If there's one thing I love, it's a good token deck. Swarming the board is something I've loved since some of my earliest days playing Magic and continues even now 23 years later. In the early days playing at a kitchen table with family and friends, the Unglued card Incoming! did this to great effect. Then with Onslaught block I got to go nuts filling up the board in various games with Elves, especially with the help of Ambush Commander. Then in Ravnica: City of Guilds, things started really going nuts with token effects and I quickly fell in love thanks largely to the Selesnya Conclave.

As the years went on and tokens became more and more prevalent in Magic, I found myself becoming more and more attracted to them. Commander gave a major outlet to play more and more of them and I played big go-wide decks in various Constructed and Limited formats alike. It's no wonder I love Pauper Elves so much when it can generate quite literally hundreds of tokens at once! There was even a point where literally the only thing I would draft in Cube was the token deck that was viable in it, even when there were several other arguably better strategies that could be played.

There's just something really satisfying about getting a board full of tiny creatures and pumping them up to massive sizes. When I saw Maja, Bretagard Protector for the first time, I quickly fell in love with her because, simply put, she does both things and does them well!

Admittedly, it wasn't just the effects, but another sweet Kaldheim legend that got me super excited. The more I started reading Maja, though, the more I wanted to play her. Selesnya tokens are such a staple way for me and she was a new, if somewhat simple, take as a Commander. We haven't really had one that makes tokens repeatedly like this and pumps them at the same time quite as much. What's more, the way Maja actually makes tokens brings with it a much different dynamic to the board than a typical token deck would. Rather than utilizing spells and abilities - though those still get used too - the tokens get made by landfall triggers. This makes for a particularly unique approach that I simply couldn't resist talking about.

Let's check out a list:

The Landfall of Maja | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Maja, Bretagard Protector

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Admonition Angel
• 1 Ancient Greenwarden
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Canyon Jerboa
• 1 Celestial Crusader
• 1 Emeria Angel
• 1 End-Raze Forerunners
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Goldnight Commander
• 1 Intrepid Adversary
• 1 Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1 Katilda, Dawnhart Prime
• 1 Knight of the Reliquary
• 1 Kyler, Sigardian Emissary
• 1 Lotus Cobra
• 1 Murasa Rootgrazer
• 1 Prava of the Steel Legion
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Ramunap Excavator
• 1 Rhys the Redeemed
• 1 Scute Swarm
• 1 Selesnya Guildmage
• 1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1 Tireless Provisioner
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
• 1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
• 1 Trostani Discordant
• 1 Wilt-Leaf Liege

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1 Huatli, Radiant Champion

• Instants (7)
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Rootborn Defenses
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Unbreakable Formation

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Green Sun's Zenith
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Harvest Season
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Vastwood Surge

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Felidar Retreat
• 1 Honor of the Pure
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Khalni Heart Expedition
• 1 Laid to Rest
• 1 Marshal's Anthem
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Retreat to Emeria
• 1 Retreat to Kazandu
• 1 Zendikar's Roil

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Idol of Oblivion
• 1 Seer's Sundial
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of the Animist

• Lands (37)
• 10 Forest
• 10 Plains
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Overgrown Farmland
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

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Whenever I'd build token decks in the past, I'd often rely heavily on spells that would make tokens: think Gather the Townsfolk and Lingering Souls, as well as some planeswalkers like the various Elspeth cards in particular. As such, getting to do things in a different way just feels incredibly refreshing. Yes, some of the expected cards like Selesnya Guildmage, Rhys the Redeemed, and Trostani Discordant are here, but I think you'd be very surprised to see a lot of the choices for a normal token deck.

Landfall is the name of the game with this deck. A handful of staple token makers have made use of landfall for a while now, so it's not entirely a new thing. Emeria Angel, Rampaging Baloths, Zendikar's Roil, Retreat to Emeria, and even somewhat Avenger of Zendikar all did token related things when lands hit the battlefield. As such, it hasn't exactly been uncommon to see them a lot in the past. In a deck like this, however, where the plan is a lot more about getting the landfall triggers, your plans can go a lot further.

Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are often staples in Commander, but you don't usually see a critical mass of them. In a deck like this, however, you want as many as possible. Harrow and Harvest Season both give you more ways to get lands from your deck, as does Vastwood Surge - a card that not only ramps but pumps your board if you kick it. With cards like these, Sword of the Animist, Khalni Heart Expedition, and Azusa, Lost but Seeking, you'll have no shortage of ways to get tons and tons of landfall triggers going. If you get most of your lands on the board, Murasa Rootgrazer makes it easy to pick them up and replay them with ease, while both Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator allow you to replay lands from your graveyard, be they fetches, Wasteland, or something else.

All of these cards will allow you to rapidly fill your board with Maja or any of the other landfall token makers mentioned previously. You can also get bonuses from Felidar Retreat and Retreat to Kazandu, extra overall value from the likes of Tireless Provisioner and Seer's Sundial, or just get truly crazy by making endless copies of Scute Swarm. There's a number of solid pumps in the mix too with cards like Mirari's Wake, Marshal's Anthem, Tolsimir Wolfblood, and more to power up your token army with. And if all else fails, you can play a big finisher like End-Raze Forerunners (or cards like Craterhoof Behemoth and Finale of Devastation if you have the cash to shell out for them).

What you get in the end is an overall different take on a token deck. Even though it features several of the classic token cards, it still manages to feel incredibly fresh and unique. It shows that even with the oldest of strategies, there's still room to do awesome new things, and that's great. If you like tokens, I definitely recommend giving the list a try at some point in the future. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Paige Smith

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