Standard is great. There is a plethora of different decks and itâs nearly impossible to choose what to play from week to week. If youâre anything like me and tend to play decks as they become relevant for tournaments, you may find yourself weeks behind the metagame and in need. Whenever I find myself in this kind of predicament I do some Wild Research in order to get myself caught up and figure out as much as I can about any given format or deck.

After multiple Grand Prix wins and a Pro Tour title itâs elementary to deduce that G/W Tokens is the âbest deckâ (or at least the âdeck to beatâ). Today Iâm going to document my process in understanding the deck.

If memory serves correctly the first place G/W Tokens appeared was at the inaugural SOI Standard Open in Baltimore.

Part of understanding an archetype is glimpsing into where it came from. This version of the deck is outdated (compared to more recent lists â more on that later) but a great place to look in order to figure out whatâs important.

My first thought on the deck pertains to the abundance of role fillers and/or cards that âbridge the gapâ. What this means is there are a lot of cards in this deck meant to keep the pilot alive until they can start playing their powerful cards and make it to the mid- and late-game. Nobody (outside of a select few masochists) is excited to slam an Elvish Visionary on turn two or a Scion Summoner on turn three.

The ideal curve in this list is likely something to the effect of:

This is naturally the ideal scenario (live until your high-impact rares and mythic rares can take over the game) but it appears this list could have draws without a good density of threats and runs the risk of just sputtering out. The strategy is definitely sound and the list is great for a week one deck overall.

The next step in evolution for the deck occurred the following weekend at the Starcitygames Invitational in the hands of Andrew Maine:

Moving Archangel Avacyn to the main deck was an exceptional step which addresses my initial concern with the archetype. Most of the plan with the deck appears unchanged, but Nissa seems underrated here. My experiences with the 3-mana Planeswalker are in different archetypes, but given her tendency to dictate the entire pace of a game I err toward adding the fourth copy.

Shaving a land while adding a full play-set of 5-drops to the main deck seems a bit odd, but with Oath of Nissa and Elvish Visionary it is unlikely the deck misses its first 5 land drops. Playing Secure the Wastes and Westvale Abbey mean the deck has reliable ways to use its mana even while flooding, so there are reasonable arguments for more or less land.

Shortly after the Invitational concluded there were a measly five days until Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad kicked off with G/W Tokens eventually taking the entire tournament:

Wow. There is so much going on here that shifted from the previous list it is hard to tackle all of it.

The first thing worth pointing out is the inclusion of Sylvan Advocate. This signals a shift from the deck feeling the need to dig for bombs and just making a conscious effort to try and play more bombs. Sylvan Advocate shows the deck choosing to play cards which reduce the velocity of the deck (as in, the deckâs ability to find its most powerful cards) in order to raise the average power level of the spells in the deck. The âdeck to beatâ going into the Pro Tour was Bant Company and it was hard to justify spending a lot of time cycling cards when there was a deck that can generate just as many cards â but do it on-board and proactively.

The next thing which really sticks out in Rubinâs list is the spell lineup. It is very different than the previous iterations of the deck in that it isnât main-decking Declaration in Stone. This shift from Declaration in Stone to Dromoka's Command is likely connected to Sylvan Advocateâs slot in the deck and really just drives home the paradigm shift when the deck includes the Ally. This deckâs plan to go long makes the Clues Declaration in Stone produces a real liability. The 2-for-1 possibility with Dromoka's Command (as well as a main deck answer to some problematic cards like Cryptolith Rite and Always Watching) really pushes the card over-the-top.

Stasis Snare finding a home in the main deck is a clear nod to the influx of main deck Archangel Avacyns becoming increasingly popular around the time of the Pro Tour. Having an instant-speed way to deal with Avacyn (when it is so easy to flip her) is incredibly important for any type of deck planning to play a plethora of small- to medium-sized creatures.

