Another year has come and gone, if you can believe it! It feels just like it was yesterday when we were starting 2025, but we're starting to close it down with December being upon us at last. This year has seen a ton of high highs and low lows when it comes to Magic: the Gathering and it wouldn't be the end of the year without some looking back at the year that was.

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be going through all of Magic's colors (plus multicolored and colorless) to find the best five cards of the year for each one. Opinions will often vary, but I'm looking mainly at things like impact on Constructed play, multiformat appeal, and - admittedly - simply vibes. Doing it this way will allow me to cover as much ground as possible and talk about some of the best - and perhaps worst - cards of the year, five cards at a time.

This week we're kicking things off with the best five White cards of 2025. There's plenty of ground to cover so let's not waste time and get right to it!

5. Arachne, Psionic Weaver/Yera and Oski, Weaver and Guide

I'm kicking things off on this list with perhaps a bit of a surprise! Players everywhere really disliked Marvel's Spider-Man. Not only was the set extremely dissonant to the vibes of Magic for many, but the cards were by and large quite weak and the Limited format was considered to be lousy. That is to say nothing of the whole Through the Omenpaths fiasco as well.

In spite of all these issues, there wound up being a few gems to come out of the mix. Case in point: Arachne, Psionic Weaver - maybe better known as Yera and Oski, Weaver and Guide if you're an online player like me - ended up being quite a surprise. Being able to web-sling for only 1 mana puts a huge threat on the board fast, allows you to get more value from the creature you pick up, and makes it harder for opponents to cast additional spells.

The printing of this card encouraged players to find new ways to build Five-Color Humans in different formats, particularly in Pioneer. Not only that, but it has become a staple of Cube play for its solid utility and efficient rate. Not bad!

4. Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

If Marvel's Spider-Man was an absolute bust, Final Fantasy turned out to be a slam dunk home run. I and many other players could gush quite a bit about what makes it such a good set, from its characters to its stellar Limited environment. What really makes it stand out, though, are the individual card designs. Some of them are outstanding representations of their in-game counterparts, while others just feel awesome to play.

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is a bit of both. Cloud is best known for carrying his trusty Buster Sword, so it's natural to have him care about equipment. This immediately made him a staple of Equipment-based Commander decks everywhere, but that wasn't all! Cloud also managed to single-handedly revive the Hammer Time deck, but this time in Pioneer. You use Cloud to find copies of Colossus Hammer and cheat them onto creatures with a variety of effects.

The deck is hardly a top tier archetype in the format at the moment. However, the simple fact that Cloud created a whole new archetype while also being a staple in various casual formats easily earns him a spot on this list.

3. Elspeth, Storm Slayer

You know what players just about everywhere love? Token doublers. These powerful spells tend to command absurdly high price tags thanks to their evergreen nature in the format. Casual players everywhere really love making tokens, and getting to increase the output is huge. But if we're talking token doublers, why is Elspeth here and not Exalted Sunborn? Simply put, the answer is Constructed play.

Elspeth, Storm Slayer became a pretty instant hit in select Standard decks. While not given the chance to shine bright compared to many of the other powerful decks that were banned, Elspeth showed up in a variety of control shells. Once you get the game on lock, Elspeth turns into a powerful finisher effect. This also made her especially fun in the Mono-White Control builds, as those decks are typically token based. This play has also extended to Pioneer in a similar fashion, making her a fairly solid card for the right deck.

2. Clarion Conqueror

Next up is a card that's a bit on the more surgical side. Clarion Conqueror has become a surprising standout among sideboards in a variety of formats. It's rare that we see a card able to shut down the abilities of artifacts and creatures individually, but to do so on one card as well as stopping planeswalkers? Now we're talking! The fact that it's on a modestly cost 3/3 flier certainly doesn't hurt either!

Truthfully, I'm not sure what else to say on this one. The simplicity and overall versatility has led it to being played in multiple decks across a wide swath of formats, even if only in small numbers. Not only has this made it extremely useful in quite literally every Constructed format, it's also made it a staple of Commander and Cubes everywhere.

1. Voice of Victory

If Clarion Conqueror became a standout of sideboards everywhere, Voice of Victory provided a similar experience in the main deck. 2 mana two shut down opponents from taking actions on your turn is more than worth it for many formats, with Voice of Victory managing to see play in Modern, Legacy, and even Vintage. Grand Abolisher was already a modest contender, but making it cost instead of is a massive difference.

It doesn't just shut down your opponents from taking game actions on your turn, though. It also provides you with a heaping dose of pain for your opponents by making two tokens when it attacks. This is fine enough on its own, but it has the extra benefit of setting off ETB triggers and death triggers when the tokens are sacrificed. It's even better when you have an Ocelot Pride in play and can double the tokens.

All these versatile utilities have made such an innocuous looking card one of the very best cards in a remarkably standout year. Voice of Victory is, in my mind, without a doubt the best White card of the year.

Paige Smith

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