Ah, White, the color of balance, stax, exile, go-wide and value grind. White’s always been about taxes and keeping things in check. It’s not about getting ahead, it’s making sure your opponents don’t get ahead. Modest in size but vast in number. What about at Karlov Manor? We can definitely see some of these themes expanded upon in the latest set. Let’s conclude our mono-colored series by looking through the best white cards in MKM for commander!
Looking Out For The Best
Delney, Streetwise Lookout
We kick off with Delney, Streetwise Lookout. Delney is quite strong, giving you a potential unblockability along with conditional trigger doubling. Perhaps you made an Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines because you enjoy doubling triggers but found yourself archenemy every game. Delney’s a great alternative to you – all the doubling goodness without also locking down your opponents. Limited to creatures power two or less, but unlimited in which triggers get doubled. Double your ETBs but also double your Esper Sentinel, Archivist of Oghma, Charismatic Conqueror, etc. triggers too. There are also plenty of board wipes that are forgiving to smaller power creatures in your favor – Slaughter the Strong, The Battle of Bywater, etc. Definitely a fun build around and proving to be pretty popular pretty quickly.
Delney can be very strong in the 99 of existing commanders as well. Double up Eriette of the Charmed Apple‘s end step triggers, for example!
Trouble in Pairs
What would a set be without a really good expensive to buy enchantment? Trouble in Pairs is here to fill that void for us, giving us an excellent card draw engine that can trigger up to 7 times each turn in a 4 player game. Combine this with some forced draw effects like Geier Reach Sanitarium, Faerie Mastermind, Howling Mine, etc. to proactively keep your card draw flowing.
Aurelia’s Vindicator
Aurelia’s Vindicator is a decent card without any of the disguise stuff. 4 mana 4/2 flyer with lifelink and ward 2, you could definitely do worse. Her disguise cost is a bit pricey, but better-than-instant-speed exile effects for any of X targets on the battlefield or graveyards can be quite clutch. You can use this offensively of course, but consider that the cards return to hand after she leaves the battlefield. This means you could use her as board wipe or graveyard hate protection as well. Not something you’d look to recur frequently due to the setup cost, but a strong card to consider for your decks.
Note that Aurelia’s Vindicator is worded like Oblivion Ring and not like Seal Away. This means you can get crafty with her face up trigger. If you turn her face up and then cast Ephemerate on her while her first ability is still on the stack, you will permanently exile the cards you targeted with her first ability. Same thing with Oblivion Ring. Since the exile and return effects are two separate triggered abilities, you can manipulate the stack and magic’s rules so that the ‘leaves the battlefield’ trigger happens before the exile trigger. Once the card is returned to the battlefield, it no longer remembers what it previously exiled, meaning those cards are permanently exiled.
Doorkeeper Thrull
You know how I said Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines makes you archenemy and that Delney frees you from some of that hate? Well, throw this guy in your Delney deck for when you are ready to lock down the game.
Doorkeeper Thrull is a white hatebear stax effect for 2 mana with flash. He’s symmetrical, preventing ETB effects of all artifacts and creatures. Not a ton to say here but he’s gotta be on the list for his efficiency.
Case of the Uneaten Feast
Ajani’s Welcome with more upside- and very strong upside to boot. Being able to sacrifice this enchantment once solved to cast any number of creature cards in your graveyard can be quite strong. Note that once you do cast a creature card from your yard, they will lose this ability, so you can’t turn all of your one mana creatures into Gravecrawler combos with Phyrexian Altar. Most white reanimator effects are limited by mana value, so this is one of the rarer options that allow you to reanimate whatever you want.
Unexplained Absence
This is kind of like a Chaos Warp for each player but in white. They’re guaranteed to get something, but if that something is a big fat creature, they still gotta pay for it. Easily a consideration for a staple you could put in virtually any commander deck with white. Find this card in the Deadly Disguise precon.
