White is one of the three colors I rarely play on its own. So, most of the white cards I've collected over the years have been outstanding support cards like Sword to Plowshares and Land Tax.
That's not going to cut it.
My objective is to build a representative cube for Commander deckbuilding, and that means I need enough white cards to build a good, mono-colored deck with a strong theme, but with enough range to play nicely with the other colors.
Let's take a look at the white cards I recently added to the cube:
Sun Titan
This guy is nutty. All the titans have a strong color-theme and make appearances in every other column of my cube, except in green where Primeval Titan is banned. As a 6/6 for 6 mana with vigilance, Sun Titan has decent board presence, but that's not the good stuff. The good stuff is his ability to return permanents from my graveyard to the battlefield. It's neat, on-theme, incremental card advantage that supports a lot of different strategies.
Silverblade Paladin
Soulbond is a spectacular ability. They really outdid themselves with this one. Not only do "creatures matter," which is an important part of keeping the game on the battlefield, but I can use creatures to give abilities to other creatures that wouldn't normally have those abilities. Silverblade Paladin bonds to give double strike, which can create interesting game states and combat outcomes. Getting double value out of combat damage triggers is a fun mini-game.
Entreat the Angels
I'm probably going overboard with cards like this in my cube, but for now Entreat the Angels joins White Sun's Zenith and Decree of Justice as X token producers. Let's build an army.
Wall of Omens
This card replaces itself for 2 mana (like cycling!), except it leaves behind a 0/4 wall. This can deter small attacks in the early game or come back from the graveyard in various ways to buy time and draw another card.
Marshal's Anthem
For 4 mana, this enchantment gives my creatures +1/+1. But the multikicker is what makes this card a good time. For each additional 2 mana I spend, I get to bring a creature back from my graveyard. Bringing creatures back is a good way to get additional value out of triggers or to re-buy my best guys. This card scales up with the amount of mana available, so it's reasonable to expect to pay 8 mana for the card and to get two creatures back for my trouble.
Spear of Heliod
The Spear is a nice, low-cost permanent that gives all of my creatures +1/+1. With a token swarm, a small boost like this can add up to a large amount of additional power. It can also be "thrown" to take out a creature that hits me. Leaving mana open means my opponent might think twice about attacking me instead of pointing his favorite creature at someone else.
Heliod, God of the Sun
Lookie here. It's the spear god himself. The newer gods are (almost) all perfect for representing on-theme colors by acting as quasi-creatures and giving flavorful abilities. This guy gives my army vigilance, which is a great way to get extra mileage out of my attack step, and can slowly build up a token army of 2-power guys. If I happen to have devotion, he steps in as a 5-power indestructible creature to layeth down the smack.
Cathars' Crusade
Coupled with the spells that generate token armies, this enchantment is a perfect way to end stalemates without combo. With this out, a cycled Decree of Justice for 6 makes for a surprising and sudden savage army. Each of my 6 new soldiers gets 6 +1/+1 counters for a total of 6, 7-power creatures. That should put a dent in just about anything.
Jazal Goldmane
Speaking of making armies big, this guy is leading the charge with the ability to turn an attacking army into an unstoppable force. As a 4/4 with first strike for 4 mana, Jazal is a capable cat, but his ability to rally the troops is something to behold. For 5 mana, an attacking token swarm gets a huge boost and crashes into whatever is in the way. Note that Jazal himself does not have to attack to activate his ability, so you can safely hold him back from harm and send the tokens in to get the job done.
The white column of the cube is far from complete, but it has a good start. I have my eye on a few other creatures, like Hero of Bladehold, and some of the angels, that can push the themes in the direction I'm looking to go.
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