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"Magic: The Gathering" "Populate"s Commander 2019

At GenCon 2019 this past weekend, Wizards of the Coast unveiled their newest Commander deck themes for Magic: The Gathering. What's more, they revealed that on each day from August 5th-8th, they are revealing a new decklist. The themes are Morph, Madness, Populate, and Flashback, themes that are very popular for many players. Today, Wizards of the Coast is spoiling cards for the Flashback deck specifically and will be spoiling the full decklist via The Command Zone channel on YouTube.

Magic: the Gathering - Commander 2019 logo
Source: gamenerdz.com

At Bleeding Cool, we have been going over the contents of the preconstructed decks that have been spoiled so far (our segment covering the Morph deck's commanders was on Monday, while the Flashback deck's contents were discussed yesterday), and today will be no different – by "popular" demand, today we will be covering the Primal Genesis deck, which revolves around the Populate mechanic. At this time, we even have the entire deck spoiled. That being said, this article will aim to showcase the three commander options for this Magic: the Gathering deck.

Without further ado, here are those commander cards!

Ghired, Conclave Exile
Source: Scryfall.com

Ghired, Conclave Exile

As the face card of the Primal Genesis deck, Ghired, Conclave Exile brings some exciting design space to the Populate mechanic by creating tokens that are already in the thick of combat when they enter the battlefield. What's more, Ghired enters the battlefield with a Rhino creature token alongside him! Decks which focus on "enter the battlefield" abilities and are in Ghired's colors would benefit greatly from this addition, whether in commander or as part of the deck as a whole.

Atla Palani, Nest Tender
Source: Scryfall.com

Atla Palani, Nest Tender

While the rest of the Primal Genesis deck is loaded with larger tokens to Populate, Atla Palani, Nest Tender happens to play with tokens… differently. As it were, Atla Palani makes Egg tokens, which upon being killed (cracked?) cause larger creatures to emerge from the deck. Technically this ability to bring creatures from deck to field can be manipulated by using Changelings (creatures with all creature types), but the token generation on its own is already threatening enough in its own right.

Marisi, Breaker of the Coil
Source: Scryfall.com

Marisi, Breaker of the Coil

Marisi, Breaker of the Coil is a classic Magic: the Gathering character dating back to 2009 when Shards of Alara premiered. Marisi was – spoiler alert – the murderer of cornerstone character and Ajani Goldmane's brother Jazal, forcing Ajani's Planeswalker spark to ignite. Marisi goads (quite literally) in a similar way during the actual game, too. While your opponents are forced to fight each other, Marisi can help you build up forces (perhaps by using Populate) to establish an end-game strategy.

Notable Magic: the Gathering Reprints

Now that the full decklist is spoiled for the public, there are a ton of cards, new and old, to talk about. It stands to reason that a few really good cards were given a new printing for Commander 2o19, notably Angel of Sanctions, Growing Ranks, and Garruk, Primal Hunter. These cards further support the ever-popular token strategy that Primal Genesis provides players.

Magic: the Gathering – Commander 2019 will be released in English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian, and is slated to hit shelves on August 23rd.


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Joshua NelsonAbout Joshua Nelson

Josh Nelson is a Magic: The Gathering deckbuilding savant, a self-proclaimed scholar of all things Sweeney Todd, and, of course, a writer for Bleeding Cool. In their downtime, Josh can be found painting models, playing Magic, or possibly preaching about the horrors and merits of anthropophagy. You can find them on Twitter at @Burning_Inquiry for all your burning inquiries.
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