While there are boatloads of different legends that make for fun build-arounds in Commander, few see competitive play. Many threatening designs simply don’t cut it if they aren’t super efficient or require too much setup. With this in mind, it’s very surprising to see the mono-white Monk Gyatso winning a recent cEDH MTG event.
Executing and Protecting Combos
Monk Gyatso is a pretty simple creature, but what gives it a chance to succeed is its combo potential. This deck is almost entirely focused on winning via combo kills, and while the combos themselves require multiple cards, there’s plenty of redundancy throughout.
To get things started, pair your Commander with a card that can repeatedly target another creature for free, like Nomads en-Kor, Shaman en-Kor, or Shuko. From there, you’ll need a card like Semblance Anvil or Urza’s Incubator to reduce the cost of your Airbent creatures.
With these tools in play, you’re free to Airbend and recast any of your other creatures as many times as you wish. Whether you’re using these tools to draw your deck with Spirited Companion or infinitely drain each opponent via Nadaar, Selfless Paladin, winning the game isn’t too hard.
Given that these combos require a lot of different pieces to pull off, this deck features a multitude of tutors like Enlightened Tutor and Steelshaper’s Gift to help set things up. To speed up the combo process, efficient mana rocks including Mana Vault and Mox Opal are also key additions. The last piece of the puzzle is being able to execute your combos without being disrupted, which Voice of Victory and Grand Abolisher make significantly easier.
Mono-White Hardships
As cool as it is to see a dedicated mono-white combo deck put up a decent competitive result, Monk Gyatso still fights an uphill battle in cEDH. First of all, the lack of interaction this deck features makes it tough to race fast draws from Storm. While you do have some strong elements like Ethersworn Canonist and Ranger-Captain of Eos to mess with opposing combos, the absence of free counterspells means that your interaction is often still too slow.
Similarly, keeping opposing copies of Drannith Magistrate and other hate cards off the table isn’t always easy. Considering how dependent this deck is on its Commander, not being able to cast it is a disaster. Swords to Plowshares or Thraben Charm can at least bail you out in these situations, though, even if you aren’t flush with answers.
The good news is that your game plan is still fairly resilient to general counterspells and removal. If given time, this deck is capable of jamming Silence or Defense Grid and comboing off on the same turn. Additionally, thanks to card advantage engines like Trouble in Pairs and The One Ring, rebuilding if your combo is broken up isn’t as hard as it may seem.
So, while Monk Gyatso is still far from a tier one cEDH Commander, it can compete if your opponents aren’t prepared. Mono-white cEDH Commanders are few and far between, so it’s nice to see players thinking outside the box and getting rewarded.
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