How to make White Control Viable?

[serracollector]

So today's meta mainly consist's of:

Dark Depths
Oath
MUD/ welder Mud/ 5 colo stax
Fish
Tezz
Jace

and to lesser notes (not due to lack of goodness, but lack of players IMO)

Goblins
Sui Black


Now I been testing lots and lots of decks, and in this current meta, I keep wanting to add white to my decks.  Why? 

Abolish - MUD
Swords to Plowshares - all decks above have creatures.
Tariff - stops Inkwell as well as most of the other Oath/Tinker bots, and can also kill Lodestone (can't pay with workshop.....)
Disenchant - still as good as it was 10 years ago, probably better now.
Balance - obv.
Oblivion Ring - it removes all Planeswalkers, no matter how many counters are on it.
Divine Offering - MUD+Any deck with Crucible or Tinker Bot
Orim's Chant - I haven't found a place for it yet, but definitely playable in Y will meta.
Tithe - this card becomes amazing in the MUD matchup giving you extra mana, and permanents asap.
Hanna's Custody - it stops time vault combo.   Does some other nifty things too like stop repeals from bouncing moxen, but is def a SB card if running maindeck disenchant.

So this got me to thinking about trying a mono white build in t1.  Is it viable?  Honestly for now, I would say no.

Even with:
4 x Swords
4 x Disenchant
4 x Abolish
4 x Tariff
4 x Oblivion Ring

which "theoretically" destroys or removes every win condition in the game, mono white lacks in 2 ways:

Disruption (counters/discard)
Draw engine.

Sure we could discuss Land Tax/Scroll Rack, but with Moxen and Workshops abound this works about as well as Howling and Ivory tower.

There is also the neat trick of Pursuit of Knowledge and Bazaar.  7 for 2, not bad.  Problem obv is its 4 mana, and you need bazaar online, and really, what do you want to chuck to bazaar in mono white?  Not a lot of recursion in white (as in flashback etc.).

As far as disruption, if you will, are well timed Abeyance's, and Orim's Chant's.  Is a couple timewalks enough for mono white control?  Doubtful.  What else can we currently use for as disruption?  Would mono white have to use artifacts if not another color? Is it possible otherwise?


So the things that apparently are needed for mono white to make its "comeback" (?) is some kind of disruption, whether it be a white sphere effect, discard, or counter spell, this would need to come before mono white had a chance, and also some CHEAP form of draw.

Do these things exist in the current card pool?  Maybe I haven't look well enough. 

Do you think these types of white cards will/should ever be made?

Simply, is it possible to make mono white control viable in the current meta, or do you think it might become possible in the next couple blocks?

Or will white always remain a "2ndary" color?  and always mix with Black, Blue,  or Green?

[limitedwhole]

Play Sylvan Library.

[Troy_Costisick]

Dark Depths
Oath
MUD/ welder Mud/ 5 colo stax
Fish
Tezz
Jace

You're forgetting Dredge.

[zeus-online]

Aura of silence, mindcensor and canonist are great tools. The new white leyline might be good aswell.

Menedian wrote an article a while back on a Mono white budget deck.

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/16515_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Parfait_Ambush.html

I suggest that you read it

[Lemnear]

Land Tax, anyone?

[brianpk80]

Suppression Field from Ravnica block has always been a sleeper gem and Glowrider is Thorn of Amythest on legs.  The white Planeswalkers Ajani and Elspeth may be solid in certain aggro-control frames.  White IMO has the best arsenal of defensive spells against pretty much all Vintage strategies (Sacred Ground, Ethersworn, Children, Chant, Leyline-Sanctity, True Believer, Meddling/Gaddock/Qasali, Rule of Law, Tithe, StP, Moat, Peacekeeper, Humility, and of course Tivadar of Thorn, the invaluable Goblin Slayer).   But a hodgepodge of answers doesn't work as well as a unified threat.  Maybe if they continue to push its themes of lifegain, doublestrike, equipment, fog, silence, and auras far enough in future sets something busted could break through.  Fast obscene life gain would counter a lot of Vintage strategies in theory, though I'm not sure we have the cards to support it yet reliably.  I do think Vintage has recklessly embraced a "life total doesn't matter" mentality that enables one to get high off a whirlwind of broken cards only die to Mana Crypt or lose Gencon to a Bob-flipped Force of Will.  When Dark Ritual.dec makes its big return to prey on the goofy Jace deck, Fish and Drain may find themselves turning to white for more sideboard/md answers. 

