So, what is black/white all about?
While red/white is all about the combat step and attacking your opponents, Black/White is happy to play a slower long game plan.
When the Orzhov guild arrived on the scene, they took control of the battlefield and showed us a slow attrition
game plan. This was highly evident with cards like One Thousand Lashes, which
arrested the enchanted creature and caused its controller to lose 1 life each
turn. The guild mechanic, Haunt, added to the incremental advantage getting one
effect immediately and another when the “haunted” creature died, sort of like a
flavorful rebound.
Life Manipulation
During Return to Ravnica block, Orzhov brought us Extort, which kept the incremental damage over time theme and focused our attention on another of Black/White’s main themes: life manipulation. Draining your opponent’s
life, causing life loss, gaining life, and paying your life for effects are all
heavy themes in black/white.
Removal
Black/White also has a great overlap of strong removal. Wrath of God and Damnation are just the beginning of the mass
removal options at Black/White’s fingertips. Both colors excel at removing opposing creatures from the battlefield on a one to one trade or better. Black is one of the best colors at removing opposing planeswalkers from the board. While black typically has trouble answering artifacts or enchantments that opponents may play white has no trouble doing so. this means there is no threat an opponent can have that black/white cannot get rid of. Even holding cards in their hand wont protect them from black's hand removal. On top of
the single color options Black/White has access to amazing dual colored cards
like vindicate and utter end which answer any permanent.
Tokens
Tokens are another way that black/white gains incremental advantage during a game. While everyone else is playing normal creatures that cost them a whole card per creature Black/White is playing a card like Lingering Souls. One token, in this case, only costs them 1/4th of a card and their opponents need to trade their real cards to answer them.
There are three two color combinations that have really strong
token themes and I think it’s important to differentiate between them.
Green/White focuses on larger tokens, Green/Black has a focus more on tokens
like saporlings and throwing out a ton of them. Black/White’s token focus on
casting a few small/ easily replaceable tokens that will wear down their
opponent (this way they can still use mass removal). I’m not saying that there
isn’t overlap, there certainly is, but that gives us a good starting point.
Weaknesses
Balance- White/Black, can come to rely on mass removal to gain card advantage against multiple opponents. To do so they must carefully plan out their field to have enough creatures that opponents have to play more of theirs to go over the top of them, but not waste creatures when they know a wrath is coming. Other colors must also play around wraths, but as they are a key strategy of the color combination it is more focused on here.
To further complicate things, many of the best card advantage
resources, such as draw spells, cost life as a
resource. For example Phyrexian Arena or Bitterblossom are really good cards,
but they each cost a life per turn. This can make these cards dead draws if they are drawn during a critical time during the game. There is and offset here in that
Black/White is really good at lifegain.
Tribes
Clerics- Clear back in Onslaught block Black/White was
designated as the color for the cleric tribe with cards like edgewalker. For a long time tribal commander had
no Legendary Black/White cleric to lead us to victory. Today there are three cleric commanders that can lead our troops, and two of them can work together as partner commanders. Happy times! Clerics are likely to play with a strong life gain/life play theme and both Ayli and the combination of Ravos and Tymna play into this very well.
Humans- I used to say that humans was a cop out option for
tribal as a lot of older cards were given the human tag years after they were
printed, but once innistrad came out the human tribe was given some
credibility.
Knights- The reason I've always wanted to run Black/White knights is due to all the mirror
image knights that are in both colors such as black knight / white knight or
knight of glory / knight of infamy. The list goes on. In the past few years wizards has heard my cry for a legendary knight and given me multiple. Aryel, Knight of Windgrace is top among them for me, since she actually cares about other knights.
Vampires- White vampires are a thing, and I love it. Red never made sense to me, flavor wise. That being said, RBW is probably the best color combination for this tribe as there are just more options and a strong commander option. If you want to try black/white vampires as your tribal commander deck there are a few good options to lead them in Vona or Elenda.
Commander Options:
Arvad the Cursed- The deck building inspiration of this card are huge, when really +2/+2 is just kinda silly. The other cards that fit within this theme like primevil's glorious rebirth are where this theme really shines. Also if you are loading your deck with awesome legends it's bound to be really cool in this format.
Aryel, Knight of Windgrace- this card is one of my all time favorites. It can create creatures, it can destroy creatures. It can block and still do stuff after. It helps that she answered my plea for an on theme Knight tribal commander. I have a post where I talk all about her.
Atheros, God of Passage- For 3 mana a 5/4 Indestructible creature is pretty absurd
and could make for a strong Voltron package all on its own, but devotion isn’t
always easy to keep on. Instead this guy is typically used for his other
ability. When he is used for his other ability, you need a backup way to bring
creatures from your graveyard to your hand (phyrexian reclamation?), because
giving the option to your opponents to shut you down is a terrible strategy. Creatures with enter the battlefield abilities shine in decks like this, and you will likely want some sac outlets.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim- This card is a solid commander for
any BW deck that could be made. (ok the deck needs to have other creatures of
some sort, but still). She is highly viable as a commander of the normal token
deck or can be used to command some kind of “Good Stuff” deck. Getting up to
+10 life in black and white isn’t that difficult, at which point this card
becomes 3 mana sac a token to exile anything. This card is a powerhouse, and if
she is not your commander she should be in your 99, assuming she fits within your theme of course.
Daxos, the Returned- While this guy takes a little bit to
build around (you need enchantments) it’s really strong. White and black have
some seriously strong options for enchantments that you honestly want to run
anyway (Glorious Anthem, O-Ring, Phyrexian Arena….). Even just at one
experience counter Daxos giving you 1/1 spirit tokens for 3 mana is amazing, but
these spirits are not locked into their initial stats. As we cast more
enchantments, they grow. Things start to stall, throw out a wrath and replay
Daxos. Daxos alone will refill the board.
Elenda, the Dusk Rose- On the surface she looks like a really strong commander option. Then you realize that her "dies" trigger never happens if you return her to the command zone. At that point you ask yourself if the option to have a bunch of 1/1 tokens after a wrath is worth not casting her again. The answer is probably yes, and since you are playing black and white the graveyard is probably an alright place to leave her for a few moments anyway.
Ghost Council of Orzhova- Not my favorite option, but he's ok. He can aviod most forms of removal pretty well, but when he's there he is a 4/4 that drained one life. /shrug
Kambal, Consul of Allocation- draining for 2 based on your opponents plays can get pretty annoying. I don't think it's back breaking, but some people love him.
Karlov of the Ghost Council- gaining life in black and white
is super easy. This means that this commander can get huge, fast. Just looking
at this guy reminds me of my modern “Soul Sisters” deck which is mostly white
and splashes black. The “soul sisters” part of the deck comes from Soul Warden
and soul’s attendant that allow you to gain 1 every time a creature enters the battlefield. Playing one of these followed by Karlov will
give you a 4/4 Karlov on turn 2. Play another one and any other creature and
you have a 10/10 commander attacking on turn 3. It’s less likely to have this
explosive opening in a 99 card format, but he will still grow quickly in a normal game.
Obzedat, Ghost Council- This is another very vanilla creature that drains an opponent when it enters the battlefield. It's really just a boring beater in a color that doesn't really need one.
Selenia, Dark Angel- Creatures have come a long way since tempest. Don't play this unless you have to. Maybe some weatherlight theme deck, but even then only as one of the 99.
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts- This card could be interesting if it cost 3-4 less mana. As a 7 mana commander, she is pretty meh.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion- I feel she used to be our only “real”
option for a commander. She still works very well as a token commander, but
with a little effort becomes a great combo leader. Add darkest hour and as long
as you have 3 other creatures no other targetable creature can stay alive. Because
of this threat, many experienced commander players table hate you out of a game
just for running her.
Triad of Fates- Meh. You could build around it, but it's very slow.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter- prior to Karlov and Ayli arriving
this was our only option for our drain life or life manipulation themed deck. Luckily,
this is no longer the case. Costing 7 mana was always a problem, and it took a
lot to really get going. So, with the new options available, I don’t see using
him as a viable option anymore.
Vona, Butcher of Magan- 5 mana for a 4/4 with Vigilance and Lifelink is already a solid creature. Add to that a tap ability that exiles anything and her value just increases. Yeah the 7 life is rough, but when you gain 4 back by attacking that pretty much makes up for it. Be careful as her tap ability is only on your turn.
Tymna the Weaver and Ravos, Soultender- these two combine to lead any creature based deck pretty well. Being able to get back a creature every turn is very powerful, and the card advantage from Tymna is always strong.
Voltron
If you want to build a dedicated command damage deck, you
want to keep a few things in mind. You want a cheap commander who can either
protect themselves, get large, has evasion, or serves some other role in the
deck.
Daxos, can serve this extra role by making blockers out of his tokens,
but honestly you will probably win more often with the tokens even in a heavy
Voltron build. Similarly, Ayli can serve this role, by granting lifegain and
removal, but she really adds nothing specific to commander damage.
If you decide to run Karlov as your 21 damage commander, he is a really strong choice. His
ability to grow everytime you play a lifegain spell is great and he can remove
potential problematic creatures that would stop him.
Another strong choice is Vona. Lifelink along gives you a form of protection as you can attack and gain enough life to offset the counter attack, but Vona either sticks around to block their attack or she removes a problem permanent.
Overall Impression
Black/White gained a lot in terms of commander options
recently. It’s currently a wide open color combination for a variety of decks
from soul sisters to tokens to enchantment shenanigans to tribal vampires or "tribal" Legends! Want to just build a
generic good stuff deck, well Ayli has you covered there as well. Life is good
in the Orzhov Syndicate…
Hope you enjoyed, what color combination would you like to see next?
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