All 4 Populate Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on September 26, 2024

Ghired, Conclave Exile | Illustration by Yongjae Choi

Creature tokens are an inseparable facet of Magic: The Gathering. Ranging all the way back to Alpha’s The Hive and its 1/1 Insect artifact creature tokens, these imaginary representations of creature cards have been pumped out of Serpent Generator, Boris Devilboon, Ghave, Guru of Spores, and more for decades.

In 2012, Return to Ravnica reintroduced us to the Selesnya Conclave () and their unique populate mechanic. Whenever you’re instructed to populate, you create a copy of a creature token you control. Simple enough, with a great ceiling of potential, for anyone who remembers the Cloudshift/Armada Wurm deck of the day.

Only four legendary creatures have been printed with the populate mechanic baked in. Which of them are the best populate commanders for propagating your Saprolings? Let’s find out!

What Are Populate Commanders?

Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | Illustration by Sidharth Chaturvedi

For this list, “populate commanders” means only legendary creatures with the word “populate” in their rules text. This leaves us with just four populate commanders in all of Magic. That’s a fairly small pool, so in the honorable mentions, I’ll go over some popular commanders for these decks that don’t necessarily populate all on their own.

The best populate commanders are the most aggressive, pump out the highest number of tokens, and have the best rate for your resources.

Honorable Mentions

There are only four legendary creatures that actually have the word “populate” in their rules text, but a handful of other commanders make great leaders for your token-generating decks!

One is the Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. The Outlaws of Thunder Junction Ghired gives nontoken creatures you control (including itself) the option to tap and more-or-less populate a token that you created this turn. This unkeyworded version of populate limits you to doubling tokens that hit the field this turn, so you’re in for an uphill battle if you want 100 Armada Wurms running around. This Naya commander demands players strike a balancing act between nontoken creatures and token generators.

Anikthea, Hand of Erebos creates 3/3 zombie creatures out of enchantments you’ve exiled from your graveyard. Since those enchantments are now creature tokens, you can populate them the same as any other creature token. This great Abzan card opens up some insane board states in Commander, where you end up with multiple copies of Sphere of Safety or Smothering Tithe on the field, and this Abzan commander leads your forces into Nyx on the back of all that value.

Hazel of the Rootbloom comes to us from Bloomburrow, and it has an unkeyworded pseudo-populate effect. Its main difference is that if you choose to populate a Squirrel token, you get two instead of one. While this is cute and all, two Squirrel tokens doesn’t end a game. I foresee a ridiculous deck that rushes out Conspiracy to change all your creatures into squirrels, then double-populates your Desolation Twin tokens to great effect.

Note that this Golgari commander can copy any token, not just creatures. This means Hazel can hit your Clues, Treasures, Food, and even your copy of Brass Knuckles!

#4. Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice

Trostani, Selesnya's Voice was (is?) the leader of the Selesnya Conclave, and this card was sort of the “crown jewel” mythic of populate’s original run.

For , Trostani is a 2/5 with a pseudo-Soul Sisters effect. Trostani’s lifegain is based on the toughness of the creature that’s entering, making it perfect for a deck where you plan to populate lots of big tokens like those created by Desolation Twin or Giant Adephage.

An activated ability that requires tapping is a big ask for a simple populate, though. It’ll be hard to untap Trostani and activate it multiple times per turn because of that steep cost, so you’re really only looking at one, maybe two populate effects per turn. Compared to the 0-mana investment on Ghired’s populate effect, this Selesnya commander’s just that much slower and doesn’t incentivize interaction as well as the Naya () legendary.

#3. Cayth, Famed Mechanist

Modern Horizons 3‘s Cayth, Famed Mechanist is the populate commander for the artifacts-pilled planeswalkers out there. This Jeskai commander combines three mechanics that’ve always had internal synergy and slaps them on a single card: Cayth gives your nontoken creatures fabricate, which means they enter with either a +1/+1 counter or a 1/1 Servo artifact creature token. Then, you can pay 2 and tap Cayth to either proliferate or populate.

While Cayth’s fabricate ability implies it should lead an artifacts deck, it makes a fine populate commander for a generic Jeskai () populate deck all the same. That’s not to say there aren’t a ton of artifact creature tokens you can populate – ONE’s Phyrexian Mite tokens, Ancient Stone Idol’s 6/12 token, or even the Golems from the cycle of Splicer cards. Staples like Hangarback Walker benefit from all three of the fabricate, proliferate, and populate effects.

#2. Xavier Sal, Infested Captain

For years, I've dreamed of combining a populate deck and a proliferate deck, and Xavier Sal, Infested Captain is the missing link. This Sultai commander from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan has two activated abilities: The first removes a counter from a creature you control to populate, and the second sacrifices a creature to proliferate. This card is a masterpiece of design rivaled only by Ghave, Guru of Spores.

Thanks to its Sultai () color identity, there are a ton of brutal combos using blue spells that you can put in an Xavier deck. One of the most popular involves Intruder Alarm and Scurry Oak to create infinite +1/+1 counters or infinite populate activations. Much like Ghave, Xavier tends to combo off if you even sneeze too close to it.

The “in and out” loop of populating, sacrificing, and creating tokens and counters with Xavier bridges the gap between tons of mechanics – populate, evolve, proliferate, and even delve cards see play alongside Xavier as this commander fills the graveyard with sacrificed creatures.

#1. Ghired, Conclave Exile

Commander 2019 was the first time we saw populate outside of green and white, when they added the mechanic to red’s wheelhouse with Ghired, Conclave Exile. The Naya-aligned shaman comes crashing into play with a 4/4 Rhino token, and it populates whenever it attacks.

Ghired’s attack trigger makes it one of the more aggressive populate commanders. Bringing in that token tapped and attacking means you’ll get instant value from your Armada Wurm and Desolation Twin tokens. Its high toughness means it’s more likely to survive combat as well, despite its measly 2 power. You weren’t looking to win with commander damage, anyway.

Commanding Conclusion

Xavier Sal, Infested Captain | Illustration by Bryan Sola

“Going wide” is a classic strategy in Commander games and the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off. No other strategy sees you pulling from a massive clear case of tokens and filling your board with dozens of slightly thinner cardboard squares.

What are your favorite tokens to populate? Are there any odd commanders you run at the helm of your populate deck? What do you hope to see from populate in the future? Let me know in the comments, or over on Draftsim's Twitter/X!

Thanks for reading! Keep on propagating and populating!