Let the Mirror Mage show you the power of creature duplication!
This deck centers around a potent 3-card combo: Cathars' Crusade, Mystic Reflection, and creatures that generate multiple tokens when they enter the battlefield. AbsurdHeroine used this idea to great effect with a white devotion Reverent Hoplite deck, but the addition of Crusade lets you go tall AND wide, with the added benefit of being able to present a reasonably sturdy defense if you're forced to play a creature before all your combo pieces are ready.
By targeting your token generator (Regal Caracal, Reverent Hoplite, Mesmerizing Benthid, or Scampering Scorcher) with Mystic Reflection while the creature's token generation triggered ability is on the stack (Hold Full Control), the tokens enter the battlefield as token generators themselves, generating THEIR own tokens. With Cathars' Crusade in play, this sets off a cascade of triggers that stacks loads of +1/+1 counters onto your creatures. Even in the mildest case of Scampering Scorcher, you're looking at going from 0/0 to 52/52 worth of creatures. From there, haste that turn or Sleep on the following turn can allow for an absolutely smashing overlethal.
The rest of the deck provides consistency. Mana Geode smooths your draw and, ideally, ramps you from 3 mana to the crucial 5 mana threshold where Crusade can hit the board and threaten to go off next turn (provided you were able to foretell a Reflection earlier). Jace, the Mirror Mage fits the duplication theme and helps draw into combo pieces; Thirst for Meaning similarly helps you dig, especially if you have a spare Crusade or Birth of Meletis in your hand.
My best advice for ladder play with this deck is to not over-worry about catching your opponent by surprise. The board that results from one instance of the combo is plenty robust enough to sit for a turn before swinging in (and if it isn't, the game was already way out of your hands); the Drawbridge hasty play is often just gravy. Finding and sticking a Crusade is the trickiest part of pulling this off (not having your clone source die to instant removal is the second-trickiest). If you're worried about something like an Ugin coming down to ruin your setup, try to hold a spare Mystic Reflection to neuter him into something like a Drawbridge.
Alternate versions of this deck tried for a Simic Ascendancy win condition, but trying to draw and stick an off-color enchantment before starting the combo turned out to be too restrictive. Similarly, there are plenty of other creatures that this combo works with, but most of them are more expensive. The latest version runs 2 each of Hoplite and Mesmerizing Benthid; Hoplite gets out of hand much more explosively (see math below) but falls relatively flat unless you have BOTH the Crusade and the Reflection. Benthid has a lower performance ceiling, but it's great if you need a removal-resistant blocker to hold the line before all your combo pieces are in place. If you love the thought of hilarious overkill, play more Hoplites; if you want to have more flexibility for when the plan goes off the rails, play more Benthids.
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Fun Math: With Cathars' Crusade on the board and no other White devotion, playing Reverent Hoplite + Mystic Reflection gives you: 4x 23/24 Hoplites, 6x 23/23 tokens, 6x 17/17 tokens, and 6x 11/11 tokens. It also puts 22 +1/+1 counters on EACH of the other creatures you have onboard at the time, if any. You can imagine how quickly this gets out of hand if you have higher devotion or multiple Crusades.
Creature (15) | |||
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$0.52€0.260.03 | |||
$0.25€0.140.03 | |||
$1.31€0.670.02 | |||
$0.30€0.140.03 | |||
$0.67€0.600.02 | |||
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (18) | |||
$0.25€0.220.03 | |||
2
Sleep
|
$0.25€0.240.03 | ||
$0.25€0.140.03 | |||
$10.70€11.520.02 | |||
$0.19€0.060.03 | |||
$1.71 | |||
$7.35€3.670.02 | |||
Land (24) | |||
1
Mountain
|
$0.990.03 | ||
$0.97 | |||
$9.00€9.260.17 | |||
$0.30€0.200.02 | |||
5
Island
|
$0.840.03 | ||
$0.60€0.640.02 | |||
$8.25 | |||
6
Plains
|
$0.450.03 | ||
$0.47€0.460.02 | |||
Planeswalker (3) | |||
$0.64€0.590.02 |
$0.49€0.290.02 |
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