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Riff Raff, Street Rat (Delney Draw Primer)

Commander / EDH Card Draw Matters Humans Lifegain Mono-White Protection Weenie

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Land (32)

WinCons (7)

Tokens (3)

Card Draw / Tutor (14)

Deterrence (8)

Protection (7)

Ramp (3)

Other (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: Delney, Streetwise Lookout

Life Gain (10)

Removal (8)

ETB (3)

Return (2)

Maybeboard

Card Draw / Tutors (13)

WinCons (1)

Life Gain (9)

Tokens (2)

F*CK YOU RULES COMMITTEE (1)

Removal (7)

Ramp (6)

Ban Update 9/24/24 Show

Update 9/16/24 Show

Update 9/15/24 Show

Welcome fellow voyeurists to the riff raff, street rat, Delney draw experience. If you enjoy a stack crammed full of triggers, welcome home, you have found yourself in the right place. The deck runs a number of low mana cost ETB ability creatures with power 2 or less to exploit our street savvy Commander, Delney, Streetwise Lookoutaltered's second "if an ability of a creature you control with power 2 or less triggers, that ability triggers a second time" status effect. We have a very low mana curve and our numerous card draw and life gain triggers can get out of hand FAST when combined with Delney and / or some of our other doubling ETB ability cards such as Panharmonicon. Our deck also runs a significant amount of classic stax weenie deterrence staples and protection to ensure the safety of our many minuscule warriors. At heart, we aspire to be a classic mono white life gain alternate wincon deck and achieve our aims of total victory quite often with the ridiculous amount of ETB triggers we are able to rapidly produce. The deck is separated below into all of our main synergies and themes and the maybeboard has now been updated to include descriptions of why those cards have chosen to not be included in the deck at this time. I have also added a section of all the new promising cards for the deck from the upcoming Duskmourn set and my current thoughts on them. Please throw a hungry street urchin an apple and an upvote if you enjoy the ride! Let's hit it Abu.

Card draw and life gain are our two main themes in this deck. All of our card draw comes in the form of exploiting less than two power white creatures ETB draw abilities with Delney's double trigger effect. Every game we want to be getting out Delney turn 2 or turn 3, as soon as we have the 3 mana needed, in order to start having all of our ETB abilities trigger a second time as soon as we are able. This deck can go off for some serious draw early game with our low cost mana creatures and Delney snoopin' around the battlefield. Again, recall that for the following creature cards ALL of their listed triggers are doubled by Delney.

Archivist of Oghma Fetch lands and tutors, they are simply everywhere. Now, whenever our opponents reach for their combo piece or favorite dual land, we draw a card and gain 1 life.

Enlightened Tutorfoil As powerful as they are, I am not a huge tutor fan unless you don't have to reveal, but that's just not an option for us in mono white. I myself, and this deck like to win though and Aetherflux Reservoir and Test of Endurance are two of our best options to do so with our incredible life gain triggers. Too many games I've sat there for 3+ turns with 100+ life in a low draw game just to be smashed by 12 all of a sudden 36/36 Field of the Dead zombie tokens. Enlightened Tutor gives us another chance to get both of these wincon pieces or other powerful threat answers such as Meekstonefoil into our hand when needed.

Esper Sentinel Our favorite white Rhystic Study on a 1/1 creature body. Drawing two instead of one each time our opponents cast their first non creature spell for just a single white mana is almost too good to be true. Also great per usual even without Delney on the battlefield to net us some cards each time around the table.

The Gaffer We gain a ton of life in this deck and with our old halfling geezer out on the farm, we draw a card on each of our end steps that we have gained 3 or more life. We love our Gaffer because we run lots of life gain triggers that hit when our opponents creatures ETB, such as Authority of the Consuls, so we are often able to get our draws from Gaffer on every player's end step. One of our most reliable, re-occuring draw triggers in the deck.

Mangara, the Diplomat Mangara's 4 mana cost almost caused him to get the cut, as the large majority of our draw and life gain creatures are 3 cmc or less. Despite his higher cost, our scholarly Mangara stays in because his effects are just too good to miss out on. With Mangara scurrying about trying to make treaties we are now rewarded with draw triggers every time an enemy attacks us with two or more creatures or casts their second spell each turn. Like The Gaffer, Mangara is excellent for his ability to trigger on each player's turn.

The One Ringfoil Forged in the fires of Mount Doom itself, The One Ring is so OP it seems to be in every single deck I come up against these days. We will follow our enemies suite and run the cursed ring of power for its reliable card draw each turn. Being a life gain focused deck The One Ring is even better than usual under our command as we can afford to keep piling on burden counters rarely worrying about the loss of life. The One Ring is great to get out early games for the draw, but don't underestimate how powerful granting ourselves and our life total protection for a full round around the table can be later game when threats are high. Indestructible to boot, you should be running the holy bling of Middle Earth in 99.9% of all your Commander decks.

Recruiter of the Guard We run 22 creatures in our deck that have toughness 2 or less. Let's grab our favorite and most needed one with our diligent recruiter. A great opening play with Delney out to grab a life gain staple such as Soul Warden and a card draw powerhouse like Rumor Gatherer. Throw in our favorite instrument Panharmonicon to the mix and let's grab three creatures instead.

Rumor Gatherer Although it saddens us our young gossiper's draw effect only triggers once per turn, the scrying bonus is a great benefit and addition to have in our deck. With the amount of creatures we aim to cast each turn, Rumor Gatherer is a great one to have in the back pocket for emergencies where we are trying to draw a specific, serious threat answer, as we can end up scrying a large amount of cards each turn. Remember that Gatherer only triggers when our own creatures ETB, not our opponents.

Trouble in Pairs Let's give this troublesome duo some props right off the bat because extra turn spells (and blue decks playing them) are one of the worst things in Magic and Pairs first ability puts an abrupt end to all that silliness. The reason we are playing Trouble in Pairs though is because it's the best white card draw piece since Esper Sentinel, arguably better. Every game our opponents are usually casting at least 2 spells each turn, not to mention often drawing a second card and possibly even foolishly attacking us as well. Getting this out early game whenever we have the 4 mana available can easily net us 3 cards each time around the table. An incredible new addition for mono white draw.

Welcoming Vampire Another card that unfortunately triggers only once per turn, but is still well worth the include. Every single one of our creatures in the deck except for Felidar Sovereign and Sun Titan are power 2 or less, so this eager bloodsucker is an almost guaranteed draw each of our turns.

Inspiring Overseer, Priest of Ancient Lore, Roving Harper and Wall of Omens. All power 2 or less creatures, all cards that draw us a card whenever they ETB, x2 with Delney per normal routine. Shoutout to Inspiring Overseer and Priest of Ancient Lore for having the added bonus of gaining us life in addition to the draw.

Despite our conniving spy Delney's master plan to implement our insane amount of draw and life gain triggers, almost all of our wondrous supporting cast in the deck are true mono white weeneis. This means that we are tiny. Although this is an important part of our gameplay as Delney's first ability ensures none of our less than 2 power creatures can be blocked by any of our enemies creatures that have power 3 or greater, we often have trouble blocking ourselves. Trample is particularly hard for us to overcome. With this in mind, we prefer it when our enemies simply can't attack us and we run a solid amount of stax deterrence to try and ensure this reality.

Authority of the Consuls and Blind Obedience The two classic white stax staples themselves. The decree of the Consuls synergies especially nice with our life gain focus and don't underestimate how clutch extort can be in close games when life totals are low. Blind Obedience, although doesn't gain us any life, shuts down any heavy ramp artifact decks for a turn as well. With their respective one and two mana cost, these two are both great opening hand keepers.

Crackdown, Ensnaring Bridge, and Meekstonefoil Three fantastic weenie oriented deterrence pieces and cards you just don't often get to play in your average EDH deck. However, our decks focus on creatures with meager 2 or less power opens up the playability of these powerful status effects and we will take advantage. Crackdown is the weakest of the three, as it doesn't deal with any colorless or white creatures, but still well worth the include for shutting down all our giant green stompy foes. Ensnaring Bridge can occasionally back fire on us with a Reliquary Towerfoil in play and our many card draw triggers, but most games even with 7 cards in hand it still shuts down our largest and most threatening high P/T enemy warriors. The classic, all mighty Meekstone is our favorite of the bunch. With its single 1 mana cost, in any non-heavy discard games, Meekstone is a great one to hold onto in hand and then shoot in on a turn unexpectedly when our foes largest creatures are all already tapped from attacking.

Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse Our enemies better have remembered to save that mana if they want to swing at us. Both cards that cause our opponents to have to pay 2 for each creature attacking us. Our Windborn Muse also happens to be power 2, so with Delney out on the lookout our enemies are forced to pay 4 for each creature instead.

Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker Another true, mono white baddie. With our honest advisor scurrying around the field, ANY opponent source that deals damage to us causes them to have to sacrifice a permanent (x2 per usual w/ Delney). Michiko totally shuts down decks running the likes of Impact Tremors or Roiling Vortex. It really is priceless to watch one of our foes go quickly from believing they will win the game to having no lands just like that.

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines and Panharmonicon We already double all of our power 2 or less triggers with Delney, so what else could be better than doubling those abilities yet another additional time? Let's go right ahead and do it with both of these fantastic cards. Panharmonican is great for all of our ETBs as always, and our Praetor lordess Elesh Norn gets out of hand QUICK if we get her and Delney out together. Now instead of two, we are getting three triggers for all our power 2 or less abilities or FOUR if we find ourselves lucky enough to have all three cards in play. Make sure you brought your notebook if playing in paper because these triggers get ludicrous fast.

Fortune, Loyal Steed My newest addition to the deck and one I am excited to try out in some games this week. Our beastly mount's saddle (same as crew) 1 ability to get some extra ETB triggers at the end of our turn synergies beautifully with our deck and we have plenty of power 1 creatures to throw some cowboy boots on. I chose to stay away from any other classic exile and return spells such as Ephemerate, in order to load up on our deterrence and protection, so it's nice to have Loyal Steed give us a decent option for this powerful ability in our deck.

Besides drawing cards, this is what our deck is all about, gaining an obscene amount of life. A mono white speciality. All of these cards paired with our sneaky leader Delney can quickly net us some serious high life totals and enable our wincons.

Auriok Champion, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, Soul's Attendant and Soul Warden All low one or two mana cost creatures that gain us 1 life each time creatures enter the battlefield. Daxos only triggers when creatures we control ETB, but we also gain 1 life whenever a creature of ours dies. A few of these together paired with Delney get us lots of life fast, perfect for enabling our life gain based wincons such as Test of Endurance.