I like white and would like to see it have more presence.  A few years back, no one thought Green would ever matter much in Vintage again and there's just as much green nowadays as black, if not more.     

[i_set_fire]

Dark Depths
Oath
MUD/ welder Mud/ 5 colo stax
Fish
Tezz
Jace

You're forgetting Dredge.

And TPS

[nineisnoone]

As has been stated earlier, Menedian Parfait is playable.

But if you want it to be a serious contender for MWC, I would say you'd need to unrestrict Balance.

For support spells, the problem with White is that it's a bit cutesy.  They tend to be either underpowered (frequently because of Nature's Claim) or feel like loose "lock" pieces.  Gaddock Teeg is a great lock piece, but it's hard to tighten that lock.  You can stack other mana denial spells with Spheres of Resistance to tighten up that lock, but with Teeg you don't really have a great means of tightening it up.

There is nothing within the current card pool or theme that really makes me think White will improve much in Vintage.  It's just very Standard-oriented color that tends to play it safe.

[zeus-online]

As has been stated earlier, Menedian Parfait is playable.

But if you want it to be a serious contender for MWC, I would say you'd need to unrestrict Balance.

For support spells, the problem with White is that it's a bit cutesy.  They tend to be either underpowered (frequently because of Nature's Claim) or feel like loose "lock" pieces.  Gaddock Teeg is a great lock piece, but it's hard to tighten that lock.  You can stack other mana denial spells with Spheres of Resistance to tighten up that lock, but with Teeg you don't really have a great means of tightening it up.

There is nothing within the current card pool or theme that really makes me think White will improve much in Vintage.  It's just very Standard-oriented color that tends to play it safe.

I think the rise of MUD might be a good thing for mono white though. The more artifacts and creatures that are running around, the better. Atleast when it comes to mono white control.

[silvernail]

Things like Serenity, Kataki and Aura of Silence are all strong against heavy artifact decks. I'd also consider an Enlightened Tutor based toolbox build perhaps. One thing I like is that you can Tutor up Necropotence. If you build that way though, you'd be best served with a combo deck instead of control.

[nineisnoone]

As has been stated earlier, Menedian Parfait is playable.

But if you want it to be a serious contender for MWC, I would say you'd need to unrestrict Balance.

For support spells, the problem with White is that it's a bit cutesy.  They tend to be either underpowered (frequently because of Nature's Claim) or feel like loose "lock" pieces.  Gaddock Teeg is a great lock piece, but it's hard to tighten that lock.  You can stack other mana denial spells with Spheres of Resistance to tighten up that lock, but with Teeg you don't really have a great means of tightening it up.

There is nothing within the current card pool or theme that really makes me think White will improve much in Vintage.  It's just very Standard-oriented color that tends to play it safe.

I think the rise of MUD might be a good thing for mono white though. The more artifacts and creatures that are running around, the better. Atleast when it comes to mono white control.

Yeah, I could see that.  Noble Hierarch is good for bring white into the fold as well.  White has always kinda been around, and it's really not all that weak in general compared to Red and Green, it's just that it doesn't have anything as straight-forward and powerful as REB and Claim.  It just needs that money card that it can lean on. 

[meadbert]

Could you do White with blue splash for Jace?

Basically Land Tax + Jace is insane because you just put back 2 lands and you get the shuffle with land tax the following turn so together those act as a draw 4 each turn.
Scroll Rack is insane for the same reason and Sensei's Top are solid too since you can pick which of the 3 cards to draw each turn and then take your shuffle.

[TopSecret]

Basically Land Tax + Jace is insane because you just put back 2 lands and you get the shuffle with land tax the following turn so together those act as a draw 4 each turn.

I think this is a cool idea. The only problem is you have to have four mana for Jace and still be behind on lands, which I haven't tried, but sounds like it might be quite a hurdle.

[meadbert]

That does sound tricky.  Along with normal Moxen, Mox Diamond, Ancient Tomb and Zuran Orb are possible.

[nineisnoone]

Maybe work it into Bomberman?  Trinket Mage can get you the Zuran Orb.