Quote from Reid Duke »
BW Tokens is a difficult deck to classify; it has aspects of control, aggro, and combo. It wins with creatures, but there's no need to be discouraged if the opponent is still at twenty by turn 5. In fact, the longer the game goes, the more confident I feel about winning. For this reason, I tend to treat BW Tokens as a control deck that puts its efforts into creature advantage rather than mana, cards in hand, or defensive planeswalkers (as more traditional control decks do).
Table of Contents:
1) History
2) The Deck
2.1) The Core
2.2) Additions and Alternatives
3) Sideboard
4) Articles
5) Decklists
6) I got the Event Deck... Now what? Tips for playing the deck
7) Match Analysis
1) History:
BW Tokens is a old Standard deck from the times of Lorwyn/Shards of Alara. During that cycle it gravitated between being one of the best decks to being totally dominant.
It burst onto the modern scene when Jyun'ichi Miyajima won a GP with it in July 2012.
During 2013, it has been somewhat championed by Melissa DeTora during some GPs and to some extent by Craig Wescoe who chose to play it at the 2013 Magic World Championship. In 2014, it was printed as the Modern Event deck, making many of the core cards easy to acquire.
2) The Deck:
The core of the deck is Token Generators, Anthems, Creatures, Hand Disruption, and Removal. The cards below are the most common choices. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to run them, but all successful decks start with these core cards. The list is divided by what role the card plays in the deck. The number of slots in the deck is variable, and based on historically successful decks.
Raise the Alarm 1W Two 1/1s for 2cmc isn’t exactly amazing. Being at instant speed does help though, helps a lot actually.
As with all the tokens generators, it only starts getting broken when you get your anthems online.
Lingering Souls 2W Always run 4. It is usually considered to be amongst the best spells in the Modern format, some decks splash white just so they can have it.
Spectral Procession WWW Always run 4. More often than not, in this deck, it’s about the same quality as Lingering Souls. Having to have triple white mana if you want to cast it for 3cmc is kind of a bummer though.
It actually counts as 6cmc, so it single-handedly ruins the prospect of running Dark Confidant.
But when you are getting three flying 2/2s for one card, you can’t really complain.
Honor of the Pure 1W The best anthem if you run a deck with many vanilla (and white) creatures.
Intangible Virtue 1W The better one if your running less non-token creatures or if you somehow produce tokens that are not white. The vigilance can often prove decisive versus other creature decks, as you can start to race them with impunity.
Zealous Persecution WB Not really a classic anthem, seeing as how it is a instant and the effect only lasts until end of turn.
However it also doubles as a actual removal or conditional sweeper vs. Snapcaster Mage, Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch, Dark Confidant, Vendilion Clique, Pestermite, Grim Lavamancer, Affinity, Soul Sisters, to name a few. It's not an auto-include in the deck, but cast it during combat to truly tip the scales over.
Path to Exile W Always run 4. It’s usually considered among the premier removal spells in modern.
Doom Blade 1B It's simple and effective. Sometimes, you just need to kill something.
Elspeth Tirel 3WW The best planeswalker for this deck. Every ability is relevant to our game-plan. Running out of life? Done. Need some creatures? Easy. Want to just say "!@#$ you" to your opponent and clear the field? Gladly. It is important to note that we are not aiming to curve into her. This deck has loads of 3cmc drops. Keep playing creatures, tokens, and removal as needed, then slam down Tirel For The Win.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant 2WW One of the best walkers in Modern, she can provide a chump blocker each turn for that goyf, give you card advantage vs. control or provide you with a faster clock.
Starting on 4 loyalty and having two +1’s means she is very resilient.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad 2WB In this deck he proves to be very much like the Knight-Errant. His -2 for a permanent anthem is great in this deck and the lifelink on the token should not be underestimated.
I’d say it’s as easy as this, Elspeth is better in a deck with non-token creatures and therefore more Honor of the Pure while Sorin is better in the more token focused deck with more Intangible Virtue.
Creatures are an important part of the deck. Having an all token game plan can be risky, especially playing in a small meta. Cards like
Ratchet Bomb and
Engineered Explosives can just ruin us. Large creatures can also act as finishers that have to be answered, or risk turning the game heavily in our favor. For the core of the deck, generally run up to 3 of one the following, and any additional creatures from the "alternatives" list as needed:
Hero of Bladehold 2WW Some use her as a alternative to the Planeswalkers. She does put a ton pressure on the opponent if she is active, but not doing anything for the first turn when costing 4cmc is pretty steep.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos 1WW Run no more than 3. Hail to the King! At first glance, Brimaz is a weaker Hero, that competes with our 3cmc slot token generators. In reality, the 3cmc is a benefit (see explanation below), and he puts serious pressure on your opponent. He also decreases your reliance on
Intangible Virtue, as he produces Vigilance creatures.
Marsh Flats Our fetchland. Can get our Plains, Swamps and Godless Shrines
Arid Mesa The other fetchland that get get us plains. Not strictly needed, but it does help a bit.
Godless Shrine Always run 4. Our shock land.
Isolated Chapel We run Plains and Swamps and need white and black mana.
Fetid Heath Filter that mana! So we can drop a Auriok Champion on turn 2 from our turn 1 Swamp or turn 3 that Spectral Procession. As it only provides a colorless mana on it’s own and doesn’t synergies with Isolated Chapel, running more than two is not recommended.
Windbrisk Heights Cheat in a Planeswalker for 2cmc, or an anthem during combat. Keep in mind that activating it allows you to ignore standard timing. As long as you attacked with 3 creatures that turn, you can play what ever is under it at instant speed. It’s (un?)surprisingly good in this deck.
While the core cards above usually make up the full 60. There is definitely opportunity to change some things depending on your local meta, or personal preferences.
Midnight Haunting 2W A Lingering Souls without the flashback but at instant speed.
Gather the Townsfolk 1W Not exactly optimal but 2cmc and a token generator isn’t too bad.
Timely Reinforcements 2W Situational best describes this card. The six life can be huge against RDW and Zoo decks and three creatures isn’t anything so sneeze at. It has great synergy with
Windbrisk Heights. It can be totally dead in top deck scenarios.
BitterBlossom 1B Recently unbanned and ready for action, BB produces constant pressure at the cost of your life total. A deck with shocks, fetch's, and thoughseizes can make BB a fast clock for both you an your opponent. As such, no pro player has yet to endorse it, but MTGsalvation community members have posted results with BB decks. Keep in mind that Honor of the Pure is a no go with this strategy. Life gain is also recommended
Duress B Shouldn’t be in the main 60 unless your meta is combo and control heavy. Generally, you want thoughtseize of inquisition.
Dismember 1(P/B)(P/B) A great card that sees a lot of play both mainboard and sideboard in others decks.
Disfigure B 1cmc instant speed removal that works against the majority of modern staples is never a bad thing.
Engineered Explosives X It can shut down bogles, robots, and merfolk easily. Definitely an option over doom blade, depending on your meta.
Hour of Reckoning 4WWW Conditional and expensive. It can, however, totally save your bacon in an agro heavy meta.
Slaughter Pact 2B More expensive and conditional than
Doom Blade, but being able to play it the turn
before you pay for it allows you to tap out playing our numerous sorcery speed cards, and be ready for whatever craziness your opponent will cast on his turn.
Mirran Crusader 1WW Strong against Goyf and bogles. A few successful decks have ran it, and it's also recommended by Craig Wescoe.
Squadron Hawk 1W A solid way to keep creatures on the field and apply pressure. It's best used with a Sword of X and X.
Auriok Champion WW Being protection from black and red means she won’t be getting removed too easily. Giving 1 life for each creature entering the battlefield means you’ll be gaining pretty much life from all your tokens.
If you have two in play she acts as a hard counter for the combos of Splinter Twin and Murderous Redcap.
Still, in some match-ups she is close to a dead card and usually the first one to be side-boarded out.
