There's two things I enjoy playing around with in EDH: control decks and obscure commanders. While browsing mono white generals to challenge myself, I stumbled upon
Mageta the Lion
and knew what needed to be done. His ability to level a battlefield allows me to free up deckslots that would normally be taken up by various wrath effects. And despite such a powerful effect, people seem to write him off as no real threat, whether it's because of your color identity or the cost of the ability itself remains unknown to me. So if you're sick of playing your Eight-and-a-Half-Tails or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, maybe it's time for a change.
The Gameplan
This deck can keep the battlefield clear of opposing creatures every turn if need be. Because of the short life expectancy of any creature besides the big man himself, we use token generators like Sacred Mesa, Heliod, God of the Sun, and Mobilization to keep the pressure on and finally push through for lethal damage. Getting there requires a lot of card advantage and a good amount of mana, something white can struggle with at times. So let's look below at the tools we'll use to navigate the jungles of war.
Card Choices
ARTIFACTS
Caged Sun\Gauntlet of Power\
Extraplanar Lens
- This deck is mana hungry and has plenty of things to sink excess mana into, whether it be token generators or just threatening to wrath with Mageta. Make sure to run snow lands so Lens is a little more one sided.
Sol Ring\Commander's Sphere\Mind Stone- Only 3 rocks because we have plenty of ways to search for lands in our deck. The latter 2 cycle themselves, which is great for us.
Staff of Nin\Mind's Eye\
Seer's Sundial
- Staple colorless card draw, plus sundial is great with things like Land Tax, which should pretty much always be in play.
Scroll Rack- Speaking of Land Tax, this combo never gets old.
Sensei's Divining Top- Smooths our draws and takes advantage of all the shuffling we do while finding lands.
Wayfarer's Bauble\Expedition Map- Grab some more lands why not, we need as much as we can get. Map will usually grab you a different target depending on the situation.
Crucible of Worlds- Whether you're discarding from Land Tax filling your hand or pitching them to Mageta, Crucible is always value city.
Helm of Possession- Odds are you'll have some tokens, and your opponents will have creatures that are worth killing them for.
Goblin Charbelcher- Repeatable removal, and after ripping enough lands out of the deck, can turn into an alternate wincon.
Thousand-Year Elixir- Being able activate Mageta the turn he comes out is great, and you could even do it TWICE A TURN if you really needed.
Lightning Greaves\Swiftfoot Boots- Same as Elixir with the added bonus of protection.
Darksteel Plate- Protect Mageta or something you don't want him to kill.
Skullclamp- Every token decks best friend.
Relic of Progenitus- Basic graveyard hate.
CREATURES
Knight of the White Orchid\
Kor Cartographer
\Solemn Simulacrum- Basic white ramp, some bodies to throw in front of early attacks, and Sad Robot doesn't mind dying to Mageta wraths.
Weathered Wayfarer\
Oreskos Explorer
\
Eternal Dragon
- Land fetch in our deck serves double duty to help us hit land drops and get us cards to dump to our commander.
Academy Rector- 9 times out of 10 you're gonna find Land Tax when he dies. Mageta would keep a storage shed full of these guys if he could for that exact purpose.
False Prophet- One hell of a deterrent while we set up, people think twice about attacking you when they risk permanently losing creatures.
Mangara of Corondor- The rattlesnake himself. If you wanna get fancy, sacrifice him/Mageta wrath while his effect is on the stack so he can be recurred later.
Archon of Justice- Beats face, likes dying. Noticing the theme yet?
Sun Titan- Is there a mono white deck that doesn't have this guy?
Aven Mindcensor- Show those multicolor decks why fetchlands are a waste of money.
Stoneforge Mystic- More often then not she finds Skullclamp for card advnatage, but getting boots for Mageta is never a bad choice.
Mentor of the Meek- I have yet to actually play this guy during testing, but on paper he seems to fit in well as another draw engine. Even a majority of our nontoken creatures trigger him.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope- You know whats better than keeping one creature post wrath? Keeping all of them.
Heliod, God of the Sun- I don't really count this as a creature since there aren't too many times when he's actually on. That being said, indestructible token generator, and vigilance for the team to boot.
ENCHANTMENTS
Mobilization\Sacred Mesa\Luminarch Ascension- Our primary wincons. Make tokens after a boardwipe and start swinging until you need to wipe again. Luminarch Ascension isn't too hard to turn on when the battlefield is consistently devoid of life.
Land Tax- AKA the Mageta engine. Makes you hit land drops, gives you wrath fodder. You should want this out every game.
Inheritance- It may seem expensive, but this card is a workhorse. You can grab a bunch of cards off a wrath, or just one or two during combat. Remember, it triggers off our opponents creatures too.
Aura of Silence- Slows everyone else while we set up, never be afraid to run it out.
Endless Horizons
- This card has two modes: Early game you grab about 5-10 lands and hit land drops for a few turns, late game when you have your manabase set up, just rip them all out of the deck for better draws. Bonus points with Goblin Charbelcher out.
Prison Term
- Shuts down a majority of commanders, and even dodges hexproof.
Karmic Justice- We have a lot of things we don't want destroyed, so make them think twice about trying it.
Leyline of Sanctity- Not always useful, but hoses commanders like Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind,
Vendilion Clique
, Sen Triplets ect.
PLANESWALKERS
Elspeth, Sun's Champion\Elspeth, Knight-Errant- Both make tokens, one is a conditional wrath should you need it, and the other Mageta proofs your board.
INSTANTS
Swords to Plowshares\Path to Exile- Standard creature removal.
Return to Dust- Standard noncreature removal.
Oblation
- Get rid of something problematic, or if you really need to you can target your tokens and get some cards.
Tithe- 2 plains, one mana. Nuff said.
Enlightened Tutor- Grab Land Tax early or a token generator later.
White Sun's Zenith- Nothing wrong with more tokens, especially when you get the chance at casting multiple times. Don't be afraid to cast it early if you need to blockers.
SORCERIES
Austere Command- Versatile board wipe, there's always something that needs destroyed.
Martial Coup- Board wipe AND tokens. It doesn't get much better than that.
Final Judgement
- If for some reason Mageta can't kill it, we have a backup plan.
Decree of Justice- Makes tokens and cycles itself. I don't think I've ever actually cast it, but doing so is within the realm of possibility late in the game.
Idyllic Tutor- Did I mention we really want Land Tax?
LANDS
High Market\
Miren, the Moaning Well
- Helps us kill the things that want to die.
Strip Mine\Dust Bowl- Get rid of pesky lands, from coffers to cradles.
Mistveil Plains\Emeria, The Sky Ruin- Recursion is always good. We have enough shuffle effects to make good use of Mistveil, and while Emeria may not have a large amount of targets it's worth the include.
Reliquary Tower- We end up with a lot of cards in hard, whether from land fetch or one of our draw engines.
Kjeldoran Outpost
- Because we can never have enough tokens.
Kor Haven- It's the land we use so that we don't complain about Maze of Ith taking up a land slot, and it does it's job well.
Scrying Sheets
- Pretty much an auto-include for the mono deck running snow lands.
Snow-Covered Plains
- Purely for
Scrying Sheets
and
Extraplanar Lens
.
If you read all the way through, thanks for being such a trooper. This deck is still a work in progress, and I'm not the greatest deck builder, so input and suggestions are always welcome. Hope you found this informative and useful, and best of luck to you as you navigate the jungle of war!
- With how much I shuffle looking for lands, I'm surprised this didn't find its way in earlier.