With Gatecrash's release last Friday, players are scrambling to find the cards they want, driving the many prices up. However, in the race to acquire dual lands, Domri Rade, and Aurelia's Fury, several potentially powerful cards are being overlooked. Assemble the Legion seems to be a strong finisher that can't be dealt with by conventional means. Another inexpensive rare that has intrigued me is Five-Alarm Fire. It combines quite well with Assemble the Legion, and both fit nicely in the shell of a traditional token deck. Here's the list I came up with:

"Fire Fighters"

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Doomed Traveler

• Spells (31)
• 4 Midnight Haunting
• 2 Krenko's Command
• 3 Blasphemous Act
• 4 Gather the Townsfolk
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 3 Five-Alarm Fire
• 3 Oblivion Ring
• 4 Assemble the Legion
• 4 Intangible Virtue

• Lands (25)
• 2 Swamp
• 7 Plains
• 8 Mountain
• 4 Boros Guildgate
• 4 Evolving Wilds

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 4 Erase
• 3 Pillar of Flame
• 3 Tormod's Crypt
• 4 Rally the Peasants

Buy This Deck

The Tokens

Along with two copies of Krenko's Command, Gather the Townsfolk occupies the 2-mana slot. These quick and easy token makers give you bodies on the board early, making it easy to stop the beating from an aggro deck or dish out one of your own against control.

Lingering Souls and Midnight Haunting give you tokens with flying, which can be especially important with the massive popularity of Restoration Angel. They give you a way to defend against forces in the air, and if your opponent doesn't have any, you can soar right over his creatures for a few extra points of damage.

Assemble the Legion is the perfect finisher for this deck. If it stays on the board for just a few turns, it can start giving you a small army every upkeep. Whether you attack with the Soldiers immediately or leave them back to protect you, your army will soon grow large enough to overwhelm your opponent. Since Assemble the Legion is invulnerable to creature removal, it combines extremely well with sweepers.

The Support

I’ll admit Five-Alarm Fire is a somewhat silly-looking card, but it’s one that's impossible to accurately evaluate without playing it. Cards that people think are bad are often the bread and butter of budget decks, and many of them can be surprisingly effective when given a chance. Five-Alarm Fire can build up quite a few counters in this deck, which can then be used as removal or as a way to get rid of your opponent's last 5 or 10 life. Since you can remove the counters at any time with no cost, it's almost always best to just let them build up until you have enough to kill your opponent—unless there's a creature you need to kill in the meantime.

Blasphemous Act is an excellent board wipe in this deck. Your tokens will often lure your opponent into overextending, at which point you can wipe everything away with a cheap Blasphemous Act, reduced in mana cost not only by your opponent's army, but by any remaining tokens you have as well. If you have an Assemble the Legion on the board, things are even more ridiculous. You can often cast Blasphemous Act for a single mana, wiping away all of your opponent's creatures. On your next upkeep, you'll make a brand new army ready to go while your opponent is forced to start from scratch.

Oblivion Ring gives you an easy out to cards like Illness in the Ranks, troublesome planeswalkers, and any other major threat you might encounter. Although this deck mostly just stalls for time until your opponent runs out of it, Oblivion Ring can be key to your survival in some situations.

The Sideboard

Erase gets rid of Rancor from the Auras decks, allowing you to chump-block your opponent's giant creature with tokens. It also deals with Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere, two of the most-played cards that can get rid of Assemble the Legion. As an added bonus, it deals with more specific hate cards like Illness in the Ranks and Curse of Death's Hold as well.

Pillar of Flame is another card that improves your matchup against aggro, letting you kill a creature early on rather than chump-blocking or trading two or three of your own for it. It's particularly effective against decks that seek to match your creature-based card advantage through threats with undying, such as Strangleroot Geist and Geralf's Messenger.

Tormod's Crypt is an effective piece of graveyard hate that can stop reanimator decks cold without sacrificing your ability to use the flashback on Lingering Souls. It can also be cast at any time without disrupting your curve.

Rally the Peasants gives you a lot of extra game against control, allowing you to win seemingly out of nowhere with just a few small attacking creatures. It can also replace Assemble the Legion against players with a glut of enchantment hate, giving you the ability to push through enough damage to end the game more quickly.

Playtesting

Esper Control – Game 1

My opponent played a Plains and passed, and I sacrificed the Wilds to find a Plains of my own. I drew Intangible Virtue, played my Mountain, and cast it. I ended my turn, and my opponent cast Think Twice during my end step.

On his turn, he played Glacial Fortress and cast Augur of Bolas, grabbing an Ultimate Price from the top three. He passed the turn, and I drew a Swamp. I played it and cast Lingering Souls, conjuring a pair of 2/2 Spirits. I ended my turn.

My opponent flashed back Think Twice, played a tapped Hallowed Fountain, and passed the turn. I drew a Plains, played it, and attacked for 4. I flashed back Lingering Souls for two more tokens and passed the turn.

My opponent played Nephalia Drownyard and passed the turn. I made a Soldier with Assemble the Legion and drew a Plains. I attacked with my creatures, and the Augur blocked the Soldier. My opponent killed a Spirit with Ultimate Price and dropped to 6. I ended my turn, and he flashed back Think Twice.

My opponent played Isolated Chapel and passed the turn. I cast Midnight Haunting at the end of his turn, and he conceded.

Sideboarding:

−3 Blasphemous Act

−1 Doomed Traveler

+4 Rally the Peasants

Game 2

My opponent played a Plains and cast Augur of Bolas, taking a Dissipate. I drew Boros Guildgate and attacked with the Traveler. My opponent blocked with Augur of Bolas, and I made a Spirit token. I played my Mountain, cast Intangible Virtue, and passed the turn.

My opponent played a Plains and passed back. I drew a Plains and attacked with my token, and my opponent killed it with Azorius Charm. I played my Plains and cast Midnight Haunting before passing the turn.

My opponent played a Drowned Catacomb and cast Supreme Verdict. He ended his turn. I drew a Plains, played it, and cast both copies of Gather the Townsfolk.

I ended my turn, and my opponent cast another Supreme Verdict before playing a land and passing back. I drew Doomed Traveler, played my Guildgate, and cast it. I ended my turn.

My opponent cast Augur of Bolas, finding Think Twice, and ended his turn. I drew Lingering Souls and attacked with the Traveler, which he blocked and killed. I passed the turn, and he cast the Think Twice during my end step.

My opponent played a Glacial Fortress and cast Terminus. He passed the turn. I drew Evolving Wilds, played it, sacrificing it for a Mountain, and ended my turn.

My opponent played Drowned Catacomb and passed. I drew Assemble the Legion and passed the turn.

My opponent played a Hallowed Fountain and passed back. I drew Midnight Haunting and passed the turn.

My opponent played a Plains and passed, and I cast Midnight Haunting during his end step. He countered it with Dissipate. I drew Oblivion Ring and cast Assemble the Legion, but my opponent had another Dissipate to stop it. I passed the turn.

My opponent played Azorius Guildgate and passed back. I drew Five-Alarm Fire, cast it, and ended my turn. My opponent cast Sphinx's Revelation for 6 during my end step.

My opponent flashed back Think Twice to draw another card during my end step, then untapped, played an Island, and cast another Think Twice, flashing it back as well. He ended his turn. I drew Assemble the Legion and attacked with my Spirit tokens. My opponent killed one with Azorius Charm, then cast and flashed back another Think Twice before taking 2. I put a counter on Five-Alarm Fire, then cast Assemble the Legion and passed the turn.

My opponent played a land, cast Oblivion Ring on my Assemble the Legion, and passed the turn. I drew a Plains, played it, and attacked for 2, gaining another blaze counter. I ended my turn, and my opponent milled me for three with the Drownyard, hitting another Rally the Peasants.

My opponent played a land and passed, and I drew Boros Guildgate. I played it and attacked with my Spirit, dropping my opponent back down to 20 and bringing Five-Alarm Fire up to 3 counters. I ended my turn, and my opponent cast Sphinx's Revelation for 11.

I saw where this game was inevitably headed and decided to concede.

Game 3

I drew Doomed Traveler, cast it, and played my Swamp before passing the turn. My opponent played another Drowned Catacomb and passed.

I drew Lingering Souls, attacked for 1, and ended my turn. My opponent played Nephalia Drownyard before passing back.

I drew Boros Guildgate and attacked for 1. I played the Guildgate and ended my turn, at which point my opponent cast Think Twice. My opponent passed the turn with no play, discarding Terminus.

I drew Krenko's Command and attacked for 1 again. I cast Lingering Souls and passed the turn, and my opponent flashed back Think Twice. On his turn, he played a tapped Glacial Fortress and passed.

I drew Intangible Virtue and attacked with everything. I cast Rally the Peasants to pump up my creatures, and my opponent dropped to 8. I ended my turn, and my opponent played a Drowned Catacomb and passed.

I drew the Doomed Traveler and attacked with the Spirits. I pumped them up with Rally the Peasants, and my opponent killed one with Azorius Charm, taking 3. I cast Doomed Traveler and passed the turn. My opponent passed the turn with no play.

I attacked with my creatures, and Augur of Bolas blocked Doomed Traveler. I used the flashback on Rally the Peasants, but my opponent cast Sphinx's Revelation for 2 to survive. The Augur and the Traveler traded, and I made another Spirit. My opponent played an Island and passed the turn, discarding Sphinx's Revelation.

I cast Intangible Virtue and attacked for 4, but my opponent cast Sphinx's Revelation for 3 to stay alive at just 1 life. I flashed back Lingering Souls and passed the turn. My opponent drew his card and conceded.

Wrap-Up

Although I never had a chance to take advantage of Five-Alarm Fire in these games, Assemble the Legion went a long way toward winning the first, and the Rally the Peasants sideboard plan proved powerful in Game 3. Although token decks have fallen out of favor lately, a slower version of the deck like this one can make life extremely difficult for aggro and midrange decks, with its relentless press creatures combined with board wipes to level the playing field. If Assemble the Legion interests you as much as it does me, give this deck a try.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under @MTGCannon, or simply leave a comment below.