Tokens, constantly.

A large part of Magic is it's tokens, moreso it's token creatures. I'm talking about the current cuties Spawn tokens. Before them came the ever expendable but more adorable Myr tokens of Mirrodin, and the lethal tokens of choice are of course the 1/1 Saproling hoards.

There's three spells to care about if you wanna Spawn-ramp up to your 15 cost Eldrazi mythic monsters (Not as cute). Corpsehatch, Kozilek's Predator, Brood Hatchling/er. Kill a critter get 2 tokens, make a 3/3 get two tokens or a 3/3 and three tokens. The strength of the cards comes from their ability to be relevant and still OK Playable even without the Spawn token generation. 5 mana instant kill spell is still a killspell, and in Rise one of the few cards that kills fatties easily. A Hill Giant is everyone's favourite "Dork" and a 5 drop 3/3 is kind of like everyBlackMage's "Atleast it's a good bad creature" of choice. Perhaps less so the last one, but the point remains.

It's a big like a gift, who's wrapping paper is solid gold. Ever since Lorwyn I've taken great notice of "army in a card" creatures, posterchild of which is Cloudgoat Ranger, and before that Siege-Gang Commander (though you could argue Siege-Gang isn't Army in a card so much as Shock-alot on multiple legs). If the above mentioned Rise cards did make similar tokens, 1/1s not 0/1s, they've have to bump up a rarity each.

A Spawn token with flying can block an untapped Pristine Angel - true story.

Which Eldrazi monster is the best one to ramp up too? Sadly the nature of 2-for-1s leaves me postponing the moment to "cash in" for very long times, and with tokens its worse as you can sack 5 tokens for a quick Crusher and get it bounced - 5 for 1 really. They weren't cards but they're spent resources now.

Hand of Umrakul is the worst of the lot, being a measly 7/7 with Anihilator 1. Sac a land, block with my Pelakka Wurm, draw card and get on with it. I personally favour Ulamog's Crusher, as the 8/8 for 8 body itself is good, with Anihilator is great. As for a speed experiment Hand Of does get out the gate quicker but only via tokens. Turn 3 is the earlier I can see it coming out, as Brood Hatching [1R put a token into play. If you had one, put three instead] gives you turn 2 a token, turn three another gives you the last three which you can 4-sac for 7/7 goodness. In this case the anihilator 1 is quick enough to matter, but even so Oust laughs as it undoes a lot of work.

It feels that the indispensibility of the Myr tokens is more a benefit then the Spawn tokens. Being bum blocks, mana acceleration and powerless are their main points, but less effective seeing you can be screwed once you've decided to cash them in. Doesn't make them less fun. The Myr themselves had their own cards as well, including an indestructible lord [Myr Matrix] and their ability to die and be done with feels like they've done their job, as opposed to paying for someone else's job to get started.

Still turn 4 "Kozilek's Predator" turn 5 "Another Predator, Flame Slash your whoever," is an awesome way to start.