Innistrad has a strong token subtheme, headed up by two cards that do nothing but help tokens: Intangible Virtue and Parallel Lives. Intangible Virtue is somewhat reminiscent of Honor of the Pure, but gives the added bonus of Vigilance. You can attack with your army of beefed-up tokens and still be able to chump-block or trade with any creatures that might come your way. Parallel Lives is half of the old casual favorite Doubling Season, and fortunately, it’s the most important half. For the low price of 4 mana, you get double the value out of most of your spells for the rest of the game. Combine these two enchantments, and your opponent will quickly be mowed down by a massive legion of token creatures. Here’s the deck I put together to do just that.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

3 Blade Splicer

4 Doomed Traveler

4 Geist-Honored Monk

4 Mausoleum Guard

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 White Sun's Zenith

4 Master's Call

4 Midnight Haunting

3 Parallel Lives

4 Intangible Virtue

4 Oblivion Ring

[/Spells]

[Lands]

11 Plains

5 Forest

4 Gavony Township

4 Sunpetal Grove

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

The Tokens

Geist-Honored Monk is quite similar to the old Constructed staple Cloudgoat Ranger. It makes one fewer token, but the ability to grow larger with more creatures on the battlefield more than makes up for it. The fact that the tokens have Flying is also a nice bonus. With just a few tokens on the battlefield, this creature can grow to dangerous proportions, and since it has Vigilance, you can swing all you like and still have a massive blocker at the ready.

Blade Splicer is a powerful creature in any deck, but it’s especially good in this one. A 4/4 with First Strike and Vigilance is a significant threat, and the potential to get two of them for the price of one is even better. Even just a regular 3/3 Golem is valuable, whether as a stop sign for aggressive decks, or as an early beater against control.

Doomed Traveler provides an early defense against aggressive decks, and gets better when it dies. Against control decks, it loses a lot of value, but it still hits your opponent for 1 each turn until he gives up and kills it, or the game ends. It also provides some insulation against board-sweepers, leaving you with a 1/1 flyer at the very least.

Mausoleum Guard is Doomed Traveler’s larger cousin. It’s not quite as mana-efficient, but at 2/2, it has the ability to trade with many creatures, and will often leave behind 4 power of flyers when it dies. With one or both of the token-helping enchantments on the board, this guy will often be enough to scare your opponent off attacking, giving you time to set up an even more threatening board position.

Midnight Haunting and Master's Call aren’t quite on the level of previous token-making spells like Raise the Alarm and Spectral Procession, but they do their jobs well enough. The ability to surprise your opponent by putting 4 more power onto the battlefield at the end of your opponent’s turn can come in handy, and you might even be able to trade with an unsuspecting attacker every once in a while.

White Sun's Zenith is a great finishing spell in case your opponent manages to deal with your token army. If the game drags on a bit, you can make enough tokens at the end of his turn to deal lethal before he can react. With Parallel Lives on the field, this is even more insane, and can put 20 power on the field at instant speed for a mere 8 mana.

Intangible Virtue can singlehandedly make your tiny tokens a force to be reckoned with. Since many of your tokens have Flying, you can often swoop in for some free damage without any risk of backlash. I can’t overstate how good giving all your tokens Vigilance is.

Parallel Lives enables a single token-making spell to create an entire army. With this in the field, Geist-Honored Monk gives you a 5/5 with Vigilance and four 1/1s with Flying, all for just 5 mana. Doomed Traveler and Mausoleum Guard will give you back twice their original power when they die, and Master's Call and Midnight Haunting will put 4 power onto the field at instant speed. If your opponent doesn’t deal with this enchantment very quickly, you can easily take over the game from any position.

Oblivion Ring is one of the best removal spells in the format right now. It deals with pretty much anything you want it to, and stops graveyard shenanigans cold. Between planeswalkers, Birthing Pod, and Tempered Steel, there are sure to be plenty of noncreature threats in the new format, and this gets rid of them all.

Gavony Township is an insanely powerful land in this deck. Once you get several creatures on the field, you can just sit back and start pumping them up, stockpiling cards in your hand in case your opponent plays a board-sweeper. If you start activating this with any significant board presence, your opponent will likely be dead in just a few short turns.

Play-Testing

Red Deck Wins – Game 1

I won the roll and kept a hand of two Forests, Plains, Intangible Virtue, Master's Call, Midnight Haunting, and Mausoleum Guard. I opened with a Plains, and my opponent played a Mountain and cast Stromkirk Noble before passing the turn. I drew Midnight Haunting, played a land, and cast Intangible Virtue. I ended my turn. My opponent attacked for 1 with Stromkirk Noble, put a counter on it, then played a land and cast Stormblood Berserker. He passed the turn. I drew Sunpetal Grove, played it, and passed the turn. My opponent played a land and attacked with both creatures. I cast Master's Call, making two Myr tokens. One of them traded with the Stromkirk Noble, and I took 3. My opponent cast Shrine of Burning Rage, followed by Grim Lavamancer, and passed the turn. I drew a Blade Splicer and attacked for 2 with my token. My opponent took the damage, and I played a land and cast the Splicer. I ended my turn. My opponent cast Incinerate on the Golem token, then activated Grim Lavamancer to finish it off. He attacked with Stormblood Berserker, and I blocked with the Myr token and the Blade Splicer, killing all three. He passed the turn. I drew Parallel Lives, cast it, and passed the turn. My opponent played a land, cast Chandra's Phoenix, and attacked with both creatures for 3. He cast another Grim Lavamancer and passed the turn. I drew Mausoleum Guard and passed back with no play. My opponent cast Hero of Oxid Ridge and attacked with everything. I cast Midnight Haunting for four 2/2 Spirits, each of which traded with one of his creatures, clearing the board. He ended his turn. I drew a Plains, played it, and passed the turn. My opponent cast Arc Trail, dealing 1 to me and 2 to himself, then cast Stormblood Berserker and passed the turn. At the end of his turn, I cast Midnight Haunting for four more 2/2s. I drew a Forest, dropped my opponent to 9, and died to a 12-point Shrine of Burning Rage activation on his turn.

Red Deck Wins – Game 2

My opponent took a mulligan, and I kept a hand of Plains, Sunpetal Grove, Gavony Township, two Oblivion Ring, Master's Call, and Geist-Honored Monk. I opened with a Plains, and my opponent played a Mountain and cast Stromkirk Noble before passing the turn. I drew a Doomed Traveler, played Sunpetal Grove, and cast it, then ended my turn. My opponent played a land and attacked for 1 with the Noble, putting a counter on it, then cast Grim Lavamancer and Furnace Scamp, and passed the turn. I drew Midnight Haunting, played Gavony Township, and passed the turn. My opponent played a land and attacked with Stromkirk Noble and Furnace Scamp. I cast Master's Call, blocking the Scamp with Doomed Traveler and the Noble with the two Myr tokens. I got a Spirit token, and my opponent passed the turn. I drew a Forest and attacked with my Spirit token. My opponent shot it down with Grim Lavamancer, and I played the land and passed the turn. My opponent cast Koth of the Hammer, activated his +1, and attacked me with the 4/4 Mountain. I cast Midnight Haunting and blocked with a Spirit, and he passed the turn. I drew Midnight Haunting, cast Oblivion Ring on Koth, and passed the turn. My opponent played a Mountain, cast a second Koth, and swung with another 4/4 Mountain. I blocked with the remaining Spirit, and he ended his turn. I drew White Sun's Zenith and cast Oblivion Ring on my Oblivion Ring. The first Koth came back, and the two planeswalkers annihilated each other. I ended my turn. My opponent played a land and cast Hero of Oxid Ridge. He attacked with both creatures, dropping me to 13, and passed the turn. I drew a Plains, played it, and passed the turn. My opponent attacked with both creatures again, and I cast White Sun's Zenith for 2, blocking and trading with each of them. He ended his turn. I drew an Oblivion Ring and cast Geist-Honored Monk, making two Spirits before passing the turn. My opponent cast Brimstone Volley on the Monk and ended his turn. I drew a Blade Splicer, attacked with both Spirits, and cast it. I passed the turn. My opponent cast Grim Lavamancer and passed the turn. I drew a Forest, played it, and activated Gavony Township. I attacked with everything, and my opponent took 10 damage. I passed the turn. My opponent cast a Furnace Scamp and ended his turn. I drew Intangible Virtue and attacked with everything. Furnace Scamp blocked the Golem, and Grim Lavamancer blocked Blade Splicer. I passed priority without activating Gavony Township, and he activated Grim Lavamancer, targeting the Blade Splicer. I activated the Township in response, and both creatures died to combat damage. My opponent dropped to 2 from the Spirit tokens, and I passed the turn. On his turn, my opponent cast Arc Trail, dealing 1 to me and finishing himself off.

Red Deck Wins – Game 3

I kept a hand of Plains, Sunpetal Grove, Gavony Township, Intangible Virtue, Blade Splicer, Master's Call, and Oblivion Ring. My opponent opened with a Mountain and passed the turn. I drew a Doomed Traveler, played the Plains, and cast it before passing back. My opponent played another Mountain and ended his turn. I drew a Forest, played Sunpetal Grove, and attacked for 1. I then cast Intangible Virtue and passed the turn. My opponent played a Mountain, cast Chandra's Phoenix and attacked for 2. He passed the turn. I drew Doomed Traveler, attacked for 1, then played my Forest and cast Blade Splicer. I ended my turn. My opponent played a land, attacked with Chandra's Phoenix, and cast Stormblood Berserker. He passed the turn. I drew Geist-Honored Monk and attacked with Doomed Traveler and the Golem token. My opponent took the 5 damage, dropping to 13. I played a land, cast another Doomed Traveler, and passed the turn. My opponent attacked with Chandra's Phoenix, and I took 2. He then cast Koth of the Hammer, activated his +1 ability, and passed the turn. I cast Master's Call at the end of his turn for two 2/2 Myr tokens. I drew another Master's Call, and attacked Koth with the Golem and both Myr tokens, and my opponent with the two Doomed Travelers. My opponent killed a Myr token with Stormblood Berserker, and Koth died. I passed the turn. My opponent cast Arc Trail, killing Blade Splicer and the remaining Myr token, then cast another Chandra's Phoenix and attacked with both. I dropped to 10, and he ended his turn. I cast Master's Call at the end of his turn for two more Myr tokens. On my turn, I drew a Plains, played it, and activated Gavony Township. The extra power was enough to kill my opponent in one swing.

This deck is definitely powerful, and causes a lot of problems for aggressive decks. When so many of your spells can trade for two or more of your opponent’s creatures, it becomes very hard for him to win games. Against control, things don’t go quite as smoothly, but the deck has enough synergy to win games regardless of what you’re facing. If your local environment is usually dominated by aggressive decks, or if you just love playing with tokens, I strongly encourage you to give this deck a try.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze or on Twitter under @Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.