Hello and welcome to Commander Bites!

Today we are going to be taking a look at Jinnie Fay, Jetmir’s Second!

Jinnie Fay is a three mana 3/3 that if you would create one or more tokens, you may instead create that many 2/2 green Cat creature tokens with haste or that many 3/1 green Dog creature tokens with vigilance.

Game Plan

Jinnie Fay plays very much into the go wide tokens strategy, with us making use of a as many token generators as we can in order to make it so that instead of some small 1/1 tokens or an artifact token, we get either Cat tokens that can attack immediately or Dog tokens that are stronger, but work better defensively.

Our game plan is simple, populate the field with as many ways we can generate tokens and go super wide in order to be aggressive or defensive as we see the need.

Support

Some of the first cards that come to mind are obviously cards that can continuously make tokens.

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon is perfect because whenever we attack with one or more non-Gnome creatures we put a +1/+1 counter on Anim Pakal and then make X 1/1 Gnome artifact creature tokens that are tapped and attacking where X is the number of +1/+1 counters on Anim Pakal. We just switch the 1/1 creatures into either Cats or Dogs in order to make a much bigger swing against our opponents.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar plays into a similar space because whenever we attack, for each opponent, we create a 1/1 Human creature token that is tapped and attacking that player or a Planeswalker they control, which again become either Cats or Dogs as we desire.

Rabble Rousing is a card I enjoy because it has Hideaway 5 to let us look at the top five cards of our library and exile it face down, and whenever we attack with one or more creatures, we create that many 1/1 Citizen creature tokens, and then if we control ten or more creatures we may play the exiled card for free.

Arasta of the Endless Web is a sneaky solid include because normally it would make us a 1/2 Spider creature token with reach whenever an opponent casts an instant or sorcery spell, but now we can get either a Cat or Dog depending on what would suit us best.

Belladonna Took can also be a major asset in our token making strategy because whenever a token enters we gain 1 life if it’s the first time, draw a card if it’s the second time, and put a +1/+1 counter on each creature we control if it it’s the third time.

Release to Memory is also a card that works as removal because we can use it to exile an opponent’s graveyard and for each creature exiled this way we create a 1/1 Spirit creature token, which we can use either when Jinnie Fay is in play or not as we need it.

Tribute to the World Tree is a sneaky card for us to include in the deck because whenever a creature we control enters we draw card if its power is 3 or greater, otherwise we put two +1/+1 counters on it. This means we draw a card for each Dog we create and our Cats become 4/4’s with haste.

Since we are making a ton of tokens, ideally our way to win is going to be fairly aggressive, so something like Shared Animosity which has it so that whenever a creature we control attacks it gets +1/+0 until end of turn for each other attacking creature that shares a creature type with it.

If we want a more flavorful way to win, we can always of course use Jetmir, Nexus of Revels to give creatures we control +1/+0 and vigilance if we have three or more creatures, an additional +1/+0 and trample if we control six or more creatures, and an additional +1/+0 and double strike if we control nine or more creatures.

Setbacks

Go wide and aggro strategies can be pretty strong, but they can also be fairly fragile.

Board wipes are of course a concern, and while Jinnie Fay can essentially be cast with only green mana if necessary so our colors aren’t too much of a concern, building up a board after it has been cleared is always going to be a pain.

With us also playing as an aggressive type of deck, ways that keep us from attacking via a tax or some other sort of limitation like a Crawlspace, Silent Arbiter, Ghostly Prison, or Propaganda will not play well with our deck.

There are plenty of cards we can use to help protect our board of creatures, but we may end up being a bit light on removal spells so we do have to be mindful on that front.

What’s more, we are playing two creature types that happen to be pretty popular, so it would stand to reason that we put in some more typal matters cards to help our Cats and Dogs, however this can be a bit tricky because while there are some synergies between the two creature types, more often than not they can end up clogging your hand and being more situational.

You may have a Cat lord in hand that would be great to have, but you have more Dogs in play and vice versa. Jinnie Fay does happen to work well as a Cat or Dog typal Commander, but for the most part works better if we have the choice of having either one as we need them.

Bracket Rating: High 3, Low 4

Jinnie Fay can be a pretty brutal go wide Commander if played well, and especially in a go wide deck that plays more into a fast and aggressive play style.

Despite that, Jinnie Fay also happens to be pretty fragile if our board becomes cleared more than once or twice, especially if our token engines get removed consistently.

Jinnie Fay can survive a few removal spells and has access to a decent amount of interaction to keep themselves in play that I think that they could survive some of the higher brackets, but not for long if they are unable to generate an obscene amount of tokens.

I still think that Jinnie Fay is a bit slept on for being another aggro tokens Commander, but they do a really solid job of doing it and since it is a may trigger, we can still make use of other tokens if we need them like Treasures or Food.

Thank you for reading, see you all tomorrow!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual