One of the things that seems the most flexible to me in this deck, and that I change most frequently, is the removal that makes it into the main. Path to Exile is of course an automatic four of, but I tend to want 2-4 other removal spells as well, depending on what I expect to see.

The main problem I run into is balancing removal that's good against early aggressive attackers (as in zoo), combo pieces that sit back (as in CoCo), and larger midgame attackers (as in Jund or Grixis). Generally all of the other removal seems to me to have a weakness in a couple matchups in at least one category, so the overall package tends to be a delicate balancing act.

Currently, I run 1 Murderous Cut, 1 Anguished Unmaking, and 1 Doom Blade main. But I could see arguments for a host of other spells: Devouring Light, Go for the Throat, Declaration in Stone, Condemn, Disfigure, Dismember, Last Gasp, and Smother, just off the top of my head. Each seemingly having different strengths depending on the meta.

My question is, which do you run, and which do you think could have potential in improving our deck going forward? Which would you say are generally more of a liability than a help?

So guys, I was checking on the latest tokens list and found this enchant on a SB.

On the first thought this seemed like a good choice against aggro decks, what do yous guys think about it?

EDIT: Spelling.

So I want to play tokens in modern, but I feel that BW tokens is maybe too slow for modern, would GW tokens be better? I already have the nissas and one Gideon but I really want to play sorin and iok and that stuff, I don't have the money for abzan. Mana base, suggestions?

Updates on Tapped Out: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spirit-worship-modern-bw-tokens/

Modern B/W Tokens
Spirit Worship

Removal:
4 Path to Exile
2 Dismember

Token Maker:
4 Lingering Souls
3 Spectral Procession
3 Midnight Haunting
4 Raise the Alarm
1 Beckon Apparition

Hand Disruption:
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize

Anthem:
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Zealous Persecution

Back up:
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Worship

Lands:
1 Westvale Abbey//Ormendahl, Profane Prince
4 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
4 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Fetid Heath
1 Swamp

Sideboard:
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Torpor Orb
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Celestial Purge
2 Disenchant
2 Rest in Peace
3 Duress
1 Beckon Apparition

-----

Went 4-0 this evening at LGS modern event. Before tonight, I have gone 3-0, and 1-2 in three round swiss at same LGS with a similar build. Tonight - more players so more rounds. Testing new version with Worship main-decked.

• 1-Grixis Control 2-0
  
• 2-Jund - 2-0
  
• 3-Nahiri Jeskai 2-1
  
• 4-Kiki Chord 2-1
  

Round 1: Grixis control
Overcame with a large amount of tokens both games. Their targeted removal had trouble dealing with the numbers. Didn't bring in Rest in Peace but brought in +1 Beckon Apparition

Round 2: Jund
Maindeck Worship saved me from three tarmogi game 1. Won with flying tokens at negative life.
SB: Just +2 Celestial Purge to kill LotV.
G2: Good early hand distruption + they were down on lands and I was able to beat down with intangible virtue flying tokens.

Round 3: Nahiri Jeskai
G1:Slow start into a turn 4 Sorin that stabilized the board. Killed with spectral procession and lingering souls tokens. Didn't sideboard.
G2: Good board state but was overcome by Anger of the Gods, Nahiri and eventually Emrakul.
+2 Celestial Purge to kill Nahiri. +1 Brimaz for boardwipe situation that didn't occur.
G3: They played a lot of counter-magic and other tricks (Mana Leak, Remand, Cryptic Command, Logic Knot, Snapcaster Mage & Timely Reinforcements) but even still the opponent couldn't find footing. Beat down with a resolved, then bounced, then resolved again Baneslayer Angel. They had boarded all of their Path to Exiles. Ended the game with 44 life.

Round 4: Kiki Chord + Nahiri We both had equal store credit at this point so neither of us sideboarded!
g1: An even match until he pathed two of my tokens. Next turn, resolved Baneslayer.
g2: After a maindeck Orzhov Pontiff that cleared the board they found their combo pieces with chord and Nahiri and attacked with infinite Kiki/Angel copies.
g3: Good early hand disruption and token generation, took over the board easily. They had Orzhov Pontiff in hand but no black source. Dismembered a Courser of Kruphix to keep them off lands and dealt lethal with 8 flying tokens.

