rileyandholly88
03-23-2010, 03:30 AM
One color has always stood out to me and other players as a means for finding answers to many problems. White for a long time back in the early days of Magic was great to work with without another color. It has answers for everything and had access to Creatures that at the time, were considered amazing! Creatures like Serra Angel, Soltari Priest, and Savannah Lions were considered some of the best creatures back in the day. Soltari Priest is still good, I would probably play him in Mono White just about every time I shuffle up if I still had a deck for him:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=270&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=4904&type=card
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=269&type=card
Today, what many players call 'White Weenie' has really not lived up to the decks built way back in the 90s. The Creatures are not strong enough to take on the new Creatures being printed in the other colors and it just seems to have to have everything going its way during a game to really win it all. One of my all time favorite decks was set up to play 1st Turn Land Tax, 2nd Turn Soltari Priest, Third Turn Empyrial Armor , and then 4th Turn Cataclysm. That deck was so powerful, but today White really is not as good as it use to be by itself. That is okay though, White does something better than the other colors do. White may not be a great color to use as your decks base anymore, but it is probably the most powerful color to use as a side color. The reason behind this is that White can nearly do everything and handle anything. There are going to be a great deal of people saying that Blue is the most powerful splash color, but most of the time you can easily argue that Blue is the real main color of a deck. This article is going to be all about why White makes such a good splash color and why many players go to it for answers.
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/mtg/images/0/0b/ManaW.png
White is good at: Spot Removal, Mass Removal, Destroying Artifacts/Enchantments, and having a well rounded set of cards to use for the Sideboard. Every color has some of these traits and are missing some of them, but White is the only color to actually have a viable and decent method of doing all those things listed. I am going to start with Spot Removal and work my way down the list and take a look at some great cards White employs to make sure your back is covered.
Red has always had plenty of Spot Removal with all the Burn Spells getting tossed about and all, but White has the best and most famous Spot Removal card:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=271&type=card
Swords to Plowshares has always seen tons of play, nobody honestly cares about Life Gain so the so called 'Drawback' on this card really is not one at all. 1 Mana to Remove a Creature from the game entirely is amazing, far better than simply Destroying it. Many players are willing to simply splash White just to get their hands on 4 copies of Swords to Plowshares. 95% of the time, if a player has White then they are probably packing this baby and are more than willing to hand out a few points of Life for your best Creature. Many Goblin Lackey, Tarmogoyf, and Dark Confidant have met a swift death at the hands of Swords to Plowshares as well as being paired up right beside it working together. That is another thing that makes White so great, it is just so versatile a color that it fits nearly everywhere and can make up for any other colors weaknesses. Even Path to Exile is good, giving the other player Land Advantage is a bad idea, but in some situations it does not matter. Many Domain and Zoo builds top out at 3 Mana for their curve and the other player gaining more Land does not put them ahead honestly. Path to Exile is just a healthy and decent alternative to Swords to Plowshares in a few situations, but it still is a great card:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=179235&type=card
We have Spot Removal and we have Mass Removal. No color does it better than White at clearing a board efficiently and cleanly. Of course you have the ever useful Wrath of God:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=276&type=card
4 Mana to Destroy all Creatures in play is pretty hard to improve on. There have been many great reproductions that sometimes have proved better in some situations like Rout and Akroma's Vengeance.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=22971&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=41168&type=card
White just does it the best. Damnation is obviously just Wrath of God as a Black card, but it still does not compare to Whites arsenal of Mass Removal. White even has Mass Artifact/Enchantment hate which we will be getting to very soon. Heck, White even has Mass Land Destruction in the form Armageddon and Ravages of War.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=233&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=184724&type=card
Eat your heart out ladies and gents, yes you can play 8 cards in one deck that Destroy all Lands in play for 4 Mana. That is just utterly brutal, especially paired up with a Creature like Magus of the Tabernacle or the Land itself: The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.
Red and Black both suffer when it comes to ridding the board of Enchantments, but Red does pretty well against Artifacts and Black only has Gate to Phyrexia as a means for Destroying Artifacts beyond Disruption like forcing someone to Discard cards. Gate to Phyrexia is honestly just not efficient enough to handle Artifacts and that is why both colors must turn to Green or White to handle most of their problems. Originally, Disenchant was the easiest way for White to get rid of Artifacts and Enchantments. Now, we have Solemn Offering which I find much better than Disenchant.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=249&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=189875&type=card
One of the most famous creatures to see printing was Kataki, War's Wage. He was one of the few ways players were finally able to get Affinity decks under control in Standard a while back and still remains a powerful tool today.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=74190&type=card
Tempest of Light is White's cheap and effective way to say game over to a massive amount of Artifacts and Enchantments. Obviously, we already mentioned Akroma's Vengeance earlier, but as a quick and reliable source of destruction we will always have Tempest of Light at the ready. All this talk about Mass Removal brings me to another key point, the value of trading a single card for several cards builds Card Advantage. If you have been paying attention closely to other Articles and understand why Card Advantage is a big deal, then you will appreciate what White has to offer. Why waste several cards to rid yourself of several different threats when you could easily take some Damage and get rid of them all with 1? Playing to fast using cards like Lotus Cobra to put your biggest or many threats on the board is a stupid idea, all that can be really said about it. When you play like that, you are opening yourself up to the other player who can now see what you have and can decide accordingly what to do. If you First Turn Black Lotus or Dark Ritual in to a Phyrexian Negator, you have revealed yourself and the other player more than likely will have an answer in their fresh hand for the most important and devastating threats. That is why Card Advantage is more important than Mana Acceleration. If I can take out your best threat early, more power to me. I would rather face down a Tarmogoyf on Turn 2 than on Turn 6.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=46075&type=card
Your Sideboard is probably one of the most important difficult things to build. White has great Sideboard options, it can handle any Metagame with the various cards accessible in it's vast arsenal. The funny thing is, all the cards mentioned in this Article are great additions to any Sideboard. That is just the tip of the iceberg though, against Land Destruction we have cards like Sacred Ground and Terra Eternal:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=5214&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=197866&type=card
White has even more options available for stopping Creatures. Ghostly Prison has made quite a name for itself in recent years and its popularity continues to rise. Story Circle and the ever Combo happy Solitary Confinement provide support against various Aggro decks:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=75328&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=129748&type=card
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=34769&type=card
White even has a card for dealing with Graveyard based decks. Wheel of Sun and Moon may not be the best, but it is always an available options if someone feels the need to use it:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=146740&type=card
Taking all we have looked at and putting it all together, what do we have? Well, we have a color that excels at being able to support and compliment the other 4 colors well. We have a color that can handle and deal with nearly everything you might come across in your many games of Magic. We have a color that is willing to take a seat in the back of the bus so that the others can sit up front in the spotlight, talk about nobility and honor. Funny, those are both aspects of Whites whole meaning on the color wheel. White has always served me well and it will continue to serve me and many others the same amount of reliability it always has. Another awesome aspect of White is the various Gold cards that it is a part of. Some of those being Vindicate, Meddling Mage, Lightning Helix, and Qasali Pridemage to name some of the most powerful and popular.
In closing, keep playing and having a good time and take White out for a ride some time and see what it is all about! Keep your eyes open for my next article. As always, you have my email if you need to get in touch or need some help or you can Private Message me here on the Vault!
Broken Arrow... Broken ARROW!
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=270&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=4904&type=card
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=269&type=card
Today, what many players call 'White Weenie' has really not lived up to the decks built way back in the 90s. The Creatures are not strong enough to take on the new Creatures being printed in the other colors and it just seems to have to have everything going its way during a game to really win it all. One of my all time favorite decks was set up to play 1st Turn Land Tax, 2nd Turn Soltari Priest, Third Turn Empyrial Armor , and then 4th Turn Cataclysm. That deck was so powerful, but today White really is not as good as it use to be by itself. That is okay though, White does something better than the other colors do. White may not be a great color to use as your decks base anymore, but it is probably the most powerful color to use as a side color. The reason behind this is that White can nearly do everything and handle anything. There are going to be a great deal of people saying that Blue is the most powerful splash color, but most of the time you can easily argue that Blue is the real main color of a deck. This article is going to be all about why White makes such a good splash color and why many players go to it for answers.
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/mtg/images/0/0b/ManaW.png
White is good at: Spot Removal, Mass Removal, Destroying Artifacts/Enchantments, and having a well rounded set of cards to use for the Sideboard. Every color has some of these traits and are missing some of them, but White is the only color to actually have a viable and decent method of doing all those things listed. I am going to start with Spot Removal and work my way down the list and take a look at some great cards White employs to make sure your back is covered.
