Dragon's Maze brought in some powerful token-making cards that have been shaking up Standard. Voice of Resurgence and Advent of the Wurm have both been seeing play in a number of top-tier decks, but with the new kids on the block strutting their stuff, many players have forgotten about the other extremely powerful token-maker in Standard: Lingering Souls. With decks like Jund relying totally on ground creatures, these flying Spirits seem rather well-positioned at the moment. Here's the deck I put together to bring Lingering Souls back into the spotlight:

"W/B Tokens"

• Creatures (6)
• 2 Blood Artist
• 4 Doomed Traveler

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

• Spells (27)
• 1 Tragic Slip
• 3 Altar's Reap
• 3 Rootborn Defenses
• 4 Midnight Haunting
• 4 Orzhov Charm
• 4 Gather the Townsfolk
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Intangible Virtue

• Lands (24)
• 6 Swamp
• 9 Plains
• 2 Evolving Wilds
• 3 Vault of the Archangel
• 4 Orzhov Guildgate

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Erase
• 4 Purify the Grave
• 3 Dead Weight
• 4 Duress

Buy This Deck

The Tokens

Gather the Townsfolk is an efficient token-maker that can put you off to a fast start. It allows you to put more early pressure on control decks than you would otherwise be able to, and it makes it easier to soak up damage early on against aggressive decks. When battling midrange decks, it does a little of both, letting you sneak in some damage before the opponent gets rolling and then chump-blocking or trading with his larger creatures later in the game.

Lingering Souls gives you an enormous amount of value for one card. With Intangible Virtue and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad to pump up your tokens, these Spirits will often trade one-for-one with smaller opposing creatures, effectively allowing you to trade a quarter of one of your cards for a full one of your opponent's. That kind of card advantage is what allows this deck to keep going strong late into the game while other aggressive decks peter out.

Midnight Haunting doesn't have flashback, but it is an instant, allowing you to play around sweepers and counterspells more effectively. It conveniently has the exact same mana cost as Rootborn Defenses, so against control decks, you'll often find yourself leaving 3 mana open on your opponent's turn, giving you the option of casting Rootborn Defenses if he plays a Supreme Verdict—or Midnight Haunting at end of turn if he doesn't. Against creature decks, you can wait until the opponent attacks to cast it and use the extra Spirits as surprise blockers or as a lethal counterattack.

The Support

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad serves mostly as an expensive substitute for Intangible Virtue. Most of the time, you're going to want to play him out and immediately make an emblem, giving all your Spirits +1/+0 for the rest of the game. Hopefully, you have enough blockers to make sure he doesn't die, and if not, the emblem will be far more valuable in the long run than the Vampire token. Sorin is particularly valuable against control decks. Your opponent will rarely be able to kill him immediately, and the ability to make a Vampire each turn helps you recover from a Supreme Verdict much more quickly.

Blood Artist is quite effective with so many ways to make multiple creatures, and it fills different roles depending on what kind of deck you're playing against. When fighting aggressive strategies, Blood Artist will gain you quite a bit of life while you trade off your tokens for your opponent's creatures, making it even more difficult for him to close out the game. Against control decks, Blood Artist gives you some insurance against Supreme Verdict. Sure, your opponent can kill all your creatures, but he'll lose quite a bit of life doing it. If your opponent is at a low life total, you can sometimes just play out all your tokens so that your opponent will die to one attack if he doesn't cast Supreme Verdict—or die to all the Blood Artist triggers if he does.

Orzhov Charm can kill nearly any creature you need to kill at instant speed, and between Blood Artist and all the tokens you'll have to block with, you should be able to handle the life-loss. I've also included one Tragic Slip to deal with mana dorks and creatures such as Falkenrath Aristocrat. It's also not at all difficult to turn on morbid, allowing you to kill almost anything.

Altar's Reap is an odd little card, but with both Detention Sphere and Sever the Bloodline seeing more play lately, the ability to sacrifice one of your Spirit tokens at instant speed can be quite valuable. If you sacrifice the token being targeted by one of these spells, all your other tokens will be safe, and you'll draw two cards. Sounds like a good deal to me. You can also just use it as a draw spell if your opponent casts Terminus or is otherwise going to kill one or more of your creatures.

Vault of the Archangel allows you to effectively race aggressive decks, and it can make it difficult for decks like Jund to win since all of your tokens will be able to trade with even the largest creatures thanks to deathtouch.

The Sideboard

Purify the Grave stops reanimator decks from reanimating, forcing your opponent to play fair and actually wait until he has 7 mana to cast that Angel of Serenity. Leaving 1 mana up every turn is fairly easy, making it impossible for your opponent to play around the spell.

Erase gives you a good way to fight Bant hexproof decks. With the addition of Voice of Resurgence, Devour Flesh is often insufficient, so we'll go directly after the Auras. Erase is among the few ways to permanently get rid of Rancor, and the ability to cast it at instant speed makes it easy to get rid of an Aura mid-combat, allowing you to block and kill the formerly-large Geist of Saint Traft or Fencing Ace.

Dead Weight gives you more removal against aggressive decks, killing most early creatures for only 1 mana. Unlike Orzhov Charm, it doesn't cost you any life either, so you'll have a much easier time staying out of burn range.

Play-Testing

R/W/U Control – Game 1

I drew Intangible Virtue and attacked for 1. I cast my other Traveler, played the Guildgate, and passed the turn. My opponent played Steam Vents and passed back.

I drew another Guildgate, attacked for 2 with the Travelers, and then cast Intangible Virtue. I played the Gate and ended my turn. My opponent played Glacial Fortress and passed.

I drew Evolving Wilds and attacked for 2. I cast Gather the Townsfolk, and my opponent countered it with Dissipate. I played my Evolving Wilds, sacrificing it for a Plains, and passed the turn. My opponent played a land and cast Augur of Bolas. He grabbed a Turn // Burn, and he ended his turn.

I drew a Swamp, played it, and attacked with my Travelers. Augur of Bolas blocked one, and I made a Spirit token. I ended my turn. My opponent played Clifftop Retreat and passed the turn.

I drew Orzhov Guildgate and attacked with both creatures. My opponent flashed in a Restoration Angel to block the token, and he killed the Traveler with Augur of Bolas. I killed the Angel with Tragic Slip and passed the turn. My opponent played Moorland Haunt and ended his turn.

I drew Midnight Haunting and passed the turn. My opponent swung for 4 again, and I cast Midnight Haunting. I blocked the Restoration Angel with both Spirits and took 1. My opponent passed the turn.

I drew Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and attacked for 2 with my remaining token. I cast Sorin, made a Vampire, and ended my turn. My opponent cast Sphinx's Revelation for 4 during my end step. He played a land, cast Augur of Bolas, and found another Sphinx's Revelation. He passed the turn.

I drew a Swamp, played it, and attacked with my Spirit. My opponent killed it with Searing Spear, and I made another Vampire before passing the turn. My opponent cast two copies of Think Twice during my end step. He then played a land and passed the turn.

I drew Lingering Souls, used Sorin's −2 to make an emblem, and attacked with both Vampires. My opponent blocked one with both Augurs. He took 3 from the other, I gained 6, and an Augur and a Vampire died. I cast Lingering Souls and passed the turn. My opponent played a land, cast Supreme Verdict, and passed the turn.

I drew a Swamp, played it, and used Sorin to make a Vampire. I flashed back Lingering Souls and ended my turn. My opponent played a land and passed.

I drew Gather the Townsfolk and made another emblem with Sorin. I attacked with my three tokens, and my opponent killed the two Spirits with Azorius Charms. He dropped to 7 from the Vampire, and I cast Gather the Townsfolk and passed the turn. He played a land and passed back.

I drew Doomed Traveler and attacked with everything. My opponent blocked a Human with Augur of Bolas and killed the Vampires with Warleader's Helix and Azorius Charm. I cast Doomed Traveler and passed the turn. My opponent cast Aetherling, played a land, and passed.

I drew Orzhov Charm and cast it targeting Aetherling. My opponent countered it with Rewind, and I attacked with everything. Aetherling blocked and killed a Human, Searing Spear killed another, and my opponent dropped to 5 from Doomed Traveler. My opponent swung for 8 with Aetherling and then exiled it, bringing it back untapped at the end of his turn.

