Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,
We're in again with another Magic the Gathering standard constructed deck idea for today's post. Just a note - if you are reading this in the distant future, just check which blocks / sets are in standard. Anywhoos - Innistrad had delivered a wallop of Innistrad tokens to consider and the moment when we saw the new card Intangible Virtue, we wanted to build something with it.
Intangible Virtue, an uncommon enchantment with a cmc of just two (a colourless and a white mana), gives your creature tokens +1/+1 and viligence has some friends - namely the Innistrad rare land, Gavony Township which for a green, a while and two colourless mana, will dump another hard +1/+1 counter on each critter you control. White tokens can get a lot of love in this set with the addition of the M12 rare, Honor of the Pure. This sort of build has already garnered a moniker - Township Tokens and looks like it may become a popular choice not only at Friday Night Magic events but also with some of the more serious players.
The big question now is, where exactly are the tokens coming from. We looked to a green and white build but decided on mostly white with a splash of green. To this end, we chose the one drop Doomed Traveller which will produce a 1/1 spirit token, the house that is Shrine of Loyal Legions with the potential to create a small army of 1/1 colourless Myr tokens, and Timely Reinforcements (a life pump of +6, and three 1/1 while soldier tokens) which we think is critical given that this build is somewhat sidelined for the first two turns. We also have a lot of admiration for Midnight Haunting (producing two 1/1 white Spirit tokens, and the amazing Hero of Bladehold which not only has the Battle Cry tech, but also spits out two 1/1 white Soldier tokens when the Hero attacks. To wrap up this token burrito, we like to have Elspeth Tirel on board. This gal has the abilitiy to gain you a lot of life, generate tokens, and provide a game resetting board wipe while leaving the tokens intact.
Speaking of board wipers, a Day of Judgement is a solid choice for a global effect to reset the field from which you would likely be better adept at recovering since this is a token build. There is also some shenanigans to be had with the New Phyrexia card, Fresh Meat which can easily puke out an army of 3/3 green Beast tokens after you or your opponent cleared your side of the table.
We are still considering (but will likely go with) using Parallel Lives to double up the speed of the token engine. We also have concerns about dead draws (pulling a land when we do not need one, or vice versa), so we are considering using Mentor of the Meek which offers a card draw for onlly 1 mana every time you play a 2-powered creature.
Are you planning on building a token deck ? Which way will you go about it ? - Drop a comment below and get expressive with your creativity.
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Here's a quick look at two takes on a Township Token build from some recent tournaments . . .
Township Tokens, A Standard Magic deck, by Robert Smith
12th place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, United States on 2011-10-09
Maindeck:
Artifacts : 4 Shrine of Loyal Legions
Creatures : 2 Blade Splicer, 2 Doomed Traveler, 2 Hero of Bladehold
Enchantments : 4 Honor of the Pure, 4 Intangible Virtue, 2 Oblivion Ring
Instants : 4 Midnight Haunting
Legendary Creatures : 1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Planeswalkers : 4 Elspeth Tirel
Sorceries : 3 Day of Judgment, 3 Timely Reinforcements
Basic Lands : 9 Plains
Other Lands : 4 Gavony Township, 4 Inkmoth Nexus, 4 Razorverge Thicket, 4 Sunpetal Grove
Sideboard: 2 Blade Splicer, 1 Doomed Traveler, 2 Hero of Bladehold, 1 Oblivion Ring, 3 Marrow Shards, 4 Naturalize, 1 Day of Judgment, 1 Timely Reinforcements
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Township Tokens, A Standard Magic deck, by Andrew Shrout
12th place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States on 2011-10-02
Maindeck:
Artifacts : 4 Shrine of Loyal Legions
Creatures : 3 Doomed Traveler, 4 Hero of Bladehold
Legendary Creatures : 3 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Enchantments : 4 Honor of the Pure, 4 Intangible Virtue
Instants : 3 Dismember, 4 Midnight Haunting
Planeswalkers : 4 Elspeth Tirel
Sorceries : 3 Day of Judgment
Basic Lands : 3 Forest, 9 Plains
Other Lands : 4 Gavony Township, 4 Razorverge Thicket, 4 Sunpetal Grove
Sideboard: 2 Sword of Feast and Famine, 2 Oblivion Ring, 2 Naturalize, 4 Purify the Grave, 1 Day of Judgment, 4 Timely Reinforcements
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3 comments:
I've a deck like this one :D it's really nice, and, if you use werewolfs you can use Full Moon's Rise while using Day of Judgment
I'm actually in the process of building this as my standard deck of choice for my local meta, but it's a tad different since i'm considering adding and removing specific cards. i'm going to end up having to examine this deck myself since it sounds like fun.
If you see the wording, Intangible Virtue only gives token +1/+1 much like Honor of The Pure or Crusade giving White Creatures +1/+1. So it’s not a +1/+1 counter. Thus, the idea of Gavony Township giving it *another* extra +1/+1 isn’t exactly correct (you can’t proliferate it, once the Intangible Virtue get Naturalize’d the tokens no longer get that +1/+1, etc)
Oh and no matter how powerful Timely Reinforcements are, we’re playing a token deck. Tokens get to overwhelm, especially when you’re in control. The ideal scenario is you have one less creature than your opponent, but what if the opposite happens? It becomes an untimely reinforcements, a dead card that only gives you life points at best. That’s why I’d like to keep the number of copies as minimum as possible, or even ignore it entirely. It’s great for a The Deck kind of deck, but not for creature-heavy (token) deck like this.
With that taken care of, here’s my build.
Creatures
3 Sun Titan
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Blade Splicer
3 Fiend Hunter
2 Mentor of the Meek
Spells
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Mental Misstep
3 Master’s Call
3 Midnight Haunting
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Divine Reckoning
Artifacts
4 Origin Spellbomb
23 Lands
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Seachrome Coast
2 Ghost Quarter
13 Plains
1. Build up your defenses & draw cards using the Origin Spellbomb.
2. Use the Fiend Hunter & Oblivion Rings to remove threats.
3. Use Mentor of the Meek to draw cards while you’re at it.
4. Use Master’s Call & Midnight Haunting to get tokens, lot’s of em.
5. Use Snapcaster Mage to flashback the token producers
6. Sun Titan is key here. Reanimate Snapcaster mage to Flashback other spells, Reanimate creatures to trigger the Mentor, Reanimate Origin Spellbomb for card drawing and more Myr tokens, Reanimate Blade Splicer for more Golem tokens, Reanimate Ghost Quarter to strip the opponent off their non basic lands, Reanimate Ring of Oblivion for other threats, etc.
7. Divine Reckoning is used here so we can keep our Sun Titan, kill Snapcaster, reanimate it again with the Titan, etc.
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