I have redeemed myself (and drafting Selesnya)

[Margalis]

So I finally took first in a draft, went over a bunch of people with 1700+ ratings and got my rating back over 1600.

This is the first draft in a while where I did two things:
1: Not make stupid play mistakes
2: Draft with a plan in mind

I quickly got into Selesnya. With that in mind I had the following plan:
1: Generate tokens and put a lot of creatures on the board.
2: Be able to do something with those creatures - pump them, sac them, etc.

During the draft I got a Tolsimir Wolfblood (+1/+1 to green creatures, +/1+1 to white creatures), a drooling groodion, an overwhelm and a crown of convergence.

I didn't use Tolsimir or Groodion much (only got them out in one game each and they weren't really relevant) But Overwhelm and especially Crown of Convergence were the stars of the deck. I was a bit lucky to grab all that good stuff, but it was pretty clear to me that Selesnya was fairly open and I drafted accordingly. (Tolsimir I got 4th or 5th pick out of last pack which is pretty absurd)

When I first saw Crown I wasn't even sure if I should take it. I've never played with it before. But then I rememberd my plan - all 4 cards I mentioned above are cards that let you do something with all the tokens you made. Crown can make them 2/2 instead of 1/1 and also let you skip over cards in your deck you really don't want. (Like extra lands, or let you find lands if you need them) With Crown out you can win races you might otherwise be losing. When you have 4 or 5 creatures in play constantly giving them +1/+1 makes a huge difference. And of course if you can get some mix of Tolsimir, Crown and Overwhelm together it just gets silly.

I basically rolled over everyone I faced with the exception of one game I was playing against Boros, got mana screwed and fell too far behind. Otherwise it was just a beatdown. A lot of my games ended with me attacking with 6 5/5+ creatures or 10 2/2 tokens. A lot of the time people conceded when they still had 4 creatures and 10 health because the crown was feeding me a steady diet of creatures and pump and the end was inevitable.

I'm finding that the expensive cards like Overwhelm are a lot easier to cast with the addition of tap lands. 7 mana isn't that hard to come by in a lot of games.

The other thing I did was not make awful play mistakes. I can't count the number of games I've lost due to stupid errors. But I played pretty solidly overall. Spent my mana to keep the right types open for instants, didn't tap out with a Gaze of the Gorgon in my hand so I could regen my Seige Wurm if I needed to, etc. Typically I make at least 2 utterly bonehead plays a game, but I didn't make any huge errors throughout this entire draft.

---
Overall the key to drafting Selesnya IMO is finding something to do with your tokens. An army of 1/1s doesn't cut it. With that in mind, some key cards to look for in a Selesnya deck:

Overwhelm (super pump)
Crown of Convergence (pump + deck sifting)
Tolsimir (pump plus he is just great on his own with his doggy helper)
Drooling Groodion (if you can fit the black)
Rally the Reightous (if you can fit the red, basically a poor man's overwhelm)
Selesnya Guildmage (tokens + pump)
Sand Sower (I'm not the biggest fan in the world, but can be useful)
And of course there is the "tap a creature to tap target creature" card. (I forget the name, basically Sand Sower on super-steroids)

Crown and Tolsimir are rare but Groodion and Overwhelm are uncommon, and Rally is common. A one time +2/+0 is pretty good if you have a bunch of tokens lying around.

[eldaec]

Grats.   :-D

The sand sower on steroids you speak of is Glare of the Subdual.

The cards I'd look for when drafting GW, even above the ones you list are...



I won an entire draft this morning on the back of wings + golgari guildmage, guildmage pumps itself each turn, so even as the other guy got flyers out he can't ever quite get one big enough, and all the while I'm making a gazillion saprolings.

Moldervine cloak is also one to watch for, 4/4 saprolings for teh win!

Finally, if you like rally the righteous, look out for wojek siren, it's +1/+1 till eot raidance without the untap, but only costs W.

[Margalis]

Wojek Siren is ok, but I prefer rally because for tokens +2/+0 is better than +1/+1. When I attack with a bunch of tokens I really want to maximize damage, not try to keep them alive. Althout Wojek Siren is ok in a pinch.

Golgari Guildmage is excellent. Selsnya Evangel is good but I didn't list it because I assumed that was part of the core of a token based deck. If you are going to make a token deck you need some combination of Selesnya Guildmage, Evangel, Scatter the Seeds, Fists or Ironwood, Vitu-Ghazi City Tree, etc. It's possible to make an ok G/W deck without a critical mass of those but it isn't going to be a token deck.

Pollenbright Wings I'm not sure about. It's worth picking up usually there are too many times you play it on a creature and then that creature is killed and you lost two cards. However sometimes it will win games by itself. I would probably play it but be prepared to side it out against heavy black removal. I'd certainly rather have Overwhelm or something like that.

I didn't list Moldervine because Moldervine just makes any deck tons better. If you can fit the green it should be played in basically any deck. In Dimir you can transmute a Drift of Phantasms to tutor for it as well.

[Johny Cee]

Good listing Margalis.  Just some other notes (and these aren't "must pick" cards):

I've found Seeds of Strength to be impressively versatile in a token deck.  You can block or attack,  pump up multiple tokens enough to clear the board,  and then restart your token generation.

I'm also a fan of Scatter the Seeds.  Three tokens hitting board at same time is usually enough to pause someone pounding on you,  since they don't want to trade a card for a token.  Gives you time for your slower token generators to start pumping out munchkins.  Especially if you have a Skysweeper in play.

Also,  Selesnya Sagitarius (I think):  the 2/5 that can block fliers or more than one creature.  Looks like crap,  but every time I've drafted him he's saved my ass from the "obnoxious weenie flier deck".  Especially since Green is awful lacking in anti-flyer tech.

Moldervine Cloak is pretty much a "must draft" for anyone.  It turns everything into a credible threat.

[Margalis]

Selesnya Sagitars (?) can be pretty handy. Blocks flyers and can block two guys at once. Really helpful against Boros if they get off to a quick start, especially if you can block two guys then use Seeds of Strength or Gaze of the Gorgon.

[Johny Cee]

Selesnya Sagitars (?) can be pretty handy. Blocks flyers and can block two guys at once. Really helpful against Boros if they get off to a quick start, especially if you can block two guys then use Seeds of Strength or Gaze of the Gorgon.

Ooooo, Gaze of the Gorgon.

That card hasn't gotten enough love in this thread.  It's green removal.  Amazing.

Combine with the black lure creature for extra fun.