Tidehollow Sculler WB Is the subject of much debate. In a perfect world, it’s a Thoughtseize with a 2/2 body for 2cmc. Sadly the world we live in (modern) is pretty far from perfect. The biggest problem is that he always eats removal, thus returning whatever card you chose. As such, an easy conclusion to draw is that Sculler should always take the removal spell. This is not entirely true, as Sculler really shines as a tempo choice. You get an opportunity to see your opponent's hand (always good), and then choose the card they
most need. They can then waste a turn killing the sculler (a psuedo time walk), or try playing without a (hopefully) key piece of their deck. This can create a 1:1 trade. We both spend a card from our hand, and we both spend a turn of our time. Since BW Tokens is a fair deck, forcing our opponen's to play fair, too, is powerful. Still, skuller always risks being situational, which is why I list him as an alternative to
Thoughtseize and
Inquisition of Kozilek
Caves of Koilos A cheap alternative if you don’t have enough fetches.
Vault of the Archangel Sometimes seen as a singelton. It turns your tokens into a death squad, in addition to gaining you life.
Ghost Quarter/
Tectonic Edge Having a way to remove pesky land is great. Generally the goal is to remove land with powerful effects, like man lands, or to stop Tron/Scapeshift. Keeping your opponent off a color of mana is a secondary goal.
More to come!
3) Sideboard:
We could talk about sideboard for days. Ultimately, run what works in your meta. If you don't know what that is, there are a few solid options for "unknown" metas, but the ideal option is to go to events, and learn the meta.
In general, it is best to run the
Hatiest Hate Possible. You don't want to inconvenience your opponent, you want to ruin their day. Keep that in mind when making sideboard selections.
Rest in Peace 1W A ‘hard’ alternative to Relic of Progenitus, as it has a continuous effect. Does tamper with your own Lingering Souls, so don't bring it in against
Snapcaster Mage. It's not worth locking out one of your best cards, too.
Grafdigger's Cage 1 The cage DOES NOT STOP
LIVING END. It does, however, stop Storm and Pod (and our own
Lingering Souls). It is a powerful solution to 2 very specific decks.
Rest in Peace also hurts those decks, and has broader applications, so generally, the cage is not recommended.
Stony Silence 1W Artifact hate. Shuts down the most troublesome cards that Affinity has, as well as significantly slowing down Tron (and stopping
Birthing Pod). Seeing as those two decks are amongst the most popular, the consensus is that anything between 1-3 of this particular card is common sense.
Burrenton Forge-Tender W Anti-hate. Pyroclasm and
Anger of the Gods is the bane of BW Tokens, as it can single handedly wipe our board presence. This is our 1cmc answer to it. More often than not, it occupies 3 slots in the sideboard.
Aven Mindcensor 2W Flashing this guy in can severely hamper decks that like to search their library, such Pod, Amulet of Vigor, and Scapeshift. It can slow down Tron as well. Being a 2/1 flyer means he’ll be pulling some extra weight as a damage dealer, especially with Honor of the Pure.
Runed Halo WW A very popular "unknown meta" catch all, Runed Halo can shut down anything trying to hit you. A
slippery bogle, goyf, or even Deceiver Exarch.
Leyline of Sanctity 2WW Another "unknow meta" catch all. It can stop opposing
thoughtseizes,
lightning bolts to the face (Burn in general),
Liliana of the Veil and random mill decks.
Liliana of the Veil 1BB Probably the best walker in Modern. She helps against Bogles and any kind of control matchups (including Merfolk).
Rule of Law 2W Shuts down living end and Storm. Can be substituted for
Ethersworn Canonist or
Eidolon of Rhetoric. Eidolon also has the benefit of being a lightning bolt proof creature for the same cost.
Celestial Flare WW Totally anti-Bogle tech.
Torpor Orb 1 Stops ETB effects, most notably souls sisters, combo elves, and amulet of vigor (namely Primeval Titan). I good choice against local metas with budget players, as those are lower tier, but cheap decks.
Suppression Field 1W Stops twin, and slows down pod. Good option if you play against both decks in your meta.
Disenchant 1W Simple and effective. It's a good way to take out artifacts and enchantments (big surprise, right?). Bring it in against Bogles, Robots, and lower tier strategies like
Heartless Summoning and combo elve's
Cloudstone Curio.
Sundering Growth (G/W)(G/W) Probably the "better" disenchant, as the ability is the same, but will almost always net you another token. The only draw back is the
WW casting cost.