Children of Korlis One of those late night finds scrolling through the over 700 power 2 or less white creatures on scryfall, these rebellious teenagers are an excellent fit in our deck. A great deterrence piece to have on the battlefield with Delney, as anytime an opponent hits us with serious combat or direct damage we can sacrifice our firstborn sons to gain it all right back. Remember that it is an activated ability though so it is not doubled by Delney sadly. A great Sun Titan target turn after turn when we are being consistently targeted.

Distinguished Conjurer Like our many small friends above, our esteemed wizard gains us life whenever a creature enters the battlefield under our own control. Distinguished Conjurer gets her own space here due to her tap and pay 5 mana ability to exile a creature we control and return it to the battlefield. Although we rarely need to utilize this, it's great to have as a backup plan when needed and is our only other card besides Fortune, Loyal Steed that grants us this effect.

Leonin Elder Now instead of creatures, whenever ANY artifact enters the battlefield we gain 1 life. There's a lot of artifacts in EDH folks, so we will play our favorite furry priest.

Lunarch Veteran   Yet another low one mana cost creature that gains us 1 life whenever a creature ETBs under our own control. We're giving some extra love to this grizzled veteran priest because we can use his disturb ability for two mana to rebirth him from our graveyard into his spectral form Luminous Phantom   to gain 1 life whenever a creature we control leaves the battlefield.

Serra Ascendant Name me one better thing than a turn one Serra Ascendant. It used to be all us good, honest mono white EDH players had for years, YEARS I tell you. Still did not do my first ever mono white angel deck any good 1v1 against my friend teaching me how to play versus his Animar, Soul of Elements that has protection from black and white (what a friend), but we're going to get all the glee we can from hitting our opponents for 6 flying lifelink damage every chance we get. Another fantastic early game Recruiter of the Guard target.

Suture Priest Double life gain and opponent life drain triggers with Delney whenever either a creature ETBs under our or an opponents control? Yes, please. This can start rapidly hitting our opponent's for some serious life loss triggers. Sorry about your luck squirrel token guy.

Although our streetwise Commander Delney is very, very sneaky sir, once our triggers soon start to multiply we can become a target. We run the following cards to help ensure our Commander's footsteps continue to go unnoticed and to protect ourselves from game ending lethal damage.

Comeuppance White "fog" effect on steroids and one of my favorite cards I discovered by having played against me in a game I foolishly swung all my creatures for combat damage I thought would be lethal. Hindsights always 20/20 isn't it. Comeuppance has become an auto-include for me in almost every white color identity Commander deck I run. Yes, we need to hold up 4 mana to get it off, but in the game saving (often game winning) occurrences we are using it in, we have the time to plan ahead for its use and even hold off casting any spells for the turn before if need be. Believe me, if you haven't been running this before, just wait until you get this off on a red burn opponent who thinks they are about to hit you with lethal direct damage and end up offing themselves instead. Almost just as satisfying when we negate all combat damage and destroy all their creatures who swung at us. A card that has single handedly won multiple games for me that I was all but counted out on by my opponents (and myself).

Flare of Fortitude and Flawless Maneuver A new zero mana cost capability spell from MH3 and the Commander 2020 staple itself. As our deck is composed mainly of creatures, it's rare we aren't able to sacrifice another nontoken white creature and cast Flare for free when we need it. As we aim to also have Delney tiptoeing around the battlefield the entire game, Flawless Maneuver is a no brainer protection include for its likely zero mana cost indestructible granting protection ability.

Galadriel's Dismissal I originally used this spell to primarily protect Delney for a single held up white mana. Yes, for an additional three mana we can also phase out all of our creatures in the event of a board wipe, but the real reason this new one from LOTR is so great is to USE IT ON OUR OPPONENTS. That's right, just cast that Test of Endurance last turn and after everyone at the table swung at us with everything its down to the last man , woman or child whose creatures are going to just get us under the 50 life we need to win...just cast our "Bye Felicia" favorite on them and watch all their precious creatures vanish before their eyes instead. A versatile hit in our deck for sure.

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots Two timeless EDH artifact equipment protection pieces. We prioritize Delney every time for these, unless there's an Angel of Destiny or Felidar Sovereign to protect. Love the new roller blade Fallout art that nicely fits our rugged human-centric deck vibes. Please don't argue with me that they wouldn't be rolling blading in Ravnica as there sure as hell aren't any detectives there either.

Teferi's Protection Peace the hell out for a turn and let our enemies battle each other for awhile as we observe from our favorite safe space. Still one of the best answers in all of Magic when things get dire.

Archaeomancer's Map I can still remember how excited I was about this card when it game out. They weren't lying for once, we were getting some ACTUAL good white ramp, be still my heart. They really don't do it better in white than Archaomancer's Map. We not only get to search our library for two basic Plains, but now every time an opponent who has more lands than us plays a land, we can put our own land onto the battlefield. Burgeoning ain't got nothing on us now.

Knight of the White Orchid One of the first on my list to possibly slot out for a more reliable mana source like Mana Crypt, but our flowery knight is still a great ramp choice and I may be a bit partial due to how much I like this new Secret Lair art. Remember when using Knight with Delney that it counts our opponents land when each trigger hits separately, so an opponent has to have at least two more lands than us in order to be able to put a land into play twice.

Land Tax Let's grab a ton of Plains pretty much whenever the hell we feel like it and keep us land secure the entire game. Nothing else does it better for one single mana. A great way to thin our deck when needed as well.

Mana Crypt Should be an auto include in any competitive Commander deck, Urza's Saga helps us grab it when needed. Extra great in a life gain deck as the loss of 3 life when we lose a flip

Pearl Medallion All of our spells except for a handful of artifacts are white, let's have them all cost one mana less please, thank you.

