How to Play WHITE w/ Rachel Weeks | The Command Zone 546 | MTG Commander 

White mages! What’s your favorite thing about playing white? Did we miss any of the color’s pitfalls? What’s your favorite tech to shore up those weaknesses and pilot your white decks to victory?

can’t wait for Mono Blue With Josh And All The Value

More Rachel please. Hiring her is the best thing you guys have done recently.

As someone who almost always plays mono-white, this is a video tailor made for my kind. :)

Loving Rachel as a host*. As informative as a Uni course, and as welcoming a my sweetest homeroom teacher.

Dont sleep on Lotus Field! It sets up both knight of the white orchid and Sevinnes reclamation. You can also combo it with flagstones of trokair. The chance is minimal, but so is the opportunity cost. If your playgroup is casual enough you could even add lotus vale.

I think White has more stack interaction than you are thinking of. When your creatures are trying to be targeted. You can give your creature protection, indestructible, flicker/clowdshift, shield counters, or phasing.

Rachel is such a treasure to this channel. I find myself seeking out videos with her, and binging that content. I know she's been here a while now, but I still find her to be a refreshing addition to the Command Zone.

I was honestly thinking about building my first mono white deck (Teshar), so the timing on this video is perfect!

As a guy who lives for Boros, I enjoy getting tricky for ramp. I'll use Lotus Field to keep my land count down, and copy it with Thespian's Stage. I usually get it with the Weathered Wayfarer.

Awesome video. A card that wasn´t mentioned is Reconnaissance, such a powerhouse, full control on combat for just 1 W

Love these videos! Can't wait to see Josh cover how to play blue

Red is Mike Tyson, White is Floyd Mayweather.

I have always been the White player in my group. Nice to see the love for White, and Rachel always plays a great deck. Been getting into Commander over the last year, and its great to have Command Zone for these kinds of videos.

Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes!!! Two of the most amazing and frustrating protection tools in almost all my white decks.

20:02 Replenish; Bring back all your enchantments from your gv to bf. 23:13 Reprieve, Aven Interrupter, lapse of Certainty, Mana tithe, rebuff the wicked, Illumination, Robe of stars+Grand Abolisher! warping wail/Null Elemental blast(colourless but still) *Archaeomancer's map puts down any land from your hand. Ect ect so many good cards Hail White Mages!

Search for Glory is a lovely build a round card.

This video could not have come up at a better time. I was just thinking I wanted to build another white deck, decided on Lulu, and learned more here about how to approach deck design. Thanks!

My white ramp if I get Weathered Wayfarer in my opening hand: Flagstones of Trokair Lotus field (sacking flagstones +1) Thespians stage (copy lotus field) Slow rolling but efficient, also leaves you on less lands so your catch-up mechanics still kick in.

On this episode of The Command Zone: we all wish Teferi's Protection was an affordable card.

People like to meme on mono white, but my God-Eternal Oketra deck is one of my favorites and it's pretty strong

I was hoping the team would continue making this type of content. Really liked it and I learned a lot. Can't wait to see the next one.

Just loved this one!! I hope to see Ladee with Black and Josh with Blue.

Ahhh perfect. I’m in the works of brewing up a “Frodo, Determine Hero” deck!

The new Moonshaker Cavalry is an excellent overrun style win con for white. Seems like WotC heard yall's plea for more finishers!

I play very combat focused decks and some are very aggro. I struggle to understand when people get upset because my aggro deck, which often loses to spot removal or board wipes, wins through damage therefore it is "too strong". I appreciate Jimmy saying something about how Rachel wins in a very honest way and sometimes she just runs people over with damage. This is exactly how I describe my aggro decks, they win in a very fair way and you will see it on the board before it hits you.

Loved this video!! I can’t wait for other colors. I think I would of liked to see a notable commanders section to really cement the philosophy for deck building. Great Vid though!!

Thank you for these types of vids. Very appreciated! Love the channel. Quality productions. Highfive yall

My first (actually mono white deck) is bennie bracks. Before that it was mono white cats tribal. But now I use other cards that actually help me in the long game and recurring creatures that have better affects. It wins more games then it should and I love it

I was so happy to see a Mono white deep dive with Rachel, Mono white commander is my favorite. If I had to pick a combo with white, It's be blue. Card draw + protection / recursion is great. Awesome video, thanks Command Zone Team :) Edit: Love my Odric, all the keywords!

So much of white card draw cares about creatures entering the battlefield. For this reason I play whitemane lion. If you love it you can also play kor skyfisher. Its worse for durdling, but its a 2/3 flyer for 2, and thats pretty sweet.

I just started a giada font of hope deck, this is perfect

This is a great video! Keep doing stuff like this. You guys are great 👍🏻

What once was the joke of the format has turned into arguably the best secondary color other than maybe green. Protection spells, board wipes, removal, recursion. White has even gotten decent at ramp & card draw in recent years. Never thought I'd say this, but right now White is the color I play the most.

wow thank you The Command Zone and Rachel Great information, Filled in a lot of blanks and uncertainty

One of my pet decks for a couple years now has been God Eternal Oketra because the tokens she creates helps give the reach needed to close the game. Now it's a legitimately threatening deck with the slow injection of great white creatures 😊

PREACHER!! I remember around the timr Ice Age came out the LGS owner made a preacher deck, and it was amazing

My first deck was mono white back in 10th edition, ive made close to 80 different mono white decks since then. Mono white has the most value enchants. As far as ramp it has the second most get a land every turn cards in the game.

Rachel love your work. Have to agree that white is a much more nuanced colour to play.

One card I don’t see people using a lot is Remote Farm. It comes in tapped and taps for 2 white for 3 times but can be added to with proliferate

Did you entirely forget Life Gain? Battle Counters that or Fog types.... Settle The Wreckage, Holy Day, Selfless Squire, etc.

What a great and helpful video! Y'all are the best! :]

Not sure why everyone hates on white ramp. It is the second best after green at land ramp and has been strong for years, the comment should be it isn't cheap to do so. With catch up ramp you can go "down" lands with guildless common, karoo, lotus field, lotus vale, scorched ruins, etc. When sacrificing lands with the above or when using fetches or similar effects can return them with brought back, second sunrise, faith reward, sun titan, sevinne reclamation, Cosmic intervention, planar birth. It is perceived not as good since you need to work at it and it is just not given to you like a cultivate does, but can be more powerful than those cards when done right as a lot of the cards have versatility to use elsewhere in game.

Great topic and deep analysis, thanks !

I am happy your going over colors again

My absolute favorite white card atm, and one that I’m shocked isn’t more widely discussed, is an enchantment called Rabble Rousing, from Streets of New Capenna. For five mana, it makes a 1/1 citizen whenever a creature you control attacks. So many free tokens every turn, and on top of that it comes with a hideaway, so you get a free spell when you control 10 or more creatures. I’ve won so many games I absolutely should not have won because of that card haha

Recently I've built a Shu-Yun deck, leaning real hard into the Spellslinger / Buff aspect of it, and I have to say that White does have a good chunk of one-off combat tricks which is a good way to incur value off of cast triggers, prowess, etc. Though it's real rough, because I don't think there are ways to recur instants and sorceries from the grave in Mono-White.

I enjoyed this ep much more then some other lately

all my commander decks have white in it. best color in magic.

Killing Gideon and Completing Ajani are the biggest kick in the teeth for me, at least they gave me Elspeth back so that’s something 😔

My favourite azorius commander has always been Bruna, Light of Alabaster. Really good with cards like Corrupted Conscience, Aqueous Form, Diplomatic Immunity, Gift of Immortality, Entangler, Holy Mantle, Spectra Ward, and lots of Umbras. Throw in cards like All That Glitters and Sage's Reverie for good measure, with equipments like Lightning Greaves, Inquisitor's Flail. Wins every time, 50% of the time

So when I first started playing, my friends played with mono colored decks, this was how we would split boxes and draft, My color because I was the last to start playing was White...I will say as someone that grew up with White, learning to play magic and winning esp in multiplayer, takes some time, teaches you patience and when to take advantage. Grind out the win by making good choices and not giving up until that last life is gone, and even when you do run out of life lol

I didn’t hear you mention a favorite card of mine, Stonehewer Giant! He’s like, an XL Stoneforge Mystic that doesn’t need to be blinked to continue to get value!

White was the most overpowered color in my school lunch playgroup in the 90's. Armageddon, Land Tax n such.

Was surprised not to see life gain as something white does well. Love playing white lifegain decks. Lots of soul sister effects

I love playing white. My favorite deck is my Mono White Preston deck. I leaned into "What does White do well?" You called it "Recursion" and I choose to call it "Reuse Resources." Since white is good at bringing cards that have powerful etbs from the graveyard back, and flickering them, I end up reusing the same resources over and over. And pair that with the influx of "bad" 3 mana "etb draw a card" (like Priest of Ancient Lore) or the really good Spirited Companion (aka DOGGO!), white has a LOT of good value over time synergies. My Preston deck has the capability to keep a lot of threats at bay and gain a lot of value.

Cut a deal is an excellent acceleration piece. You can catch up with the table as well.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Harmonious Archon + Finale of Glory is my favorite white win con. Especially after a recent late game board wipe

I put Secure the Wastes in my Najeela warrior tribal deck and it is *extra* scary having the insta-board with Najeela and all the other warrior synergies.

