Commander Deck Tech - Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist

The Jurassic World Collection has brought us iconic characters from this franchise, and, among them, we've had the pleasure to receive Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist, a very interesting commander with the Exploit mechanic and a focus on card draw.

In today's Deck Tech, we'll show you two versions: one more geared towards Humans and non-Humans, and a second version focused on combos at the end of this article.

Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist has stood out to me from the beginning, and has made me question how I would take advantage of his ability many times. Many builds went through my head, such as only using creatures with Umori, the Collector as a companion, until I got to the version chosen for today's Deck Tech.

We have everything we need in the Sultai color combination: more interactions with Trample, answers, ramp cards and a wide array of Humans and non-Humans.

This list has a few win conditions, considering this deck isn't only focused on attacking your opponents through combat, but can win by doing so. Our focus is drawing cards and forcing our opponents to lose health points based on this or some Aristocrat effects to drain health. Considering this, let's go!

Mana Sources

We use just a few mana rocks; only Sol Ring, Arcane Signet and Thought Vessel to avoid discarding cards, as there is the possibility of our hand getting too full most of the time.

Regarding altars, we use Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar - this deck can create numerous tokens, so it's good to take advantage of them to create more mana.

And speaking of creating tokens, we added Awakening Zone as well, both as it creates fuel for Humans to Exploit and to create mana. Finally, we have the mana dorks: Birds of Paradise, Dryad Arbor and Inga and Esika - because this deck has 40 creatures, creating value by drawing cards with Inga and Esika is easy, not to mention Vigilance, to be a bit more safe in case we want to go for a more aggressive line of play.

Humans

Starting with the Humans who create tokens, we have Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Ghoulcaller Gisa, Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia, Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse and Ophiomancer. We'll discuss each of them respectively. Endrek Sahr is a great engine, particularly as its ability triggers when you cast creatures.

Gisa needs at least one creature to indeed start working, but once it does, it creates a lot of value to your game. Jadar, even though it creates only one token, very frequently guarantees at least one token per turn, besides having a low cost, so it is quite interesting.

Jolrael is a possible win condition - with many creatures on your board and many cards in your hand, it might deal lethal damage quite easily at the right time. Finally, we have Ophiomancer, creating Snake tokens both as fuel and as blockers, considering these tokens have Deathtouch.

Regarding utility, we have our damage sources: Zulaport Cutthroat and Syr Konrad, the Grim. Both work as possible win conditions, even more so if combined with Roaming Throne, triggering one more time.

By the way, Roaming Throne can make Humans Exploit one more time, and draw one extra card for each time they do Exploit. Which means, sacrificing 2 non-Humans results in 4 cards being drawn.

To have graveyard recursion, we use the classic Eternal Witness and Timeless Witness, and Meren of Clan Nel Toth to return sacrificed creatures in the graveyard at the end of the turn, be it to your hand or board. As for drawing cards, we have Grim Haruspex and Morbid Opportunist to draw cards when creatures die, and Notion Thief to steal the cards your opponents draw and consequently delay them as well.

Even though this deck mainly has more creatures than anything else, this doesn't mean we won't have answers: we bring Silumgar Sorcerer and Ertai Resurrected to counter spells, and Venser, Shaper Savant with a similar role. Finally, we have Pitiless Plunderer to create Treasure tokens as each creature dies and guarantee mana for answers, and Yavimaya Elder to access lands and draw a card.

Non-Humans

We'll start with our sources of ramp. After we've used them to fulfill our objective, they'll be used as fuel for our Humans to Exploit - Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, Solemn Simulacrum, Springbloom Druid and Topiary Stomper. They all fit a lower curve, and some of them have good effects - Solemn Simulacrum gives you 2 cards when it is Exploited and Topiary Stomper also creates a Treasure when it is Exploited.

We also have the three most important non-Humans which create tokens: Toxrill, the Corrosive, Koma, Cosmos Serpent and Tendershoot Dryad. Even though they have a high mana cost, they are well-rewarded for their effects. Koma and Tendershoot Dryad create tokens that can create Treasures when they are Exploited, whereas Toxrill works with quantity instead of power, can create many Slugs and also draw cards with these same Slugs.

We can't forget our other token creators, which are Chasm Skulker, which can grow considerably during the game, and be sacrificed at the right time, Skull Skaab, which interacts directly with the Exploit ability by creating Zombies, and Compy Swarm, which can clone itself a lot throughout the game.

We couldn't forget to add some recursion in general. We have two other possible counters in the shape of creatures; Frilled Mystic and Mystic Snake.

We also have non-Human creatures with Exploit, which are Overcharged Amalgam, which is useful as another counter, Fell Stinger to draw cards and Sidisi, Undead Vizier, to tutor whatever's necessary at the time, such as a Craterhoof Behemoth to close the game.

Finally, we have, as non-Human creatures, Psychosis Crawler, to deal damage to our opponents as we draw our cards, and Junji, the Midnight Sky to Reanimate an important creature or even remove resources from our opponents with its discard option.

Sacrifice Sources and Similar

We have a few interactions with sacrifices - because we kill creatures all the time, it would be a waste to not use Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos to make our opponent's life harder and remove problematic creatures from our way without much effort, considering our line of play.

Besides Exploiting, we use sacrifice sources to answer exiling and removals of this sort, such as Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Tower and Phyrexian Altar to create mana, for instance.

To create value, we have Evolutionary Leap, which we can use on tokens to find creatures through the top of our deck.

Finally, we have High Market, to trigger a sacrifice or just not lose a creature in exchange for nothing.

Interacting with the Board and other Resources

We have in this section the rest of this deck. We have the token creators Genesis Chamber and Bitterblossom, and I'll highlight Genesis Chamber out of these two. It guarantees every Human will Exploit, because one Myr will always go on the battlefield along with it.

As Reanimate tools, we use Vat of Rebirth as it has a low cost and can put on itself many counters with this deck, and Living Death, to Reanimate everything all at once. On top of it, it also serves as a global removal, per se. Even though it isn't a Reanimate, despite being pretty close to one, Phyrexian Reclamation works well to recover creatures from the graveyard for a low cost.

And, speaking of global removals, we use two: we have The Meathook Massacre, because of its built-in Aristocrat effect, and Toxic Deluge for its low-cost and practical way of killing even what is Indestructible thanks to its -X/-X reduction. As target removal, we have Beast Within and Assassin's Trophy to break any type of permanent, and Boseiju, Who Endures against problematic artifacts or enchantments, besides serving as a land depending on the situation.

And last, but not least, we have Diabolic Intent because it is a fair low-cost tutor and quite functional in our build; Heroic Intervention to protect ourselves from eventual global removals and/or inconvenient target removals on our permanents, and Cyclonic Rift to defend ourselves against more aggressive decks or even to close out a game by leaving your opponents without any resources by playing it when the turn is passed to you.

This list is entirely focused on closing the game as fast as possible, and its "target audience" are the more challenging and competitive tables. We have combos such as Chatterfang, Squirrel General and Pitiless Plunderer, some Aristocrats, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed with Spitting Dilophosaurus and some sacrifice source, among other resources to stall the game while your combo isn't set up.

This deck went quite beyond what I was expecting, and I ended up dedicating a lot of research time to it. I found it quite fun and I hope I have great results with it, precisely as there are several ways to be victorious with it: combo, card draw, Aristocrats, anyway, there are numerous ways to build this deck which are quite cool.

Did you like this list? Do you prefer the combo version? Would you do it another way? Share it down below!