The deck is pretty straight forward as a token spamming beat down deck using lots of anthem effects, yet advanced strategy can play a big part. Smart play and timing is crucial; for example, you would not want to play your Beastmaster Ascension early with few creatures in play. Not too often is it wise to hold on to cards in magic, however, a smart play would be to save Beastmaster Ascension when you have ... lets say 1/1 Flying Pegasus tokens, cast Ascension on your first phase, and then you swing for 78 damage out of no where. Playing it this way, Eldrazi Monument included, is a good way to surprise your opponent and not leave your win-con open for removal.
Anthem Effects, lets take time to talk about the other ones in the build.
Wilt-Leaf Liege +2 to my Rhys tokens ... yes please.
Imperious Perfect Makes his own tokens and boosts them +1/1 ... seems to fit our strategy.
Elvish Archdruid Boosts our elves and grants us insane mana advantage .... another no brainer.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite There is a nice combo with her I will discuss later .... the anthem effect is not bad either ;)
Thunderfoot Baloth I chose this just because it is too easy to keep our CMC commander in play .... the +2/2 is great but the added trample to our army is all too amazing. (Great job Wizards on the Lieutenant ability)
Mikaeus, the Lunarch He is on the fence for being cut, however, he is great in a long game where he can just go nuts with counters to our army. There are a lot of ways to keep counters on him so you do not have to waste turns putting them on himself.
Cathars' Crusade Is a lot like Mikey where he is adding counters but this card needs little explanation other then just read the card :)
Spear of Heliod I like this for the versatility to not only boost my guys, but to deter attacking towards us with the kill threat Spear offers.
Mirari's Wake Not only boosts our guys but it boosts our mana .... another auto add for this mana hungry build.
Intangible Virtue You mean my tokens get a boost and vigilance .... another yes please.
Mirror Entity Is a good example of why you should READ THE CARD. First time I looked at this card I was like "meh just makes himself X/X that sucks" and theeeeennnn I re-read it and was like "it makes ALLLLL my creatures X/X and become all creature types ..... yes please!"
Combos and Synergies are fun so lets talk about those next!
One of the meanest of the mean in MtG is land destruction and this one can do it with Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
. Because of Kamahl's wording, you can in-fact target your opponents lands and since Elesh gives opponents creatures -2/2 .... well that means targeted land destruction for all the mana you have. A nice single card combo that helps facilitate the marriage of Elesh & Kamahl is Defense of the Heart .... already a strong card getting Elesh for the low low cost of mana.
Next up is the pure synergy of Mimic Vat and as a stand alone card in this build, it is amazing. This card allows you to do a multitude of things at any point in the game. Early game you ask .... token out Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid. Mid to late ..... how about I get Academy Rector on the vat to rinse and repeat or I can use any other great creatures that die throughout the game on either side of the board. The best part is that you can keep additional copies you may make with one of the three Parallel Lives types of enchantments in the deck or your commander's second ability. The potential to make tokens of useful creatures with the vat is limitless and deserves a highlighted spot in the build.
The fact that tokens are so dispensable make Fecundity
+
Phyrexian Altar
all star players in the build. The deck wants lots of mana and it wants to keep casting cards .... these ensure you have both .... more so when they are on the board together.
Sun Titan deserves an honorable mention since he can keep bouncing land back from the dead or useful permanents. His land bouncing helps you to keep using a Krosan Verge, or another sac land, to fuel Titania, Protector of Argoth or even to help get your Plains for Emeria, The Sky Ruin.
Crop Rotation
+
Flagstones of Trokair
can net you a Gaea's Cradle & a free Plains
Seedborn Muse is just a super star that needs little explanation .... untap permanents and use all your tools over and over again during your opponents' turns.
Utility is always helpful.
Bow of Nylea, why is this even in here???? Well, REASONS that's why! I start this argument by asking who wants to block deathtouch tokens? Maybe Ulamog does ... but most others do not. The abilities are all kinda meh, however, the +1/1 counter does help fuel Mikaeus, the Lunarch but what I kinda like the most about the abilities is moving cards to my library so I can tutor em up again. It is mainly just a versatile card and that fits the utility category nicely :)
Dauntless Escort looks like a meh card by itself, however, to respond to an opponent's board wipe with a Chord of Calling into a Escort is amazing ... now I just put that Escort onto my Mimic Vat and I have an almost endless supply of army protection.
Martyr's Cause
is one of those overlooked gems that becomes a superstar with so much token cannon fodder this build makes. You can have answers to unblockable creatures or direct damage .... plus the sac'd tokens feed your Fecundity ;)
I am going to put the tutors in the Utility thread .... with that said .... Idyllic Tutor, Sterling Grove, & Academy Rector. This decks makes good use of powerful enchantments and these cards help make those enchantments appear .... nuff said.
Then we have Chord of Calling and Green Sun's Zenith cuz you never know when you want to beat face with a Craterhoof Behemoth .... actually I do know and the time to beat face with him is all the times .... well that is a bit overzealous, just be good at math and chose when the time is right ;)
Eternal Witness is a staple that does cool things and even cooler things on a Mimic Vat.
Champion of Lambholt can beat house and makes a lot, or all, of our guys unblockable .... and I am ok with that :)
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is great for life gain and populate is kinda underwhelming when other effects can produce sooooo many more tokens. She is good when you need some life but honestly may end up on the chopping block .... dun dun dunnn
Aura Shards Is just silly and by silly I mean phenomenal! If your opponents are fond of artifacts and enchantments well then you are in luck cuz shards says no like Rosa Parks.
Hour of Reckoning
, do not let the CMC fool you .... it has convoke and it does terrible things .... terrible things to your opponents but terrible all the same.
Planeswalkers because PLANESWALKERS!
Elspeth Tirel, lifegain, tokens, and board wipe the second turn she comes in play .... oh my! She does all the things we want her to do and I would not change a word on this card.
Garruk Wildspeaker gives us another use of our Gaea's Cradle so even if he did not give us tokens or an Overrun ability .... I would run him just for the first ability ;)
Card Drawing mmm I love me some card advantage.
I already brought up Fecundity so nuff said there.
Now Skullclamp is great early game and when your 1/1's get anthem effects then luckily you have a fair amount of sac outlets to make clamp decent mid to late game as well.
I originally had Harmonize in the build but why Ancestral Recall for when you can put Mind's Eye on the board and have a kind of inverse Rhystic Study .... I am sold.
Mana Ramp is almost synonymous with
I honestly may have too much in here since my curve is low, however, I want to be using my commander's ability as often as possible. So lets just make a list and see how it tallies up.
Gaea's Cradle or WIN as it should be named
Wirewood Channeler, Elvish Archdruid, Joraga Treespeaker, Priest of Titania, Sol Ring, Phyrexian Altar, Kodama's Reach, Cultivate, Awakening Zone, and Mirari's Wake
But honestly, when can one have too much mana?
Win Cons are kinda needed .... kinda
Overwhelming Stampede picks our biggest creature and makes everyone else the size of him and then some with trample (for the record I am against a Triumph of the Hordes win con) :P
Craterhoof Behemoth for those times when you want to win .... I should trademark that phrase :)
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa because a repeatable Overrun is always good.
Spoke about these two already, Beastmaster Ascension & Eldrazi Monument
Hmmm I feel like I am missing something here in my discussion about this token build. Uhhh no I think I covered it all ... thanks for reading...
TOKENS, TOKENS, TOKENS
You did not think I would forget to talk about those did you? It's like eating dinner .... save the best for last .... or was it eat the best first and you will always be eating the best? Either way, enough metaphors!
Lets discuss Ant Queen and
Sacred Mesa
first. The point here is they are great mana sinks that do not tap to produce tokens .... so we can create as many tokens as we want so long as we have the mana and by reading above .... I think we will have the mana ;)
Nomads' Assembly, you mean I get a 1/1 for each creature on my board and then cast if for free next turn .... I am cool with that.
Martial Coup for those times when you want lots of tokens and are tired of looking at all of those other creatures on the board.
Mycoloth eats up your tokens, makes himself bigger, and doubles the amount of tokens he ate at each of your upkeeps. Sounds great but he is a big target for removal so becareful not to sac all your tokens and going "all in" with this guy. Off the cuff .... I like to do no more then 20%-50% of my tokens but situations will dictate.
Emeria Angel is only giving us landfall tokens, however, they are flying tokens and that is important. I love the flying tokens or I would not even run her.
Titania, Protector of Argoth is an unknown but I like the synergies with Sun Titan so we will see where it goes. I could add more enablers like Crucible of Worlds or Life from the Loam but I am not ready to commit spots for those cards at this time.
Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, and Doubling Season can help things get out of hand .... not to mention we all know what Doubling Season does to Planeswalkers :)
Luminarch Ascension is a no brainer .... 4/4 flyers for and I can use it as much as I want .... yes please.
Increasing Devotion is efficient for but the repeatability of it is why it is in this build.
Imperious Perfect adds to our Elf count while being a Lord .... seems good
Rhys the Redeemed is our drop commander who can can give us a little ole 1/1 Elf for his first ability or give us a repeatable Parallel Evolution as his second ability. Point blank, Rhys is the man and you should be fearful of him! And do not correct me by saying "Rhys is the man??? .... but he is actually an Elf blah blah blah" It is a figure of speech and now I say to you good day sir!