White is my dominant color. I can’t do mono decks. But all of my decks are primarily white. I’m very partial to angels and I really wish they could be viable 😢

Thanks i am building a myrel mono white deck so this is great

Got Preston and Light-Paws monowhite decks. Very fun

Great summary of white! My only grievance is the lack of a mention of Tragic Arrogance - top tier board wipe right up there with Farewell!

Rachel gave a great description of white, a color I had a hard time defining

I have Teferi's Protection, Clever Concealment, Make a Stand, Rootborn Defenses (Works well cause it's a token deck and this also gives Populate), and Unbreakable Formation in my Azorius (White really just a splash of Blue) deck. That's just the instants for board protection HAHA but seeing as my creature board state is responsible for my win cons I figure always having a way to protect them is highly important. I remember when I got Teferi's Protection in the mail, the sender had written on some paper inside the envelope "Remember, this doesn't protect you from mill!!", HAHA. I definitely took out things like Aura of Silence though. I've kept my pillowfort spells like Ghostly Prison, Norn's Annex and Propaganda, Windborn Muse, Baird, and so on. But things like Aura of Silence, Archon of Emeria, Vow of Silence, and so forth just make you the ENEMY NUMBER 1 of the table immediately. I kept noticing that suddenly EVERYONE, no matter how scary someone else's deck was or how powerful the other person's commander is, would all gang up on me and frankly...it made playing those cards VERY unfun. Powerful cards yes, but not worth the attention they draw in my opinion. They could probably be played more tactically if you're really in the right situation and can take advantage of the board's weakness or IDK maybe if there are only 1 or 2 players left so that you don't get ganged up on by 3 people, but nevertheless, I took them out because they didn't feel good to play (I felt like the party pooper at the table) and I would make enemies for the rest of the match. What's interesting though, is that most players DON'T rage when I pillowfort up because even though I'm untouchable in many ways, I'm still at least not telling them what they can or cannot play or how much their cards will cost. I think stax or tax effects that target players' ramp or restrict players' spell casting feel PERSONAL just like decks that specialize in stealing other people's stuff. It's the easiest way to make people hate you. And yet, while pillowforting is annoying to other players, I find it doesn't make everyone gang up on me because I'm not exactly threatening them, I'm just saying "please don't touch me". About the white cards that "you and and opponent draw" you could go for Tenuous Truce is you're interested in any pillowforting. Allows both you and an opponent to draw a card on their end step if neither of you have attacked each other. So...you could give it to an enemy that you know either CANNOT attack you, someone you DON'T want to have attack you, or to someone you otherwise feel like is simply not a threat to give card draw to compared to whoever else you're playing against. Then, once you get a little more online or get another card draw card, you can smack them once and end the card draw. For one white and one colorless, it's a pretty good early game card. Lastly, to Jimmy's comment about white being fair, that's EXACTLY what some players said at my LGS, haha, they were like "WOW, you're playing FAIR Magic" and then ended up complimenting my deck when I won because I played fair and still won! That's what I like about White too I think...playing infinite combos just feels dirty to me since I'm just playing at my LGS and not playing CEDH. Now if I were playing CEDH...infinite combos would just be bread and butter I'm sure.

I don't think ramp and card draw isn't really a big problem in white, lot of great cards have been printed lately. But closing the come is often difficult. Cards like wall of mourning, ascend from avernus and golnight commander have done lot of work in my thalia deck.

Hope you guys bring on Kathleen from LRR for mono-black!! :3 Always love seeing her on Game Knights

Oh man, this was great. I loooove me some mono white. I do think y’all are underselling whites ramp. When it comes to land ramp, it’s easily the second best. Sure it doesn’t have reds explosive ramp, but there’s so many good ways to get lands out now. Also white does some nasty stuff with +1/+1 counters like with resourceful defense, and white is probably one of the better planeswalker colors with stuff like arena rector and lae’zel. White really is the most generally good color and thank god it doesn’t have the card draw to abuse that.

QUEEN WEEKS HAS SPOKEN! MONO WHITE EDH IS THE LIGHT, THE WAY.

You may want to look back at the Onslaught block for one of the creature types white is invested in the most (there are 510 total in the game). Also, Dominaria points us towards a second creature type that white favors, unless History of New Benalia doesn't count (there are 196 total in the game). That last one was made into a precon during MOM. The majority of the most impactful creatures were white. Throwing this out there, but in mono red, there are 355 goblins, and in green there are 375 elves in total. White cares about specific creature types, but it may not have a plethora of specific spells that indicate this fact.

