Ah yes I see. Well theres been a lot of views to this page, so hopefully others see my words of wisdom for their own voltron decks. I <3 Mask of Memory.

Commander's Plate has definitely been good in my testing. Its not necessarily the first thing im tutoring for, but im never sad to see it either. Protection and Evasion? Yes please.

Seems like a lot of setup. Also its a colorless source and I don't see you switching one of your current lands for this. I guess if I had to switch a land it would be thespian's stage (Thespian's stage just doesn't get the use I always want to get out of it, it has been useful in a couple games where I've copied For Haven).

I would sooner go with one of the lands that DespairFaction listed above, than this. I's rather be drawing into cards that help me than spending two turns to make ONE creature indestructible. Sure making Balan (or halvar) indestructible is nice, but every time I comment you seem to put a lot of emphasis on the other creatures in the deck as well.

You still intending to swap to Halvar?

No Sram, Senior Edificer ?

Never mind, I see you already used him as a commander.

Sorry if you've already answered this Q a million times, but there's no way I'm reading 66 pages of archived comments: what's up with your ramp package? Seems a little thin for what I'd expect. Arcane Signet , Wayfarer's Bauble , Thought Vessel , Fellwar Stone ... there are a million options to pick from these days.

Plainscycling is excellent and all, but raw card draw is usually enough to hit land drops. Above someone asked about Sram , of whom I know you're aware--really seems like he deserves a place.

Excellent brew you've got here, again my apologies for questions you've surely seen prior :)

@Omniscience_is_life

I'm intentionally keeping the amount of Mana Rocks in this deck at an absolute minimum so I don't get utterly blown out by one of my own sweepers.  ^Flip I'm focusing more on land-based ramp options to fill that gap.

The Plainscyclers are my personal replacement for Land Tax. They shine in the early game to hit the first few land drops before any of my card draw engines can be active.

I replaced Sram, with Mangara a little while ago. He only makes Equipment cantrip. If I'm running on fumes, he's not going to fix this. And he doesn't posses any secondary functions to have a use beyond card draw. From what I hear, more card draw options for White are coming up in the near future, so I'm unlikely to put Sram, back in this deck.

NensouHiebara fair points all. But I maintain that Wayfarer's Bauble could find a home here.

I honestly feel like basic Plains themselves would be better than The Plainscyclers though. They fit the bill of letting you hit land drops, while not forcing you to spend early turns tutoring for them.

I can understand wanting Mangara, the Diplomat over Sram, Senior Edificer --no rebuttal there. I only wonder if they could coexist? The more card-draw the better, amirite?

@Omniscience_is_life

Wayfarer's Bauble was in this deck for a brief time until Smothering Tithe needed the spot. I'm not really interested in more Mana Rocks. I'm looking into adding Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip and I don't have a desire for more ramp after that.

The Plainscyclers do more than grab lands. They still creatures, and are used as emergency bodies in the late game. The spare shuffle effect from the cycle can also refresh the top of my library for Sensei's Divining Top. A Plains can't do that.

I'd rather focus on the new card draw that's coming than find space for Sram.

If you want creatures on lands, Emeria's Call is two for one plus insurance. If you want shuffle effects, 1 life is a lot better a price to pay than 2 mana-- Any Fetchland can work in that space if you find yourself needing it that much.

Considering you're going to need to find space for said card draw anyway, it kinda feels obfuscatory to not add Sram. How long are you planning on waiting for this new, exciting, card draw?

@Omniscience_is_life

Emeria's Call and Fetchlands can't accomplish everything Plainscyclers can. Emeria's Call can't tutor for Mistveil Plains or shuffle my library. Fetchlands aren't late-game bodies. Plainscyclers are a complete package of these effects. They're not all-stars, but what they provide is plenty to help the deck flow better.

If I wanted to use Sram, he wouldn't of been taken out to begin with. And I don't know if the new card draw is going to be good enough. I'd rather wait for them to be printed and decide on what to take out at that time instead of forcing a card I don't want anymore in the deck to act as a placeholder. The new card draw is within the coming sets.

Alright, you win ;)

I see you have Sword of the Animist already. Awesome! I also use Terrain Generator and Lotus Field in my Nahiri equipment deck for additional non-artifact ramp. It works really well. I've also been known to Settle the Wreckage several of my own tokens after moving the equipment to another creature like Balan, Armory Automaton , or Heavenly Blademaster . I've gotten 6 lands before on a single turn doing this! Also, I know you said you didn't want to run rocks but so many people don't know that Inspiring Statuary is ridiculously strong in equipment decks. Basically it turns all of your equipment into mana rocks! Windbrisk Heights is also another land-based way of cheating out a high mana cost card.

