<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aura of Silence" href="#" target="_blank">Aura of Silence</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="http://dalexandergregory.com/">D. Alexander Gregory</a>)</h6>
<h1>Bringing Them Down to Our Level</h1>
<p>Greetings, everyone, and welcome back to <em>Monomania</em>. In this article series we build mono-colored decks as a way to explore ramp and draw packages that are synergistic with our particular deck’s strategy, challenging staples and misconceptions about the color pie. Today, we’re examining another way to make mono-white work in Commander. This time, we’re leaning into the color’s meanest tendencies.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hokori, Dust Drinker"></div></div>
<p>The seemingly abject struggle of mono-white in EDH has been topical very recently within the Commander community. While white has been the weakest mono-color option for a long time, it seems that over the last year every color except white has received interesting commander options that are tuned to our format. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Urza, Lord High Artificer" href="#" target="_blank">Urza, Lord High Artificer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Syr Konrad, the Grim" href="#" target="_blank">Syr Konrad, the Grim</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded" href="#" target="_blank">Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gargos, Vicious Watcher" href="#" target="_blank">Gargos, Vicious Watcher</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> are all unique generals that can go toe-to-toe with powerful multi-color commanders. Sure, the new <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Heliod, Sun-Crowned" href="#" target="_blank">Heliod, Sun-Crowned</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has combo potential, but the mono-white options from the last year have all seemed bland and uninspired.</p>
<p>Personally, I enjoy playing mono-white, but I also recognize that there are only a handful of fun options for the command zone. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle" href="#" target="_blank">Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mangara of Corondor" href="#" target="_blank">Mangara of Corondor</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> both gesture toward unique, powerful strategies that are flavorfully white, where <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Linden, the Steadfast Queen" href="#" target="_blank">Linden, the Steadfast Queen</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> does not.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hokori, Dust Drinker" href="#" target="_blank">Hokori, Dust Drinker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> highlights another aspect of white that can be productive if built correctly. It won’t make you any friends, however.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kismet"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Winter Orb"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ethersworn Canonist"></div></div>
<p>Instead of putting itself ahead, white likes to bring others down. If you can’t draw cards, why not restrict how your opponents’ use their cards with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eidolon of Rhetoric" href="#" target="_blank">Eidolon of Rhetoric</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rule of Law" href="#" target="_blank">Rule of Law</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>? If you can’t ramp, why not tax your opponents with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aura of Silence" href="#" target="_blank">Aura of Silence</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> or <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ghostly Prison" href="#" target="_blank">Ghostly Prison</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>?</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hokori, Dust Drinker" href="#" target="_blank">Hokori, Dust Drinker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is the embodiment of this area of white's wheelhouse. This is a stax commander, essentially a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Winter Orb" href="#" target="_blank">Winter Orb</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> effect, and leads to a deck that aims to prevent your opponents from playing the game. As any good degenerate knows, there are ways to break the symmetry of this effect to give yourself a distinct advantage. In this deck, for example, we will rely heavily on artifact mana sources rather than lands. In fact, the lands in our deck are mostly for show. We’ll be bouncing them, sacrificing them, or pitching them to <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Abolish" href="#" target="_blank">Abolish</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This style of deck is extremely polarizing. I both don’t recommend building this sort of list and I don’t play it myself. With all that being said, let’s get into it and see how we’ll ruin everyone’s day.</p>
<hr />
<h2>Surrogate Mana</h2>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hokori, Dust Drinker" href="#" target="_blank">Hokori, Dust Drinker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is one of those commanders that requires an intensive ramp package. The major theme of this deck is breaking symmetry—playing so many mana rocks that the stax component of our strategy only minimally affects us.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Marble Diamond"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Darksteel Ingot"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Tooth of Ramos"></div></div>
<p>We need white mana to cast most of our spells. For this reason, I’ve crammed as many white-producing mana rocks into this deck as I could possibly justify. Without white mana rocks, we might catch ourselves in the same situation as our opponents: with a hand full of uncastable cards. From <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Coldsteel Heart" href="#" target="_blank">Coldsteel Heart</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> to <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Arcane Signet" href="#" target="_blank">Arcane Signet</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, I’ve included eleven mana rocks that can produce white mana.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Worn Powerstone"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hedron Archive"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Thran Dynamo"></div></div>
<p>On the other hand, we also need efficient mana rocks that can pump out a lot of colorless mana at a time. Because we’re only untapping one land a turn, we want to produce enough mana to continue on at a regular clip. This becomes even more important when our opponents will most likely point everything they have in our direction. Nobody likes the stax player. To combat the combined resources of three players, we need access to triple the amount of mana that they have access to.</p>
<hr />
<h2>Fake Friends</h2>
<p>Because we’ll be choking our opponents on mana, chances are that they'll be unable to cast more than one spell a turn, if they can even cast one to begin with. As such, our draw package can also break the symmetry of the game in an interesting way. If we play symmetrical draw effects, we can hopefully strand unplayable cards in our opponents’ hands.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Otherworld Atlas"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Howling Mine"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Font of Mythos"></div></div>
<p>This style of effect is exactly what we need to keep the card advantage flowing. Group Hug staples become something much more sinister here. These cards give our opponents all of their toys but prohibit them from playing with them, many to be discarded at the end of turn. The goal of this deck is to be able to play these extra cards out of our hand faster than any opponent. That is our path to victory.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Truce"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Temporary Truce"></div></div>
<p>Finally, here are two symmetrical card advantage effects that few people have seen at a Commander pod. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Truce" href="#" target="_blank">Truce</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is being played in 219 decks, while <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Temporary Truce" href="#" target="_blank">Temporary Truce</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> only makes it into 66 lists. Looking through their EDHREC pages, they’re both seeing play exclusively with Group Hug commanders such as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Phelddagrif" href="#" target="_blank">Phelddagrif</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis" href="#" target="_blank">Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. While I like Group Hug, I think these two cards are much better with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hokori, Dust Drinker" href="#" target="_blank">Hokori, Dust Drinker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<hr />
<h2>The Deck</h2>
<p>Now that we have the foundation set, let’s look at the rest of the deck. Again, I don’t advocate for building this deck. I’ve never had fun playing or playing against stax. But, if you want to be mean, and the group you know will let you get away with it, maybe play around with this commander. As always, season to taste.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Misers&#039; Cage"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Luminarch Ascension"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Winds of Abandon"></div></div>
<p>Among the other notable inclusions here we have a suite of effects that drain our opponents' life totals when we strand cards in their hand. If we have the game locked down, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Misers&#039; Cage" href="#" target="_blank">Misers&#039; Cage</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Iron Maiden" href="#" target="_blank">Iron Maiden</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Viseling" href="#" target="_blank">Viseling</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can be win conditions over the course of a very long game. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Luminarch Ascension" href="#" target="_blank">Luminarch Ascension</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is probably my favorite win condition for white control decks—it's resilient, cheap, and puts a fast clock on the table.</p>
<p>Finally, I’ve included a few Hokori-specific removal spells such as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Winds of Abandon" href="#" target="_blank">Winds of Abandon</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Settle the Wreckage" href="#" target="_blank">Settle the Wreckage</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. With Hokori, the lands fetched by these two incredibly potent removal spells becomes almost nonexistent. Lands are irrelevant, so a four-mana mass exile effect is well above the curve. In addition, because of how we value lands, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lotus Field" href="#" target="_blank">Lotus Field</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lotus Vale" href="#" target="_blank">Lotus Vale</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Karoo" href="#" target="_blank">Karoo</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> are some of the best cards in our deck. Because we only untap one land per turn, having that land be a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lotus Field" href="#" target="_blank">Lotus Field</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> maximizes our mana potential in a given turn.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Mean-Spirited" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Ethersworn Canonist
*1 Thalie, Heretic Cathar
*1 Loxodon Gatekeeper
*1 Viseling
*1 Windborn Muse
*1 Chancellor of the Annex
[/Creatures]
[Instants]
*1 Condemn
*1 Dispatch
*1 Enlightened Tutor
*1 Gods Willing
*1 Path to Exile
*1 Rebuff the Wicked
*1 Sheltering Light
*1 Swords to Plowshares
*1 Ephemeral Shields
*1 Shelter
*1 Valorous Stance
*1 Abolish
*1 Forsake the Worldly
*1 Generous Gift
*1 Truce
*1 Apostle&#039;s Blessing
*1 Crush Contraband
*1 Return to Dust
*1 Settle the Wreckage
[/Instants]
[Sorceries]
*1 Temporary Truce
*1 Winds of Abandon
*1 Citywide Bust
*1 Slaughter the Strong
*1 Austere Command
[/Sorceries]
[Artifacts]
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Coldsteel Heart
*1 Fellwar Stone
*1 Howling Mine
*1 Lightning Greaves
*1 Marble Diamond
*1 Prismatic Lens
*1 Sphere of the Suns
*1 Star Compass
*1 Swiftfoot Boots
*1 Winter Orb
*1 Commander&#039;s Sphere
*1 Crawlspace
*1 Crystal Chimes
*1 Darksteel Ingot
*1 Iron Maiden
*1 Misers&#039; Cage
*1 Temple Bell
*1 Tooth of Ramos
*1 Worn Powerstone
*1 Font of Mythos
*1 Hedron Archive
*1 Otherworld Atlas
*1 Thran Dynamo
*1 Gilded Lotus
[/Artifacts]
[Enchantments]
*1 Land Tax
*1 Luminarch Ascension
*1 Aura of Silence
*1 Ghostly Prison
*1 Endless Horizons
*1 Kismet
*1 Smothering Tithe
[/Enchantments]
[Lands]
*1 Ancient Den
*1 Arch of Orazca
*1 Buried Ruin
*1 Darksteel Citadel
*1 Desert of the True
*1 Drifting Meadow
*1 Emergence Zone
*1 Field of Ruin
*1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
*1 Ghost Quarter
*1 Glacial Chasm
*1 Icatian Store
*1 Inventors&#039; Fair
*1 Karoo
*1 Kor Haven
*1 Lotus Field
*1 Lotus Vale
*1 Maze of Ith
*1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
*12 Plains
*1 Rishadan Port
*1 Secluded Steppe
*1 Strip Mine
*1 Tectonic Edge
*1 Wasteland
[/Lands]"></span></div>

<hr />
<p>What do you all think? I’m genuinely very curious to hear about your experiences with stax. Have you played it? Does a friend play it? How does <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hokori, Dust Drinker" href="#" target="_blank">Hokori, Dust Drinker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> stack up? Am I evil for even whispering its name? Let me know in the comments below! Remember to EDHREC responsibly: always dig a little beyond the statistics. I’ll see you all on down the road.</p>


truce

Monomania – Mean-Spirited