Whenever a new set is released, a lot of people take one of the legendary creatures and make a Commander deck around it. We love new commanders! I decided to do that today with one of the the Return to Ravnica guild leaders. After looking at my options, Trostani was the one that most called to me, so I built the deck. Let’s take a look at the deck first and then discuss it.

"Trostani Triple Threat"

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Ant Queen
• 1 Dauntless Escort
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Farhaven Elf
• 1 Knight of New Alara
• 1 Knight of the Reliquary
• 1 Penumbra Wurm
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Selesnya Guildmage
• 1 Thragtusk
• 1 Twilight Drover
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
• 1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
• 1 Woodfall Primus
• 1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1 Rhys the Redeemed
• 1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
• 1 Verdeloth the Ancient

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Garruk Wildspeaker
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

• Spells (41)
• 1 Decree of Savagery
• 1 Eladamri's Call
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Rootborn Defenses
• 1 Safe Passage
• 1 Seed Spark
• 1 Sprout Swarm
• 1 Sundering Growth
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Trostani's Judgment
• 1 Coursers' Accord
• 1 Crush of Wurms
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Decree of Justice
• 1 Entreat the Angels
• 1 Far Wanderings
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Increasing Devotion
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Parallel Evolution
• 1 Roar of the Wurm
• 1 Seek the Horizon
• 1 Storm Herd
• 1 Tooth and Nail
• 1 Wurmcalling
• 1 Asceticism
• 1 Aura Shards
• 1 Centaur Glade
• 1 Collective Blessing
• 1 Doubling Season
• 1 Glare of Subdual
• 1 Growing Ranks
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Night Soil
• 1 Privileged Position
• 1 Eldrazi Monument
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Selesnya Keyrune
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Akroma's Memorial

• Lands (36)
• 11 Forest
• 11 Plains
• 1 Gargoyle Castle
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Graypelt Refuge
• 1 Grove of the Guardian
• 1 Khalni Garden
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Urza's Factory
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Miren, the Moaning Well
• 1 Yavimaya Hollow

Buy This Deck

Trostani has two abilities you have to consider when building your deck. The first is the life-gain from your creatures that enter the battlefield. The second is the ability to cheaply populate with 3 mana and a tap. I built around both for the deck.

We have other ways of making decent-sized bodies. Centaur Glade, Garruk Wildspeaker, and Garruk, Primal Hunter will make 3/3s for your troubles. All are repeatable effects that can overwhelm many. Don’t forget Selesnya’s super 8/8 land Grove of the Guardian. It’s a top target for populating. I also included 4/4 Angels from both Decree of Justice and Entreat the Angels. The ability to make 4/4 flyers is powerful, and when you add Trostani’s populating to it, it can get out of hand. I also chose Gargoyle Castle, which will sacrifice for a 3/4 flyer in case you want to jumpstart more flyers.

With these big creatures hitting the table, I wanted more token effects. Populate seems to be a good place to start, so in went populate cards such as Coursers' Accord, Trostani's Judgment, Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage and the very powerful Rootborn Defenses. This deck needs ways to keep the team alive through mass removal, so it plays double duty. After I added populate to the deck, it wanted more. Doubling Season was the obvious place to begin. Parallel Evolution was similarly swank. I then added a few others such as Rhys the Redeemed.

After I pushed my token theme, I wanted ways to make them better. Akroma's Memorial was a must have. I also thought of Eldrazi Monument, which immediately went in as well. It’s not as though we won’t have a 1/1 dork to sacrifice to it. Mirari's Wake does double damage, both as a mana enhancer for great spells (imagine it with Wurmcalling, Verdeloth, Entreat the Angels, Decree of Justice, etc.) and as a way to pump the team. Both Tolsimir Wolfblood and Wilt-Leaf Liege pump our guys; they were added. Gavony Township adds some counters to our guys, Knight of New Alara pumps the gold dudes by 2, and finally, in went new powerhouse Collective Blessing. That thing is downright insane—especially here!

My deck began to need rounding out. We needed spells to fetch lands, so I included Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Far Wanderings, and the powerful new Seek the Horizon. Farhaven Elf and Krosan Verge make an appearance as well. I also needed removal. Qasali Pridemage , Acidic Slime, and Woodfall Primus made the cut along with Aura Shards, Seed Spark, and Sundering Growth. These will off artifacts or enchantments as needed. Note that the Shards works with token creatures as well as normal ones, and it has a may effect, so it won’t destroy your own stuff by accident. For creature removal, I chose Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares only. I just didn’t have a lot of room for excess cards. Trostani's Judgment is removal, too.

I fleshed out the deck with some more creatures of value. Eternal Witness is powerful for obvious reasons. Knight of the Reliquary is a powerful card that can tutor for any land, and my favorite trick with it is to fetch a card such as Kor Haven or Yavimaya Hollow as an instant and then use its ability. Twilight Drover is hot in a deck with a bunch of token creatures. This certainly qualifies. Turning a dying token into two Spirits has the potential to ramp up your side. Plus, it can scale in size very quickly. I wanted a bit more creature-making, so in went Rampaging Baloths and Thragtusk.

There are a few cards that we need to discuss more. I’ve found that my recent Commander games are going on longer and longer, so I’m looking to add two or three powerful late-game spells to my decks. Decree of Savagery will pump the whole team permanently. Adding a permanent +4/+4 un-Disenchant-able boost is quite nasty. (Plus, you can cycle it as a surprise permanent Giant Growth effect). Another swinging late-game spell is Storm Herd. Even if you’ve drawn forty cards from your deck, making sixty 1/1 flyers changes the game. It forces mass removal or an answer of another sort immediately. You can imagine how powerful it would be if those tokens were pumped by any of the decks various creature-pumping effects.

The last six cards cut from this deck were Phantom Nishoba, Congregate, Nemata, Grove Guardian, and Hoofprints of the Stag—I loved Kitchen Finks and Loxodon Hierarch in decks like this, but I didn’t feel that I needed life in a format in which I have 40 life, Trostani, Miren, Momentous Fall, and other life-gaining spells. Loxodon Smiter was pulled for Dauntless Escort.

I hope that you like a nice Selesnya-inspired deck for your consideration!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent