The alpha build of my UR tokens deck for upcoming rotation. Hit wide and hit hard with a massive and varying army of soldiers, thopters and scions.
The deck uses token generation from Hanweir Garrison and Whirler Virtuoso. Use Saheeli Rai for her fantastic copy ability to build up your forces then do a well timed Borrowed Hostility
+
Zada, Hedron Grinder
to blow out the game.
Also, you may be asking yourself, why use Harnessed Lightning? For one, it serves as 3 damage instant removal which I prefer to the slower
Incendiary Flow
. On top of that, it allows you to build up energy for a stronger Harnessed Lightning later in the game or for more delicious thopters courtesy of Whirler Virtuoso. That said, this isn't the main reason I'm including it in the deck. Using Zada, hedron grinder + harrnessed lightning can led to some massive energy gains especially since you can target Zada without paying any energy cost for the spell. And obviously with more energy comes more thopters.
The maybe board
The deck is still under construction and one of the biggest frustrations I have encountered is the lack of 1-2 drops I can play. The game is pretty much land go land go until I hit my third land. The maybe board is a collection of what I deem the most worth while 1-2 drops that could fit within my deck. The meta will most likely dictate my choice however I'm leaning towards
Fogwalker
and
Blinding Drone
for their potential to slow the pace of the game,
Thriving Turtle
or
Aether Theorist
for their energy that can fuel my removal and thopters (though I'm leaning more towards theorist since it gives me 3 energy, i.e. a whole thopter and has a nice scry ability attached) and Reckless Fireweaver since it can increase my damage output when combined with Whirler Virtuoso and the copy ability of Saheeli Rai
Sideboard
With tournaments for Kaladesh standard getting under way and a bit of a metagame getting established I think it is about time to fix up the sideboard. Over time I plan to tailor it more to my store's metagame but for now, being able to keep up with the best of the best decks seems like a good call.
From my minimal research it appears a lot of decks are taking advantage of vehicles and other colorless cards. This lends itself very well to Ceremonious Rejection as well as making it less valuable to use
Revolutionary Rebuff
. On top of this, the classic take control of target creature sideboard card seems to get better with this rotation since Hijack also targets artifacts in addition to creatures.
I'm finding little evidence of boardwipes and other removal that is not targeted. For me this means I would rather take Turn Aside over Dispel since turn aside can also cancel powerful sorcery cards like Declaration in Stone a card which can decimate my front line. Negate will also fill a crucial spot since it can hit a wider range of spells than Turn Aside. These include those pesky artifacts I mentioned earlier as well as any potential boardwipes I encounter.
Finally, we come to my removal sweet. I have elected to run four
Galvanic Bombardment
s as it can drop smaller threats like Toolcraft Exemplar early while building up to eventually remove the pesky 3 toughness butts this format is lousy with. I'm also popping in a couple
Incendiary Flow
s as an an additional way to remove the 3 butts. The exile function is also nice given the graveyard interaction presented by SOI/EMN.
I'm going to play around with using Essence Flux in place of Turn Aside. Aside from spells that target multiple of my permanents or spells that target Saheeli Rai, Essence Flux essentially does the same thing as Turn Aside. Its flicker ability allows it to fizzle spells targeting my creatures. It also has the added benefit of triggering my etb abilities and I can use it in concert with Zada, Hedron Grinder for shenanigans.
My sideboard is the least tested part of my deck thus far so any advice you can give for it would be greatly appreciated.