I drew a Plains and attacked with Doomed Traveler. My opponent dropped to 2, and I passed the turn. My opponent pulled the Aetherling trick again and ended his turn.

I drew Sorin and conceded.

Sideboarding:

−2 Blood Artist

−1 Tragic Slip

−1 Orzhov Charm

+4 Duress

Game 2

I drew another Duress, attacked for 1, and played Evolving Wilds, sacrificing it for a Swamp. I ended my turn. My opponent played Glacial Fortress and passed.

I drew Intangible Virtue and attacked for 1. I cast Duress, taking a Sphinx's Revelation, and ended my turn. My opponent played another Sulfur Falls and passed.

I drew Orzhov Guildgate, played it, and attacked for 1 again. I cast Intangible Virtue and passed the turn. My opponent cast Think Twice during my end step. He played Clifftop Retreat and cast Augur of Bolas, grabbing a Syncopate. He ended his turn.

I drew a Plains, cast it, and attacked with Doomed Traveler. My opponent blocked with the Augur, giving me a Spirit, and I cast Intangible Virtue to make it a 3/3. I cast my second Duress, getting rid of Warleader's Helix, and passed the turn. My opponent played a land and ended his turn.

I drew Doomed Traveler and attacked for 3 in the air. I cast the Traveler, and my opponent countered it with Syncopate. I ended my turn. My opponent played a land and passed.

I drew Orzhov Charm, attacked for 6 with my Spirits, and ended my turn. My opponent passed the turn with no play.

I drew Lingering Souls and attacked for 6. He cast Sphinx's Revelation for 4, and I took the opportunity to kill Aetherling with Orzhov Charm. I passed the turn. My opponent played a land and passed back.

I swung in for 6 with the Spirits, and he cast Azorius Charm to kill one and then cast it again with Snapcaster Mage to get rid of the other. I cast Lingering Souls and passed the turn. My opponent played a land and passed back.

I drew Rootborn Defenses and attacked for 6. My opponent tried to kill a Spirit with Searing Spear, and I cast Rootborn Defenses in response. He cast another Searing Spear in response to that, and he dropped to 1 life from the other token. He drew his card and conceded.

Game 3

My opponent played a Hallowed Fountain and passed back. I drew another Guildgate, played it, and cast Doomed Traveler. I ended my turn.

My opponent played Glacial Fortress and passed the turn. I drew Lingering Souls and attacked for 1. I played my Swamp and passed the turn.

My opponent played Sulfur Falls and passed back. I cast Midnight Haunting during his end step, making 2 Spirits. I drew a Plains, played it, and cast Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. My opponent countered it with Dissipate, and I attacked for 3 and passed the turn.

My opponent played a land and passed back. I drew a Swamp and cast Intangible Virtue. I attacked with everything, and my opponent flashed in a Restoration Angel to block and kill a Spirit. He took 3, and I cast Lingering Souls and passed the turn.

He played a land and passed back. I drew Rootborn Defenses and cast Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. I made an emblem and attacked with everything. My opponent flashed in another Restoration Angel and killed off two Spirits, dropping to 8. I passed the turn.

My opponent cast Augur of Bolas, grabbing Think Twice, and passed the turn. I cast Midnight Haunting during his end step to make two more Spirits. I drew a Swamp, played it, and cast Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, using his −2 to make another emblem. I attacked with everything, and my opponent traded his three creatures for mine, leaving me with a Spirit. I ended my turn, and he killed Sorin with Searing Spear and drew a card with Think Twice.

He then ended his turn with no play. I drew Vault of the Archangel, played it, and attacked for 4. My opponent used Snapcaster Mage to flash back Searing Spear and kill the token, and I flashed back Lingering Souls before passing the turn.

My opponent cast Supreme Verdict, but I had the Rootborn Defenses to stop it, and he conceded.

Wrap-Up

This deck has a lot of resilience, shrugging of spot removal like it was nothing and recovering quickly after a sweeper. The ability to put multiple threats on the board with only one card makes life much more difficult for control decks, and Rootborn Defenses is a blowout almost every time. If you're looking for a deck that can fight through just about anything, give this one 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.