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We have reached number #1 on TappedOut! Thanks so much for upvoting this deck! :)
I am determined to make this as competitive as possible so please continue giving me feedback and suggestions!
I have taken the deck out for two spins at FNM and so far I have not lost a single round! (3-0 and 3-0 in rounds, 8-1 and 6-2 in matches).
I will use this deck at any pptq that I will be able to attend to show more Competitive REL results!
Again, thanks for all the support!
IDon'tAlwaysWinButWhenIDoIt'sWithTokens
As testing goes on and the metagame forming slowly because of tournament results, it still seems that the token deck is in good shape! In worlds a lot of the ramunap red decks play mainboard ferocidons which is a bother, but we can remove them.
Speaking of removal, I have been testing dusk//dawn for a long time and in my experience it feels really bad if you miss half your opponents creatures with it (power 2 or lower). We never use the aftermath and thus it seems like a dud in some matchups. Fumigate would be an option, and would definitely gain us a lot of life from our own tokens, but resets our board as well. This is where settle the wreckage comes in. This card is being played a lot in approach decks right now because of a turn 4 wrath to exile effect, useful against the many aggressive decks approach currently struggles with. After replacing dusk with settle the wreckage I can say I am very content with its results. People do not expect mass exile on instant speed when playing against an army of tokens and sometimes it still feels like a onesided wrath, which in this case also hits 2 power threats, and indestructible hazorets and rhonases and recurring scarab gods. Great! The lands your opponents get are not very important to this deck. If your opponent decides to play it safe and be less aggressive, they just give you more time to expand the board with tokens!
Another issue I had with this deck was that I could not seem to find a great top curve drop, as I am unhappy with the results the crested sunmare and the angel of invention brought in. Several suggestions from other players have made me think about Herald of Anguish (which is a pretty big threat over time and hard to remove cheaply), Call for Unity (which gets out of control with a board of recurring servos through hidden stockpiles), Gideon of the Trials (for the approach matchup) and Gonti, Lord of Luxury (against midrange decks). Gonti definitely feels like the most impact on the board. It synergises with our strategy of holding back and chumping sith its deathtouch until we can trample them with shefet dunes and an army of tokens, and it steals away the best threats our opponents play. You can get insanely ahead when you steal a gearhulk from control or a scarab god from sultai energy.
Last but not least, I have considered 2 gideons intervention on top of our 4 lost legacy as another way to stop approach from winning postboard. Gideon could be ran mainboard instead of the 2 Gonti but I am unsure about this since Gonti synergises a lot better with this deck by providing high impact card draw and deathtouch. Our approach game 1 is going to suck anyway, is my guess. So I dont know if Gideon would be worth it.
After testing more against early aggro strategies like mardu vehicles and temur energy, and having played against ripjaw raptor and big dinosaurs more than I wished for, I have decided to play at least 2 fatal pushes and 2 dusk/dawn in the main deck, with another 2 fatal push in the sideboard and another dusk/dawn as well.
This change has definitely its merits against creature heavy decks, but it makes it a little harder to win vs. control strategies. I found that embalm and eternalize creatures are definitely good versus control heavy decks, but this opens me up to graveyard hate and scarab god as well. I have decided to leave the changes, and I will change it when the meta has been a little more explored.
After extensive testing I have decided that angel of invention is quite often killed upon arrival. It gets killed by about anything because of its 1 toughness when it hits the battlefield. This means that it can be seen as an expensive anthem that lasts very short, and makes 2 tokens for 5 mana. This does not excite me, and thus I am moving away from the angel. I am experimenting right now with 2 Crested Sunmares in the mainboard to see if that is a better 5-drop for this deck. For starters I have found out that this horse dies a lot less than angel, and fares better against counters against this deck (rampaging ferocidon, 3 damage or -3/-3 sweepers, most damage removal etcetera). For this reason I am keeping it in the mainboard for now, but if you have better suggestions for a 5 (or more) drop, please let me know!
Other changes made to the deck are putting in 2 scavenger grounds so that I have a mainboard answer to GPG decks, who usually fly right over me if I dont do anything about it, and this also opens up the sideboard by only needing 1 more sentinel totem to side in in that matchup. I have filled up the sideboard with Duress because approach is a major force to be reckoned with, and stripping them of their wincon or of their fumigates helps a lot.
Other mainboard cards I have added are adorned pouncer, because it usually comes back as multiple 4/4 doublestrikers and can close a game out real quick, and aethersphere harvester to add some reliable lifelink and flyer defense, and some evasion to attack over a boardstall.
Last but not least I have added 1 Arguel's Blood Fast in the main deck and 1 in the sideboard to help me against control decks by drawing me gas. Life loss is usually not a problem and it is rarely a truly dead card in this deck. I have kept it on 1 in the mainboard because its a card I do NOT want to draw versus ramunap red.
Queen's commission was too slow and did too less in most games, and thus I have decided to put in another servo exposition and another start//finish (this also helps by removing creatures and triggering stockpiles). 3 Sram's Expertise are still performing very well for me.
Let me know what you think in the comments and let's get this deck even higher!
DECK EXPLANATION
Brewing around with some new Ixalan standard decks, I have noticed that making an absurd amount of tokens is usually very resilient to removal, and even when someone spends a boardwipe, they cannot kill us before we put down another army.
Anointed procession is for sure the most important card for any token deck. It doubles every single amount of tokens being put on the battlefield. It makes all of our token makers have incredible value. You will want one (more is always better!) of these on the board at all times to grow out of control quickly.
This deck is in Orzhov colors for several reasons (White is obvious for token strategies):
Playing black lets you use some really good token spells like Call to the Feast, Queen's Commission. This makes going wide (vs. tall in embalm and eternalize token strategies) that much easier and also provides a substantial amount of lifegain. Going completely on the going wide plan makes Angel of Invention better, it makes Anointer Priest better and it makes Anointed Procession better in multiples (since they multiply eachother, queens commision with 2 processions nets you 8 lifelinkers for example). This also forces people to use boardwipes, which dont matter because you will rebuild your board immediately with another token spell or Adanto, the First Fort
. This strategy is also substantially better versus graveyard hate and the scarab god since you run next to no embalm or eternalize creatures. Sram's Expertise is also a great tokenmaker and can cheat out more for no cost! Last but not least it will be way easier to flip adanto as soon as possible when all your spells add multiple tokens.
Hidden Stockpile is at worst a card filter for your deck at 1 mana cost each turn, but turns into a steady stream of filter over the course of the game and nets you more tokens when you combine it with other copies of itself or with Anointed Procession. When you attack and a token gets blocked, you sacrifice it for a scry. Or when it dies from being blocked you get a replacement. Whenever a removal spell is used on your board, scry to get some value. It is basically just a card that adds consistent filter and a steady stream of new tokens. Every turn you get tokens for being aggressive! Of course this works best when on the extremely wide plan, since all your tokens will be 1/1s and you wont care about losing them. Plus it digs for anointed procession. Worth it in my opinion.
Costly Plunder. This card is amazing. Pop it like hidden stockpiles when your creature is about to die anyway, and net you some card advantage! Or use it to trigger hidden stockpiles and get cards AND tokens. Costly plunder will almost always hit a target that will die anyway because of instant speed, and the loss of a 1/1 matters nothing in this deck (not to mention you'll get back the 1/1 with a hidden stockpile. Don't forget that costly plunder digs for more anointed processions!
Start / Finish. This card gets you tokens at instant speed, allowing to play around boardwipes when you suspect them, and it kills your opponent's biggest threat. Especially useful when facing off against cards like Ripjaw Raptor, Glorybringer or Glint-Sleeve Siphoner that net your opponents a lot of card advantage when you dont kill them as soon as possible.
Overall, this deck is just extremely resilient once you get an anointed procession on the battlefield. This is not that hard with filtering spells like hidden stockpile and costly plunder, backed up with a steady amount of token generation each turn by Adanto, the First Fort
and again, hidden stockpile.
Finally, black offers some great utility cards against otherwise annoying matchups, like UW Approach. Lost legacy for example strips any approach deck of its primary wincon, and their secondary wincon, Torrential Gearhulk, will have a very hard time breaking through hordes of tokens. Other utility cards could be for example Dispossess, technically doing the same as lost legacy but for artifacts, and Never // Return to exile creatures like the scarab god. I have yet to test if Dispossess and Never // Return are worth playing in this deck.
Dusk / Dawn is another excellent card in token strategies. Onesided boardwipes have always been great in any format, and in this deck Dusk definitely feels like a onesided wrath. Use it for the kill, or when they are about to overrun us with bigger creatures. I originally had these in the sideboard, but after extensive testing it turned out that there are a lot of decks that can not handle a onesided wrath easily. Especially against the pesky new hexproof Carnage Tyrant and the usual companion Ripjaw Raptor, this card is an all star. Sadly, its flipside does near to nothing for us, since we run only 7 actual creature cards. But hey, 4 mana for a onesided wrath? Sign me up!
SIDEBOARD TECH
An obvious include for the sideboard is Sentinel Totem, since it gives us much needed graveyard exile against annoying God-Pharaoh's Gift decks that are running their usual flyers and value engines. Similarly, this protects us from The Scarab God strategies that aim to bring back creatures from the dead.
Lost Legacy is included for aforementioned reason against UW Approach and other alternative wincons.
Cast Out is a contender for a mainboard include, since it cycles away cheap when you dont need it, and could save a lot of pain and annoyances against big value creatures like The Scarab God or flyers like Glorybringer. I am just not sure what to cut for it in the main deck.
Ixalan's Binding works even better than Cast out by disallowing people to cast the same card as exiled, but is doomed to be sideboard tech since it is dead against some decks and does not have cheap cycling like Cast out does.
Finally, Sacred Cat and Sunscourge Champion is included as a way to add more cheap lifelink creatures (AND TOKENS!) to help survive against aggro heavy decks like Ramunap Red.
MATCHUPS
Red Deck WinsThis is a good matchup. An allstar against Ramunap Red is Anointed Priest. Sacrifice it in favor of blocking something early, and then embalm it for more value! Especially with anointed procession out it turns into a lifegain machine. Getting 2 or more of the embalm tokens on the field nets us 4+ life instantly, and any other token strategies will be doubled by anointed procession and doubled by double anointed priests! In the sideboard are also 3 sacred cats and 2 sunscourge champions who should make sure you won't die early versus this aggro deck. Dusk // Dawn is not going to do much for you in this matchup though.
Temur EnergyAlso a good matchup. They are a little slower than Ramunap Red, but way more consistent in the long run. You can use your tokens to block his heavy hitters, especially Longtusk Cub to prevent him from growing their energy supplies (and thus growing in size itself). Once you have an anointed procession out, you can outvalue them with your cards. If they run The Scarab God, it might be worth siding in your Cast Outs. If you are having trouble surviving their early damage, side in some Sunscourge Champions.
GB ConstrictorThis is a fairly even matchup, but I have noticed that Walking Ballista is an incredibly annoying card when you try to build armies of 1/1 tokens. Your Angel of Invention is going to be killed straightaway by a walking ballista, so don't rely on the anthem either. They also play some tramplers like Verdurous Gearhulk, which need to be taken care of. Lastly, they have a card advantage machine in Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, which you will need to answer if you want to win in the long run.
UB Pirate TempoI am unsure if this is a hard or even matchup. I have destroyed many pirate tempo decks by just outperforming them in the long game, but I have also had a fair amount of games where they just strip you of any of your important pieces (namely anointed procession) straightaway. Dusk // Dawn is not going to do much for you here, and we don't have special sideboard tech against this type of deck aside from boarding in more lifegain. Typically you are fine if you find a way to sustain their flying damage and keep building up your army of tokens. Hidden Stockpile is good to filter for cards you need, and Start // Finish can take care of any Kitesail Freebooters to get back your exiled spells. Be on top of your game against this deck, and don't forget that when they have 2 mana open they are probably going to counter your spell with Lookout's Dispersal.
RGW/RG DinosaursThis is a deck against which you will go even. They have nut draws which consist of Regisaur Alpha into another Regisaur Alpha when you haven't even had time to build your armies yet, or worse, Regisaur Alpha into Carnage Tyrant. Then again, if you get to roll out your Anointed Processions before they have taken over the board, you will probably be fine. Dusk // Dawn helps a whole lot against this deck! Be careful of their Ripjaw Raptor into Sweltering Suns. In other decks it won't matter too much, as you can build your armies back up, but they are also drawing cards off this combo thanks to the raptor. I have rarely seen people play the Raging Swordtooth but man are we going to cower in fear if this is going to be played regularly.
UW Control/ApproachThis is not a great deck to play against. They will counter your key pieces, Fumigate your armies, and have access to Authority of the Consuls in their sideboards, which slows you down an enormous amount. In our sideboard however, we have a card that can get rid of their main winning condition Approach of the Second Sun. This is Lost Legacy. Board all 3 of them in against this deck and hope that one of them will resolve. Once it has resolved and you have exiled all their Approaches, you are in a way better spot. Their Torrential Gearhulks will usually struggle a lot to break through your chump blockers.
God-Pharaoh's Gift DecksThis is a fairly good matchup a lot of the time, and it only gets better after sideboarding. Board in your Sentinel Totems, and wait until they are trying to Refurbish their Gifts or are casting a Gate to the Afterlife when they have more than 6 creatures in their graveyard. As soon as that happens, crack your totem and exile their graveyard, and you shouldn't have a problem playing against them. If they do resolve a God-Pharaoh's Gift, however, be extremely wary of their Angel of Inventions. These are 6/6 hasty lifelink flyers when they eternalize them, which SUCKS for you. Kill them as soon as you can. Sideboarding out your 2 Dusk // Dawns in favor the 2 Cast Outs and maybe even the 2 Ixalan's Bindings is a smart move, as this can also get rid of their Gifts and Gates. Be wary however that Ixalan's Binding does not prevent them from refurbishing any Gifts or fetching them from their library/graveyard with the Gate.
UB/UR Control I do not fear control decks that aren't running fumigate or approach of the second sun that much. If they run The Scarab God they wont be able to eternalize many of your creatures, since you run 7. Torrential Gearhulks and the God can be chumpblocked for days. I expect that Hidden Stockpile and Costly Plunder are very good to prevent you from running out of gas. Sentinel Totems are very useful to prevent torrential gearhulks from replaying their instants and to prevent scarab gods to revive dead gearhulks or any of your anointed priests or angels of invention.
I hope you guys enjoyed my in-depth article of a deck that I think has a good chance to become competitive this standard season! Let me know what you think in the comments and help me make this deck even better!
