Over the last few weeks, we've seen a huge surge of decks focused on using the power of Hardened Scales plus Nissa, Voice of Zendikar to overwhelm the opposition with a horde of giant monsters. Of course, there are other options besides going bigger, and this week Zamboanga1156 began to explore what happens when you go wide with Nissa.

Bant Tokens ? Oath of the Gatewatch Standard | Zamboanga1156, 5-0 Standard League

• Creatures (12)
• 2 Reflector Mage
• 2 Wingmate Roc
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 4 Sylvan Advocate

• Planeswalkers (8)
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

• Spells (14)
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Valorous Stance
• 3 Secure the Wastes
• 2 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Quarantine Field
• 2 Silkwrap
• 2 Stasis Snare

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 3 Forest
• 4 Plains
• 2 Canopy Vista
• 2 Prairie Stream
• 2 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Lumbering Falls
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Reflector Mage
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 3 Arashin Cleric
• 1 Dragonlord Ojutai
• 2 Planar Outburst
• 1 Wingmate Roc
• 1 Valorous Stance
• 3 Den Protector
• 2 Negate

Buy This Deck

This is a Bant tokens deck very much reminiscent of the deck Sam Black piloted to great success back at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir. That deck was largely built around the combination of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Retreat to Emeria, since Retreat synergized with fetchlands to both quickly generate a board presence and kill opponents. Sam's build splashed Blue for cards like Dispel and Treasure Cruise to help battle against the likes of Collected Company and Ojutai's Command. However, the printing of Nissa creates a great opportunity to revisit this strategy to see what has changed.

Nissa is largely better than Retreat to Emeria for this style of strategy. Nissa comes down at least a turn earlier, provides a permanent buff to your team, and leaves a Planeswalker behind for your opponents to deal with. Additionally, the curve of Nissa into Gideon is nothing to scoff at, particularly when that curve is backed up with White removal to buy time and Wingmate Roc to go over the top.

This style of strategy is particularly powerful in this Standard format due to the lack of sweepers being played. This means you can continue to flood the board with tokens to threaten huge turns where you activate either Nissa, Gideon, or both to get in for huge chunks of damage. Additionally, this deck has access to Lumbering Falls against control strategies, which is particularly powerful in conjunction with Sylvan Advocate.

Overall, this seems like a powerful deck which has largely fallen by the wayside, but may be ready for a big comeback. The core of the deck is powerful, and the flexible slots give the deck great customization options to fight against the cards you're concerned about. If you're not afraid of sweepers, this may be a great choice for your next Standard event.