Sol Ring Man, these new Fallout arts are great. This is a Commander deck, so we're playing Sol Ring. Enjoy a Commander deck for once not playing Arcane Signet, even if we probably should be.

Austere Command One of the best, most versatile wipes out there. Urza, Lord High Artificerfoil constructs getting you down? No problem. Painful Quandary and Polluted Bonds draining your precious life away? No problem. Giant Eldrazi alien scum swarming all around? No problem. You get the idea. We run Austere Command over Farewell, as although the exile is more powerful, as a weenie deck we can often save all our own creatures by choosing to destroy either all artifacts or enchantments and only creatures with mana value 4 or greater.

Dawnbringer Cleric Have I mentioned we like versatility? Although 99% of the time we're using our early rising priest with Delney to destroy two enchantments on his ETB, Dawnbringer Cleric is one of our few direct answers to pesky graveyard loops such as Spore Frog when needed.

Dusk / Dawn I hate these split cards, almost none of them are good and they are a pain in the ass to read. I'm making an exception for Dusk / Dawn this one time because it's made for our wimpy human gang. We only board wipe creatures with power 3 or greater and even better, when we make it through the night to cast Dawn from our graveyard, we can return all creatures with power 2 or less from our yard to our hand (that's 98.5% of our creatures there folks). One of our best means besides Sun Titan for returning our fallen weaklings back to service.

Fiend Hunter and Skyclave Apparition Our fiendish man of the cloth is great for a double creature exile when paired with Delney. Don't be shy to save Fiend Hunter when possible for enemy Commanders as often they won't want to wait around for Hunter to be removed and choose to put their Commander back into the Command Zone instead increasing their tax. Skyclave is the stronger of the two because they only get some lousy blue apparition tokens in return for their exiled permanents. Although unlike Fiend Hunter, our spectral friend can target any permanents (not just creatures) don't be like me and get excited and forget that the permanents chosen have to be mana cost 4 or lower. We're just going to have to answer that Ulamog, the Defiler some other way, maybe with a Fiend Hunter?!?

The Battle of Bywater Another selective board wipe that only takes care of creatures with power 3 or greater. We'll take some extra food tokens for the effort. Po-ta-toes anyone?

Witch Enchanter   One of our few answers to annoying artifact control pieces we encounter. Can also hit enchantments when needed. Oh yeah, short on mana? Just play it as a land instead. Thanks MH3 for another great human fit.

No matter how much protection we run or how light on her feet Delney prowls through the crowd, we inevitably have some of our courageous spys hit the dust. So let's bring them back to fight another day with these spells.

Karmic Guide Our haunting angel brings our weakest weenies back to life and just so happens to be a creature with power 2 or less. Yes, you guessed it, with Delney that means we can return not one, but TWO creature cards from our graveyard to the battlefield as she reminds us of the cosmic law of "what goes around comes around." Extra holler that she has protection from treacherous black although our helpful angel is dying 99.9% of the time on her echo trigger.

Sun Titan What Sun Titan is not, is power 2 or less, but that's just fine by us. We'll forget about how fun it would be for his trigger to be doubled as well as we return creature after creature from our graveyard each turn his sturdy 6/6 P/T frame swings. Don't forget we get a return on his ETB as well (Fortune, Loyal Steed anyone?).

One of our wincons is swinging for good old fashioned combat damage with our unblockable weenies (Moonshaker Cavalry helps as well). These cards all produce us more lookouts along with other beneficial effects. Some of our most incredible life gain triggers come when we are able to produce multiple tokens each turn with 2 or more of our life gain ETB creatures such as Soul Warden on the battlefield with Delney. These effects can easily start gaining us 40+ life a turn.

Charismatic Conqueror Remember when I said you might want to bring that notebook and pen with you? Important here to note, "If the permanent is tapped as the ability resolves, the opponent can't choose to tap it, so you'll create a Vampire token." In laments terms, what this means for us is that every time Conqueror triggers with Delney we are at least creating one 1/1 lifelink vampire token. This works out because if our opponent does choose to tap their artifact or creature, when the second trigger from Delney initiates, said artifact or creature is already tapped so they cannot choose to tap it creating us our token bloodsucker. Of course if they really want that artifact mana or blocker the same turn, they are refusing both triggers and netting us 2 tokens instead. This can get wild quick and I have won plenty of games swinging with a massive army of lifelink vampires.

Ocelot Pride Is this just not the coolest card in recent memory period? All the arts are great and who doesn't love friggin' Ocelots. Similar to our pillaging vampire above, this token generation can go off with great speed. Great opening hand keeper.

Saradoc, Master of Buckland Let's continue to pump out tokens, this time hafling ones to take advantage of our many life gain creature ETBs such as Soul's Attendant. Another one that can make our triggers on the stack grow to quite some length.

Well, having come all this way, we might as well win. I myself have always been a huge fan of true alternate wincon cards (not to mention winning in general) and white has some of the best in the business.

Aetherflux Reservoir One of my least favorite cards in all of Magic as I'm not an infinite combo fan (but you like 1000 stack triggers psycho?) yes, I do, leave me alone... Anyhow, my deck is heavily win focused, so we just can't not include one of the most powerful life gain spells that can also flat out end games when we are down to 1 or sometimes even 2 opponents. We'll keep this evil pond around despite my past grudges.

Akroma's Will Our least wincony wincon, Akroma's Will is listed here because it does indeed win games when the proper circumstances present themselves. Continue to flood the field with our low mana cost weenies and with Delney in tow grant our tiny army way too many strong abilities for me to list here. One of these abilities is double strike, but as only two of our creatures have power higher than 2, Will is best saved as a coup de grace against a final remaining foe.

Angel of Destiny Talk about an alternate wincon alright. Hold on, I'm going back to read this card again for the 100th time to remember how it works, but despite its tendency to confuse, it's a whole lot of fun. With our flying cleric on the field any damage we do results in us AND our opponent gaining that much amount of life instead. If we have 55 or more life at the beginning of our end step, whichever opponent we swung at LOSES THE GAME. We will take it and continue to swing at our next biggest threat each turn. Would be a lot of fun paired with the likes of Blade of Selves, but we don't have any extra room for such a niche (despite highly entertaining) play.

Approach of the Second Sun 7 mana is a lot for our deck, but we'll take the risk when it means winning the game. Remember, we run a ton of card draw so it's quite realistic to be drawing Approach of the Second Sun only 3-4 turns after we cast it for the first time. Besides being a great unique white alternate wincon, I think my favorite part about Second Sun is how many opponents simply forget we've cast it by the time we get it back in hand.

Felidar Sovereign My hands down favorite OG white wincon, the cat monarch himself, Felidar Sovereign. Thank you Secret Lair for the huge bonus that we can now win the game by playing one of the most adorable kitty cat arts in all of Magic. Yes, it can be challenging even when suited up with a pair of Lightning Greaves to have our feline friend (or our life total) survive a full round around the table to our next upkeep, so see if you can't save up the 9 mana needed to cast Felidar followed by Teferi's Protection to phase out and let our opponents curse our name as we let them do whatever they like until they all instantly perish on our upkeep.

Moonshaker Cavalry Our mono white Craterhoof Behemoth, thank you Wilds of Eldraine for making all of our whimsical stompy, white weenie dreams finally come true. Sure, there is Mirror Entity, but our lunar pack of wild horses is far superior due to its added bonus of granting flying to all of our creatures.

Test of Endurance Same concept as Felidar Sovereign, except on a harder to remove enchantment and we need 50 life or more instead of 40. Always entertaining slapping this down on the table with 65+ life and watching everyone try their best to remove it or get our life total down before we win on our next upkeep.

With the exception of a few special ability ones, the focus of our lands is coming in untapped for same turn available white mana.

Ancient Tomb and Temple of the False God With all our life gain abilities, we'll take Ancient Tomb's 2 colorless mana for the price of 2 life every time. In regards to Temple of the False God, although it is a pain in the ass to get stuck with in your opening hand, the rare times this happens is not enough of a negative to keep us from missing out on the extra mana.

Castle Ardenvale We can almost always get Castle coming in untapped and in a pinch can generate us a 1/1 human token to initiate a life gain trigger when needed.

Cavern of Souls We run a lot of humans and a lot of clerics. I'll be a good deck builder and count eventually, but we want to choose human still, every time, as Delney is the one we want to ensure we can always get on the battlefield. Sorry blue player and your two held up islands, our leading lady is way too sneaky for you with Cavern in play.

Eiganjo Castle I don't think I've ever activated Eiganjo's protection ability, but hey, great to have reserves in case a Lightning Bolt heads for Delney. Untapped white mana for the win.

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire Again, channel ability is cool if we find a need for it, but we're playing this for an untapped white mana.

Emeria's Call   These original Zendikar Rising flip lands are always a kind of "why not" include them cards for each appropriate color. If we need the land, we use the land (can pay 3 life to have it come in untapped) and if not we can create some 4/4 flying angel tokens. Much better than adding another Plains.

Emeria, the Sky Ruin We'll take this land coming in tapped for the off chance of returning a creature from our graveyard to the battlefield every upkeep if we have seven or more Plains in play.

Field of the Dead Another tapped land, this time one that only nets us colorless mana. That's just fine and dandy though as a 2/2 zombie token every land we play (after we have 7 different named lands) is well worth the sacrifice. We run a split of basic Plains and Snow-Covered Plains just to help our chances.

Flagstones of Trokair Untapped white mana source anyone? I hope your play group doesn't see a ton of Obliterates, but its never bad to have a way to put a free land onto the field if a mass land destructor strikes.

Hall of Heliod's Generosity That last enemy was able to destroy our beautiful Test of Endurance right before our upkeep? No problem, let's use Hall of Heliod's to put it back on top of our library and then draw it and re-cast it same turn after activating one of our many card draw triggers.

Kor Haven Unlike Maze of Ith, we have to have an additional 2 mana held up to activate Kor Haven's prevent combat damage ability, but Haven gets the nod due to us being able to tap it for colorless mana as well. Great answer to Voltron threats.

Minas Tirith We attack with a lot of creatures and aim to always have Delney on the battlefield, so Minas Tirith is a great slot in for our deck. Any extra card draw opportunities, especially tied to lands are always welcome.

Mistveil Plains It's unusual that I'm ever activating Mistveil, but again I stress how great backup options are. Go ahead and put that slain Felidar Sovereign or other wincon onto the bottom of our library with hopes of shuffling up and redrawing them with a bit of luck.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx Essentially our white Gaea's Cradle, we put out a lot of white creatures and often have a huge white devotion board state. Nykthos is our most reliable way of creating a vast amount of white mana.

