Hello, folks! For the last two weeks, I’ve been looking at how you can win at the multiplayer table with red and blue. Based on various metrics, I believe these are the worst two colors in multiplayer, so they have some stuff to overcome, but you can certainly win with them. Today, we are going to look at the strongest color for multiplayer: white.

We are looking at white because you cannot rely on it being the most powerful and just assume you will win. You still need to emphasize its strengths (which are legion) and handle its weaknesses (which are few).

To be fair, white is not my favorite color for multiplayer. But it is my objective opinion, based on ranking colors in what they do in multiplayer, that white comes out on top, and it’s not even close to blue, red, or green. Black, coming in at the two spot, has a lot to offer, but it’s no white.

First of all, white takes care of every single permanent type. I could spend four paragraphs discussing how white can pinpoint-remove artifacts, enchantments, and creatures very easily. It also has ways of taking out planeswalkers as well. Not only can it destroy these things, but it often can exile them, and this pushes it past red’s Shock, green’s Naturalize, or black’s Murder. There are no recursion games, and it can blast something that’s indestructible. That really pushes white over the top. White’s weakness is pinpoint land removal.

Where white truly shines is in mass removal of anything and everything. It can’t destroy just one land, but it certainly can destroy all of them. It can blow up every creature, every artifact, every land, every enchantment, or many of those together. It has a mass removal card to fit any deck, from Retribution of the Meek to Final Judgment to Purify to Austere Command.

White has a lot of flying creatures in all sizes, up and down the casting-cost scale. At the top end, white’s flyers are, in fact, the best flying creatures for multiplayer. Sure, red has great ones with its Dragons, and blue is adequate, but at the end of the day, your flyers are the best. All things being equal, you will win the battle of the skies.

White is also the single best defensive color in the game of Magic. It has the best walls, defensive creatures, Holy Days, damage prevention, and other quirks. Green is good at stopping attackers, and blue is okay. But white truly shines in this area above all other colors. In a similar vein, white shares life-gain with green, and it’s a strong mechanic in multiplayer when pushed to the limits. Certainly, minor spells such as Angel's Mercy aren’t that hot, but you can find great spells that will really shine here.

White is weak at a few things. Along with red, it has the worst raw card-drawing. That is just not something white does. Also, it doesn’t have the color-specific mechanics discard, burn, or countermagic (not much anyway).

White has a strong pro-enchantment theme. You can really build a deck around white’s enchantment and Aura loves. You also have a huge pro-Equipment theme, and that can be really powerful. You can do some things pretty well, despite appearances to the contrary. You are pretty good at reanimation, you have the flicker mechanic, and you are the only color besides blue to actually counter something. White runs a lot of self-bounce as well. Let’s not forget that white is the second-best color at land-searching, with winners such as Tithe running around. White has a lot under the hood when you start looking.

Now, how do these various mechanics of white translate to the multiplayer arena?

Vigilance is stronger in multiplayer than in duels. Swinging with a creature but keeping it back to block really matters when you have the potential to be attacked three or four times each turn by many different foes. First strike helps in defense as well because people are less likely to attack into you if they can’t at least trade creatures.

Defense is more important in multiplayer than in duels. You can’t win until you don’t lose. You are facing many more opponents, and in order to stay alive, you often need things that keep you in the game. White rules defense. Consider Kor Haven and Commander Eesha. How do you get past those to deal damage to the white player? Then, add in things such as Leyline of Sanctity, and the player can’t even be handled. That becomes rough.

Remember that multiplayer is often different than duels. Some cards translate well from one to the other (Time Walk). Some cards are worse in multiplayer (Stone Rain), while others are better (Syphon Mind). What’s important to remember is that white becomes better in mechanics both on creatures (vigilance, flying, indestructible) and as seen on spells (mass removal and exiling) while many other colors become worse (milling, bounce, burn, counter, etc.).

So, now that we have seen what white does and how it is changed in multiplayer, what is the roadmap to victory?

Strength #1:Mass Removal – You should have mass-removal cards for artifacts, enchantments, and creatures in every multiplayer white deck. This is, by far, your strongest advantage for multiplayer, and it’s your way of handling the lack of raw card advantage—which is your only major weakness. If you are not sure what is running in your metagame, play sweepers like Austere Command that are flexible to your needs. I also think just about any mono-white deck can benefit from Mass Calcify. Don’t just run sweepers, though. Make as much of your removal about card advantage as you can. If you need a Disenchant, consider something like Return to Dust. There are a lot of Disenchants in white over the years for you to rock, so find those that give you life, draw you cards, exile the target, and so forth.

Strength #3: Flying – You must emphasize your powerful flyers. White has a ton of great Angels, Dragons, Archons, and more. You have everything from Yosei, the Morning Star to Vengeful Archon. Mainly, you have a plethora of angelic overlords that are awesome. Some are true beat sticks, such as Baneslayer Angel and Radiant, Archangel. Others have the right abilities for multiplayer, such as Adarkar Valkyrie and Pristine Angel. Powerhouses such as Reya Dawnbringer, Iona, Shield of Emeria, Twilight Shepherd, Restoration Angel, and more are running around. You have Karmic Guide and Deathless Angel. Take to the skies!

Strength #4: Exiling – Very few colors can exile something. Blue can occasionally exile a spell when it counters something. Red usually doesn’t have exiling burn, and black and green hardly have anything that exiles. But white has a ton of it. Many multiplayer decks you will face are built around core concepts that exiling really answers. You will often see reanimation, flashback, threshold, incarnations, self-recursive creatures, and more. This hurts all of those plans. When you drop a Crib Swap on an opposing Lord of the Pit, it becomes harder for the opponent to use his Living Death. Or consider that Dust to Dust on two of his artifacts; there are fewer options for his Goblin Welder to abuse. Exiling your targets is among the keys to success in multiplayer—then, it is gone and not likely to come back.

Every color has some classics of multiplayer. When you add these classics, such as Ghostly Prison, Balance, and Land Tax to the powerful sweeping removal spells, flyers, defensive cards, and exiling cards of white, you have a potent drink. When you sprinkle in things such as blinking, reanimation, life-gain, vigilance, indestructible, and more, you end up with a color that can literally do anything you need except for mass-card-draw. Trust me: Build your deck right, and you will hardly miss it.

So, get out there, and start dominating like the powerhouse color that you already are!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent