Growing Ranks

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, populate. (Create a token that's a copy of a creature token you control.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (47)

thefiresoflurve on Naya Populate True

2 months ago

Welcome to big board state club! (I used to run G/W populate back in the day).

Disclaimer: not sure what your budget is for recommendations, so I'm going to go by what I see here (Dockside, Smothering Tithe, Parallel Lives level of cost for individual recommendations).

I think Ghired, Conclave Exile would make a better commander here than Palladia-Mors, unless you're tied to the latter for sentimentality/flavor/etc.

Next, land base. The single best thing I did for my Esper deck was upgrading my land base. You don't have to go super hard here to see results, but I would put together a list like: 1x Cabaretti Courtyard 1x Command Tower 1x Jungle Shrine 1x Sungrass Prairie 1x Rockfall Vale 1x Branchloft Pathway  ^Flip 1x Needleverge Pathway  ^Flip 1x Rogue's Passage 1x Kessig Wolf Run 1x Gavony Township. If you like this route, there are even more cheaper dual lands you can add in like the Temple of Triumph and friends.

There are a few cuts or substitutions that I think the main deck could make really easily:

Ultramarines Honour Guard -> Caller of the Pack. If Ghired attacks with a creature that has Myriad, he can populate the token that Myriad creates, but the Populated token forgets about the exile clause. Thus, you can end up with a theoretically infinite horde of creatures. It's fantastic. :D

Going off that last bit... Wayfaring Temple -> Treasure. Basically a great card in commander anyway, here it's a free win if you manage to clone it.

Growing Ranks is an easy cut. It's way too slow for EDH (compare it to Parallel Lives...) Could replace it with a Talisman of Conviction or friends to help you ramp faster.

I would replace Momentous Fall with Teferi's Protection or Akroma's Will or Grand Crescendo - some extra source of board wipe dodging. I don't think your creatures are really big enough to warrant a momentous fall.

I would also replace Druid's Deliverance with one of the aforementioned board wipe dodges. There are also some cheaper options like Your Temple is Under Attack, Unbreakable Formation, Make a Stand. Reasoning being: you should have enough board state to block things that want to hurt you, as long as you keep your board alive.

As far as making tokens sooner: well, if you want to do that, you're going to have to run some cheaper creatures.... or ramp faster. I'd probably opt for ramping faster, TBH, since your creatures are really cool. If you add the entire Gruul Signet and friends, along with the Talismans I mentioned earlier, that should get you to the minimum ramp package in tricolor EDH to make sure you can play quickly.

Naya Charm -> Artifact Mutation can help make some earlier tokens.

Brindle Shoat and Call of the Conclave are some decent options for turn 3 tokens you might consider, as well. But adding those would also require cutting other stuff.... horrible choice I don't envy you : P

Sorry for the wall of text...Hope that helps, and happy building!

Mr.Himer on Will this create token lands …

3 months ago

This might be really convoluted and stupid but that's what I like about Magic so bear with me. Thanks in advance for any help.

At the start of my turn, I have a Growing Ranks, a Helm of the Host, a Thornglint Bridge, and a Druid Class which is at level 2 on the battlefield. During my first Main Phase, I spend the mana to put Druid Class at level 3 and target Thornglint Bridge making it a creature that's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands I control. If I then equip Helm of the Host to the Thornglint Bridge land creature and go to my combat phase, I get a token copy. Is that token just a copy of Thornglint Bridge or is it also a land creature that I could then target with Growing Ranks at the beginning of my next upkeep?

If it's not a creature, could I target that token copy of Thornglint Bridge with Living Terrain and make it available to be targeted by Growing Ranks?

I like the idea of getting myself a bunch of indestructible land tokens. Is there an easier way to do this and I'm just dumb? Probably. Thanks for any and all help!!!

SirArevacoso on A Big Box of Chocolates

6 months ago

Hi, thefiresoflurve

True that Growing Ranks seems too slow, I removed it earlier but forgot to save the edit XD

I'm not 100% on board with Runic Armasaur because I have mostly only creatures I would be "happy" to pull almost anytime. But Wolverine Riders seems certainly interesting, because while it doesn't make eggs, I have some mechanisms to turn everything into eggs, so it wouldn't be a bad pull. Plus, I have some cards that generate some value with creature sac. On a different note: an all the deck versions that I have tested and in around 15 games, card draw only served me if I was royally screwed with my commander, if I had egg game going on I almost never played things from hand, so not super worried about card draw for now.

Idol of Oblivion and Pyrohemia seem like fire suggestions, apart from the fact that I wanted to cut artifacts and enchantments to add more removal.

Thanks!

thefiresoflurve on A Big Box of Chocolates

6 months ago

Looks a little bit light on sac outlets:

Pyrohemia would be great as a "sac outlet" to sweep your board clear of eggs, and also do some bonus control against your opponents. It also happens to synergize really well with the Enrage mechanic (which you aren't running a lot of, but it's a bonus still).

Idol of Oblivion was made for Atla Palani, excellent draw card here.

