Commander Deck Tech: Jackal, Genius Geneticist

Let's copy creatures with Jackal?

One of the latest Universes Beyond sets, the Spider-Man set, introduced us to Jackal, Genius Geneticist, a Simic creature that would clearly go great in a clone list. This legendary creature is in amazing colors for ramp, card draw, and protection. It will also fill your board with powerful copies of your creatures!

In this article, we'll show you two lists with this creature. The first and main one focuses on clones, and the second focuses on Hydras and many 'X' effects so you can get the most out of Jackal's ability. Without further ado, let's meet him!

For just two mana, you can cast Jackal, the evil scientist. This two-mana creature has trample and lets you copy your creature spells, as long as those spells cost the same amount of mana as his power. The copy you create this way will also be a nonlegendary creature.

Please note that, unlike other creatures that copy cards with mana value equal to or less than their power, Jackal only copies cards with mana value equal to his power.

After you resolve this ability, you'll put a +1/+1 counter on him. Considering this effect, the first thing that comes to mind when we see Jackal is a Hydra deck. After all, as most of them cost an 'X' amount of mana, we'd easily be able to make them trigger Jackal's ability and thus copy many cards.

However, we decided to respect Simic strategies, which are always so unique, and brought you a deck full of effects that move and remove counters and copy several different creatures. If you're more interested in the Hydra list, feel free to skip ahead.

Moving and Removing Counters

With Nesting Grounds, Combine Guildmage, and Bioshift, we can nerf Jackal's power to buff another creature and then copy a creature spell in our hand. Just like a vault, The Ozolith will store the counters of creatures that leave our board. At the beginning of combat, we can then move the counters on this artifact to a target creature.

Benevolent Hydra only moves one counter at a time to a target creature, but it does cost 'X' amount of mana, so it will trigger Jackal's ability and let us copy a spell.

To turn these counters into card draw, we'll play O'aka, Traveling Merchant and Zameck Guildmage!

Ramp and Creating Mana

At first glance, it may seem like this list doesn't play enough lands, but don't be fooled!

We added many spells that can enter play as lands as well as creatures that create mana because we can copy any mana dork with Jackal.

Let's start with the creatures that create mana.

This is where you'll find some classic green creatures that create mana! Fanatic of Rhonas definitely stands out, as it becomes more valuable when our commander grows and helps us cast the big creatures in our deck.

We didn't add too many mana rocks. The only one that stands out is Herd Heirloom, which, besides creating mana, also draws cards.

We also added many spells that help us put more lands in play!

The creatures you should keep in mind to copy with Jackal are Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Solemn Simulacrum, Risen Reef, Coiling Oracle, and Insidious Fungus, as this way you can take advantage of their ETB effects. As for Cultivate, it is a classic card, so we had no choice but to add it.

As a legendary enchantment, Growing Rites of Itlimoc lets you look at the top four cards in your deck and add a creature from there to your hand. Afterward, at the beginning of your end step, if you have four creatures or more, you'll transform it.

As Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, however, we can tap it and get one green mana for each creature we control. Please note that this effect also checks copies, so it makes them even more valuable.

Card Draw

One of the most critical parts of any Commander list is card draw. Let's see a few spells that will draw cards for you as you play.

Many of them have abilities that trigger when cards enter play. As such, you will make them even more powerful when you copy spells with your commander.

Hydroid Krasis costs 'X' amount of mana and when it enters, it draws half 'X' amount of cards. Beast Whisperer fits this list like a glove, as it draws cards when you cast a creature.

Coiling Oracle, Risen Reef, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, and Mulldrifter add more cards to your hand with their ETBs.

Momir Vig, Simic Visionary is a funny creature.

When you cast a green creature, you can reveal a creature from your deck and put it on top of it. When you cast a blue creature, you may reveal the top card in your deck. If it is a creature, you may add it to your hand. This effect doesn't exactly draw a card, but it deserves a shoutout because it is essentially a tutor that can put a creature in your hand in the same turn it enters play.

Ending the Game

To make this deck consistent, we added a lot of card draw and ways to create mana. Copying these creatures will in turn grow our commander so that we can copy our finishers later on.

This enchantment is an alternative win condition in this list. Its activated ability gives +1/+1 to a target creature.

Keep in mind that, whenever a creature gets a +1/+1 counter, this enchantment gets that same number of Growth counters.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if this enchantment has 20 Growth counters or more, you'll win the game.

We'll use Avenger of Zendikar's tokens to fill our board. Afterward, we can use Craterhoof Behemoth, Thunderfoot Baloth, or Overwhelming Stampede to buff our Plants and end the game.

Koma, Cosmos Serpent will control the enemy board, as it taps permanents and thus prevents the opponents from using their abilities. It is also quite big and gives us Koma's Coils.

As for Hullbreaker Horror, it interacts nicely with the rest of the deck because one way we can remove counters from Jackal is by blinking him. Furthermore, this card can return enemy permanents to the opponents' hands and make their lives a lot harder.

It's time to talk about them: our Hydras!

As we mentioned before, the best way to keep up with Jackal's power and copy creatures with his ability is with our dear (and fearsome) 'X'-cost Hydras!

These are our main stars:

To give them and our commander even more counters, we added:

This list is quite aggressive, as it centers around impactful attacks and isn't as complex or detail-oriented as our other list. We highly recommend it for beginners or low-power-level pods.

Jackal is a very fun and friendly Simic creature for beginners.

As his ability only works with spells with a mana value that is the same as his power, he is quite "balanced". He'll fit casual boards nicely without breaking the game or becoming extremely oppressive.

If you enjoy fun, casual matches or exploring different ways to build decks, this commander is definitely perfect for you.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!