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Whenever you cast a token-maker card, have you ever thought about giving them a friend? Well look no further, because Populate is the mechanic for you. Introduced in Return to Ravnica back in 2012, Populate is a Magic keyword action that creates a copy of a creature token you control.
It's worth noting that you need to have a creature token in play when the spell resolves, otherwise you won't make any creature token copies upon the spell's resolution. Additionally, any creature tokens you copy that have an enter the battlefield ability, the populate tokens will also enter with.
History of Populate
In 2012 Magic revisited the city plane of Ravnica for the first time since the initial Ravnica block, back in February of 2006. Ravnica is a unique plane in that it harbors ten guilds, each defined by a different two-color identity. The Selesnya Conclave (Green/White) is a society that prioritizes nature, unity, and growth across Ravnica. Populate is supposed to emulate those ideals, showing support for your creatures by giving them an extra friend. Populate gave Selesnya the identity of token creation in Return to Ravnica and later Dragon's Maze Limited.
Populate cards rely heavily on each other, and it's beneficial for you to have multiple in a deck. For example, Eyes in the Skies on its own nets you two 1/1 flyers for four mana. While back in 2012 that was an okay exchange, there are other ways you can better Populate in conjunction with other spells.
For example, if you've cast Call of the Conclave on turn two, on turn four when you cast Eyes in the Skies you can choose to make an additional 3/3 centaur token, as opposed to an additional 1/1 flyer. Same goes for Horncaller's Chant, if you've already made a few 4/4 rhino tokens, you can use Eyes in the Skies to add one more to the party!
Populate in Competitive Play
While Populate didn't see much play during Standard or Modern Constructed at the time of its printing, there was one major event that saw the success of the Mechanic - at Pro Tour Dragon's Maze!
Craig Wescoe, a historic White player, piloted Selesnya tokens to victory at the Block Constructed Pro Tour in 2013. For newer players, Magic used to design "blocks" that would include three sets with a recurring theme. Return to Ravnica was followed by Gatecrash, and then Dragon's Maze, so you could only build a deck from cards across these three sets for this Pro Tour.
You can actually watch Craig Wescoe's deck tech from 13 years ago here.
Selesnya Aggro | Return to Ravnica Block Constructed | Craig Wescoe, Pro Tour Dragon's Maze/1st
- Creatures (20)
- 4 Dryad Militant
- 4 Experiment One
- 4 Judge's Familiar
- 4 Loxodon Smiter
- 4 Voice of Resurgence
- Instants (12)
- 4 Advent of the Wurm
- 4 Rootborn Defenses
- 4 Selesnya Charm
- Sorceries (4)
- 4 Call of the Conclave
- Artifacts (1)
- 1 Civic Saber
- Lands (23)
- 9 Forest
- 9 Plains
- 1 Selesnya Guildgate
- 4 Temple Garden
Wescoe's deck expertly blended Selesnya cards from both Return to Ravnica and Dragon's Maze in this token strategy. The two cards from Dragon's Maze that stick out to me the most in this list are Voice of Resurgence and Advent of the Wurm. Voice of Resurgence was a complete menace to the various Control decks brought to this event, as it forced Control players to play at Sorcery-speed (unless they wanted to face down a giant creature token). Advent of the Wurm also gave you a huge creature token at instant-speed, just for four mana. There was one particular card from Return to Ravnica, however, that boosted the power level of these cards through the roof.
Rootborn Defenses was the premier populate card in this strategy. Not only could it be a three-mana instant-speed token, copying a Voice of Resurgence token or a 5/5 wurm, but it also countered the premier "wrath" card in the format, Supreme Verdict. This was a pretty powerful backup plan in these matchups where you need to put on the pressure, but not over-extend your resources.
I also appreciate two other Populate cards in Wescoe's sideboard, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and Druid's Deliverance. I imagine both are ways to combat aggro decks, specifically Boros decks, as Trostani can net you a lot of life off wurm tokens and Druid's Deliverance can buy you some time while building up your boardstate.
Populate Across Magic's Sets
While Populate has only shown up as a major mechanic in one Magic expansion, it's been printed on a variety of Commander cards and even made an appearance in Modern Horizons 3.
The 2019 Naya Precon deck featuring Ghired, Conclave Exile, focused on token-generation as it included multiple token makers and Populate cards. In this deck you could create some pretty large tokens for copying, such as Desolation Twin and Giant Adephage. Populate also synergizes well with other token-centric mechanics, such as Embalm with cards like Angel of Sanctions.
Last year we saw the return of Populate in a draftable set in Modern Horizons 3, with Muster the Departed, a solid card in the Orzhov Tokens archetype, alongside cards like Nadier's Nightblade and Marionette Apprentice.
Populate has yet to return as a mechanic in a major MTG, and it's unlikely that it ever will. With the mechanic being so uniquely tied to Selesnya's identity I would be surprised if we had a set that included the mechanic in a major way. While we've seen this mechanic pop up here and there since its initial debut in Return to Ravnica, I think this mechanic will be regulated to just supplementary product for the future.
Populate remains the premier way to generate copies of your tokens, synergizing well with cards that not only make tokens, but creatures that make token copies of themselves. Populate is a mechanic that's meant to be broken as much as possible, as you can create some terrifying tokens off cards that don't cost a lot of mana. While the mechanic needs some setup it can net you some potent rewards.
With that I think I'll look into doing a flashback draft of Return to Ravnica! Writing this has made me nostalgic for one of the first Magic sets I ever played.
As always, thanks for reading!
-Roman Fusco
