I’m trying something a bit different this week. In my “New Perspectives” articles, I go over three different ways to build around a single Oathbreaker. “Mana Clash” is going to be a very similar series, but these articles will be centered around general deck archetypes, rather than a specific Oathbreaker. “Mana Clash” articles will also have three different decklists for each archetype, each of which will be built around a different Oathbreaker in a different color combination. To kick the series off, we’re going to take a look at three different flavors of tokens-based strategies.
The Archetype
Despite the simple name, there’s a surprisingly wide variety of token strategies out there. Some token decks look to swarm the board with small tokens and overwhelm their opponents. Other builds aim to create token copies of their own creatures or sacrifice their tokens for extra value. There are even certain strategies dedicated to giving your opponents more creature tokens and forcing everyone to swing at each other for added hilarity.
Between having an Oathbreaker and a Signature Spell, there’s room for plenty of possibilities with building a token deck in Oathbreaker. There are countless planeswalkers, instants, and sorceries that can create tokens or lend you some extra advantage for playing creature tokens. Another upside of playing a tokens-based strategy in Oathbreaker is how your usual gameplan will often give you a way to pressure opposing Oathbreakers while still providing defense for your own.
The biggest weakness of most creature-token strategies is mass removal, aka board wipes. Mass protection spells, such as Unbreakable Formation, are the most commonly used means of countering this weakness, though high amounts of card draw and/or recursion can also help you avoid being dead-in-the-water after a board wipe. Mass suppression cards, such as Ghostly Prison, are a secondary weakness of many token decks. The two best ways to answer this weakness are typically either 1) run spot removal to get rid of the suppression effect, or 2) have some means of winning the game that does not require attacking.
Now that we’ve gone over the general archetype, let’s look at the specific builds I have prepared for today.
Build #1: Sorin’s Solemn Tokens
Decklist: Sorin’s Solemn Tokens
This first list is a pretty straightforward and traditional go-wide tokens deck. Out of all the various white/black iterations of Sorin, I decided to build this deck Sorin, Solemn Visitor. The reasons I made this choice are that his tokens have flying and his +1 ability can cause some massive life swings. As for the Signature Spell, I decided to try out Gruesome Fate. This deck runs a lot of repeatable token generators, as well as a number of token-generating spells such as Midnight Haunting, Spectral Procession, and Lingering Souls. Between all of our token generators, it won’t be difficult for us to have five or more creatures on the board at a time, turning Gruesome Fate into quite the deadly burn spell.
- Repeatable Token Makers: Sorin himself is only going to be able to make a token about once every three turns, so it’ll be important for us to have a number of other ways to easily create tokens. The life costs on Bitterblossom and Dreadhorde Invasion aren’t insignificant, but Sorin’s +1 will help even our life total out.Ophiomancer‘s snakes are a nice bit of added defense, even if we can’t swarm the board with them. As for other planeswalkers, Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad are two more solid token-producers, along with Elspeth, Sun’s Champion at the top of our mana curve. Leonin Warleader is a nice aggressive threat that can easily snowball in damage when paired with our Oathbreaker, once it gets going. In addition to buffering our life total, Sorin’s +1 ability can also be useful for creating some bigger and beefier creature tokens with Crested Sunmare.
- Resiliency: As a go-wide tokens beatdown strategy, we’re going to have to make sure that we won’t just lose to a board wipe. Promise of Bunrei and Seraph of the Scales will leave behind some creatures after getting hit by most board wipes, ensuring we’ll still be able to provide some sort of pressure on-board. We can also use Recurring Nightmare and Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord to gradually refill our board with whatever is leftover in our graveyard. In addition to being an incredible protection spell for our board state, Teferi’s Protection can also be used to save ourselves, if necessary. Legion’s Landing/Adanto, the First Fort and Castle Ardenvale aren’t the fastest token-producers out there, but they’ll help make sure we always have something to do with our mana. The 1/1 tokens they create also pair very well with Skullclamp, which is this deck’s easiest tool to use to refill our hand.
