Mono-White Toughness-Matters with E. Honda

Posted on March 15, 2022

Hello happy folks! I hope that you are having a great day today! Today I want to build another deck from Street Fighter x Secret Lair. This is my second Commander deck I built around one your fun times.

My first deck was Gruul's Blanka, Ferocious Friend. Unlike many brews online, this one is built around the self-targeting of Auras and uses Enchantress effects like Verduran Enchantress to draw cards and uses the repeatable cards of Whip Silk and Crown of Flames as engines to target and retarget Blanka. You can check it out here.

What awesome card recommends itself to me today?

It's the Sumo Champion! He costs 6-mana for an 0/7 (underwhelming) but he swings on your turn as essentially a 7/7 since your creatures deal damage equal to their toughness. Note that unlike other effects, this only works on your turn and your foes' creatures are suddenly sucking or getting beefed up as well. Normally six mana is a bit high, so I'll run more mono-White ramp and mana rocks than I normally would. As someone who has played this game cycle, this is very flavorful since Sumo wrestlers bulk up and he flings himself around. The Hundred Hand Slap to bump your attackers (including himself) by the cards in your hand is also pretty nice and hard to break given his color is the worst in mass card advantage. E. Honda wants to go wide with that ability, so we'll likely add in some ways to add creature tokens to the battlefield. Since we are swinging, I need to find non-defenders that can punch above their weight class because I am not wasting cards on things like Rolling Stones that will let them attack, this is a toughness matters that wants to swing instead.

Toughness matters is decently loved at the kitchen table with 8,656 decks registered with it over on EDHREC.com. It's the 18th biggest archetype. Welcome to mono-White! We recently had a mono-blue one printed that I built around (Geralf, Visionary Stitcher, a budget commander here). There are already heavily played white Commanders like Doran, the Siege Tower and Arcades, the Strategist. But this is the first time we have just a Mono-White brew.

The first creature I thought about was the 2/10 for four mana which I have run in many decks down through the years. Like Abe's Deck of Happiness and Joy, my signature multiplayer deck with a few thousand cards, this card is wonderful, since its huge defense makes it, usually, better than a Cho-Manno, Revolutionary since it's hard to crack 10 toughness and it sucks up all of the damage from a 8/8 trampler like an Aggressive Mammoth or a Terra Stomper. It's amazing here since it swings and will be a 10/10 for smashery. The Ram is a nice 0/5 for two mana that can swing and will gain you a smattering of life each turn and that's a nice bonus. It was played when it was Standard-legal.

Like these two dorks. Daxos is a nice Soul Warden effect, so you'll gain life as your stuff arrives to the party or dies as well. Good stuff. But his toughness, equal to your devotion to White, is why he's here because this could easily be a 4-6 toughness guy. The Loreweaver is another 2-drop and just a 2/1, so it swings as a 1/1...but you can, for two mana, pump up its toughness based on your cards in hand count. Since you'll be holding onto cards to have a nice combat trigger from E. Honda anyway, this can get swole and plays into the same synergies. When you are playing E. Honda there is a temptation to play out to go wide...don't, don't walk into mass removal and hold onto cards to make things like the Loreweaver and himself bigger and faster kills.

Let's move from high toughness creatures to ways to make tokens with Prava of the Steel Legion and Felidar Retreat. They have 4 toughness, so they'll swing as a 4/4. Note that your tokens will get pumped up by +1/+4 on your turn only, which is a massive boost if you control your commander. A +4/+4 when they swing is just powerful for your tokens. You can also spend four mana to make 1/1 white Soldier creatures. That's great at the end of your foe's turn before you untap. The Retreat is a powerful way to turn landfall triggers into board presence.

Check out this trinity of uncommon White devotion (chroma) cards. Each will make you a number of tokens equal to your White mana symbol count. All three are great ways to go wide! The 0/1 Goats can be pumped by E. Honda into 1/1 when they swing on your turn.

Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave

I like tossing in model lands from Zendikar Rising in my land spots, so I have 37 proper lands and then some modals like the Call of Emeria. This is an admittedly pricey 7 mana for a pair of 4/4 flying Angels and your other creatures will get indestructible until the end of the turn. Do it before you swing with your stuff to keep them alive. If you need the land, you can drop the other side, and if you need it untapped you can pay three life.

I also added in this pair of double striking game winners. Zetalpa is an admittedly pricey 8 mana for a 4/8 double strike, flying, vigilance, trample and indestructible! And the 4/8 means it normally is a basic 8/8 with double strike but here it's swinging as an 8/8 so it's a 16/8 that will win quickly. Oketra Take Two is a powerful 5 mana 3/6 with double strike, so here on your turn she swings as a 12/6. When she dies or is exiled you can place her back into your deck. Oketra also can go wide turning cast triggers of your dorks into 4/4 black Zombie Warriors with vigilance.

Now let's turn to some card drawing for our deck since we need a full grip of stuff.

Check out this duo! The former requires a mana to draw a card, but that's a price worth paying. The latter is a 2/3 so it swings as a 3/3 with flying which is nice. It does not require any additional mana to use, but it also only works once per turn. Note that these will work with tokens that trigger it, like Prava or Felidar Retreat.

Check out these cool enchantments. The Investigation will, when you attack, investigate. That means you can spend two mana as a sort of reverse Ghostly Prison to draw a card. Since this deck really wants to swing, this fits it nicely. Also note that as you can venture into the dungeon, which is a nice bonus ability, this is the only dungeon caring card in the deck. The Search costs one more and when stuff swings at you or your planeswalkers (we have two) you investigate, so again, you can spend two and draw a card, and this again acts a reverse Prison of sorts. You don't have to crack these two card's Clues immediately if you don't have the mana, but why not?

I don't like defenders in here, since they cannot swing but card flow will let me make an exception in this case. Each is an 0/4 for two mana. The first flies and can block a bunch. When it is damaged from any source you and a targeted foe draw cards, which can play keep away in a multiplayer game as someone may not want to let you and another mutual foe draw. The second draws a card on arrival so it's free, and that's pretty nice. Welcome to the deck!

We need full grips, so I leaned into artifacts that draw you cards like this pair. The Eye is the best card drawing non-Skullclamp colorless artifact in multiplayer. Five mana to drop, 1 to activate each time a foe draws a card. Sure, the mana can brake the card drawing, but it's nice to add in card flow, The Staff costs one more, is a Howling Mine for just you, and can tap to shoot a target for a damage. Nice pair.

Next check out Weathered Wayfarer, an amazing 1-drop that can grab any land (not just basic) from your library. Nice! This was heavily played at the kitchen table when first printed. You can use it to get key lands like mana maker Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or make E. Honda unblockable like Access Tunnel or Rogue's Passage. You can ensure landfall triggers for Felidar Retreat. Also note that you don't have to play the land if you don't need it, or you need a bigger grip for your commander. Land Tax will net you three basics if you have fewer, and, again, just hold onto the triad if you need a bigger grip.

Every deck needs mass removal answers to things, and I added in Mass Calcify and Martial Coup here. The Calcify is an expensive Wrath of God variant that won't destroy your stuff save for your artifact creatures but around 80% of your foe's stuff will bite it, so it often plays out as a virtual Plague Wind in White. The Coup can just make you 1/1s if you need a few to win the game. Otherwise, it will make a bunch of them for you and sweep everything else. Good pair here as each will leave things for you but devastate your foes.

Let's turn to some support cards.

Check out this pair of equipment! The Scimitar gives the equipped dork +1/+5 that's a big boost of +5/+5 when swinging with Honda out. Normally 5 mana for the cost and equip is a bit on the high side but it's cheap in this build. You can also spend three mana to turn this into a Dancing Scimitar for a turn that swings in the air for a 5/5 or can block a flying attacker like Consecrated Sphinx and survive. Good stuff! The Armor is a common and just three to equip and then pumps up for +0/+6. That's a giant +6/+6 for four mana total, which is quite nice although not as flexible as the Scimitar and it's more to equip. Both quite cheap to pick up.

