Much Abrew: Toski Tokens (Modern)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. A few weeks ago on Much Abrew, we played Squirrel Blade in Modern, and while the deck was pretty sweet, it didn't really seem to maximize the power of our namesake Squirrel, Toski, Bearer of Secrets. As such, today, we're going to see what happens when a deck goes all-in on powering up the card-drawing potential of the legendary Squirrel, with Toski Tokens. Thanks to cards like Lingering Souls, Bitterblossom, and Spectral Procession, we can easily have three or four evasive creatures ready to attack by the time Toski, Bearer of Secrets comes down on Turn 4, giving us an absurd burst of card advantage, which we hopefully can snowball into a win. How good can Toski, Bearer of Secrets be in Modern, backed by a ton of cheap, evasive token producers? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we'll talk more about the deck!
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Much Abrew: Toski Tokens
Discussion
- Record-wise, we finished 2-3, with a couple of pretty convincing wins against fair-ish decks, a couple of convincing losses against unfair decks, and one disappointing loss against Jund Death's Shadow where we had the win in two turns but our opponent topdecked a Kozilek's Return to sweep our board and sneak in a lethal attack. While we easily could have been 3-2, our league actually exemplified the strengths and weaknesses of Toski Tokens quite well. Toski Tokens is great against fair decks. We have a ton of blockers, an evasive clock, and a ton of card advantage thanks to Toski, Bearer of Secrets. On the other hand, we're a bit slow and lacking in disruption against unfair decks, which is tough. All the Toski card draw in the world can't save you from a Turn 3 Primeval Titan or Dredge milling half of their deck.
- By far the most exciting aspect of the deck is Toski, Bearer of Secrets itself. It was even better than I expected. When we played Squirrel Blade, Toski, Bearer of Secrets felt fine but wasn't especially exciting. In Toski Tokens, Toski, Bearer of Secrets was often the card we wanted to draw the most and felt like the best payoff in our entire deck. While finding a way to fight unfair decks more effectively seems important, that's more of an issue with Tokens in general (they are powerful but slow) than Toski. If Tokens ever becomes a real tier deck in Modern, I expect that Toski, Bearer of Secrets will be a big part of the reason why.
- While Intangible Virtue is a staple of Tokens decks, Force of Virtue might look a bit strange as our backup anthem, but it actually synergizes pretty well with Toski, Bearer of Secrets. Once we get Toski going, we draw so many cards that we are often stuck discarding to hand size, which makes discarding a white card to play Force of Virtue a lot less of a cost.
- Auriok Champion is really strong in the current Modern meta. If you are a heavy white deck, you should consider playing it in your sideboard, if not in the main deck. Protection from both red and black is huge, and having some incidental lifegain is helpful against aggro.
- Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis felt like the worst card in the deck. I'm not sure there's a good reason to play it over another copy of Sorin, Solemn Visitor. It offers a more consistent way to pump our tokens and also a bunch of lifegain, which can be key to swinging the race in some matchups.
- After getting wrecked by Dredge, I think we could use some more graveyard hate in the sideboard. Rest in Peace is a bit of a non-bo with Lingering Souls (exiling it so we can't flash it back). Leyline of the Void might be the best option, while cards like Nihil Spellbomb also could be worth considering.
- All in all, Toski Tokens was super fun to play. Toski, Bearer of Secrets felt incredibly powerful in the deck. While unfair matchups are an issue (one that kept us from having a better overall record in our league), it probably can be fixed by changing up our utility cards and sideboard. If you like drawing a ton of cards, tokens, or Squirrels, I think that Toski Tokens is a reasonably competitive option for Modern and a great option to fight against other fair decks!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
