Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Genku, Future Shaper!

Genku is a four mana 2/5 with whenever another nontoken permanent you control leaves the battlefield we choose between one of three creature tokens that hasn’t been chosen this turn which are a 2/2 white Fox with Vigilance, a 1/2 Moonfolk with flying, and a 1/1 black Rat with lifelink and for three, a white, and a blue mana you can put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

Genku is an interesting Commander because we can go several routes in how we make these tokens. Ideally we want to be able to do it on any turn to get the most value we can as well as many of a certain token that we would like or need for the moment.

The plan is to have several avenues of getting nontoken permanents we control off of the battlefield in order to trigger Genku and that can come primarily in the form of bounce and blinking/flickering in order to start getting tokens on the battlefield and some ways to get those creatures bigger.

The first thing we need to look at are the more common ways we can get things off of the battlefield.

Jill, Shiva’s Dominant is a solid way to bounce something we control to our hand or something an opponent controls into their hand as we need, while also having the versatility to transform it, which also happens to have it leave the battlefield when it transforms to and from Shiva, Warden of Ice, who also provides utility in stopping a creature from blocking for two turns and then tapping all your opponents lands before transforming back into Jill.

We can also use Whitemane Lion as a flash creature that can bounce something we control to our hand if we want to protect something from a board wipe or a targeted removal spell, and since its two mana we can hold it up without too much of a mana commitment.

There is also the classic blinking/flickering way of getting things on and off the battlefield, like Phelia, Exuberant Shepard which, also with flash, we can exile any nonland permanent and have it come back to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of the end step, and if it was under our control then we put a +1/+1 counter on Phelia.

If we have a decent board of things that can be blinked/flickered then we can play Yorion, Sky Nomad as a way to exile any number of things and have them come back to the battlefield at the beginning of our next end step, one to get a bunch of Genku triggers as well as other enters effects.

There is also a cheeky way to get multiple uses out of Yorion by flashing in a Restoration Angel to blink Yorion to then blink everything else and at the beginning of the next end step have everything come back to then blink Yorion again to have everything leave to trigger Genku again and get everything back at the beginning of the next opponents end step, getting a ton of enters triggers.

The next thing we need are the creatures that we want to come back and forth to get a ton of value out of.

Skyclave Apparition is great for this because we can start weeding out smaller utility creatures our opponents control and replacing them with small tokens when we continuously blink the Skyclave Apparition. Granted we can’t hit tokens, but we can get through some small indestructible nonland permanents that may be problematic.

If we manage to get a decent loop of getting creatures in and out of play, then we can use Cloud of Faeries to great effect because when it enters the battlefield we untap two lands, meaning that if we can manage a solid loop, we can untap a majority, if not all, of our lands.

We can also deny our opponents of resources if we get a decent loop of recursion going by using Reflector Mage, which bounces a creature an opponent controls and prevents that creature’s owner from casting spells with the same name as that creature until our next turn.

There is Loran of the Third Path which can destroy an artifact or enchantment when she enters, Archaeomancer which can return an instant or sorcery to our hand, Wall of Omens and Spirited Companion to draw us cards, and Charming Prince to scry 2, gain 3 life, or exile a creature we own and return it to our control at the beginning of the end step.

Karmic Guide can an especially be a great target to get multiple enters triggers from because when it enters we can return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield, which can help us recur any creatures that may have died to help start our blink loops again for more Genku triggers or for simple card advantage if we need it.

Now that we have ways to get our creatures on and off the battlefield, as well as creatures that want to be on and off the battlefield, we need to find pieces that want our things on and off the battlefield.

Call for Unity is great because it has Revolt, which at the beginning of our end step if a permanent we controlled left the battlefield this turn then we put a unity counter on it, and creatures we control get +1/+1 for each unity counter on it. If we get at least one thing off our battlefield each turn then we can make the normally small tokens Genku makes into powerhouses.

While the other Revolt cards are average at best, we can consistently get the benefits of their effects each turn since they trigger when they enter the battlefield, meaning we can blink them to count for their own effects. Airdrop Aeronauts to gain 5 life, Countless Gears Renegade to get a 1/1 Servo token, and Deadeye Harpooner to destroy a tapped creature an opponent controls.

Since our primary targets for leaving the battlefield are nontoken permanents, we would leave our tokens alone, meaning that something like Cathar’s Crusade can be pretty interesting to play with all the other creatures that we control are coming in and our of play, usually losing the counters they would have while our tokens just slowly get bigger and bigger.

Add in something like a Training Grounds then we can make Genku’s ability cheaper to activate in order to get our tokens stronger, while also combining some other token boosters like Intangible Virtue which gives creature tokens we control +1/+1 and vigilance and Caretaker’s Talent which can draw us a card the first time a token we control enters, can create a token copy of a token we control, and then finally can give creature tokens we control +2/+2.

Genku is a value Commander through and through, needing us to get things in and out of the battlefield in order to start making a bunch of tokens. These tokens will help us get damage through as well as recover some life, but we will need to be quick with this deck.

We can easily get lost in the weeds with the deck because of how often we are bringing things in and out of the battlefield and tracking which Genku triggers we’ve done this turn or haven’t done, it can get a bit confusing. It’s not often I say that the bookkeeping of a deck can be one of the harder parts in operating it, but that can sometimes be the case.

It’s part of the reason why I really love the idea of Storm decks, but am always wary on tracking them, but that’s a discussion for a whole other day.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual!