Apostles to Tokens

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Cleric Humans Sacrifice

hyperlocke

Land (32)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Overgrown Farmland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip
• 1x Windbrisk Heights
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Creature (51)

• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Cruel Celebrant
• 1x Dreadhound
• 1x Edgewalker
• 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1x Gaddock Teeg
• 1x Grim Hireling
• 1x Heronblade Elite
• 1x Katilda, Dawnhart Prime
• 1x Krav, the Unredeemed
• 1x Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Rotlung Reanimator
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 28x Shadowborn Apostle
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Taborax, Hope's Demise
• 1x Torens, Fist of the Angels
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood
• 1x Xathrid Necromancer
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip
• 1x Echoing Return
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Pact of the Serpent
• 1x Rite of Oblivion

Commanders (2)

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Bastion of Remembrance
• 1x Bloodbond March
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Nantuko Shrine

Artifact (3)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Relic Vial
• 1x Skullclamp

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Maybeboard

Creature (10)

• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Bess, Soul Nourisher
• 1x Deathbloom Ritualist
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Massacre Girl
• 1x Poison-Tip Archer
• 1x Shadow-Rite Priest
• 1x Teysa Karlov
• 1x Teysa, Orzhov Scion
• 1x Viscera Seer

Artifact (4)

• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Nyx Lotus
• 1x Talisman of Resilience
• 1x Vanquisher's Banner

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Abzan Ascendancy
• 1x Remembrance
• 1x The Meathook Massacre

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Token-Aristocrats deck powered by Shadowborn Apostle.

Deck Philosophy

Overall Goal

The goal of the deck is to win by draining your opponents' lifes and pummeling them with armies of tokens.

Disclaimer

I love playing this deck and people in my LGS love playing against it, but it is fairly janky, as I conciously stepped away from loading it with the staple removals and tutors. When it snowballs, it snowballs hard, but it can get hit pretty hard at the start of the game.

Strategy

This deck plays Shadowborn Apostles. Not to tutor for Demons (though I play a few), but to sacrifice and revive them and get tokens, cards, and life drain triggers in the process.

In the early game, the Apostles are great for attacking, as most opposing creatures will be mana dorks that won't block. But soon, they become overwhelmed.

From then on, they are chump blockers and sac fodder. The best places for them to be are the graveyard and on the way to the graveyard. If you can amass 6 Apostles to search for a key Demon, great, but it's absolutely not mandatory. Sacrifice Apostles and revive them, getting that sweet lifedrain and a (not so) small army of tokens while constantly refilling your hand.

Either finish your opponents with lifedrain or make your tokens huge and/or unblockable to take everyone out in one or two turns.

This deck has a quite strong Human/Cleric tribal subtheme. For this reason, I try to limit the inclusion of other creature types to a minimum.

Colors and Commanders

Most Shadowborn Apostle decks are {B} or {WB} (EDHREC). But they are content to sac the Apostles to get demons. I want to get tokens from playing and saccing the Apostles, adding {G} gives me access to key cards for this.

Tymna the Weaver and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa are ideal commanders for a deck full of small, cheap creatures. In the first two turns, I can play 3 Apostels. With Tymna, I can draw 2 to 3 cards in my third turn, depending on whether my opponents cast cheap creatures or not. And from fourth turn forward, my creatures are nigh-unblockable thanks to Sidar Kondo. My card draw in the first few turns of the game is amazing.

Card Choices

Demons

So let's get these out of the way... While getting demons isn't the goal of this deck, I run a few:

• Krav, the Unredeemed: Whether I need a sac outlet for multiple creatures, massive card draw, life gain or a huge beater, Krav has it all...
• Taborax, Hope's Demise: Card draw and life gain.
• Vilis, Broker of Blood: Great body and removal on a stick (although it can cost a lot of life). Best of all: I draw double the cards off Tymna.
• Dreadhound: A tutorable aristocrat.
• Rune-Scarred Demon: A tutorable tutor.
• Westvale Abbey  : A 9/7 flying, indestructible creature with lifelink in exchange for {6} and five creatures that would have died anyway? Yes please!
• Mirror Entity: Easily the best demon for this deck. It can pump my creatures, so that I can take out multiple opponents at once. Optionally, it can make those creatures harder to block with Sidar Kondo ({X} = {1}, attack without blocks and pump everything up). Can also be used as a mass sac outlet to end the game ({X} = {0}).

