Exodus: Signed, Sealed and Broken. Part 3: White, The Way of Life
Exodus: Signed, Sealed and Broken Part 3
White - The Way of Life Like in Weatherlight, White is the best color out of Exodus by far for limited, both for drafting and for sealed deck. This may be because once you free White from its staple cards like Circles, which are generally weak in draft, it comes into its own. And white got a good number of playable constructed cards, too. Essentially, White is a control color in Exodus, moving away from WW and moving back toward U/W control ideas and finally making W/B necro viable - although me and many others have said that before. The two decks are built around Cataclysm and Peace of Mind.
Allay, 1W, Instant, Buyback - 3, Destroy target enchantment Weak Let's face it, there just aren't enough enchantments running around for the buyback effect to be worth the inability to kill artifacts. If you want dedicated enchantment removal, I'd go with Serene Offering or Cloudchaser Eagle instead. The one time this might be worth it is against Propaganda, and against counter decks buyback gets countered.
Angelic Blessing, 2W, Sorcery, Target creature gets +3/+3 and flying until end of turn Weak For three mana, you get a sorcery-speed Giant Growth on your turn, with flying thrown in. For three mana, you have better things to do.
Cataclysm, 2WW, Sorcery, Each player chooses an artifact, creature, enchantment and land he or she controls. Sacrifice the rest. Watch List Its first problem is that as a balancing effect it is automatically powerful. The other problem is that it leaves one creature in place, and what creature is better for finishing the job than Tradewind Rider? And what artifact is better than another creature? Here's a lock deck:
See how that works? (It's 63 cards, to take advantage of Intuition). You have two alternate plans. One is Firestorm/Armageddon, with the Tradewind lock already in place or coming into place quickly. The other is Cataclysm. You do the following: Cataclysm. Select a Creature, a Land, Equilibrium. Drop Walkers for 0, Reanimate Tradewind Rider for one, while bouncing his last creature with Equilibrium. Drop Sphere of Resistance to lock the game. If you start with 8 mana, you can lock the game totally: 4 for Cataclysm, 1 for Equilibrium, 1 for Reanimate, 0 for Walker, 2 for Sphere of Resistance (or 2 for spells with it). Unless he's holding Mox Diamond and land, followed by a Firestorm, you've won, and if you have a Mana Leak castable you've won anyway. Again, these decks are only ideas, of which I will test the best during the period before Exodus becomes tournament legal. This deck can also work Equilibrium/Wall of Blossoms, by the way.
Charging Paladin, 2W, 2/2, +0/+3 until End of Turn if it attacks. Weak Another good sealed deck card, useless in constructed.
Convalescence, 1W, Enchantment, During your upkeep, if you have 10 or less life, gain 1 life. Average The beginning of the 'Necro complex' which allows white to clean up on life in Exodus, this one is continuous without mana. But since many decks can do 10 damage at once, I'd stay away from this 1st game unless I was damaging myself.
Exalted Dragon, 4WW, 5/5 Flying, Cannot attack unless you sacrifice a land. Weak If you pay six mana, you don't deserve a real liability, and this one is going to get annoying. Warrior Angel is a much better choice, for example.
High Ground, W, Enchantment, Each creature you control may block one additional creature. Weak It only works with blocking, ergo it is a bad card. QED. It's not quite that simple, but it almost is.
Keeper of the Light, WW, 1\2, WT: Gain 3 life if you have less life than target opponent. Average Three life a turn is a lot. What deck it fits into I'm not sure, unless the Necro deck decides to go this route. This is one of the many cards that would have been wonderful before, but now just won't fit into a Type II deck.
Kor Chant, 2W, Instant, Redirect to target creature all damage to one creature you control from one source. Average It depends on you both having a creature, or you having a stronger or protection creature, to work in constructed. It's a first pick in draft. Could find a place in WW, but at three mana it probably won't get played that often. But it is very effective when used properly, as it saves a creature and kills another.
Limited Resources, W, Enchantment, When it comes into play, each player sacs down to 5 lands. No player can play land while 10 or more are out. Strong Think putting a land into play, not playing a land. Playing a land is a fundamental part of magic, so any way to take it away is a good idea. For example, Mana Breach and Burgeoning or Skyshroud Ranger could combine to good effect, slowly getting more and more land into play, especially if combined with Equilibrium. Also good in any deck that doesn't need that much land: Play 5, play Limited Resources, and dare him to Whisper.
Oath of Lieges, 1W, Enchantment, Each player can Thaw (search library for basic land and put it into play, Untapped), during their upkeep if they have less land. Watch List First, this card is wonderful if your opponent has no basics. Second, it also works very well for decks which play little land. Third, it devastates if played with land sacrifice cards, and there are two white ones in Exodus that are good on their own. When will WotC realize that they cannot print a replacement for Land Tax that isn't broken? So far Tithe, Thawing Glaciers and Oath of Lieges have all ruined environments, to differing extents. When will it end?
Paladin en-Vec, 1WW, 2/2 First strike, Prot. Red + Black. Average A solid creature, but at three mana you can get Steel Golem and Zharaldan Crusader. But the ability to shut down two important deck types may hurt those decks, because when protection creatures see play they do hurt the target colors, especially monocolor versions.
Peace of Mind, 1W, Enchantment. W, discard: Gain 3 life. Watch List It's destroying my Peace of Mind. This is a necro player's dream come true, and a red player's worst nightmare. Peace of Mind with Necro is game, generating Massive card economy. This could be the new W/B necro deck:
This deck does one thing, and does it well - it Necroes. It generates huge amounts of mana out of nowhere. At one point, and that point will come quickly, it casts Abeyance, Volrath's Dungeon and Necropotence and wipes out its opponents hand. Add Time Warp to start infinite turns and end the game, using Peace of Mind/Necro to draw your library over and over, killing with Firestorm. You only need five mana to go into recursion, as you will quickly get to play more to keep yourself alive and to recycle, and can use Oath of Lieges/Reaping the Rewards to get life and land. This deck is worth putting together to test, I think.
Pegasus Stampede, 1W, Sorcery, Buyback - Sac a land, Put a 1/1 flying Pegasus into play. Strong As long as players are being rewarded for having less land, this is a good card, and also a good thing to do with useless lands. With the Oath, you can have a 1/1 flyer every turn without losing lands and while thinning your deck. How wonderful!
Penance, 2W, Enchantment, Discard a card to the top of your library: Prevent all damage from a red or black source to a creature or player. Watch List This one's strong enough to play main deck. Together with a card drawing engine, for example Wall of Blossoms/Equilibrium, this nullifies entire decks. Also makes Necro a much safer bet - now every burn spell and creature attack is one life, no matter how big. An amazing card, but watch for many decks to move away from damage anyway.
Reaping the Rewards, W, Instant, Buyback: Sacrifice a land. Gain 2 life. Watch List A new Zuran Orb, but at least you need to tap mana to do it. Not playing one in a White deck requires an explanation. Note, however, that my experience in Type I shows that 2 Zuran Orbs is about where you want to be.
Reconnaissance, W, Enchantment, 0: Remove target attacking creature you control from combat; it untaps. Weak Another card that requires blocking before it starts working. And effective blocking at that. Not worth it. WotC needs to realize that everything involving blocking MUST be a cantrip or have a huge effect.
Shackles, 2W, Enchantment, Enchanted Creature doesn't untap, W: Return Shackles to owner's hand. Average It is three mana, and you still get hit once, and Querion Ranger ruins your day. But the ability to pick it up makes it worth thinking about, because you can combine it with global effects. If you have a color with real removal, use that instead.
Shield Mate, W, 1/1, Sac: Target creature gets +0/+4 until end of turn. Average Saves a creature from just about any burn spell, and is better than white's previous 1 CC creatures. Wins Shadow wars, too. Still, it isn't anything to write home about.
Soltari Visionary, 1WW, 2/2 Shadow, Destroys target enchantment defending player controls if it damages them. Average Destroys Capsize, the Oaths, and a few other nice ones. But against a lot of decks this is weaker than the 2 CC shadow creatures. You'll look silly destroying Sacromancy and Necropotence, too.
Soul Warden, W, 1/1, Gain 1 life whenever another creature comes into play. Average Fun in draft, funnier in multiples, but still basically a 1/1. But this and Shield Mate are the only real choices for one mana white creatures. If there are 40+ creatures between two players, or you bounce them with Equilibrium, this can get fun.
Standing Troops, 2W, 1\4, Doesn't tap to attack. Weak Another sealed deck creature. Not good enough.
Treasure Hunter, 2W, 2/2, Regrow an artifact when it comes into play Average If you have good artifacts to return, especially Steel Golem and Nevinyrral's Disk and Mind Stone, this can be excellent card economy. I think that it works especially well with the Nev's disk. Worth playing in any deck that consistently has an artifact to reclaim.
Wall of Nets, 1WW, 0/7, Keeps all creatures it blocks out of game until it dies. Average A good wall, because it is very hard to kill and kills things back. Can set you up for a devastating attack when it dies, so watch out. And how many walls can you really play in one deck? I'd also like to see creatures blocking it be removed, so you could beat up on more telephones with rolling stone decks.
Welkin Hawks, 1W, 1/1 Flying, if it dies you can tutor for another. Weak Too mana intensive for 1/1s. If it put the new one into play I'd like it. It is a good way to get 4 creature cards into your graveyard, so don't give up all hope just yet.
Zealots en-Dal, 3W, 2/4, Gain 1 life during your upkeep if all your nonlands are white. Weak Compare this to Urborg Stalker, Wildfire Emissary and other decent (but no longer tournament level) creatures that are 4 mana for a 2/4. This isn't good enough, not quite.
In summary, white is the color of life gaining, and the color of land manipulation. This makes it good when combined with Blue or Black's card manipulation effects. More generally, White's huge amount of life gaining could well strike the final death blow to Stupid Red Burn: An unrestricted Zuran Orb, together with an unrestricted Land Tax, will make it unplayable. Life is no longer the best road to victory; total destruction of enemy permanents or total lockdown is. This keep me coming back to the same splash cards - Wall of Blossoms, Equilibrium, Tradewind Rider, and a few others. In this effort, the field is divided into what one post called the school of Card Advantage and the school of Card Disadvantage, which uses the 'less than opponent' effects and the empty hand effects. This will be something to keep in mind when I move onto Red, which got hosed badly in Exodus despite getting several good cards, and was devastated in draft and sealed. More than half of all decks with red may soon have only one red card, which I'll talk about in Part 4 - Red, Surviving the Firestorm.