This is a deck built around the populate mechanic. It builds board state while slowly populating the field with big token creatures and then growing that field until the enemy is overwhelmed with some big token beats.
This particular build does not focus on rushing them out as fast as possible but instead slowly adds inevitability to the table with the huge populate-boosting cards.
The strategy is to build a world around which your token creatures will thrive. Cards like Growing Ranks and Emmara Tandris do not happen early but help build an overwhelming board state that will grind out your foes.
So throw out some giant wurms, equip them with Behemoth Sledge and pound your opponent into dust!
Here is the card breakdown:
The Creatures
Armada Wurm: This creature may come to the table late, but it can be a giant swing. 2 5/5 wurms with trample can quickly change the tide of battle. Repeating populate triggers with this card is huge.
Emmara Tandris: This card also comes to the table late but if left in play spells certain doom for your foe. With her out, you can swing your fatties into your enemy with impunity. And her body is so big that they need something serious to get rid of her. At 7 toughness no regular burn is going to kill her. And with her in play your token army will just keep getting bigger and bigger.
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice Lifegain and an activated populate trigger is amazing. Drops into play in the early-midgame but will quickly ramp you out of sight of your opponent. If every big creature drop you make nets you life and you can use the populate ability to do it again, you will quickly outpace your enemy's ability to damage you enough to win the game. Very good card that, in a general sense, rounds out the power of the deck.
Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage: An early play that creates token creatures and has a populate activated ability. Makes a nice chump blocker to stop weenies and in the mid-game will accelerate your deck.
Wayfaring Temple: Equip this card with the Behemoth Sledge and you are going to pound out an army of tokens while destroying your opponent. It keeps growing so is always relevant in a populate deck. Between the guildmage, this card and the sledge you have the core of this deck's arsenal.
The Instants:
Advent of the Wurm: Another way of getting a 5/5 trampling wurm out. Cast this, then use your populate triggers to get more wurms. Even if you do not need to cast them, anything you can play with populate will just keep adding giant wurms to the table.
Druid's Deliverance: Fogging when you need it is great. Then you add in a free populate trigger and this can alter the tempo of the game in your favor. Between this and Rootborn Defenses you should have no fear of return attacks from your opponent and they will just keep growing your token army.
Selesnya Charm: This card does everything the deck needs. Your wurms are huge but lack evasion so use this to get them even bigger and add trample. Your opponent gets something even bigger than your wurms. So exile it with this card! You do not have any tokens in play to use all of your populate triggers on. So use Selesnya Charm to get a Knight token. Just super in this deck and it is a bummer you can only play with 4 copies.
Sundering Growth: Typically this kind of card rides in the sideboard until game 2 depending on your enemy's deck. But because it adds a populate trigger and only costs 2 mana this is something that just 2 copies does not interfere with your tempo too much and lets you always main deck some hate. Even if your opponent has nothing to target there will be games where you have duplicates of your enchantments or artifacts so you could target those just for the populate trigger. Or, of course, just let it ride out the game as a "Oh hell no you don't!" card.
The Enchantments:
Elemental Bond: If you are going to populate at will. And most of your tokens are at least a 3/3 creature. Then there is room for the card advantage this brings to your game. Once it is out and you are populating tokens you are going to scream ahead of your foe's draw power. And once you have a copy of Intangible Virtue online there is no token creature you can produce that won't trigger the Elemental Bond.
Growing Ranks: This will keep growing your army until your opponent is crushed by your token horde. Great for increasing the inevitability of the deck. Once you are getting "free" creatures every turn your opponent's removal gets more and more devalued as they are forced to trade it for just tokens that did not take a lot of investment from you.
Intangible Virtue: The only thing better than an army of 5/5 trampling wurms is an army of 6/6 trampling wurms that never tap to attack so can be defense on their turn and devastating attackers on your turn. And this card does exactly that for you.
The Other Spells:
Hour of Reckoning: Once you establish some tokens and a permanent way to populate every turn you can cast this to totally destroy your opponent's field while leaving yours mostly intact. Adding the convoke keyword to a card that goes into a token deck makes it amazing. Your enemies will be hard put to get back into a game following this sweeper.
Behemoth Sledge: This card makes anything you have with legs a threat to your foe. It makes the weakest token you can produce a 4/4 trample, lifelink and vigilant knight. Or a 5/5 trample and lifelink centaur. Stick this to a wurm and your opponent is on a 3 turn clock. Great card and well worth 2 slots in the deck.
The Sideboard:
Alive / Well: Adding 2 copies of this to your main deck can extend your ability in 2 directions. It is another token-producing card to add in if your tempo is slow versus the deck you are playing against. It also can be big lifegain to help you race ahead of burn or weenie decks until you establish your field. This is a good swap for Sundering Growth when you need it or even a main deck/sideboard permanent swap.
Call of the Conclave: Straight up token producer card. 4 copies to help smooth your production curve out. If you find you are getting more populate triggers but not enough tokens then swap this in.
Centaur Healer: Perfect anti-burn early drop. You can exchange something big like Emmara Tandris or a few copies of your temples and guildmages to add these guys in. They are a great tempo foil against burn decks. Their body is big enough to dodge weenie burn/removal and the lifegain means taking away another slot from a burn deck to kill you.
Steward of Valeron: Sometimes you just want to race the deck you are playing against. Like control or mid-range battlecruiser decks. This card is great to ramp your mana and leave a vigilant 2/2 in play when you need it. Remember, equipping vigilant creatures with your Behemoth Sledge is a thing.
Trostani's Summoner: This is in the sideboard for just when you want to go wide with your aggro. If you hit the midgame and think you need more gas versus the deck you are playing then swap these in and have fun.
The Lands:
Not a lot of surprises here. The big thing here are the copies of Grove of the Guardian. When you hit mid-game sacrifice these to get a gigantic 8/8 vigilant elemental token. And then, like everything else, equip it with your Behemoth Sledge and just mangle your opponent. The rest are some Selesnya Guildgates to fix your mana and then some basics to fill out the rest of the mana base.
That is it for the deck. So if you like pounding your opponent with big fat or filling a battlefield with a host of tokens then this deck is for you!
