I like to think of white as being the best support color in the commander format. Let's take a look through some of the cards white has to offer for us.
Getting Caught Up
White, at least in retro cards, cannot ramp you per se, but it does a great job ensuring you are not missing your land drops. Land Tax should be one of the first cards you get for your collection if you're going to try the retro only deck staples thing. It will go in any deck that doesn't include white. It will make sure you are mana fixing and hitting every land drop. I know deck thinning isn't supposed to be a thing but if you are getting a Land Tax trigger two turns in a row, that has got to be statistically significant. Tithe can help you search for your shock lands and can be played at instant speed. Gift of Estates can also allow you to search for non basic lands with the basic land type "plains". Weathered Wayfarer will allow you to get caught up while putting any land in your library into your hand. If you are using bounce lands in a multicolored deck, or playing Karoo in your mono-white deck, you can use this to your advantage to stay behind on your land drops.
Single Target Removal
White has the best suite of removal spells in commander. White is able to target every permanent type and typically does it efficiently. Swords to Plowshares & Path to Exile are the number 3 at 5 most played cards in the past two years according to edhrec. Solitude is a modern staple and I'm sure it would wreck havoc in a blink style deck. There are also a number of Pacifism style cards that you can use to neutralize your threats without sending them to the graveyard where they could potentially be reanimated. Be careful though, a lot of cards will still have their triggered or activated abilities. There are also several cards similar to Intrepid hero where it's a removal spell attached to a creature. It's up to you if you value something like this, in my opinion if they survive long enough to get their first activation it can be worth it. With that said, I don't typically place things like this in my deck. Generous Gift can destroy every permanent type including lands. I like to ensure I have little single target land destruction in every deck, so I tend to still run Generous Gift. I recognize that it's a little expensive of a removal spell but I place a premium on flexibility.
Mass Removal
Retribution of the Meek is a reserved list card that eliminates all larger threats while keeping your small creatures around. This card is particularly effective in an Arcades commander deck. Wrath of God is a classic but has been outclassed as time went on. It's the namesake of "wrath" style cards though. For a long time I was off on Austere Command, since imposing this limitation of only using retro frame cards, I have put it in every deck using white and I have never been sad with it in my hand. Urza's Ruinous Blast was back breaking when it first came out, but since that time Wizards has printed an insane amount of legendary permanents to cater to the commander format. I do still think it's worth running in certain situations even if it only eliminates a handful of cards from the board and your deck is built around legendary permanents.
Enchantment Synergy
Enchantments are by far my favorite permanent type and my decks typically run a disproportionate amount of enchantments in comparison to others. White really shines when it comes to strong enchantments. As someone who started playing magic during the Urza's block, Academy Rector, Opalescence, and Replenish are kind of a way of life to me. Opalescence is a really fun wincondition but be sure you have a way to sacrifice it at instant speed before it hits the battlefield. It's a really quick way to get your board wrecked otherwise plus, it gives you an excuse to play Auratog!
"Good Stuff"
Esper Sentinel is one of the better white cards printed in recent years and luckily it made it's way into retro frames quickly. If you watch any commander content, you have probably heard people talking about weak white is in commander. It's strengths are taken away in part to the social contract of "don't mess with lands" and aggro strategies being weak in a format where you have to do 120 damage to kill your opponents instead of just 20. Card draw and ramp are the two areas where white falls behind the curve with the other colors with the exception of red. Esper Sentinel makes strides in fixing this. I should add that WOTC has printed several cards in recent years that are fixing the ramp and card draw problem but this has not yet become a reality in retro frames. Reconnaissance is an amazing card that you have to have a firm understanding of the rules in order to use to it's full potential. Your combat phase has several steps in it. 1. Beginning of Combat 2. Declare Attackers 3. Declare Blockers 4. Combat Damage 5. End of Combat. Through all steps after step 2 (Declare Attackers) a creature is technically "attacking". So, you can remove creatures from combat during step 5, after damage is done and they will be untapped, giving pseudo vigilance. Vigilance is one of the keywords that I think is the most powerful following flying in a multiplayer format. It leaves you defenders against opposing attacks while others players will be left without blockers. Debt of Loyalty is a fun card and one that literally no one will expect to see. The one thing you have to remember is that the regeneration actually has to take place, so the creature does in fact have to die (from damage specifically) for you to gain control. We don't currently have access to Teferi's Protection but we did just get Flare of Fortitude which is the next best thing for us. Fanatical Devotion is a great free sacrifice outlet while letting you protect another creature and Righteous Aura will save you from a "Voltron" strategy. Sevinne's Reclamation can work as a ramp spell if you have a fetch land in your graveyard and provides you with card advantage with the flashback ability. Just don't forget about it in your graveyard. Rest in Peace is the best grave hate I know of and goes nicely with an "enchantress" deck. I want to warn you though, Rest in Peace is a pretty mean card as it can totally render someone's strategy useless. Because of this, I typically select single use grave hate. Blind Obedience is a card that will ensure your opponents are always one turn behind you as their permanents come into play tapped. This is extra effective in a world where treasure tokens run rampant. Don't forget that Blind Obedience has the white/black mana symbol in reminder text. Because it is only in the reminder text, you can use Blind Obedience is a mono-white deck.
Legends
Sram & Losheel give card draw to ramp while Teshar offers amazing recursion. I ran a Teshar CEDH deck when it was first released and I absolutely loved it. Turns were though provoking instead of simple lines and it always felt like I had something to do. I have not yet built a casual Teshar deck but maybe I will give it a shot! Zuberi... I want to build a griffin deck so bad!! But, they are bad... like really bad. The art on them is amazing though.
White just doesn't have the goods yet to make a viable mono-colored deck with the exception of maybe a heavy artifact deck. The one I want to try and build still would be a Zuberi deck. I mean check out the art on these griffins and the cool land for them! What are your favorite white cards to play? Let me know in the comments below!
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