This is just tempting me to build a colorless good stuff deck with a white commander I can’t actually cast at the helm and tell people "I recently made some improvements to my mono white deck"
The case with the utility lands is actually quite interesting. In colored decks, the utility lands have a downside - they don't tap for colored mana. But in the colorless decks that is instead an upside, as colorless mana is mechanically almosr equivalent to how colored nana would function in a monocolored deck. And there is no mana that is even more colorleess than colorless, so the downside just dissapears entirely and all the utility lands and artifacts that tap for colorkess just get way better.
You could still use a white commander and splash white in the same way that people splash colorless for utility. You'd get way better removal this way. So using 10 or so white spells (even in a deck has mostly colorless spells) and enough white lands to cast them will still make the deck stronger than using solely colorless spells. Also there's only a handful of playable spells which require actual "colorless mana" as payment (as opposed to generic, which can still be paid with white), all of which were printed in BfZ block. So having loads of colorless-producing lands is not really the upside you think it is, unless you have specifically made a BfZ-themed EDH deck using mostly unplayable draft chaff cards.
@@Alexiel-f6o would that even matter like sure some colorless cards need colorless mana most just need any mana changing it to all red won't be that bad
Lattice does all sorts of interesting things, from blanking intimidate or Mother of Runes, to perfect mana fixing, to making the guy playing Energy Flux pay dearly for his hubris...
Colorless has access to every effect in all 5 colors, it just has stipulations like waaaaaay more expensive or more narrow effects. Examples: Ramp: mana rocks/wayfarers bauble Counter spells: warping wail, not of this world Card draw: howling mine, card draw lands Big creatures: eldrazi/artifact creatures Utility creatures: eldrazi/artifact creatures Board wipes: all is dust, nevs disk, ugin the spirit dragon Single target removal: scour from exsistance, titans presence
I think the argument is valid as there appears to be an effort to support colorless decks in a meaningful way from WOTC. Thus far the effort to do the same for white seems entirely lackluster
I think part of the problem with mono White is "the social contract" in Commander. One of White's traditional strengths is that it has lots of ways to slow down or even stop opponents, & the symmetrical ones are usually narrow enough that the White player can build around them; just look at Death & Taxes decks in competitive formats. However, playing like that in Commander will often draw you a ton of hate, both in and out of the game. People don't want that, so they avoid those effects, which reduces the power of that color. Meanwhile, WotC spent many years having White lean on those effects, because that's something White does. To be clear: I'm not saying we just need to accept stax strategies, & then mono White will be fine. I just think White wouldn't seem quite so weak if it weren't being hobbled like it is.
Very much this. Red is actually one of the most powerful EDH colors because of Wheel effects and land destruction, but you really can't get it to work well without that land destruction. The problem being that land destruction is going to get you a ton of dirty looks from across the table, and if you do it often enough you're going to not get invited back to play with that group (I would know). White is very much the same way. The good White effects will get a lot of hate from other players if you play them.
Hey all I'm gonna say is, isn't it weird how most of the GOOD white commanders focus around colourless (*historic) cards... Sram, Teshar, Balan, Nahiri, Kemba, etc.
I mean, no? One of white's biggest strength's is its interaction with equipment and artifacts at large. That has been a core part of its identity for a long time now. So while any deck can be an equipment deck the color that does that best and is going to serve as the base for most of those decks is going to be white.
@@XCodes It's too bad the white artifacts they've made recently have all been garbage. While the other colors get Bolas' Citadel, the Great Henge, and Embercleave, white gets nothing of value as usual
I love the idea of white being the mediator. Basically taking everyone and putting them on the same level, or putting you on someone else's level. It's a super cool flavor but they hardly do that anymore.
Yeah, I agree, they need to unban Balance! But seriously, W get great wipes, but it can't recover from any set back since it lacks card draw, and generally can't cast swingy spells unless it's running rocks, because it lacks ramp. UG can cast huge spells to recover from a wipe, B just has nastiness in general and can tutor up whatever else you need, R is probably the closest to W or colorless in that both struggle with recovery. The thing is, W's _thing_ is mass removal, which is likely to take it's own stuff with it. This is fine if you're not mono-W, but if you are, you're up the creek likely. Top decking value weenies is just not going to win the game after a Wrath, you know what I mean? Adding in life gain is like putting a howitzer on a horse's back. Sure, it's a great gun, but the mounting is such that you can't actually use it.
Now that I really think about it, Balance is hardly more cruel than Cyclonic Rift. I'd love to slip Balance into an Esper deck actually, would do serious work.
@Nick Sheldon That's a main reason, to me, why white has a problem. Magic is a game about beating an opponent. The concept of "being on the same level" runs contrary to the central mechanical goal of the game.
@@MaxMckayful To me, white's other strengths, protecting YOUR stuff and slowing other players down, needs to be highlighted more. In that respect, White is already strong. Stax, pillowfort, hatebears, and noncreature permanent reanimation is how white breaks parity on its boardwipes. One of my favorite white deck combos is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (It doesn't have any mana symbols it's playable in colorless too), and Kormus Bell. Everyone can still play magic, but you get to be the anti-boardwipe player until you can land your land protection cards like Terra Eternal, Tomik, Distinguished Advokist, or Sacred Ground. Or till you can do it yourself and play Planar Rebirth or activate Shadowspear after playing Terra Eternal first. The only other thing I'd like to see is indestructible/hexproof cantrips in white specifically. If they're gonna get card draw, reward them specifically for saving their stuff, or for participating in combat. They're the most militaristic color, it doesn't make sense why they wouldn't gain knowledge from battle.
for All is Dust, keep in mind that lands are considered colorless despite tapping for colored mana, meaning they won't be affected by anything calling for colored permanents
@@Mizelei2012 if you play Karn already, try playing Bosh iron golem. You'll get a little help from red but it always feels good chucking huge artifacts at people lol. Karn is one of the more difficult artifact decks to build around.
@@chrispy6953 Yes, but I just really like it this way. The help it needed was just a little power boost like this forsaken monument. If I have this out I can turn my 3 CMC rocks into 5/5 creatures which is going to help a lot. I can turn my Vedalken Orrerry into a 6/6 and turn it sideways. The value in the deck is that I have lots of mana sinks and I'm always holding up mana in order to turn my darksteel artifacts into indestructible blockers.
I've absolutely wrecked one of my friends colourless deck with my mono white deck, I was playing Eight and a half tails (Really underrated mono white house of a commander by the way) I had caged sun and a bunch of mana open. He cast all is dust I tap out about twelve mana turned everything on his board including his lands white and kozileck his commander... Think he had a random artifact left afterwards! XD
Ya know what white can do really well? Remove things. Colorless will go "okay, if I play these three mana rocks then I get to cast my 7-cmc removal spell" and white will just drop Swords to Plowshares.
Well path and swords exile creatures but that 7 mana removal exiles permanents, white has banishing light which cost 3 exiles nonland permanent and only as long as it stays on the battlefield, in zendikar we are getting legend that makes creatures lands so banishing light just turns off entirely.
@@wednesday5229 well it exiles all creatures so you pretty much hurt yourself as much or more than your opponents because white kinda relies on creatures others not as much or can recover quicker than white.
@@wednesday5229 oh sorry, wrong argument, i was arguing with someone who was saying white is good. As for colorless yes colorless doesn't have many boardwipes
Going on from the Eldrazi thing, the other common archatype for colorless is artifacts which is quite strong. There are other ways to build colorless but with most people going in these directions maybe it helps contribute to this perception of more power.
One really fun and tricky colorless commander a lot of people forget about, and really benefits from the monument a lot, is Hope of Ghirapur. The single most evil 1 drop 1/1 in the game.
Another thing of note that sometime gets forgotten is an immediate price jump in any decent white card. If it is a card that ramps or draws it is probably going to be expensive or lackluster. Edit: spelling
colorless has both Eldrazi and Artifacts as its main strengths when designing around it. The only place I find myself faulting whenever I build a colorless deck is removal and telegraphed disruption. Other than a surprise "All is Dust" all the removal requires high amounts of mana or some delayed effect my opponents don't even need to counter in order to disrupt or prepare for.
I made a colorless deck so people would be like "why would you do that?", plus I loved the idea of having a bunch of lands that do something random yet useful instead of having to worry about getting the right colors backed by an awesome commander.... I really do like Kozilek as a commander as he does pretty much everything you would want a creature to do (beat them down, some sort of protection, and draw power, with evasion to top it off). Point is.... now I'm thinking of building a mono white deck to fulfill that original feeling of "why would you do that?" without making Avacyn the commander (though I probably will anyway because she's awesome).
I mean 2 out of the top 5 Mono white commander decks on EDHREC are artifact based being Sram and Teshar, and most Heliod deck run the ballista combo. Artifacts are the backbone to white as they either rely on ramping and closing out game, just my opinion from what I've played :)
Hey Mitch! Loved the discussion! I recently built a colourless Kozilek deck as my 4th commander deck, inspired by Ashlen Rose on Game Knights, and I've got to say that it's my most powerful one by far. The combination of utility lands with efficient artifact ramp, as well as some underrated cards like Walking Atlas and Voltaic Key/Manifold Key make it a force to be reckoned with. I can constantly get out Kozi by turn 4 to become the Archenemy and take over the game. I'm really excited about seeing a new 'colour' of decks becoming viable in commander with this Zendikar release!
Blue: Draws Cards, mana ramps with green. Green: Draws cards, mana ramps Black: Draws cards, mana ramps with green Red: Draws cards, mana ramps Colorless: Draws cards, mana ramps White: "Lack of card draw and mana ramp is a key weakness in white" Translation: Winning games is a key weakness in white by design
@@peewee130946 Red does not have worse ramp than White. Red has a different SORT of ramp... but it s STILL RAMP. White's ramp WHEN IT GETS IT (BIG 'when') can be more traditional... but reds now got a standardized method of ramping that reliably appears in sets... and it has card draw via rummaging and now the whole 'draw then play the cards by the end of the turn' mechanic. Red and black are also much more mana EFFICIENT than white is... making them NEED the ramp a LOT LESS than white does. White's removal isn't better than blacks... its too conditional, but it's got perhaps the second best removal in the game... allowing that it can oft remove things in a more broad sense... which might be good if it had enough mana to pay for them and wasn't behind on both the mana curve and card advantage by turn 2.
I'm really enjoying the Kozilek and Golos decks I put together with help from your vids. Just played em and Golos won the turn before Kozilek would come out.
Keeper of the Accord is the type of card MtG twitter is going to gas up for a while and then in 6 months, theyll ask eachother why is the Keeper so disappointing.
XCodes im just sick of this narrative that white should and is only about slow/incremental advantage. No explosive plays, thats why no ramp or card draw. Thats fucking nonesense when the fact of the matter is every other color can play multiple style and all have better consistency boosting cards that allows for those styles than white whose strictly forced into a lane and even the most basic of white white strategies require artifacts to prop everything up or else its just not playable.
vinnythewebsurfer whit used to get cards like Armageddon and Balance so mono white could catch up without drawing cards. White was meant to be a color of taxes and tyranny, but Wizards castrated the color and now it’s just “haha life gain go brrr”
@@somedudeontheinterwebs45 odd hot take on mono-white for EDH now that the player base is both large, and largely enfranchised: mass land destruction is perfectly acceptable. The tools and knowledge to recover is there, and widely accessable. It's about time we all stopped playing this game with the kid gloves on, and learned how to play the game on hard mode.
As a colorless commander player myself, I’m so excited for this card. It’ll make my eldrazi better, the ramp into eldrazi better, every single land better, it’s just such a great card
I may have made an Animar-Eldrazi deck last night and I’m waiting to see how that goes. This is certainly a convenient way of finding cards from my least familiar area of the colour pie (that being non-Orzhov colours)
I have Kozilek the Great Distortion deck and he regularly scares everyone at the table for being to opressive so idk if it's better but you really can build it powerfully
I honestly think that colorless does have a leg up on mono white. Even with the "protect all my stuff", colorless has Darksteel Forge, which is easily searchable in colorless. After a Cyclonic Rift, a colorless deck is much more likely to rebuild at a fast pace, whereas white is trying to piecemeal their board back together.
I was very shocked after building big ramp Kozilek. Besides extreme aggro Isamaru Voltron, I think colorless just may be better. The Kozilek build was just for fun, and it wound up being extremely fast at ramping to big threats and has a decent amount of synergy. We constantly discuss the Bauble here, but there’s nothing like getting unlimited mana from voltaic key/servant and a monolith. Draw and play the whole deck if you have an artifact or land out that allows you to pay to draw cards without tapping. Even without the combos, the mega ramping pretty much plays itself. Now with these new cards... likely better than mono-white in most builds.
I have a pretty mean Elesh Norn commander deck, so I kinda like Mono White, but it does have its issues. I like the philosophy behind colourless cards: versatility, independence from any colour or flavour (at the cost of a higher converted CMC)... I believe that a well tuned colourless deck can be pretty powerful (Just imagine Kozilek, the Great Distortion as a commander), but the price is bound to go up, while with mono white you can have a pretty decent deck with a lower budget. I think.
A friend in my playgroup won 2 games in a row with Elesh Norn against 3 partner CEDH decks. Mono white can work but there's just not as many good white cards as good colorless cards, but the good ones, like smothering tithe and path to exile, and serra Ascendant, are really good
The problem with colorless is lack of inatant speed interaction/spells. And there is interaction but at higher cmc and often requires multiple cards. Solution fast mana which now places you in high cost deck which includes mana crypts , workshop and other expensive lands , hence "colorless" decks typically are red or blue
White has access to board wipes for everything though: so many against creatures, artifacts and enchantments in cleansing nova, lands in armageddon and fall of thran. Sure maybe not drawing cards is definitely a downside to playing white but playing devil's advocate, I feel they make up for it by the sheer amount of removal pieces they have. Dare I say the only reason white is the weakest color is because a mono white boardwipe tribal deck is looked down upon by other colors because "blowing up everyone's lands isn't fair."
Oh my god, this. White is THE BEST REMOVAL color. It has the most versatile answers of any color and has countless ways to clean the table. All the other colors have access to some amounts too, but not in the volume white does.
The problem is not that it doesn't have great removals. The problem that it's counterintuitive - its two main strategies: symetrical effects and massing creatures - goes against each other. What do you do after you wiped the board? This is why BW or UW are so solid: With black you don't mind killing your own creatures because of recursion. With blue you can refill your hand. But what mono white suppose to do? It suffers the most from its own strategy. There is a reason why so many people complain about this issue and don't play mono white. It puts you in a serious disadvantage.
another point about the Gauntlet of Power is that it simply says "creatures of the chosen color" Not "Creatures you control of the chosen color" So it buffs your opponent's creatures of whatever color you pick as well, whereas forsaken monument only buffs your own creatures, which is another point in the card's favor.
I would put the question down to one thing: flexibility. Colorless really doesn't have much in terms of flexibility. Sure, there are some big stompy Eldrazi...but you can see those coming a mile away and know exactly what they are going to do and approximately when. White has ways to manipulate the board. Colorless...not so much. And to those folks who think that colorless commanders are all the rage...when is the last time you've seen that Hope of Ghirapur deck in action?
I've found colorless can do anything any color can just for a little more Mana or using a combo. Also I'm literally the only person I know to play colorless.
100%. Colorless is a great mono-“color” deck type. I run a Kozilek deck, and I frequently have big guys out by turn 5. There’s plenty of support for this strategy.
Pee Wee I’ll take my chances, guy. Lol. Your argument is that one card can destroy a strategy.. like a grafdiggers cage for reanimator decks, but the probability is low that you’d have an austere command at the right time just as much as the probability is low that I’d pull the “nut draw” and go off by turn 3. It doesn’t matter. So what?
im really surprised that Heliod sun crowned wasnt mentioned and card draw you just need well of lost dreams added to your deck, plus heliod and answered prayers is fantastic
mana rocks are usually also better in colorless, because you dont have to play rocks that make colored mana Mindstone is better then a signet and thran dynamo is just extremly efficient
I'm sure this is an incredibly stupid question but I am a new subscriber and do not know where to see the deck lists for the budget decks you create. Any help would be greatly appreciated and keep up the awesome work!
As white is my favorite color in magic, im glad WotC is working on bolstering it's power but it is sad to see that the argument that colorless is almost more powerful than white can be made.
I just noticed Bonders’ Enclave, apparently I missed it. Do you think it’s worth putting it in Goreclaw? Although I do have stuff like Beast Whisperer and Return of the Wildspeaker which are pretty good card draw.
I think Mono White vs. Colorless is a largely a difference in playstyles brought about by the best commanders of each. The best white commanders tend to be low to the ground with incremental advantages, or otherwise stax builds. Colorless tend to be the Eldrazi Titans and go very big. These are very different in how they want to win a game and thus difficult to compare. Honestly I think the thing that holds Mono white back the most in this scenario is that casual players generally avoid playing stax effects but the Timmy's love them some bombs. The result of this dynamic is that Colorless "seems" better than Mono White in many circumstances, but I think if played competitively Mono White would be better.
Colorless decks are generally some of the most expensive around because they rely on an all-artifact ramp package and high-cost spells to interact with other decks. The eldrazi are powerful, but you need a lot of ramp to play them, and that ramp isn't cheap.
Not to mention that colorless has a much easier time "ramping". I built Morophon eldrazi deck thats pretty sick actually and i noticed just how many cost reduction options colorless has. I feel like mono colorless has a better time ramping than mono white for sure but it could also be better than mono red or blue. a lot to think about
White has well costed unconditional removal for all types something no other color does as well Black and blue come close with black now gaining enchantment hate, but I hope that was a fluke and blue having counterpsells, but once it hits blue is in trouble often needing 2 spells a bounce and a counter to deal with it.
I think you make a very good and interesting argument but I think their are some elements you are missing. In terms of spot removal and board wipes White is one of the best and even if colorless is better on average at ramp and card draw it isn’t buy much as most colorless cards with those effects are over costed and this is especially true with removal and board wipes. White’s mana advantage most of the time is it needing to spend a lot of mana on individual spells so if colorless wants to succeed over it then the deck needs to be filled with ramp mostly in the form of cheap mana rocks. This can be great for a commander like Kozilek which can do everything but most other colorless commanders are too expensive in terms of mana to be worth it imo. This is just my analysis but I could be very wrong.
KCI loops, infinite tap/untap chains, flash, indiscriminate removal, a perfect lockout, and some of the most powerful creatures in the game. Is colorless "now" more powerful than mono-white? It has been more powerful since at least the Eldrazi titans, if not earlier.
They ought to release a creature like this: Wayfaring Thaumaturgist - 1W - Monk - 1/2 W, Pay 10 life, Tap: Search your library for a basic Plains card and put it into the battlefield tapped.
Hey Mitch I heard this from my cousin, but thinks for confirming that you are from our state. Maybe I will see you around after things let up and play a game somewhere.
Forsaken Monument was simply a throwback to the Eldrazi, kind of a "goodbye" card for them since there's a ton of people who hasn't learned they have to sleeve removal to avoid getting annihilated into an empty board. Also, Colorless is no where near White's flexibility to deal with permanents, sure, you have Scour from Reality, but that's 7 mana compared to 1 white mana to exile a creature with Swords to Plowshares, or 1W to use a Disenchant. Colorless completely lacks the amount of redundancy to make a commander deck that isn't focused on ramping towards a big Eldrazi or any artifact combo anyway. The "only" thing colorless is "better" than white at, it's at ramping, and it's because of the mana rocks, but so we can say that about blue, red and black too, given than green is the only color that has decent ramp.
Think part of the problem is that a lot of white cards are built around playing from behind. I mean, by the time you close the gap your opponents are 1 to 2 turns ahead of you.
I think white definitely is better than colorless but anotheer interesting topis is which individual color has the strongest cards, because lots of powerhouse cards have white inntheir mana cost, the only thing is that it lacks card draw and ramp, but it has amazing removal, board wipes, protection, and abilitys
I ordered a Forsaken Monument for my Colorless EDH Deck as soon as I saw the spoiler. It’s a great card. I really enjoy playing colorless. Is it good? Meh. I really don’t know. The table usually targets me and knocks me out ASAP. They are afraid of me, I guess.
Forsaken monument could benefit a white deck. All you need is some "waste lands," and perhaps some lands that tap for colorless with an ability. Mono white bounce would tap for 3 mana. It would also benefit all colorless creatures you run in your mono white deck.
I really enjoy playing mono-white. However, let's not forget that a portion of mono-white cards are hated and/or discouraged in commander. While some other portions people hate playing against. I am talking about land destruction, stacks cards, and board wipes. So maybe let's rephrase it from Mono-white is weak to, peoples fealing are weak. I bet land decks wouldn't be such a problem to deal with if people started punishing them more. :)
I think people totally sleep on teshar, ancestors apostle. Mono white artifacts. Literally CEDH viable, if you build it that way (it’s on the CEDH decklist database). Super powerful mono white deck.
As a heavy colorless player (since 1996), the only advantage i will give mono white is weenie creatures. Just the sheer number. But colorless has HoG. And Ornithopter. And Memnite. So.........
This is just tempting me to build a colorless good stuff deck with a white commander I can’t actually cast at the helm and tell people "I recently made some improvements to my mono white deck"
You can throw in Chromatic Lantern/Orrery for casting your general ocasionally. But basicly, just a regular Teshar deck.
You could go Oloro, and just bask in all that free life?
Run new Heliod so you can randomly combo kill with Ballista AND say that the white in the deck wasn't 100% irrelevant.
*tea spit take!*
Out of the 5 colours where would you rank white?
Probably 6th
XDDD
"Is colorless NOW better than mono white?" It's always been better.
Colorless will rise! Kozilek will not bow.
7th behind purple.
1st
The case with the utility lands is actually quite interesting. In colored decks, the utility lands have a downside - they don't tap for colored mana. But in the colorless decks that is instead an upside, as colorless mana is mechanically almosr equivalent to how colored nana would function in a monocolored deck. And there is no mana that is even more colorleess than colorless, so the downside just dissapears entirely and all the utility lands and artifacts that tap for colorkess just get way better.
You could still use a white commander and splash white in the same way that people splash colorless for utility. You'd get way better removal this way. So using 10 or so white spells (even in a deck has mostly colorless spells) and enough white lands to cast them will still make the deck stronger than using solely colorless spells. Also there's only a handful of playable spells which require actual "colorless mana" as payment (as opposed to generic, which can still be paid with white), all of which were printed in BfZ block. So having loads of colorless-producing lands is not really the upside you think it is, unless you have specifically made a BfZ-themed EDH deck using mostly unplayable draft chaff cards.
Utility lands are all fun and games until the mono red player drops blood moon
@@Alexiel-f6o would that even matter like sure some colorless cards need colorless mana most just need any mana changing it to all red won't be that bad
My Kozilek deck runs 2 wastes for enemy paths and trophies. It's still very vulnerable to back to basics.
Man you typed this really fast
"Trying not to talk about expensive cards on this channel"
How is you sliver queen deck Mitch?
That wasn't Mitch. That was Maximillan's deck.
I still think his name should be Ritch
But what if you use Mycosynth Lattice to make your white cards colorless. Checkmate.
Lattice does all sorts of interesting things, from blanking intimidate or Mother of Runes, to perfect mana fixing, to making the guy playing Energy Flux pay dearly for his hubris...
Yes. Just look at the commanders avaliable. There are no bad colorless commanders
draco is pretty freaking bad
@@jonathanthomas2171 Draco isn't legendary tho. Although if someone made a deck with Draco at the helm, I'd 100% let them play with it
Traxos would be a pretty bad deck
@@joebick2293 can't traxos go go infinite?
@@dicorockhimself every colorless deck can go the same way infinite
Colorless has access to every effect in all 5 colors, it just has stipulations like waaaaaay more expensive or more narrow effects.
Examples:
Ramp: mana rocks/wayfarers bauble
Counter spells: warping wail, not of this world
Card draw: howling mine, card draw lands
Big creatures: eldrazi/artifact creatures
Utility creatures: eldrazi/artifact creatures
Board wipes: all is dust, nevs disk, ugin the spirit dragon
Single target removal: scour from exsistance, titans presence
I think the argument is valid as there appears to be an effort to support colorless decks in a meaningful way from WOTC. Thus far the effort to do the same for white seems entirely lackluster
and that's why I'm trying to build a golos eldrazi tribal, 5 colors colorless, best of both worlds.
Same actually, Forsaken Monument is so strong with pain lands making them tap for 2 colorless or color fix when need be.
