This deck was evolved from my Saskia Beatdown deck, which has been discontinued.
As I continued to update Saskia Beatdown, I found a problem with card draw due to changes I was making. On top of that, Saskia is a hate magnet, so she tended to get removed pretty quickly in my group. As a result, I added Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna the Weaver to the deck and made them the commanders. As 2 of the 99, I had found them underwhelming. As the commanders, though, they give a fairly reliable of source of tokens and card draw, which suits the deck very well. Saskia the Unyielding of course has a place in the 98 as a strong finisher.
The other significant change from the original Saskia Beatdown deck is a reduction in token makers. I find the tokens in the deck to generally be less-central to the strategy than simply buffing all of the creatures. It is rare that losing any single creature is that devastating to the strategy, so it is generally okay to attack with most/all of the creatures on board. In addition to this, with Tana, the Bloodsower in the command zone, there is reliable access to a token maker, thus reducing the need for the less efficient ones in the deck.
This deck tries to kill the table through combat damage. The goal is to kill through combat damage better than any other deck. On-attack triggers are key, as are certain other ETB effects and activated abilities. The win condition is to put out so much combat threat that opponents can't handle it any longer. In addition to strong ramp, card draw, removal, and reanimation packages, the key players of this deck are attack buffers and token makers. Additionally there are some synergistic cards such as Aura Shards, Panharmonicon, the Soul Sisters to give you a life gain advantage, and also some indestructible spells / effects to gain advantage on board wipes.
Attack buffers:
These are what make your attackers powerful. If they are creatures themselves, they should usually be attacking. Be careful not to throw them against superior blockers, but this should generally not be a problem as the game progresses since few decks will be able to compete with your horde in terms of combat phase survival.
Goldnight Commander, Valor in Akros, Mirror Entity, Legion Loyalist, Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Iroas, God of Victory, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Accorder Paladin, Wild Beastmaster, Aurelia, the Warleader, Frontline Medic, Marton Stromgald, Signal Pest, Hero of Bladehold, Beastmaster Ascension, Goblin Wardriver, and Saskia the Unyielding.
Token makers:
You should look to combine these token makers with Goldnight Commander, Valor in Akros, Aura Shards, and Panharmonicon. The tokens are also important as attackers when you are swinging for lethal. Don't worry about their being 0/1's and 1/1's - the attack buffers will make them big enough.
Avenger of Zendikar, Hero of Bladehold, and Tana, the Bloodsower.
Strategy:
Turns 1 - 3, Ramp into card draw OR into low-cost attack buffers.
Turns 2 - 4, remove enemy threats while building attack buffers.
Turns 3 - 5, by now you should have a strong combat phase and may be able to cast one of the big buffers like Saskia, Gisela, or Aurelia to do significant damage to somebody or somebodies.
Turns 4 - 6, Some or all of your attack buffers may have been removed by now. You should have some decent card draw opportunities by now and hopefully have the ability to recover.
Turns 5 - 7, Very powerful attack buffers and several creatures should be out by now. You may be reanimating attack buffers also due to board wipes and spot removal. Around now you should also be seeing one or two synergies come out in the form of Marton Stromgald + Wild Beastmaster, Goldnight Commander + Avenger of Zendikar, Hero of Bladehold + Aura Shards, or Tana, the Bloodsower + Breath of Fury + Fervor. You may also have access to Dauntless Escort or Boros Charm to give your creatures indestructible and survive a board wipe at this point. Use those effects carefully, and they may win you the game!
Turns 6 - 8, The board state should have shifted around a lot by now or else you've won or lost. Assuming the game isn't over, you should still be generating good card draw and have access to reanimation options to get your combat buffers and token makers into play. You should also have a steady flow of spot removal and board wipes available. Try to only cast your biggest combat buffers if you think it will win you the game because they are all hate magnets.
Turns 9+, Well the game is interactive and/or competitive enough to keep going. Thankfully, the deck has lots of removal, recursion, and powerful combat creatures. Keep building board state and stay aggressive. Eventually people will die if they don't kill you first!!!
Optimization:
There is room for optimization because I haven't fully invested in all the best cards, such as some of the reanimation spells and Craterhoof Behemoth. This is also not a tutor deck. Adding tutors would probably make it significantly more dangerous by replacing some of the weaker combat buffers and card draw spells, allowing you to go straight for the really powerful game-ending stuff.