My deck if you're curious: Pure Nahiri

@jamochawoke

Nearly half of my lands are Nonbasics. Terrain Generator wouldn't function properly in the early game, which is when the extra land drops matter the most.

Lotus Field isn't actual ramp. With being two lands down to play it, the additional mana it produces only fills the gap it created. I would also have to sacrifice Basics to not lose Utility Lands, which negatively affects Emeria, the Sky Ruin.

This deck isn't built for multiple attackers. As a "Go Big" strategy, I'm only going to have one maybe two creatures attacking at any given time. Any other creatures I may have are either utility creatures that mostly stay out of combat or blockers to defend against multiple opponents. Using Settle the Wreckage as a ramp effect isn't something this deck can make use of. I don't attack with three or more creatures regularly for Windbriak Heights to work.

Inspiring Statuary's inability to reduce the cost of Equipment is a major dealbreaker for me. A Mana Rock that can't be used towards a deck's primary strategy is pointless.

Lotus Field is ramp the turn it comes out as you can tap the lands you sacrifice before you sac them, therefore instead of getting 3 mana that turn you are getting 5. It works especially well if you have Flagstones of Trokair out since that fetches a Plains when you sac it.

As for Terrain Generator my question really is why are you running so many non-basics in a mono color deck? And it still has 20 potential targets to hit. I run 22 plains in my mono-white deck and I'm getting an extra land every other turn or so when I get it.

You have 16 equipment and 6 other artifacts in a 100 card deck and you don't think Inspiring Statuary will help you when you have 42 targets it can ramp? I run one more artifact than that and every game I've played it it's been so immensely helpful for playing everything else in my deck. It basically gives me a free spell or more every turn on top of any artifacts I might play and therefore it also becomes a high priority removal target for my opponents, often saving a valuable equipment I would otherwise lose. It also can help you recover from board wipes when you have a bunch of equipments on the field doing nothing and help pay for your commander's tax when he inevitably gets removed. You really should give it a try before dismissing it.

NVM saw Lotus Field comes in tapped and forgot I used to run it with other tapped lands with Amulet of Vigor . Sorry about that!

Also Explorer's Scope is another equipment that can ramp you slowly, or fairly reliably if you can filter your deck fairly reliably. The only way I know how in mono-white is and Sensei's Divining Top . Scrying Sheets can be kind of a pseudo-filter that at least can put snow lands in your hand if you run those.

I almost forgot about Isolated Watchtower as well.

@jamochawoke

I run so many Nonbasics because Mono-coloured decks are capable of doing so and maximize the value out of their manabases. Every Utility Land is essentially an 'extra spell.'

Cataclysmic Gearhulk and the cards that don't have generic costs are also unaffected by improvise. Inspiring Statuary can only affects 31 spells in my deck, which is about 47%. A Mana Rock that can't pay towards half of a deck's spells doesn't sound great.

The six non-Equipment artifacts are either already Mana Rocks or have beneficial activated abilties that I'd rather leave open. The lone artifact creature Cataclysmic Gearhulk more often than not dies to its own ability. If Gearhulk does stick around, then I'd leave it untapped so it can attack and block. None of these artifacts could be used to improvise.

This deck functions off of minimal resources. I don't need to drop every Equipment I have available. Halvar  ^Flip only needs one solid Equipment to be a serious problem for opponents. An alternative threat with one or two Equipment is more than enough. Inspiring Statuary wouldn't have much to work with in most situations.

One of White's major strengths is its ability to purge the board.  ^Flip I'm not afraid to lose everything if it means stifling my opponents' own gameplans. This is why I don't run a lot of Mana Rocks: they will inevitably get blown up. Inspiring Statuary would be no different. I don't even run Mana Doublers anymore because my heavy use of sweepers utterly ruins their effectiveness.

I don't need to give it a try when I know it's going to fail.

Explorer's Scope and Isolated Watchtower don't have any consistency. They look at the top card of the library and hope for the best. Sensei's Divining Top isn't going to fix them. I can be mana-screwed with Top out as well. Scrying Sheets is a land that hasn't aged well. Tthere are plenty of lands that straight up draw cards

So I don't know if someone has suggested it before, and I'm not even sure if I'm totally on board with the suggestion myself, but here it is.

