Pit Champions, the easiest comparison to make is to Silvos- and that's one where it's probably not even close. Whereas Silvos can roll downhill with a lot of power and little regards for itself, a longer game is always going to favor Jareth.

A common theme among the White Legends, as you'll see, is granting color protection, and generally being defensive. While we haven't even begun to break into the Top 5, we're already seeing that White's defensive tactics are how they generate offense.

With a combination of Righteousness and color protection at activated ability speed, a Vigilant Jareth is adept at chunking away Commander damage while staunchly defending your life total. The ability to untap and get protection from multiple colors at instant speed typically means that short of a Wrath, or holding up a Duplicant, the 6-mana that gets invested in casting Jareth is going to be mana well sunk. He draws a lot of answers, so if you pace yourself well, many of your better cards can slip under the radar.

Darien, King of Kjeldor

The Coldsnap Royalty doesn't crack the Top 5, but his presence should be noted, due in part to his uniqueness among white-colored brethren.

Darien is where everything I've said about the better White Legends- Defense is offense, blah blah blah- goes to die. The truth is that the best way to defend is to let the damage happen.

Since his ability is going to turn players away from attacking, Darien decks are uniquely suited for some of the format's mana that typically goes in multi-colored decks. City of Brass, Tarnished Citadel, and even Ancient Tomb are nice ways to crank out small armies.

When used in conjunction with the Soul Sisters, the loss is basically moot. You'll take damage, get a dude, and get it back.

Generally, this is a great strategy. However, there is a reason he didn't make it any further in my Power Ranks, and the answer is as easy as Doom Blade. The deck relies so much on Darien and really wide combat zones that answering the deck is as easy as any removal spell in the format. Or if you want to be particularly vindictive, waiting to Wrath until after you've let the player ping his or herself to death.

5. Cho-Manno, Revolutionary

Cho-Manno is a Rebel, and the deck designed around him has a cause: Defensive Voltron Combo.

Pariah, Pariah's Shield, and Entangler are all extremely accessible cards which combine to create a damage-free board state.

There are a couple reasons Cho-Mo got the nod over one of these other decks. The first is that this combo, without budget restriction, is more tutorable and protectable than ever before. The addition of Heliod's Pilgrim and Plea for Guidance to the plethora of Equipment and Enchantment tutors on the market only means that you'll be able to find a piece of your combo every time.

Another reason is that Cho-Manno doesn't have to be the creature that eats everything up, leaving the door open for Auratouched Mage and Boonweaver Giant to help dig these cards out of your library. Hundred-Handed One and Pallisade Giant are also sweet cards that can support their Rebel leader in this way too.

On top of that, the best cards in the deck are extremely recurrable. Replenish, Retether, Nomad Mythmaker, and even Auramancer are all playable, and force your opponent to have to be opportunistic with how they get damage in.

The inherent weakness of this deck is that you have to dedicate some amount of resources to doing your own set of damage. The upside is that it's entirely possible, the longer you draw the game out. At some point, your opponent, if they're not playing with a removal engine, is going to do so.

While I've practically built the deck for you, there's still plenty to consider. And if you run with this idea, be sure to send me your list.

4. Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant

On a Stack episode a while back, we talked about how the Kamigawa flip legends have taken major slides back due to the imposition of indestructible Gods.

That said, I believe Rune-y can still stick around. With a handful of cards that can protect permanents, not just creatures, and a few cards that make Enchantments untargetable, there's still plenty of shade for him and his Essence to thrive in a more competitive metagame.

Additionally, the value that R-T's Essence provided is enough incentive to continue to build decks around it. Eating all of the damage will take some key cards out of your opponent's hands while forcing them to use their better answers.

As far as I can tell, this deck can still go strong, as long as it's been adapted to the newer landscape.

3. Kemba, Kha Regent

As we get closer to the top, the big theme you'll see is that these decks are good defensively as they are on offense.

Kemba is the beginning of this trend. As Voltron was a strategy before the Kha Regent was a Commander, assembling a deck racing to 21 was always going to be an easy task.

With the addition of 2/2 kitty value, the Kemba deck is really set for offense and defense short of an Overrun.

Overall, she's poised to make a threat out of either turning sideways with Swords or acting as a diet version of Rhys the Redeemed. Definitely one of the better offense-based decks in the white color pie.

2. Lin Sivvi

Like Cho-Manno, Lin Sivvi is a deck trying to play grindy defense and protect your life total. Aside from that, these decks couldn't be further apart.

Lin Sivvi is a very grindy deck whose aim is to challenge the length of the game. Acting as the centerpiece to all the action, Lin Sivvi can call on a handful of Toolbox players to chump, dump and recycle.

I play this deck, and I've said before it plays a lot like the Glissa T's Control Engines, because you can remove and Wrath your way out of most of the problems.

However, there are some iterations of this deck aiming to create infinite life-gain loops. Either way, there is a lot of defending that happens with this deck.

Still, if you can get into the super-late game, the power of this deck is going to be pretty immense. Smaller combos, like Phyrexian Processor and Children of Korlis, are bound to create some big tokens to smash with, while Mirror Entity often shows just how much damage he and a couple friends can do with the 13 or 14 mana you've probably accumulated by then. With Lin Sivvi, the offense is late, but often a 1 or 2 turn clock.

1. Eight-and-a-Half-Tails

At the top we find "almost Ninetales," and the reasons are obvious if you've ever played or played against it.

Though a very small little Fox Cleric, Eight and a Half Tails offers up one of the most unique little combination of abilities you'll ever see on one card. I love being able to interact on the stack, so to have the power of targeting a card as a spell sitting on the stack is extremely powerful- especially for 2W, and especially in white.

Again, Tails offers up a powerful ability that can be used to get damage through or put up the pillowfort. Though a lowly 2/2, Tails is probably not going to win with Commander damage, but I've seen it happen with access to a couple of pro-white Swords or enchantments.

Like Lin Sivvi, and even Jareth, their ability to "sink mana" can effectively be used to solidify and protect your board state, which is the commonality among successful mono-White EDH.

Pass Turn.
-UL