Wednesday was the reveal of the populate-themed Primal Genesis deck. Outside of the commander and a couple of cards that were included in all decks, we didn’t know much about this one outside of its theme. Keeping with the pattern that I’ve noticed, this was the deck they were building up to, or at least this is the deck that has appealed to me the most out of the three that have now been spoiled. Naya isn’t exactly my favorite color combination (that distinction belongs to Esper currently), but it works fine for my dinosaur tribal deck. Since the main theme of the deck is to create tokens and then populate to create more tokens, it seems my initial assessment that it would be hard to go wide was unfounded. It seems that WotC saw the same issue that I did and baked in plenty of support. Anyway, let’s get on with the reveal!

Alternate Commanders:

I really like Alta Palani, but not for the same reason that other people do. Many are building him as egg tribal, and though there is a good selection of cards from the game’s history that are eggs or egg related, I just don’t see that as being a fun idea. However, in my dinosaur deck, this is just another way besides using Gishath to cheat big creatures onto the battlefield, and for that I want this card. I’m actually into Marisi as well, but for different reasons. It’s nice to be able to stop opponents from casting spells on your turn, but it’s also nice to be able to goad them into attacking other players. I feel like this one belongs in a control deck, or perhaps a Najeela warrior deck, but I actually don’t see a home for it just yet, will still be happy to try and find one though. The final two color general is only so-so. It’s one of those weird switcharoo cards and I just don’t have the energy to try and brew around those. Your mileage may vary.

New Cards:

There are a few interesting new cards here. Some I did not share due to being in other decks and having already talked about them. Out of these I like the Commander’s Insignia — especially for low costed commanders that might be played 3-5 times in a game, that’s quite a boon. Song of the Worldsoul is a nice populate trigger, Full Flowering can be huge given the mana, and the Eulogist is a nice piece of graveyard hate along with populating at the same time. Idol of Oblivion is nice card draw if you’re always populating, but it can be sacrificed to make a 10/10, and that’s not bad! Honestly these are all pretty good, though they’re mostly good in this deck. Whatever the case I intend on picking this one up for sure!

Notable Reprints:

Only a few notables here, though there are a ton of reprints that are just fine for the deck. Feldon and Trostani are both older legendaries that fit into a ton of decks, so they are definitely ones you’ll want in you collection. I have a copy of the former already, but I don’t doubt I’ll be able to find a spot for another. This version of Garruk may not be the most powerful, but it’s a classic Planeswalker and I like it for that fact. I also don’t own a copy so bonus! Lastly, the Sakura Tribe Elder is basically an EDH staple and I have a few copies but more never hurt. As I said, out of the three decks this one has appealed to me the most and it’s highest on my list to pick up come the end of the month. I have my doubts that the Madness deck will be any better than this, but I’ll check in tomorrow to talk about those cards as well. Then we can get back to talking about other stuff, my apologies to those of you who aren’t MTG fans, but this is hype season for the game and more specifically this format and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk about them.