Grading More White Commander Staples of EDHREC | Which White Staples are Worth Playing? | MTG
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- Опубликовано: 29 авг 2024
- It's time to grade some MORE white Commander staples! Which ones are best?
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Of course uknow i was gonna support 😎😁
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@@NitpickingNerds a
Between this series and budget bombs, you guys are really doing the lord’s work for commander content. Not to say other content creators aren’t putting out good content, but a lot of it is redundant or just covering new products. The stuff I’m learning on this channel is invaluable by comparison. It’s just a matter of time until you guys are Mount Rushmore of edh content creators.
You actively made me and beezy's days thanks you so much for the kind words my friend
I like to think of the professor is grade school l command zone is high School, and the nitpicking nerds are college level projects; ranking every Commander, naming every card (a masterful art piece), ranking deck types and archetypes,etc.
The nitpicking nerds are the top two white Staples, awesome budget bombs, and my favorite secret tech.
Winds of Abandon is super underrated. 1 sided board wipe, gets around indestructible and hexproof, the decks that are scary for you usually don't play lots of basics, no death triggers, no reanimating. Very worth the 6 mana.
I think so too
It's great if you are ahead or at parity, so definitely worth including. But when behind and you really need a boardwipe, it can backfire.
If you have basicly nothing, and your opponents gain 8-10 lands collectively, there is a very high chance you´ll get out-valued / not stand a chance.
Then again, top-decking this card when you´re that far behind is still good. So the drawback is negligible (card is 1 sided / never a bad card).
All that said, please play this against my Thalisse control/token deck. It has great draw and would lockdown the game hard with 10 extra lands. :)
Thalisse deck in a nutshell: Winds of Abondon, it resolves. On your end-step, I play "Secure the wastes" equal to 20. On my turn, I kill all tokens, dealing 20 damage to each opponent, gaining 20 life, drawing 20 cards, and maybe more.
I love combining it with Opposition Agent, Aven Mindcensor, Stranglehold, Ob Nixilis Unshackled, etc.
Honestly the fact it's spot removal too (sadly sorcery speed but needed that for the balance of the card) makes it just pretty solid. If your worried about the basic thing just take out a singular key threat with it and little harm is done.
My favorite edh turn I ever did was approach of the second sun > attack with 10 zombies with Varina out > sac all the zombies to phyrexian altar > approach of the second sun
That’s nuts!
Mine was turning 10 creatures into Omnath, Locus of Rage with the backside of Augmenter Pugilist (Legendary rule doesnt Apply there). Then hit my 3 Landdrops to Gain 40 life, 40 mana and Deal 40 damage to each opponent
@@JoeRoganAndMoreShorts Locus of rage?
@@trilja6665 locus of creation, sorry
There's really no contradiction between the swords being overrated and you never seeing them; people put them in decks, and then they just sit in their hands unplayed, because they always have better things to cast.
Womp womp
Their monetary cost is also a pretty good indicator of how overrated they are. Barring Stoneforge decks in 60-card 1v1 formats(which really only play 2 or 3 copies anyway), they really only see play in commander. People say "this card is really cool," see the price, and say "this card must be insane."
feast and famine is the only sword i consider really good in commander. Relevant protection colors and a fanstastic effect.
One trick you can do with Approach of the Second Son is cast something like Narset's Reversal so you put it right back into your hand instead of seventh from the top.
Helm Of Obedience: Exists
Nitpicking Nerds: "Rest In Peace doesn't synergize with anything."
That’s fair
I played that combo as a game ender in a legacy miracles list back before they banned top
I had a shram Senior artificer combo deck that drew my deck and won consistently by t5. One of my wincons was this. This Solitaire commander deck has been taken apart but sometimes I miss it.
I think y'all might be underestimating how good that cost reduction is on Danitha. It's very narrow but it out performs ramp in the decks that can use it.
Absolutely. I my enchantress deck this card is amazing. Can cut the cost of 30+ cards in the deck and with the key words on it makes it a very relevant body to buff up with the auras. Definitely not for most decks but it's far from unplayable.
We need you guys to rate multi-colored commander staples! Appreciate the hard work!
We have done one episode of that already, we might loop around!
Oblivion ring and other enchantement removal can be used in some decks where enchantements matter. Like karametra enchantress and Sythis. Its a removal spell that draws you some cards in many situations and if you have a lot of enchantement protection, its worth the risk of it being removed. It can shut down mono red decks that struggle to remove enchantements. And against mono blue decks if they bounce it, you jsut recast it . I think it shouldve been a B for some decks but I agreee with the F grade beacause it is a very specific build around. Also I would recomend ursing this to exile stuff with no etb. Zendikar resurgent, elzdrazi that have cast triggers, mana doublers or tripplers and stuff. Anyways great video keep up the good work. :)
Luminarch ascension is way better than a c+ if it isn't answered, it's like the only card on this list that can win the game by itself. 4/4flying angel for 2 is not to be underestimated. If you do Combo it with a Garruks Rising effect now they each draw you a card....
I pop off with Luminarch Ascension in my Giada deck all the time. Putting a 4/4 flying with +1/+1 counters for each other angel you control can close a game out in a single turn.
Totally agree on Avacyn. The only white deck i included her in is Kaalia, for obvious reasons. Truly a force to be reckoned with when you play her for free 😅
When she is one the battle field she is crazy, just gotta get her there
Hot take: Drannith Magistrate is a decent way to give early game advantages for a deck that struggles with curve. Its also a good way to get people to waste removal. Its a little bit jerkish but ill take it if it gives me space to get Bruna the Fading Light out easier.
I have approach of the second sun in my sythis enchantress deck. Often with gaeas cradle, serras sanctum, sanctum weaver and all the draw from 4-5 enchantresses, its very easy to cast it twice in one turn as an alternate win con
Sevinne's reclamation in a storm list can be put in an intuition package with led and underworld breach to start a storm combo that will kill the table on t3 easy. Also, sevinne's can hit animate dead, necromancy, fetch lands, or bring back oko and 3feri. Extremely underrated card, I personally think it's an A-.
Sigardas aid should have been a B. Tuning your equipment into a combat trick, and allowing you to wait for a tap out against control before casting/equipping is underrated.
Thanks for the vid. Really helped me out for some white cards to put in my commander decks.
Glad to help 😊😊😊
Great job guys, you are on target, let’s see the grading of the rest of the colors coming up soon. Keep up the great work. Joe voicing more of his own opinions without looking at beezy for confirmation as often is good to see. A+ effort.
Thank you for the feedback 😌
@@NitpickingNerds you guys are unstoppable :)
@@timtauber5557 thank you 😊
Karmic guide actually goes infinite by itself with a sac outlet. Etb goes on the stack, sac guide, use the effect to reanimate, loop for infinite mana, mill, etb effects, dies effects, damage, depending on your sac outlet of choice.
That is not how it works unfortunately. It’s ETB needs to target something the second it goes onto the stack, and then it can’t target itself from there
I'm super high on Drannith Magistrate and let me tell you why:
I've had so many games where the entire board state revolves around him. He's a one-sided stax piece that is extremely cheap and stops many power strategies and powerful commanders. Graveyard-casting and free-casting are two of the most powerful things in commander and Drannith shuts both off incredibly well. He also stops a lot of different combos that rely on the graveyard and ones that rely on exile (like food chain). He is definitely weaker in lower power level edh where people's decks aren't very synergistic, but I believe he is the best creature stax piece in the format now that hullbreacher is banned.
Avacyn is the top end in my OG Captain Sisay deck. Only synergizes because it's legendary lol.
She used to be my backup plan in oloro
YES!! I love this series! 😁 I just finished watching all of the past ones.
Nice, if people want to watch Part 2, expect some more!
@@NitpickingNerds Can't wait! I've recently returned to the EDH world and have found your videos to be insanely helpful 😁
@@alexferaday6186 Yes, me too. I didn't realize how many upgrades I needed to make until I rolled out a couple of my decks a few weeks back, and found a bunch of cards they mention.
@@ben_clifford Likewise! There's so many average cards that I've been playing that I could've been playing better versions of...and some/most of the upgrades aren't even that expensive!
