Teamwork Makes the Deck Work

Way back in 2016, I wrote about an earlier version of this deck when I was trying TappedOut. It was fun, but by no means a powerhouse deck. It was good for casual events, but not capable of holding its own against more powerful foes. I noticed problems where some abilities were showing up too often, while others were never consistent, and I had few ways to address opponents who could ramp faster. In the intervening years I have spent unceasing efforts to optimize it swapped cards here and there to improve it slightly.

My commander is still Odric, Lunarch Marshal. As soon as I pulled this card from a Shadows over Innistrad pack, I knew I wanted him at the helm of a mono-white deck. He really holds the theme together, but there are other creatures with at least some degree of wide support to keep the deck from collapsing if he gets destroyed. He's also the obvious target for any protective artifact or enchantments I have, because he shares, too.

I'm still trying out Moxfield, and posted the new version there. Looking at the two decks side-by-side, it's easy to see some of the changes. I added two planeswalkers, Ajani, Caller of the Pride and Elspeth, Sun's Champion, mainly to add more expendable tokens to my armies. I also added two Sorcery cards, Wrath of God for a board wipe option and Launch the Fleet as a late-game way to add more attackers.

Other changes are a lot less significant. I swapped a basic Plains for a Cryptic Caves at some point because White is notoriously bad at card advantage. I also swapped around a lot of creatures to better optimize the ability spread. I'm not saying it's good, but it's better. The overall cost to buy this version also went up by about 50% from the original version, but that's mainly due to a few high-dollar cards I pulled from packs.

Going by my own subjective tier list, this is probably a 4 at best. It has more consistency and more ways to respond to other players, but it's still built on a gimmick and doesn't develop a win condition very quickly. I don't even have a Sol Ring, to say nothing of other mana rock staples.

As always, comments (and card suggestions) are welcome. A deck is rarely set in stone, and there are always opportunities to improve even with a budget. Have you built a classic "white weenie" deck for Magic: The Gathering? It's been a viable theme since the launch of the game, but the slower pace and additional opponents of the Commander format does tend to favor combo/control decks over aggro. That's why this also has ways to pillow fort, disable specific threats, and wipe the board. However, this will always have the inherent weakness of a white deck in card draw, mana ramp, and board control unless I change it to the point where it isn't even recognizable or remotely affordable.