If you’re looking for the latest white card draw options in Commander, you’ve come to the right place. We’re updating our Best White Card Draw with another article – covering the best white card draw that’s been printed since our original guide.
If you haven’t read our original guide, head over to view our collection of the Best White Card Draw Spells in Commander, which features the likes of Rumor Gatherer, Puresteel Paladin, The Gaffer and Esper Sentinel.
THE “NEW” BEST WHITE CARD DRAW SPELLS IN COMMANDER
Today’s article instead focuses on the cards printed since Murders at Karlov Manor, covering every set from Outlaws of Thunder Junction up until the first previews we’ve seen from Reality Fracture. White has had a lot of great options printed in the last couple of years (more than you’d think!) and we guarantee some of these will fit right at home in some of your favorite decks.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
First up, let’s get some honorable mentions out of the way.
Putting card advantage into your manabase is always a good plan. Monumental Henge is a great fit for decks that play plenty of artifacts, legendaries and/or Sagas, and especially worth it alongside Pip-Boy 3000 and Sword of Feast and Famine to untap your lands and dig deeper for more cards.
The other two honorable mentions are Pearl–Ear, Imperial Advisor, and Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn. They ask you to be in pretty narrow decks, which means they’re not as universally good as the other options at our disposal. Still solid if you’re doing Aura Enchantress or Legends matter, but if you are, you’re often in more colors, which means more options.
ARTIFACTS MADE FOR WHITE DECKS
Chronicle of Victory is a big update on Vanquisher’s Banner, a card too slow to make it onto the previous guide to white draw. Is the Chronicle better? Yes, a lot – because it also acts as an anthem, giving +2/+2, first strike and trample. This mix of buffing and combat keywords can help you push through to close games, all while keeping your hand topped up as you go from the mid to late game.
The Arkenstone is similar, and offers a little less for a little less mana. For five mana, you’re getting a +1/+1 anthem across the board, regardless of creature type, and you’re getting one extra card a turn on your end step. This might seem pretty tame compared to the likes of The Great Henge (and it is, don’t get me wrong), but it can perform better than you expect in the right deck. The built-in tutor adventure Seek the Heart is excellent for finding parts of a puzzle – like the Bruna for your Gisela, or the Boromir you need to protect the board.
What if you’re attacking a lot, and have more of a midrange strategy? Cosmic Cube is a great card for this kind of build. The Ward {2} helps to keep it in play long enough to get your investment back. If you’re playing chunkier creatures, this lets you dig pretty deep for more spells and casts them for free if they meet the criteria.
LIFEGAIN GOT MORE TOOLS
Lifegain decks have been hooked up with some great tools lately. Exemplar of Light is one of the best, proffering a card once each turn when you put a +1/+1 counter on it. You can achieve this without gaining life, too, but Exemplar makes it easy by having a lifegain draw trigger baked in. Great in Angels decks and lifegain decks, Exemplar of Light is well worth a look.
If you’re all in on lifegain and playing Soul Sister effects, then Haliya, Guided by Light is the one you want to consider. You get a Soulsister that triggers on your own creatures and artifacts entering, and you get to draw a card on your end step if you gained 3 or more life that turn.
What makes Haliya even better is that she triggers herself, and can be Warped in earlier in the game for a single white, helping you dig for a card before you cast her normally.
With Reality Fracture we now have Enlightened Confidant, a riff on the classic Dark Confident card. When translated to white, we get it on a two-drop that gives us a surveil trigger on end step if we gained life that turn. Generally speaking, we’ll always be able to put lands into our hand with this, and we’ll get rewarded with actual cards the more life we’ve gained. A sweet two-drop.
EQUIPPED TO SUCCEED
Puresteel Paladin might be the best of the best when it comes to equipment decks, but now we essentially have a second copy in Kili the Resourceful. Kili wants you to be Storied to get the free equips, but crucially, these won’t turn off if you lose the equivalent of Metalcraft. He will draw you one card a turn (like most modern designs) but can also draw you a card for playing a Dwarf. This makes him a little better for Dwarf decks, but still absolutely at the top of your list if you’re doing Equipment.
Speaking of Equipment, if you’re playing the archetype, you really need to get your hands on a copy of Swordsman’s Steel. This one can refill your hand after you play out all of your equipment, and comes with a big buff on top of that. It fills multiple roles – as big draw, and a finisher.
TOKEN TIME
Token decks have some brilliant tools for drawing cards, the newest of which – Belladonna Took – is ridiculously good for two mana in a tokens deck. If you make two tokens a turn, you’re drawing a card. Anything more than that? Well, you’re laughing, because you get +1/+1 counters for your whole team. Having good draw at two mana does wonders for how you curve out.
Arguably one of the best draw spells for token-oriented decks is Caretaker’s Talent. This enchantment ensures you draw a card whenever you make a token, once a turn. Gleaming Splendor and Smothering Tithe, and other similar effects, can help you draw cards around the turn cycle here, which is excellent. When you level it up, you eventually get big buffs, with the middle mode really useful if you have a chunky token to copy.
Welcoming Vampire is one of the better options for white draw, but Enduring Innocence deserves your consideration, too. When it eventually dies to removal or a board wipe, it’ll bounce back as an enchantment, which keeps the card draw lingering around a little longer. Considering this can also trigger Enchantress draw (and draw you cards if you have a Welcoming Vampire or Tocasia’s Welcome in play), it’s a really strong pick.
UNDERRATED PICKS
Fall of the First Civilization is our first underrated pick, and one that definitely should see more play. It’s a politicking tool, removal, and also virtual card advantage, slowing board deployment until the third mode fires off. In testing, I’ve had this card help me win games, and I’m now keen to see more of it in action.
Our other underrated pick is Starfield Shepherd. It draws you a basic Plains, helping you hit your land drops, or it goes to find Esper Sentinel, Skrelv, Mother of Runes, Serra Ascendant or Giver of Runes, among others. It’s a slam dunk in Angels decks, sure, but I also find it to be very flexible in the average white deck, too, and worth consideration.
THE TWO NEW BEST TWO DROPS
When it comes to two drops, there are two that can help in a wide variety of decks. The first is Tataru Taru, who acts a white Elvish Visionary with a twist: you also get access to tapped treasure ever so often. This is a great rate, and in any deck that does reanimation or flicker (which should be way more white decks, let’s be honest), you’re going to be able to draw extra cards, too. Cards that double dip into mana and card draw are always good.
The Queen of Dale happens to be one of the best draw cards in white now, because she comes down for two mana and just keeps triggering. It’s technically not card “draw” as such – more card advantage, or card filtering – but either way, you are seeing way more cards, making tokens, and generally having a good time. Great value for two mana.
END STEP
These are the best card draw spells in white… the best new card draw spells in white, at any rate. If you want the full guide, which includes much older cards, then head over to our other article for more white card draw. What newer cards have you brewed with in white recently? Let us know in the comments.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.