Ondu Inversion   One more time, backup options people. 8 mana is ridiculous, but sometimes there's no other way out than a whole battlefield reset.

Path of Ancestry The one land that has gone in and out for me multiple times. I hate it comes in tapped, but over time I've realized with the amount of humans we run in the deck the scry ability is indeed worth it.

Reliquary Towerfoil Riff Raff, Street Rat Delney Draw is the name of our deck. We like to draw cards. Let's keep them all and not discard down to 7 with Reliquary Tower in play.

Scavenger Grounds Graveyard abuse is a reality and I just so happened to come up against an especially frightening Araumi of the Dead Tide deck the other day. Besides Dawnbringer Cleric, Grounds is our one other way to exile punishing opponent graveyard effect based hate.

Strip Mine and Wastelandfoil Land destruction is an absolute must in any and all Commander decks. There's friggin Glacial Chasms out there people. Don't get me started on The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale...

Urza's Saga Grab our Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, or most importantly Meekstonefoil when needed. Great opening hand land.

War Room Another great land enabled card draw trigger. We'll pay the least possible amount of 1 life in addition to the three mana for an extra card when we need it.

We run x5 Plains and x5 Snow-Covered Plains. As mentioned, the pretty snow lands are just to boost our different named lands for Field of the Dead.

One of the hardest things in all of Magic is going from that 101 cards to 100, especially when you have that new one you just HAVE to put in. Separated below into our same main deck themes and synergies, I have listed all of the cards I have previously removed from the deck, as well as the ones I have my eye on. For each card I also explain why I have chosen not to include it in the deck at this time. The top candidates to go in (and which probably should already be in the deck are) Mentor of the Meek and Smothering Tithe. But, WHAT DO I TAKE OUT?!? I also really like Case of the Uneaten Feast...Comments welcome as always.

Idyllic Tutor and Plea for Guidance Both enchantment tutor spells that can find us one of our wincons Test of Endurance or a serious threat answer such as Crackdownfoil. I will admit that there are games I could have won sooner if these sorceries were both in, but as our double card draw triggers enable us to move through our deck quickly, tutors are less necessary and (in my opinion) the games are more of a fun, spontaneous experience without them. These two get the cut in favor of the one we do run Enlightened Tutorfoil as it's an instant, not sorcery, only one mana cost and can get us an artifact (Aetherflux Reservoir) or enchantment. Slot Idyllic Tutor right back in if your number one goal is winning as fast as possible, for me it's just a close second.

Flumph I do like me some Flumph, it rolls right off the tongue, draws us some cards and is an excellent flying 0/4 bulbous blob of a blocker. I sadly laid Flumph to rest in favor of more non-conditional ETB draw trigger creatures. I also have never been keen on running any effects that also benefit our opponents and with Flumph we have to have a target opponent draw the same number of cards we would as well. For these reasons we'll see our jellyfish friend at the sushi bar, not on the battlefield.

Market Gnome and Outlaw Medic New ones from Caverns of Ixalan and Thunder Junction, both power 2 or less life gain creature trigger chances, these ones death triggers. Both of these do fit our deck nicely, but again, we'll stick with our immediate ETB draw creatures instead of the conditional ones. Also a bonus that without Gnome I never am going to have to read what the hell "craft" is.

Mentor of the Meek Why is Mentor of the Meek not in the deck? It's cause sometimes I just want to be difficult, ok. This deck is labeled as a Delney Draw Primer and there is no denying how many cards our weak guru can gain us. I just don't like holding up the mana for him, so awhile back I slotted him out in favor of an ETB instant draw. With this in mind, it isn't a sound argument as there are many turns we end up with a spare colorless or two that could be put to great advantage with the extra draw. Top candidate to go back in, but I haven't felt lost without him. If you do find your draw to be lacking, this is the first one to add back.

Moon-Blessed Cleric If our lunar priestess was 2 power or less and didn't make us shuffle, we would run her for sure. Those extra hours in the papal gym made her just a little too buff for our weenie deck (power 3), so we'll pass up another decent enchantment tutor chance in favor of our other card draw trigger creatures.

Search Party Captain We make a lot of tokens and put a lot of creatures into play. We like to swing with these creatures and often do. This means that Search Party Captain can often be cast just for one single white mana. He really is good, but took the cut in favor of straight non-conditional 2 and 3 mana cost ETB draw creatures such as Priest of Ancient Lore.

Spirited Companion and Helpful Hunter Call me out if I missed one, but these should be the last ETB draw a card white creatures that are 4 mana cost or less. I've found the deck to be very nicely balanced lately in terms of our main life gain and card draw synergies, so Companion stayed out. If you love kitties or pooches, Roving Harper is interchangeable for your favorite pet. Disclaimer: Sorry cat lovers, but you have to wait until November for Foundations to play this adorable little feline in the case of Helpful Hunter.

Ajani's Welcome It is nice to have the security of a re-occuring life gain enchantment in the deck, as I can think of a few removal heavy games where I cannot keep a creature alive a single round around the table. Despite its advantages, our deck is all about our weenies, so we are sticking with them and our double Delney triggers for all of our creature ETB life gain effects.

Anointer Priest, Impassioned Orator, and Lifecreed Duo All more 2 mana cost life gain creature ETB trigger chances. As I mentioned, I have been happy as of late with our synergy balances, but feel free to play around with adding any of these / subtracting card draw trigger creatures, as you see fit from your game experiences. Annointer Priest gets the nod out of the bunch for its embalm ability.

