Summary
The animal-themed Bloomburrow brings with it all sorts of Raccoon-based shenanigans to throw yourMagic: The Gathering Commandergames into disarray. Between the versatile creatures and the combat tricks, this deck has a ton of cool cards and mechanics to keep your opponents on their toes.
If you’re one of those Magic players who like to sow some chaos in your games, you can pick up the Animated Army deck, one that’s designed to create a bunch of junk and throw it your opponent’s way. Here are the best cards you can find from the deck.
Some of these cards have yet to be released in English so translations of the cards are below the images.
The Thickest Around
Enchantment
When Thickest in the Thicket enters, put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is that creature’s power.
At the beginning of your end step, draw two cards if you control the creature with the highest power or tied for the highest power.
Do you like having the biggest creature around? Then Thickest in the Thicket is here to ensure you keep that lead going. When it comes into play, you effectively get to double a creature’s power, adding +1/+1 counters equal to its power.
Then, if you have the biggest creature or one tied for the most power at your end step, you get to draw two cards. Being able to continuously keep drawing cards turn after turncan lead to some serious card advantage, helping to keep you in the game.
9Esika’s Chariot
The Tokens Keep Coming
Esika’s Chariot does a ton of work for being a four-mana Vehicle. You get a grand total of eight power off of that four mana since it creates two 2/2 Cat tokens when it comes into play.
When when you crew it, which takes four power, exactly equal to the power of those Cat tokens,you’re able to start copying tokens of any type. Sure, you can keep making Cat tokens over and over again, but if you have tokens of another artifact or a different powerful creature, you can quickly make an army of massive creatures.
8Bootleggers' Stash
Don’t Hide This Treasure
A fascinating little artifact, Bootlegger’s Stash gives all your lands a bonus new ability that lets you stash mana away for a later turn. With Bootlegger’s Stash in play, your lands can tap to create a Treasure token.
This gives you all sorts of versatility with your lands, where instead of just waiting until you need them to tap mana, you can tap lands you don’t need or might not need to commit mana to and use them to make a bunch of Treasure tokens. If you are completely untapped on your opponent’s turn, you can tap all your lands right before your turn and start yours with double the amount of mana you would normally have.
Creature — Raccoon Scout
Tap: Add one mana of any color.
Whenever you expend 8, return target permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
One of the biggest problems with mana ramping creatures is that after a certain point in a game, they’re not very useful. Trailtracker Scout looks to change that up with a neat little expend ability.
Anytime you spend eight or more mana to cast a spell, you may return a permanent from your graveyard back to your hand. This effectively turns your bigger spells into cantrips, since you’re replacing the card you just cast with something from your graveyard.
6Tendershoot Dryad
Never Enough Tokens
Another card that has only ever had one printing gets a sequel card in the Animated Army deck. Tendershoot Dryad is a five mana 2/2 that quickly spirals out of control in a game if not dealt with quickly.
At the start of each player’s upkeep, you get to make a 1/1 Saproling creature token. While a 1/1 might not be much to write home about, as soon as you get ten permanents in play and you get the City’s Blessing, all your Saproling creatures get +2/+2 and suddenly become 3/3 threats.
Artifact — Vehicle
Rolling Hamsphere gets +1/+1 for each Hamster you control.
Whenever Rolling Hamsphere attacks, creature three 1/1 red Hamster creature tokens, then it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Hamsters you control.
Crew 3
Much like Hampsters in real life, the Hampsters of Bloomburrow can’t resist a good roll, and the Rolling Hamsphere does not disappoint. While a little expensive as a seven-mana 4/4 Vehicle, the Rolling Hampshere quickly gets bigger and bigger the more you attack with it.
When it attacks you get to make three Hamster tokens and then deal X damage to anything, where X is the number of Hampsters you control. Rolling Hamsphere also quickly gets a boost in power, getting +3/+3 off the first attack alone.
Transmute Some Mana
Enchantment — Class
(Gain the next level as a sorcery to add it’s ability)
When Alchemist’s Talent enters, create two tapped Treasure tokens.
One generic, one red: Level 2
Treasures you control have “{T} Sacrifice this artifact: Add two mana of any one color.”
Four generic, one red: Level 3
Whenever you cast a spell, if mana from a Treasure was spent to cast it, this class deals damage equal to that spell’s mana value to each opponent.
Creature — Elemental Bear
Trample
Hideaway 3, hideaway 3(When this creature enters the battlefield, look at the top three cards of your library, exile one face down, then put the rest on the bottom in a random order. Then do it again.)
Whenever Evercoat Ursine deals combat damage to a player, if there are cards exiled with it, you may play one of them without paying its mana cost.
A fascinating new creature to the Animated Army deck, Evercoat Ursine is a big ol' bear, one that is hibernating for the chilly winter. When the Ursine comes into play, you get to hideaway 3 twice, looking at the top three cards of your deck, tucking one exiled away, and then doing it again.
When Evercoat Ursine deals combat damage to a player, you can then cast one of those exiled cards for free. You only get to do this two times, then it defaults to a generic 6/5 creature with trample, but you’re either going to get two free spells, or you’re putting pressure on your opponents to remove a potentially game-ending problem. You can psych your opponents out with Evercoat Ursine too, exiling cards that aren’t very good to bait out a removal spell.
2Bello, Bard Of The Brambles
The Commander Has Come Out To Play
With a deck filled with tons of unique cards, Bello, Bard of the Brambles still stands out. On your turn, the Raccoon Bard turns all non-equipment, non-aura enchantment with a mana value of four or more into 4/4 Elementals with indestructible, haste, and when it deals combat damage to a player, you get to draw a card.
Now, here’s the thing about Bello. It requires a great deal of setup to be really useful. The cards you can turn into creatures have to cost more than four mana, and Bello costs three, so you need Bello to stick around for a bit and you have to have several enchantments in play to really keep the pressure up. But having to commit to casting a four-drop every turn can tie up a lot of mana, so you need to be smart about your plays and maximize your attacks.
Legendary Creature — Elemental Wolf
Enchantment spells you cast from your hand have cascade. (Whenever you cast an enchantment card from your hand, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
A fascinating alternate commander for the Animating Army deck, Wildsear, Scouring Maw is a five-mana 6/6 with trample that turns all your enchantments into two-for-ones by giving them cascade.
Giving all your enchantments cascadesets up some fascinating green and red enchantment-based deck design options, a territory that is usually dominated by green and white decks. The Animating Army deck only has 13 enchantments, which doesn’t give you a whole lot of cards to cascade with. But if you tweak the deck a bit, you can customize it with a bunch of neat options.
