Selesnya's Children (Populate)

Standard Aggro GW (Selesnya) Tokens

Lochemage

Creature (12)

• 2x Armada Wurm
• 2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 2x Thragtusk
• 2x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
• 2x Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
• 2x Wayfaring Temple

Land (20)

• 5x Forest
• 4x Grove of the Guardian
• 5x Plains
• 4x Sunpetal Grove
• 2x Temple Garden

Enchantment (10)

• 2x Arrest
• 4x Growing Ranks
• 4x Parallel Lives

Artifact (1)

• 1x Moonsilver Spear

Instant (14)

• 5x Druid's Deliverance
• 4x Rootborn Defenses
• 5x Selesnya Charm

Sorcery (8)

• 4x Call of the Conclave
• 2x Entreat the Angels
• 2x Mulch

---

Sideboard

Enchantment (6)

• 2x Oblivion Ring
• 2x Soul Tithe
• 2x Sphere of Safety

Instant (5)

• 1x Eaten by Spiders
• 2x Sundering Growth
• 2x Trostani's Judgment

---

Maybeboard

Land (4)

• 2x Gavony Township
• 2x Rogue's Passage

Enchantment (6)

• 2x Cathars' Crusade
• 2x Collective Blessing
• 2x Rancor

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Seek the Horizon

---

If you haven't heard the latest craze about Selesnya's Populate ability, then you are in for a treat! At first, I had a very underwhelming reaction to this, I thought to myself, "Ok... so I copy a few tokens here and there, no big deal". However, I was pleasantly surprised after winning most of my games because my tokens just kept multiplying until it was just too much of an overwhelming force. All it takes is a single 8/8 token drop and you'll be multiplying 8/8's much faster than your opponent can handle.

The deck plays simply. It is a bit of a slow starter, so if you are battling against quick aggro then you may be taking some serious hits early on. Your opening hand should contain a good three or four lands, you are taking a risk if you only open with one or two since the majority of spells will cost you four. Start the game off by playing a tapped Temple Garden or a basic land, then you can play all the Sunpetal Grove's you want. The important thing is to keep at least one of your tokens alive, if that means taking a hit or two, then do so. You just need one token and Populate will do the rest. Eventually, your tokens will multiply to an amount that will quickly overwhelm your opponent.

SIDEBOARD:

The sideboard contains the majority of your removals and hindering cards. If you are playing vs a quick aggro, you may want to swap in some Sphere of Safety's. If they are bombarding you with artifacts or enchantments that annoy you, Sundering Growth should be a help (not to mention it also lets you Populate as well). If you are dealing with some major board wipe, perhaps indestructibility from Rootborn Defenses will do the trick. I've also thrown in a few Soul Tithe just in-case your opponent has a few expensive bombs and I've also put in Seance just in case you might want to return some of your creature cards from the dead as token creatures for Populate.

CONSIDERATIONS:

• Gavony Township: It may come in handy but I am afraid it may also just hinder your spell casting to have to burn the mana on it especially when populating more tokens will probably be cheaper and more effective anyway.

• Rancor: I've tried with these in for a few games, It's good that it keeps returning back to your hand and its a nice boost to one of your tokens, but they are really only good on one of your 8/8 elemental tokens and when you are pumping out a good 2-3 8/8 tokens per turn, it really loses its value.

• Rogue's Passage: Really awesome when your opponent can't block, however, I find that I need the four mana to cast other necessary spells like Parallel Lives and Growing Ranks instead, and when I do have the mana to spare it's usually because I have a ton of tokens and enchantments already on the board in which case it's just overkill at that point.

• Seek the Horizon : Tried this in a few games and decided Mulch is just much more effective. First it costs too much, if you have four mana to cast this spell then you aren't in any dire need of more mana, you can already cast the majority of your spells. With Mulch though, a two drop to fish for more mana is great! It's easy to come up with two mana and even if your top four cards weren't lands, you at least saved yourself four turns of drawing none. Just be careful of your hand size, I usually like to wait on casting it until the turn after I have dropped all my lands, that way if you revealed any more lands with it you can immediately play one.

• Cathars' Crusade: Potentially very powerful, since you should be pumping out 2-3 tokens per turn on average. My concerns are that it may be a little too expensive and a little hard to keep all your tokens updated with +1/+1 counters (I'm lazy).

• Coursers' Accord : Pretty nice that it gives you a 3/3 as well as lets you populate, however, it is just too expensive to be worth it. I find that more often this card just sits in my hand.

• Parallel Lives and Growing Ranks: At first I only used two copies of each, but eventually decided on a full playset of both for various reasons. First, their effects all stack together, so having more out at one time is almost exponentially more powerful. Second, there is a good chance you will draw some and because they are probably the most important spells in the deck, that is very necessary. And third, you will have some backup just in-case you Mulch them or your opponent is playing a lot of removal.

• Entreat the Angels: It was between this and Moonsilver Spear and it is still a tough call. I suppose it is only preference which one you use, they each have their own qualities. Entreat the Angels is easier to drop if you are only summoning a single angel unless you miracle it, but it is only a one time drop, leaving you at the mercy of Populate to do the rest. Moonsilver Spear is quite expensive being a four drop and four to equip, but pumping out an angel every turn for attacking can be quite powerful and it may influence the way your opponent prioritizes their blocks.

• Collective Blessing: Potentially very powerful once it is out, but I am "iffy" on this one because of the high cost.

NOTES:

• The mana curve is still very heavily two and four drops, so this could still use a little improvement.

• I find that I very rarely ever use Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage 's abilities because there are much cheaper ways to populate and create token creatures, so I may consider just removing her altogether. Although, a two drop for a 2/2 is still good by itself.

POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES:

• Obviously a lot of creature hate will work against you, since this deck is primarily aggro themed there is little that can be done. Sideboard the last two Rootborn Defenses and hope you have the luck of having them when you need them.

• Even worse than creature hate, is enchantment hate. Your Growing Ranks and Parallel Lives are probably the most important spells you have, however, with a full play-set of each, you will hopefully keep at least one of each in play.

• This deck is a very slow starter with very little defenses in early game.

Date added	12 years
Last updated	12 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 23 - 0 Rares 13 - 7 Uncommons 13 - 4 Commons
Cards	65
Avg. CMC	2.98
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Beast 3/3 G, Centaur 3/3 G, Elemental 8/8 GW, Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance, Wurm 5/5 G w/ Trample