- Other Payoffs: Our Oathbreaker and Signature Spell aren’t the only ways we can capitalize on our mass of tokens. Corpse Knight is essentially this deck’s equivalent of Impact Tremors, and it can do a lot of incidental damage when it comes down early. Once we’re well set up, Intangible Virtue will help us put even more pressure on our opponents without leaving ourselves at as much of a risk. Loyal Unicorn is another way to give all of our creatures vigilance, as well as make our creatures almost unstoppable in combat. Zealous Persecution‘s bonus is only temporary, but it will make combat very unprofitable for our opponents when they least expect it. For a long-lasting bonus, we have Drana, Liberator of Malakir to help repeatedly buff all of our attacking creatures. This list is also capable of making tall threats ( or “chonky”, as the kids say) with the likes of Rite of Belzenlok and Westvale Abbey/Ormendahl, Profane Prince.
Build #2: Token-Blink
Decklist: Venser’s Reflections
There are a lot of different ways to make creature-tokens in MTG, and this deck looks to do so by repeatedly blinking its permanents. “Blink” strategies are also a broader deck archetype on their own, but that doesn’t mean a blink deck can’t also be a token deck. Since we’re looking to flicker our cards to create more tokens, Venser, the Sojourner is the perfect Oathbreaker to put at the helm of this list. On top of having a +2 ability that pairs excellently with this strategy, Venser’s -1 ability can be used to end games by circumventing our opponents’ blockers entirely. Wake the Reflections will be a very handy Signature Spell to have access to in this deck, especially when we start creating some of our larger creature-tokens.
- Token-Producers: This list is running one “regular” token-producer in Elspeth, Knight-Errant, but the majority of token-producers in this list are creatures that are also blink targets. Hanged Executioner builds our board presence in the air and can be used as spot removal when necessary. We can make even more flyers with Whirler Rogue, who also doubles as another way to make our creatures unblockable. Flickering Regal Caracal is a great way to gum up the board and gain some incidental life while we’re at it. This list also runs a whole suite of golem-token-producers, creating a bit of a golem tribal subtheme: Blade Splicer, Wing Splicer, Master Splicer, and Sensor Splicer.
- Payoffs: Scion of Vitu-Ghazi is another way for us to populate our more powerful tokens, such as a 3/4 from Wingmate Roc or an embalmed Angel of Sanctions. We also have an additional way to make our tokens unblockable thanks to Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun, and he can even become a token himself! Being able to make our creatures unblockable is a strong effect in general, but it also works very well with my favorite spicy include for this deck, Mist-Syndicate Naga. Last but not least, our biggest payoff (literally and figuratively) for playing this type of tokens strategy is Kiora Bests the Sea God. In addition to creating an 8/8 with hexproof by itself, this enchantment can be blinked by Venser for even more game-ending value.
- Other Synergies: We can use Cavalier of Dawn as either a token-producer or a form of spot removal, and it makes an excellent blink target for Venser. Elspeth Conquers Death is another blinkable means of spot removal, and sometimes it’ll even reanimate one of our own threats. We’re also running a handful of other noncreature targets for Venser’s +2 ability. Oath of Gideon and Omen of the Sun are two cheap enchantments that will also contribute to our ever-growing token-count. We won’t be populating any 0/0 germ tokens, but we can blink Batterskull to “reset” it when necessary. Given all of our blink synergies, we’ll also want to run some redundant blink-enablers. Soulherder and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling are two excellent ways to flicker our board, even if they’re limited to targeting creatures.
Build #3: Token-Ramp
Decklist: Xenago’s Belligerence
There’s one card in the history of magic that’s particularly well-known for being powerful in go-wide creature strategies: Gaea’s Cradle. The bad news is that the vast majority of MTG players can’t afford even one copy of this obscenely expensive card; however, the good news is that there’s an Oathbreaker that does (essentially) the same thing! The +1 ability on Xenagos, the Reveler is a G/R version of Gaea’s Cradle‘s ability, and this list is primarily built around this ability. We can always use Xenagos’s middle ability to make some satyrs when necessary, but we’ll be defaulting to the +1 whenever we can. In the spirit of having our gameplan be a tokens-strategy, first and foremost, the big-mana payoff and Signature Spell for this deck is Ghired’s Belligerence. We’re running other cards to funnel our mana into, most of which are token-producers, but Ghired’s Belligerence is the win-condition this deck hinges on.
- Mana Acceleration: Our Oathbreaker will obviously be pulling most of the weight in this department, but we’re still going to want to run some cheap mana ramp to get our gameplan going as soon as possible. Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Arboreal Grazer, and Sylvan Caryatid can all come down early in the game to help enable a turn-3 Xenagos. We’re also running another “Gaea’s Cradle” effect in Growing Rites of Itlimoc/Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun. This deck is already looking to form a horde of little creatures in as little as time as it can manage, so sticking four or more creatures on the board won’t usually be a problem for us. Although it’s technically no Gaea’s Cradle, Cryptolith Rite offers a similarly large boost in mana based on how many creatures we control.
- Token-Producers: We have one-off token-producers, such as Saproling Migration and Hordeling Outburst, to help fill out our board, but we’re also running plenty of repeatable token-producers. Loyal Apprentice will gradually grow our presence in the air once we resolve Xenagos, and we can defend against opposing flyers with a spider horde lead by Arasta of the Endless Web. We can keep the ground covered with the help of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Tibalt, Rakish Instigator, and their low-toughness tokens will make excellent targets later on for Ghired’s Belligerence. Since killing our opponents’ creatures also counts towards populate for our Signature Spell, we also have a handful of ways to give our opponents some small tokens as additional targets. Hungry Lynx and Goblin Spymaster both fill this role, and the Spymaster’s tokens even force our opponents to attack each other. Forbidden Orchard is another way for us to be generous with our tokens, and we can hand out those tokens politically as we see fit.
- Payoffs: This deck has no shortage of big haymakers to spend its mana on. Tendershoot Dryad makes and buffs its own tokens, and Thunderfoot Baloth will give our entire board a significant boost. The tokens from Dragon Broodmother and Hornet Queen will give us a strong board presence in the air, with the former usually used offensively and the latter defensively. Drawing lands late in the game won’t be particularly exciting for us, unless we have Omnath, Locus of Rage in play, of course. Wolfbriar Elemental‘s kicker cost is a perfect mana sink we can use to flood the board, and the effect on Ezuri’s Predation pairs particularly well with our “generous” token-producers. The 5/4 from Rhonas’s Last Stand is just the type of token we’re looking to populate, and the card’s downside is largely mitigated by Xenagos’s +1 ability. If we’re looking to go even bigger with our token population, we can split our mana between Purphoros’s Intervention and our Signature Spell to make a thunderous stampede of “Ball Lightning” tokens to take out one, or more, opponents.
Shared Cards
Here’s a quick overview of what notable cards each of the lists share with each other.
- Sorin & Venser: Blade Splicer, Hanged Executioner, Intangible Virtue, Land Tax, Smothering Tithe, and Castle Ardenvale
- Sorin, Venser & Xenagos: Idol of Oblivion
A Token For Your Thoughts?
So. Many. Tokens! Before writing this article, I never thought much about how many different kinds of token-strategies there are, but it’s been interesting and fun to explore all of these different possibilities. I’m looking forward to writing more articles like this one and brewing around with other archetypes.
Have you had fun playing any kind of token-strategy in Oathbreaker? What planeswalker do you/would you play and build a token deck around? Make sure to tell me your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter!
About the author: My name is Alex Enders. I am a college student that’s been playing MTG for almost eight years, though I only recently began experimenting with writing content. My personal formats of choice are Oathbreaker, EDH, and draft. My other interests include music, education, and most things nerdy. You can find me on Twitter (@AAAEnders) or email me at aenders2112@gmail.com