Welcome to the second article in the series “Things that colors do, but badly.” My last one was about red’s terrible enchantment destruction. Here I move on to white and its difficulty in maintaining a full hand. First, a few guidelines. There actually are quite a few white draw spells, but for this article I will be ignoring those with cycling or one card, one shot effects. Card draw, yes, but not quite along the lines of “card draw” in the strictest sense. The remaining ones fall into one of the following themes: balance, resource usage, and wild card.
The first section of cards is based on white’s tenet of balance, either “give some to get some” or “we all get some.” Alms Collector, Armistice, Declaration in Stone, Martyr’s Cry, Oblation, Spiritual Focus, Temporary Truce, and Truce fall under this category. Alms Collector and Declaration are by far the best here, though Declaration is a removal spell that I would almost never aim at my own board. (Given, I have used Oblation on one of my permanents, so…) Armistice can have political usage in multiplayer games but is so inefficient it’s nearly unusable. Some gems here, but nothing too crazy. Moving on.
Next is resource usage. Gaining life, casting spells, or a creature dying all fall under this category. This is by far the largest section with the best cards, but most of them tie your deck to a certain archetype: equipment (Puresteel Paladin; Sram, Senior Edificer; Stone Haven Outfitter), enchantments (Kor Spiritdancer, Mesa Enchantress, Sage’s Reverie), creatures (Bygone Bishop, Inheritance, Mentor of the Meek), or life manipulation (Convalescent Care, Dawn of Hope, Survival Cache). None are generically good, but most are phenomenal in the right build. Puresteel and Sram are central to a deck called Sram-Os where you draw through your deck then kill your opponent with a copying damage spell. Kor Spiritdancer is a 3- or 4-of in Boggles. Mentor and Bishop are as “generic” as you can get, since white plays a lot of small creatures anyways.
Lastly is a literal wild card: Pursuit of Knowledge. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It could belong under either category, but it was so unique it deserves its own group. Giving up precious cards to get more is one way to go, but using it to prevent your own death? *cough*Minds Aglow*cough* Perfect. Is it good? No. Fun? Absolutely. Overall rating: 3/10. In the right builds: Alms Collector: 5/10; Puresteel/Sram: 9/10; Spiritdancer: 8/10; Bishop/Mentor: 8/10; Pursuit of Knowledge: 11/10 because memes. Pure white card draw is terrible, but fantastic in the right deck.
All right everyone, until next time. Have a good whatever!
