Summary
The plane of Bloomburrow brings with it a whole new way to viewMagic: The Gathering. The meek have taken over the plane, with the various critters banding together to rise up against the mighty Calamities that threaten civilization.
With four new Commander decks designed around some of the coolest cards from the set, there’s plenty to pick from if you’re on the hunt for something new. We broke down each of the preconstructed Commander decks from the set to see which one reigns supreme.
4Animated Army
Trash Turned Creature
Everybody loves a good ramp deck and the Animated Army deck certainly gives you plenty of ramp to mess around with. This red and green deck is centered aroundtaking “junk” artifactsand enchantments and turning them into useful things, like indestructible 4/4 creatures.
Bello, Bard of the Brambles is key to this strategy, as he turns your non-equipment and non-aura artifacts and enchantments into creatures. You can quickly overwhelm plenty of board states with this all-in-on Bello strategy, as he also lets you draw cards anytime those newly animated creatures connect with a player.
The curve is pretty darn high in this deck, which is holding it back in the grand scheme here. You do have 19 targets to get to turn into creatures, which require them to be four or more mana to animate, so making your early land drops is crucial. You’re going to want to make sure you’re getting your mana rocks ASAP when you’re playing, so you can be absolutely certain your turns 3-5 are spent casting absolutely massive spells several turns ahead of your opponents.
3Family Matters
Keeping It In The Family
This deck is a mashup of a few different themes with tokens, kindred combat, and a mix of beefy enter the battlefield effects to spiral out of control. The crux of the deck hinges on how well you’re maximizing your token generation and making sure you’re copying the right creatures.
With Zinnia, Valley’s Voice, you’re able to give all your creature spells offspring for two generic mana, letting you make a 1/1 token copy of each creature spell you cast. The deck could dedicate some slots to token-doubling cards but instead has a few pump spells to make your tokens even stronger.
Some of the best cards in this deck deal with tokens. Murmuration pulls double duty, giving your Birds +1/+1 and vigilance, which is great since it pumps out 1/2 Storm Crow Bird tokens for each spell you’ve cast on your turn, which can quickly lead to your own army. Jacked Rabbit is another token engine that is also hilarious to play and say out loud..
There’s also a sub-theme of creatures with toughness of one, since Zinnia gets a buff from the more creatures you have with a toughness of one. This works because your token copies all enter as 1/1 creatures, which makes your ERB creatures all the more valuable.
2Peace Offering
Turn Group Hug Into Group Pain
Group hug decks can be a bit of a slog at times, as they sometimes lack a concise win condition that will take you to the end game. Peace Offering is here to provide you with any number of ways to seal the deal.
Ms. Bumbleflower is the real MVP here. Anytime you cast a spell you get to put a +1/+1 counter on any creature, give that creature flying for the turn, and make an opponent draw a card. The second time her ability triggers in a turn gives you a bonus two cards to draw.
You can then use cards like Managorger Hydra, Kalonian Hydra, and Twenty-Toed Toad, all of which get stronger very quickly, to fly over thanks to Ms. Bumbleflower and smack your opponent a few times.
1Squirreled Away
Value Given Form
The black and green deck that’s ready to swarm all over your opponents takes the top spot for Bloomhaven, giving you an extremely versatile and resilient preconstructed deck to play with.
Hazel of the Rootbloom is the main commander of the deck, acting as a token creator and a mana accelerant all in one. You can tap Hazel and pay to life while tapping any number of tokens you control to generate that much mana. To help fuel your mana, Hazel makes a copy of a token you control on your end step.If you picked a Squirrel token,you get to make two of that type instead. With a few upgrades, like Doubling Season or Parallel Lives, you can assemble an army of Squirrels in no time.
The biggest downside to the deck is that there are only 9 Squirrel creatures in the deck, 11 if you include the two creatures that make Squirrel tokens. That said, there are plenty of spells that make Squirrel tokens too, and when combined with Hazel, you won’t be lacking for creatures.
There are plenty of great cards in the deck too, like the previously Infinity exclusive card Saw in Half, and Chatterfang, Squirrel General, which makes for a fantastic alternate commander if you’re looking for something a little spicier.
