Why Trostani in the first place?
So this is something a lot of people may think when facing this deck, but since Ghired, Conclave Exile came out in 2019 this debate got a little complicated so i will explain my reasoning for why i prefer Trostani.
First of all, i like them and they are cute. But the important part is that (1) she cost one less mana, (2) can populate in instant speed and (3) gains you life. The only real upside for running him as the commander is the access to red wich is important because of the Haste key-word. But thats it, he does make tokens better and its more independent, but trostani gives the deck more survivability and control aspects. Overall shes much more versitile and opens a lot more playstyles and even some infinite combos.
For example:
1)full lifegain
2)enchantress
3)reanimator (like the one MTGmuddstah has)
4)going wide
5)going tall
6)ETB tribal
7)copy control
Some of them ghired can make a good impression of, BUT lifegain make these slow strategies more viable and safe and the instant speed populate gives you the ability to interact more specially when copying creatures with good ETBs.
Now lets take a look at the structure of the deck.
RATIOS
Creatures
Trostani is a really creature relliant deck, her primary ability revolves around getting creatures entering the battlefield and a good portion of the deck revolves around life gain, its not only one of your win condiditons but also the means wich you will reach the late game where this deck gets really strong. Because of this i believe every trostani deck should be around a 1/3 creatures. Some Trostanis use fewer creatures and rely on enchantments to create the tokens it is a viable strategy but is slower and the EDH format is getting faster and faster.
Lands
I used to be of the mindset that the vast majority of decks must be at least 37 lands, but after testing a bit and considering this list in particular i decided to go for a more greedy mana base with only 35 lands. This is because this deck generates tons of mana and it was not uncommon for you to have too much and no spells to use it, wich leads us to...
Card draw
Th biggest weakness of selesnya decks usually is card draw, but only when the build is not optimized, this one is running 9 card draw spells (note that the cards for draw are either repeatable or draw massive chunks of cards in one go) i will explain in detail the ones who need to be adressed.
Greater Good, Elemental Bond and Mouth / Feed are some of the best card draw spells in green, but they require further attention when crafting the deck since you must bee keen on the threshold of creatures power, what do i mena by that? All three cards require that the creature have power 3 or greater (afterall you wouldnt like to go -1 from greater good) this fact alone not only should guide your choice of token makers but also your choice of creatures. One of the biggest example of this in practice is on the "Dauntless Escort versus Selfless Spirit" debate. Selfless spirit is undoubtly the best creature IN A VACUUM but you NEED to have those card draw triggers, and because of this the rhino fits better.
Momentous Fall This one is a late addition to the deck, but the more i think about this card the more it seems to fit. Why? Well lot of creatures and tokens in this deck get really tall like 8/8 and / (* = number of creautures), so this card draws a ton of cards and gain a ton of life at the same time (I will go in detail about life gain later). But the most important part about this card is that it is a sac outlet in instant speed. This is relevant because of the biggest weaknesses in everycommanderdeck is when they take control of your commander permanently, this card resolvesthis problem, and this is the worst scenariowhere you have to sac Trostani and draw 2 and gain 5. The counter-argument for using this card is that you havee to let mana open to take maximum advantage of it, but note that trostani by nature is a mana hungry deck and because of this you WIL HAVE TO let mana open most of the time, to use her ability. So don't sleep on this card.
Ramp
Ok, this part is very important, its is recommended for a deck to run around 11 ramp spells, this deck only runs 10, this seems not okay since i said in this "article" that the deck si very mana hungry HOWEVER you will see that the cards we use for ramp are absolute power houses that can generate 10+ mana. With that in mind i will say that in acommaander gamne you if you get ONE of these cards early you are basically set to win the game, so have that in mind when tutoring. These three cards are:
Karametra, God of Harvests: I feel like this card is pretty underrated, the only requirement she asks from you is that you play the game and she will keep pumping lands SPECIFICALLY PLAINS (this is very important, take note). She also warps the deck building and iss one of the reasoons why we have at least 1/3 of creature cards in the deck. Other interesting thing is that she reduces the commander tax, since everytime you cast trostani you will get a land effectively making her cost only one more. ONe timee a guy removed trostani 7 times ins equence and i was able to win the game thank to the goddess of harvest.
Mirari's Wake This card not only pumps ons of mana, but it also gives our creatures a small boost, wich in turn lets us gain more life and make our creatures big enough to trigger Elemental Bond more consistently. This one is a no-brainer as well as the enxt card.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
Man..this..this is just gaea's craddle... the only excluse for not not running this card is budget issues. Always flip it, even if the play is a bit sub optimal. And by the same very scientific and totally not opinion-based metric Cryptolith Rite is basically Earthcraft (just dont think about it too much).
And now an underrated card:
Selvala, Explorer Returned And i know what you are thinking..."But this is a group hug card" it is, but hear me out. Selvala ggives EVERYTHING the deck needs, she gives 2-3 mana per turn a draw aand most importantly she gains you life, so she helps you reach the criteria for cards like Speaker of the Heavens since in the early game gaining SEVEN life is a bit steep.
Oh yeah and we are running Smothering Tithe, because of course we are.
WIN CONDITIONS
I mean, its kind obvious but the primary win condition of a token deck is to run down everyone with...tokens. Theres no mistery heere, but this deck also run 3 others that are very good and i personally think that should be staples of the archetype.
Halo Fountain This card is primarly a card draw engine, but it doubles as an alternative win-con. But dont worry about this part its a bit unreasonable to focus on that part, only consider it when you already have 10+ creatures on board since most of the time this card will get removed.IMPORTANT This card has anti-ssinergy with Finale of Glory since all of its tokens get vigilance, so be carefuyl with that, the new card from brothers war Awaken the Woods can be a good replacement if this is a problem you wanna solve (and have the cash for it)
And speaking of finales...
Finale of Devastation This card needs no introduction. It is THE BEST game ender on green (in my opinion) this card is basically the tooth and nail + craterhoof combo on a single card but it also can be used for tutoring silverbullets in a pinch.
Phyrexian Processor Thiscard is considered a staple of this commander and for a good reason. it makes the BIGGEST,THE BADDEST, THE FATTEST, THE THICCEST TOKENS in all of magic, its not uncommom for you to make 36/36 (just out of bolt range) creatures every single turn, so paradoxically this card ends up being the best life gain engine in the deck since you can pmp out ate least two of those bad boys every turn gaining 30+ life each time. BUT BE WARE always and i mean ALWAYS wait for the opponents to waste their removal or to tap out or to target your commander FIRST before you activate the artifact, because if you do it and they remove trostani of the field in response of the activation you will be in a very very bad spot.
Blossoming Bogbeast and Nykthos Paragon are one of the best lifegain payoffs in the deck its not rare for you board getting +10/+10 and tramble from bogbeast. both cards are amazing and should be in every trostani deck specially if you are a smart boy like me and use Chord of Calling. This card is very good in general and i consider it a staple but this one elevates tese two cards to new standards. If you want paragon use after blockers for a surprise +6/+6 and with bog beast use it at the endstep of the last plaayer before you since this creature has an attack trigger.
But ladies and genteleman, that pair is not the best lifegain payoff, no no no, the best lifegain payoff probably in alkl of maagic is Aetherflux Reservoir. Hands down, this card is super hard to interact with you either counter the spell, the ability or lose the game is as simple as that. And when you have the Phyrexian Processor its super easy to reach 200+ life to kill the entire table with this card. DONT USE Felidar Sovereign it is slow, easy to remove and have a much higher mana cost (and its super lame, lets be honest). I mean it CAN work with our lord and savior Chord of Calling but it will only work a single time, your pod will not let this slide more than once.
Lifegain
This is arguarbly the most important part of ny trostani deck, since, like i stated before, this is how you get trought all the early portions of the game and (hopefully) win. A very important think to notice in this section i that some cards have a threshhold that i eluded to early, and you need to reach them to make full use of these cards.
Since most of the lifegain cards are payoffs i will not be deviding them in two subsections, afterall the primary enabler is trostani herself.
The first one is Resplendent Angel. A staple of the pioneer deck, this card is absurdly powerful but you need to turn its effect one, t least for the first time, since he only have 3 toughness you will only get 3 life when he enters the battlefield and you will need to get the other two from somewhere else to start pumping angels. Dont bother with his activated ability its not worth it 99% of the time.
And the second one is Speaker of the Heavens. This is the trick one he is super vulnerable and his lifegain keyword will rarely help with you reaching 7 life this turn. so he is the most relliant on the support for lifegain in this deck.
These cards can be suplemented with Selvala, Explorer Returned's activated ability and Gala Greeters third effect. both help you a lot but theres a third card that indirectly helps you with these thresholds. That is Scavenging Ooze. Since you can always pay a single green mana and eat something to gian an additionl life. Dont get me wrong this card is here for graveyeard hate but the fact that the ooze can gin you life for so little mana is the reason i run it instead of Selesnya Eulogist.
Another card that is one of the most powerfull payoffs for gaining life is trudge garden since this one combos with trostani, to pump a 4/4 beast with trample for each two mana you have, you can even play Ashnod's Altar to sac the tokens and gain the two mana back fro infinite life, but i personally dnt like infinite life combos since they dont win the game by themselves. You can test this out but since i dont own an altar i will pass on this combo.
Voice of the Blessed is budget Serra Ascendant but in a lot of ways its better card. Yes it takes much longer to get online, but when it does it will stay that way and since it gains indestructible it will be very hard to remove. The ascendant in the other hand if you topdeck him in a late stage of the game where you have like 25 life it will be a dead card until you get to 40 life back. You can run either of them in this slot, this goes by personal preference and available resources.
Righteous Valkyrie is a card im testing so it could be cut out of the list at any moment, this one peaked my interest because she suplements the thresholds i mentioned before gaining you MORE life and making youre creatures bigger for our draw spells. You may think that only counting clerics and angels would be a douwnside, but if you take a look at the list you will notice that it contains 9 cards that are and/or make clerics and angels and these ratis can go even higher depending on some cards you can run. If you run Luminarch Ascension, Valkyrie Harbinger and Battle Angels of Tyr this will round up to 12 cards not counting clone effects. These cards are not officially on the list because i don't own them currently but are worth some slots i assure you that.
REMOVAL
Spot removal
So this is the weak side of the deck you will need to be very cautious with your spot removal specifically since its limited. But a lot of these effects are ON CRETURES for reasons i already explained. Now lets see whats in the deck.
In this list we run 7 spot removals and 3 board wipes. This may sound strange since a lot of EDH players are used to the idea that you should run 5 board wipes, but the truth is: (1) The format is getting faster each year, theres no time for so many board wipes, (2) a second bo0ard wipe is usually a dead draw, (3) other players will also try to be cleaning the board and (4) YOU are the treat the other should be trying to stop YOU not the other way around.
Cavalier of Dawn This card is very versitile being able to remove lmost every time of permanent almost being a Beast Within on legs , the card also has a massive body that gives you a bunch of life when entering and also works as recovery for artifacts and enchantments wich are usually very difficult for this deck to get back form the grave specially because some of them are more than 3 mana. I decided to start with this card because this card because there are arguments for running silverback ancient in his place, being almos t a second karametra that can also remove artifacts and enchantments.
Angel of Sanctions This card wins games by it self. I mention at the start of thiss article(?) that trostani can be a control deck this card ALONE makes it possible. If you hve this fella in your grave, he can become a token with its Embalm ability and then be copied EVERY SINGLE TURN with trostani to keep removing treats from your opponents board and being able to do this at stant speed is something else i tell you. Thiss card would only be better if him had separate triggers so we could sac him in response and get rid of the card forever. but still pretty good.
Generous Gift and Beast Within are the only removal for lands in the deck, you must have these, specially because trostani is a very color intensive commander so you cannot afford to run bunch of lands that do not add colored mana like Ghost Quarters. NOTE: The exception here is Wasteland since it can be recurred with Sun Titan to make the others life a miserable experience.
Darksteel Mutation One of the best targets for our enchantment tutors and one of the best targets to get back with Sun Titan, tthis card completely incapacitates commanders left and right. BUT this card must be replaced when possible by the Song of the Dryads. Since you dont wannaa your board wipes freeing the commander from its buggy prison.