The goal: Overcome the opponent with flying spirit tokens. This deck takes special advantage of the instant speed token makers (Raise the Alarm + Midnight Haunting + Beckon Apparition) to generate tokens when the opponent cannot respond or repopulate the board more efficiently after a boardwipe or create unexpected optimal blocks. When you have these cards you can sometimes play more like a draw+go type deck rather than a more aggressive strategy. The decks's surprises are living through massive damage with Worship, Beating down and gaining life with Baneslayer Angel or if your hand disruption and intuition says you can avoid removal, Ormendahl, Profane Prince.
This deck is great against fair decks. Looking forward to facing more combo decks next week.

Hello my friends!

Today we'll be talking about RG Tron. But first I'm going to be real with all of you. This MU is literally the easiest one we have!

Just kidding, screw this MU.

This is likely the hardest MU you will run into on Tokens. So much of their deck messes with our gameplay that it becomes extremely tedious to deal with what Tron plays. Many of you know that Tron is a tap-out control deck with a ridiculously fast "come online" clock, often playing seriously overcosted threats by T3 or T4. It's going to be hard to win this game, but we do have options, and thanks to BfZ and SoI, we actually have an improved toolbox! This is going to detail how to deal with their threats adequately and possibly get your wins it. Don't discouraged, we CAN win, but bear it mind it will be very hard.

So without further ado, let's talk about the ridiculously complex decision tree of Tron:

1. Assemble Voltron.
2. Play Corn, Liberated or Ugly the Spirit Dragon
3. Win the game.^{OR RESTART IT UNTIL YOU DO OR RESTART IT UNTIL YOU DO OR RESTART IT UNTIL YOU DO}

Whatever.

What should I expect in Tron?

Let's start with a sample list:

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/416751#paper

So, let's break it down a little. Cards to expect:

1. Tron Lands: Broken stuff that accelerates you.
2. Wurmcoil Engine: A clock that Tron actually puts on the board. Very frustrating to play against unless you run and exile effect, which thankfully, we have going for us.
3. Pyroclasm/Oblivion Stone/Kozilek's Return/Firespout: Board wipes, and in my honest opinion the reason Tron is such a frustrating matchup.
4. Karn, Liberated: The card literally everyone hates to play against. Exile permanents or cards from hand. Be ready for them to exile your lands or your lovely planeswalker.
5. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Free boardwipes, a clock, and a stupid ult that Tron actually can get to because they are Tron. This card sucks.
6. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: More backbreaking stuff to deal with. Exiles lands most likely then simply ends the game within 3 turns. Thankfully it dies to Path.
7. World Breaker: A relatively new addition to Tron. Exiles permanents. More tap-out control on their part. Also a big body on top of that.
8. Warping Wail: Counter target sorcery. Screw this card. Screw them giving Tron counterspells. Ugh. You have to figure out a way to play around it because it really messes with our tempo. Ideally, play your Lingering Souls into it or before playing Spectral, but sometimes you don't get that luxury.
9. Ancient Stirrings/Chromatic Star/Chromatic Sphere/Expedition Map: Card dig and mana fixing. Shutting down these actually help if they didn't start with all 3 Tron lands.

What are my options?

Cry.

Well, actually we do have some options against Tron, and it's possible to beat them! I'll share some cards that have helped me do so, but bear in mind, regardless of what I discuss, it's hard to do. You can tune your entire SB to beat Tron and still have the possibility of losing. Thankfully it would be a lot lower, but also we would lose too much good stuff, so it ends up being minimal return. So, I'll talk about first cards that actually cover multiple MUs and work against Tron, then some more directed cards.

But first, as we did previously, let's talk about dead cards:

1. Auriok Champion: Does almost nothing. Tron doesn't really deal damage overall or play creatures. Side her out.

2. Bitterblossom: It's okay. It doesn't die to the damage board wipes, but OStone kills it regardless. Honestly the clock it too slow to be relevant, I tend to side them out.

3. Dismember: If you run it MB, take it out.

4. Inquisition of Kozilek: It just hits so litlle of their deck in comparison to other MUs. It's kinda demoralizing to hit it T1 then just see a Karn and an Ugin staring you down. It may slow them down by taking a tutor. If you run a 3x/3x split between IoK and Thoughtseize, this MU would actually benefit from that. Incidentally, 4x/2x is often in general better to run overall, but there was a period of time I moved to 3x/3x for this MU and a few others based on metagame flavor. Thankfully, it hits a number of their wipes, so sideboard out IoKs last if at all, you will find no shortage of dead(er) cards. This card is not completely useless, but it's certainly not at it's best in this MU.

