In Commander, the color White is probably the least used of the 5 colors. When it comes to "win percentage" the Command Zone did 2 podcasts dedicated to figuring out which color was the strongest (their video here) and as you can see at 23:44 minutes in, they ran a poll where White is the 2nd weakest on the list. White just happens to be my favorite color in Magic - but that's another topic for another time. What I'm trying to say is, White isn't getting as much love as it should.
So let's talk about underrated White rares $1 or less that aren't getting enough love.
Adarkar Valkyrie
Adarkar Valkyrie ($0.70), I'll be honest, this a pet card of mine. The mana cost can turn some players away, but this card is so sweet. It's a 4/5 Flying, Vigilance, Angel (which can be relevant sometimes, but not in the case I'm mentioning) that taps to let us target a creature that dies this turn, and then return that card to the battlefield under our control. Neat!
So an opponent uses Murder to destroy another opponent's Roil Elemental. Well, that Roil Elemental can be ours just by tapping Adarkar Valkyrie!
If our opponents want to ramp and sacrifice Sakura-Tribe Elder, we can get it back and even ramp ourselves! (Ramp in White? Sounds great!)
Or even sillier - What if our opponent played Plaguecrafter? When it enters the battlefield, each player sacrifices a creature or planeswalker. Each player who can't Discards a card. This is an annoying effect when it happens, but we can cause this to happen an additional time by bringing it back under our control! We can sacrifice Plaguecrafter to itself and our opponents still have to sacrifices a creature or planeswalker and if they can't, discard a card.
Search the Premises
Search the Premises ($0.26) is a great way to get card draw in White. Sadly it does involve us getting attacked, but we can still block and get the benefit of Investigate. This allows us to make a Clue token that we can pay 2 mana and sacrifice to draw a card. What's neat is that this is per creature that attacks us. So our opponents may rethink attacking us, also making this useful politically.
Imagine us encouraging our opponents to attack us. I can definitely see this in a Darien, King of Kjeldor deck (which is a great Commander if you haven't tried it out!)
Mentor of the Meek
Mentor of the Meek ($0.85) can be that different approach to drawing cards! Whenever another creature with power 2 or less enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay 1 colorless mana. If you do, draw a card.
If you're making a ton of power 2 or less creatures, this card is for you! I mentioned Darien, King of Kjeldor earlier, but Kemba, Kha Regent is great for making 2/2 White Cat creature tokens which happens for each equipment attached to Kemba, Kha Regent. This gives an equipment-focused deck and with a steady way to draw cards when we add Mentor of the Meek. This is very important for White. It does struggle with consistent card draw, and some players avoid the color because of this.
Citadel Siege
Citadel Siege ($0.14) is the definition of an underrated card. When it enters the battlefield we can choose Khans or Dragons. For this section we'll be focusing on Dragons. This says: At the beginning of combat on each opponent’s turn, tap target creature that player controls. Congratulations, we have just shut down every single Voltron deck (decks that primarily attack with one huge creature, usually their commander). What blows my mind is that on each opponent's turn we can tap a creature of theirs.
I didn't realize how good of a card this was until it was used against me. This happens a lot to players - not realizing how good a card really is until it's in effect. Which can dramatically change the price of cards over night when a "combo" is recognized (whether this is an infinite combo or 2 cards that work very well together).
If your play group has a good amount of Voltron decks, I encourage you to try this card out.
Gustcloak Savior
Gustcloak Savior ($0.22) can take a creature of ours from dying to living during combat. It's a 3/4 Flying Bird Soldier that says: Whenever a creature you control becomes blocked, you may untap that creature and remove it from combat. It's as if it promotes us to make poor decisions and say, "oh yeah, I'm going to take that back - I won't be swinging with Hushbringer."
We still get attack triggers from our creatures and we can keep them alive. I am in awe with the card and really surprised by the price. This could be due to a reason I am missing something or not a lot of players know about this one. Whatever the case, I think this would work well in a Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl deck. Storvald wants to attack or enter the battlefield to get the base 7/7 or 1/1 abilities rolling. Well, with Gustcloak we're really protecting our commander.
Imagine Acidic Slime blocking Storvald. Gustcloak comes in to save the day and we still get our triggers. Nice!
Cornered Market
Cornered Market ($0.38) will be the last card I mention in this list. Players can’t cast spells with the same name as a nontoken permanent. Players can’t play nonbasic lands with the same name as a nontoken permanent.
So if a player has Sol Ring on the battlefield while Cornered Market is out, this makes it where other players now can't play Sol Ring. Or how about Command Tower? This is a great card for decks with 2+ colors. Also, very budget friendly. Well, if it's already on the battlefield, you can no longer play it (yikes!).
I wanted to mention this card because I have never seen anything like it before. White has a lot of cards that don't let players do a certain thing. For example, Hushwing Gryff($0.29), makes it where creatures entering the battlefield don't cause abilities to trigger (this is another budget White card less than $1 that I'll throw in there).
If Cornered Market is in the 99 of a deck, I think it would be very clever for the deck to have as many of EDH/Commander staples that it can fit into it. To name a few: Arcane Signet, Llanowar Elves, and Lightning Greaves. Cornered Market would go in a 5 color deck in my opinion. This way we would get all the EDH staples available to us. Definitely not a budget deck, but a janky one.
Conclusion
There are great White rares that are less than $1 and that are underrated. I cannot wait to talk about the other colors. Blue will be covered next time, so be on the lookout for more underrated $1 rares.
Thank you for your time! If you'd like more budget content, be sure to check out my YouTube channel -- I post new contentevery Wednesday and Saturday.
I'll see you all in the next one. Uuuuuuh peace!
