Baldin, Century Herdmaster | Art by Zoltan Boros

Welcome back to Bottom of the Barrel, where we pick a theme from EDHREC, look at the least played color combination(s), and pick a commander in that identity to brew a spicy new deck around!

Today's theme is a favorite of The Command Zone's Josh Lee Kwai: card draw. Card draw is something that all decks need in order to function, but what if we focused our strategies specifically on drawing cards? I know what you're thinking; "Okay, so we're playing some blue commander?" Wrong. As a matter of fact, our commander is in a color that, until recently, people would make fun of for its lack of card draw ability: white. Mono-white, specifically.

According to EDHREC, there are only 73 decks in the database in mono-white that fit the "card draw" theme. Enter: Baldin.

Baldin was originally printed as a character from the Street Fighter Secret Lair, but was given the Universes Within treatment. On its face, it seems like it cares about creatures with high toughness, but its second line of text is where we're going to focus. Depending on our hand size, our creatures effectively get that much bigger in combat, which seems crazy.

Put this card in blue and you have a deck that builds itself, but the fact that this effect is mono-white is what drew me to this commander. It feels white, but it explores a design space that is fresh and new.

Let's begin.

Category #1: Drawing Cards

While building this deck, Archidekt lovingly told me that I had 25 sources of draw. 25. That's insane for mono-white. The cool thing about this group of cards is that they all help accomplish our goal in very different ways: some draw cards from small creatures entering the battlefield (Mentor of the MeekMentor of the Meek, Welcoming VampireWelcoming Vampire, and Enduring InnocenceEnduring Innocence), some draw cards when our opponents meet a certain condition (Mangara, the DiplomatMangara, the Diplomat, Trouble in PairsTrouble in Pairs, and Wedding RingWedding Ring); and some are creatures that draw cards when they enter play (Helpful HunterHelpful Hunter, Spirited CompanionSpirited Companion, and SkyscannerSkyscanner).

These are only nine cards from the 25 that help us fulfill our gameplan, but we also have a group of mana rocks that can draw us cards as well. Throne of EldraineThrone of Eldraine is so good that it's 30 dollars, and Hedron ArchiveHedron Archive and Commander's SphereCommander's Sphere are two rocks that don't get enough love these days.

Category #2: Things to Pump

Drawing cards is only 1 part of our gameplan, as we need to make sure that we have creatures to pump with our commander's ability. The easiest way to reach this goal is to lean into one of white's strengths: token creation. Arguably the best token creator in our deck is Charismatic ConquerorCharismatic Conqueror, even though it'll probably annoy everyone and is currently 30 dollars.

Outside of Charismatic Conqueror, we have an absolute heater at the top end with Ancient Gold DragonAncient Gold Dragon, an underrated uncommon from Tarkir: Dragonstorm in Dalkovan PackbeastsDalkovan Packbeasts, God-Eternal OketraGod-Eternal Oketra (need I say more?), a literal goat-maker in Springjack ShepherdSpringjack Shepherd, and an underrated gem from Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander, March of the CanonizedMarch of the Canonized.

Category #3: "Secret Spice" 1 and 2

Since we spent so much of our deck focusing on the first 2 categories, our remaining cards outside of traditional ramp are our "secret spice." Our first "secret spice" is a pretty popular commander with 4200 decks on EDHREC: Delney, Streetwise LookoutDelney, Streetwise Lookout.

Delney works on two axes in our deck:

1. It doubles our commander's attack trigger because he has 0 power; and
2. It will double any triggers from our other lower power creatures. Spoiler alert: this deck is mostly creatures with power 2 or less.

Outside of a generically good card, this next one might be my spiciest include in this series...

Loxodon Lifechanter.

If we wait until our second main phase to cast this creature, our life total might just double. Hell, it might even triple. On top of that crazy "enters" trigger, its second ability is pretty nuts too. We can pump it at instant speed equal to our life total, which will no doubt force our opponents to block it, allowing for our other threats to smash in. That's what I call combat value!

Closing Thoughts

This series doesn't often explore mono-colored commanders, but I think it should do it more often! Restriction breeds creativity, after all, and this deck is a shining example of that!

Thank you so much for coming with me on this journey with an underrated commander; I hope you're inspired to build your own mono-white card draw deck!

Check out my decklist below!