http://www.gatheringmagic.com/markwischkaemper-082914-26-decks-in-a-year-episode-1-mono-white/

Hi! I’m Mark, and I’m a longtime Commander player and deck-builder. I love the format and the big, swingy plays it creates, and I really enjoy building decks of all types—hypercompetitive to durdly and silly. I know a lot of people out there are interested in Commander and want to get started, but they don’t just want to buy a precon and jam games—they want to build. I also know there are a lot of Commander vets who have been playing the same deck or two for a good while and might be interested in something different.
Commander EeshaThat’s where this series comes in. I’m going to build twenty-six decks in a year—one for each color combination—and I’m going to do each deck on a budget of $75. That may seem like a strange amount, but let me explain. I’m not going to attempt to keep each deck as inexpensive as possible. Abe Sargent already does a fantastic job at that. Instead, you’ll know that for $75 (as priced on CoolStuffInc, and remember that prices may change a bit between when I write and when you read), you can buy the entire deck. That seems to be a reasonable amount to spend on a full deck, and it lets us play with Planeswalkers and other good stuff. Sound good? In addition, I have some general deck-building principles that guide me most of the time. Jason Rice does an excellent job spelling them out over at Brainstorm Brewery. I also have my own staples and my own style, so you should feel free to make adjustments as you like—let your deck reflect your own personality! Since this is the very first deck of the series, I wanted to build one that really felt like a Commander deck—you know, one that really cares we’re playing Commander. And what better way than to start with a commander who’s super-, well, commandery? How about one with that very title already?
Commander Eesha
Isn’t this girl goofy? I love the two abilities. Both are evasion, so they’re kind of redundant . . . when attacking. But this lady can block just about anyone, and she can do it all day long. Take that, Maelstrom Wanderer!
Knight of the White OrchidSeeing as how she can attack and always expect to make it through, this seems to be a good time to go Voltron.
Let’s do that, but first, let’s talk mana. The curve on this deck is pretty low, with the highest mana cost being 6, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have plenty to do. There are some great mana sinks built into the deck, and the fact is that no matter how hard we try to protect our fearless feathered leader (fleader?), she’s going to die, and we’re going to have to cast her again. Mind Stone, Guardian Idol, and a few other 2-mana rocks (including a personal favorite of mine in Star Compass) will give us something to do on the second turn other than just cast Voltron pieces; plus, it jumps us ahead to a turn-three Eesha. We also have Knight of the White Orchid—which is never terrible, but it’s truly awesome in the early game—and Kor Cartographer, who’s just always great. Druidic Satchel is a neat way to gain value from whatever is lurking on top of our library. Forbidding Watchtower is pretty useful, too, and Mistveil Plains will do a surprising amount of work if you’ll let it. It’s especially great with the Auras we’re running because we’ll have ways to go find them once they’re on the bottom of our library. I skipped it to keep the budget lower, but Emeria, the Sky Ruin wouldn’t be unreasonable here, though it’s far from necessary—we’re creature-light in this build.
White’s biggest weakness is its lack of card-draw. However, we have some pretty good ways to shore that up—and trust me, you don’t want to skimp on these cards. The classic Jayemdae Tome is a great use of any excess mana, as is the highly underrated Diviner’s Wand. Since our commander can’t be blocked, we can also make use of the very new Rogue’s Gloves, drawing us an extra card per attack step—or two if we give her double strike. I also love Inheritance, an old, color-pie-breaking enchantment that lets us draw as long as things die and we have mana, which tends to happen in multiplayer.
Heliod, God of the SunOur most common win con is going to be our commander—we’ll suit her up and go to town. However, both Kemba, Kha Regent and Heliod, God of the Sun are reasonable ways to victory as well. We’re running so many Voltron pieces that Kemba can get out of hand rather quickly, and Heliod is awesome if we’re mana-flooded—just crank out Clerics and swing for the fences. Finally, just about anybody is terrifying when it’s wearing Argentum Armor; suddenly, that Veteran Swordsmith is a 9/8 Eldrazi for which you are able to pick what the opponent loses. Don’t forget that the Armor’s trigger is good for any permanent, which means you can attack the guy who’s open and blow up the problem a different opponent controls.
White also does removal well, but I want to try to gain some extra value out of our spot-removal spells rather than just running one-use spells such as Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares. Nothing stops an opponent cold like an Arrest on his or her commander—nice Bruna, bro. Cage of Hands and Forced Worship can both be returned to your hand and recast, either in response to a Wrath effect or if something worse comes along, and Cessation is an old gem that will do great work for you. Recumbent Bliss has always seemed horribly unfair to me, and Hobble is awesome against the guy playing Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon . . . or Skullbriar, the Walking Grave . . . or Karador, Ghost Chieftain. The other cool thing is that we don’t really care if the creature can block—it’s not blocking Commander Eesha.
