Untap, Upkeep, Populate

Modern Budget GW (Selesnya) Tokens

Pscioed

Land (24)

• 2x Blossoming Sands
• 8x Forest
• 2x Gargoyle Castle
• 3x Grove of the Guardian
• 5x Plains
• 4x Selesnya Sanctuary

Instant (10)

• 4x Advent of the Wurm
• 3x Druid's Deliverance
• 3x Sundering Growth

Sorcery (7)

• 4x Mouth / Feed
• 3x Phyrexian Rebirth

Creature (12)

• 4x Armada Wurm
• 4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 4x Elvish Mystic

Enchantment (7)

• 4x Growing Ranks
• 3x Oblivion Ring

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Sideboard

Instant (3)

• 2x Rootborn Defenses
• 1x Sundering Growth

Artifact (2)

• 2x Tormod's Crypt

Creature (2)

• 2x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

Sorcery (6)

• 3x Call of the Conclave
• 3x Wake the Reflections

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Journey to Nowhere

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Hour of Reckoning

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The core of this deck is built on Advent of the Wurm and Growing Ranks. I tried to build toward the strengths of populate, and this is what I got.

Please let me know what you think. I tried to sort it into categories by function, but some cards will naturally cross over into multiple categories.

Creature Token Makers (20)

Mouth is here because I need critical density of token makers. It's not great as a 3 mana 3/3, and the card draw is situational, but it covers both early game and late game in a single card. Also, the dorks help to power this out turn 2, which makes it a lot better.

Advent of the Wurm is a superb rate. It's just insane.

Armada Wurm is a bit expensive at 6 mana, but it puts me in the midrange area I'm shooting for. It's good mana effiecency as 10 trample power for just 6 mana, and it makes a token to populate of course. This helps give me a strong late game without clogging up the hand too much.

Grove of the Guardian is the biggest token maker in the deck, and has very little opportunity cost since it enters untapped. 3-4 copies seems right.

Gargoyle Castle is the only flying or reach here. Populating the 3/4 flyer is great in case the ground gets gummed up, or it might matter a lot on defense instead.

Phyrexian Rebirth is really good in a vacuum. It is a decent budget wrath, but it just goes above and beyond with the synergy and flavor because I can populate the token. It might seem weird to be running in my creature based deck, but it serves as a really important safety valve against flyers and fast creature strategies. Unfortunately, it competes directly with armada wurm in the 6 drop slot.

Populate Effects (10)

Growing Ranks is what makes the deck work. It's free, every turn. I can have multiples in play. 4 of, hands down, no questions asked.

Sundering Growth is awesome. It's a powerhouse, a 2 for 1 almost every time I cast it. The downside is that sometimes there are just no targets, and that sucks.

Druid's Deliverance is the other populate effect. Aggro can be a little hard to handle, and fogs are good against them. But mostly it's just an instant speed 2 mana 5/5 trample that doesn't need an artifact or enchantment to target.

Removal (3)

Oblivion Ring is just good, clean, budget removal. Some removal is always important to a balanced diet.

Lands and Mana Dorks (14)

Avacyn's Pilgrim and Elvish Mystic do 2 things. First they accelerate the mana, 3 mana turn 2 is strong in general, and the other spells are just generally expensive. Second, they are great for activating grove of the guardian, since it makes me tap 2 creatures.

Blossoming Sands. I play pauper, I like gain lands. Color fixing is important.

Selesnya Sanctuary helps make sure I get to the crazy mana for the 6 drops reliably.

Sideboard

Call of the Conclave is good when I'm trying to board under my opponent, and in competitive modern lots of decks are very fast.

Journey to Nowhere is for standing a chance against death's shadow decks or fast creature combo decks.

Rootborn Defenses is awesome against control, which is basically unwinnable game 1 and very difficult games 2 and 3.

Sundering Growth completes the playset. If my opponent is playing targets for it, you bet this is coming in.

Tormod's Crypt for some light graveyard hate. It's super budget, but feels bad since I'm in white and there should be so many better options. Let me know if you have suggestions for this one.

Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is here if I need life gain, or in midrange mirrors.

Wake the Reflections goes with Call of the Conclave. It makes the deck a lot faster, if that's what the matchup calls for.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 2 Mythic Rares 20 - 0 Rares 3 - 7 Uncommons 18 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.64
Tokens	Centaur 3/3 G, Elemental 8/8 GW, Gargoyle 3/4 C, Hippo 3/3 G, Phyrexian Horror X/X C, Wurm 5/5 G w/ Trample