Perhaps it is worth comparing Well of Lost Dreams and Dawn of Hope . The main reason being that the amount of card draw you get out of well of lost dreams is simply higher. The amount of card advantage it generates for you is better, BUT it doesn't have the second ability that makes tiny lifelinkers. So, you'd have to rely on other cards to gain you life and draw you cards. You have exactly 9 other sources of life gain in your deck (10 if you consider that recruiter can get Serra Ascendant/Danitha Capashen)

Then you have to think about the issue of mana cost, which I would say (even though the cmc is obviously lower on Dawn of Hope) is about equal.

-Dawn of Hope costs 1W BUT it costs 3W more to make a lifelinker (that will probably die in the process of gaining life (if it isn't equipped (which costs more mana to do by the way))) AND it simply costs more to draw the cards. So in the end you are sinking 8 mana (or more) in to draw 1 card. The only case in which you wouldn't be doing that is if you are using your other life gain sources, but both cards can utilize those.

-Well of Lost Dreams on the other hand costs 4 to play, and 1 to draw 1 card (so 5 total) OR, even better, 6 mana to draw 2, 7 to draw 3, 8 to draw 4, ect. That is however relying on outside sources of lifegain and how much life they gain you. At worst, it draws you the same amount as Dawn of Hope for less mana

In all reality you have a 1 in 10 chance of a card in your deck being an independent source of life gain. Assuming you use at least 10 cards during a given game, which you will assuming you don't die before turn 3, then you will (on average) have at least one other source of lifegain at least once during a game. Therefore, the fact that it relies on outside sources of life gain seems negligible.

The one exception to it being negligible that I can think of is trying to recover from a board wipe, of which you have several. If you think about it though, you are going to be drawing sources of life gain more often than you are going to be drawing board wipes. But idk, maybe this will be the one thing you find issue with.

So: pros: costs less mana overall, draws more cards, is an artifact (for things like Puresteel Paladin ) cons: higher initial cmc, doesn't make lifelinkers (negligible), doesn't help recover from board wipes quite as well.

Anyways, that was a long post and I think I persuaded myself that one was better than the other in the process. I only made this so in depth because almost every time I or someone else has suggested something in the recent past you have completely shot down the suggestions. Thus, I've made it a point to not suggest something unless I've really thought about it.

But by all means, enlighten me on the things that I didn't think about.

"I don't need to give it a try when I know it's going to fail."

Welp, best of luck to you then. I'll keep using proven play-tested strategies myself.

Also I converted my Balan deck to an Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist / Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar deck like a month ago, and now I can never see myself going back. It is far superior. I can usually win the game (not just kill one person) by turn 6, even with removal that slips through. Although it is theoretically possible to win on turn 2.

Now I'm not saying you should make the switch, as you probably have your reasons for not doing so. Also, the closer the deck gets to a cEDH deck, the less fun it gets, or at least that's what I've discovered. Notable differences between our decks are Jeweled Lotus , Mox Opal , Colossus Hammer (I guess you took that out since you can't get a free equip as often), Sigarda's Aid (you've explained that one and I just disagree, but whatever), Masterwork of Ingenuity , and Mishra's Workshop (I also play like twice the amount of equipment that you do). It is also notable that surprisingly enough I don't play Mana Crypt

So yeah, just things to consider. I expect you to take this comment with a grain of salt, so pay attention to my other comment instead.

@CavemanlyMan

Dawn of Hope trumps Well of Lost Dreams just by the fact it can fuel itself. Yes, it costs a substantial amount of mana and effort to get it started, but it's better than a draw engine that's completely dead without outside help.

Winning the entire game that early is too extreme for me. I prefer Commander when it plays like a board game: a lot of back and forth and anyone has a chance of victory. Curbstomping like that will alienate my deck and is not something I want to participate in.

@jamochawoke

Our decks function differently. Inspiring Statuary works in yours, but not in mine.

I have to know, how many times have you actually played the creature side of Noble Templar ? If you have played the creature side when?

@VampRamped

Infrequently, but that's to be expected.

Noble Templar and Eternal Dragon are in the deck as an alternative to Land Tax. Their purpose is to tutor for lands. The creature side is a fallback, when the land is no longer necessary and I need something to equip.