The 28 Most Underrated Mono-White Commanders in Magic Ranked

Haliya, Guided by Light | Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Sites like EDHREC aggregate popular commanders and their decklists to provide insight into what people are playing and which commanders are the most popular. Lots of attention goes to the popular commanders, which are often quite powerful and unique, but what about the underrated ones?

Even within the lower popularity levels you can find charming commanders that reward savvy deckbuilding. In white, there are lots of commanders the put unique spins on established archetypes like auras and niche combo commanders. Let’s find the one to helm your next brew!

What Are Underrated White Commanders?

Keleth, Sunmane Familiar | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

Underrated white commanders have a mono-white color identity and fewer than 3,500 decks registered on EDHREC, which is what I’m using to measure whether a commander is popular since it’s one of the best aggregate tools on the internet for Commander.

Some of these cards have low counts because they’re a little weaker or do something less efficiently than a newer commander, but the beauty of Commander is its flexibility: With a little love, these overlooked commanders perform perfectly well in casual settings.

#28. Yes Man, Personal Securitron

Yes Man, Personal Securitron gives you a funny little group hug commander you can pass around the table to accumulate counters that later become tokens when the robot leaves play. There are a few ways to enable this; the best options are flicker effects like Slip On the Ring and Parting Gust that flicker any permanent and return it to play under its owner’s control, or sweepers; kill the board, then Yes Man leaves you with an army while your opponents have nothing.

#27. Zeriam, Golden Wind

Zeriam, Golden Wind is mostly held back by its excruciatingly niche creature type that rarely receives support and is typically regulated to draft chaff commons like Griffin Protector or Fearless Fledgling. That said, the ability is quite strong; since token griffins trigger Zeriam, it gets out of control if you can protect it and your ever-growing board.

#26. Rashel, Fist of Torm

Rashel, Fist of Torm, also printed as Xenk, Paladin Unbroken, has a unique auras payoff: It gives them exalted, which pushes you towards Voltron without requiring stacking auras onto Rashel specifically. Sure, you want All That Glitters and stuff, but I love the control angle: Throw Pacifism on every creature you see then buff Rashel with those. This is a great option for players who are interested in auras but want to avoid the kill-on-sight pedigree of Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice.

#25. Baldin, Century Herdmaster

Baldin, Century Herdmaster, also printed as E. Honda, Sumo Champion, gives a high-toughness deck a commander. It’s a great home for janky white creatures with odd stat lines like Indomitable Ancients and Essence of Antiquity plus cards like Bar the Door that see no play elsewhere.

#24. Aerith Gainsborough

If you’ve ever leaped at the chance to play Ajani's Pridemate in Constructed, you might be interested in Aerith Gainsborough, a Pridemate that spreads its counters among legendary creatures you control when it dies. That has interesting applications; make this a serious threat, then sacrifice it or force your opponents to kill it, and suddenly your tall threat goes wide.

#23. Apothecary White

Apothecary White is one of the cooler food payoffs, but it’s held back as a commander because the great food payoffs are green. That’s not to say white’s useless, though; you can do a lot with token doublers and lean into human synergies. It’s also worth keeping an eye on The Hobbit for more food support like Bag End Banquet.

#22. Monk Gyatso

Monk Gyatso is all about that combo life with its weird airbending ability. You need three things: a way to target a creature you control for 0 mana like Shiko, Nomads en-Kor or Lightning Greaves; a way to reduce the cost of your creatures by like Cloud Key + Helm of Awakening; and a creature. Because you can cast the creature for and its cost is reduced by the same amount, you can play it for free infinitely. It’s a very narrow build path but one that gets the job done.

#21. Bruna, the Fading Light

Reanimating an angel or human can be fine, but Bruna, the Fading Light has a high cost. The main draw has less to do with Bruna and more to do with Brisela, the terrifying Eldrazi angel it melds into with Gisela, the Broken Blade. White has plenty of legendary tutors to set it up, and you don’t even need to worry about Gisela dying since Bruna animates it!

#20. Kemba, Kha Regent

If you can’t decide between cats and swords, Kemba, Kha Regent provides the best of both. It’s a super budget commander because practically every equipment precon reprints it. Slap a bunch of equipment and make a bunch of cats, both of which have plenty of white support! I like this as a Voltron commander because it lets you go tall and wide; the game’s far from over when a player Erodes Kemba.

#19. Brigone, Soldier of Meletis

White doesn’t have the best card draw, though Wizards has helped it greatly in recent years. Brigone, Soldier of Meletis uses its heroic ability to generate counters to remove and draw. Vigilance goes a long way to making this play because Brigone can attack, then activate its ability after dealing combat damage. Lean on auras for your heroic triggers for lasting value and to keep Brigone’s power high while you remove the counters.

#18. Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn / Hydaelyn, the Mothercrystal

White dabbles in legendary-matters quite a bit, with Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn offering a continuous source of card advantage as you deploy legendary threats like Loran of the Third Path and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. With time and mana, you get Hydaelyn, the Mothercrystal for a spot of removal and more card draw. It’s a pretty compact, powerful engine.

#17. The Seriema

The Seriema is another legendary commander that just edges Venat out because I prefer a tutor to card draw, though your mileage may vary. The best target is Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd to flicker your spacecraft commander, but you can find anything: protection, removal, combo pieces… the current design ethos pushes legendary permanents to do anything and everything, so your toolbox overfloweth with choices.

#16. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is one of white’s most iconic battlecruisers and indisputably a powerful card. It will, however, gain the table’s ire, and the card is very vanilla as a commander. You’re just ramping into a big anthem, and the lack of evasion makes finishing things with it tricky.

#15. Sram, Senior Edificer

Sram, Senior Edificer offers auras, equipment, and vehicles incredibly solid support; it’s a staple in all those decks. It mostly suffers from being a mono-colored commander in archetypes with lots of powerful, modern multicolor commanders, but a cheap draw engine you always have access to is a solid foundation for any deck.

#14. Keleth, Sunmane Familiar + Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful

The tag-team of Keleth, Sunmane Familiar and Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful wants to see the game end, and end fast. This setup lets Yoshimaru attack for 3 on turn 2, and that number only grows. This combo relies on commander damage to finish your opponents; make sure Yoshimaru has plenty of protection and support.

#13. Haliya, Guided by Light

There are many candidates for mono-white lifegain commanders, but I’m partial to Haliya, Guided by Light as a payoff and enabler bundled into one cheap package. Card draw is a fine place starting point, and a Soul Sister ensures you get plenty of lifegain triggers for cards like Voice of the Blessed and Heliod, Sun-Crowned.

#12. The Sentry, Golden Guardian

The Sentry, Golden Guardian has a pretty neat ability that’s kind of like group hug: You donate a big creature an opponent, The Void. You need to politic a little with this deck; your opponent might crash The Void into The Sentry endlessly. But if you convince them to attack your opponents and stack some buffs like Duelist's Heritage, it makes for a decent aggro deck.

#11. Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor

Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor bundles ramp (restricted, admittedly) and card draw into one package, which gives any commander a solid floor to stand upon. You’ll generally go to a Voltron route with this, leaning on cards like All That Glitters and Ethereal Armor for big damage.

#10. Sephara, Sky’s Blade

Sephara, Sky's Blade is a terrifying threat that comes down for only a single mana. You just need to drop a bunch of fliers, then follow up with board wipes plus a protection spell for Sephara. The best part of the commander is how cheap it is; committing fliers to the board takes little effort in white, so you’re often casting this for 1, 3, maybe 5 mana.

#9. Gandalf the White

If you really want a mono-white legends (or artifact) commander, Gandalf the White is the clear choice with its powerful ability doubler. What makes this special compared to other Panharmonicon variants is triggering when the appropriate permanents leave play; that’s four cards off Ichor Wellspring, as an example. It often leans into combo lines, but you can also just overwhelm your opponents with brute force. Oh, and flash is pretty funny—imagine your opponent attacks into you and gets a surprise Wurmcoil Engine.

#8. Mondrak, Glory Dominus

Mondrak, Glory Dominus doesn’t have a flashy ability, but it’s powerful enough to build around. White loves its token producers and has so much support for the archetype that a token doubler in the command zone gives the deck lots of power. This commander will super-charge the rest of your deck, so make sure you surround it with great token producers like Secure the Wastes.

#7. Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle

Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle is a combo commander through and through. You’ll typically see it alongside cards like Myr Retriever, Krark-Clan Ironworks, and other classic combo cards. It’s extremely fun to mess around with and tune because you’ll put four random, janky cards into play and suddenly end up with a win.

#6. Hokori, Dust Drinker

If you want to stax your opponents out, may I suggest Winter Orb on a commander? It’s pretty nasty. The most important thing with this commander is making sure you have a plan to break the symmetry—probably lots of mana rocks. You want to get this down and close the game quickly, not play it turn 3 and grind the game to halt.

#5. God-Eternal Oketra

God-Eternal Oketra is one of the top choices for offbeat token decks because those Zombie Warrior tokens are chunky. This generally ends up being similar to a flicker deck, with Oketra supported by creatures with good enters abilities and creatures like Sunpearl Kirin and Nurturing Pixie to bounce and recast them.

#4. Abdel Adrian, Gorion’s Ward + Far Traveler

Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward is one of the stronger flicker commanders in the game because it’s a mass flicker that produces additional value in tokens. That combination is incredibly powerful, especially since you aren’t restricted to creatures. Far Traveler is the best mono-white background for Adrian because it enables at least one flicker effect each turn to help you pop off.

#3. Oswald Fiddlebender

I didn’t expect Oswald Fiddlebender to qualify for this ranking because I’ve always considered it one of the stronger mono-white commanders. Birthing Pod in the command zone—even restricted to artifacts—lets you draw on a strong toolbox of diverse effects that only get better as Wizards prints new, powercrept artifacts like The Endstone and Ultron, Artificial Malevolence.

#2. Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar was a scourge in Standard and is still quite threatening in Commander because its token production scales with your opponents. Few other cards make three tokens a turn just for attacking, and you can easily magnify that with cards like Cathars' Crusade and Divine Visitation. Who said aggro doesn’t exist in Commander?

#1. Preston, the Vanisher

Some commanders are underrated just because something newer, flashier, more power crept emerged. I don’t think Preston, the Vanisher would have few enough decks to qualify if not for Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines dominating the mono-white flicker space.

Preston’s illusion tokens are an extremely fun twist on the typical Panharmonicon structure. You get two triggers, but you need to work for them. You can also exploit them better; white’s bursting with token doublers that vastly prefer Preston. Imagine making one Felidar Guardian into three!

Commanding Conclusion

Brigone, Soldier of Meletis | Illustration by Daisuke Tatsuma

Mono-colored commanders are rarely as popular as their multicolor counterparts, but that doesn’t mean they’re unplayable. Even within the lesser played white commanders you find janky gems that reward good Scryfall practices and creative deckbuilding.

Which underrated white commander would you build? Do you play any underrated commanders in other colors? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! For more Draftsim, check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!