Selesnya Conclave
My Belief. My People. My Guild.
The Selesnya guild sees itself as the voice of MatSelesnya, a mysterious consciousness they believe to be the manifestation of nature itself. All within the guild are considered mouthpieces of that singular voice, and they seek to expand their guild by evangelizing their message and adding members. The Selesnya message is personal as well as public: individuals must silence their own consciousness in order to hear the will of their guildmaster, a three-headed dryad who is the spiritual transmitter of MatSelesnya.
The guilds goal is to subsume the identities of individual members, transforming them into instruments of the Conclave. Selesnya has an immense reach. The guild is spread across Ravnica. Each settlement, called a vernadi, is a small commune built around a central tree and led by a dryad leader. The vernadi expand outward from Vitu-Ghazi, and all are connected through an underground network of roots.
The "Selesnya United" deck generates wave upon wave of creatures to drown your opponent under an ocean of Saprolings and their mighty friends! Token-making cards like Fists of Ironwood, Selesnya Evangel, and Scatter the Seeds can create a frenzy of Saprolings in no time. The convoke ability then lets you tap these creepy fungus monsters to help pay for gigantic creatures like Siege Wurm or crushing spells like Overwhelm.
Early in the game, create creatures quickly and frequently, using every Saproling-generating effect you can. Feel free to play Fists of Ironwood on an opponent's creature just to get the Saprolings! Early on, avoid attacking or blocking with your creatures if they won't survive combatit's much more important to build up your swarm. Any life you lose to early attacks you can easily regain later with Conclave Phalanx.
Once you've assembled your token horde, you'll have three main ways to win. The first way is to use your tokens to put huge attackers into play. Thanks to the convoke mechanic, you can play Siege Wurm, a 5/5 trampler, for free . . . if you also tap seven creatures. Root-Kin Ally is another powerful creature with convoke. Tapping your creatures can both reduce its cost and make it enormous! Plus the more creatures you control, the bigger Scion of the Wild gets. A 12/12 Scion with trample from Fists of Ironwood can wreak late-game havoc.
The second way to win is with Sandsower. It dominates the board once you have enough creatures, and it locks down your opponent's creatures while the rest of your army attacks. The third way is to use Selesnya Guildmage, Tolsimir Wolfblood, or the well-named Overwhelm to give power and toughness boosts to all your creatures at once. You'll win the game in one massive, unstoppable attack.
After you've played the deck a few times, you might want to swap in more spells that go well with a lot of 1/1 Saprolings. The enchantment Glare of Subdual works like Sandsower, but tapping an enemy creature requires you to tap only one of your creatures, not three. From the Ninth Edition set, Glorious Anthem gives all your creatures a +1/+1 bonus, and Coat of Arms boosts creatures' power and toughness for each other creature of the same type in play.