Red has always had plenty of Spot Removal with all the Burn Spells getting tossed about and all, but White has the best and most famous Spot Removal card:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=271&type=card
Swords to Plowshares has always seen tons of play, nobody honestly cares about Life Gain so the so called 'Drawback' on this card really is not one at all. 1 Mana to Remove a Creature from the game entirely is amazing, far better than simply Destroying it. Many players are willing to simply splash White just to get their hands on 4 copies of Swords to Plowshares. 95% of the time, if a player has White then they are probably packing this baby and are more than willing to hand out a few points of Life for your best Creature. Many Goblin Lackey, Tarmogoyf, and Dark Confidant have met a swift death at the hands of Swords to Plowshares as well as being paired up right beside it working together. That is another thing that makes White so great, it is just so versatile a color that it fits nearly everywhere and can make up for any other colors weaknesses. Even Path to Exile is good, giving the other player Land Advantage is a bad idea, but in some situations it does not matter. Many Domain and Zoo builds top out at 3 Mana for their curve and the other player gaining more Land does not put them ahead honestly. Path to Exile is just a healthy and decent alternative to Swords to Plowshares in a few situations, but it still is a great card:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=179235&type=card
We have Spot Removal and we have Mass Removal. No color does it better than White at clearing a board efficiently and cleanly. Of course you have the ever useful Wrath of God:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=276&type=card
4 Mana to Destroy all Creatures in play is pretty hard to improve on. There have been many great reproductions that sometimes have proved better in some situations like Rout and Akroma's Vengeance.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=22971&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=41168&type=card
White just does it the best. Damnation is obviously just Wrath of God as a Black card, but it still does not compare to Whites arsenal of Mass Removal. White even has Mass Artifact/Enchantment hate which we will be getting to very soon. Heck, White even has Mass Land Destruction in the form Armageddon and Ravages of War.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=233&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=184724&type=card
Eat your heart out ladies and gents, yes you can play 8 cards in one deck that Destroy all Lands in play for 4 Mana. That is just utterly brutal, especially paired up with a Creature like Magus of the Tabernacle or the Land itself: The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.
Red and Black both suffer when it comes to ridding the board of Enchantments, but Red does pretty well against Artifacts and Black only has Gate to Phyrexia as a means for Destroying Artifacts beyond Disruption like forcing someone to Discard cards. Gate to Phyrexia is honestly just not efficient enough to handle Artifacts and that is why both colors must turn to Green or White to handle most of their problems. Originally, Disenchant was the easiest way for White to get rid of Artifacts and Enchantments. Now, we have Solemn Offering which I find much better than Disenchant.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=249&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=189875&type=card
One of the most famous creatures to see printing was Kataki, War's Wage. He was one of the few ways players were finally able to get Affinity decks under control in Standard a while back and still remains a powerful tool today.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=74190&type=card
Tempest of Light is White's cheap and effective way to say game over to a massive amount of Artifacts and Enchantments. Obviously, we already mentioned Akroma's Vengeance earlier, but as a quick and reliable source of destruction we will always have Tempest of Light at the ready. All this talk about Mass Removal brings me to another key point, the value of trading a single card for several cards builds Card Advantage. If you have been paying attention closely to other Articles and understand why Card Advantage is a big deal, then you will appreciate what White has to offer. Why waste several cards to rid yourself of several different threats when you could easily take some Damage and get rid of them all with 1? Playing to fast using cards like Lotus Cobra to put your biggest or many threats on the board is a stupid idea, all that can be really said about it. When you play like that, you are opening yourself up to the other player who can now see what you have and can decide accordingly what to do. If you First Turn Black Lotus or Dark Ritual in to a Phyrexian Negator, you have revealed yourself and the other player more than likely will have an answer in their fresh hand for the most important and devastating threats. That is why Card Advantage is more important than Mana Acceleration. If I can take out your best threat early, more power to me. I would rather face down a Tarmogoyf on Turn 2 than on Turn 6.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=46075&type=card
Your Sideboard is probably one of the most important difficult things to build. White has great Sideboard options, it can handle any Metagame with the various cards accessible in it's vast arsenal. The funny thing is, all the cards mentioned in this Article are great additions to any Sideboard. That is just the tip of the iceberg though, against Land Destruction we have cards like Sacred Ground and Terra Eternal:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=5214&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=197866&type=card
White has even more options available for stopping Creatures. Ghostly Prison has made quite a name for itself in recent years and its popularity continues to rise. Story Circle and the ever Combo happy Solitary Confinement provide support against various Aggro decks:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=75328&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=129748&type=card
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=34769&type=card
White even has a card for dealing with Graveyard based decks. Wheel of Sun and Moon may not be the best, but it is always an available options if someone feels the need to use it:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=146740&type=card
Taking all we have looked at and putting it all together, what do we have? Well, we have a color that excels at being able to support and compliment the other 4 colors well. We have a color that can handle and deal with nearly everything you might come across in your many games of Magic. We have a color that is willing to take a seat in the back of the bus so that the others can sit up front in the spotlight, talk about nobility and honor. Funny, those are both aspects of Whites whole meaning on the color wheel. White has always served me well and it will continue to serve me and many others the same amount of reliability it always has. Another awesome aspect of White is the various Gold cards that it is a part of. Some of those being Vindicate, Meddling Mage, Lightning Helix, and Qasali Pridemage to name some of the most powerful and popular.
In closing, keep playing and having a good time and take White out for a ride some time and see what it is all about! Keep your eyes open for my next article. As always, you have my email if you need to get in touch or need some help or you can Private Message me here on the Vault!
Broken Arrow... Broken ARROW!