Magic: The Gathering's Dominaria United reveals King Darien XLVIII, a mighty token deck Commander

Magic: The Gathering's King Darion XLVIII brings power and stability to token creature decks (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

It’s Magic: The Gathering's spoiler season for Dominaria United! That means a wealth of cards are being shown off every day, with each of them varying in power. A dual-colored (White/Green) legendary creature was revealed yesterday, King Darien XLVIII. He is going to prove to be a fascinating card option for Selesnya token decks.

While he may not be the most powerful Selesnya Commander option, he’s going to be a viable option without a doubt, as well as a must-have in a variety of decks.

---

King Darien XLVIII is a powerful token deck Commander/Legendary for Magic: The Gathering

In Magic: The Gathering, all colors have an option for creating token creatures. However, Selesnya - Green and White - has become the most popular over the years,. The token generators in this color combination are often low-cost and high in number. The idea behind these decks is that players overrun their foe with a large number of token creatures.

What makes these Magic: The Gathering decks better, though? The ability to enhance or strengthen tokens is going to be the key to success. As revealed to be a part of Dominaria United, King Darien XLVIII buffs your creatures, and can also enhance Darien himself.

• Mana Cost: 1GW
• Type: Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
• Rarity: Rare
• Stats: 2 power, 3 toughness
• Passive Ability: Other creatures you control get +1/+1
• Mana Ability: Pay 3GW - Put a +1/+1 counter on King Darien XLVIII and create a 1/1 White soldier creature token
• Ability: Sacrifice King Darien XLVIII - creature tokens that you control gain Hexproof and Indestructible until the end of the turn

While, yes, the cost of creating a token is high (five mana), it does allow you to give King Darien a +1/+1 counter on top of that, giving it a high value. His other two abilities are what make him such a great card. These abilities grant his fellow creatures +1/+1 to their stats, and also a temporary defense against boardwipe.

If sacrificed, the creature tokens you control suddenly have Hexproof and Indestructible. This is going to be fun if players are running Angel Tokens. Suddenly, those 4 power, 4 toughness Flying creatures will also become invincible.

The recently revealed Karn’s Sylex can easily destroy token creatures, but King Darien puts a stop to that. Karn's Sylex can be sacrificed for 0 mana, to remove all 0-cost permanents in play. Since tokens have a 0-mana cost, they all go away in this way. A simple solution is to sacrifice King Darien and laugh as the tokens resist destruction.

He’s going to be a lot of fun in draft/limited modes, too, as he’s low-cost and immediately high value. He grants all of your creatures +1/+1 as well, not just tokens. Selesnya decks are notoriously high on creatures, tokens or otherwise, making him very desirable.

Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format’s going to find a lot to love about King Darien XLVIII as well. It’s a format filled with removal, and token decks are likely to see a lot of aggression and hate. He’s worth putting several copies in non-Commander formats, too, to keep abusing his powerful nature.

Dominaria United will bring this card to life for Magic: The Gathering players on September 1 for digital formats, and September 9, 2022, for physical formats.