I have it built. It's also have Gates and Maze's End as a backup win incase people pillow fort
I ended up going with eldrazi/landfall/field of the dead swarm
Also consider morophon.
Oh no. I don't want to know the answer to this one.
I think part of the problem with mono White is "the social contract" in Commander. One of White's traditional strengths is that it has lots of ways to slow down or even stop opponents, & the symmetrical ones are usually narrow enough that the White player can build around them; just look at Death & Taxes decks in competitive formats. However, playing like that in Commander will often draw you a ton of hate, both in and out of the game. People don't want that, so they avoid those effects, which reduces the power of that color. Meanwhile, WotC spent many years having White lean on those effects, because that's something White does.
To be clear: I'm not saying we just need to accept stax strategies, & then mono White will be fine. I just think White wouldn't seem quite so weak if it weren't being hobbled like it is.
Very much this.
Red is actually one of the most powerful EDH colors because of Wheel effects and land destruction, but you really can't get it to work well without that land destruction. The problem being that land destruction is going to get you a ton of dirty looks from across the table, and if you do it often enough you're going to not get invited back to play with that group (I would know).
White is very much the same way. The good White effects will get a lot of hate from other players if you play them.
Not to mention Land Destruction
This is an interesting take. Probably a good way to refer to it would be "Which is the better color identity?"
that's not as clickbaity tho lol
This is true. However if that were the case then we couldn't memehate on white.
Mana rocks are worth extra mana when tapped as well with that one.
So it's another card to go infinite with basalt monolith.
Hey all I'm gonna say is, isn't it weird how most of the GOOD white commanders focus around colourless (*historic) cards... Sram, Teshar, Balan, Nahiri, Kemba, etc.
I mean, no? One of white's biggest strength's is its interaction with equipment and artifacts at large. That has been a core part of its identity for a long time now. So while any deck can be an equipment deck the color that does that best and is going to serve as the base for most of those decks is going to be white.
@@XCodes It's too bad the white artifacts they've made recently have all been garbage. While the other colors get Bolas' Citadel, the Great Henge, and Embercleave, white gets nothing of value as usual
I love the idea of white being the mediator. Basically taking everyone and putting them on the same level, or putting you on someone else's level. It's a super cool flavor but they hardly do that anymore.
Yeah, I agree, they need to unban Balance!
But seriously, W get great wipes, but it can't recover from any set back since it lacks card draw, and generally can't cast swingy spells unless it's running rocks, because it lacks ramp. UG can cast huge spells to recover from a wipe, B just has nastiness in general and can tutor up whatever else you need, R is probably the closest to W or colorless in that both struggle with recovery.
The thing is, W's _thing_ is mass removal, which is likely to take it's own stuff with it. This is fine if you're not mono-W, but if you are, you're up the creek likely. Top decking value weenies is just not going to win the game after a Wrath, you know what I mean? Adding in life gain is like putting a howitzer on a horse's back. Sure, it's a great gun, but the mounting is such that you can't actually use it.
Now that I really think about it, Balance is hardly more cruel than Cyclonic Rift. I'd love to slip Balance into an Esper deck actually, would do serious work.
@Nick Sheldon That's a main reason, to me, why white has a problem. Magic is a game about beating an opponent. The concept of "being on the same level" runs contrary to the central mechanical goal of the game.
@@MaxMckayful To me, white's other strengths, protecting YOUR stuff and slowing other players down, needs to be highlighted more. In that respect, White is already strong. Stax, pillowfort, hatebears, and noncreature permanent reanimation is how white breaks parity on its boardwipes. One of my favorite white deck combos is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (It doesn't have any mana symbols it's playable in colorless too), and Kormus Bell. Everyone can still play magic, but you get to be the anti-boardwipe player until you can land your land protection cards like Terra Eternal, Tomik, Distinguished Advokist, or Sacred Ground. Or till you can do it yourself and play Planar Rebirth or activate Shadowspear after playing Terra Eternal first.
The only other thing I'd like to see is indestructible/hexproof cantrips in white specifically. If they're gonna get card draw, reward them specifically for saving their stuff, or for participating in combat. They're the most militaristic color, it doesn't make sense why they wouldn't gain knowledge from battle.
#unbanbalance
for All is Dust, keep in mind that lands are considered colorless despite tapping for colored mana, meaning they won't be affected by anything calling for colored permanents
*I play painters servant*
You were saying?
It’s still insane
I run a Traxos, Scourge of Kroog deck and it's one of my strongest, fastest decks
I run a Karn, Silver Golem deck and it still needs a bit of help
Super fun deck.
@@Mizelei2012 if you play Karn already, try playing Bosh iron golem. You'll get a little help from red but it always feels good chucking huge artifacts at people lol. Karn is one of the more difficult artifact decks to build around.
@@chrispy6953 Yes, but I just really like it this way. The help it needed was just a little power boost like this forsaken monument. If I have this out I can turn my 3 CMC rocks into 5/5 creatures which is going to help a lot. I can turn my Vedalken Orrerry into a 6/6 and turn it sideways. The value in the deck is that I have lots of mana sinks and I'm always holding up mana in order to turn my darksteel artifacts into indestructible blockers.
@@chrispy6953 You are probably correct but I like the challenge of trying to make it work.
I've absolutely wrecked one of my friends colourless deck with my mono white deck, I was playing Eight and a half tails (Really underrated mono white house of a commander by the way) I had caged sun and a bunch of mana open. He cast all is dust I tap out about twelve mana turned everything on his board including his lands white and kozileck his commander... Think he had a random artifact left afterwards! XD
Amusingly hilarious
Ya know what white can do really well? Remove things. Colorless will go "okay, if I play these three mana rocks then I get to cast my 7-cmc removal spell" and white will just drop Swords to Plowshares.
Well path and swords exile creatures but that 7 mana removal exiles permanents, white has banishing light which cost 3 exiles nonland permanent and only as long as it stays on the battlefield, in zendikar we are getting legend that makes creatures lands so banishing light just turns off entirely.
Few artifacts that can be tapped to kill creatures (One can do any nonland permanent) combine with untap shenanigans qnd they get stupid
@@wednesday5229 well it exiles all creatures so you pretty much hurt yourself as much or more than your opponents because white kinda relies on creatures others not as much or can recover quicker than white.