You didnt give much attention to damage prevention! An underrated mechanic in my opinion.

51:00 when jimmy said "canceling my woman's anymore" i had to replay that so many times to understand what was happening xD

As a white mage/marathon runner, I approve this podcast.

ultramarine honour guard have been doing wonders to me. finale of glory+ultra marine honour guard is a great wincon!!

I hope you guys are going to continue this series

Feels like the section where they were supposed to talk about weaknesses there mentioned plenty of heavy hitters that do the thing anyways. Ramp? Best ramp in the game, Smothering Tithe. Draw? Who needs draw when you have all these tutors! Green has felt like that a lot lately too, and together White and Green feel like the most often pie-breaking colors with every single new set that debuts.

White is also the best at deck thinning. [Land Tax] is easily my favorite white card. [Weathered Wayfarer] and [Endless Horizons] are also pretty solid. :3

Finally a non-set review topic

Surprised you didn’t mention Authority of the Consols: tap opponents creatures on etb and gain a life. Great field control especially against haste deck.

On the subject of white board wipes, don't forget about Hour of Revelation. In a multiplayer game, it is basically three mana to destroy all nonland permanents. It's probably the best white board wipe (maybe the best or second-best board wipe period), even better than Farewell (Farewell has a somewhat better effect, but three mana is WAY better than six mana). Devastating Mastery is also amazing. For four mana, you can destroy all nonland permanents, but one opponent can return up to two nonland permanents they control to the hand. The trick is that usually there is at least one opponent at the table who is behind or is playing a less powerful deck, so you'd choose them to return two of their permanents while the more threatening opponents lose everything (also, remember that even for the player who gets to "save" two of their permanents, that's still tempo loss for them).

can’t wait for the mono green video as a selesnya player

I've wanted to make a mono white deck for a while, I just don't know what commander to pick. I'm thinking Myrel Soldier tribal maybe. I don't wana do stax, because I already have Winota. Giada Angels is very mana hungry, angels cost alot. Heliod is combo-tastic which is something I love, but it has to play stax to survive, or pillow fort or lifegain, so I'm not sure. Lightpaws looks super fun though.

Enlightened Tutor can help you find Humility. Also, Martyr's Cry is great card draw in White.

White has a 3 mana 1/1 flyer that mills 3 and you return mana cost 3 or less to your hand or a plains or it gets a +1/1 counter if it whiffs

There is also punishment effects in white, like settle the wreckage or comeuppance. Maybe those two are the only cards but I love that you can never be safe attacking into white because of these cards.

Loran is better than you think, while yes it is shared card draw, that is gravy on a solid statted creature with a removal etb and vigilance, you play loran, attack with her, and draw a card a turn. The other thing about shared card draw is it synergizes with everybodies favorite smothering tithe.

A missed point when it comes to tutors is white can tutor planeswalkers.

I feel like laddee may do black which could be fun although I’m excited for green

Rebuff the wicked is literally a white counterspell. Must of forgot about it lol

Been waiting for this

My favorite commander is Darien, King of Kjeldor and to win it usually involves manipulating the damage i take to make absurd amount of tokens and using like dictate of heliod to end the game.

You missed armadillo cloak one of Brian Kibbler's favorite cards back in the day . +2+2 and trample, whenever creature deals damage it gains that much life an it not life link so it stacks. Sprit link you can play on opponents creature and you gain life of it attacks and it is not lifelink so it stacks

While I know it is definitely not the strongest deck, my Lyra Dawnbringer angels tribal still holds a special place in my heart. No real issue with ramp, with enough cheap stuff and rocks to play before the bigger flyers are ready, the only big weakness being the card draw. To close the game, Akroma's Will and swing in the air, even better if done after having previously played Avacyn followed by board-wipe/MLD. Alternative win-con is Test of Endurance, despite it being a bit clunky. Otherwise, if one wants to be less of a Timmy, mono-white Stax can also be back-breaking: it won't make you any friends at the table, but it can win you some games.

Didn't mention Ravnica at War for mono white.

"and your growing magic habit" I feel personally attacked =D

About board wipes that hit planeswalkers: there's Fated Retribution. It's at instant speed too! (It's a 7-mana spell, though lol) Another interesting spell is Leave No Trace: {1}{W}: "Destroy target enchantment and each other enchantment that shares a color with it." Its efficiency does wonders

Brilliant video.

Is there a list of all the cards they talked about so i dont have to go back and watch it all over again and take notes?

well about boardwipes for planeswalkers(and more) how about dimensional breach? i know most people dont like lands getting done in but yea they got it

I mean mono white Angels deck are good to end the game, Serra Emissary's ,Avacyn, Akroma. love my mono Giada, Font of Hope