Duskmourn spoiler season may have concluded, but we still have some time before this set hits store shelves. Even though we’ve seen almost, if not everything, that Duskmourn has to offer at this point, a lot of impressive stuff hit the internet at the last second. The most terrifying among these is undeniably the Room which combines Crucible of Worlds and Yawgmoth’s Will together, but even that may not see as much play as Formless Genesis.
Formless Genesis isn’t inherently broken. The card is definitely strong and should see play in a ton of different green Commander decks. Thanks to its versatility, this card slots into a lot of different strategies nicely.
Formless Genesis
- Mana Value: 2G
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Kindred Sorcery – Shapeshifter
- MTG Sets: Commander: Duskmourn
- Card Text: Changeling. Create an X/X colorless Shapeshifter creature token with changeling and deathtouch, where X is the number of land cards in your graveyard. Retrace.
Formless Genesis is a very adaptive roleplayer. Creating a token for three mana with Deathtouch isn’t the most exciting effect in Commander. Even if you have a ton of lands in your graveyard and manage to create something big, that token will rarely get a lot done on its own. The versatility of this card comes in two forms: Retrace and Changeling.
Retrace is the keyword that really makes Formless Genesis tick. Now, you can turn your lands into tokens, defending against flooding. In a landfall deck, flooding isn’t totally unexpected. If you lose your engines to removal and are stuck top-decking lands, Formless Genesis can turn those lands into big creatures. This also means that should your deck have a self-mill theme, you can mill over this card and start using it. Another point for versatility.
Thanks to granting the token Deathtouch, even if you’re creating smaller tokens with Formless Genesis, they can still have a purpose. No one wants to trade into small Deathtouch creatures, which allows you to buy a lot of time on board.
Typal Paradise
The other big piece that makes Formless Genesis so versatile is that the tokens it creates have Changeling. This means that the tokens count as every creature type, allowing them to seamlessly synergize with any Typal strategy. Whether you’re playing Slivers, Vampires, or Merfolk, your Formless Genesis tokens will get all the payoffs that all your other creatures do.
This, once again, allows Formless Genesis to play a more synergistic role as a piece that can hedge against flooding. Should your typal deck have some milling synergies, this card just becomes better.
So, Formless Genesis can see play in Landfall, self-mill, and Typal Commanders. That’s quite the wide spectrum of decks! Past that, this card is a Kindred Sorcery, which allows it to cater to the themes of the Death Toll Commander deck, where it is found. This enables Delirium, which Winter, Cynical Opportunist cares about, and it has two card types, which the much more interesting secondary Commander Rendmaw, Creaking Nest cares about.
All in all, there are a ton of different decks that Formless Genesis can slot into. This isn’t the most powerful card in the world, but the sheer versatility of it should make it popular amongst Commander players.
Read More: Insane Duskmourn Room Combines Two Broken MTG Staples