Minwu, White MageMinwu, White Mage | Art by Josu Hernaiz

One of the things I love about Universes Beyond is that, even though none of the universes Magic has gone to have spoken to me yet, there are a lot of cool legends that show creativity in design and add to the card pool in intriguing ways. As a result, I choose to see them as unique game pieces rather than delving into the lore of a series of games I’ll never play. One of my favorite games to play during spoiler season is to try to find legends that either add layers to existing cards, or commons and uncommons that provide a critical mass of effects to enable existing strategies. One of the commanders that caught my eye in Final Fantasy is Minwu, White MageMinwu, White Mage.

Minwu provides support for a classic typal strategy, Clerics. Clerics have been around since the beginning of Magic, seeing particular success in Onslaught, where they were primarily in white with some black. They have historically had a connotation with life gain, although some of their common abilities, like Soul WardenSoul Warden’s, have occasionally been shared with Wizards, Citizens, and non-occupation creature types. As a result, our Minwu, White MageMinwu, White Mage deck will have Clerics and cards that have abilities that work with them.

What Does Minwu, White Mage Do?

The first thing that likely sticks out about Minwu is the prohibitively expensive five-mana casting cost. For a spell to be worth spending that kind of mana in today’s spell economy, it needs to be a curve-topping threat, and Minwu fits that role well. Unfortunately, Minwu does not seem to dominate combat at first glance, despite having both lifelink and vigilance, as the power and toughness are both three. It's worth noting, however, that the last ability, which puts a +1/+1 counter on all Clerics includes itself, so it can act as a much bigger Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate that boosts the whole team.

While there are other options for Cleric commanders, most of them happen to be Clerics, but don’t provide a payoff for what Clerics do. For example, Taborax, Hope's DemiseTaborax, Hope's Demise is a mono-black Cleric commander, but it only cares about Clerics dying, which doesn’t really capture what Clerics do. Orah, Skyclave HierophantOrah, Skyclave Hierophant is an Orzhov Cleric commander, which has the benefit of adding to the color identity so there are more playable cards. It also cares about death triggers of Clerics, although it adds an element of white by reanimating them as well. Both Taborax and Orah are interesting engines, but neither provides a payoff, meaning that their decks take a lot of game actions without contributing meaningfully to winning the game in a timely manner.

What Minwu does that is unique to other Cleric commanders is that it supports an archetype that Clerics feature prominently in: Soul Sisters. In fact, Minwu gives Soul Sisters something it desperately needs: a clock. Soul Sisters consist of Soul WardenSoul Warden, Soul's AttendantSoul's Attendant, and similar creatures that gain life each time a creature enters the battlefield. In fact, most of those effects trigger for each player, which can get out of hand quickly in a game of Commander. Unfortunately, these creatures are usually small, so the life buffer is similar to a high Hit Points stat in Pokemon; it helps to soak up damage but not to prevent it, so the deck struggles to turn the corner after getting punched in the mouth due to a lack of dealing meaningful or consistent damage.

The layers of counters turns our small creatures into threats and can even make crazy combinations, especially with the new job select Equipments that can turn creatures like Hangarback WalkerHangarback Walker into powerful exhaust if we decide to go in a more combo-heavy route.

Key Cards for Minwu, White Mage

One set of cards that’s key for a Soul Sisters deck is…the Soul Sisters. Soul WardenSoul Warden and Soul's AttendantSoul's Attendant are the namesake cards of the archetype, but there are actually close to 20 cards that provide a similar effect. Some are Clerics, some aren’t (like Lifecreed DuoLifecreed Duo), and some aren’t even creatures (Ajani's WelcomeAjani's Welcome). We need as many copies of this ability as we can find, as it’s the bread-and-butter of the deck. This means accepting some off-curve and somewhat disappointing options, like Angelic ChorusAngelic Chorus, in order to make sure we see multiple copies every game.

Soul Sisters decks are notorious for being slow, trigger-heavy, and a bit frustrating to play against. This is where Minwu comes in, as the White Mage provides a payoff for the lifegain. But our commander isn’t alone. Archangel of ThuneArchangel of Thune is arguably the most powerful card in the deck, removing the limit on Clerics that our commander has, while also being a flying attacker. Nykthos ParagonNykthos Paragon adds to the counters flying around, and, like the other cards that provide layers of counters, triggers for each Soul WardenSoul Warden activation.

While the majority of the deck is designed around gaining life and payoffs of life gain, we do have a couple of other important roles to fill. Since we need a critical mass of triggers and payoffs, as well as ways to keep our triggers flowing, we need card draw. The majority of that draw is tied to creatures entering the battlefield, like Mentor of the MeekMentor of the Meek, enabling us to maximize the ETB triggers that we're already building around with the Soul Sisters. The other major role we need is board protection, as we need permanents to stick around in order to stack abilities and develop a board presence.

Dawn seems to be an ideal time of day for Clerics, as both Dawn CharmDawn Charm and Dawn's TruceDawn's Truce can protect our board, and Dawn of HopeDawn of Hope is a card draw effect that capitalizes off of our life gain.

How Does This Minwu, White Mage Commander Deck Win?

Our Minwu deck uses the commander to take a notoriously nebulous archetype and give it a pretty clear win condition: building a board and pushing combat damage with Nykthos ParagonNykthos Paragon effects. Gain life, turn that life into power, and use that power to bash opponents’ faces is a much cleaner win condition than trying to draw into and protect Felidar SovereignFelidar Sovereign or hope the table lets our life total stay high enough to fire the Death Star of an Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir shot to the face. (Still waiting on a Star Wars Universes Beyond, by the way, but, with Marvel coming up, there’s hope.)

If you're looking for a more combo-based build, or one at a higher power level, you could add Hangarback WalkerHangarback Walker to combine with Heliod, Sun-CrownedHeliod, Sun-Crowned to mow down opponents. Two-card combinations and ways to find them would increase the power level, however, and this one is low enough to play at casual or semi-competitive tables, such as those running similarly strong and supported creature types, like Dragons, Elves, or even Slivers. This build should be able to hold its own at any of those tables.

Minwu, White Mage Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This is a fairly fast and aggressive typal deck, with its speed and board protection serving as positive traits while it’s hindered a bit by a relative lack of removal or recovery. We want to be pushing the pace from the beginning, putting out Soul Wardens instead of building up mana. As a result, our curve is relatively low, with our commander as a curve-topping threat. Minwu sits back until there are enough counters for it to bully other creatures in combat, slowly building up counters until we have an overwhelming board presence.

This deck is for those who enjoy triggers and counters, as well as those who like taking a picture of beautifully spread out board states. It does take some focus to follow all of the interactions and triggers while maintaining board state, so I’d recommend taking it out when you have the energy and space to do so. When you do, it’s a lot of fun, and it shows just how powerful monocolored strategies can be!