@@wednesday5229 oh sorry, wrong argument, i was arguing with someone who was saying white is good. As for colorless yes colorless doesn't have many boardwipes
Martin Hrdlička well white is ahead of red and colorless in commander. Better removal and better single target removal
Going on from the Eldrazi thing, the other common archatype for colorless is artifacts which is quite strong. There are other ways to build colorless but with most people going in these directions maybe it helps contribute to this perception of more power.
My Grandma died to alzheimers earlier this year. Thank you, Commander's Quarters.
One really fun and tricky colorless commander a lot of people forget about, and really benefits from the monument a lot, is Hope of Ghirapur.
The single most evil 1 drop 1/1 in the game.
Another thing of note that sometime gets forgotten is an immediate price jump in any decent white card. If it is a card that ramps or draws it is probably going to be expensive or lackluster.
Edit: spelling
colorless has both Eldrazi and Artifacts as its main strengths when designing around it. The only place I find myself faulting whenever I build a colorless deck is removal and telegraphed disruption. Other than a surprise "All is Dust" all the removal requires high amounts of mana or some delayed effect my opponents don't even need to counter in order to disrupt or prepare for.
I made a colorless deck so people would be like "why would you do that?", plus I loved the idea of having a bunch of lands that do something random yet useful instead of having to worry about getting the right colors backed by an awesome commander.... I really do like Kozilek as a commander as he does pretty much everything you would want a creature to do (beat them down, some sort of protection, and draw power, with evasion to top it off).
Point is.... now I'm thinking of building a mono white deck to fulfill that original feeling of "why would you do that?" without making Avacyn the commander (though I probably will anyway because she's awesome).
Elesh norn is gooood for a similar reason small boardwipe plus a buff is good.
John Perseo yeah you’re right, but I kind of despise elesh norn. Lol
Always has been since zendikar
Not even close white is way better than colorless and red for that matter. Now red and colorless is a different question
I mean 2 out of the top 5 Mono white commander decks on EDHREC are artifact based being Sram and Teshar, and most Heliod deck run the ballista combo. Artifacts are the backbone to white as they either rely on ramping and closing out game, just my opinion from what I've played :)
Hey Mitch! Loved the discussion!
I recently built a colourless Kozilek deck as my 4th commander deck, inspired by Ashlen Rose on Game Knights, and I've got to say that it's my most powerful one by far.
The combination of utility lands with efficient artifact ramp, as well as some underrated cards like Walking Atlas and Voltaic Key/Manifold Key make it a force to be reckoned with. I can constantly get out Kozi by turn 4 to become the Archenemy and take over the game.
I'm really excited about seeing a new 'colour' of decks becoming viable in commander with this Zendikar release!
Blue: Draws Cards, mana ramps with green.
Green: Draws cards, mana ramps
Black: Draws cards, mana ramps with green
Red: Draws cards, mana ramps
Colorless: Draws cards, mana ramps
White: "Lack of card draw and mana ramp is a key weakness in white"
Translation: Winning games is a key weakness in white by design
Red has worse ramp than white and the card draw sucks. Also you’re missing the fact whites removal spells are the best in the game
@@peewee130946 Red does not have worse ramp than White. Red has a different SORT of ramp... but it s STILL RAMP. White's ramp WHEN IT GETS IT (BIG 'when') can be more traditional... but reds now got a standardized method of ramping that reliably appears in sets... and it has card draw via rummaging and now the whole 'draw then play the cards by the end of the turn' mechanic. Red and black are also much more mana EFFICIENT than white is... making them NEED the ramp a LOT LESS than white does.
White's removal isn't better than blacks... its too conditional, but it's got perhaps the second best removal in the game... allowing that it can oft remove things in a more broad sense... which might be good if it had enough mana to pay for them and wasn't behind on both the mana curve and card advantage by turn 2.
I'm really enjoying the Kozilek and Golos decks I put together with help from your vids. Just played em and Golos won the turn before Kozilek would come out.
Keeper of the Accord is the type of card MtG twitter is going to gas up for a while and then in 6 months, theyll ask eachother why is the Keeper so disappointing.
XCodes im just sick of this narrative that white should and is only about slow/incremental advantage. No explosive plays, thats why no ramp or card draw. Thats fucking nonesense when the fact of the matter is every other color can play multiple style and all have better consistency boosting cards that allows for those styles than white whose strictly forced into a lane and even the most basic of white white strategies require artifacts to prop everything up or else its just not playable.
vinnythewebsurfer whit used to get cards like Armageddon and Balance so mono white could catch up without drawing cards. White was meant to be a color of taxes and tyranny, but Wizards castrated the color and now it’s just “haha life gain go brrr”
@@somedudeontheinterwebs45 odd hot take on mono-white for EDH now that the player base is both large, and largely enfranchised: mass land destruction is perfectly acceptable.
The tools and knowledge to recover is there, and widely accessable. It's about time we all stopped playing this game with the kid gloves on, and learned how to play the game on hard mode.
@@andrewamann2821 Agreed.
Eight and a Half Tails laughs as she turns lands White and Ugin neg Zeros to wipe out lands.
As a colorless commander player myself, I’m so excited for this card. It’ll make my eldrazi better, the ramp into eldrazi better, every single land better, it’s just such a great card
Plus not the main perk but having any life gain in that deck is just ao useful
I may have made an Animar-Eldrazi deck last night and I’m waiting to see how that goes. This is certainly a convenient way of finding cards from my least familiar area of the colour pie (that being non-Orzhov colours)
Sram could helm an almost colourless deck of you focused on equipment instead of auras, and the bird guy whose name I can’t spell also
I have a colorless vintage deck that struggles to find table space. All that draw and mana ramp really fills up the battle field!
I have Kozilek the Great Distortion deck and he regularly scares everyone at the table for being to opressive so idk if it's better but you really can build it powerfully
Me, a Eldrazi fan:
Always has been
I honestly think that colorless does have a leg up on mono white. Even with the "protect all my stuff", colorless has Darksteel Forge, which is easily searchable in colorless. After a Cyclonic Rift, a colorless deck is much more likely to rebuild at a fast pace, whereas white is trying to piecemeal their board back together.
I was very shocked after building big ramp Kozilek. Besides extreme aggro Isamaru Voltron, I think colorless just may be better. The Kozilek build was just for fun, and it wound up being extremely fast at ramping to big threats and has a decent amount of synergy. We constantly discuss the Bauble here, but there’s nothing like getting unlimited mana from voltaic key/servant and a monolith. Draw and play the whole deck if you have an artifact or land out that allows you to pay to draw cards without tapping. Even without the combos, the mega ramping pretty much plays itself. Now with these new cards... likely better than mono-white in most builds.
I have a pretty mean Elesh Norn commander deck, so I kinda like Mono White, but it does have its issues. I like the philosophy behind colourless cards: versatility, independence from any colour or flavour (at the cost of a higher converted CMC)... I believe that a well tuned colourless deck can be pretty powerful (Just imagine Kozilek, the Great Distortion as a commander), but the price is bound to go up, while with mono white you can have a pretty decent deck with a lower budget. I think.
Its literally just a colorless mirari's wake with a golem's heart glued to it, I love it
My 2 absolute favorite decks are my colorless Traxos Deck and my Mono White Djeru deck. But I like Traxos more
A friend in my playgroup won 2 games in a row with Elesh Norn against 3 partner CEDH decks. Mono white can work but there's just not as many good white cards as good colorless cards, but the good ones, like smothering tithe and path to exile, and serra Ascendant, are really good
The problem with colorless is lack of inatant speed interaction/spells. And there is interaction but at higher cmc and often requires multiple cards. Solution fast mana which now places you in high cost deck which includes mana crypts , workshop and other expensive lands , hence "colorless" decks typically are red or blue
White has access to board wipes for everything though: so many against creatures, artifacts and enchantments in cleansing nova, lands in armageddon and fall of thran. Sure maybe not drawing cards is definitely a downside to playing white but playing devil's advocate, I feel they make up for it by the sheer amount of removal pieces they have. Dare I say the only reason white is the weakest color is because a mono white boardwipe tribal deck is looked down upon by other colors because "blowing up everyone's lands isn't fair."
Oh my god, this. White is THE BEST REMOVAL color. It has the most versatile answers of any color and has countless ways to clean the table. All the other colors have access to some amounts too, but not in the volume white does.
The problem is not that it doesn't have great removals. The problem that it's counterintuitive - its two main strategies: symetrical effects and massing creatures - goes against each other. What do you do after you wiped the board? This is why BW or UW are so solid: With black you don't mind killing your own creatures because of recursion. With blue you can refill your hand. But what mono white suppose to do? It suffers the most from its own strategy. There is a reason why so many people complain about this issue and don't play mono white. It puts you in a serious disadvantage.
Shot Mitch. My mum died from alzheimers so I appreciate you shouting that out 💟
another point about the Gauntlet of Power is that it simply says "creatures of the chosen color" Not "Creatures you control of the chosen color" So it buffs your opponent's creatures of whatever color you pick as well, whereas forsaken monument only buffs your own creatures, which is another point in the card's favor.
I would put the question down to one thing: flexibility. Colorless really doesn't have much in terms of flexibility. Sure, there are some big stompy Eldrazi...but you can see those coming a mile away and know exactly what they are going to do and approximately when. White has ways to manipulate the board. Colorless...not so much.
And to those folks who think that colorless commanders are all the rage...when is the last time you've seen that Hope of Ghirapur deck in action?
I've found colorless can do anything any color can just for a little more Mana or using a combo. Also I'm literally the only person I know to play colorless.
100%. Colorless is a great mono-“color” deck type. I run a Kozilek deck, and I frequently have big guys out by turn 5. There’s plenty of support for this strategy.
And then you get destroyed by austere command
Pee Wee that’s ran in 12% of the meta? How about a Warping Wail.
Joel literally any artifact board wipe ruins the Kozilek deck
Joel i don’t even know why I let you get away with this. 12% is a lot that means 1 out of every 10 decks you see will play it
Pee Wee I’ll take my chances, guy. Lol. Your argument is that one card can destroy a strategy.. like a grafdiggers cage for reanimator decks, but the probability is low that you’d have an austere command at the right time just as much as the probability is low that I’d pull the “nut draw” and go off by turn 3. It doesn’t matter. So what?
I have a colorless Kozilek the great distortion deck and it is undoubtedly very powerful and super fun in my opinion
How many colorless cards can you put into a deck with a Mono-White commander before it becomes a colorless deck? 60? 70? 99?
I've made a mono white deck full of colorless just to joke that whites not that bad after winning.
im really surprised that Heliod sun crowned wasnt mentioned and card draw you just need well of lost dreams added to your deck, plus heliod and answered prayers is fantastic
mana rocks are usually also better in colorless, because you dont have to play rocks that make colored mana
Mindstone is better then a signet and thran dynamo is just extremly efficient
I've gone again 5 color decks with my God Eternal Oketra deck and have NO COMPLAINTS! Her specifically, she's a beast!
I'm sure this is an incredibly stupid question but I am a new subscriber and do not know where to see the deck lists for the budget decks you create. Any help would be greatly appreciated and keep up the awesome work!
Not a dumb question at all! There should be a link in the description of each episode that has a link to all of the deck lists
Colorless is the coolest color combination! Eldrazi, artifacts, utility lands, Ugin, all is dust, and wayfarer’s bauble!
I wish wizards gave us colorless commander decks
As white is my favorite color in magic, im glad WotC is working on bolstering it's power but it is sad to see that the argument that colorless is almost more powerful than white can be made.
In the 2060 video flashback, there’s a PleasantKenobi symbol, does he have a youtube?!?!?!
I've built Ugin for brawl and it wins FAR more games than it should. And that's just with the limited card pool of standard.
I love how Mitch thinks outside the box :)
I just noticed Bonders’ Enclave, apparently I missed it. Do you think it’s worth putting it in Goreclaw? Although I do have stuff like Beast Whisperer and Return of the Wildspeaker which are pretty good card draw.
If you are able to keep a balance between Utility- and Basic Lands, why not? 3 Mana to draw every turn isn't half bad i think
Armata Strigoi *at the Ghost River* yeah, and it’s in green anyway, mana is plentiful.