Case of the Uneaten Feast I just stumbled across this card a few days ago and boy has it caught my eye. I may have mentioned we like having options, and any turn we gain just 5 life we can sacrifice our Thanksgiving leftovers to play any creature cards from our graveyard for the turn. I mean, almost a white Yawgmoth's Will people. This is extra appealing due to the low mana cost of all our creatures. Currently eyeing what I can afford to lose for it and if it will indeed be worth losing a Delney doubling creature for.

Guide of Souls We want to love it, it's new, it's flashy, it's energy, one mana, yippie dah doo day. I get it. In all seriousness though, even though this is a cool effect and can help us swing in for flying damage, we don't want our weenies putting on any P/T muscle in +1/+1 counter form as now we no longer get their triggers from Delney. One of those really close ones to almost being awesome, but we'll stick to Google maps.

Healer of the Pride Gaining 2 life instead of 1 with all our own creature ETB triggers should not be taken lightly. As great as my lion nurse had been to me when I first built this deck, her 4 mana cost was just one too much when I made the decision to go with the ways of the low curve. At the end of the day we are better served by getting out multiple low cost creatures with ETB gain 1 instead.

Skyclave Cleric   Instant gain 2 life (or lots more with Delney and Co.) or play as a land when we need one most. Our low mana curve means we get away with low land games, but if you find yourself having consistent land woes, slot our Rudolph riding Kor right back in.

Discerning Financier Ok, another one most people play that I'm not going to argue isn't good. A low land game this noble merchant can create us two treasures each upkeep when combined with Delney and save the day. Discerning Financier was in my deck originally, but as good as that sounds even when I type it, I never drew him in those circumstances and more times than not he just sat lazily on the battlefield doing nothing whenever I didn't have less lands than my opponents. His second ability shenanigans are worth a mention for another good draw option, but I'm not in the habit of giving my enemies my plunder. Just too conditional in the end, we have better options.

Keeper of the Accord I'm giving Keeper of the Accord some love here because he was one of the first tastes of the promised EDH white ramp support WOTC was going to give us years ago in the times us poor bastards were genuinely getting excited about awful cards like Cartographer's Hawk. I'm surprised many people have moved away from Keeper, as he is still an auto ramp include in most my white decks, but we've left him out here for other options as he doesn't make the power 2 or less cut.

Knight of the White Orchid Another recent subtraction and a tough one as I LOVE this Secret Lair art. Similar to Discerning Financier the conditionality of the having less lands than our opponents makes our flowery knight not worth it in the end. An opponent has to have 2 or more lands than us at the time we cast Knight of the White Orchid in order for us to put two Plains in play with Delney and we have better Plains grabbing options such as Archaeomancer's Map and Land Tax. As great the human flavor, a good takeout I have not missed.

Smothering Tithe We're playing mono white and not playing Smothering Tithe, it just doesn't seem right. It sure as hell is not going to make our deck worse going in, but I made the tough call to remove our favorite taxation in favor of slotting back in Enlightened Tutorfoil to help find our wincons. Too many games I found myself with a ton of treasures / mana, but not enough cards in hand that it made a difference. Our low mana curve also makes Smothering Tithe not so much of a must have as usual.

Solemn Simulacrum Yet another power 2 creature whose abilities are great when doubled with Delney. I've been happy with our low curve and limited ramp so far though, so our stern golem gets left out for his higher 4 mana cost.

Weathered Wayfarer It is great to get our Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Field of the Dead, but because it's an activated ability (not triggered) we don't get a double from Delney and we don't depend on either of those lands enough to justify Wayfarer staying in over other possible double enabled life gain or card draw creatures.

Aven Interrupter Still confuses me, although it has been used against me now a few times to great effect, so I'm trying to catch on. Any white counter spells are cool, looking at you Rebuff the Wicked and Reprieve, so our rude avian rogue is worth a look just for that alone. I decided against putting him in as our opponents can recast the spell we counter for an extra 2 mana when its plotted, but it would be cool if you can indeed choose two spells on the stack with Delney...Again, I'm still a bit uncertain on rulings, but a great add if you want to include some more sneaky fun defensive answers.

Commander Sofia Daguerre Ive always been partial to a woman in uniform myself, and although we're not exclusive in this deck, we try to give our fellow humans priority when we can. This card is very close to going in over Fiend Hunter as lately people have been able to quickly remove him and gain their creatures right back. The 4 mana cost was only thing holding me back, as this is a new find this week for me, but destroying two legendary PERMANENTS (yes lands too) with Delney on ETB, I am starting to think is too good to miss out on. I know I have been preaching about not running any cards that give our opponent's any benefits, but hey it's just a lousy junk token. Next update our friendly Fallout astronaut will most likely be in.

Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares The classic white Commander removal spells themselves. Another maybeboard grouping it just feels wrong to not have in the deck and I've been very close to throwing at least one back in. For now though, I'm sticking to our guns of having our removal be significantly creature ability based to take advantage of Delney.

Promise of Loyalty We're sticking with Austere Command as our one high mana cost wipe for its versatility of hitting more than just creatures, but Promise of Loyalty needs to be mentioned as one of the best white pseudo board wipes in recent memory. Our opponent's need to sacrifice all their creatures but one (how's that indestructible working out for you?) and whoever they decide to save can't attack us for the rest of the game as long as it has a vow counter on it. Who knows, you might even be as lucky as me to come up against a Voltron Skullbriar, the Walking Grave player, who now can't attack you for the rest of the game (boy was that one fun). As great as Loyalty is, we aren't playing it because we run too many creatures ourselves we don't want to sacrifice. This is the same reason we are running so few true creature board wipes in the deck.

