For most people playing Magic, there's a color or specific combination of colors they most identify with. It might be they just like the colors and the style that color usually tends to bring to the table. Maybe they like the way it plays mechanically or just feels right when everything lines up as they play it. For me, that's absolutely Selesnya, or the Green-White color pair.

Selesnya just does everything I want to be doing in a game of Magic. It lets me ramp into giant plays real fast to make big splashy plays. It provides a never-ending supply of tokens to swarm onto the battlefield with. The amount of counters that get spread around to all of these tokens is indescribable. All of that is to say nothing about the general style and vibe of the color pair as well. There's a certain beauty and charm the cards provide and I gravitate toward them in just about every way. I play these colors in Commander, Limited, and 60-card Constructed whenever I can.

Dominaria United is no exception. I've been playing the living hell out of the set's draft format MTG Arena. To say it's sublime is an understatement to say the least. You can reliably play anything from a strong two-color deck to a super solid five-color deck. The off-color abilities, mana fixing, and ramp are everywhere and it's been an absolute delight virtually every single time I've played. Even when I'm losing, I'm having a great time, and it keeps me coming back. One of my favorite things about drafting it as well are all the cool legends, and some of my favorites are the three Selesnya ones: King Darien XLVIII, Queen Allenal of Ruadach, and Zar Ojanen, Scion of Efrava.

Each of these three legends are ones I've had an opportunity to play together in Limited. As I played with each of them, I realized they all seemed to play fairly well with one another. Make tokens with King Darien and you'll get additional soldiers from Queen Allenal. Once you have them on the board, Zar Ojanen can beef them up so long as there aren't too many anthem effects on board. The great thing about this is any of them works great as the main commander since they all go hand-in-hand and work off of one another well. So, I figured why not make a deck where you could play whichever one you want?

Let's check out the list I've constructed! I'm using King Darien as the face commander for the purposes of presenting a list as I personally think he's the best of the bunch, but I highly recommend trying each of them as well.

DMU Tri-Commander Selesnya | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 King Darien XLVIII

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
• 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1 Bennie Bracks, Zoologist
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Budoka Gardener
• 1 Darien, King of Kjeldor
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Emeria Angel
• 1 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
• 1 Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer
• 1 Hornet Queen
• 1 Jaheira, Friend of the Forest
• 1 Joraga Treespeaker
• 1 Kazandu Tuskcaller
• 1 Lena, Selfless Champion
• 1 Llanowar Elves
• 1 Maja, Bretagard Protector
• 1 Master of the Wild Hunt
• 1 Queen Allenal of Ruadach
• 1 Selesnya Eulogist
• 1 Selesnya Evangel
• 1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1 Timeless Witness
• 1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
• 1 Torens, Fist of the Angels
• 1 Tovolar's Huntmaster // Tovolar's Packleader
• 1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
• 1 Twilight Drover
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
• 1 Zar Ojanen, Scion of Efrava
• 1 Zeriam, Golden Wind

• Instants (7)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Chord of Calling
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Reach of Branches
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Sundering Growth
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Pest Infestation
• 1 Tromp the Domains
• 1 Reach of Branches

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Collective Blessing
• 1 Dawn of Hope
• 1 Growing Ranks
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Killer Service
• 1 Legion's Landing // Adanto, the First Fort
• 1 Mobilization
• 1 Nylea's Presence
• 1 Retreat to Emeria
• 1 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Esika's Chariot
• 1 Sol Ring

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Elspeth Tirel
• 1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
• 1 Garruk Wildspeaker
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

• Lands (38)
• 8 Forest
• 7 Plains
• 1 Arch of Orazca
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Bretagard Stronghold
• 1 Brushland
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Flagstones of Trokair
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 1 Krosan Verge
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Overgrown Farmland
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
• 1 Windbrisk Heights
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

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The very first thing I sought to do in this list before I even started daring to look through the actual token cards was figure out what I was going to do with Zar Ojanen, Scion of Efrava. In fact, while I very quickly had determined I wanted to use all three of the deck's legendaries, she was the one I liked the most. I loved playing with her in drafts with how much she could just take over entirely if you had any sort of domain active. The problem for Commander stemmed from the fact that, frankly, being a two-color legend meant you'd have a tough time going anywhere with domain as a mechanic. I knew there were a few ways I could get domain to still happen so I wanted to see what my options were after I added in the other two legends to make it more token focused. Tokens work nicely with Zar's pumping, even with only two colors, so that felt like a good peanut butter and chocolate sort of situation. There're a million token cards, though, but far less with regards to domain, so I set out to see how to make it work.

In truth, the options were scarce and Limited. Gaea's Might and Matca Rioters aren't really the greatest options, and that was about the best you'd get under normal domain circumstances. I did slip in a Tromp the Domains at least since the effect is strong even with two colors. Thankfully, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth still works in this deck thanks to weird color identity loopholes, as it doesn't actually have any Black mana symbols on the card despite turning all lands into Swamps. You can also use Dryad of the Ilysian Grove and Nylea's Presence to get all land types. It's minimal, so you can't make it the full focus, but it works with what few domain effects are here and does enough other things to help your game plan in a more general sense.

When it came to the actual token side of the deck, I tried to utilize more of a mix of the traditionally popular token cards with some lesser options. I think by now it's pretty common to expect cards like Hornet Queen, Master of the Wild Hunt, Emeria Angel, and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. Those cards made the cut because I liked them or felt like they played some unique role (fliers, removal, life gain, and cloning chief among them). I left off some of the other usual suspects, however, like Avenger of Zendikar, Rampaging Baloths, Tendershoot Dryad, Rhys the Redeemed, Crested Sunmare, Sprout Swarm, and so on.

Instead, I wanted to focus on some less used cards where I could. When was the last time you saw a copy of Selesnya Evangel played? I loved using this card all the time during the original Ravnica: City of Guilds era and, hey, she just happens to work great with Emmara, Soul of the Accord. Speaking of original Ravnica, I also added in Twilight Drover which I feel like doesn't get the love it used to. Kazandu Tuskcaller and Budoka Gardener are a couple other great options that seem like they've too often fallen from favor. Same with Mobilization, though that one actually has some outstanding synergy by benefitting the tokens made by your commanders. Finally Reach of Branches is a card I never see anymore, yet seems awesome in an era of Dryad of the Ilysian Grove and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth.

You might recognize some of the more familiar newer cards here. Pest Infestation, Tovolar's Huntmaster // Tovolar's Packleader, Torens, Fist of the Angels, Killer Service, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest are all ones you've probably come to see quite a bit as of late. They're great here, though, because since they're so recent they're actually fairly accessible. Dominaria United itself even provides a couple great new cards too like Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer and Zeriam, Golden Wind as ways to keep your token train rolling. Zeriam especially benefits from growing your army exponentially with each consecutive hit, each token of which can easily be further fueled by Zar and the deck's many other anthem effects.

What you end up with is a fresh and somewhat different take on a token deck and a great way to try different commanders in the process. While not being necessarily a true budget deck thanks to a couple notable inclusions, you'll likely find it's a lot more affordable featuring generally cheaper options over other token-based decks. It's a great way to pick up a deck and get playing, and it's sure to provide you with a great time at your next Commander night. Just make sure you bring both lots of tokens and lots of dice for your counters.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

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