Freezing Point: 2/32 - White

Hello everyone, and welcome to the second installment of Freezing Point! In this series I'm going to brew a 75% EDH deck of each color combination from the ground up. The intended meta for these will be a casual meta, though while not built competitively they will be spiked as hard as possible. You may be confused seeing some pricier cards in here like Imperial Seal and Mishra's Workshop but if those help the particular deck they're in then so be it. Really expensive cards supporting really bad strategies. It's like taking pre-workout and a horse tranquilizer at the same time.

The title of the series is good and all, but what does it mean or stand for? Well, if you look at the number of possible color identities for decks in Magic then you will notice that there are 32 (one colorless, five single-color, ten two-color, ten three-color, five four-color, and one five-color). I wanted a title that could represent that idea. I wanted to go with calling the series 2⁵ but some websites wouldn't display the superscript properly. Instead of that, I chose Freezing Point as the name as water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems to fit well.

While I haven't really ever wanted to be one of those people that had one of each color combination of EDH decks I did get inspired to brew them. I've looked at a lot of lists in my time and I usually enjoy seeing other people's established works and then working off that, either by improving it or making it suit my own style. I've learned a lot about EDH in recent history and decided that I would at least like to make each color combination of deck so that I have one that I can say is my deck and is not just 'the one that I play.'

With that being said, let's get into the deck. (complete list at end of the article)

Overview

Selecting the general I'd like to use for this one was pretty tough. Unlike with colorless there's significantly more white legendary creatures than there are colorless ones, and plenty of good ideas for them. Akroma and Eesha would be voltron but without ramp for if (when) they die. Elesh Norn would be an EDH version of Death and Taxes which while fun for me seems less efficient in multiplayer (despite conveniently featuring many other white legendary creatures). Brigid would be amusing, though more useful with green's untap effects and red's 'forced combat' cards. Finally, people would see Iona and Gisela/Bruna coming from miles away and would prepare for it or focus me down.

The two potential commanders that I ended up settling upon were Heliod and Oketra. They are both indestructible creatures that make other creatures for the same price (in this case the one mana shift from colored to colorless, or vice versa, is irrelevant). Looking at their creatures, Heliod's creatures are naturally +1/+0 stronger than Oketra's creatures, though the latter naturally have vigilance. Both of these creatures are unaffected by board wipes as they just shrug them off; so who do I go with? I went with Heliod because Oketra is always a creature and Heliod is only sometimes a creature. This allows me to play more board wipes like Terminus and Hallowed Burial safely because I don't have to worry about tucking my commander-slash-army-maker if I play tightly enough and watch my mana symbol count. Serra's Sanctum also goes very well with Heliod. The overall goal is to continuously wipe the board and then refill it with our own creatures.

We'll go through the deck section by section, breaking down what's in the deck and what it does for the deck.

Board wipes

The most important part of this deck is board wipes. We can play nearly all of them in white and we hardly ever have to worry about our commander being affected by them. The main considerations for which wipes to play were the cost and how all-inclusive the board wipes are (if they only hit certain creatures then it may not make it). Wrath of God and Day of Judgment were obvious inclusions, Martial Coup and Kirtar's Wrath are wipes that give us dudes if we do it right, and Final Judgment and Descend upon the Sinful are where we need to be careful. Oblivion Stone and Akroma's Vengeance threaten people further, and we even have Armageddon and Ravages of War because we should be set up by the time those are being cast. Yeah, we play a lot of board wipes.

Destroying our own creatures isn't that big of a deal because we can either float a lot of mana with Sanctum prior to doing it and then making more dudes or we just don't worry because we don't lose our token generator. This is also another reason why we don't play something like Mobilization because it can potentially activate Heliod and he can be removed.

Buff

Nice board wipes, bro

So we occasionally cause mass genocide of magical beings and then make more dudes who know their fate; what do we do with them? We buff them! Obelisk of Urd and Coat of Arms nearly make it so we're the only ones benefiting from playing them. But simple power/toughness buffs aren't enough because we need keywords! Eldrazi Monument and Akroma's Memorial help make our seemingly puny guys a bigger threat. Jazal Goldmane and Mirror Entity also give temporary but powerful buffs if the board is clear. Elesh Norn even makes a guest appearance as a way to hate on your opponent's dudes and make ours stronger.

Ramp

Since we're playing a mid-game stupid strategy we're gonna need mana. We don't have anything crazy this time around though as far as mana ramp is concerned. I reluctantly decided to not include Mana Crypt this time around as it may accidentally kill us over the long game we plan on making this into. Caged Sun, Extraplanar Lens, and Gauntlet of Power are all nearly one-sided because people rarely play basic/snow-covered plains very much. Pearl Medallion affects almost every spell in our deck so this is an auto-include.

Value

Khajiit has wares if you have coin.

We're playing mid-range and we have a perpetual stream of creatures. What goes good with either of those scenarios? Skullclamp is pretty good with what we're doing. About to wipe the board? May as well draw some cards! Land Tax and Scroll Rack are both good and go very well together. Throw a Sensei's Divining Top in there for bonus good feelings. Emeria Shepherd can also get back things that we either discard or opponents happen to destroy. Crucible of Worlds also helps us recover after our MLD spells or if we just want to keep cracking fetches or other self-sacrificing utility lands.

Hate

If you don't turn on Heliod
you won't turn off Heliod

We pretty much have the creatures locked down, so we just need to deal with those pesky blue- and combo-players. We have a slew of hate that hits just about everything that isn't a 'keep creatures on board' strategy. Ethersworn Canonist and Thorn of Amethyst (did that rhyme?) hate on storm, Containment Priest stops any reanimation or Boonweaver-like strategies (Grafdigger's Cage does work here too but is not as quick on the cast, although it's probably better), and Kismet, Null Rod, and Rest in Peace are general-purpose hate that can inconvenience someone at a convenient time. Rest in Peace also invites Helm of Obedience along because why not? Most of these hate pieces also don't go towards Heliod's devotion.

Probably the most surprising additions here would be Humility and Cursed Totem. The beauty of them are that they don't affect Heliod if we play right, and they hardly affect his tokens. The P/T is set prior to other bonuses which works out great for us!

Good stuff

Don't worry, Akroma's Vengeance,
I've got your back.

I guess I can play some actual good cards instead of complete jank otherwise! Sun Titan is good all around and we don't usually mind if he dies after a single use or not, plus we can recur him with Emeria Shepherd if need be. Enlightened Tutor finds pretty much any permanent card in our deck. Finally, we have the usual spot removal spells that white plays with Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile for those pesky indestructible creatures that we somehow missed with our exiling board wipes. Ashnod's Altar can also help to cast bigger things since it basically turns all of our creatures into double eldrazi scions/spawns.

Lands

There's nothing too special going on with the lands. Now that we're in the realm of colors we can use fetch lands (which go well with Crucible and Sun Titan). Boseiju protects our board wipes even though the blue player would most likely not care for it happening. Mistveil Plains' effect is relevant to an extent and it's also fetchable. Mouth of Ronom and Scrying Sheets are useful since we're playing snow-covered plains.

Construction and play considerations

If your opener allows you to cast Heliod earlier than turn 4 then that is fine though not necessarily a requirement for playing. If you have nothing to do on a given turn and you would rather stockpile 'physical' resources for a while then making as many tokens as possible is completely viable. Remember, this is being played in a casual met after all. Heliod's ability is basically allowing you to cast a creature spell for 4 mana whenever you want to, so if it helps you play then think of Heliod (and all activated abilities, really) in that way. Those creatures are all carbon copies of each other too, so while a 2/1 isn't the most threatening thing ever remember that things like Sanctum and Eldrazi Monument really utilize this ability well.

One thing you want to keep in mind is what other decks are in your pod. If you are playing decks that can or usually do get creatures out quickly and/or in high numbers you may want to mulligan until you have enough mana to cast (or close enough to cast) a board wipe that you want to use early. While this is a lesson that is better learned in action I'll gladly share it here, as when I learned it it instantly and drastically changed my gameplay against aggro decks. It's alright to use your board wipes more frequently than holding out to have a bigger payoff for any given one, especially against more synergistic clans. For example, if you're playing against elves it's fine to board wipe against 2-3 mana dorks because you know that they're going to cast more dudes which is going to make their Priest of Titania that much, almost exponentially, better. They're all cogs in a greater machine, so taking out some now helps to ensure the machine doesn't get out of control.

On the flip side of this, be mindful of the people that are holding out for a board wipe in order to play more things after the dust has settled. In those cases, either play a bit of chicken with them or just board wipe twice. Usually as you improve at Magic you'll learn that it's better to just throw all your guys out there because you then give your opponent(s) two choices: either they answer your questions or they die. It's usually best to keep throwing threats out there because you're forcing your opponent(s) to use their cards to answer your questions and then, since you built your deck so well, you can recover from that, and that's something that this deck exploits; we can continue to pressure people with our indestructible commander and people have to use their own board wipes to wipe the board, which is something that we want to happen anyway! Our question is an indestructible source of creatures. We have virtual card advantage in our commander and we keep everyone else off their game plan by continuously wiping the board, and then we sit there alongside Heliod like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What were we talking about? Oh right, the deck. The deck isn't super expensive. Of the more expensive cards, Serra's Sanctum is probably the most expensive that is also necessary. The fetches are for try-hard people like myself and while still synergistic with Crucible aren't necessarily necessary. Finally, get the judge promo Ravages of War as that one is ~$175 cheaper than the original, and foil too!

Wrap-up

There's the deck, and a little bit of a Magic lesson, for you all! Here is the complete list to peruse and playtest. Keep in mind it's sort of difficult to goldfish because it's varies wildly when you'll want to play your board wipes. Be sure to check the sideboard as there's handfuls of cards that were initially considered for spots in the deck but were benched for streamlining purposes. Depending on your exact meta you might be in the clear to, or better off running, some of those cards over cards in the main board. Hate is usually tailored to your meta, but I included things that are just fine being in the deck as is. Thank you for taking the time to learn about a brain child of mine! Check back when you have absolutely nothing better to do for the next installment of Freezing Point!

All cards owned and all rights reserved by Wizards of the Coast. I'm just some nerd who spent too much time staring at them.