One of the first games I played with today's deck caused a Commander event I've remembered ever since. We were playing along in a four-top game, and there were some people doing some things which the table was noticing. I was completely uninvolved, over at my seat doing my thing. But tokens are funny, because when you mark them with a single token and a die, it can make your board presence harder to discern - at a glance it looks like you've got a few tokens, when in fact you have 13 4/4s, 8 5/5s, and 26 9/9s with Trample kicking around. Someone really looked at my board and casually mentioned, "y'all, I think Mark might be the threat."

If you're curious, here's the original article, but the gist is this: make Populate work in Commander by having really big tokens. Populate doesn't work with 1/1s, because having two 1/1s is only marginally better than one 1/1. A pair of 6/6s, on the other hand, are a fair amount better than just one. When it becomes even more than that, it gets even better.

I do find most of my decks rely pretty heavily on the Commander to function; Trostani is an opposite example. Having them out is great, and we will often play them out on turn four (when we get the color requirements), but losing them doesn't hobble us like so many other decks. On the other hand, we do have a fair number of decently expensive spells, so we do want to get that mana.

Our 40 Lands do what you'd expect from a deck like this. Many of them fix our colors, though we also have Castle Ardenvale and Castle Garenbrig. Grove of the Guardian makes a really big Token. Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree makes little tokens, but sometimes those are useful and it's always good to have a way to use extra mana. Reliquary Tower will also come in handy as we'll often draw a number of cards over our max hand size.

Trostani's difficult mana requirements do alter my traditional thoughts on ramp: we've actually got two-mana ramp spells. The goal isn't so much to get Trostani out on turn three (though that's fine if it works out), but more to make sure we're getting the colors we need to actually cast them. We still also have Cultivates and Navigation Orbs; the extra mana is rarely going to be a problem.

The key thing we need to do is make some big tokens to Populate. We have a few ways; Armada Wurm was around for the original, as was Worldspine Wurm and Giant Adephage (which is one of my favorite cards in the whole game). We also have some wonderful new ones, like Ghalta and Mavren, Crested Sunmare, and Valkyrie Harbinger. Given how our deck works, one or two of these on the 'field at the time will do what we need it to, which means we can keep some of them back in our hand if the board gets reset. Also, how awesome is Valkyrie Harbinger here? We play it with Trostani out and make an Angel at end of turn because we gained five life when the Harbinger resolved. Then we can Populate the Angel next turn and make another Angel at end of turn because we gained four life off the Populated token! Every time we can Populate we'll get another one from the Harbinger. Love that.

Because we have so many Creatures coming into play, we can use that to deal with other problems. Aura Shards is probably the best example, because every time we Populate we can blow something up. We've also got Thorn Mammoth, which we have to use carefully for fear of losing it, and Boxing Ring, which is awesome in this deck, even if it means we're just killing off opposing tokens all the time. We've also got Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight, which destroy stuff and leave behind a token. In a pinch, we can use them on ourselves to have something to Populate. Hour of Reckoning is the best kind of board wipe for us, since it'll leave behind all our big stuff. That can make for a pretty awesome alpha strike.

We've also got a number of cards which Populate as a rider on the card. Trostani's Judgment is an expensive removal spell, but it Exiles a problem and leaves us with an extra token at the end. Rootborn Defenses is wrath protection, and Druid's Deliverance can turn a loss into a win.

There are a couple of specific things I want to point out. Finale of Glory is great here because so often we'll have plenty of mana to cast it for X = 10 or more. That's a lot of Angels. Pathbreaker Ibex takes the place of Triumph of the Hordes from the original deck, though Triumph is (in my opinion) a perfectly reasonable win condition for a deck like this. Craterhoof Behemoth, Overwhelming Stampede, or any number of Overrun derivatives would all work in that slot.

Finally, Perilous Forays is a great card in this deck. We almost always have something we can sacrifice to it, and the deck thinning is amazing. But it combos with Rampaging Baloths! With both out, we can sac a token for a Land, which makes another token, which we can sac for Land, and rinse and repeat until we're out of mana. It's a great way to jump way ahead on mana.

Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Armada Wurm
• 1 Aura Shards
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Crested Sunmare
• 1 Elemental Bond
• 1 Emmara Tandris
• 1 Farhaven Elf
• 1 Ghalta and Mavren
• 1 Giant Adephage
• 1 Growing Ranks
• 1 Life Finds a Way
• 1 Nesting Dovehawk
• 1 Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation // Temple of Civilization
• 1 Pathbreaker Ibex
• 1 Perilous Forays
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Sandwurm Convergence
• 1 Selesnya Eulogist
• 1 Song of the Worldsoul
• 1 Thorn Mammoth
• 1 Tribute to the World Tree
• 1 Trudge Garden
• 1 Valkyrie Harbinger
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
• 1 Voice of Resurgence
• 1 Wayfaring Temple
• 1 Worldspine Wurm

• Planeswalker (1)
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

• Instants (12)
• 1 Advent of the Wurm
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Druid's Deliverance
• 1 Eyes in the Skies
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Rootborn Defenses
• 1 Second Harvest
• 1 Selesnya Charm
• 1 Stroke of Midnight
• 1 Sundering Growth
• 1 Trostani's Judgment

• Sorceries (13)
• 1 Coursers' Accord
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Finale of Glory
• 1 Horncaller's Chant
• 1 Hour of Reckoning
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Life's Legacy
• 1 Nissa's Revelation
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Soul's Majesty

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Garruk's Uprising

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Boxing Ring
• 1 Dino DNA
• 1 Navigation Orb
• 1 Phyrexian Processor

• Lands (40)
• 15 Forest
• 10 Plains
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Blossoming Sands
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Graypelt Refuge
• 1 Grove of the Guardian
• 1 Khalni Garden
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Restless Prairie
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

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It's possible this deck needs a Thought Vessel in addition to the Reliquary Tower, but honestly one Soul's Majesty effect will probably be enough to take this deck home. It's never going to be highly competitive, but for a fun battlecruiser game, it should be a great fit. Gain some life, make some tokens, beat some face.

Specific question this week: What would be your favorite token to Populate? Let me know on social media!

Thanks for reading.