Too-Specific Top 10 - Mono-White Pauper Control
August 7, 2023 by
DougY 
(Cartographer's Hawk | Art by Donato Giancola)
...Draw a Card.
Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Your Temple Is Under Attack is the only mono-white common instant that can draw two cards?)
Commander Masters, in addition to ever-increasing prices, also brings us a reprint of the controversial flier and card advantage engine, Cartographer's Hawk. This in and of itself isn't that interesting, but what is interesting is it being downshifted to uncommon, making it a legal Pauper EDH commander.
Now, to be clear, I'm well aware of why most people consider Cartographer's Hawk bad. It's slow, it's conditional, and even if you found a way to use its ability every turn it's expensive to continually recast it.
In a Pauper environment, in the command zone, however? I think that Cartographer's Hawk has a serious chance to shine. First off, while its ability feels slow, its 2/1-for-two body does not. Fliers are harder to come by in Pauper, but when you're up against three opponents, it's pretty much a guarantee that you're going to get in for most of the game against someone. This means chip damage, but more importantly, it means the ability to smooth out your mana for the entire game. Whether there's a ramp deck at the table or not, a Cartographer's Hawk that is consistently flying over the top ensures that even when you miss a land drop, you're not going to miss a land drop. With that guarantee in the command zone, it means you can play less lands and play more gas. Having any two-land hand be just fine for your gameplan.
So, consistent flying damage, more cards that will have greater effect, and a more-or-less guarantee of hitting every land drop. Is Cartographer's Hawk secretly one of the best Pauper control commanders out there?
Well, that depends on what's around to support it now, doesn't it?
Top 10 Mono-White Pauper Cantrip Removal Spells
To be blunt, the options at common for white removal don't feel great. Even with the known lack of Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile, I had assumed that one of the many various attempts at making fairer versions of those cards would've been printed at common, but it would appear that isn't the case. In a small favor, Commander Masters did also just downshift Generous Gift, which is a boon, but overall the most popular white spell that removes a creature you don't control is Disenchant.
Furthermore, the other thing you need tons of in a control deck - card draw - is in an even worse position. Your Temple Is Under Attack is literally the only card in white that can draw cards (multiple).
So, bad removal, and no real options for card advantage outside of our commander. Things aren't looking too hot. To make this work, we'd have to do something crazy, like try and build the whole deck out of cantrips that immediately replace themselves.
Well, why not give it a shot?
Criteria: Nonland white common instants and sorceries that will either draw a card or put a card from your library or graveyard into your hand in addition to having another ability that could be classified as either removal or a combat trick. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.
10. Pressure Point
(1,810 Inclusions, 0% of 1,273,724 Decks)
Well, we're not off to a great start, are we? Still, two mana at instant speed, draws a card to replace itself, and removes the biggest threat at the table from combat for a turn. You could do worse for two mana.
9. Aura Blast
(1,828 Inclusions, 0% of 1,273,724 Decks)
Aura Blast seems a lot more promising. Sure, we're gonna sit with this in our hand at some point without a target to spend it on, but with three players out there, an enchantment is bound to come down and let us remove it while replacing our spell.
8. True Love's Kiss
(1,860 Inclusions, 0% of 1,273,724 Decks)
I'd much rather have a guaranteed target and pay more mana for the privilege, however. Even better, True Love's Kiss exiles, meaning we're never going to see whatever it removes again. Combine this with guaranteed land drops, and this might just be the VIP removal spell we've been waiting for.
7. Scrollshift
(2,080 Inclusions, 1% of 319,773 Decks)
Some of you might be a bit confused here, but if you'll recall, our criteria said that cards could either be considered removal or a combat trick. Now, don't get me wrong, blink as a combat trick is a bit unwieldy, but it does allow you to block a big bad without trample and have your creature survive. Throw in the fact that we're likely going to be playing every creature that draws a card upon entering the battlefield (in addition to playing all the spells that do so upon casting), and this thing could easily be the actual factual card advantage we've been looking for. You know, in addition to being a bad damage sponge.
6. Niveous Wisps
(3,811 Inclusions, 0% of 1,273,724 Decks)
While Pressure Point felt a little bad at two mana, I'm actually quite happy to play the same effect at one mana. Drawing a card at instant speed is decent enough for one in white, but doing so while also making sure that opposing Ulamog's Crusher doesn't get to trigger Annihilator is just fine by me.
5. Guided Strike
(4,855 Inclusions, 0% of 1,273,724 Decks)
For a real cantrip combat trick, however, you can't do much better than Guided Strike. Made popular by Feather decks the world over, this little instant packs a surprisingly good punch, often making combat one-sided with the addition of first strike and +1/+0 while drawing a card. That there is what we call an easy two-for-one.
4. Bandage
(5,518 Inclusions, 0% of 1,273,724 Decks)
Bandage, on the other hand, can save a creature in a more equally matched combat while also drawing a card. This can result in the same kind of two-for-one, but only if you can get someone to agree to a trade while you have open mana in a deck that's been slinging instants all game. In other words, I think this might just end up being a normal cantrip a good amount of the time, maybe preventing a damage to yourself along the way. Still, if it keeps us digging for more relevant spells and has the ability to surprise someone, then this is probably good enough!
3. Acrobatic Maneuver
(8,289 Inclusions, 1% of 1,273,724 Decks)
Some of you may have already noticed that Acrobatic Maneuver appears to be strictly worse than our number seven card, Scrollshift, and you'd be correct. What it does have going for it, however, is time and name recognition. Combine that with a bit of "why not both?", and you've got our current situation. Still, it won't be long until the masses catch on that there's a better option, and then I would imagine these numbers will go down and Scrollshift will end up in this spot (or better).
2. Defiant Strike
(12,862 Inclusions, 1% of 1,273,724 Decks)
Another Feather-inflated card, Defiant Strike is not as impactful as its two mana version, Guided Strike. It is, however, one mana and draws a card. That's true cantripping right there, friend.
1. Shelter
(17,768 Inclusions, 1% of 1,273,724 Decks)
With new art from Commander Masters diversifying from the much discussed chainmail bikini bottom, Shelter makes a return as the best white cantrip ever printed not only at common, but at any rarity. Being able to nullify almost all spot removal is good enough, but with protection also acting as evasion, it's hard to beat the flexibility that Shelter provides. Just watch out for artifact creatures, because you can't choose "colorless" as a color!
Honorable Mentions
I know there's a lot of doubters for the idea of a deck led by Cartographer's Hawk, and I doubt that seeing the decklist full of bad cantrips will alleviate that, but I have actually been fairly impressed with the deck. Your hand stays full, the land drops happen every turn despite only playing 28 lands, and removal abounds. That's control to a "T"!
Hawk Control
View on Archidekt
|
Buy this decklist from TCGplayer
View this decklist on Archidekt
For the most part, our top ten does display the best options available for removal or combat tricks that also draw a card, but there are a couple of different options that either didn't make the cut or got weeded out by our criteria.
First off, our "and draw a card" requirement eliminated all sorts of Cycling cards that give you an option between an effect you might need or digging for another card. Probably the best of these is Forsake the Worldly, but there is also a Fog in the form of Angelsong, creature removal in the form of Radiant's Judgment, and some creature protection in the form of Djeru's Resolve.
Speaking of removal, while I'm not the biggest fan of Topple the Statue under normal circumstances, in this deck I think it's actually some of the best removal with card draw that you're likely to get! In similar fashion, while Carom has never wowed anyone in general EDH, in Pauper EDH I think it's always worth a look, as a substantial amount of the creatures and commanders involved in the format have one toughness. In other words, you can save your crucial one-toughness creature while killing someone else's, for a rare, common rarity three-for-one!
Nuts and Bolts
There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.
What Do You Think?
If this deck has done anything, it's given me a new lease on life as far as my opinion on Cartographer's Hawk. It still about as feel-bad as it gets in the late game, but one turn two? This little Bird is a complete game changer, guaranteeing you land drops for the rest of the game. But obviously I'm in the minority here. Or am I?
And finally, what do you think of mono-white control? Is it viable in regular EDH, much less Pauper EDH? Should we be looking at more of these cantrip effects outside of Feather, or is that the only place they belong? Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the white folding table that the LGS owner is always a little bit cagey about actually unfolding.
DougY
Doug has been an avid Magic player since Fallen Empires, when his older brother traded him some epic blue Homarids for all of his Islands. As for Commander, he's been playing since 2010, when he started off by making a two-player oriented G/R Land Destruction deck. Nailed it. In his spare time when he's not playing Magic, writing about Magic or doing his day job, he runs a YouTube channel or two, keeps up a College Football Computer Poll, and is attempting to gif every scene of the Star Wars prequels.
EDHREC Code of Conduct