Apostles and how to get them

The inclusion of Shadowborn Apostle shouldn't come as a huge surprise... Besides casting them normally, there are two possibilities to get them onto the field:

• Bloodbond March: The reason I wanted to build this deck at all and why it has to run {G}. So you sacrificed 6 Apostles, got a demon (and hopefully some tokens of lifedrain triggers). Play an Apostle, now you have 7 and can do it again. Absolute all-star.
• Remembrance: I play relatively few Apostles, compared to other decks. It's not uncommon for me to run out of them. This card lets me tutor them from my library. This card goes in and out of the deck. I like it but it's quite expensive, so it's usually the first card I cut for new spots.

card:Thrummingstone is an auto-include in many Apostle decks, but I play too few Apostles for it to reliably go off. Also, I don't really want all my Apostles to be on the field. I need some of them in my hand (and thus in my library) to get my Bloodbond March and Nantuko Shrine chains going.

Apostles and how to get rid of them

This deck does little with the Apostles on the battlefield. The preferred place for them to be is on the way from the battlefield to the graveyard and vice versa.

• Shadowborn Apostle: Using the Apostles' own ability is a good way for getting them dead. Even if you can't find a demon (or don't want to), they have to go into the graveyard (or in your opponents' faces).
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: Great sac outlet that removes opposing creatures and draws cards.
• Relic Vial: It's in here for the life loss trigger, but in a pinch I can sac a creature, too.
• Westvale Abbey  : One-shot sac outlet with a great payoff.
• Krav, the Unredeemed and Mirror Entity: See Demons.

How to get tokens

This deck creates tokens when creatures die or when creatures are cast.

• Field of the Dead: I run a black-heavy Abzan deck, so almost all of my lands are non-basic, giving me a good amount of triggers.
• Rotlung Reanimator and Xathrid Necromancer: Apostles are both Humans and Clerics, so these two trigger off them dying, which they do constantly.
• Torens, Fist of the Angels: Each Apostle now comes with a free token.
• Nantuko Shrine: Another reason for this deck to exist and be {G}. I love this card so damn much. Death by Squirrel is my favourite way to win...

Killing with tokens

Now that you have all those tokens, why don't you hit your opponents with them?

• Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa and Champion of Lambholt make the tokens unblockable.
• Mirror Entity and Torens, Fist of the Angels make them stronger.

Killing with life drain

While killing opponents with tokens is fun, the main wincon of this deck is life drain.

• Cruel Celebrant, Zulaport Cutthroat, Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim, Bastion of Remembrance, Relic Vial, Dreadhound: My creatures die alot. These drain my opponents for that.
• Syr Konrad, the Grim: He also drains for dying creatures. But he also drains for Apostles entering with Bloodbond March!

Removal

I didn't want to load the deck up with the staple removals (Damnation, Path to Exile, etc.), Still, removal is necessary. I limited myself to as few removals as possible, only permanent spells, and if possible on theme and repeatable.

Because of that, the deck is considerably weaker than it could be, but I'd have to sacrifice synergy to the consistency of more removals. This deck is meant to be janky and to play around all the silly interactions with the Apostles, so I don't care about losing a few games I could have saved with good removal.

• Vilis, Broker of Blood, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, and Grim Hireling: Removing a creature can get expensive in terms of mana and life, but I also get to draw cards.
• Grave Pact: Mass removal every time I sacrifice my Apostles.
• Rite of Oblivion: Semi-repeatable removal that doubles as a sac outlet.
• Aura Shards: It's not on theme, but it forces the artifact decks in my meta to handle it before it handles them.

Other Goodies

• Skullclamp, Beast Whisperer, Pact of the Serpent: They complete the card draw suite with Tymna and the Demons.
• Crypt of Agadeem, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth & Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Katilda, Dawnhart Prime, Cryptolith Rite, Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, Pitiless Plunderer, Grim Hireling: Drawing into the Demons instead of tutoring them onto the battlefield feels bad. I need lots of mana to be able to cast them.
• Echoing Return: Rescues me from all Apostles being in my graveyard without Bloodbond March or Nantuko Shrine on the field.
• Pitiless Plunderer: Enables crazy sacrifice-return chains.
• Gaddock Teeg, Deafening Silence: My meta has become quite fast, so I try to slow them down a bit. These two do almost nothing to my deck but really hinder my opponents.

This deck is a blast to play (and people in my meta like to play against it). It could be a lot more consistent and resilient, but I would hate to lose the silly synergies between the Apostles and cards like Bloodbond March or Nantuko Shrine.

I would love to hear your suggestions, but please keep in mind that I know it's janky and I want it to be so.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Exclude colors	UR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 33 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.28
Tokens	Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Human Soldier 1/1 GW, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Squirrel 1/1 G, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	EDH Decks, Potential Decks