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Limited Formats Draft Guide: Selesnya Loft Gardens in the Mix
Drafting around unusual planes like Selesnya Loft Gardens can feel a little like riding a dragon through a token parade 🧙♂️🔥. The card’s home in the March of the Machine Commander set—an oversized, planar entry with token- and counters-doubling powers—gives you a tantalizing glimpse at how “limit” can become a playground for big dreams. Even though this plane isn’t a staple in traditional Limited formats, it shines in casual or cube-like drafts where token strategies and color-fixing ramps get a chance to shine. Let’s unpack how Loft Gardens behaves at a drafting table, what synergies it enables, and how you can build around its quirks without getting lost in the chaos ⚔️🎨.
What the card actually does on the table
Selesnya Loft Gardens is a Plane from the Ravnica-block-themed planar set that appears in the March of the Machine Commander line. Its most lauded lines are its doubling effects: If an effect would create one or more tokens, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead, and If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead. On the surface, these are the kind of lines that make experienced players grin and then start counting token creatures in their heads 🧙♂️💎.
The third ability is a spicy finish line: Whenever chaos ensues, until end of turn, whenever you tap a land for mana, add one mana of any type that land produced. That line is the kind of mana-tithe that can turn late-game plans into sprinting finales, especially in environments where chaos triggers pop more readily.
Metaphorically speaking, Loft Gardens acts like a turbocharged engine for two very different strategies: a token army that snowballs and a counters-based board that grows by leaps and bounds. Because the card can produce all five colors of mana in the right chaos moment, it also becomes a flexible fixer in a pinch—though the absence of a mana cost and its planar nature mean you’ll want to design around it rather than expect it to anchor a typical Limited deck. The card’s rarity is common, but its impact is anything but ordinary when conditions align. It’s a flavor win as much as a mechanical one 🧙♂️🔥.
Limited formats: where Loft Gardens truly shows its teeth
- Token-centric windows: In any draft where token generators exist—be they white-green anthem effects, anthem-like buffs, or artifacts that create goat-style fodder—the doubling clause multiplies your board rapidly. In a pod where your token engines are consistent, Loft Gardens can push you from “group of creatures” to “threatening board presence” in a single swing or two, with the counters-doubling stacking nicely on any +1/+1 counter themes you’ve drafted.
- Counters-heavy lines: If you’re in a deck that wants to push +1/+1 counters (think proliferate-adjacent games or natural green-white counter synergies), the doubling clause accelerates your buff wheels. A single doubling trigger on a popular counter-spreader can turn a modest board into a fortified wall of growth, which can be the difference between curving out and getting overwhelmed by a quick aggro plan 🧙♂️🎲.
- Color-rich ramp moments: Loft Gardens’ mana production can be a game-changer if chaos tricks appear in your pod. The potential to add mana of any color that a land produced, during a chaos turn, means your late-game spells could become castable in surprising ways. It’s not “fix everything” in a vacuum, but it’s a conditional surprise that punishes slow starts and rewards players who are comfortable leaning into chaotic windows 🔥⚔️.
- Casual and cube-like drafts: In more permissive formats—where cards from commander sets circulate in open drafts or specialty cubes—the Loft Gardens interact with a wider pool of token-makers and counter-doublers. The result is a deck that can look humble in the first pack but explode mid-game as the board explodes with twinned tokens and double counters. The element of chaos-triggered mana adds a thought-provoking, “how far can we push this?” vibe, which MTG fans love 🎨🎲.
Draft tips to maximize upside
If you’re lucky enough to encounter Loft Gardens in a casual or cube-like Limited setting, here are practical angles to keep in mind:
- Prioritize token generators early and often. Cards that cheaply create creatures, especially in green-white archetypes, become accelerants when Loft Gardens is on the battlefield. The more tokens you can produce, the more you can leverage the doubling effects later on.
- Seek out counters-boosters in the same colors. Effects that place +1/+1 counters on creatures scale with the doubling line, creating lethal threats for your opponents much sooner than expected.
- Measure chaos triggers and draft around them. If your pod has chaos-producing cards or if you’re in a more casual format where chaos effects come up more often, Loft Gardens can convert chaotic turns into color-splashing mana surges. Don’t lean on it as a primary ramp, but keep an eye on those moments.
- Don’t forget about removal and tempo. Doubling tokens and counters sounds glorious, but if your board is wiped, you’ll rebuild quickly with Loft Gardens still in play. Pair it with efficient removal and a tempo plan to weather the inevitable removal-heavy turns in Limited.
- Pair with compatible finishers. In green-white token strategies, finishing plays like a big, stomping go-wide victory can come suddenly when your board is doubled and buffed. In a pinch, a well-timed chaos-mapped mana surge can unleash a game-ending spell earlier than you expect 🔥💎.
Flavor and design takeaways
From a design perspective, Loft Gardens embodies the push-pull dynamic behind many MTG plane cards: it rewards players who embrace the plane’s cosmology—tokens blooming, counters multiplying, and chaos bending the rules of mana. The art by Martina Pilcerová captures a Lush, city-grid feel of Selesnya-inflected Ravnica, which is a fitting stage for wheel-turning, hopeful-green dreams. It’s a card that invites discussion about how “limit” can be reshaped by a single, well-timed event, and that’s exactly the kind of thematic tension MTG fans adore 🎨⚔️.
Competition-ready takeaways for your next casual draft or cube
In a casual pod where you want to explore unusual synergies, Loft Gardens serves as a bridge between two distinct gameplay philosophies: the evergreen token swarm and the proliferating, counters-heavy board state. It’s not the most efficient Limited payoff in a vacuum, but it’s a genuine curve-flattener when paired with the right support, and it offers a flavorful, memorable play pattern that can define a match. If you’re building a Limited deck around this card, lean into multi-token, multi-counter themes, stay flexible about mana sources, and keep an eye on chaos moments where the extra mana could swing stance and tempo in your favor 🧙♂️🎲.
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