Welcome all to another Daily Dose of Theros Beyond Death. Today, I’ll be starting a series of articles looking at what each colour brings to the table when it comes to devotion. That’s right, devotion is back, and mono-coloured decks are looking to reign supreme all over Standard. I want to focus today on cards from a certain colour that already exist in Standard that could start to see more play thanks to devotion. Today that focus in on White. Before I talk about a new White devotion card, let’s have a look at the best cards available right now.
Ajani, Strength of the Pride – With a lot of the devotion cards in the set helping you gain life, this planeswalker can add a bit of devotion and make some Ajani’s Pridemate tokens that can start to get large quickly.
Arcanist’s Owl – With the return of enchantment creatures AND devotion, the value on this uncommon has skyrocketed. Not only does it provide four devotion for a 3/3 Flying creature, but it could potentially grab a sweet creature out of your deck!
Oakhame Ranger – This creature pumper provides a ton of devotion, but allows you to play a go wide strategy to help with your creature heavy devotion deck.
Cavalier of Dawn – I’ve been waiting to find a strong deck for this card and a mono-white devotion deck could be the best place for this card. If it focuses on enchantments, it will be even stronger thanks to its dying trigger.
Gideon Blackblade – Devotion decks could mean the return of this powerful planeswalker in Standard. It’ll provide more ways to gain some life and attack in for some early damage.
Leyline of Sanctity – Leylines are a great way to get some early devotion onto the battlefield without costing any mana. This card could be played main deck if your deck is quite heavy on devotion synergies.
Linden, the Steadfast Queen – Three devotion for three mana is all you can really ask for in a strong white creature. It’s a solid 3/3 with vigilance that, like many other devotion cards, will gain you some life throughout the game.
Tomik, Distinguished Adkovist – I’m a fan of two-devotion, two-mana creatures in devotion decks, and this one is a 2/3 Flying creature to boot. Its abilities might not ever be relevant in most games. But its stats and casting cost could make it a fit in a devotion deck.
Now that we’ve seen what’s already in Standard, let’s have a look at the new card for White devotion. Here is Daxos, Blessed by the Sun.
This two-mana legendary card provides so much value for such little cost. Right off the bat, you are guaranteed at least a 2/2 creature when it’s on the battlefield. Most times though if you have any other permanents on the battlefield, it’s toughness will start to grow exponentially. That extra toughness can go a long way into making it both an offensive and defensive threat during combat. To make it even better, it’s an enchantment creature which will trigger some abilities on some cards in the set. For more added value, it will be gaining you a strong amount of life throughout the course of the game.
There you have it folks! The start of a white devotion deck in Standard. I look forward to seeing what other mono-coloured devotion decks I can start building for Standard. Thanks again for joining me on the Daily Dose of Theros Beyond Death. Join me again tomorrow as we delve into more talk about the new set!
