Dark Ascension provides a few very good cards for token decks. Lingering Souls in particular seems to be a powerful card and suggests that a W/B shell would be more effective than the previous G/W decks. We also have Vault of the Archangel to help soften the loss of Gavony Township. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is another great reason to go with black. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult to acquire even a single copy of him unless you're willing to shell out over $50, so we'll have to do without. Without Sorin, the only cards that require are the flashback of Lingering Souls and the activation cost of Vault of the Archangel, neither of which is entirely necessary for the deck to function. Thus, this becomes almost a mono-white deck. “Off-white,” if you will. Here's the list I put together:

"Off-White Tokens"

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Doomed Traveler
• 4 Geist-Honored Monk

• Spells (28)
• 4 Gather the Townsfolk
• 4 Increasing Devotion
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Midnight Haunting
• 4 Honor of the Pure
• 4 Intangible Virtue
• 4 Oblivion Ring

• Lands (24)
• 4 Vault of the Archangel
• 4 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Swamp
• 12 Plains

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Timely Reinforcements
• 2 Celestial Purge
• 3 Day of Judgment
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 4 Ghost Quarter

Buy This Deck

The Token-Makers

Doomed Traveler has been a staple of W/U Human decks for a reason, and it's even better here. The ability to survive a board wipe or trade with two creatures in combat is very good, especially when both the Traveler and the Spirit token are pumped up by Honor of the Pure.

Geist-Honored Monk saw some play in G/W token decks, and it's a great 5-drop for the deck. It helps to recover from a board wipe almost instantly, and with a few other tokens on the field, it can start taking down Titans.

Gather the Townsfolk is a great addition to this deck, especially since there was previously no way to make tokens at 2 mana. This will often let you start the beatdown a turn ahead of schedule, and it can be a real haymaker if you're near death.

Midnight Haunting’s instant-speed token-making has found a place in a few different decks that want to leave mana open for Mana Leak. In this deck, it's a nice end-of-turn surprise, and it can also net some extra value out of leaving mana open for a Vault of the Archangel activation. When the two Spirit tokens can be 3/3 or larger, Midnight Haunting can smash an opponent's sense of security without giving him time to do anything about it.

Lingering Souls lacks Midnight Haunting’s instant-speed capabilities, but the extremely cheap flashback cost more than makes up for the loss. Aside from being great value on its own, the flashback also helps the deck curve out perfectly. There are no 4-drops here, but flashing this back and casting Honor of the Pure, Intangible Virtue, or Gather the Townsfolk lets you use your mana to its full potential.

Increasing Devotion is a bit expensive, but it can instantly create an overwhelming board position. Making five tokens that are often 3/3 or larger is going to make almost any opponent start backpedaling. Although the flashback cost is too expensive to matter most games, it can be absolutely devastating if the game grinds on long enough for you to use it.

The Rest

Honor of the Pure gives every single creature in the deck +1/+1, and Intangible Virtue gives most of them the same bonus. Doomed Traveler and Geist-Honored Monk don't get the extra benefits, but they each make tokens that do. Intangible Virtue also gives vigilance, which is a huge advantage in a token deck. You can swing all out at your opponent and still have untapped tokens to chump-block with. It becomes even better when you consider that most of the tokens will have flying, so often the only drawback to attacking will be having your creatures tapped and unable to block. Intangible Virtue removes that drawback entirely.

Oblivion Ring is an excellent removal spell that can target almost anything. It will usually take out an opposing Titan or other large creature, buying you the extra turn or two you need to finish the opponent off. Of course, it can also take out Sorin, Lord of Innistrad in the mirror match, mitigating the advantage of an opponent with deeper pockets.

The Sideboard

The sideboard is fairly speculative at this point—we don't know what the format will look like after Dark Ascension is released. However, many of these cards are strong against multiple decks, and they should be reasonable choices no matter what the environment ends up being.

Timely Reinforcements is very good against aggressive decks. Although it won't give you the tokens if you're already ahead, at that point, you probably don't need them. Since you'll often be trading creatures right and left, Timely Reinforcements should continue to be effective until you've already tipped the scales well in your favor.

Celestial Purge is insurance against the mono-red decks that many players will run in an unknown format . . . as well as being great against mono-black, which receives some powerful new cards in Dark Ascension.