@@necrogenesis1981 that's true ^^ i would say, go for it
Honestly I think colorless is stronger because of things like Tron lands and good rocks tap for colorless so they can make The over costed draw work
I think Mono White vs. Colorless is a largely a difference in playstyles brought about by the best commanders of each. The best white commanders tend to be low to the ground with incremental advantages, or otherwise stax builds. Colorless tend to be the Eldrazi Titans and go very big. These are very different in how they want to win a game and thus difficult to compare. Honestly I think the thing that holds Mono white back the most in this scenario is that casual players generally avoid playing stax effects but the Timmy's love them some bombs. The result of this dynamic is that Colorless "seems" better than Mono White in many circumstances, but I think if played competitively Mono White would be better.
Watching this video makes me want to build a colorless deck now. Neat.
Colorless decks are generally some of the most expensive around because they rely on an all-artifact ramp package and high-cost spells to interact with other decks. The eldrazi are powerful, but you need a lot of ramp to play them, and that ramp isn't cheap.
It's like The Great Henge for non-green decks (sort of)
Not to mention that colorless has a much easier time "ramping". I built Morophon eldrazi deck thats pretty sick actually and i noticed just how many cost reduction options colorless has. I feel like mono colorless has a better time ramping than mono white for sure but it could also be better than mono red or blue. a lot to think about
btw the morophon deck is super cool i can consistently have all of my eldrazi cost 2-6 less and that's not including Morophon's ability
White has well costed unconditional removal for all types something no other color does as well
Black and blue come close with black now gaining enchantment hate, but I hope that was a fluke and blue having counterpsells, but once it hits blue is in trouble often needing 2 spells a bounce and a counter to deal with it.
Considering building a colorless deck with Isamaru as its commander.
Does Golos tron with green ramp, white flicker but colourless creatures only count as colourless? :)
I didn’t even watch the video yet and I am BALLIN’!!!!!!
I think you make a very good and interesting argument but I think their are some elements you are missing. In terms of spot removal and board wipes White is one of the best and even if colorless is better on average at ramp and card draw it isn’t buy much as most colorless cards with those effects are over costed and this is especially true with removal and board wipes. White’s mana advantage most of the time is it needing to spend a lot of mana on individual spells so if colorless wants to succeed over it then the deck needs to be filled with ramp mostly in the form of cheap mana rocks. This can be great for a commander like Kozilek which can do everything but most other colorless commanders are too expensive in terms of mana to be worth it imo. This is just my analysis but I could be very wrong.
I can see where you're coming from. I'd personally prefer to run a colorless deck than a mono-white deck.
I've often asked who is better Rhys the Redemned or Oviya Pashiri Sage Lifecrafter?
Honorable mention is Nautiloid ship. Nobody is talking about this card & it can go in any deck 👌🏾
That monument would be really good if you spark doubled it (after turning it into a creature with Karn). Multiple would be crazy
What about Caged Sun in mono-white?
KCI loops, infinite tap/untap chains, flash, indiscriminate removal, a perfect lockout, and some of the most powerful creatures in the game. Is colorless "now" more powerful than mono-white? It has been more powerful since at least the Eldrazi titans, if not earlier.
They ought to release a creature like this:
Wayfaring Thaumaturgist - 1W - Monk - 1/2
W, Pay 10 life, Tap: Search your library for a basic Plains card and put it into the battlefield tapped.
Hey Mitch I heard this from my cousin, but thinks for confirming that you are from our state. Maybe I will see you around after things let up and play a game somewhere.
Forsaken Monument was simply a throwback to the Eldrazi, kind of a "goodbye" card for them since there's a ton of people who hasn't learned they have to sleeve removal to avoid getting annihilated into an empty board.
Also, Colorless is no where near White's flexibility to deal with permanents, sure, you have Scour from Reality, but that's 7 mana compared to 1 white mana to exile a creature with Swords to Plowshares, or 1W to use a Disenchant.
Colorless completely lacks the amount of redundancy to make a commander deck that isn't focused on ramping towards a big Eldrazi or any artifact combo anyway.
The "only" thing colorless is "better" than white at, it's at ramping, and it's because of the mana rocks, but so we can say that about blue, red and black too, given than green is the only color that has decent ramp.
Think part of the problem is that a lot of white cards are built around playing from behind. I mean, by the time you close the gap your opponents are 1 to 2 turns ahead of you.
Mitch, are you from the Minnesota area?
Forsaken Monument is being printed in preparation for Innistrad lmao
I think white definitely is better than colorless but anotheer interesting topis is which individual color has the strongest cards, because lots of powerhouse cards have white inntheir mana cost, the only thing is that it lacks card draw and ramp, but it has amazing removal, board wipes, protection, and abilitys
I want to put that forsaken monument in my Morophon Devoid deck- Eldrazi tribal with none of the legendary eldrazi for fun
You need at least one Wastes in your colorless land base so you could go get it with Wayfarer's Bauble.
I ordered a Forsaken Monument for my Colorless EDH Deck as soon as I saw the spoiler. It’s a great card. I really enjoy playing colorless. Is it good? Meh. I really don’t know. The table usually targets me and knocks me out ASAP. They are afraid of me, I guess.
What a topic
Forsaken monument could benefit a white deck. All you need is some "waste lands," and perhaps some lands that tap for colorless with an ability. Mono white bounce would tap for 3 mana. It would also benefit all colorless creatures you run in your mono white deck.
If the five dots on the pig logo represent the colors of mana does the coin represent colorless mana?
I really enjoy playing mono-white. However, let's not forget that a portion of mono-white cards are hated and/or discouraged in commander. While some other portions people hate playing against. I am talking about land destruction, stacks cards, and board wipes. So maybe let's rephrase it from Mono-white is weak to, peoples fealing are weak. I bet land decks wouldn't be such a problem to deal with if people started punishing them more. :)
I think people totally sleep on teshar, ancestors apostle. Mono white artifacts. Literally CEDH viable, if you build it that way (it’s on the CEDH decklist database). Super powerful mono white deck.
Also, extraplanar lens + wastes is a real god damn treat.
mono white isnt bad. its just that evryone starts crying when u play stax
Technically could run this in a colored deck if you want to run the newer eldrazi that have devoid making them colorless
As a heavy colorless player (since 1996), the only advantage i will give mono white is weenie creatures. Just the sheer number. But colorless has HoG. And Ornithopter. And Memnite. So.........
Just a comment for the algorithm. Reprint Wayfarer's Bauble!