My current B/W token deck for modern events that I've been building and tinkering over the years.
Philosophy of the Deck
The deck run cards like Lingering Souls and Bitterblossom to generate lots of tokens. Once field presence is established, I then proceed to put down some anthem like Intangible Virtue or Sorin, Solemn Visitor to pump them up. I then send them to war. This process being a little slow, I use disruption in the form of spot-removal (Fatal Push, Path to Exile) and hand-hate (Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek) to slow my opponent down to my speed.
Name of the game here is attrition. I want my tokens to sponge removal and trade in combat as much as possible, for I have the advantage in quantity. One-for-one spot removal are lost on a single 1/1 token, while mine ironically takes care of my opponents meanest baddies. I want to go to the late game, as it's here I will shine the most.
Strengths
First of all, I deal very well with spot removal. Killing one token for one card, when a single card produces three or more is not efficent for my opponent and produces card advantage in the long run. It also mean I can go from an empty board to a respectable field presence by casting only one or two spells.
Some of my spells/lands require some life to manage, so I also have main deck life gain, which makes it hard for aggro and Burn deck to race me once I start gaining life.
Since most Token generator, anthems and planeswalker cost a fair amount of mana, disruption is cheap. Most of it is at one mana, making it really good to deal with the early game. Mainboarding Hand-hate allows me to get rid of threats I cannot deal with while providing informations that helps me prepare for later turns.
I would consider my good/favorable match-up being: Affinity, Burn, Grixis Delver, Infect and Death's Shadow.
Weaknesses
The deck is not fullproof. One very easy way to deal with the fierce board presence are sweepers (Wrath of God or Pyroclasm). Most sweepers, even the weaker ones, have a potential to wipe the board clean, and can put me in a bad situation quick if repeated, or if the sweep is one-sided.
Being creature based has its downside, the strategy also falls prey to floodgate type cards (Worship, Ensnaring Bridge) Some are manageable, but a full shutdown can make for a hard game to win without the sideboard. This can be dealt with Sign in Blood game 1.
Using life as a ressources (Landbase, cards like Bitterblossom, Thoughtseize and Sign in Blood) can be very dangerous too. If my life gain doesn't show its face, burn decks and aggro deck that want to kill me fast can be deadly.
Chump blocking is also a common tactic to avoid damage. As such, Trample is very hard keyword to deal with, especially early game, and cards like Rancor, Grim Flayer and Reality Smasher can be very big problems.
Tron is also my worst possible Match-up, mostly because they run Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. A resolved Ugin is pretty much game, as they only has to pay 0 for the -X ability to wipe my board each turn. They also run a lot of other cards that are simply too much for my deck to handle. Tron as the reputation of eating midrange decks most of the time, and I'm no exception.
I would consider my Bad/unfavorable match-ups being: Tron (All version), Boggle, Living End, Dredge, Titanshift and Bant Eldrazi
Any comments, tips, recommendations or criticism is welcome!
I'd also like to give my thanks to the folk at MTG salvation. If you're interested in building your own B/W token deck, I strongly recommend visiting the primer. It as helped me immensely to build this deck.
Link to the Primer: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/developing-competitive-modern/656590-bw-tokens
Editorium
Edit 1: I finally have my full playset of Marsh Flats!! Deck's manabase has been updated accordingly. A fourth copy of Fatal Push has been added instead of Slaughter Pact. I can attest that it performs as good as people say it does.
Edit 2: Buffed my sideboard a little to handle graves deck better and to make room for a Wrath of God. I also decided to ditch Timely Reinforcements for Auriok Champion and I'm gonna try a mainboard copy of Selfless Spirit and see if it's gonna shine or not there.
Edit 3: Trying the Street Wraith and condensing the deck for more consistancy at the cost of some life. also, Selfless Spirit is going back in the side and Auriok Champion is out completely along with Raise the Alarm.
Edit 4: Putting the Street Wraith approach aside for now. Gonna try it with Mishra's Bauble once the price calm down a lot. Gonna go for a more planeswalker heavy approach and go back to 24 lands. Also, updating the sideboard: The Stony Silence are out for I do not have problems dealing with affinity.
Edit 5: Going back to 23 lands and trying a full playset of both Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek. Also, Liliana of the Veil now has a solid place in this deck. I will always run at least 1 and recommend trying her if you have it. Can't say the same for Gideon, Ally of Zendikar which I'm cutting for now. Also, Stony Silence is back in, mainly to deal with Lanter Control which is a deck I currently struggle with a bit.
Edit 6: Minor changes to the sideboard. Removed the Lost Legacy to round-up the number of each other cards. Now running two copies of most of my sideboard. Probably gonna run an extra copy of Rest in Peace instead of the rogue Nihil Spellbomb to avoid bad interactions with Stony Silence. Also probably gonna go back to one copy of Pithing Needle for a third copy of Runed Halo. That card I side in way too often and I feel like a third copy need to be tried. Also worth nothing, I don't miss the Blessed Alliance. Probably not gonna play them anymore.
Edit 7: Back to a full playset of Spectral Procession and Timely Reinforcements is back on the bench. gonna ditch Stony Silence and Nihil Spellbomb for an extra copy of Pithing Needle and I'm gonna try Surgical Extraction again now that I run 8 discard effect main. Also gonna try a Zealous Persecution in the side. Also gonna try an extra copy of Shamblnig Vent, lil' guy's been performing pretty great lately.
Edit 8: Testing Sign in Blood as well as Start / Finish. Also Tweaking the sideboard a lot. Trying without the Selfless Spirit and giving another go to Ghost Quarter now that my meta has Tron in it. Also removing some of my enchantment/artifact hate since I now run a mainboard response to both Ensnaring Bridge and Worship in the form of Sign in Blood.
Edit 9: Removing the Sign in Blood. Pros: Fantastic card to get to our pieces or sideboard card. a mainboard answer to Ensnaring Bridge and Worship. cons: Doesn't affect the board in any way, kinda clunky against faster decks and decks that attack your manabase (Burn, Merfolk, Stompy, Blue Moon). 60% I would have prefered ANYTHING else than drawing a Sign in Blood. Minor update to sideboard, and I'd like to point out Start / Finish is performing pretty good.
Edit 10: going for a pair of Start / Finish. They look clunky, but they perform very good because of the instant speed and the added removal. Vigilance on the tokens is more relevant than I initially thought too.
Edit 11: Removed the two Surgical Extraction from the side and moved a Thoughtseize to the side. Also added Auriok Champion to the side since burn is starting to become popular again in my meta. Starting to feel like the list is dealing with my meta pretty well. Not sure how to run Ghost Quarter, but I'm interested in the card now. Deals very well with landbased deck.
Edit 12: Removing Vault of the Archangel, one copy of Shambling Vent and a Plains to put three copies of Ghost Quarter in. Also adding a second copy of Liliana of the Veil to the party, so goodbye Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Sideboard is also seeing some changes.
Edit 13: Minor changes to the sideboard. -1 Pithing Needle and -1 Rest in Peace for +2 Timely Reinforcements. I'm tired of losing to aggro and burn strategies.
