Selesnya Token Army

Commander / EDH* Celestial_Jade

SCORE: 5 | 27 COMMENTS | 4117 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS


darmpark says... #1

If you're going token generation a Sigil Captain may be useful. One of my personal favorite cards for G/W populate is Giant Adephage. Congregate is pretty amazing in a token deck as well.

Hope this helps

October 16, 2015 6:45 p.m.

Celestial_Jade says... #2

I have used Congregate in a friend's deck, but Commander where I live seems to be a bit... odd(?) Most people where i play target the commander almost exclusively when it comes to damage. To the extent where a majority of non FNM games do not even count life points, only commander points.

Sigil Captain looks like a card that might work for +1/+1 ramp, would the +1/+1 tokens be affected by Parallel Lives and Doubling Season?

Giant Adephage looks great, but I would imagine it would have a big bulls-eye on it for blocking or control/counter. From your experience is that normally a problem? Also would the copy token be affected by Parallel Lives or Doubling Season

October 16, 2015 7:39 p.m.

darmpark says... #3

Ill be honest, i've never run doubling season or parallel lives, they're too pricey for me, but having looked them over yes, they should affect giant adephage and sigil captain. The cards say "when an effect" and sigil captain and giant adephage work off of triggered effects, so unless I'm missing something the interaction works. About giant adephage having a target on it, you're correct. There are cards in G/W that can deal with this however. Archetype of Endurance, Asceticism, and Privileged Position (which you already have) come to mind. Also, just while I'm thinking about it, Mirror Gallery might be good in here so you can make multiple wolves with your commander.

October 16, 2015 9:36 p.m.

Skyfolk says... #4

First off: Parallel Lives doesn't affect +1/+1 counters, only tokens. Doubling Season affects both, though. Also, Sigil Captain is terrible, because if you run any effects that give your tokens any P/T boosts, they won't get the +1/+1 counters.

Secondly: Rhys the Redeemed makes a much better commander for a 1/1 army than Tolsimir does.

Thirdly: I would drop the vanilla and french vanilla creatures as soon as you can for cards with abilities. Sun Titan, Kazandu Tuskcaller, Hero of Bladehold and Avenger of Zendikar are great examples of this. You also run a lot of sub-par anthems, you're missing some truly good ones, like Cathars' Crusade, Collective Blessing and Beastmaster Ascension.

Just look around at other token decks for ideas, and you'll see what I mean. (I have one, although the goal is a bit different, it did start out as a Rhys deck.)

October 17, 2015 3:51 p.m.

Skyfolk says... #5

Oh woops, I spent so long making the comment that I either missed some stuff or the deck was edited, disregard whatever doesn't apply.

October 17, 2015 3:54 p.m.

shaistyone says... #6

I love tokens, and there def. some ways to improve this based on my experience.
Over-the top - cards that push your deck over the top to kill opponents (often multi-kills)
Overwhelming Stampede
Triumph of the Hordes
Craterhoof Behemoth
Eldrazi Monument
Nacatl War-Pride - combine w/ Rhys or Cathars' Crusade for fun times

Keep your stuff - wraths are tough
Rootborn Defenses
Ghostway - lose the tokens, but keep all your regular creatures
Faith's Reward - ditto

Value
Druids' Repository - so much mana
Parallel Evolution - you will def. get the most from this
Nullmage Shepherd - very scary for a lot of decks
Collective Unconscious
Champion of Lambholt
Glare of Subdual - morphs you into a lockdown deck if you like
Reconnaissance - super busted card that lets you attack like a fearless maniac - combos w/Glare perfectly

October 17, 2015 4:21 p.m.

Celestial_Jade says... #7

OK, i have added Beastmaster Ascension and dropped Honor of the Pure. Cathars' Crusade was also added, I promptly forgot who it replaced... (derp)

I also replaced Gaea's Anthem with Eldrazi Monument.

I see the value of Overwhelming Stampede and the other sorcery and instants, but my thinking is to make more permanent counters. Take a +2/+2 for the rest of the game instead of a +3/+3 for this turn only. Is my thinking flawed?

Collective Unconscious is also a very good card, but i would mill(?) my own deck mid/late game.

Also, the reason I choose Tolsimir Wolfblood as my commander over Rhys the Redeemed, who is a regular creature in this deck, was I am not focusing only on 1/1 tokens. Specifically, I am trying to get as close to G/W creatures for a +2/+2. Being white and green gives me both of his effects.

October 17, 2015 7:57 p.m.

clayperce says... #8

Thumbs up on the comments from shaistyone, except that Shamanic Revelation is better than Collective Unconscious.

Also, I really like your deck, Celestial_Jade. I'm putting the finishing touches on a Naya token deck, Smashface Gardening with Rith, and stumbled across yours. Now I have a bunch more cards to think about adding! :-)

+1!

October 19, 2015 8:56 a.m.

clayperce says... #9

Also, if you have a bunch of Wrath effects in your meta, you might consider Spawning Pit. You won't get your original tokens back, so you'll lose the G/W plus-up synergy. But you can still have an impressive board, post-wipe.

October 19, 2015 9:06 a.m.

Spawning Pit looks like a good card, but it ignores the principal goal of this deck. I tend to make token based decks, i will come back and look at it down the road.

October 20, 2015 3:38 p.m.

clayperce says... #11

Yeah, it's kind of a sideboard card. I play it only because there's a bunch of boardwipes in my group, and I got sick of having to restart after every Wrath. With Spawning Pit I can sac' all my critters while the Wrath is still on the stack, and at least get a little value out of them ... immediately if I have some mana open, or next turn if I don't.

Thinking about it, Fanatical Devotion and Martyr's Cause are other approaches to the same challenge, and may be more suited to your deck. If you need board-wipe recovery, that is! :-)

October 20, 2015 6:14 p.m.

clayperce says... #12

One more thing: You might consider running Rith, the Awakener as part of your 99. She doesn't make GW tokens like you'd like, but she's a relatively insane token generator. After the first hit you'll have a TON of green permanents on the battlefield and after that, she's pretty much a Doubling Season for saprolings.

October 20, 2015 6:47 p.m.

Can't run Rith, the Awakener, Deck is G/W, and Rith is G/W/R.

Question about Rith, If an enchantment gives it double strike, could one use the affect twice? I may make a deck out of it later...

October 20, 2015 7:43 p.m.

clayperce says... #14

Oh derp. Sorry about suggesting a Naya card for a Selesnya deck!

Yes, double-strike gives her two chances to cause damage, so doubledouble saprolings (assuming you get thru twice and you've got the mana)

October 20, 2015 8:21 p.m.

clayperce, quick question. When playing commander token decks, how many tokens should one get? Will I be good with 10 of each, or should I be liberal in buying tokens and get like 40 of each type?

October 22, 2015 7:27 p.m.

clayperce says... #16

Hmmm Celestial_Jade, that's a really good question.

Personally, I like having only a few tokens out (e.g., I only have 6 saproling token cards and 4 dragon ones for my Rith deck). But I've always loved fancy dice, so I use token decks as an excuse to buy something like these. Then I'll play with a bunch of dice on one corner of a card representing the number of tokens and different colored dice on the other corner representing any plus-ups.

Also, I don't think I've ever actually bought tokens...I usually just print proxies from somewhere like magiccards.info and sleeve them with a basic land or something.

Another guy in my group though, michael921 runs Pharika, God of SNAKE TOKENS and he's got tons of token cards ... probably 40 and maybe more. He's got a bunch of custom tokens too, that he did up at mtgcardsmith.com. He has this series of hand-drawn snakes with hats on that are just hilarious!

Not sure that actually helps, but that's my $0.02 :-)

October 22, 2015 8:15 p.m.

I plan on going to TCGplayer and buying them. This is a thematic deck for me so i want to "do it right".

The tokens also have a more strategic aspect to them. By placing an independent token out, i make the play area more full. The zone is neat, but my opponents seem to develop a tunnel-vision around the token army. I started doing this with my Leonin's Pride a wile back and it seems to work for me. I have 20 cat tokens for that deck, and use almost all of them in a normal round. I have fallen short on tokens going against an opponent that draws out the game...

October 22, 2015 8:25 p.m.

clayperce says... #18

Oops, my dice link doesn't work any more. Here are the three individual links.

October 22, 2015 8:31 p.m.

clayperce says... #19

Yeah, I get that. As michael921's board presence visually grows, it can get pretty intimidating. But they're just little dudes, so folks tend to leave him alone. Until it's too late :-)

October 22, 2015 8:35 p.m.

C/P for later use

shaistyone says... #6

I love tokens, and there def. some ways to improve this based on my experience.Over-the top - cards that push your deck over the top to kill opponents (often multi-kills)

Overwhelming Stampede

Triumph of the Hordes

Craterhoof Behemoth

Eldrazi Monument

Nacatl War-Pride - combine w/ Rhys or Cathars' Crusade for fun times

Keep your stuff - wraths are toughRootborn Defenses

Ghostway - lose the tokens, but keep all your regular creatures

Faith's Reward - ditto

Value

Druids' Repository - so much mana

Parallel Evolution - you will def. get the most from this

Nullmage Shepherd - very scary for a lot of decks

Collective Unconscious

Champion of Lambholt

Glare of Subdual - morphs you into a lockdown deck if you like

Reconnaissance - super busted card that lets you attack like a fearless maniac - combos w/Glare perfectly

October 23, 2015 2:13 p.m.

KCisSICKnasty says... #21

November 6, 2015 9:06 p.m.

SorinDankov I will keep your suggestion in mind, but right now i am focusing on finding G/W tutors. I have play-tested a few times in the past week and it is getting necessary.

November 11, 2015 12:58 p.m.

Lanzo493 says... #23

December 21, 2015 5:28 p.m.

anduri says... #24

Why no Second Harvest?

June 26, 2016 6:32 p.m.

I didn't know that card existed. I'll give it a shot when I get a chance.

June 27, 2016 8:45 a.m.

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