Tokens and counters on permanents are one of the more unfun prospects a judge faces. Most players eschew glass beads and dice in favor of just shredding pieces of paper and putting them in play or on their cards. Unfortunately most of the same players like to leave that paper everywhere they go instead of throwing it away. This makes for a fairly tedious amount of cleaning throughout the day. Wizards tried to fix this issue, first through sending tokens as part of player rewards, then by making them part of the pack itself (something I still think is kind of cool of them). Alas, it didn’t work.

Today, I am looking to join the ranks of those I despise, a guy who leaves shredded pieces of paper everywhere! Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of tokens from lots of packs. I just feel like I need to uphold the tradition and drive the store owners crazy. In case you were curious, at Armada Games in Tampa one of the owners is fellow level two judge Michael Fortino and his brother Aaron (who will be a judge as soon as he has some time to sit down and study). It’s an important tradition!

Now part of the problem with making a token deck is that to some extent it’s already been done. Of course the same can be said for most EDH lists, but we already have a token deck which is fairly solid in our area (Todd “Jazzhands” Palmer). Todd is the pilot of a frequently mentioned Rith deck that thrives on making hordes of tokens and then battling for enormous amounts of damage. I wanted to avoid simply copying Todd’s list and tried for something a little new and fun.

The obvious theme to go with is saproling. Saprolings have the most token backing and have been around by far the longest. I want to go somewhere a little different and I think soldiers are the way to go. Now, some of the saproling cards are just a little too fun/effective and will be making an appearance as well, but only the particularly fun/effective ones. I’ll also be throwing some of the staple cards for the deck’s colors in the mix.

Soldiers are almost strictly in the realm of white, so that’s a given. Mono-color is not nearly as much fun as a splash, so let’s throw another color in the mix. I think the natural choice is green. Green adds more token generation effects, and most importantly a lot of acceleration/token copy effects. Also, green/white gives us a lot of fun options as a general, so g/w it is! One thing I will recommend against is the temptation to use Gaddock Teeg as a general. He shuts off some pretty crucial cards and also paints a target on your back that will be hard to remove.

This brings us to the search for a general. Fortunately, there’s a perfect pick just jumping out at us. No, I’m not talking about Rhys the Redeemed (though he is going to be in the deck). I’m talking about Tolsimir Wolfblood. Tolsimir is a little friendlier than Rhys, who has something of a bad reputation. Even better for us, Tolsimir gives us access to a Glorious Anthem type effect that we don’t even need to tutor for! Coupled with the fact that he also pumps the saprolings we generate, I think Tolsimir is a very solid choice.

I’d like to take a second and address some of the more common inclusions for EDH lists. If you’re playing green and white then there are a few cards which are standard fare. For white Decree of Justice is pretty much an auto inclusion, as it cycles and doubles as an effective finisher. Path to Exile, and it’s precursor, Swords to Plowshares are also fantastic pieces of spot removal for most generals, and the same goes for the power of Oblivion Ring. One could make an argument for Elspeth, Knight-Errant being a staple, if you have a copy that is! If not then look forward to the duel deck coming out…

This deck has quite a few more green staples in it. Garruk Wildspeaker is in my opinion a green staple. He provides blockers/an alternate win condition, and at worst case gives some acceleration each turn. Though I know it’s new, Fauna Shaman should make your list of green staples. I count Survival of the Fittest as a green staple as well, and the Shaman can bash for two each turn! A nice little combo with Survival and the Shaman is the duo of Genesis and Eternal Witness, also a great utility pair. EDH is all about big splashy guys, and none of them is as big or splashy as Verdant Force. “Party Crasher” as he’s called (because he brings all his friends) should be a staple for nostalgia reasons alone. We wrap up the green staples with some great utility, Krosan Grip (the Top destroyer!) and Sakura Tribe Elder and Kodama’s Reach.