Day of Judgment helps out against other aggressive decks, especially those playing creatures with hexproof. Although it may kill a few of your creatures, you will almost always be in a much better position to recover from it than your opponent. Cards like Geist-Honored Monk and Increasing Devotion can single-handedly put you back on the aggressive after a Day of Judgment, and they even curve out nicely with the 4-mana spell.

Go for the Throat provides some extra removal against deck where you really need it. With the increasing popularity of threats like Olivia Voldaren and Grave Titan, Doom Blade isn't going to cut it anymore, and Celestial Purge is too narrow to deal with decks that present major threats in multiple colors.

Ghost Quarter serves as insurance against the various forms of Wolf Run Ramp. Aside from taking out the namesake spell, it can also get rid of an Inkmoth Nexus that would chump-block one of your Spirits on a lethal attack.

Playtesting

Wolf Run Black – Game 1

I won the roll, and my opponent took a mulligan. I kept a hand of two Plains, Evolving Wilds, Doomed Traveler, Gather the Townsfolk, Honor of the Pure, and Increasing Devotion. I started things off by playing a Plains and casting Doomed Traveler. My opponent played a Forest and passed the turn. I drew Oblivion Ring, played another Plains, and attacked for 1 with Doomed Traveler. I then cast Gather the Townsfolk and passed the turn. My opponent played a Swamp and passed the turn.

I drew Midnight Haunting and cast Honor of the Pure. I dropped my opponent to 13 with my creatures, then played Evolving Wilds and passed the turn. My opponent played Woodland Cemetery, and I sacrificed Evolving Wilds for a Swamp at the end of his turn. I drew another Evolving Wilds, played it, and attacked with my creatures. I then passed the turn. My opponent played a Forest and cast Solemn Simulacrum, finding a Swamp.

I cast Midnight Haunting at the end of his turn, and he conceded.

Sideboarding:

−3 Geist-Honored Monk

−4 Vault of the Archangel

+3 Go for the Throat

+4 Ghost Quarter

Wolf Run Black – Game 2

I kept a hand of three Plains, Doomed Traveler, two Midnight Hauntings, and Honor of the Pure. My opponent started by playing a Woodland Cemetery. I drew Intangible Virtue, played a Plains, and cast Doomed Traveler. I passed the turn. My opponent played a Forest, cast Sphere of the Suns, and passed the turn. I drew Ghost Quarter, played a Plains, and cast Honor of the Pure. I attacked for 2 with my Doomed Traveler and passed the turn.

My opponent played Forest and passed the turn. I drew another Midnight Haunting, played another Plains, and attacked for 2 again. My opponent dropped to 16, and I passed the turn. My opponent played Inkmoth Nexus and cast Solemn Simulacrum, finding a Swamp. He passed the turn, and I cast Midnight Haunting during his end step. I drew Evolving Wilds, played it, and attacked with all three creatures. My opponent blocked the Doomed Traveler with Solemn Simulacrum and took 4. He drew a card, and I made a Spirit token. I passed the turn.

My opponent played Ghost Quarter and cast Black Sun's Zenith for 2, killing all my tokens. He then cast Ratchet Bomb and passed the turn. I cast Midnight Haunting during his end step for two new Spirit tokens and sacrificed Evolving Wilds to find a Swamp. I drew a Plains, played it, and cast Intangible Virtue. I attacked with the two 3/3 tokens, and my opponent sacrificed his Ratchet Bomb to kill them. I passed the turn. My opponent cast Grave Titan and Birds of Paradise, and I cast Midnight haunting during his end step.

I drew a Plains, played it, and attacked with my tokens. Birds of Paradise blocked one, and my opponent dropped to 7. I passed the turn. My opponent attacked with Grave Titan, making two more Zombies, and I took the 6 damage. He cast Sphere of the Suns and passed the turn. I drew Intangible Virtue and cast it. I then played Ghost Quarter and attacked, using it to kill his Inkmoth Nexus and got in for lethal damage.

This deck is very fast, and its ability to overcome board wipes with a single spell is huge. Opponents who side in four Ratchet Bombs and think they're safe will be in for a big surprise. Once you get a couple of your enchantments on the field, each token-making spell becomes so powerful that your opponent will have a difficult time staying afloat. If you're looking for a resilient deck that demands more answers than your opponent can muster, this may be the right choice for you.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under @Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.