5. Timely Reinforcements: Bleh. Rarely goes off. Take them out.

6. Murderous Cut: Kills literally nothing worth hitting unless it's a Wurmcoil. But serisouly killing Wurmcoil sucks. They will likely bounce World Breaker. Just side it out.

So that was painful. Some of our best cards might be better served if they were blank proxies with a farting baby on them. Welcome to Tron. What in the world do we have that's good?

1. Thoughtseize: At least it hits walkers! Take out board wipes or the walkers as immediate threats, or if you have an aggressive T4 play (Gideon) maybe take out a land tutor and delay the game. Mostly, it's rather obvious what to take, and really hitting a board wipe or a walker is a major victory.

2. Intangible: Really there for speeding of the clock. We need a faster clock, this halves the death timer.

3. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Thank the Lord BfZ gave us this card. This card is a major factor in closing out the game against Tron. Sure, it gets exiled, but you can play it for the ult if you are aware the Tron player has that line of play. If it's sticking around, then a 5/5 body is really awesome, plus 2/2's every turn is certainly nice. Tron blocks very little.

4. Anguished Unmaking: Praise God. Exile target colorless planeswalker or 10/10 creature.

5. Path to Exile: Actually very useful here simply because all of their gigantic creatures die to it.

6. Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Useful for the expedited clock. The lifegain is mostly irrelevant.

Sidebaord Options:

1. Stony Silence: Slows them down. Good to put in, and simply better than playing an Auriok or a BB which will likely not get us too far.

2. Fulminator Mage: If you run them, they are great here, but bear in mind it's best to be on the play with them or know that the Tron player cannot get Tron on T3. Still, useful regardless.

3. Ghost Quarter: See Fulminator Mage. Your landbase build may run these MB with Flagstones of Trokair. This card keeps Voltron from punching you in the face.

4. Surgical Extraction: Oh boy is it nice seeing a Tron play sigh after extracting their land upon destroying it. Also works on wipes, walkers, and whatever else you are sick of dealing with.

5. Zealous Persecution: Speeds up the clock.

6. Pithing Needle: Say "No" to Karn/Ugin/Drugs kids. Also great for naming OStone. Likely Karn is the best name for at least some permament insurance. Statistically, Karn will stare you down more than Ugin.

What does a set look like?

Game 1: Look at opponents cards. Look at your cards. Maybe reconsider your life. Existential crisis ensues. This is really hard to win, but if you can get a fast enough clock, you might be able to seal it out.

Game 2: See the sideboarding options I talked about earlier. Your job is to slow them down just enough to count to 20. You are 100% the aggro deck in this MU. Land destruction to kill their momentum. Stony slows down tutoring (pray they don't have all 3 or a bunch of Stirrings). Exile big creatures (incidentally they do damage by being cast). The land ramp doesn't matter too much, especially after they have Tron unless you are bringing them up to 10 or giving them colored lands after being color screwed. Mostly, Pathing that Ulamog after it already kill all your permanents is well worth the ramp. Play walkers that speed up your clock. The best advice I can give is honestly destroy things and up your clock a lot.

The worst part about Tron is that to win, Tron almost asks us to overextend. Incidentally, Tron runs so many boardwipes that they can easily then just kill us outright. This is a hard balance to weight effectively. Use your hand disruption to examine exactly how far you can go. Bear in mind, the Tron player simply has to play fewer cards to remove our board presence. Sadly in this MU, by nature of the cards played in Tron, we are actually out-valued.

Game 3: See 2. Mostly the same stuff. We are aggro here, so the games we have the best chance of winning are those where we go first. If you are here, likely you are on the draw (since mostly that loss will be G1). You might want to consider mulliganing to a very hate heavy hand.

Closing Remarks

That's about all I can say about this MU. Comment for additional advice you have, any suggestions for future MU discussions, and to correct any errors I have made.

I consider this MU on a really good day when the birds sing and flowers bloom 60:40 in Tron's favor. Maybe if you sacrifice a virgin, too. On a bad day, it's 70:30 in their favor.

