Trying to figure out some good maneuvers using Selesnya, populate, and token building - still very much a work in progess.
Note* Rootbound Defenses will be in here, but for some reason it's not in the RTR cardlist. They are currently denoted with the 2x
Safe Passage
. Also the 4x
Korozda Guildmage
in the maybeboard represent 4x Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage.
I'm open to thoughts as I'm not very familiar with token generating in this context.
Some basic thoughts about the combos the deck works around:
Obviously this is about some MAJOR token generating. But to get there, you need a bit of ramping via Arbor Efl and Avacyn's Pilgrim. These help you move to the costs to generate the tokens.
Almost all tokens generated are soldiers (as you'll note) with them coming from Captain of the Watch and
Captain's Call
. These then pair with Parallel Lives and Growing Ranks to help balloon the number of tokens. Pair that with the populate mechanic present in Rootbound Defenses,
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
, and
Wayfaring Temple
. Since almost everything is a solider, they get bonuses from both Intangible Virtue and Captain of the Watch.
If you need flyers, not a problem Angel of Serenity provides a nice blocker but Moonsilver Spear can be equipped onto any token to provide angel tokens. Further, Requiem Angel offers spirit tokens for every non-spirit that dies (which is pretty much everything in the deck). They'll think twice about that board clear if she's on the battlefield, as you would then just have a fleet of spirit tokens.
Need a big creature? They come in several forms via Crusader of Odric and
Wayfaring Temple
which both grow with each added token entering the battlefield.
Removal comes in the form of Oblivion Ring,
Selesnya Charm
, and Angel of Serenity.
Additional draws come from Mentor of the Meek being triggered by pretty much every token that comes into play. At some point you would likely be using more mana drawing than playing more creatures.
Bombs? Sure, why not. Ajani, Caller of the Pride could dump a TON of tokens on the battlefield at once. Activating Grove of the Guardian will give you some major hitters with those 8/8 tokens (that will double with Parallel Lives and you can happily populate). Lastly, Seance lets you make a token of any of the creatures that die which might go away, but if you populate that token, the populated version does NOT go away. Nor would tokens generated as a product of it coming in, i.e. Captain of the Watch.
Anyway, clearly there's a LOT of pieces moving here and I think the deck will be quite flexible, but having not played tokens in standard constructed I'm definitely open to suggestions. To some degree I could see where I can ween this deck down a bit to make it more focused.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments? +1s? Anything is GREATLY appreciated.