Moving the counts of Westvale Abbey and Secure the Wastes down, to three and two respectively, is perfectly in-line with my previous observation on reasons a high land count was important or a low land count was justifiable. Lessening the things that ideally cost six or more is a great move in this deck.

Evolutionary Leap is a just a great value card in this particular archetype. It is the type of card you want to draw a reasonable amount of the time in order to utilize it against decks trying to out-grind you, but doesnât always fit into a curve when mana efficiency is the biggest concern. Because most of the cards in this deck produce a creature AND something else, Evolutionary Leap is pure card advantage â even before counting any removal spells it may be blanking. Evolutionary Leap being a way to trigger Avacynâs transform ability (by sacrificing a different creature) the turn she enters the Battlefield is also an enormous boon for the deck.

Lambholt Pacifist out of the sideboard is a fantastic piece of technology against the decks where early combat-ready creatures are a necessity. This can mean needing a great blocker against the Humans decks or needing a way to apply pressure (in conjunction with a +1/+1 counter or Anthem-styled effect) against non-interactive Ramp strategies. The Pacifist also plays very well with the large number of Instants and Spells with Flash. Itâs very easy to flip when the curve involves a Dromoka's Command, Stasis Snare, or Archangel Avacyn.

Tragic Arroganceâs inclusion in the deck shows a strong desire to have a trump card for creature mirrors. My first impression is this is a bit puzzling, but with Hangarback Walker and Archangel Avacyn in the deck it doesnât seem hard to think of very favorable scenarios with the selective-sweeper.

Since the Pro Tour, one of the biggest banes of G/W tokens has often been considered the various flavors of Cryptolith Rite decks that have had a steady following since the Pro Tour:

The big issue the G/W Tokens deck tends to have with this strategy is 4-Color Rites can gum up the ground and make creature combat a loose proposition. On top of that, Eldrazi Displacerâs activated ability tends to be a free Murder against any creature tokens (or Westvale Abbey) and Reflector Mage does a great Nekrataal impression. This variant of the Cryptolith Rite deck even has an infinite damage combo that invalidates any kind of fair axis the G/W Tokens deck may be able to come out ahead on.

Enter Michael Majors:

Main deck Tragic Arrogance is some spicy technology of Michael Majors and Gerry Thompson that almost completely shifted the Cryptolith Rite matchup in the favor of G/W Tokens. Wiping an opponentâs board while leaving them with a single Elvish Visionary (or similar chaff) is a pretty great feeling. Tragic Arrogance isnât necessarily going to be the call at every tournament, as it is weaker against some of the ramp strategies and is a non-zero amount of embarrassing against control decks (as far as 5-drops go) but when everybody is trying to trump each other in creature wars, itâs a fantastic weapon to have in onesâ arsenal.

The most recent development in G/W Tokens came from Hall of Famer Raphael Levy:

Go back, you might have missed it. Look at the Planeswalkers.

No Red sources in the deck. Well, none except for this:

Iâm sure there is some sort of clever âWell, youâve gotta get lucky to win a Grand Prixâ joke to be made here, but it is much harder to be snarky whenever it is a Magic Hall of Fame player with the off-the-wall technology. I canât say it is something I would be comfortable pulling the trigger on, but I can imagine a world where having access to Chandra, Flamecaller does a world of good for the G/W deckâs traditionally problematic matchup.

After this, it just becomes a matter of deciding what matchups to prepare for, and having a deck which synergizes properly with the plan it wants to execute. With G/W it is important to understand if you want to build a variant that will attack early and apply a good deal of pressure through Lambholt Pacifist, Sylvan Advocate, and even Chandra; or if you want to err toward a more Secure the Wastes-driven variant that goes over the top of other fair decks.

Doing research and taking advantage of the information on the internet does not always equate to net-decking. Learning is one of the most important things one does in Magic and having as much knowledge as possible is a surefire was to make sure that you are always battling harder âand smarter- than everyone else.