Standard Deck Examination: Black/White Tokens

So as per the normal procedure after the release of a brand new set, it's time to take a look at the decks which spawned courtesy of Dark Ascension's arrival onto the scene in standard, but first as per the normal procedure let's take a look at the primer for this deck, courtesy of MTGSalvation, special thanks for this primer goes to King Shane for his hard work in putting the primer together.

MTGSalvation Primer for Black/White Tokens


Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Doomed Traveler

Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Shrine of Loyal Legions
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring

Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
12 Plains
5 Swamp

So that is the basis of the primer right there in it's entirety, 24 lands, 7 creatures and of course 29 spells make the core of the deck, but let's put a bit more analysis into this particular list starting with the core of the deck

Creatures/Spells

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - Every list with him should contain at least 3 copies of this guy, his 2nd ability alone gives you a overwhelming edge and his first is just nasty at all times, meaning even if don't get a chance to use his 3rd ability your still gonna have a very potent generator on your side.

Intangible Virtue - The only non color based pump spell this deck can use, Honor of the Pure focuses on White, this focuses on how many tokens we can churn out, which is what we want here.

Gather the Townsfolk/Midnight Haunting/Lingering Souls - Basically our main token producers in this deck, should usually be maxed out at 4 copies each regardless, unless your playing a different style of Black/White tokens which i'll get into later.

Hero of Bladehold - I feel this creature is a perfect fit for this deck, Battle cry is so relevant here it's not even funny and the the fact it generates a constant presence in the deck at 4 mana is just insane.

Oblivion Ring - Do you know how many situations this is good for, 10, deals with Swords, creatures, pretty much any threat on the board and being one of the three drop spells in the deck, 2 main deck at all times, regardless of what you play, with the spare 2 in the sideboard.

Lands


Vault of the Archangel - The relevance of lifelink here is nil, but deathtouch is the most relevant ability, activate the vault on your opponent's attack step, use your 2/2's to block say a titan and trade effectively then return fire.

Isolated Chapel - The only real enemy land we can use here, it's a consistent drop when we need fixing, even if we have just plains, this is our black source so we can cast Sorin, flashback a Lingering Souls or use our vault's ability.

Now that we are done analyzing the core stasis of the deck it's time to take a look at some of the many lists featured in the Primer on Salvation, starting with a more control based variant of the deck, which is somewhat the same in terms of what the core of the deck should be with a few minor changes to it.

Salvation Primer - Black/White Tokens Control


Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold

Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
2 Day of Judgment
4 Despise
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring

Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
11 Plains
6 Swamp

Now let's go over the changes to this style, with the addition of Despise and Day of Judgment we removed the following, 4 Doomed Traveler, 1 Shrine of Loyal Legions and 1 Gather the Townsfolk, so we can slot in the 4 copies of Despise and the 2 Day of Judgment for the deck to make it a control style, plus the land  base is just a tad different with the ratio of Plains and Swamp at 11/6 overall for the deck, making it a bit more black focused. With this next list is more the Aggro style of play with this deck, featuring a few additions that i thought would never make the list.

Salvation Primer - Black/White Tokens Aggro


Creatures
3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Suture Priest/Accorder Paladin

Spells
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Honor of the Pure
3 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring

Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Vault of the Archangel
12 Plains
5 Swamp

With this deck you'll notice it's not 60 but 62 cards, yes there is a reason why because of the fact Honor of the Pure is in this deck plain and simple, which you never have seen this particular enchantment in this type of deck ever honestly, but most of our token generators are white, besides Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Now let's take a look at the changes made to this particular list, the lands are switched back to the proper numbers meaning it's more focused on white then anything with only 3 black cards and 1 black ability required for the deck, the addition of the extra creature can either be Priest or Paladin, it is your call on this but i'd pick the priest for the mirror match up honestly, since then they will lose life for each token hitting the board and you gain life off each token played. Honor of the Pure replaces our Shrine for this deck meaning we have to basically stay focused on white and we can't just use colorless mana much anymore, oh well. Other then those slight changes to the deck, the deck pretty much remains the same as the core deck presented at the beginning, including the creature base.

Now after that lengthy examination we are not done by a long shot, there are still a few more things i want to look at, the Matchups for this deck, in this heavy U/W Delver, Red Deck Wins and of course Wolf Run Ramp at that, with such things as Delver of Secrets and turn 1 Stromkirk Nobles out there floating around, how do we deal with this kind of stuff, well let's take a look at the sideboard material cards also provided by the primer.

Ratchet Bomb - Sweeper spell that kills tokens, etc, slow but very deadly when it goes off, this will be one or the only sweeper missed in the deck if not playing control.

Stony Silence - Artifacts, please this stops em all, tempered steel, Shrines, Opals you name it it stops them all, regardless at least a 1 or a 2 of in your sideboard for most of those based style decks.

Nevermore - It's the unquestionable card that stops all hexproof creatures, Dungrove Elder, Geist of Saint Traft, walkers you name it, it stops period, simple as that, considerably good sideboard material for the deck.

Timely Reinforcements - Personally i don't understand what the big deal of a 3 drop sorcery is in this case, sure it's a situational card like most sideboard material cards but hasn't proven itself to be the threat level necessary even for the sideboard

Hex Parasite - Anything that eats counters for breakfast is sickening, sure with stuff like Phantasmal Image and stuff in the current meta, i'd consider this one of the more versatile cards of the sideboard.

Most of the other spells in the deck are considerations including Black Sun's Zenith, Swords, Dismember, Spellbomb, Abolisher etc, but the ones listed here are probably the most productive sideboard material cards to run for the deck as a whole, but also remind yourself 2 of the sideboard slots always belong to the remaining Oblivion Ring's in the deck, so with 13 slots to work with, each card is a deep consideration when building White/Black tokens as a whole, but for now i will leave you to consider this and such, because that's all the time i have for this article, until next time this is vergil signing off.