Made in a couple of hours. Not really a "complete" Deck but the idea is where i want it to be. Inspired by a guy on the official MTG page on Facebook that kindly suggested some cards to try and work around, kudos to him. :)
What i like about this Deck is that there are several ways of reaching the same goal; to overwhelm the opponent with powerful Tokens. You may not start with the cards for plan A but going for plan B, C or D won't set you back too much. Below is one of a few ways of going from turn 1 to 3.
Turn 1 Birds of Paradise/
Avacyn's Pilgrim
.
Turn 2 Lingering Souls.
Turn 3 Druids' Repository to get myself 2 counters when i attack with the 2 Spirits.
There are several paths to take during your second main-phase, depending on your hand and what the opponent is doing. Here are a few examples of what you can do while it's still your turn 3.
Use those 2 counters with the remaining Land to gain 3 mana, giving yourself a chance to cast another Lingering Souls or Druids' Repository on the second main phase.
Use those 2 counters with the remaining Land to gain 3 mana, giving yourself a chance to cast Oblivion Ring if you have a threat you want to get rid of.
Use 1 counter with the remaining Land to gain 2 mana, giving yourself a chance to flashback Lingering Souls or cast an Intangible Virtue/Gather the Townsfolk.
Use no counters, saving them for the next turn. The remaining untapped Land you have could be used to play another Birds of Paradise/
Avacyn's Pilgrim
if you have one.
Turn 4 is where it starts to get really interesting. I cannot list all of the options but some are below.
Cast Cathars' Crusade using the Birds of Paradise/
Avacyn's Pilgrim
and 4 Land. If you used the counters from Druids' Repository last turn to flashback/cast a Lingering Souls to make 2 more Spirits, you could attack with those 4 Creatures to get 4 counters and use them to flashback another Lingering Souls (or 2) and Gather the Townsfolk on the second main-phase. Now you have 8 Creatures on the field, 6 at 5/5 (4x +1/+1 counters) and 2 at 3/3 (2x +1/+1 counters). Even if you cast or flashback one card, that's still 6 Creatures at 3/3.
If you cast Cathars' Crusade and didn't use the counters last turn, you could attack with the 4 Creatures and end up with 6 counters on Druids' Repository. Permitting you have a Birds of Paradise/
Avacyn's Pilgrim
and have played a Land each turn, on turn 5 you could then cast the game-ending Craterhoof Behemoth with 4 potential mana remaining (or 3 potential mana to use on turn 4).
Cast
Elspeth Tirel
to gain 1 life for each Creature you control (likely to be 3-7). Protect her for turn 5 and you can use her -6 ability to remove everything but Tokens and Land from play. Use according to the situation as sometimes it is better to not activate it. Alternately use her -2 ability to add 3x 1/1 Soldier Tokens which can be beefed up on the following turns. Like above, depending on the counter usage you could have up to 4 potential mana to use on the second main-phase.
Cast Lingering Souls and flashback it again/cast Gather the Townsfolk, declare attackers with pre-existing Creatures in order to gain counters Druids' Repository and then use them to get +1/+1 counters from Gavony Township before damage is dealt. If nothing has died so far you will end up with 6-8 Creatures at 2/2 and would of done some more damage during the combat phase.
What do i think about the Deck?
A bit slow to get off the starting block but it begins to pick up pace on turns 3-5, with the potential to grow tremendously on turns 5-7. I decided to use Birds of Paradise and
Avacyn's Pilgrim
over stuff which searches for Land as they can also receive the +1/+1 counters, giving them the option of becoming an attacker or blocker if and when needed. Even with no usable Land turn 1 there is still plenty of room to make up for it on the second or third turns.
The key cards here are Druids' Repository and Cathars' Crusade but it's not the end of the world without them when you have stuff like Gavony Township or
Elspeth Tirel
to fill the gaps. The Token creators are also important and i have a small worry that if you draw none then you are stuck but i think that is a concern with any Deck. I am also worried about Token hate from things like Ratchet Bomb and
Sever the Bloodline
but it's one of those things i cannot prevent; a Token Deck is a Token Deck! Craterhoof Behemoth is a huge game-ending card and with the 12 ways of creating mana i am not (too) worried about the 8 CMC but, knowing lady luck, there will always be a time where i draw this thing and never have enough mana to play it. The type of card that make you cringe if you play it and cringe if you don't. Same for Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, which is currently sitting in the maybe-board as i don't know if she will work better or not.
The most important thing is that it's going to be fun to play, is standard-legal and it won't cost a fortune to build.
Comments, criticism, likes, questions, suggestions? All appreciated.
