spacemonaut wrote:
There's a few issues that stand out to me:
- White gets virtually no card advantage, like red.
Yes, that's a big issue and it's being discussed on the past few days on MaRo's Blogatog. White's card drawing is very restricted to specific strategies (Auras, Equipment, Enchantments, Life-gaining, small creatures), and WotC seems too scared of giving White more options on that matter.
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- White gets no ramp and little access to cost decreasers (
https://scryfall.com/search?q=o%3A%2Fco ... %2F+ci%3Aw) other than the stuff anyone gets access to, like mana rocks.
On this specific point I must say that this is only partially true. White can't compete with Green on this matter but there's a a lot of White cards for searching Plains or lands in general, some of them putting the cards directly onto the battlefield (Knight of the White Orchid, Kor Cartographer, Boreas Charger) but mostly into your hand (Tithe, Weathered Wayfarer, also Boreas Charger, Oreskos Explorer, Endless Horizons, Gift of Estates, Land Tax).
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- White is largely based around many smaller synergistic creatures in constructed play, which is a frightening tactic but also vulnerable to removal. EDH gives everyone access to a lot of board sweeping.
I think that lots of smaller synergistic creatures are much more frightening in 1x1 matches than on multiplayer games, and that's a big problem with the phylosophy of White on the color pie.
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- White cares a lot about auras, which are a weak kind of card.
And have only three Aura-caring generals ):
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- White cares a lot about equipment, but everyone can access equipment.
Everyone can access but White's the best color for tutoring, putting onto the battlefield equipped and synergizing with Equipment. Although, again, just a few generals for equipment-based decks (5).
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- White's counterplay options are largely proactive "can't" effects, which draws a target on them for opponents who want to do the things they can't do.
And for playing effectively with "can't" effects you must build a REALLY annoying deck...
In my opinion, much of White's weaknesses comes from the fact that 1x1 phylosophy encourages players to build white aggro decks for EDH, but they're not really effective. For longer matches, I believe that White's stronger playing a Control strategy: lots of board wipes, lots of graveyard recursion cards (Ressurrection, False Defeat, Miraculous Recovery, Marshal's Anthem, Faith's Reward, Emeria's Shepherd, Emeria, Profound Journey, Return to the Ranks...), lots of damage prevention, lots of "players can't cast...", spot removals, etc. And only when your opponent's resources are scarce you jump for their throat.
That's the way I play Boros on EDH (RW bus mostly W): my Tajic deck is basically based on deffense, graveyard recursion and Commander damage.