2024 was a truly banner year for Magic: the Gathering, with some of the biggest events and largest sets ever impacting the game. So what better way to cap off the year than covering the best cards the year had to offer? I'll be doing just that over the course of the next few weeks, covering the best cards from each color, starting off here with White.

This color has been long lambasted for being the weakest in the game. This year proved that Wizards was trying their damndest to show that it could be otherwise. White had so many great cards to cover, it felt like this could've easily been a top ten instead of a top five. With that, let's get to ranking them, starting with one heck of a doozy!

5. Ocelot Pride

Ocelot Pride was the sleeper hit from Modern Horizons 3. When it was first previewed, most players didn't think very much of it. A tiny 1/1 that dies to most kinds of removal up to and including the powerful Orcish Bowmasters? Who would want to play that? Then players saw it in action and just how absurd it was at making ridiculous numbers of tokens with ease. It didn't take long before players caught on to exactly what you could do with the little cat and its price and playability shot through the roof, making it one of the most impactful cards of the year.

4. Caretaker's Talent

Caretaker's Talent has a lot going for it. Not only is it excellent in Standard's Mono-White Token Control decks, but also in Pioneer's Boros Control lists that function in a similar manner, just with more Red. Past that, it's also an excellent Commander card for decks that utilize heavy amounts of tokens, making it a beloved and well-rounded all-star in multiple formats. The powerful enchantment will have several more years in Standard, so expect to see even more of it as the years go on!

3. High Noon

It might feel weird putting High Noon so high here, as it was an underrated card that isn't quite so objectively powerful as most of the other cards on this list. However, there's something to be said about how it completely warped an entire format around it.

Pioneer changed dramatically this fall when White decks throughout the format such as Azorius Control, Enigmatic Overlords, and Boros Control all adopted it as a means to combat several other powerful archetypes. Decks like Izzet Phoenix, Rakdos Aggro, Lotus Field Combo, and Nykthos Ramp all want to play multiple spells a turn, and High Noon stops each cold. This had a massive impact on the major Pioneer Regional Championships over the last couple months, and for that alone I feel it deserves strong recognition.

2. Beza, the Bounding Spring

If you've played either Standard or Pioneer in the last six months, chances are good you've run into someone casting Beza, the Bounding Spring. This card has taken both formats by storm, providing White decks of all shapes and sizes - particularly more control-oriented builds - as a way to catch up. For any kind of resource your opponent has more of than you - life, lands, creatures, cards in hand - Beza helps even things out. It's even a massive 4/5 creature as well - all for the low cost of four mana! This card has become a dominating force in the formats its played in and is likely going to stay there for several years yet to come.

1. Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger

Without a doubt, the biggest and most impactful White card of the year has been Ajani, Nacatl Pariah. I realize it's technically multicolor on the backside, but let's be real, you're casting this as a White card. Ajani absolutely dominates the board when it hits, making almost every combat phase scary on the opposite side of the board as your opponent tries navigating the best way to avoid Ajani flipping. If it does, you're in for a world of hurt. Not only will you end up facing down an army of cats, but there's also an extremely high likelihood that you'll just die from the damage it deals, as odds are also good they have a Red card on their side of the board as well.

Honestly, this whole list could've easily been cards from the Boros and Mardu Energy decks. Not only were Ajani and Ocelot Pride some of the biggest players of 2024, but so were Guide of Souls and Static Prison - both of which were very strong contenders for this list. I opted to just leave it at two, but I seriously waffled on Guide or Ocelot before giving it to the cat for the weird rules interactions and underrated nature of it. The deck as a whole is incredibly powerful and Ajani is, in my opinion, one of the biggest reasons it is as scary and dominant as it currently is now.

Paige Smith

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