commander · Nahiri, the Lithomancer
Forged in Stone (C14).
A mono-white equipment and token deck from Commander 2014, led by Nahiri, the Lithomancer, generate Kor Soldier tokens, equip them for free, and create an indestructible Stoneforged Blade as the game-ending weapon.
The Commander
Forged in Stone is Commander 2014's mono-white equipment deck, and Nahiri is one of its two planeswalker commanders. Her +2 creates a 1/1 Kor Soldier token and, if you control any equipment, attaches one to it for free. Her -2 searches your library for an equipment and puts it into play. Her ultimate creates the Stoneforged Blade, a zero-mana indestructible equipment that gives +5/+5 and double strike. The deck builds toward that Blade while the token and equipment synergies keep it threatening the whole way there.
Nahiri, the Lithomancer makes every equip cost free and pumps out soldiers to hold your gear. Her -2 finds any piece of equipment in the deck on demand. She has plenty of white support behind her too: Puresteel Paladin for free equips, Stoneforge Mystic as a second tutor, and Cathars' Crusade to pump the token army. The deck wants you deploying equipment aggressively.
Key Cards
Stoneforge Mystic
Searches your library for an equipment card and puts it in your hand. Pay one white and two colorless and tap to put an equipment from your hand onto the battlefield. Stoneforge Mystic is the deck's second equipment tutor. It finds what Nahiri doesn't, and it drops the equipment straight into play at instant speed for two mana. Between her and Nahiri's -2, the deck reliably has its equipment package online by turn four.
Puresteel Paladin
Draws a card whenever equipment enters the battlefield. When you have metalcraft (three or more artifacts), equipment has zero equip cost. In a deck running eight to ten equipment, Puresteel Paladin comes down and draws you a card off every equipment that enters from then on. With free equips, Nahiri's token soldiers can shuffle equipment around each turn and set up the best attack for no mana.
Cathars' Crusade
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Nahiri makes a token with her +2 every other turn, and each Kor token triggers Cathars' Crusade to put a counter on everything you already have. A board of twelve creatures all growing every time a new one enters gets out of hand after five or six turns. Then the equipment goes onto the biggest creature for a lethal swing.
Open the Armory
Search your library for an Aura or equipment card and put it in your hand. This is a third equipment tutor, alongside Nahiri and Stoneforge Mystic, so the deck has three separate ways to find any piece it needs. Consistency is the mono-white game plan: find the right equipment for the moment, find it fast, and deploy it for free off Puresteel Paladin metalcraft or Nahiri's token equip.
Stone Haven Outfitter
Equipped creatures you control get +1/+1. Whenever an equipped creature dies, draw a card. In a deck where Nahiri's free equip keeps every creature holding gear, every creature that dies draws a card. A combat trade stops being a loss and becomes a card. Stone Haven Outfitter turns the attrition an aggro deck runs into over a long game back into cards, so your hand stays full.
How to Play
Get Nahiri down by turn five and start using her +2 to make equipped tokens. Stoneforge Mystic and Open the Armory dig up the piece the situation calls for: Lightning Greaves to protect Nahiri, Sword of Feast and Famine for a combat edge, or the best finisher in hand. Puresteel Paladin with metalcraft drops the mid-game equip cost to zero, so the whole token army can rearrange its gear freely. Cathars' Crusade turns each token into a board-wide pump that makes the army dangerous even with no equipment out. Win by attacking with a Nahiri-equipped army that grows every turn, or close with her ultimate and the Stoneforged Blade for an unkillable 8/8 double-striker.