I love and appreciate that you're continuing this series!
Mirror Entity definitely is niche, but can work in go wide builds.
Does work in Alela anthems, but that deck’s tokens provide their own evasion, and it can surprise by expanding things like Scion of Oona’s shroud.
Also if you have anything that gives creatures +1/+1 you can activate it for 0 and it will go infinite with any card that creates a token when a specific creature type dies and a sac outlet. Like Xathrid Necromancer.
Oh goddamnit you're totally right about O Ring
I like this card + synergy with deck + isn’t a “no fun” card like hullbreacher (difference between just being fun) = my reason for playing a card. Power is soooooo low down compared to synergy and personal love for it … for me :)
I miss the short descriptions under your names that the old videos had.
Joe Cherries "a white staple", Beezy "a white staple"
I fondly remember laughing my butt off. Bring them back!
Luminarch ascension and that green legendary bear that strengthens even power/toughness or whatever creatures.
"syntax" the word you are looking for is.
Running Rest in Peace together with Energy Field in my Enchantress deck. Both of them cantrip me individually, and with both of them out I hate on graveyard decks that are prominent in my meta, and make it harder for them to kill me. Neat little combo :)
Sevinne's Reclamation is a great target for an Intuition pile. Grab Sevinne's Rec and the other two things you need to win. GG
32:44 Nice shark tank reference
Yes 🙌
Very relatable tidbit, thank you
Thalia, Heretic Cathar is so good in Marisi Goad. Basically once you goad their team, they will be goated every turn until they get rid of her
Drannith Magistrate is way better than C+. I would argue it is an auto included if someone has one. The biggest reason not to play it is because it's "not fun" not that it is not good. For 2 mana a player shuts down Commanders in the Commander format. Also graveyard effects, cascade, play from exile spells, and his butts pretty decent size too.
I run day of judgement in my Sephara deck. It being 4 mana helps in mono white.
I personally love Danitha Capashen in Odric, Lunarch Marshal. But that has to be one of the only decks it is playable in, since it has 3 good keywords and helps you get out your equipment with good keywords.
My karametra deck had recruiter of the guard, gonna get imperial recruiter for Osgir soon! Each deck will have three tutors a piece!
This is probably due to its age and reserved list status, but Academy rector is a house in any white deck and should be a staple, but isn't. It does what ghostly prison dreams to do, prevent unnecessary attacks. Its a ticking time bomb on the field that makes your opponent feel so bad using exile effects on it and is stupid good with sac effects.
60 cards in and nobody's talked about Plains yet? Sacrilege! Plains are definitely a staple White card! Here, I've even got the grade for you: B-. Now, some people might argue that Plains should be C tier, and that's not a bad assessment, but the main factor is that Sheldon for some reason didn't limit your Plains to one-ofs. You can put as many Plains as you want in a deck. That's wild. Now you can build around Extraplanar Lens, Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power...it's ludicrous! But those are still clunky, so it's no better than a B-.
Sadly plains are colorless so they aren’t here 😛
@@arthurvandenbergh1881 Actually, because Plains's rules text is "{T}: Add {W}," all Plains are White cards.
@@abderianagelast7868 plains are colorless. They have white identity in commander but thats different thing.
@@abderianagelast7868 they have a white color identity yes, but technically they’re still colorless. All is dust doesn’t destroy lands for example. But I was mainly joking in response to your joke
@@tttyyy949 @Arthur van den Bergh
That's fair, but since this is a discussion about Commander staples I figured color identity vs card color wouldn't matter all that much.
They could easily fixed serra ascendant, you just make it say, "if your life total is 5 more than your starting life total it gets +5/+5"
You would think!
@@NitpickingNerds that's how they fixed all the newer cards that give you some benefit for having a higher life total. Admittedly until they fix it that card will forever be a powerhouse
Dusk/dawn is like the 2 best cards in my arcades deck
Definitely
I slightly prefer Slaughter the strong (and Return to the ranks for Dawn) but I get your point, this card is great in Arcades!
Day off with the Nerds. Nice.
What could be better??
Winds of abandoned is one of the best board wipes. The only one that might surpass it that has come out recently is Doom skar.
Rest in Peace one of the best cards in Ranar lol
My favorite white staples are grave titan and ghostly prison, then I throw in phyrexian arena if I want to get a ton of cards really fast.
So glad I bought my play-set of Stoneforge Mystics when they first came out (before Scars of Mirrodin).
Wow you held onto them all this time?? Nice
@@NitpickingNerds I played Legacy. Stoneforge for Jitte or Sword of FoF was (and still is) really good.
Cultivate is the best Green ramp spell. Let's say your opening hand is 2 lands a Sol Ring Cultivate and 3 other spells. Turn 2 you play Cultivate, getting your 3rd land to your hand and one to the field. You've not only ramped but also set yourself up for the next turn because you'll have a 3rd land drop. That's 6 mana turn 3 and you kept a decent opening hand. Now the sky is the limit. Sure it sucks in the late game, but it's not gonna be often that you draw into it and have nothing to do.
I feel you really misunderstand the value of Oblivion Ring, it's not good removal, but it's great for flicker/blink decks! Get Leonin Relic-Warder on the battlefield with any form of creature ETB trigger alongside Oblivion Ring, then blink both cards and bam, you win the game. In flicker/blink decks, it also does great as removal as well, oh, are you going to destroy my oblivion ring? Well let me just instant speed flicker it to break the target on your spell and then re-exile your card. It's versatile too, any non land is pretty decent! Overall, it's terrible as a staple, but in the decks its good in, it's amazing!
Orzhov, if you have Bolas's Citadel you can hit both second sun's as long as you have the life
Avacyn is a bomb in my Rograkh/Akroma deck
I mean, in the right flicker, bounce or idk atog-for-the-ench-sacrifice deck, oblivion ring is a permanent exile which is pretty neat. Especially if you cna make that sac, flicker or bounce into a positive for you I feel it's closer to a D or maybe even C, honestly, simply because of the notorious o-ring shenanigans
Thalia, Heretic Cathar might be pretty good in Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, also Dusk // Dawn can be crazy in Arcades the Strategist
Mirror Entity has a sweet combo with Purphoros and Atla Palani. It can also win kind quickly also which is sweet
that beezy reaction to sigil im dead >w
Mirror entity is good not because it pumps the squad, but because it’s a combo piece in decks like Gavi, Nest Warden.
This series is just so so good.
On the way, to 40k!
Thank you 😊
O-Ring feels terrible in a lot of decks, if you want a cheap non-permanent solution, there are much better ones out there. Unless you need enchantment based removal for some reason, almost all white removal can out perform this, though it won't match the versatility. Unexpectedly Absent looks like a more useful effect, and if you *really* want this type of effect, use one of the better ones like Grasp of Fate (which can lock down enough stuff that people might not be eager to remove it), or Detention Sphere which has some upside vs tokens. I don't think it's unplayable, but it feels pretty bad if it gets cheaply/easily removed. White can't really afford 1 for 1s that don't stick, much more than other colours.
Luminarch needs a lot of support obviously, and ends up being pretty bad either without support or against reasonably powerful decks that can keep it from triggering. I run it as a reserve back up win con (in a deck with 4 main win cons...), where it mostly does nothing. In Zur, it is part of a fetchable set up that is pretty hard to beat once it's set up, but you wouldn't want to run it as your main wincon in a cEDH deck. I think it could be a 7 or 8 though as the main wincon, but you almost have to run it in Zur, because you need access to both serious pillowfort (Solitary Confinement is a decent start, and may be all you need in most matchups) and some way to keep the board somewhat clear, both things Zur is good at. At that point, you just start winning off of 4/4s, a slow, tedious win. In other decks, it seems like it's okay in weaker metas where you might just incidentally achieve Angel making due to lack of actual sustained hostility. At that point, the lower power combines well with 2 per 4/4, as you likely have a pile of mana to work with, and nobody has answers because board wipes aren't trendy. It's super easy to remove if you don't put up a Greater Auramancy, and even bouncing or flickering it is a huge hassle, as you need to restore the counters before use.
Rest in Peace is more of a cEDH card I think, but it can really suck if your Helm of Obedience gets exiled after being countered (while you have Academy Ruins out haha), because this thing was out. It hoses enough decks that it's a must-run in any white deck that doesn't actively use the yard, so many mono-white decks, especially the higher power ones. If people could use sideboards, it'd be in there for many decks, but nobody loves the idea of maindecking a card this extreme if they aren't going to face off with Meren or Muldrotha. I think Zur is a good home for it, where it's easy to get out when you need it.
I feel like one thing you should touch us that avacyn turns all of your boardwipes into win conditions
Round 2 babyyyy!! 😎🍿
Even better than last time :P
Diamonds are fine in mono- or dual-color because you sometimes need the extra color source. I had a Zirda deck which ran both diamonds alongside all the R/W two mana rocks, three mox, ring, vault and both monoliths and they never felt bad unless I had already burned out. May be a hot take, but untapped rocks, especially colorless ones, are overrated unless they're mana neutral/positive. What are you realistically going to do with a Mindstone or Thought Vessel you dropped on turn 1 through 3? How are you realistically limited on mana on turn 7 or 8 that your rock costing one mana versus two will somehow break your turn? Conversely, I've seen plenty of circumstances where being down color production wreaks a deck on turns 4-7 or it limits a good mana sink.
The whole point of oblivion ring is that it hits enchantments & artifacts & itself is an enchantment for enchantress.
I don't run them anywhere else, but I actually still run O-Ring and Grasp of Fate in Zedruu because they're both a lot better when you can just give them to your opponent and get your card back, since the faster you get going with Zedruu, the better. Plus, it's hilarious, so there's that.
Funny always worth it
Talking about Obscuring Haze, I threw it in a deck for memes, to maybe potentially save a friend or something. Kinda just a throw away card but it's saved me a handful of times and saved the group once. It's performed far better than I ever expected it too but I can see why it's the "worst" one lol. I never expected it to do as well as it has
Interesting! Maybe it's a good spec!
@@NitpickingNerds I think its just too situational and when cards have the right situation they're all viable to an extent lol. But yeah Im surprised but there's definitely better options lol
That's me!
I had to laugh when you said Beezy had 10 decks. I have over 60 now. No joke. I hate when I draw tutors because I can never remember what each deck wants me to get!
My first game of edh was with an friends avacyln deck lol and I ended up stomping everyone unexpectedly lol it was fun but felt like my deck was op compared to the others 🤷♂️ … fun deck to first pilot for edh 🙃
She is awesome!
This certainly might be something.
I like getting infinite mana then casting Heliod's Intervention for the life gain, then Aetherflux your face
That's a power move
Approach of the second sun is in my kykar deck. Plenty of flying spirits and bident of thassa. Boom. 2nd sun
I had to take Rest in Peace out of my Bantress deck, because it has Eternal Witness and Replenish.
I think Sigil of the Empty Throne goes in decks that have Concordat Crossroads.
Imprisoned in the moon effects can be removed via bounce land lol not saying that makes them bad, but it is hilarious
Never thought of that
Drannith magistrate I'd have definitely assumed was an A, it is a hatebear that nearly always does something against any matchup, whereas your spirit of the labyrinth or Thalias can be vanilla creatures sometimes. Only time dmag isn't good is really late game after everyone got their commander out
We may have underrated it a bit
@@NitpickingNerds I get why you did though, it is salty. I'm often opposite a krenko deck so it's necessary just to not get stomped
White is honestly better than people give it credit for, it’s just that people don’t like to play white the way it’s designed (stax)
swords are good with balan and karona, balan gets double strike and karona can trigger the swords each players turn. but you still own the equipment!
Yeah those are two good ones
Rest in peace goes infinite with ranar as a token maker which is pretty cool tho
Rest in Peace can synergise with Ranar the Ever-Watchful
Cherries, I 100% feel you on the snap thing. It's a principle thing for me more so than an expectation, but it doesn't change how disappointed I feel when it doesn't happen.
It’s so easy to say anything 😅
I play Dranith Magistrate in French (1v1) Commander.