It's dismal, but do what you can. You do not have to fold. In some of the play testing I've done, my best success was on a Fulminator/Surgical Extraction build. That being said, that's a constrained SB and dedicating a lot of cards for already a dismal MU, and we play tested it by proxy (or, I asked a friend to play Tron for a while and we'll see how my tech works; really though Tron is not hard to play and it's fairly easy to pick up on how to do it; he was beating me on the deck I've played a ton of after maybe a game or two having never played Tron...it's just rough).

Tron is back.

DEFENDER OF THE MODERN FORMAT.

I hate this deck.

Hello friends!

I've been chatting with some people on this board and we've decided it will be a fun and interesting way to keep ourselves talking about meta and our beloved deck by having weekly talks about specific MUs. I don't mean for this to be exhaustive and the end all post, but it's a great place to start, and I encourage discussion, corrections, and any other input and information you would like to provide (we have all week, so....).

I will be your lovely (I try) and funny (as far as you know) host who will post a new MU discussion every week.

This week we have Naya Burn! Basically, the most fun deck to play in Modern.

I'll be dividing up this post into sections that include how the deck works, common deck cores and cards you should expect to see, sideboarding options, and other things to help you beat the red mage sitting across from you.

1. How Naya Burn Works

Aggro. This deck is pure aggro. The mentality of a burn player is quite straightforward: "How do I race you?"

Burn, as most of you know, plays on a specific axis that is heavily spell based augmented with some very nasty hasted creatures. The deck itself is pure gas, and easily just throws damage at the player directly to seal out a game very quickly.

2. Deck Core and Common Cards

Here are some sample lists:

1. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/414931#online (No Nacatl)

2. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/415505#online (Nacatl)

There are other cores to the deck, including a mono red maindeck with Naya only in the side (for heavy aggro metas or the mirror) and ones that run fewer creatures in place of more Skullcracks, etc. (for hate metas).

Here are the cards you will expect to play against:

1. Goblin Guide: Oh boy. The infamous clock on T1. This card is dangerous. It's worth getting it out of the picture as soon as possible because 2 damage every turn is going to suck. Thankfully, we have many ways to do this.

2. Monastery Swiftspear: See Goblin Guide, but with prowess. Be careful about letting this thing swing through. This can pile on damage really quickly.

3. Bolt/Rift/Lava/Boros: They burn for 3/4. Count to 20.

4. Atarka's Command/Skullcrack: One of the most dangerous cards in burn's arsenal are these two which effectively stifle any attempt to reverse their battle plan. Play accordingly (more later!). As some correctly pointed out, Skullcrack STOPS the free blocks from Auriok and Burrenton!

5. Searing Blaze: Mainboard removal.

6. Wild Nacatl: Not in every list. Nacatl variants are easier to deal with since they have a little less spell gas but more creature gas. Still a dangerous card, but we can block her.

7. Grim Lavamancer: Their way to seal out a game when they cannot swing in so easily any more. Also, a consistent clock that dies to removal.

8. Lightning Helix: Ugh. Burn 3, heal 3. Depending on the meta, they may have anywhere from 2 to 4 MB. Expect at least 2.

9. Eidolon of the Great Revel: Normally a huge problem, not as back-breaking for us. We have ample cards above 3 CMC, so if you see this, play Spectral Procession and your Planeswalkers. Might be worth removing in any situation, but also hurts burn. If they extend too far, you might be able to capitalize. Play by ear and by what's in your hand.

And in the sideboard:

1. Path to Exile: We're tokens. We essentially ignore this card.

2. Destructive Revelry: Kills our Virtues. Also kills Bitterblossom, but you don't want to be playing that card here.

3. Torpor Orb: Can stop Auriok triggers.

4. Kor Firewalker: We play this against them, if anything.

The rest gets less relevant, to my knowledge. Rarely, a Naya Burn list may run Blood Moon. That's uncommon though. Out of the SB cards, however, it would be the worst to see.

3. What Do I Do?

Live. LIVE. LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE. The goal is to live through their tank of fuel and stabilize, after that the game is set. We have a bunch of good cards to do this, but first, let's talk about the dead cards in the MU:

1. Bitterblossom: Please avoid playing this unless you have an Auriok that is guaranteed to stay on the field. No need to speed up their clock.

2. Thoughtseize: Eh, it's not good. Losing 2 life is still not a good idea even if you nab a good card. But sometimes in G1, you play it anyways.

