Initial Thoughts

Several weeks ago, I decided to build a deck for every color combination except 4-color. While looking at every other color and color combination, I ended up taking a step back when looking at mono-white. I couldn’t figure out a commander that i wanted to build around. Nothing had come out in 2019 that really screamed “Build me!” or “We can do great things!”. So, I began to search and search. I thought about the different strategies I could build; go wide, angel tribal, soldier tribal, and so on. I finally ended my search on Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle.

I figured “Why not build a historic tribal deck?”. The idea seemed so far from Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain that I could still have fun with it. This deck is my take on a mono-white historic tribal deck with a re-animator sub-theme.

Artifact to look out for

The deck runs several artifacts that will provide value, but also trigger Teshar each time you cast one.

Among the creatures, we have Ancient Stone Idol, Shambling Suit, Foundry Inspector and a few other that will be mentioned later.

Among non-creatures, we have Fabrication Module, Decoction Module, Animation Module, and again a few more that will be explained later.

Each of the artifacts in the deck are extra value engines with Teshar on the battlefield. Each one is an extra 3 or less drop from the graveyard. So, any artifact that does something useful is even better.

Shambling Suit is an artifact creature that can be gotten back with Teshar, whose power is equal to the artifacts and enchantments you control. Foundry Inspector is just plain ramp that can also be gotten back with Teshar. Ancient Stone Idol is a big beater that creates a not as big beater when it dies.

The three module artifacts, Fabrication, Decoction, and Animation, each do something unique. If you ever get all three out at once, they play really well together. Animation Module triggers when one or more +1/+1 counters are put on one of your creatures and if you pay 1 generic, you create a 1/1 servo. Decoction Module triggers when a creature enter the battlefield under your control, giving you an energy. Fabrication Module triggers when you gain one or more energy, you put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control. With Phyrexian Altar, these go infinite together, creating infinite enter the battlefield (ETB) triggers and letting you put +1/+1 counters on your creatures.













Comboing off

Reveillark and Karmac Guide with Phyrexian Altar allows us to end the game with a few other pieces. Perilous Myr, Fiend Hunter, and Leonin Relic-Warder all have interesting combo potential with these two creatures. Use Altar of Dementia instead of Phyrexian Altar and just end the game right there. Myr Retriever and Junk Diver can help get back all of our artifacts in the graveyard. Suture Priest can be used to gain almost infinite life. Dross Scorpion can be used for other artifact shenanigans. If I was to add in Solemn Simulacrum to the deck it would get all my basic lands to the battlefield and draw tons of cards.





















Cards to Try

One of the things that I have started to do is choose two cards that i haven’t really used before. Each of these cards i choose before building and I force myself to put them in the deck even if the strategy of the deck changes as I build. I wanted to put a restriction on my deck-building that wouldn’t pose too much of an issue with building but would still be hard to finish the deck with. Some criteria I use when picking these cards is that they cannot be the same card type, at least one must be in the colors of the commander if possible (no adding a land and a colorless artifact), at least one needs to have some sort of synergy with either the commander or the general theme of the deck, and I must have not used it as the two cards of another deck.

This may seem fairly easy to do, but this all happens before I start building the deck. So, if my strategy changes halfway thru building, I still need to make sure it works with at least one of the strategies in the deck. The two cards I chose for this deck are Magus of the Balance and Armageddon.

I know, I know, Mass Land Destruction. The big bad boogie man of the format. The forgotten little imp of the pits of no where that everyone wants to forget, but hear me out, mono-white does not have land ramp or at least reliable mana ramp. Mana rocks only get you so far in this game and the color Green has a very distinct advantage in Magic: the Gathering. Mono-white is arguably the worst color in Magic, but why is that? People do not seem to use all of it.





Budget Alert

So while doing these techs, I’ve noticed that my deck tend to run a little high in the price department. I am going to add this little section to help those pinpoint the expensive cards and create a more budget friendly deck, while only removing a few cards. This section will only be in the posts if I can remove no more than five non-land cards to bring the deck under $100.

The three cards i found really made the deck shoot up in price are Extraplanar Lens, Enlightened Tutor, and Phyrexian Altar. While these cards really empower the deck, none of them are necessary for the deck to operate.

Enlightened tutor just brings some consistency to the deck, enabling our combos and helping us find the correct artifact to get us through a tight spot.

Extraplanar Lens can be swapped out for any mana rock. While the Lens doubles our mana, it can easily be swapped out for Mind Stone or any other rock.

Phyrexian Altar is the hardest one to cut. You need a repeatable sacrifice outlet for some of the combos to work. Ashnod’s altar or Martyr’s Cause would work in its place. Both are more reasonably priced.





Artifact

1 Animation Module

1 Altar of Dementia

1 Altar of the Brood

1 Blinkmoth Urn

1 Bloodthirsty Blade

1 Caged Sun

1 Cauldron of Souls

1 Darksteel Ingot

1 Decoction Module

1 Dreamstone Hedron

1 Extraplanar Lens

1 Fabrication Module

1 Gilded Lotus

1 Marble Diamond

1 Phyrexian Altar

1 Prismatic Lens

1 Seer’s Sundial

1 Skullclamp

1 Sol Ring

1 Soul Foundry

1 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Voyager Staff

1 Witch’s Oven

1 Worn Powerstone

Creature

1 Ancient Stone Idol

1 Bygone Bishop

1 Chief of the Foundry

1 Dross Scorpion

1 Fiend Hunter

1 Forbidding Spirit

1 Foundry Inspector

1 Jhoira’s Familiar

1 Junk Diver

1 Karmic Guide

1 Leonin Relic-Warder

1 Linden, the Steadfast Queen

1 Magus of the Balance

1 Mentor of the Meek

1 Myr Retriever

1 Oreskos Explorer

1 Perilous Myr

1 Pilgrim’s Eye

1 Reveillark

1 Shambling Suit

1 Sun Titan

1 Suture Priest

Land

32 Plains

Instant

1 Crush Contraband

1 Eerie Interlude

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Faith’s Reward

1 Return to Dust

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 White Sun’s Zenith

Sorcery

1 Armageddon

1 Citywide Bust

1 Dusk // Dawn

1 Fumigate

1 Gift of Estates

1 Martial Coup

1 Ravnica at War

1 Rout

1 Terminus

Enchantment

1 Dictate of Heliod

1 Fall of the Thran

1 Nevermore

1 Smothering Tithe

Planeswalker

1 Gideon Blackblade

https://archidekt.com/decks/399335#Teshar_the_Fair

Conclusion

While building this deck, I came to appreciate all of the good mana rocks that we have come to love and enjoy. Mono-white has no way of using most of them. Signets, talismans, lockets, and keyrunes are all off limits to mono-color decks. This forced me to be more inventive with my choices for ramp. Mono-white seems to have some creatures that allow for you to fetch plains to your hand, but not into play. This is what ultimately lead me to thinking about land destruction. Since, white did not put the lands into play, I could blow everyone else’s lands up and have lands to play in my hand.

Building any deck has its own challenges and issues, but building mono-white forces you to build outside the box. While it has some of the best board wipes and targeted removal in the game, ramp and card draw are far and few between. This was a serious issue for me because I am usually playing with either green (best ramp) or blue (best draw). Forcing myself to build something outside of my normal purview has allowed me to stretch those creative brewing muscles that I haven’t used as much lately.

I ask that you try something that at first seems uncomfortable, in your deck building, to try something new and you may be surprised at what new ways to play you may find. Hopefully you will have to find new cards to use and learn a thing or two about this game we love.

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