Monowhite Ixalan Standard Tokens.
Build board state with cheap creatures and bundles of tokens.
Control-Aggro/Midrange Threats, inevitable, redundant.
Non-linear/Unfair While it seeks to execute a plan of its own; that plan isn't overly reliant on any one card and can adjust to the loss of individual pieces. Meanwhile, like all token decks, it produces several cards worth of effect with each card through the repeatable generation of "virtual cards" (tokens) as threats and blanking multiple cards with answers.
Design
In its main configuration the deck is designed to push constant threats that multiply throughout the course of a game. Because the deck lacks significant card draw or filtering each card is expected to perform multiple card's worth of work.
Legion's Landing is one of the key examples of this; allowing the creation of virtual cards turn after turn. Answers are expected to do a similar amount of high-volume work, so
Ixalan's Binding is preferred mainboard to
Cast Out because it potentially defeats multiple cards per use.
Similarly, there are very few cards that don't serve multiple functions. Each creature serves at least triple purpose including basic threats and monument triggers. Others have obvious additional functions such as Aerial Responder (evasion/counter-evasion with lifelink) or Anointer Priest (returnable life-generator). Others are more technical; such as the ability for Aviary Mechanic to allow enchantments to be reused (ie; Landing producing additional tokens and Bindings to be reapplied if they "miss" due to things like Blossoming Defense or bigger threats emerge) and the ability to combo 2 into indefinitely repeatable 1 drop monument triggers. Even lands are expected to do double duty, running play sets of Shefet Dunes (early mana, horde buff), Desert of the True (early mana, shefet fodder, card draw). The inclusion of Evolving Wilds in a mono-color deck seems strange, but is to reduce the number of land draws late game with while balancing against the the number of lands that are needed to curve out. The main card with a single function is Anointed Procession which is an indisputable boost to any token deck.
Against a creature deck a first turn Authority of the Consuls is often at least as good as a first turn Legion's Landing.
Win condition
Either flood of tokens granted plus one or more shefet-boosts in a go-wide, flood of tokens in a go-wider, or a brutal beating by a herd of 5/5 indestructibles from
Crested Sunmare
.
Sideboard Tech
In most matchups the core is more than enough. Rumanap gets bogged down in the lifegain and tokens, post board they get out-aggroed and have their big threats picked off by bindings. Ramp decks face a similar uphill battle against this deck.
Any deck playing Ixalan's Binding will need to have Cast Out boarded in. It's generally best in these situations to go 2x2 Bindings and Casts to keep options open in case your opponent Binds one unless the situation otherwise calls for additional removal. It is also advisable, though not required, to say some words of solace when Binding either a Cast or Binding for opponents that run only one type of answer...
Add-Counters decks (Constrictor or anything with energy) are entirely shut down by Solemnity. Trading out all 3
Crested Sunmare
and one Oketra maintains the deck's acceleration, holding early pressure until you can simply turn your opponent's deck off. Because green is a preferred energy/+1 counters color and has several types of enchantment removal additional copies aren't necessarily a waste, and this deck's limited card draw wants the relative guarantee of 4x.
Non-creature decks frequently get flooded by threats before they can reach their wincon. Because of the variety of token generators this can hold true even through multiple board-wipes. Replacing the (now useless) Authority of the Consuls with Gideon's Intervention maintains threat and tops out at "make them unable to play their win-conditions." Bindings remain useful as no-creature decks still, generally, require some non-land permanents to facilitate their shenanigans. Whatever these artifacts or enchantments are; Binding them slows such decks down even further. This also forces control decks to chose between losing critical pieces of their own plan or allowing you to gain potentially massive multipliers like Processions.
The card that threatens the core of this deck the most is the card:Scarab God. It has the ability to steal major threats and generators like Oketra, the Sunmare, or even the Responders. Further, given its invulnerability means that it has to be bound. This card is why the deck carries 2x card:Scavanger Grounds mainboard. Second game all 9 of those creatures and 2 Aviary Mechanics are replaced by 4x Cast Out, 4x Gideon's Intervention, and 3x Approach of the Second Sun. This keeps an aggressive shell that curves into reliably top-decking answers to Scarab God and other common blue-black mid/late game threats (ie. Torrential Gearhulk), at the cost of the threats Scarab would steal anyway. By adding Approach it also replaces stealable creatures with another late game win-condition.This boarding obviously shifts the deck hard into Control. It trades out most of the major threats for answers. However, it maintains inevitability through both the growth of token production and the addition of Approach and redundancy.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Hostage Taker each present a threat similar to the Scarab God. They are significantly less impactful since they lack recurrence. As a result they should be responded to with similar, but less extreme, boarding strategies. Replacing a single Oketra and Sunmare with a Cast Out and Intervention should be sufficient to mitigate either's potential damage. This boarding strategy is slightly less effective against Gonti, since he can steal cards of any type, but it should still leave you with options for answers regardless of what is stolen. Obviously, due to shared colors, be aware that Gonti, Hostage Taker, and Scarab god can all be played together...
Another significant threat are hard-resets like Hour of Revelation and, to a lesser degree,
River's Rebuke
. Unlike creature only destruction, including
Hour of Devastation
, these remove the non-creature enablers that are necessary to quickly rebuilding. The presence, or threat, of these may be worth Gideon's Intervention to bar the option and possibly Cast Out to provide potential stack-based protection of key items. Though the exact balance depends on the other specs of the matchup.