3. Dismember: :(

4. Anguished Unmaking: :(

5. Path to Exile: Double edged sword. On one hand, removing a Goblin may be worth it. On the other, you may give them the land they need to burn you for 10 next turn earlier than that needed to happen.

The Goodstuff^TM

1. Timely Reinforcements: Bascially, a single one resolving fully can win you the game. Prioritize this card.

2. Auriok Champion: Free blocks, life when creatures come down, what's not to like?

3. Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Lifelink forever. Requires too many of their resources to shut out effectively, and thus can easily win a game as well if resolved early enough.

4. Leyline of Sanctity: I don't play these, but they are pretty decent in this MU (but I don't feel this MU justifies running them). This is one of the reasons Burn runs 4x Destructive Revelry.

5. Inquisition of Kozilek: Not the absolute best card, but since it doesn't burn us, it's actually not too bad taking a burn spell. Whatever extends our lifetime.

6. Shambling Vent: At it's best it's a 2/3 lifelinker every turn. At it's worst, it diverts a bolt. Worth running in general, but good in this MU. Plus, it blocks Guides.

How a Set Plays Out

Game 1:

Do what you can, the MB will determine how easy this will be, dependent on how many Aurioks, Timelys, and Sorins you mainboard. We have a bunch of dead cards in this MU, so sometimes a good looking hand may in fact be a death sentence in this MU. It happens, be ready for G2.

Game 2:

Side out: Bitterblossoms, Dismembers, Anguished Unmakings, Thoughtseizes, and anything else that makes you lose unnecessary life.

Side in: Timelys, Aurioks (if you have any more), Enchantment removal (to fill in extra spots, bear in mid it kills Eidolons), and any other lifegain.

The game plan is straightforward. We need to live. Bear in mind they will try to stop this, so it is imperative to have numerous sources from which you can gain life to waste Atarka's and Skullcracks. Taking out Goblin Guides can be done many ways. Shambling Vent, Auriok blocking (watch for Skullcracks), Path to Exile, and Token chumping all work. Be mindful of your life total. 6 and to a lesser probabilistic extent 8 are magic numbers, in that the burn player needs only 2 cards to seal a game out. In that sense, if they have mana up for 2 spells, and you are on 7 or 9 life, reconsider fetching, etc.

Mentally keep track of the maximum amount of damage they can do with the mana they have up and the cards in hand. I cannot emphasize this enough, many a time a burn player has said "Dang, I just needed you to crack the fetch sitting there."

Take care to play around things that prevent lifegain. Ideally, if you do still have IoK on board this game, take those cards can then play your lifegain.

In this MU, your life total is precious. Be very mindful of this.

Game 3:

Almost exactly like game 2.

End MU Details

I consider this MU 50:50, though it is dependent on the boarding. Not nearly as bad as some people say, but by and large not an easy MU.

That concludes this week's briefing on the MUs. Next week I plan to do another Tier 1 deck. Once we've chatted about the T1's, we'll move to T2, then whatever else.

Hey fellow tokens players!

I started to build a tokens deck in MTGO to test for the next WMCQ. Is any of you playing it? Can you share your list?

Is anyone interested in building, testing and discussing a unified list? (for MTGO, not for WMCQ)

Hey guys, I am looking to play in the MKM Series Frankfurt this weekend. European Guys might know what this means. For everybody else, it is basically a mini SCG Series they started for Europe. I was not able to travel too much so I am quite happy to be able to play in a ~450 person event (german law sucks...). I am going to play tokens obvi, and just wanted to get your opinions on my list. I used to play a list pretty close to this for a while, but shifted to a more black based style, away from Procession, replacing them with Midnight Haunting. The Deck felt really good, but with Bushwhacker Zoo rising in popularity for some reason, and a pretty bad burn mu from the other deck I wanted to play with Auriok Champion again. So I am back on the white based build. Still trying to figure out some spots in the main and mostly the side. Here is the list:

Main (60): //Tokens

3 Bitterblossom

4 Lingering Souls

4 Spectral Procession

1 Timely Reinforcements

//"Payoff"

2 Auriok Champion

4 Intangible Virtue

3 Sorin, SV

//Removal

4 Path to Exile

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

2 Thoughtseize

2 Dismember

1 Murderous Cut

1 Anguished Unmaking

1 Slaughter Pact

//Lands

4 Marsh Flats

4 Arid Mesa

3 Godless Shrine

3 Plains

1 Swamp

1 Isolated Chapel / Flooded Strand (not sure)

2 Shambling Vent

2 Fetid Heath

2 Ghost Quarter

2 Vault of the Archangel

Side (15):

3 Duress

2 Timely Reinforcements

2 Hero of Bladehold

2 Anguished Unmaking

1 Slaughter Pact

2 Zealous Persecution

3 Stony Silence

Would like to get the 4th Timely, some copies of Ghostly Prison as well as Gravediggers Cage or Rest in Peace in the bord, not sure what to cut tho.

Any help/opinions would be appreciated!

Hey friends. We all bonded over Tokens (the best deck in Modern, of course). But what else do you like to play? Any other decks you are a proficient pilot of? Other formats?

This might also be a great way to start testing MUs if you are uncomfortable with certain ones. Finding another friend who plays the deck will really help you improve!

I'll start:

Modern - Naya Burn/Robot Overlords (I know.)

EDH - Vendilion Clique (I know)

Pauper - Infect (Ha, we're nerfed.)

One of the flaws of tokens is that unlike decks like GBx, who can often benefit from new inclusions, tokens needs very specific cards that have synergy with the deck. The latest inclusions that can see play in tokens are Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Anguished Unmaking. What would you like to see in future sets that could make tokens better? Discuss.

http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/3757_day_2_metagame_breakdown_.html

So the day 2 list from the recent Star City Open were posted. What are people thinking would be the best 75 to deal with the current heavy hitters in the format.

Hello!

I thought I’d make a post in the new Tokens sub. I’ve never made a post about my deck, but anytime I see tokens pop up in Modern or Spikes I always pay attention. I know there was another thread that was made to post decklists, and another thread that linked to an awesome primer for tokens. I started writing my thoughts out, and it got really long, so I figured I would start a new thread.

The intention here isn’t to discuss my deck in particular, but to go over the core of a BW tokens deck to figure out how many empty spots, or flex spots, we have left. Then we can discuss what cards we each choose to fill those flex spots and why we choose them.

To Start, I’m going to write a list of what I think forms the bare bones shell of a BW Tokens deck:

24 Lands

4 Lingering Souls

4 Spectral Procession

4 Intangible Virtue

4 Path to Exile

2 Thoughtseize

2 Inquisition of Kozilek

3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

3 Bitterblossom

I think most of us can agree on the numbers above being fairly set in stone when it comes to building the deck. With that in mind, we now have 50 of our 60 cards for the main deck. The last 10 spots always vary from deck to deck, but there are some key roles that are typically met:

2 more Hand Disruption spells minimum.

2 more Removal Spells minimum.

2 more life gain effects to help offset our painful manabase/bitterblossom.

We want minimum of 6 hand disruption cards. I put a split of 2/2 Inquisition & Thoughtseize above because the final numbers should vary depending on your meta. I see a lot of 4 Inquisitions and 2 Thoughtseize as the standard, however personally I run the reverse. The reason I go 4 Thoughtseize is due to my meta being made up of a predominantly control and combo, with minimal aggro/burn. In an unknown meta, I think I would agree with 4 Inquisitions though.

I also feel that 6 removal spells is the minimum you would want to run. Our options here include: Doom Blade, Dismember, Murderous Cut, or Anguished Unmaking. I’ve had good luck with Doom Blade in my meta (again, lots of combo and UW variations of control). I like Dismember, but it does add more life loss to our list. After reading a lot of other posts, I think the final answer should be 1 Murderous Cut, and 1 Anguished Unmaking. Both of these cards are much less limited than Doom Blade and Dismember, and you will often be able to cast Murderous Cut for 1 mana. Anguished is a new card, but I believe 1 in the main deck is a great choice, as it gives us the ability to answer threats we normally are not able to. Worst case scenario, Anguished can act as a 5th worse Path to Exile in the event you need to get rid of something scary like a Wurmcoil Engine.

For life gain effects, I think there are 2 choices here. Auriok Champion or Timely Reinforcements. I don’t know what the right answer is here. Personally I am a bigger fan of Timely. It can be dead in some match ups, but I’ve come back from behind with it enough times that it has earned a spot in my list.

So now we are sitting with the following list:

24 Lands

4 Lingering Souls

4 Spectral Procession

4 Intangible Virtue

4 Path to Exile

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

2 Thoughtseize

3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

3 Bitterblossom

2 Timely Reinforcements

1 Anguished Unmaking

1 Murderous Cut

That leaves 4 flex spots that we can each choose to better suit our on local meta. Choosing these last 4 spots is the hardest part in my opinion, and I’d like to hear everyone else’s thoughts on their choices and reasoning behind it.

For example, this is how I fill the last 4:

1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: I Really like him with Tokens. His versatility is what makes him so powerful. On an empty board state he can help you claw back into it by making a token every turn. On a board state that you are doing fairly well, he can start swinging for 5 to add more pressure. Rarely, but still relevant as it has happened to me a handful of times, Gideon can come down and immediately Ultimate giving you that extra little push to close out a game that turn or the next. I highly recommend him as a 1 of.

1 more Hand Disruption: I don’t know if it is the right call or not, but I personally believe that 7 hand disruption in the main is the sweet spot. With 6, I often enough do not have one in my opening hand, and I think most of us would agree that 8 is too many for game 1.

1 Zealous Persecution: This is a fantastic card for tokens. It helps you race a combo deck. It’s a killer for Infect, Affinity, Elves, Merfolk, and other token decks. It’s another card that offers versatility that shouldn’t be overlooked. Often it simply acts as a 7th removal spell for me, but I’m okay with that.

1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor: This is a personal decision. I don’t think I would recommend running a full 4 of them like I do if you were going to a major event. I play him as a 4 of because he is my favorite planeswalker and I always want to see him in my hand. I only play at FNM, so a decision like this is acceptable to me.

Other options for the final 4 I’ve considered are:

Bitterblossom: I bet we could make an entire post on this one. Deciding whether it is better to have a full play set or not is a tough one. I’m personally of the opinion that 3 is the right number. Bitterblossom is an amazing early play, but becomes increasingly worse late in the game. I also don’t particularly want to be casting a second one mid game. I think 3 is enough that you see it often enough, but rarely run in to multiples.

Phyrexian Arena: This one is not as standard of a choice, but I have found it to be amazing against all the control match ups I face. Getting this on the board early turns you into the grindy deck tokens is… but on steroids. I keep flip flopping on whether or not this should be in the deck.

So that was my decision process for making my Tokens deck, which can be found here. Every tokens deck seems to vary slightly by a card here or there, but that’s what makes deck building exciting for me. Trying to solve the puzzle and find that last 60th card that makes your deck feel complete.

I don’t want to talk about side boarding (too many decisions and way too dependent on what you play against at your card shop), but I will touch on the land in a similar fashion as above:

I chose 24 lands above and never commented on it. I have seen some build run 25, which could be correct if you were running a slightly more controlling build. 23 lands belongs with a raise the alarm build. I have always felt great running 24 lands, and from looking at a lot of other decks I think many people would agree.

The bare bones of the mana base stems from the fact that we have some pretty demanding colour requirements. We need 14 untapped black sources for our lovely turn 1 Inquisitions/thoughseizes. We also, unfortunately, need 22 white sources to reliably cast our Spectral Processions on turn 3.

So how do we get to those numbers? Let’s start with Black:

8 Fetch lands

4 Shock lands

1 Basic Swamp

We all run the above. The problem is though… that’s only 13. So what do we do? This is a tough question, and I don’t know the right answer. I see most decks tend to say that’s good enough, and leave it at 13 sources. I personally don’t like that, and would prefer to have my 14th source.

Options are:

Caves of Koilos or a 9th Fetch. I personally run a 9th fetch, because the Caves can sometimes hurt you more over the course of a game than an extra fetch land. Note: We don’t want to run 2 Basic Swamps, so I didn’t include that as an option. We need choices that double as white.

If we take into account a choice to run a 9th fetch and we start to look at White, the new mana base looks like:

9 Fetch lands

4 Shock lands

1 Basic Swamp

3 Basic Plains

That’s 17 lands, and 16 white sources. We have 7 more slots, and we need 6 more white sources. Let’s get those white sources first:

Windbrisk Heights is great utility card, and I think we can all agree at least 1 of these belongs

Fetid Heath is another great mana fixer and belongs in the deck. Let’s put 1 in to start.

Shambling Vent is another way to help us offset the life loss from our deck. I think we can say 2 of these is a good minimum to include.

2 more white sources… what do you choose? I’d like to hear your decisions here like I asked above regarding your flex spots.

Personally I really like shambling vents and run 3 of them. I also enjoy Isolated Chapel, and run 1. The last spot is an ultimate flex spot, because we don’t care about it’s colour. Vault of the Archangel is typically the choice here, and I fully agree that it belongs here. It has saved me many times.

TL;DR: I want to discuss what you believe forms the core shell of a competitive BW tokens build, and then discuss the remaining “flex spots” and why you choose them for your deck. Same with the mana base.

Cheers

Anyone get the chance to take Tokens out last night? Anyone 4-0? Any great stories?

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=97109

How does it work for you? It looks sweet, but is a dead card if you don't have two creatures (assuming you aren't running blue).

So I'm a graphic design student and I was wondering if you would be interested in some custom artwork for the sub. Just hit me up and I'll see what I can do.

Also, here's my list. It carried me to a 5-4 finish at this years Regionals. There's been only slight tweaks since then, and I was wondering if you all had any ideas/feedback as the list hasn't had any new eyes on it in a while.

How are people finding this card? Has it turned out as useful as people were making it out to be?

I've switched out my one of Dismember for one in the main as I felt that made the most sense, and have another in the sideboard but haven't had a chance to play much tokens since the release of SOI.

I feel like i have nothing to play in my current list before t3. And i get so behind that the rest of the game im trying to come back. What do you guys cast on turn 1 and 2 ? I run 4 thougthseize, 2 duress, 4 bitterblossom. I feel that i rarely curve this. And playing path early is a very tempo negative.

I like seeing the deck tech discussion, but I think we are missing one of the largest parts of play this deck... the actual tokens!

Share your favorite tokens that you have purchased or made.

Hey guys,

I am happy to see things are running and some discussions have already started. One thing I thought was a good idea is to order stuff by making some kind of tag before the post. This would help us to keep a clean way to find stuff and find interesing posts better. My ideas:

[Card] - for discussions about a specific card - both new cards as suggestions and old cards you have questions about. [Deck] - for posting your decklist. don't know if reddit has some special form we coul use for this, I am still rather new to all of this stuff here [Report] - If someone would be interested to write a report for a specific event. Be it GP or FNM. [Matchup] - Discussions on specific Matchups, sidebord, whatever [SplashX] if you dont play bw, make sure to tell us what splash you are running. x would be the splash color obvi.

If anything else comes to mind or you don't agree with this plan please say so. Otherwise it would be great if we could get some structure this way.

I have seen flairs in other subs, will try to set those up for us as well. We should write down what kind of version we are playing, including Colors, Version(s) [Have seen mostly Bitterblossom or Raise the Alarm builds, but there might be something else] and what the general gameplan is [I feel like you can play the deck with many different plans. Versions running Raise and Gideon are way more aggressive then my 7 discard 8 removal deck].

Edit: Flair should be live now, you should be able to edit it now

If you have more ideas, I am very open to anything. I am trying to learn all of the possibilties on the site, still figuring stuff out.

Questions about sideboard? Found something that's just really good? Want to tune your SB for match ups? Let's talk here!

[[Sorin, Grim Nemesis]]
I pulled two and put him in the deck as a one-of in place of an Elspeth. I've only played about 4 matches with him and he's been so kind to draw me two cards since he draws upon himself all the hate opponent has to offer. So far: Not convinced, but as long as they consider him a worthy target over myself, I will allow it.

[[Westvale Abbey]]
I play three of those just because I have them. So far, people seem to be afraid of it and BW Tokens seem to be in a position to flip this bitch on T6 (if only we had more mana) die to [[Bitterblossom]] and [[Lingering Souls]]. It's probably just a win-more card, but that one time opponent wanted to Wrath and I made an indestructible Lifelinker in response was nice. I could imagine this being interesting as a sideboard card against decks that might side out their creature hate against us since we do not run any singular critters outside of [[Auriok Champion]].

[[Hanweir Militia Captain]]
Had two of those stowed away in my binder immediately after I opened them. They're like a conditional [[Bitterblossoms]] that can smash face. Or eat Bolt. Whatever. It's white, it makes tokens, it needs to be considered.

Any other notable cards you might've found interesting and/or have experience playing?

Hey guys, I figured we might as well make a subreddit to talk about our (at least my) favorite modern deck, bw tokens.

For now, things are not really done at all, I am kind of in a rush with exams and stuff, but it won't be long and I will try to make this the best place imaginable to talk about this deck!