Cherries telling us how he really feels by being sure to put the 'meh' in Mesa Enchantress.
O Ring is good in Barren Glory decks.
Beezy, hit me with the grades
Unbreakable formation is still useful if you have to block with your creatures and you dont want them to die. the phasing is only better if your protecting your stuff from a board wipe. Also teferi's protection is still a 20+ dollar card.
Your vastly underestimating Sigarda's aid in equipment decks. For said decks its a solid *A* (any other deck its an F)as the number of times iv ether attacked in with a creature it not being block and then putting a beefy equipment on it, or iv flashed in an equipment on one of my opponents turn to protect it in one way or another. you are also saving on equip costs every time you play an equipment.
the reason almost no one plays the Swords is because all the "good" ones are no where near budget. Fire and is is around 50, feast and famine is almost 70, and the others are all between 15-30 dollars.
Hearth and home is only good in etb style decks otherwise its only ok.
Again Danitha is good in equipment decks it may not be an A like Sigard's Aid but get a couple decent equipment on her and now your gaining life and have a blocker with first strike which will in turn gain you more life.
Why isn't approach a B? If B is for build around because it is literally a build around win condition
Drannith Magistrate is a wizard, so I run it in Tazri's Party, I am playing all the thematic hatebears I can there, I need to slow down and cripple people playing big splashy things. He is also perfect to deny a Golos deck, which only makes it better, since they can't cast him or cast the free spells.
Yeah the card is good no doubt
@@NitpickingNerds I say it is a meta call, like how I run both Aven Mindcensor and Opposition Agent, because there is combo only players you don't feel bad using Hatebears on.
indestructible does not mean invincible unless you're a land. with the book of exalted deeds coming out i'am going to make a kathril aspect warper deck to put a indestructible and hexproof counter on a mutavault that also gets the counter from the book to make a thing that makes me literally immortal against 99% of the decks because who is playing non targeting non destroying land removal. but i'll guess even there i have better cards to put in the deck than avacyn angel of hope even if i only need a card that has the keyword in my grave and never intend to put that creature into play. 8 mana for just that effect is simply too bad.
ps.: darksteel mutation has some of the best flavor text of all cards. simplicity really is amazing.
I tried Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant in my God Eternal Oketra deck and it was messed up. Krenko players hate it.
40:54 Jace to Vraska :( i shipped them so hard and wotc made nothing of that something they hinted in the ixalan lore :(
As somebody who plays mono white lifegain as their main deck, I *still* dont play serra ascendant. It feels worse to play than sol ring, and I don't hate my friends enough to stoop *that* low.
It is a mean card
You guys ever think about venturing into edh gameplay videos?
YES! Kickstarter is happening THIS YEAR for them!!! We are hyped
Ok, so disenchant is an F but like what are all these alternatives?????
Aura of Silence and Heliod's Intervention are probably the best alternatives for mono white. Some people like Crush Contraband and Return to Dust, but they are kind of expensive for spot removal.
Rest in peace+helm of obedience=1 mana mill out target opponent. Thats where it goes beezy.
That's a good combo spot for it
Guys mirror entity is good for two things finisher in token decks without green and not a bad one. And then to pay zero into atla palani
Atla is cool, but for Mono White there are better finishers in our opinion
Atla is cool, but for Mono White there are better finishers in our opinion
@@NitpickingNerds wich?
Serra ascendant is really annoying but it will never get banned because it's still not game warping compared to the other things the probably should be banned and haven't yet.
I feel like a lot of these staples are for specific decktypes. Shouldn't staples be cards that are used independently of the deck type? I feel like I misunderstood something here.
Most of these are either staples in general in terms of how often they're played or staples for a certain deck type. Using the EDHrec stats it would seem as though people value the top cards at close to staple, but obviously we disagree with some of them :P
@@NitpickingNerds Thank you. :)
Isn't Drannith Magistrate banned in EDH precisely because it shuts down playing commanders?
No, its not banned
I like my nerds like I like my women..nitpicking 😆 #singlelife
Great episode dudes!
Hi I'm here
hi