Foundations: The 5 Best White Cards

Foundations Has Cards That Will See Lots Of Play

Foundations is going to be around for a long time—and I’m honestly super happy with this idea. The constant shifting of Standard is one of the reasons I fell off it. I like getting to play a pet deck long enough to get good at it. It’s rewarding.

And it also helps that I like the cards in Foundations—I can recall when some of these reprints were first printed, and it’s nice to see them again.

But, of course, what criteria is there for “best” in this circumstance? Especially with a set that’s going to be judged partially against whatever other sets exist around it. There are so many variables. There are so many options.

My solution is to judge how often I think a card will see play. An evergreen assessment, if you will. Perhaps set-specific interactions will edge these out at different times, but the ones on my list(s) have enough raw power that I don’t see them totally being forgotten.

Foundations is also different in how we’ll be doing these articles. I’ve got seven different top-five lists, and these cards aren’t going anywhere soon. So, instead of a blitz of top-five lists over the next two weeks or so, this’ll be more spread out. Mixed with some Christmas and Thanksgiving content. I’ll be doing them in WUBRG order to start, then multicolored, artifacts, and finishing with lands. It just seems the most efficient.

Speaking of efficiency, let’s actually get to the list. Here are the best white cards from Foundations.  

Authority of the Consuls

Control decks often don’t have impactful turn ones. This is very impactful on turn one. The life gain is often a nice buffer against aggro, but it’s the “enters tapped” aspect that’s really brutal. Your opponent can’t put up blockers without prep work or rush with haste creatures. It’s a one-mana enchantment that continues to be useful as the game goes.

Crystal Barricade

I love low-cost walls, but they’re often just not good enough to see play. All they do is stall. This one is technically also just useful for stalling—but it’s a very annoying stall. Players have to find a way to kill this to basically get anything done, and that delay is often enough to set up a new defense. You may notice that I think the best white cards are mostly control-oriented, and cards like this being in the pool makes me think that was intentional.

Day of Judgement

Board wipes have phased in and out of Standard, but they often have more hoops or are higher costed. This is functionally Wrath of God—and, as a reminder, is going to be around for a long time. Every control deck will have access to a full board wipe, no matter the rest of the meta. That’s both cool and terrifying.

Exemplar of Light

I kind of hate angel and life-gain decks. Not because they’re bad—but because my favorite decks lose to them so often. The creatures get out of control and their life grows too big to kill without some combo. It’s just annoying. And this card is going to be an incredible addition to those decks. In the average list, this card lets you draw an extra card a turn and can easily kill someone through flying attacks. Just brutal.

Lyra Dawnbringer

Oddly, I don’t see this as a card that’ll go in every angel deck. Yes, it works super well with Exemplar of Light—there’s no denying that. But it’s more a control finisher for me. Backed up by counterspells and defense spells, this card quickly turns the tides. Regaining five life a turn is kind of amazing.

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And that’s the start of this massive project. We’ll be going over the blue cards soon, and those are equally exciting. It’s going to be super interesting seeing what decks pop up in Standard now that Foundations has massively bolstered the card pool.

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