Having played Trostani Populate as an edh deck before, in my opinion Growing Ranks is just too slow to be worth it. Depending on your table, Runic Armasaur or Shapers' Sanctuary might be good cards to up your draw power some more. Wolverine Riders is also another possibility if you want more token generation in that slot (note: each upkeep), but it can't make eggs.

thefiresoflurve on Ghired, Conclave Exile

7 months ago

Scaretiller -> Solemn Simulacrum - same cost, but scare tiller has fewer cards it synergizes with in your deck. Especially since you don't have an excess of draw, and solemn can help with that a bit, too. Bonus points if you clone it with Feldon of the Third Path etc.

Leaning a bit into the red side of token creation, some things I might recommend:

Growing Ranks/Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage -> Determined Iteration - a lot cheaper for a similar effect. Note: definitely keep the Guildmage if you can manage infinite mana; it's a great outlet.

Heart-Piercer Manticore -> Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip.

marco-online on Hosenfurz

8 months ago

Ok I just realized I can not edit that comments :) since the gameplan looks now clearer to me I would change some cuts and make some other suggestions.

Caller of the Pack Very expensive, After you tapped out and if it sticks ( survives one whole round ) you only got more fatties out of it and the tokens will leave the field then!. -> Armada Wurm costs less, has more devotion towards your gods Karametra, God of Harvests, Heliod, Sun-Crowned and the token sticks

Zendikar Farguide Unplayable mediocre evasion. no synergy. Thats just bulk. -> replace this with Thragtusk with the same cost you get a token and life gain

Impervious Greatwurm is strictly MORE-WIN. -> Instead of a meaningless fatty I would include a fatty that helps at least your creatures and tokens ( If you manage to fokus on something here.. ) Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Nyx-Fleece Ram slow and only viable in enchantress or lifegain ( well seems you would like lifegain ) I would suggest Authority of the Consuls instead. No one want to kill Authority of the Consuls and it triggers all the time I have seen it. There is also Soul's Attendant in creature form but the enchantment is stictly better ( it sticks around as an engine )

Trudge Garden this card is just playable if you commit more to lifegain... so yeah lets do that. dont cut this anymore pls.

Conclave Guildmage This fragile setup card has no synergy rate. Token 4cmc to expensive and tapping for trample is something you will mathematically never really benefit from. I would replace it with some real oomph here -> The Great Henge ( Its really broken )

Jewel Thief is pure garbage for green ramp. You play green man. USE IT BETTER -> I would to another ramp which is also a library fix and lifegain. good ol Courser of Kruphix

Heal the Scars is way to expensive to hold back for a battle trick. Unplayable. -> If you want stuff like that I would let it die and play -> Momentous Fall. Can also be used If it would die in your combat step.

Mirariis unplayable here. dead card. That fits in a blue wizard spellslinger/artifact deck consider the very versatile Knight of Autumn

There is Blossoming Sands or Graypelt Refuge to have more chance of lifegain triggers

Trelasarra, Moon Dancer as far as the math went ( or is ) you dont get any meaningfull recursive life but you can try him would not cut him anymore.

Second Harvest This is a card just playable if you commit 100% towards tokens. Dont make the deck bad Instead of a WINMORE play WIN. You dont want to pay 4mana for cloning one or two 1/1 or 2/2 tokens -> I would replace it with Archangel of Thune

Growing Ranks This is a card just playable if you commit 100%% towards tokens. you could replace it with some of the horses like Crested Sunmare

Knotvine Paladin maybe you misread this it does not get a +1/+1 counter it just gets +1/+1 until end of turn. This card has no synergy anf if you think it gets big because of all the creatures you have then its MORE-WIN - replace it with some protection (lacking in the deck) Heroic Intervention

Loxodon Smiter this card is just a vanilla 4/4 for you No one lets you discard this there is no reason for it replace it with protection (lacking in the deck Teferi's Protection

Murasa Rootgrazer only viable for a landfall deck. - replace with more protection Dauntless Escort note that sac: is instant speed when i is on the field.

Chatterstorm unplayable. this is no storm/spellslinger deck at all. Random suggestion here you like mean ones like Hornet Queen dontu

marco-online on Hosenfurz

8 months ago

I would think about

Growing Ranks This is a card just playable if you commit more towards tokens.

Spirit Link This card is a 'two for one' IF the creature dies also spirit link dies. 'two for one' is frustrating a lot.

Trudge Garden this card is just playable if you commit more to lifegain

Mirari is unplayable here. dead card. That fits in a blue wizard spellslinger/artifact deck

Chatterstorm unplayable. this is no storm/spellslinger deck at all.

Regrowth instead I would play Eternal Witness

Yogie on For Honor and Glory!!!

9 months ago

I really like the look of this deck, it seems thoughtfully put together with strong synergies and a clear strategy. Plenty of lords rarely go wrong and I can imagine the deck having a strong board presence. The Thalia's Lieutenant + Worthy Knight combo seems particularly strong. It’s also interesting to see Knight Exemplar and Dauntless Bodyguard used in a different way from how I play them myself.

I have one suggestion for you. Since you seem unsure about Selesnya Charm have you looked at the populate mechanic? Rootborn Defenses or Growing Ranks come to mind, but there are other cards too. You would loose some utility yes, but in the case of Rootborn Defences protection via indestructibility is powerful, and populate could work well together with your creature tokens. Best case scenario you’d populate a Human Token which triggers Thalia's Lieutenant.

Good luck with the deck, I’ll have a look at your other knight decks when I’m able ;)