Darien, King of Generals (w/ Primer)

Commander / EDH* Mono-White Tokens

Tylord2894

Artifact (25)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Angel's Trumpet
• 1x Ankh of Mishra
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Blasting Station
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Coveted Jewel
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Eldrazi Monument
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nyx Lotus
• 1x Pearl Medallion
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Instant (6)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tithe

Creature (17)

• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Catapult Master
• 1x Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Impassioned Orator
• 1x Jazal Goldmane
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Ranger of Eos
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Requiem Angel
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Suture Priest
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Ajani's Welcome
• 1x Angelic Chorus
• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Answered Prayers
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Divine Visitation
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Elspeth Tirel

Commander (1)

Land (33)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Grand Coliseum
• 1x Nomad Stadium
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 24x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Temple of the False God

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Declaration in Stone
• 1x Gift of Estates
• 1x Mass Calcify
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Retribution of the Meek
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Winds of Abandon

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Competitive Meter

[ |10| |9| |8| |7| |6| (5) |4| |3| |2| |1| ]

Inspiration & Play Style

Large scale token production is a simple, yet effective, strategy for casual-ish play. Darien has a very good token-making ability stapled to him. While mono-white decks are generally considered bad, but Darien has a consistent and effective strategy. With a single ETB (enter the battlefield) healer, i.e. Soul Warden, Ajani's Welcome, etc., the token generation from Darien not only stops but reverses any non-lethal damage. That is, an attack that might normal deal 10 damage instead will deal you 10 damage, give you 10 soldiers, and then gain you 10 life, only making you stronger!! I am, personally, a huge fan of spontaneous wins. Since Darien is capable of generating a large number of tokens, beefing up those tokens often means the end of the game for everyone else.

Win Cons

Most win cons in this deck revolve around making the tokens that Darien produces very large and swinging both wide and tall. The other way to win is by milling our opponents out with Altar of Dementia and/or Altar of the Brood.

• Altar of Dementia and/or Altar of the Brood
• Coat of Arms
• Archangel of Thune
• Jazal Goldmane
• Mirror Entity
• Cathars' Crusade

Summary & Goals

Remember that in this deck, damage is a good thing. Once at least one ETB healer is out on your side with Darien, detrimental effects become beneficial ones. Obviously, if you are benefiting from damage, you opponents aren't going to be very willing to attack you. You'll have to resort other methods of getting damage. These "other methods" take two forms. The first of these forms is self-inflicted damage. Cards like Ankh of Mishra, Ancient Tomb, and Tarnished Citadel, are highly effective ways to get some damage in while you are doing things you normally want to be doing, in this case playing and using lands. The other way to, potentially, be dealt damage is by giving our opponents a reason to attack you. The best two cards for this are Angle's Trumpet and Luminarch Ascension. Luminarch Ascension enables you to create angles for very cheap provided you haven't been dealt damage for 4 different turns. Its a great play early game as a source of tokens or mid/late game as a reason to attack you. Angle's Trumpet is, simply, one of the best cards for building up your board in the deck. Since everyone is dealt damage for not tapping or attacking with their creatures, everyone (except for you) will be attacking. This will end with the rest of the board getting weaker or with you getting stronger, a win-win. Once your board is sufficiently stocked, you can play a win cons to blow everyone away (except for Altar of the Brood, you'll want to play that as you're building).

Play-by-Play

1. Since white decks have a hard time ramping, its important to make sure that you either have plenty of land, a way to get land (like with Tithe or Land Tax), or have some mana rocks at your disposal.
2. Depending of the kind of ramp that you are using, you might be able to start casting ETB healers or other spells that you'll be needing later.
3. As soon as possible, play Darien. If you fear for his safety, it might be best to wait until you can protect him with some Boots or other effects like Shielded by Faith.
4. If you haven't put the shields around Darien, do so!!
5. Continue building. Since there isn't a lot of good card draw in white, getting a Skullclamp to exchange soldiers for cards is a great mid-game option.
6. Build until you get effective use a win con like Coat of Arms.

Tips & Tricks

• It can be the case that you don't have a healer, despite there being more than half a dozen. There are several tutors for heals, namely Recruiter of the Guard and Ranger of Eos
• Steelshaper's Gift, Open the Armory, and, if need be, Enlightened Tutor are great for fetching either Skullclamp or a shield effect like Darksteel Plate.
• Blasting Station forms an infinite combo with Darien and a healer. With a second healer, you can gain infinite life. With Anointed Procession, you can get infinite soldiers.
• Having multiple healers out at a time is usually not very beneficial. Unless you have several in hand and nothing better to cast, try not to have multiple of them as they could get removed.

Miscellaneous

The purpose of the Snow-Covered Plains if for Extraplanar Lens. All land tutoring effects like Tithe and Land Tax all apply to Snow-Covered Plains. Since Extraplanar Lens adds an extra mana each time a land with the same name as the imprinted card is tapped for mana, using Snow-Covered Plains over normal Plains helps ensure that you aren't giving your opponents extra advantage.

Considerations

First things first, anthem enchantments like Glorious Anthem are bad in EDH unless they do for than buff. It may seem that with all these tokens that giving them a +1/+1 buff would be good, but it is not. Since rebuilding in mono-white can take some time, I prefer narrower board wipes like Mass Calcify and Elspeth, Sun's Champion's second ability. For quite a while, I used token spells like Decree of Justice and Conqueror's Pledge, but none of them ever made much of an impact on the game. I found that using more useful effects like Well of Lost Dreams and Sword of the Animist give far more advantage.

Meta Adjustments

I play in a fairly passive meta. We tend to run rather little in the ways of removal. This deck has a lot of removal, comparatively. Moreover, most of this removal is creature removal. If your meta tends to play a lot of dangerous enchantments or artifacts, I would recommend adding that as that is a strong suit of white.

Budget Options

An Unfortunately downside to this deck is that it is expensive. With that in mind, there are several cards that can be replaced to save money. First, all of the planeswalkers, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and Elspeth Tirel, can be taken out. While they help generate tokens and move the target from Darien to themselves, they are not needed for the functioning of the deck. They can be replaced by general or narrow board wipe. The Snow-Covered Plains are also not a requirement. In fact, they would be the first that I would wait to add if money is an issue. Lands and mana rocks that are sources of damage are extremely useful, but many of them are quite expensive. These include Ancient Tomb, Mana Crypt, and Tarnished Citadel. Since ramp is rare is mono-white, cards like Tithe, Land Tax, and Weathered Wayfarer are expensive as they do their job well.

I hope you enjoy this deck. It is one of my all time favorites.

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Mono-White 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.04
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Clue, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders	Commander, stuff for later, Cool Future Builds, EDH Decks, My Collection