Board wipes
You only need three, w went over thiss. But please, do both of us a favor and STOP (and im being serious here) . STOP USING board wipes that only DESTROY creatures. Every go wide deck runs cards that give indestructible and voltron decks give indestructible to their commanders, tis the most commom form of protection. Be smart and play around it.
Descend upon the Sinful Exiles nd gives you a A VERY GOOD token to populate later.
By Invitation Only is a very underrated card, that forces sacrifice and can be very flexible. Since this is a token deck you can call like "5" and everyonee loses importatn creatures and you lose elf tokens, dont be afraid to call small numbers. Its basically one sided. But the power of this card is in its text. Note that you call the number ON RESOLUTION. so players need to decide if they will react to the spell before they know what number you call. Lets entertain the following scenario:
You and some other player have the biggest boards in the pod but hes a bit ahead of you. You then to equalize the board cast By Invitation Only the other guy that has likee....7 creatures casts Eerie Interlude to protect his board. If you were obligated o call first you would lose that number of creatures, but because of how this board wipe works you can call "0" and you aand the other guys will be intact and the game state will remain the same. Wich is a lot better than all of the table losing their boards and the player thats ahead compleetely taking over the game.
Martial Coup "but you said to not run..." SHHHH I KNOW! listen, this card is only provisory you will take this one out as soon as you get Farewell got it? we good? nice lets continue.
Protection
What better topic to follow board wipes then protection? This can be seen as pretty obvious, but many people do not run a good ratio of protection cards in their decks and can be argued that this deck itself does not have enough with only 3 cards on the list. If you can find slots to bump it up to 5 protection cards that would be good as well, but personally im seeing pretty good results with 3 at least until now.
So whaat are these cards?
Dauntless Escort I mentioned him before when talking about card draw. This card is very simple and effective since most of the playgroups run destory effects instead of the ones that exile for that we have the other guy...
Guardian of Faith Is the best way to protect your board on a budget and can ARGUABLY be even better in this deck than the coveted teferei's protection.
AM i crazy for saying that? Maybe but listen. Both of these cards have 2 things in common, they are creatures and therefore easely searchable, specially with Chord of Calling and they are 3 mana, this means that both of these cards can be used over and over with Sun Titan and Mimic Vat (this one needs an entire paragraph solely dedicated to it). And teferi's protection even tho makes almost impossible for you to die it can't be abused or reused.
But theres a third card that can also be abused with sun titan, Fanatical Devotion is a very, very under the radar card. That makes your trostani basically unkillable since you can always regenerate her with the tokens that she makes. And secondary to that is our sac outlet of choice, being able to play around control and exile effects to safely put some key cards in our graveyard. Other use for this card is to sac your voice of ressurgence to instantly get the token that you need, since a lot of the time people will ssimply not kill it for you.
Tutors
Tutors are generally speaking one of the most expensive part of a commander deck, so if you dont have acesse to these kinds of cards don't run it. I personally dont like to put a gorillion tutors in the deck and playing the same everytime. For these reasons i only run three.
Chord of Calling this card should be in every green deck that has creatures. This card wins games like is nobodies busynes it can grab you protection from a board wipe and even put lehal damage when tutoring a Nykthos Paragon after blocks are declared. this is specially powerfull with vigilance creatures since you can even tap them to convoce que chord.
finale of devatation Is the most expensive card in the deck and for a good reason. This is not only one of the most reliable in conditionss of the deck but it also works as a tutor during the early and mid portions of the game. In a lot of desperate situation i cast this for X=1 to grab Avacyn's Pilgrim, no shame in doing that, i even won that game. So yeah, this card is super clutch.
Moon-Blessed Cleric and by tradition, the third card is the underrated one. I took out Sterling Grove for this card. This lady is much more abusable AND even turns your creature tutors in enchantment tutors as well. She also has premium stats for the deck. It is true that she does not protect your enchantments but i assure you will be fine if theey destroy your Mirari's Wake or Parallel Lives. if you want youc an run both, but i personally found out that the grove was underperforming.