While the previous two equipment will work on anything swinging, as will this Robe, it's really here to equip onto our Commander. Two mana to drop, 1 to equip is cheap, and a nice boost of three toughness on your foe's turns and three more damage on yours when you swing. Nice. And then you spend two mana to phase out the equipped dork for a turn, which is an answer to removal both targeted and mass. Given how pricey he is, we need to protect him, and phasing is the best since it answers exiling removal like Swords to Plowshares and Farewell. You just need the mana to make it work.

Let's check out my two planeswalkers. Elspeth was played heavily in Standard after getting printed. She has two great synergetic reasons for being here. The first is her -3 to destroy everything with a 4 power or greater, which only kills a few Angel and Zombie tokens, so this is a backup mass removal that will only hurt your foes, but it leaves behind more than Mass Calcify. You can +1 her to make three 1/1 Soldiers of the White variety, nasty. They synergize since you can make first sweep later and keep them around.

Karn is here for that +1. You'll let a foe choose which card from the top two to draw. That does go to your hand for E. Honda's growth. The card they don't want you to draw is exiled with a counter and next turn you can -1 to draw the exiled card instead if you prefer, and that's good card flow over time and another colorless source of card draw. Also, you can -2 him to make a Construct token, which fits your token theme but it won't be that big here, maybe a 2/2 or something. But that does have additional synergies with the deck.

Check out this pair of enchantments. The uncommon gives your stuff vigilance, great here since you want to be swinging and you have the toughness to play keep away. Your creatures can also double block which Flumph will love a lot, and again works nicely with a big butt.

The rare is very powerful here. Non-white dorks with a power of 3 or more won't untap. Your stuff is white and your colorless stuff too small to care. Even your 4/4 black Zombie tokens from Oketra have vigilance. But your foe's stuff is often the wrong color and size. They may not swing at all to not untap, and be able to block until it's answered, like your foe's Kokusho, the Evening Star.

Let's move to lands and cards in the same genre.

These two white producing lands are here to make 1/1 White tokens. The Castle can sometimes arrive to the party untapped and ready to go. For four mana you make one Human token. Good stuff! The Memorial will always be tapped and can sacrifice for four mana for two of the Soldier tribe, nice when you don't need the land or you need to sacrifice a land to keep up your Land Tax effects. Good combo!

Check out this pair of creature-lands. The Factory can spend a mana to make a 2/2 artifact dork for the turn. Swing with your Sumo Champion to make it huge! The Watchtower is usually pretty bad in Commander, but here that swings as a 5/5. Nasty! I don't know why man-lands aren't on E. Honda's EDHREC.com page since he wants to go wide, but they are here.

I also tossed in rocks like Guardian Idol, Ebony Fly and Fountain of Ichor that tap for mana and can be turned into dorks for killing out of nowhere with a fat hand. Again, creature rocks aren't in EDHREC.com but they seem like nice ways of adding bodies without sacrificing mana rocks or land spots.

Check out these two cards! The Tower is a commonly played land in Commander that removes your max hand size while also tapping for a mana and not arriving to the battlefield tapped. I don't like in in most of my decks as I feels it's overplayed in most builds as it usually won't do anything and takes up a valuable slot in your 99 but here having a nasty sized Commander is key. You can also keep on using your Land Tax and Weathered Wayfarer and just hold onto the lands without being forced to discard.

I am also running Thought Vessel as a mana rock. The Journal is another way to avoid that hand size limitation and will gain you life equal to your hand count, which could be quite a lot given the similar desire to hold onto a big hand.

Barring an incredibly unlikely Emeria, the Sky Ruin, this deck does not have any recursion in it. Therefore, I added in the Grounds. This can sacrifice itself to Tormod's Crypt everyone and it will work at instant speed. I love it here since it acts as an emergency brake on a key metagame issue in Commander - massive use and abuse of the graveyard.

I also am running the recently printed Release, another answer to graveyard recursion at instant speed, but this one cannot be planned around, so you can catch them after a Buried Alive that filled up their graveyard. You exile the graveyard of the serious abuse, and then you geta few colorless 1/1 Spirit tokens for E. Honda to love and that's very synergetic here since it has multiple values. Nice combo!

Let's turn to my deck!