Pithing Needle 1 A great way to stop pesky planeswalkers, namely
Karn Liberated.
Oblivion Ring 2W Oring needs no introduction. It's fantastic, broad hate against anything that needs to go away. It is sometimes played over
Disenchant or
Sundering Growth as it has further applications in other matches.
Fulminator Mage (B/R)(B/R) Another card with very clear uses. He brings the added bonus of letting us tap out on our turn to play token producing sorceries, while still having an answer to Urza Lands and Scapeshift.
4) Articles:
Here are some in depth articles about BW Tokens, taking a look at the decks strengths, weaknesses, specific matchups and so on.
I highly recommend that you read them.
Melissa DeTora on BW Tokens after getting 11th at the San Diego Grand Prix, 3/22/2013
Craig Wescoe on his 5th place run at the MTG World Championships (8/9/2013). He discusses BW Tokens part way down.
Melissa DeTora again, this time for the Detroit Grand Prix, 8/28/2013
What You Should Play in Modern and Why by Craig Wescoe - May 30, 2014
5) Decklists:
Quote from Craig Wescoe »
Modern is such a large format with so many viable decks [...] Fortunately WB Tokens is the sort of deck that has game against pretty much everything.
Historically successful decklists:
Craig Wescoe's Decklist recommended for PTQ season 2014:
MasterFlex's Decklist (my personal reward for keeping up the primer
):
My deck is great example of how you can tweak the deck. In this case, I've pushed it toward fighting an agro heavy meta.
6)I got the Event Deck... Now what? Tips for playing the deck:
BW Tokens may never be a tier one deck. At the end of the day, it is a fair deck, that means no instant win combos, no ramping, and virtually no way to draw (besides
Windbrisk Heights). That being said, the combination of hand disruption, spot removal, super efficient token producers, and the best hate/sideboard cards in the game can spell
VICTORY in any meta.
Let's start with a stock decklist, derived from simple modifications to the event deck. The cards either come in the deck, are common/uncommon and easy to find, or in the case of Brimaz/Thoughtseize, are in standard and can be traded:
Some advice for the Mulligan phase:
The primary way to answer this is to either know what your opponent is doing, or to consider your third turn.
Since we have powerful black control cards, and fantastic White hate, if you have previous knowledge of your opponent's deck,
mulligan to a card that helps. For example, anthems and lingering souls won't help against storm. You probably want to start with a thoughtseize, or your sideboard cards (in games 2/3). Again, the deck
doesn't draw. Don't expect to hit
Rest in Peace off the top before
Living End wipes the field.
If there is no advanced knowledge to draw on, focus on having a
playable hand. First off, you need a token generator. That should be pretty obvious, as this is a token deck. That's not all though, you should also consider your turn 3 options. This deck has a handful of turn 3 possibilities:
Brimaz, King of Oreskos,
Spectral Procession,
Lingering Souls, and
Tidehallow Sculler or
Raise the Alarm +
Windbrisk Heights. All can be played on turn 3, and (especially in game 1) it's nearly mandatory that one of them is played. Since we're a
fair deck, it's important to establish board presence early. The beauty of the deck is that we have options with what mana cost we must fulfill (
2W,
1WW, or
WWW). If your opening hand can not reasonably support its turn 3 drop, or you don't have a turn 3 drop,
Mulligan.
Card rulings and interactions that you should remember:
As with every deck, it's important to remember what your cards can do, and what they can't.
Windbrisk Heights - As long as you've met the clause of "3 of your creatures attacked this turn", you can pay the 1 mana, tap heights, and play the exiled card. This ignores standard timings. Don't forget to pop out an anthem during the declare attackers phase! Also, remember that the Brimaz and Hero of Bladehold tokens do not count as being "Declared as attacking", so they DO NOT count toward your windbrisk total.
Lingering Souls - It's a Sorcery.
Raise the Alarm - It (on the other hand) is an
instant.
Spectral Procession - You can play it for
BBBBW or
BBWW in a pinch (or even colorless instead of black).
Next, maximizing the use of thoughtseize:
Finally, don't over extend. A common mistake is to flood the field with tokens (despite having enough in play to push for lethal), only to get blown out by a sweeper. Sometimes, you have to agro with everything you've got, but do not do that unless it is mandatory.
7)Match Analysis:
There is plenty of room for variation in BW Tokens. For the matchups section, I've listed the major competing decks, and all none-core cards that help against that match. Your sideboard will not fit all these cards. Generally, you need to pad your mainboard a bit with what you think you're going to fight.
In general, BW Token decks have 4 or 5 flex spots. These slots get filled with meta choices such as
Auriok Champion,
Mirran Crusader, and
Engineered Explosives. These will be the first cards to remove when sideboarding, as they are not core to the deck. After that, I recommend removing/trying alternatives to
Raise the Alarm, as it's our weakest token generator. Walkers are a good 3rd option to drop, as Elspeth's main power is against midrange decks, which have gone out of favor since the banning of
Deathrite Shaman.
BW Tokens has game against everything, if you prepare properly. We are generally favored against midrange strategies. Midrange decks push for small, incremental gains, and our "3+ creatures for the price of 1 spells" hurts that plan. Most decks in Modern fall back on a midrange strategy when they run out of agro beats, or can't hit their combo. As mentioned before, longer games can lean in our favor.
As with other midrange strategies, we have a small advantage right out of the gate. Their spot removal (lightning bolt/helix) doesn't do much against our spells that produce multiple flyers. Hitting an anthem is a must, as a 2/2 creature can trade with
Geist of St Traft, forcing them to use resources (or the loose Geist) trying to get through.
Elspeth Tirel also shines in this match, as the life gain, creatures produced, and field wipe potential are all huge swings in our favor. Watch out for
Restoration Angel and
Thundermaw Hellkite. The Hellkite is not super common, but can really wreck us, while Resto is just an all around good card that hurts our air superiority.
+
Sword of Fire and Ice
+
Sword of War and Peace
The key against burn is to gain life or stop any of their spells. They run out of gas fast, and rely on players hurting themselves to get faster wins. Try to only
Thoughtseize if you know it can take a spell that would hurt you more than the 2 to cast. Don't shock lands in or fetch unless necessary. Watch out for sweepers in game 2/3.
+
Burrenton Forge-Tender
+
Auriok Champion
To win this match, go full agro. Get enough damage on the board for Karn to just not matter. Always watch out for red sweepers (
Pyroclasm,
Anger of the Gods, etc), and keep them from assembling the Urza Land if possible. For the first point, bring in an anti-sweeper card like Burrenton. To stop the land, prevent them from using their artifacts to search (
Stony Silence, also good against
Oblivion Stone), prevent them from searching their library with
Aven Mindcensor, or just destroy the land with
Fulminator Mage,
Techtonic Edge, or
Ghost Quarter.
+
Stony Silence
+
Fulminator Mage
+
Aven Mindcensor
+
Tectonic Edge or
Ghost Quarter
+
Burrenton Forge-Tender (Protection against red sweepers)
+
Pithing Needle or
Oblivion Ring against Karn.
Same game plan as RG, but no more red sweepers to worry about. They favor the Academy Ruins package, which fuels the super fun
Mindslaver lock. Fortunately,
Stony Silence and standard land destruction makes that tough. If they do get the lock, you can request they play it out. It takes about 10 minutes to mill out a deck 1 turn at a time. They have to use Academy Ruins, draw the mindslaver, cast and activate the mindslaver, pass the turn, then draw your card, tap your land, and pass the turn back. You can get lucky, push the game to time, or catch them in an error. Be very cautious of mass return spells, like
Cyclonic Rift and
Aetherize.
+
Stony Silence
+
Fulminator Mage
+
Aven Mindcensor
+
Tectonic Edge or
Ghost Quarter
The key is to break their combo. They can't really fight our token army, so make it hard to combo off, and we can win. Keep
Path to Exile mana untapped (even if just as a threat), and hold
Zealous Persecution to either guarantee a win or to stop the combo for 1 turn.
+
Torpor Orb
Same as TarmoTwin, but now they don't have scooze or goyf. This deck plays with more of a midrange feel, which gives us an advantage.
+
Torpor Orb