What the Fox? | Light-Paws Voltron [Primer]

Commander / EDH Enchantment Flash Lifelink Mono-White Primer Tempo Toolbox Voltron

Abzkaban

Enchantment (46)

• 1x Cartouche of Solidarity
• 1x Curse of Silence
• 1x Ethereal Armor
• 1x Flickering Ward
• 1x Hyena Umbra
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Mask of Law and Grace
• 1x Mortal Obstinacy
• 1x On Thin Ice
• 1x Shield of Duty and Reason
• 1x Sigarda's Aid
• 1x Solid Footing
• 1x Swift Reconfiguration
• 1x All That Glitters
• 1x Benevolent Blessing
• 1x Cho-Manno's Blessing
• 1x Darksteel Mutation
• 1x Daybreak Coronet
• 1x Felidar Umbra
• 1x Flickerform
• 1x Heliod's Punishment
• 1x Lashknife
• 1x Mantle of Leadership
• 1x Reprobation
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Saving Grace
• 1x Spirit Mantle
• 1x Temporal Isolation
• 1x Triclopean Sight
• 1x Battle Mastery
• 1x Guardian's Magemark
• 1x Light of Promise
• 1x Minimus Containment
• 1x Pariah
• 1x Prison Term
• 1x Timely Ward
• 1x Unquestioned Authority
• 1x Angelic Destiny
• 1x Armored Ascension
• 1x Curse of Exhaustion
• 1x Faith Unbroken
• 1x Faith's Fetters
• 1x Hallowed Haunting
• 1x Holy Mantle
• 1x Sage's Reverie
• 1x Mantle of the Ancients

Artifact (10)

• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Pearl Medallion
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Cloudstone Curio

Land (33)

• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 1x Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Roadside Reliquary
• 26x Snow-Covered Plains

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Search for Glory
• 1x Retether

Commander (1)

Creature (5)

• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Kor Spiritdancer
• 1x Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1x Archon of Sun's Grace

Instant (3)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Teferi's Protection

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Spectra Ward

Artifact (1)

• 1x Robe of Stars

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Welcome to my Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice Voltron primer!

The goal of this deck is to quickly get our commander out and pump her up with a bunch of auras then smack everyone's faces until they die. This can be done so fast, and she can stay so well protected that our opponents' can't help but respond: "What the fox?"

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The Commander

What makes Light-Paws such a valuable commander is her ability:

"Whenever an Aura enters the battlefield under your control, if you cast it, you may search your library for an Aura card with mana value less than or equal to that Aura and with a different name than each Aura you control, put that card onto the battlefield attached to Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice, then shuffle."

This makes every aura spell a 2-for-1 which is already card advantage and a tempo play in and of itself, bit it also gives us so much flexibility. Each 1 mana aura is actually also every other 1 mana aura. Each 2 mana aura is actually also every other 2 mana aura or 1 mana aura. Each 3 mana aura is acutally... You get the idea.

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Deck Breakdown

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

• We're fast. It's not uncommon to get our commander swinging for lethal by turn 4.
• We're evasive. We run such a protection suite that can even be brought out at instant speed if we need. We'll ensure our commander is protected and get our damage through
• We have a low mana curve which helps play against the white ramp problem.
• We can play under Rule of Law effects better than most opponents.

Weaknesses

• White spot removal is the bane of our existence. We can survive boardwipes and protect against the other colors at the drop of a hat, but a Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares will ruin our day.
• Edict effects like Dictate of Erebos are tough for us. We run some protection against them specifically because they are a sure fire way to end our game plan.

Core Auras

These are the auras that advance our gameplan. All others support this package.

• Mask of Law and Grace
• Shield of Duty and Reason
• Hyena Umbra
• Ethereal Armor
• All That Glitters
• Spirit Mantle
• Felidar Umbra
• Flickerform
• Daybreak Coronet
• Battle Mastery
• Light of Promise
• Sage's Reverie
• Sunbond
• Mantle of the Ancients

Mask of Law and Grace and Shield of Duty and Reason provide the most protection and evasion for the mana cost. We usually want to grab these first, and playing one fetches the other, giving us UBRG protection for {W}. Hyena Umbra and Felidar Umbra give us Totem Armor which protects us from board wipes and other forms of destruction. Ethereal Armor and All That Glitters are our biggest pump spells that make Light-Paws huge fast. Battle Mastery is the other big one that lets us double our commander damage. Daybreak Coronet and Felidar Umbra provide the lifelink that procs Light of Promise or Sunbond. Sage's Reverie is the 4-drop we want to tutor to refill our hand, and Flickerform allows us to reuse it as well as providing evasion. Mantle of the Ancients allows us to recover if we lost any or all of our auras to the graveyard.

Synergies

Aura Pairs

These are the common pairs that we'll want to tutor for as we build up our commander.

• Mask of Law and Grace + Shield of Duty and Reason - Playing one fetches the other. Otherwise any aura in the deck can grab them.
• All That Glitters + Spirit Mantle - Get big and ensure you can't be blocked.
• Saving Grace + Spirit Mantle - A combat trick we can pull that equates to a 2-mana Fog.
• Pariah + Unquestioned Authority/Spirit Mantle/Timely Ward - A lock from combat damage or any damage in the case of Timely Ward. Pariah will fetch any of these, but Unquestioned Authority and Timely Ward will fetch Pariah. If you use Timely Ward, you can set up the lock at instant speed in response to damage.
• Light of Promise/Sunbond + Daybreak Coronet/Felidar Umbra/Celestial Mantle - Lifelink plus Light of Promise or Sunbond will snowball our commander into being obnoxiously huge. Daybreak Coronet has the upside of pumping her a bit at the start and gives her a couple other keywords. Celestial Mantle can grab any other aura in the deck and will add our life total in counters to our commander.

Card Draw

Mono white has always struggled with card draw, but not Light-Paws! Besides 1-time cantrips or lands that pay more mana than it's worth to draw, we have a few ways to ensure our hand is filled.

• Esper Sentinel - It's not hard to pump it with an aura to ensure we get a draw each turn.
• Kor Spiritdancer/Sram, Senior Edificer/Mesa Enchantress - These are Beast Whisperers in white. They'll ensure we replace the card in our hand that we used to get two auras out.
• Land Tax + Scroll Rack - A powerful draw engine when we can assemble it.
• Sage's Reverie - This is the MVP of card draw. We will want to aim for this almost every game. Not only does it pump Light-Paws like an All That Glitters, but it will ensure we refill our hand. Not only that, but every aura 4-mana and up will fetch it. Add Flickerform to do it again for {2}{W}{W}.

Removal

Removal comes in the form of auras since even those we attach to another creature will trigger Light-Paws. We take care of a troublesome creature and tutor something for our commander with one card.

• On Thin Ice - This card alone is the reason we run snow lands
• Darksteel Mutation
• Heliod's Punishment
• Reprobation
• Minimus Containment
• Prison Term - This one we can grab at instant speed in response to a creature we don't like being cast. It will attach itself to Light-Paws, and we can move it to our opponent's creature when it hits the battlefield.
• Faith's Fetters

Protection

Protection from colors

• Mask of Law and Grace
• Shield of Duty and Reason
• Flickering Ward
• Benevolent Blessing
• Cho-Manno's Blessing

Protection from creatures

• Spirit Mantle
• Unquestioned Authority

Totem Armor

• Hyena Umbra
• Felidar Umbra

Anti-Edict

• Rest in Peace - This will stop sacrifice effects in their tracks.
• Cartouche of Solidarity - The best aura to fetch from a flash aura to stop a single edict.
• Archon of Sun's Grace/Hallowed Haunting - These give us tokens to sac if we're up against such effects but also provide a way to go wide if going tall doesn't pan out for some reason.

If all else fails we have Flickerform.

General Synergies

• Cloudstone Curio allows us to bounce back our auras to continue tutoring for what we need. This makes a nice draw engine with Kor Spiritdancer/Sram, Senior Edificer/Mesa Enchantress.
• Flickering Ward can bounce itself and repeatedly tutor for other auras.
• Mantle of the Ancients is our best form of recursion and can tutor Sage's Reverie in the same move.
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is our big mana land. Weathered Wayfarer, Exploration Map, and Search for Glory exist to fetch it.

Playing Reactively

Light-Paws gives us a unique ability to turn auras with flash into instant speed protection. Several auras are included in this list not for their abilities when enchanting but because we can play them at instant speed to tutor up what we need. Here is what we have in our flash package:

• Gift of Granite - Soon to be Swift Reconfiguration
• Solid Footing
• Benevolent Blessing
• Cho-Manno's Blessing
• Mantle of Leadership
• Saving Grace
• Temporal Isolation
• Triclopean Insight
• Guardian's Magemark
• Timely Ward

These are not the only flash auras in white, but theyre the better ones. In addition to these, Sigarda's Aid allows any aura to be cast at instant speed. Protecting our commander when our opponents were sure they snuffed it will have them going "What the fox?"

What to tutor for when playing reactively can be tricky. It really comes down to what you need at the time, but generally it's a good idea to go for color protection, creature protection, and indestructible when you can. Remember that any of these will grab you any aura from the deck that is equal or less in mana cost.

Budgetless Upgrades

The deck can become considerably faster by adding fast mana rocks

• Mana Crypt
• Chrome Mox
• Jeweled Lotus
• Mox Amber

Landbase

• Serra's Sanctum is a better Nykthos and would be the primary target when fetching a land.
• Urza's Saga to grab a mana rock
• Ancient Tomb to accelerate mana
• Gemstone Caverns for the possible fast opening
• Strip Mine - Removal

• Finally Replenish is an expensive Retether

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Top Ranked	Achieved #12 position overall 2 years ago Achieved #10 position in Commander / EDH 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Flash 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Lifelink 2 years ago
Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.19
Tokens	Human 1/1 W, Pegasus 2/2 W, Spirit Cleric */* W, Warrior 1/1 W w/ Vigilance
Folders	EDH, Decks of interest, Xur Comp, light paws, cEDH