Maybeboard


"Cantio quam audis est murmur Animae Mundi...

... bring you together with all of Selesnya. Your mission is only to spread the wisdom of Selesnya so all beings may share in the Conclave's burgeoning song. Our power is from our numbers, and from our numbers you will draw strength - strength to fight those who would destroy the sublime order of nature we champion. Beneath the light and seed is the might of Vitu-Ghazi."
(Molander, Archdruid of the Selesnya Conclave)

The concept of the Selesnya Conclave is to create a vast army that can be able to overcome the opponents with numbers. Rhys the Redeemed is the embodiment of the Selesnya spirit. And who better than this ShadowMoor champion to heed the call of Mat'Selesnya.

Next, I'll be discussing some card choices and why do I think that they have synergy with this Token deck. I Would like to point out that the intention of this deck is to have fun playing EDH - a format that since i played for the first time, i never looked back to any other (no regrets BTW). Therefore, "Having fun" to me means that i'll be building a competitive deck that will use any kind of mechanisms to win the game. I expect to find different players with interesting decks that have a competitive vision from EDH and deck building similar to me.

Librarium

Qualitates:

  • Strong Ramp. It's and Elvish deck after all.
  • Great card draw support in Middle-Late game.
  • Commander is cheap and can be used in many combos.
  • Truckloads of creatures.
  • Many usefull cards to minimize boardsweepers.
  • Fun wincon Bombs.
  • Sinergy and interaction between every card of the deck.

Debilitates:

  • Early Boardsweeps
  • Cyclonic Rift ¬¬
  • Very dependent on support cards.
  • Draw attention and hate easily. No one likes the guy with the token army.
  • Mana sponge. This deck consumes and needs a lot of mana every turn

The name of the deck is suggestive. It's flavour means that this deck should be played like a music. Every card is like a sound that finds harmony when put together with others. It also recalls to the lore of Selesnya, a guild of Ravnica whose organic society works as a Conclave hearing the voice of Mat'Selesnya, their Parun.

The Rich lore behind the guild was the inspiration to build this deck. But beware to think that it is weak because it is thematic. This deck does have some weak points just like any other. But i took the challenge to make a Rhys the Redeemed deck resillient and competitive enough to win with either alpha strikes and other nasty Win conditions.

In the sections bellow i'll present my card choices for this deck.

This is the core of a token themed deck. There are many token generators in the format. Some of them are great and some are not. Some of them are great... just not in the current build of my deck (an elf based token deck).
It all going to depend on what you're looking for here.
I read once that a token deck must have different kinds of token generators.

My choices are:

  1. Rhys the Redeemed: The general of this deck is perhaps the most important token generator. It can create elfs that have a lot of synergy with many of my mana generation cards. It can also copy every token that hits the field under my control. Some players prefer to run cards like Mimic Vat. Once i had this army of Archangel of Thune just because i had mimic vat and a Rhys abusing of his second skill.
  2. Imperious Perfect: This card has two greats assets. It can generate a token for fair price of 1 green mana. It also works as anthem to my other elfs. It has everything that an elf/token deck would want in a card.
  3. Awakening Zone: This is a safe card. It generates a token every turn and it's an enchantment, wich means that it will survive to effects like Wrath of God. In addition, it's tokens can be used to ramp some bombs to the battlefield or to block anything with protection from colors without regrets.
  4. Mycoloth: Most of the time when this card hits the floor it dies before my next turn. That's why i learned that is better to devour 1 or 2 creatures only. We can not be greedy here. If it lasts to the next turn, then i'll have double the amount, which is very good. With the anthems of this deck, this few amount tokens can make me have the advantage.
  5. Hornet Queen: This bomb is very good to deal with flying creatures. And 4 flying insects is going to be probably 8 in the next turn with Rhys. It is better to be deployed into the battlefield to hold adversaries. So most of the times i keep this card in hand and use it whenever it's necessary.
  6. Voice of Resurgence: It's a situational token Generator, but can create the best token of the deck. Depending on the deck that i'm playing against, it is better to suicide this card than to keep it in the table holding the control player.
  7. Trostani, Selesnya's Voice: This Card can Populate. Just like Rhys, it can create any token under my control. Most of the time she falls in the slow side, but it has a support skill that is very usefull.
  8. Martial Coup: This is a versatile card. It can be used to hold and reset the battlefield, putting me at advantage. Or, it can be used to prepare the game for a finish. It is massive token generator with a wrath effect. What do i need more?!
  9. Secure the Wastes: This is a strong card! It is an instant card that generates a massive amount of tokens. It can be used to refill the battlefield after a Wrath effect or after that HEINOUS Cyclonic Rift. Sometimes, it can be used to finish the opponent on that next turn. All in all, this card is pretty good. It is cheap like a Sylvan Offering and effective like a White Sun's Zenith
  10. Elspeth, Sun's Champion: Excellent card that is able to generate a lot of tokens. It have a nice second skill that can wipe the battlefield to my favor. It's last skill is just godly, a proper Finisher.
  11. Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury: Generates a Mana generator. It is a Permanent that destroys enchantments and artifacts. In other words, it controls the game the moment it hits the ground. Her last skill, if used, can give a generous card advantage.
  12. Garruk, Primal Hunter: Another might planeswalker with a token generation skill. His second skill is just awesome. It is realy eazy to be used and give me a good card advantage. His last skill, however, is under the tag - NEVERUSED - not needed, by the way.
  13. Hangarback Walker: Great addition for this deck. I can pump it until he can be able to become a Wall and Block virtualy anything. At the same time, it's second Skill can be a safe comeback after a wrath effect hits the table or just make the opponent think twice before attacking me. I just need to remember to use his third skill on the end phase right before my turn.
  14. Squirrel Nest: Truckloads of Squirrels ready to drive opponents "nuts" if Earthcraft is also avaiable. I never cast this card without an earthcraft already set.

One of the most important parts of a deck building is to manage the mana generation and ramping. I use many cards here that can be seen in different decks around the web. Some of them are particulary good with token decks. Let's start with them:

  1. Priest of Titania: The best ramping of this deck. If i have a Green Sun's Zenith on my opening hand and do not have have priest of titania, 90% of times i'll go for it. This card has so many interactions with this deck. It is one of the 3 mana generation Elfs that turns to be more powerful the more elfs i got under my control. Btw, against opponents that use elf cards, this card is just unfair at second turn.
  2. Elvish Archdruid: Another powerhouse elf that can be used on infinite combos. It has a anthem effect that comes most welcome as well.
  3. Wirewood Channeler: Just another Priest of Titania-Like creature. Excellent for combos. Able to correct the mana curve
  4. Oracle of Mul Daya: Obligatory for any green EDH deck. Can create an insane advantage if played in early game. It is useful to the Tribalish theme of this deck. The most important function is, perhaps, strong ramping and proper deck filtering at the same time.
  5. Cryptolith Rite: Anything pumps mana now.
  6. Mana Reflection: So much mana, So much hate.
  7. Marwyn, the Nurturer: It gets bulkier as elf tokens are pumped int ot the table, becoming a great blocker and mana generator withour driving to much attention like other mana dorks.
  8. Mox Amber: No cost and perfect for Rhys, since this commander is so cheap that Mox can be used on first turn.
  9. Sol Ring: Falls on the Obligatory card in a EDH enviroment. Solid and awesome.
  10. Mana Crypt: This card... So powerful in EDH. Once i paired it with a Sol Ring, a Forest and aOracle of Mul Daya on the first turn. I ended turn one able to generate 6 manas... 8 Manas on second turn. It was just Bullshittery.
  11. Gaea's Cradle: This card dispenses explanation.
  12. Growing Rites of Itlimoc  : second hand Gaea's Craddle.

        

Every EDH deck should have open spots for tutors. I tell by experience that even an token deck mostly build around elves, with great mana generators such as Priest of Titania, needs to have mechanisms to filter itself further and further as well as to seek the right cards for the right moment.

In this section i'll discuss my tutors choices.

  1. Enlightened Tutor: By far the most versatile enchantment/artifact tutor. Most of the time i used it to search for a card that help me to ramp like Mana Crypt,Mirari's Wake or Mana Reflections. If i find myself in confortable mana situation, i will be searching for something more supportive for the current match like Eldrazi Monument, Skullclamp and the GODLY Staff of Domination.
  2. Worldly Tutor: Get that Seedborn Muse or Ohran Frostfang just before your next turn.
  3. Green Sun's Zenith: Great card most of the times used to search for Priest of Titania, Elvish Archdruid, Wirewood Channeler or any other support green creature.
  4. Chord of Calling: Say hi to Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Avacyn, Angel of Hope... ANY creature on this deck.
  5. Natural Order: Craterhoof Behemoth if Vorinclex isn't in the deck
  6. Crop Rotation: Gaea's Craddle
  7. Sylvan Scrying: Gaea's Craddle
  8. Survival of the Fittest: Get any last piece for your combo. If it's in the cemetery, get Ulamog, discard it, search for the creature on library now.

One of the most important characteristic of a deck is the ability to ramp more than any color. If i find myself empty handed, relying on the next top-decked card, probably i won't be a treat for so long. Specially, if i am playing against a control deck.

Cards that make me able to draw from the library, while helping me to use my ramp in full extension, also put me in a very comfortable situation. They make me able to maintain the pressure over my opponents. Therefore, they should always be considered in any kind of EDH deck.

  1. Toski, Bearer of Secrets: Indestructible, not counterable, makes me buy a lot of cards. I usually get so far ahead in the game because of this card.
  2. Ohran Frostfang: Not as awesome as Toski, still it is a great blocker and gives the hard choice of letting me fill my hand with cards to my opponents.
  3. Skullclamp: Ask any person that you play against when you cast this card. They all will say how obnoxious this card can be. With so many 1/1 token created by this deck it is easy to explore this card to it's full potential.
  4. Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury: Most of the time i'll be using this card to create tokens or as a spot removal for artifacts and enchantments. But in rare situations, when i have the board full of tokens, this card works as a most welcome Regal Force or Shamanic Revelation.
  5. Sylvan Library: Great card. Another essential one for the deck. It keeps the gas with cards in hand.
  6. Abundance: What to say about this card. It prevents us to draw another undesirable land and flood the game. It also prevent us to become mana blocked and fall behind in the game. Perhaps, it's most amazing interaction within the whole deck is with Sylvan Library. It makes Sylvan Library draw any combination of lands and non lands and put them all in my hand without paying any single point of Life. It happens because Sylvan Library's effect is replaced with abundance's effect. Therefore, i won't be obligated to pay the 4 LP to every single card that i get from the library.
  7. Horizon Canopy: Generates useful color mana and, when paired with Crucible of Worlds, can work as a "free" card draw every turn."It no longer works this way because i removed Crucible of Worlds from the deck. However i'll keep the description for future references for other players."
  8. Staff of Domination: Brutal... Just Brutal. It goes infinite easily and can combo with almost any creature of this deck. This card is just Hors Concours.

This section is huge as it is responsible to contain every other card that makes this deck competitive. Tokens are expensive and easy to be dealt with. We can't trust that tokens alone will be enough to win a game. Most of the time we need a diferent strategy or something to improve tokens effectiveness.

The Song of the Conclave have many card interactions and combos. Some effects can be achived over and over again just by switching one or two cards from a combo. This is what we call redundancy.

Redudancy is important if we want to make sure that a deck behaves according to the strategy designed by the deckbuilding step. It is also important if we want to make it resillient to disruption.

Priest of Titania + Rhys the Redeemed + Staff of Domination or Elvish Archdruid or Wirewood Channeler

  • When this combo is set, i can draw all the cards from my library, deploy everything into the battlefield and dig my Akroma's Memorial for the alpha strike. I can't think of anything more dangerous in this deck than this combo. It is practically Win condition when it hits the table.

Abundance + Sylvan Library

  • A great combo made of two amazing cards. Alone, they are very good by themselves. Abundance helps to filter and to avoid flooding or mana screwing. Sylvan Library helps to filter and to draw extra cards sometimes. Together, i can choose if want land or not and i can always grab THREE cards every turn without paying any amount of Life points.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Kamahl, Fist of Krosa + Tooth and Nail

  • It buffs my creatures and, with the interaction between creatures and proper mana, it kills every single land of my adversaries, making them unable to respond.

Doubling Season + Elspeth, Sun's Champion

  • How about that "ETB" Elspeth emblem that gives 2+/2+ and flying to all my creatures permanently?

Cathars' Crusade or Coat of Arms + Martial Coup

  • Imagine your opponent when he sees his table full of creatures disapearring and, on the front, a group of fierce warriors with at least +5/=5 counters on each one of then emerging and ready to be hitting 30 points on the next turn minimum.

Rhys the Redeemed + Seedborn Muse

  • Be ready to double the amount of tokens by the end of every opponent turn. Expect instant hate as well.

Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest

  • This combo is obligatory if Earthcraft is present on the deck. Sometimes it means automatic rage quit.

Every deck is in constant evolution, or simply revision. Every game we ask ourselves which card should we remove and should we add to the library. I created this section because I thought that was important to show the cards that passed through this deck. However, I do not have the intention of discussing them here. Instead, I want just make an Appendix or Index for future references and a toll to be used by other players that want to find cards that may have synergy with a G/W Token deck.
If someone would like to give suggestions I would appreciate.

For the best land choices for a Rhys the Redeemed deck just go to ManaBaseCrafter.com.

Suggestions

Updates Add

On new version of the deck I dropped some heavy weight in favour of more redudancy and fast cards. I felt that since the last time I updated this deck here many new cards with obnoxious powerlevel showed up wich made me reconsider some choices that I had made since day one. To be precise, 9 years ago since I've created it.

Now we got many low mana value instant spells that can protect creatures tokens. So I felt like i could finally drop Avacyn, Angel of Hope from this deck, for instace. Some of those cards can even create more tokens and help me to establish presence on the board or have a secondary hability that we can rely when needed, like Grand Crescendo.

On the other hand, this deck got more solid at using all the mana within the curve because there are new toys to improve card draws. There is so much card draw these days from either or that we almost never lack responses and are always on curve forcing oponents to deal with the massive ramp or draw that this deck can sustain.

After the changes that I made, I got to test this version many times on MTGO and, for my surprise, I started to finish the game consistently on turn 4 now. Wich, based on this guide for ranking powerlevel I could classify this deck as having powerlevel 9.

Well, that being said, I gotta explain that i changed this deck a lot and I cant keep the track of all the cards that I switched. However, I must point out that after reading some articles about how to fix mana poll I felt confident about removing some first turn ramps, avoiding all third turn ramp spells and keep 1 MV cards at minimum. Most of those cards are 1 MV but they do not necessarily are played on the curve, just like Crop Rotation for tutoring Gaea's Cradle whenever got enough creatures on the board. Or even Concordant Crossroads that acts more like a finisher.

Also. I learned latim, so I'm paulatim changing titles and updating some flavor on my tutorial for my own enjoyment. I hope that it doesn't bother anyone.

Last, but not least, I'll finally explain my card choices, interactions and combos (Coniungatio / Combinatio). Wich is something that last time I did was a long time ago.

Comments View Archive

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Hi! Please consider becoming a supporter of TappedOut for $3/mo. Thanks!


Important! Formatting tipsComment Tutorialmarkdown syntax

Please login to comment