Enlightened Tutor—Synergies in Mono-White
I began playing Commander in 2018, around the time that Dominaria was released. White has received a lot of new tools for Commander since then, but I’m a firm believer that the most successful mono-white decks blend powerful new staples with tried and true synergies in order to achieve cohesive end results.
This style of deck-building has allowed me to craft a number of competent mono-white decks that can hold their own in Commander tables from very casual all the way up to cEDH. The perception that mono-white is the weakest color identity in Commander can make playing it feel inaccessible for new players or those accustomed to playing other colors. This sentiment is one that I’d like to see change.
While powerful cards from recent years such as Smothering Tithe, Ranger-Captain of Eos, and Drannith Magistrate are likely to pull their own weight without much help, there are plenty of ways to squeeze even more value out of many popular staples new and old. In this article, I’m going to showcase some of the coolest white cards in recent memory and the best ways to get the most bang for your buck out of them through the use of creative deck-building and powerful synergies.
Author’s note: I tend to build my decks so that the majority of the cards in them work well in a variety of situations due to mono-white’s more restricted card advantage. This keeps me from running into as many dead draws over the course of the game. I encourage you to play what you like and try to find your own cool synergies when you’re building mono-white.
While it hasn’t caught on much, Cosmic Intervention was sneakily one of white’s most versatile board wipe protection spells to date. It allows you to recover from a variety of different types of sweepers, as long as they’d normally send your permanents to the graveyard. You can foretell this card early and be ready for almost anything. The replacement effect even allows you to dodge cards such as Dauthi Voidwalker and Tergrid, God of Fright and get your stuff back safely at the end step.
It turns out that there are a variety of different cards that allow you to capitalize on this while also protecting yourself from an inevitable sweeper. Fetchlands such as Prismatic Vista can be used up to 3 times while Cosmic Intervention is active! You can sacrifice Aura of Silence in response to a removal spell and get it back to continue to tax opponents! You could even evoke Solitude in order to get double the value out of it while also having it stick around afterwards as a body with lifelink. These are just a few of the things that you can do with Cosmic Intervention.
Esper Sentinel is an impressive card design that really feels like a turning point for card draw in white. For just a single white mana, you can have a creature that will consistently levy a tax on opponents throughout the game. The choice is simple: either they pay the mana when casting a noncreature spell or you draw a card. This guy can become a real nuisance over the course of a game and draw you a ton of cards.
The easiest way to make sure that you draw cards even into the late game is to boost Esper Sentinel’s power. This can be done a variety of different ways. One of my favorites is using Heliod, Sun-Crowned to put +1/+1 counters on him in order to make it harder for opponents to pay. You can also leverage tax effects such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in order to force your opponents to make difficult choices. Since Esper Sentinel is likely to become a target for removal, being able to protect him is also important. Mother of Runes and a whole entourage of similar creatures are more than up to the task.
I enjoy having the option to pay mana to upgrade something over time, so I’m pretty high on Paladin Class. It genuinely feels like each ability on the card is worth the price of admission. You may cast it and never level it up, or you may wind up grinding it all the way to to level 3 over the course of the game. Being able to decide your level of investment is a design space that I’m always happy to see on white cards.
If you’re playing a combo finisher such as Walking Ballista, the level 2 ability on Paladin Class can actually help you defer some of the cost of getting the combo out there in addition to level 1 helping protect you from interaction! If you’re playing equipment, you might enjoy the double strike that level 3 gives you alongside staples such as Sword of Fire and Ice. Commanders such as Adeline, Resplendent Cathar will also benefit greatly from both the level 2 and level 3 abilities on this enchantment.
While the channel lands got plenty of attention, most other cards in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that had the ability were unfortunately overlooked. Touch the Spirit Realm is such an interesting design, because you can cast it as a removal spell or you can use it to put a delayed flicker on an artifact or enchantment with its channel ability. This can be hard to deal with, since you’re not casting a spell.
In addition to putting a problematic artifact or enchantment on ice, Touch the Spirit Realm can also be used to flicker your own creatures to reuse their enters-the-battlefield abilities. You can even flicker Skyclave Apparition in response to the exile ability, in order to double up and not even give your opponent the Illusion from the first thing that you exile! Since you’re not casting a spell, this channel ability also plays nicely with cards such as Archon of Emeria. If you’d like the option of reusing it, you can even retrieve it again with Hall of Heliod’s Generosity.
Another recent card that feels sneaky good is Rumor Gatherer. This unassuming elf can provide you with a ton of card selection in the right deck. It doesn’t feel like this card has received much attention in comparison to some of the other recent card draw creatures in white, but this has quickly become one of my favorite cards in casual Commander since its release. If your deck typically has multiple creatures entering the battlefield during your turns, Rumor Gatherer can probably be a huge boon.
The value of the scry ability on its own can’t be overstated, as white can often struggle to draw cards without meeting specific requirements. Scrying whenever a creature enters the battlefield helps make sure that your draws are more impactful. You can use Defiler of Faith to reduce casting costs and help you get in more scrying, allowing you to dig pretty deep. I’m a huge fan of Scroll Rack in mono-white decks, so this can be another good way to remove unwanted cards from the top of your library to refresh the possibilities with this card. I also enjoy playing her alongside Mentor of the Meek to gain knowledge about the top of my library before I spend mana to draw cards.
As it happens, Archivist of Oghma and Deep Gnome Terramancer were both in the same set and both of them tend to play really well with a lot of the same cards. One of the most common reasons for opponents to search libraries is to put lands onto the battlefield. This can trigger both of these cards, so you’ll find plenty of synergies that benefit each of these creatures to possibly draw you extra cards or help you get extra lands into play.
Path to Exile is already a white staple, so you can force a difficult choice if you cast it on an opponent’s creature. They can decline to get a land, or you can benefit as well. Winds of Abandon overloaded can be a brutal play that can usually draw you a card for each opponent with Archivist of Oghma, even though it Deep Gnome Terramancer will only trigger once. While I’m not the biggest fan of giving my opponents resources, you can play a little political game with your opponents using Scholarship Sponsor to fight back against a green lands deck that’s going out of control while you get some bonuses.
Serra Paragon is a new type of white reanimation, allowing you to cast spells with mana value 3 or less or play lands out of your graveyard. This is comparable to some other cards from white’s past such as Sun Titan or Sevinne’s Reclamation. Of course, the cards that you play from your graveyard will get exiled if they go back. This is an interesting restriction that makes this card feel very well-balanced.
Since you can play lands from your graveyard, Serra Paragon instantly makes cards such as fetchlands or Strip Mine feel more impactful since you can use them again and feel more secure about hitting your land drops. Since the exile ability uses the stack, you can also respond with Brought Back to reanimate things before the trigger resolves. You’ll still gain the 2 life as that isn’t dependent on the card actually being exiled! Cards with flash such as Cathar Commando can even be cast again out of your graveyard in response to the trigger on the stack. This makes for a repeatable removal spell for artifacts and enchantments each turn.
Celestine, the Living Saint offers a unique take on a mono-white life gain deck, allowing you reanimate a creature at your end step based on how much life you’ve gained. This is a cool design space that I’m hoping to see explored in future cards, especially as white continues to see more forays into reanimation over time. Gaining life in Commander usually needs to accomplish a goal, which is something that Celestine does well.
A card like Cleric Class can excel alongside this commander, offering 3 valuable and synergetic abilities that you can access over the course of the game. You’ll likely see a lot of benefit from this card if you’re focused on gaining life, making it one of the first additions that I’d add if I was building this commander. While I’m generally loathe to recommend Reserved List cards, Peacekeeper is one of the more reasonably priced examples and can be used to keep opponents from attacking while you recur it during the end step. Loyal Retainers is another old card that will thankfully be reprinted soon, offering an excellent and repeatable way to bring back your commander if she dies.
While there are plenty of other cool mono-white cards to be found, this list has some of my favorites. I’ll look forward to revisiting this subject in the future, as well as exploring similar concepts for other colors. I encourage you to look for your own creative synergies while playing mono-white or any other color identity. You’ll be surprised how much more smoothly your Commander deck can run just by baking in a few interesting interactions with your favorite cards. Until next time…wait!
While it’s not a new card by any stretch, I would be remiss to not mention that very few mono-white decks are running the excellent Containment Priest! There are so many super fair white decks out there that aren’t heavily invested in flickering or reanimating things, but this remains an incredibly powerful strategy for decks in all colors. If you’re frequently frustrated by decks like this, maybe you should consider this wonderful little silver bullet for your own deck. You’ll be surprised how many things she stops.
Okay, I mean it this time. I’m not flashing in any more last minute recommendations. I’m hoping to see white continue to grow and gain access to new tools that play well in Commander. If you’ve never given mono-white a shot before because you heard that it was weak or didn’t have exciting cards, I hope that this article has offered you some inspiration. No matter what color identity you’re playing, you’ll find that focusing on synergistic inclusions can really push your powerful staples over the top.
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Author’s note: I always want to hear about your mono-white decks. Feel free to hit me up on my own personal Twitter if you want to talk about cool new white cards or your favorite white Commander decks!
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