At my heart, I have always been a control player. To be even more specific, I’ve always been a “draw/go” control player. Though that jargon may seem foreign to some, everyone is familiar with the player who prefers to do more on their opponent’s end step than on their own turn. That was me, and I carried that attitude with me when I stopped playing as much standard and started playing more commander. Considering such, it wasn’t all that surprising when I gravitated to a voltron strategy, a type of deck that’s goal is to win by dealing 21 points of damage to each opponent using the commander. My logic was simple, if my win condition was in my command zone that meant I could use the other 99 cards to control the game with removal, card draw, and counter spells. My first voltron deck was Dakkon Blackblade. Typical voltron decks focus on using equipments and auras in order to power up and strengthen their commander. However, Dakkon worked perfectly with my preferred control strategy. He reads, “Dakkon Blackblade’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control”. This means that a Dakkon Blackblade deck doesn’t require a specific subset of cards dedicated to powering him up. Instead, Dakkon builds up power as the game goes on and with each successive land drop you’re closer to your goal of a commander that can eliminate an opponent with one combat step. I still have my Dakkon deck though it’s been refined over the years, but importantly the success of my Dakkon deck has shaped my idea of what makes a good voltron commander. Athough not traditional, the idea of a voltron commander that builds strength as you simply enact your primary strategy allows for a deck that is more flexible than its more equipment or aura based counterparts. Normally, voltron strategies are extremely linear and feature a handful of cards that are only good when you control your commander. This creates decks that lack the ability to adapt. However, by finding a commander that is “powered up” by your primary gameplan, you don’t become reliant on a single card to win the game. So, when looking for a mono white commander to build a voltron deck around, I wanted a legendary creature that would benefit from enacting a specific gameplan. The card I found that worked into this philosophy was Radiant, Archangel. Radiant is a 3/3 Angel with flying, vigilance, and the text “Radiant gets +1/+1 for each other creature with flying in play.” Matching the Dakkon formula pretty cleanly, Radiant provides a clear primary gameplan that accentuates her ability to win via commander damage. That gameplan being, fill the deck with flying creatures to make her as large as possible. The deck also served as a departure from my more controlling, instant speed, strategies. Radiant requires a creature based deck; something I’ve become quite fond of as I discovered my passion for mono-white in commander. While looking through the flying creatures to which white has access, two creatures jumped out: Hushbringer and Hushwing gryff. Both these creatures prevent abilities from triggering when a creature enters the battlefield, with hushbringer also turning off “dies” triggers as well. Being that “enters the battlefield” is one of the most common triggers in a game of commander, these creatures can have a large impact. They also tend to warp deckbuilding because a deck running these cards usually avoids running “enters the battlefield triggers” of its own. Furthermore, both hushbringer and hushwing gryff compliment the inherent strengths of the white color pie. White has the ability to warp the rules of the game and shutdown common strategies with only one or two cards. Any game in any format is likely to have a handful of creatures with an ability that triggers upon entering the battlefield making the ability to stop those effects all the more relevant. Considering those factors, I started narrowing my search of flying creatures to include those with static abilities, attack triggers, cast triggers, and other non-enter’s the battlefield effects. I didn’t have to look long before I ran into some of white’s best disruptive creatures. Aven Mindcensor, Remorseful Cleric, and Admonition Angel are a few, and they also work well with husbringer or hushwing gryff. It quickly became apparent the type of deck I was building to compliment my voltron strategy, a hatebears deck. Hatebear is a combination of two other magic terms. First, “hate” is a card that prevents a specific strategy or action. There is color hate, land hate, grave hate, and others. Bear is a description for a two man 2/2. Traditionally hatebear decks are low cmc creature decks that feature a prison like element. Death and Taxes is a fairly well known archetype that could fall into this category. In commander, the “two mana 2/2” criteria is a little harder to sustain do to the nature of the format. However, this deck does seek to use disruptive creatures to hinder opponents while consistently threatening their life totals. A surprising discovery while building this deck was the number of powerful white flying creatures with landfall. Because the deckbuilding for this list is particularly affected by cards like husbringer and hushwing gryff, landfall creatures are a way to get instant value from a creature similar to more commonly played enters-the battlefield triggers. Though the options in white are limited, they are very powerful. Emeria Angel creates flyers to power-up Radiant. Emeria Shepherd offers a fantastic piece of recursion, and Admonition Angel is a versatile answer. The flying creatures are rounded out by some of the best options in the color. Bygone Bishop is a premier draw spell that most any deck would be happy to play while Boreas Charger is one of the color’s few and best options for ramp. Angel of Condemnation offers a flexible flyer perfect for protecting creatures or dealing with the opponent’s creatures. Sephara’s Skyblade is a game warping card and would make an excellent commander in her own right. Other creatures in the deck offer various forms of protection and answers including taxing effects, indestructibility, and even some hate for the Lord Windgrace deck that someone at your local game store most certainly has. Finally, a handful of powerful enters the battlefield effects were chosen for the deck. Even though this is counterintuitive to the abilities of hushbringer and hushwing gryff, these cards won’t always be on the battlefield. When they aren’t, it is important to have some powerful effects like Mentor of the Meek, Angel of Sanctions, and Angel of Finality. The non-creature cards in this deck try to compliment the voltron gameplan. A few equipment are in the deck to offer protection and haste not only for Radiant, Archangel but for the “hatebears” as well. The board wipes usually leave behind a creature or two with flying that gives the deck a leg up when rebuilding. A card I’ve been really impressed with is Spirit Bonds. Spirit Bonds gives its controller the option to make a 1/1 spirit whenever a creature enters the battlefield by paying one white mana, however, the best part of the card is the second half. By paying one colorless and a white, the controller can sacrifice a spirit to give a non-spirit creature indestructible. With the amount of ways the deck has to create spirit tokens, this mode can provide the deck an efficient way to protect its creatures. This is extremely important considering the pesky abilities that can make these creatures lightning rods for an opponent’s removal. The strategy of this deck is relatively straightforward. The primary gameplan is to win via commander damage. The deck buys time with disruptive creatures that also help to increase the commander’s power and toughness. A landfall subtheme is supported by cards like eternal dragon and land tax which help guarantee a land drop each turn. The deck is also designed to protect Radiant by giving indestructible (selfless spirit, Deathless Angel, Spirit Bonds) or hexproof (swiftfoot boots). The deck also looks to preserve radiant’s high power in the face of a board wipe. The deck’s own board wipes provide it with flyers (Kirtar’s Wrath, March of Souls) or cards like field of souls create flyers following a board wipe. This deck is perfect for someone that loves having a weird answer to problems and dominating at combat. The deck often feels like it is playing from behind to start the game as a lot of the most impactful cards have a high converted mana cost. However, if the deck makes it to the late game it has powerful bombs and a surprisingly consistent land based engine. I’d recommend this deck for players with casual groups and few infinite combos considering the speed of the deck. A note to the reader:If you’re interested in the deck, you can view the full list on Archidekt! When preparing this piece, I debated between showing off the list I run on when I sit down to play or a more optimized ideal list that I would play if I had access to every card in magic. I decided on the former. My goal was to capture the deck building process I went through when constructing this list. Card choices were inspired by the strategy above, but there are also cards I wanted to try out, pet cards, and cards for my specific play group and style. This list is far from static, and I encourage anyone interested in building a similar list to tweak and tune to cater to your own style. Thanks for reading!
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AuthorMonoWhiteBorder -- A man who loves MtG and his small dog. Archives
June 2021
Categories"MonoWhiteBorder" and corresponding content is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
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