White will be levelling up in Magic: The Gathering!
Many Commander players would agree that white needs a buff because it lacks cards that can give players card advantage and ramp up mana, but it looks like Wizards of the Coast has listened to players’ feedback, and giving white the boost it needs.
Magic: The Gathering senior designer Gavin Verhey has recently teased how the designers at WOTC are giving white more tools to give more balance to the card game’s color pie, not just for Commander but across all Magic formats.
In the new episode of Good Morning Magic, Verhey said that the changes are “not inclusive of every single thing they’re doing” and since he’s teasing the changes so far in advance, you might not see them for a little while. The senior designer reveals that they intend to give white more Flash, the ability that lets you play the permanent at instant-speed. Although this is not entirely new to white since we’ve seen cards like Restoration Angel before, Verhey explains why we should expect to see more white cards with Flash because white is a “color of combat tricks and defensive instance”.
Watch the video below:
In the video, Verhey also sums up ways white can get card advantage that feels “uniquely white”:
- Symmetric Draw – You and another player draw cards (Great for multiplayer). Just like the card Farsight Adept.
- Rules-setting Draw – If opponent breaks certain rules, you get to draw a card.
3. Cards that bring out other cards from the graveyard or from the library.
In addition of giving more ways for white to draw, Verhey also talked about the 3 ways they’re giving white to ramp up mana.
- Catch-up ramp – Giving you a land if opponent has more lands than you. Recently, we’ve seen Keeper of the Accord from Commander Legends do this kind of ramp.
2. “White Titan effect” – White can reanimate lands from your graveyard.
3. Treasure production cards just like Smothering Tithe.
Verhey said that we will start to see more of these abilities for white roll out in the next 12 months, so expect more powerful white cards in Strixhaven: School of Mages, Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and the two brand new Innistrad sets.
Last year, head designer Mark Rosewater talked about how they’ve expanded white’s color pie in the last two years (Research & Development time), so it looks like white’s future is promising.