Redemption Arc
This card is quite funny. Play it on a creature to give it indestructible and goad it. Play this on your own voltron commander to keep pressure up, or play it on your opponent’s best beater to keep them off your back. Goad’s biggest weakness? When it’s just down to you and one other player, they can attack you with those creatures. Redemption Arc solves this problem, allowing you to exile the enchanted creature for mana. Combo this with a card like Danitha, New Benalia’s Light to have a repeatable 5 mana goad & removal spell. Though honestly, Danitha with Pariah is probably better. This card is also featured in the Blame Game precon.
Other White cards for your consideration
Not every card can be considered ‘the best’ but plenty are still good! Let’s investigate:
Merchant of Truth
Clues you control have exalted. The last card that did something like this is Xenk, Paladin Unbroken. Xenk is quite expensive, though probably because he’s exclusive to secret lair.
The thing to note is that Exalted stacks, so if you’ve got 10 clues and you attack with your 2/2 creature, the creature will be a 12/12 when it attacks alone until end of turn. Not necessarily as strong as some of the clue-based finishers in other colors (Persuasive Interrogators or Tangletrove Kelp) unless you pair it with evasion, but there are certainly some situations where this card can be a blowout. Merchant of Truth also generates you clues whenever your non-token creatures die, synergizing with herself and other aristocrat strategies.
Find the Merchant in the Deep Clue Sea precon.
Serene Sleuth
This may be the first anti-goad card printed – at least, I’m not aware of any others. For only two mana, this Human Detective can keep your board calm and collected in the face of your instigating opponents. Generates clues to boot! Serene Sleuth is also in the Deep Clue Sea precon.
Immortal Obligation
Another fun goad card that covers goad’s downsides, you get to reanimate any creature in an opponent’s yard back under their control with a duty counter. This duty counter is like super goad – they are goaded and also cannot attack you at all or block your stuff. There are ways to remove counters in the game, like Hex Parasite or Glissa Sunslayer, so keep that in mind before you reanimate something that will quickly come at your face instead. Immortal Obligation comes included in the Blame Game precon.
No Witnesses
This is very similar to Depopulate, which came out relatively recently as well. Depopulate gives any player a card if they have a multicolored creature, No Witnesses gives whoever has the most creatures a clue token. Pretty solid for 4 mana. White has a board wipe for basically every situation, so while this card is good, you have plenty of alternatives to pick from that suites your particular strategy.
Tenth District Hero
There aren’t a ton of these pseudo-level up style creatures, but they can be quite impactful. Evolved Sleeper is a staple in many formats for example. Tenth District Hero isn’t the same early game play as Evolved Sleeper, requiring you to collect evidence to level him up. However, do this twice and he provides your other creatures with indestructible. This type of lightning rod effect requires your opponents to solve a puzzle to deal with you. This is different from similar cards like Invasion of Gobakhan or Selfless Spirit, which are one-time board indestructibility you can use to react to your opponent’s spells.
Wojek Investigator
3 mana 2/4 flying vigilance that passively makes you clues. Not a ton to say, just a good value highlight, especially for your clue-based decks. Note he’s 2 power so you can double up on your clue generation with Delney!
Case of the Gateway Express
Good value play – two mana removal spell for your go-wide strategies, plus a pretty simple way to give your creatures +1/+0.
Veiled Ascension
This card is quite good – giving you a 2/2 ward 2 face down flier every turn. If that face down card is a creature, flip it up as normal for its mana cost at any time. Not quite a Bitterblossom since it’s 4 mana, but worth considering when you need a steady stream of creatures for a one time investment. Face down creatures are not tokens, so aristocrat strategies with card that care about non-tokens would benefit from a card like this.
You can find this neat card in the Deadly Disguise precon.
That wraps up our list for the mono-colors out of Murders at Karlov Manor! One card I was hoping would make the list was Case File Auditor, but for commander, it’s just not likely you’re going to be running enough cases to have this guy make the cut. Maybe future sets will introduce more cases, we’ll see.
What did we miss? Any of your favorites that didn’t make the cut? Let us know in the comments below!