As usual, people are seeing if they can use the new token toys to make their Geist of Saint Traft even more fun. And like Parallel Lives before it, the Populate mechanic gives you some new options with Geist. Unlike Parallel Lives, which makes Geist throw down two tokens, both swinging and temporary, Populate will simply give you another of the Angels.

So say you attack with your Geist, and then cast Rootborn Defenses due to your opponent’s combat trick, or a bad block. When you Populate, the Angel token that you create isn’t attacking, since the effect that creates it doesn’t say that it is (and it’s a little late for new attackers anyway). But as a little consolation prize, the new Angel is a little more long-lived than her older sister. Much like how the new one isn’t attacking because the effect that created it didn’t say so, this new token isn’t exiled at the end of combat, because no such delayed trigger was put in place for this one. So you get indestructible creatures for the turn, and a 4/4 flier that actually sticks around. Not bad for three mana.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Trevor Nuñez