Without further delay, the list I’ve come up with:

[cardlist]

[General]

1 Tolsimir Wolfblood

[/General]

[Planeswalkers]

1 Ajani Goldmane

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

1 Garruk Wildspeaker

[/Planeswalkers]

[Creatures]

1 Ant Queen

1 Avenger of Zendikar

1 Baru, Fist of Krosa

1 Captain of the Watch

1 Cloudgoat Ranger

1 Darien, King of Kjeldor

1 Deranged hermit

1 Fauna Shaman

1 Kazandu Tuskcaller

1 Knight-Captain of Eos

1 Master of the Hunt

1 Master of the Wild Hunt

1 Mitotic Slime

1 Rhys the Redeemed

1 Selesneya Guildmage

1 Verdant Force

1 Wolfbriar Elemental

1 Eternal Witness

1 Genesis

1 Catapult Master

1 Field Marshal

1 Gempalm Avenger

1 Preeminent Captain

1 Sakura Tribe Elder

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Aura Mutation

1 Awakening Zone

1 Beacon of Creation

1 Cenn's Enlistment

1 Conquerer's Pledge

1 Decree of Justice

1 Doubling Season

1 Gelatinous Genesis

1 Growth Spasm

1 Howl of the Night Pack

1 Join the Ranks

1 Leyline of the Meek

1 Martial Coup

1 Mercy Killing

1 Militia's Pride

1 Mobilization

1 Nomads' Assembly

1 Parallel Evolution

1 Raise the Alarm

1 Saproling Symbiosis

1 Seed Spark

1 Spectral Procession

1 Storm Herd

1 Survival of the Fittest

1 Chord of Calling

1 Eladmri's Call

1 Oblivion Ring

1 Path to Exile

1 Krosan Grip

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Worldly Tutor

1 Glorious Anthem

1 Unified Strike

1 Eldrazi Monument

1 Beastmaster Ascension

1 Coat of Arms

1 Crop Rotation

1 Kodama's Reach

1 Sol Ring

1 Sensei's Divining Top

[/Spells]

[Lands]

1 Khalni Garden

1 Kjeldoran Outpost

1 Wasteland

1 Strip Mine

1 Gaea's Cradle

1 Savannah

1 Temple Garden

1 Windswept Heath

1 Windbrisk Heights

1 Mosswort Bridge

14 Forest

8 Plains

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

So, the first thing that jumps out at me is the lack of nonbasic lands. I’m typically a fiend for nonbasics, but there are simply too many cards here that rely on basic lands for me to be able to realistically jam mounds of fancy lands into the list. There are a few lands that I couldn’t pass up, but for the better part I’ve steered clear of the million dollar manabase.

There are a few other notable omissions from your typical token deck, and I’d like to take a second to list them here. Nemata, Grove Guardian is brutally effective, but only if you’re running saprolings. The same can be said for Saproling Symbiosis, Saproling Cluster, and Saproling Burst. Another odd omission is Sacred Mesa. Unfortunately Sacred Mesa involves mana commitment every turn, and moreover it’s the color of the commitment that can be an issue. This deck is fairly strongly green and I just don’t think tying up what white resources we do have is the way to go. Spontaneous Generation also feels like a good inclusion, but in testing just didn’t pan out. Too often it didn’t make enough saprolings for the investment, or I drew it long after it stopped being relevant. Twilight Drover is another interesting card. Unfortunately whenever my tokens were dying the Drover was usually going with them. The final card that could make the cut (and truthfully might be rejoining the deck) is Blasting Station. Blasting station allows you to ‘machine gun’ the tokens you make at your opponent.

There are a few subtle rules interactions here to know about. The first one is that a card like Muraganda Petroglyphs will not pump your creatures if they have Vigilance from something like Mobilization. That’s a large reason for the Petroglyphs not being included in the deck. Another fun rules tidbit, tokens that aren’t already named have the same name as their creature type. So the token made by Tolsimir is already given a special name, but Master of the Wild Hunt tokens are all named “wolf”. This is important for things like Echoing Truth, or Maelstrom Pulse. Also, while on the topic of Master of the Wild Hunt, he will tap all wolf tokens for his ability, even ones you get from Master of the Hunt and from Howl of the Night Pack. Anything that grants abilities to a creature of a certain type gives the ability to all creatures of that type, even if it has another type. So Mobilization gives vigilance to all your soldier tokens, even the kithkin soldiers. Another tricky interaction is that of Doubling Season and Garruk (or Elspeth/Ajani). Garruk will enter the battlefield with double the number of counters, but when you add a counter for his ability only one counter will be added. This is because adding the counter isn’t part of the ability but instead a cost to activate the ability. It’s a subtle but important difference.

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for this week. Join me next week when I hope to continue to compile a list of the must have cards for each color. Until then this is Benjamin McDole giving you a hundred reasons to play magic!