These days, in Mark Rosewater's Magic, tokens run wild and can be bought for a pittance. This was not always the case, though - early on, the value of tokens was somewhat severely overestimated, and one often had to pay through the nose even for a piddly 0/1. One card that got you a fair rate (and one of worryingly few cards from Homelands that felt worth playing) was Sengir Autocrat. Four mana for four bodies, just like that. Sure, you were getting 0/1s and they were all contingent on the Autocrat surviving, but it was a rate that couldn't be beat for a while there.
So if all you're interested in are warm bodies, what to do with all these Serfs? The perfect way to cash them in is perhaps the otherwise-prohibitive Hecatomb, which is cheap at three mana but asks for four sacrifices. Four creatures are hard to come by, but you can singlehandedly pay for it with the Autocrat and all his serfs. Once in play, that's your win con - all you need are Swamps to pick off your opponent's creatures and shovel all the leftover damage directly into his face turn after turn. With a turn two Dark Ritual, you can have the Hecatomb up and running as early as turn three!
Okay, so Hecatomb is a solid payoff, but how else to put your Serfs to work? If you need some muscle, feed one to Lord of the Pit. Hell's Caretaker lets you swap 'em for more impressive creatures turn after turn, and Gate to Phyrexia gives you some much-needed artifact removal in monoblack. Trade a Serf for your opponent's biggest bruiser via Ritual of the Machine. Whatever silver bullet you need at the moment can be dug up thanks to Demonic Tutor, giving you options even in a combo-dependent build like this one.