It’s always good to have a couple of reset buttons whenever possible. Mass Calcify is a great new Wrath effect from Magic 2015 that will never damage your team, so it’s almost Plague Wind for white. Kirtar’s Wrath sometimes leaves you with a pair of guys to suit up the next turn, which can be pretty effective after a well-timed board wipe leaves you with Equipment littering the battlefield. And finally, the relatively new Fated Retribution saves us from nasty Planeswalkers, and it can do so at instant speed (and do this when you need to—don’t make the mistake of trying for the scry and giving opponents a chance to rebuild. This is best cast at the end of the turn right before you untap).
Encroaching WastesIt’s also important to be able to deal with other permanents. We’re going to have to deal with Planeswalkers the old-fashioned way, but white has a lot of great ways to handle troubling enchantments and artifacts. Soltari Visionary is one of my go-tos—I run him in every white deck I have. He’s basically unblockable (good for suiting up!) and blows up those nasty enchantments on the other side of the board. Let’s face it: Anyone running Doubling Season is up to no good. It has to go. Hammer of Ruin is a hilarious way to bump up our commander’s power while blowing up other obnoxious Equipment. Kor Sanctifiers plays its role as a white Indrik Stomphowler well. Devout Witness can make use of excess lands in our hands. And finally, I think Serra’s Liturgy is a great little rattlesnake of a card. Run that out there, and watch the verse counters tick up. Your opponents will Think Twice about dumping a bunch of artifacts onto the board (I’m looking at you, Sharuum the Hegemon). One big problem for this deck is going to be Maze of Ith (or its cousin Mystifying Maze), so there’s a copy of Encroaching Wastes. Save it for something that neuters your commander.
Finally, we have a huge suite of Voltron effects. First up is the enchantment package; in addition to the removal, we have Indestructibility and the new Spectra Ward. Put both of those on Eesha, and she becomes almost completely unstoppable—basically, the only way to kill her, then, is to make you sacrifice her. We’re also running some ways to look for those pieces—or for removal when you need it. Totem-Guide Hartebeest and Heliod’s Pilgrim will each find you one of those, and Three Dreams can find you the whole package plus a removal spell. Lost Auramancers is kind of a funny way to grab any of your enchantments (including Ghostblade Eidolon), and Auramancer can rescue a Spectra Ward from the ’yard to be used again.
Ogre's CleaverSome of the Equipment is pretty obvious, but primarily, there are three effects we’re looking for: power boost, vigilance, and double strike. 2 power is pretty low, but Barbed Battlegear, Haunted Plate Mail, and the awesome (in this Commander deck) Ogre’s Cleaver can make that a lot more than 2. The Cleaver is especially awesome because it brings Eesha’s power up to 7 all by itself, jumping her into the elite echelon of commanders who kill in three hits. However, there are others worth running; Strata Scythe can close a game out of nowhere when it shows up late, Trepanation Blade is risky but a great deal of fun, and Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang can give you a dude to suit up even when you don’t have any dudes to suit up. Vigilance is also great on our fleader because she really can block anything and not worry about it. Ring of Thune makes the cut. And double strike does amazing work here, so Fireshrieker is a definite. Its little brother Inquisitor’s Flail is good, too—it doesn’t draw us double cards off Rogue’s Gloves, but it’s still worth it.
The backup team does a few things. It helps with vigilance, gives power and toughness boosts, sometimes reduces the cost of things, and adds to our board presence. Daru Warchief and Veteran Swordsmith help out Soldiers, Soraya the Falconer helps out Birds, and Aven Brigadier helps out Soldiers and Birds. Auriok Steelshaper makes those equip costs cheaper, and if we have an extra Equipment we don’t want on our commander, we can give her an extra point of power and toughness for our trouble (he’s a good target for Diviner’s Wand).
I ended up cutting a subtheme of super-cheap Equipment; while Shuko and Bone Saw are really inexpensive, I decided they also didn’t create enough impact. I looked at the new Spirit Bonds, primarily as a way to give our commander indestructible, but I feel there aren’t enough creatures in the build to justify it. Grassland Crusader was too slow and expensive. I think three board wipes are good, but if you feel that you really need more, I’d consider Winds of Rath and Rout.
If you’d like to up the budget some, you could consider a powered-up Equipment package including some of the Swords of X and Y (Sword of Fire and Ice is probably the best one, just for the card-draw) along with some redundancy for the pieces with Stoneforge Mystic. Batterskull would also be amazing in this list. Additional card-draw in the form of Mind’s Eye would be great. Finally, the new Ajani Steadfast would be excellent with Eesha—lifelink is awesome, as is vigilance, and you could just tick him up to an ultimate.
The list is surprisingly explosive and resilient. It’s also fun—while you’ll almost always win the same way, how you make it there is going to twist and turn every time, and the combination of effects that make our fleader into a huge, unblockable beater will be different every time. Total cost: $49.85