Settle the Wreckage A tough takeout for me, as it's such a great one to win games with that no-one ever sees coming. A close back and forth with Comeuppance as exiling is superior to destroying, but I felt there was only room for one 4 mana protective instant in the deck with our low curve and Comeuppance's damage inducing capabilities took the cake. These are the cards you are saving for the last play of the game when it's down to you and one other opponent and he swings in with everything for the "win". Moments like those are what I play Magic for, so if you haven't been playing these two, give them a try and experience that priceless joy for yourself, you deserve it.

White Orchid Phantom Cool new MH3 baddie. Land destruction is a must in Commander to deal with Gaea's Cradles and the like and I loved having both Phantom and Knight of the White Orchid in the deck for flavor purposes alone. We're already running both Strip Mine and Wastelandfoil though, so Phantom hit the dust for me when Knight of the White Orchid came out. Those two definitely ride AND die together.

Oltec Matterweaverfoil Alright, this is one of those flashy new cards we've been mentioning above, except in the case of Oltec, I have nothing bad to say about it to justify not playing it. There's no downside to creating a 1/1 Gnome token enabling our many ETB life gain effects every time we cast a creature spell and even though we have limited artifact ramp compared to most EDH decks, an extra one or two Sol Rings on the battlefield never hurts. If we had more artifact ramp, our artifact weaving friend would be a definite include. One I would like to slot in (as it has never been in the deck) for a try as there is no contesting how powerful another re-occuring token trigger can be.

Psychosis Crawler We draw a lot of cards, why not win the game by draining our opponents well we do so? Similar to Suture Priest, combined with Delney and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, etc. on the battlefield we can hit opponents for some serious, often lethal drain triggers when we really get going. Our Phyrexian abomination's high 5 mana cost and just my personal choice to go away from this effect is why he is no longer in the deck. A great one to put right back in if you want to try to add in more direct damage / drain effects or have been having trouble closing games out.

We all adore our new sets, even more so now due to the insane power creep that has been coming with each new release. These cards are all prospects from the upcoming Duskmourn set. One or two will be making the cut after release when I am able to get my grubby hands on them.

Enduring Innocence Seems to be the MVP of the new Duskmourn bunch. It's a power 2 or less creature that (sigh only once a turn trigger limit) will guarantee us an extra double card draw with Delney each of our turns we play one of our numerous other power 2 or less creatures. Even better, when our poor naive sheep is led to the slaughter it returns to the battlefield as an enchantment. All of these new glimmers from Duskmourn seem quite powerful and am looking forward to trying this one out as it is a perfect fit for Delney.

Leyline of Hope I love the idea of this new Leyline and this card will no doubt be a no brainer auto-include going forward for most life gain centric decks. Just as with Guide of Souls though, we rarely want our weenies growing and causing their triggers to no longer multiply. So, despite its appeals, not a good fit for us in the end.

Living Phone Duskmourn appears to be a white weenie's dream as the power 2 or less creature synergy is strong with this set. Another excellent new power 2 or less choice, Living Phone with Delney allows us to look at the top 10 cards of our library and grab our two most needed tiny creatures. A tempting prospect for sure.

Splitskin Doll Another new power 2 or less creature ETB card draw babydoll for us to squeeze on. As we have lots of power 2 or less creatures, we shouldn't have to worry about discarding often as well. Will most likely go in in favor of one our current 3 mana cost ETB card draw creatures, as this creepy little guy is only a two drop.

Toby, Beastie Befriender MIKE WAZOWSKI!!! Well, I guess this is supposed to be Sully and the lil' tyke, but you get the idea. Don't have to wait for Universes Beyond for this one folks. Getting to it, creating x2 4/4 white Beast tokens (looking forward to seeing the art on those) with Delney is pretty darn good and even though its one our smaller synergies, our token production can go off random games and giving them all flying is more than welcome. Also only a 3 mana drop. Not sure this one will make it in, but it's more than good enough to be in the discussion.

We have now arrived at the conclusion of our riff raff, street rat, card draw, life gain deck extravaganza. Important final notes, although not heavily referenced throughout the guide, as our alternate wincon cards are our usual means to victory, we are still a deck that wants to be swinging every turn with combat damage, even when it's only with one or two of our measly power 2 or less creatures. Delney enables herself and our entire legion of power 2 or less creatures to be unblockable by any creatures with power 3 or greater, so besides for any blockers we may need, we should be steadily chipping away at our opponents life total with combat damage every chance we get. One of our decks biggest challenges is dealing with other small creature and token decks whose creatures ignore our selective power based board wipes and stax pieces such as Meekstonefoil. In these situations, we need to buckle down and try to keep attention away from us if possible as we continue to gain life and try and draw our wincons. Once our triggers start to rapidly multiply though, we do become a target quickly. Hope you all enjoyed the brew and my scattered Aladdin references. See you next time fellow mono white warriors.

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Revision 6 See all

(1 month ago)

+1 Throne of Eldraine main
Top Ranked
Date added 2 months
Last updated 1 month
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

20 - 0 Mythic Rares

50 - 0 Rares

12 - 0 Uncommons

9 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.20
Tokens Angel Warrior 4/4 W, Cat 1/1 W, City's Blessing, Construct 0/0 C, Food, Halfling, Human 1/1 W, Illusion */* U, Vampire 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Commander
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