Pauper Staples - White
- Finn M
- Jun 9, 2017
- 5 min read
It has been a little while since our last article, but it is time to look at white. White is frequently associated with life gain, damage prevention, flying, token creature generation and anthem (power/toughness buffs for the whole team) effects. These tools are often paired with another colour for removal or card draw. Let's have a look at some of the white staple creatures.
Creatures
White has some powerful utility and evasive creatures. Let's have a look into some of these staples.
This is seen frequently through many different decks. It's drawback of picking up a permanent is generally translated into a benefit by running this in tandem with powerful enter the battlefield effects. It is an undercosted flying threat with utility on battlefield entry.
This innocuous creature can often be all that is needed to stabilise a game vs an aggressive deck. It gains life and blocks. This also works very well as a target for Kor Skyfisher to pick up.
These are generally paired with token strategies and can help survive the early game vs very aggressive decks by gaining enough life while you are still developing an engine or a board presence.
This undercosted flying creature often takes a similar role to Kor Skyfisher, but what it can pick up is a lot more limited.
This is a solid value creature. It has a powerful enter the battlefield ability which can be reused when paired with Kor Skyfisher and attached to a decent blocker for the cost.
White doesn't have many ways of developing card advantage. Squadron Hawk is one of the few ways to do this and comes attached to a flying body.
This is more frequently used in midrange or combo graveyard based decks which are seeking out key enchantments. This is rarely used as more than a 1-2 of in these decks.
Token Producers
One of white's more unique colour identity elements is that of creating token creatures. This gets around sacrifice (edict) effects and forces your opponent to trade removal inefficiently.
This one at instant speed can be very effective at providing surprise blockers or allowing you to have options to hold up an answer or create tokens during your opponents turn.
This is very similar to Raise the Alarm and is generally run as copies 5-8. It is sorcery speed but has upside if you can enable fateful hour.
This is one of the best token creators white has to offer. It is the Lingering Souls of pauper. It is seen in both token decks and often in the sideboard of other decks to provide a few blockers when needed.
This is exclusively found in token decks. It is a very costly card which synergises with having many tokens already. Flying can be essential in many matchups and this is another card which provides creatures with this evasion.
Removal
White removal has always been somewhat circumstantial or conditional given the identity of white. Here are a few of the preferred removal spells in pauper.
This is probably the most popular of the removal spells given it can answer creatures of any size. It's downside is that your opponent can get their creature back and that it can only be cast at sorcery speed.
The closest thing to a white Lightning Bolt. This is often used in addition to Journey to Nowhere when a deck wants to run more than 4 removal spells.
A very powerful spell which gets around hexproof. This is sometimes seen as a 1-2 of in decks but often is dependent on the meta.
This is best used in conjunction with either tokens or permanents which have benefit to sacrificing them. It is very powerful but can be quite costly to cast.
Occasionally seen as a 1-2 of in some decks. The extra mana over Journey to Nowhere does tend to mean that Oblivion Ring doesn't get run very frequently as the cost is generally greater than the benefit of wider number of targets that the card can remove.
Anthem Effects
While pricier than many of the other anthem effects, this one is still useful if you do not have any other creatures in play. This versatility is generally what secures it a place in token decks.
This former uncommon was downshifted to common in eternal masters. It is an exceptionally powerful anthem but it requires commitment to red and white to get full use out of it.
Very powerful and cheap anthem best suited for white tokens. It is simple yet effective in what it does.
The effect on this card is smaller but the alternate casting cost is what makes it as powerful as it is. This pairs very well with Soul Sisters which are unlikely to attack anyway.
Sideboard Cards
White has some very powerful if rather specific sideboard cards. This can allow for some great improvement in matchups postboard.
This is a very powerful piece of artifact removal. For 3 mana it deals with two permanents and can swing a game into your favour.
Efficient enchantment removal that has great upside for green white decks. This is generally found in sideboards in order to deal with Bogles/Aura hexproof.
A powerful enchantment sweeper best suited to decks which run no enchantments of their own and are heavily invested in white. Because of the nature of white removal being predominantly Journey to Nowhere and Oblivion Ring effects, this card is very niche.
An incredibly strong one sided fog effect. This can provide a huge turn around within a game and, with a unique and cheap flashback cost, provides this effect twice. A very strong card to buy a few turns for midrange strategies or to affect combat maths.
The most commonly seen are the red and green. These can win games all on their own. While they are exceptionally specific in their abilities, they often occupy slots in a sideboard for certain matchups which would be exceptionally poor otherwise.
A more versatile piece of removal than Ray of Revelation or Dust to Dust, but it comes at the cost of only destroying one permanent.
This is the Spellskite of pauper. It is frequently seen in sideboards to combat targeted removal, pump spells and bogles/aura decks. It is exceptionally powerful and highly recommended in any sideboard.
Anyway, that's all for this time. Catch our next article soon here on Particularly Pauper!
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