Courageous Critters is a bonus set of 24 cards featured inMagic: The Gathering’s Bloomburrow set. For the most part, these can only be found in Collector Boosters, with the exception of four, which instead have one featured in one of the Commander pre-constructed decks.
Courageous Critters is an all-reprint line of cards that pictures what characters in Magic would look like if they were in Bloomburrow. The plane transforms off-plane visitors into something only found in the plane, so a human planeswalker may turn into a bird while on Bloomburrow, with the art for each Courageous Critter showing their new form.
10Liliana Of The Dark Realms
The Squirrel General
A card that hasn’t seen a proper printing since Magic 2014, Liliana of the Dark Realms is also a great card in general. There are a lot more cards with the Swamp typing now, allowing Liliana to tutor out for a ton of useful dual and utility lands.
It’s relatively easy to reach Liliana’s ultimate ability, turning all your Swamps into massive mana generators. The -3 ability is useful as well, letting you use targeted removal. It’s best utilized in mono-black decks but finds a home in various multi-colored decks with a Swamp focus.
9Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Queen Of Stax
The bane of many Commander players, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician isone of the best Bant commandersout there. It can cheat around commander tax and put itself on the battlefield at instant speed. Not only that, but since it’s an ability, Derevi isn’t being cast, so it can’t even be countered.
Once on the battlefield, Derevi turns into a constant tapping and untapping machine. This lets you play stun cards that prevent your opponents from untapping, while you can avoid that downside entirely. The untapping even happens when Derevi enters the battlefield, making it even easier to trigger.
8Marrow-Gnawer
King Of The Rats
Marrow-Gnawer is one of the best Rats in the game and one of, if not the best, Rat commander in all of Magic. Fear makes it so your Rats can only be blocked by artifact or black creatures, and with how many Rats Marrow-Gnawer can be, there’ll be a ton of Rats that won’t be able to be blocked.
Marrow-Gnawer is a creature that once it gets going, progressively snowballs faster and faster until you have so many creatures you can easily win through combat with how many bodies you have on the battlefield.
7Chatterfang, Squirrel General
Tokens For Days
Chatterfang, Squirrel General turns all your token generation into extra tokens on the battlefieldin the way of Squirrels. Chatterfang is great for both a Squirrel commander and a token commander.
Chatterfang plays into sacrifice strategies as well, letting you constantly sacrifice Squirrels so long as you have a black mana to pay. It’s rather easy to generate infinite token outlets, which then turn into infinite sacrifice, especially if you have ways to make a ton of Treasure tokens. There’s a lot you’re able to do with Chatterfang, Squirrel General, and why it’s such a valuable card.
6Baleful Strix
Living Artificial Bird
While it seems very simple, Baleful Strix was once a premiere staple in eternal formats. Flying and deathtouch both make for fantastic keywords that make it both a solid attacker and blocker. It replaces itself in the hand as well, making sure you stay up on card advantage.
Baleful Strix’s simplicity shows just how strong a card can be, even with only one sentence on the card. Although it’s fallen off as a staple in recent years, it’s still a very powerful card and one of the best Courageous Critters.
5Nissa, Who Shakes The World
Hopping To It
The Elf turns into a Frog while on Bloomburrow as seen in Nissa’s Courageous Critters look. Nissa, Who Shakes the World is one of the best green planeswalkers out there, elevating your mana generation for all of your Forests.
If Nissa’s ultimate ability ever resolves, odds are you’ll win the game off of it with how much mana you have. If Nissa didn’t leave the battlefield by activating it, you can even keep ramping your Forests and untapping them with the +1 to keep re-using them (especially great if they make more than one mana).
4Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Feeling Foxy
What was once consideredthe best planeswalker of all time, Jace, the Mind Sculptor returns in fox form for the Courageous Critters bonus sheet. The effects are plentiful, and while the power of Jace, the Mind Sculptor has become less apparent in recent years, the effects are still useful.
If Jace sticks to the battlefield, you’re able to constantly control your opponent’s top deck and even have a constant source of Brainstorm with the 0 ability. Jace, the Mind Sculptor does come with a low amount of loyalty, so in multiplayer games, it’s much less powerful, but still as a niche for constructed formats.
3Narset, Parter Of Veils
Parting The Wings
Narset is reimagined as a very happy bird on Bloomburrow for Courageous Critters, with the reprint being given to herbest card Narset, Parter of Veils. It sees play in both Commander and Pioneer as a way to cut off extra card draw and digging through your library for extra noncreature, nonland cards.
Three-mana planeswalkers are very useful since they can hit the battlefield so early, and Narset is no exception. It’s impactful to everyone involved in the game even if you never actually activate Narset, Parter of Veil’s loyalty ability.
2Birds of Paradise
Bolt The Pretty Bird
Birds of Paradise for Bloomburrow is modeled out of an actual bird of paradise, with the card being the origin of “bolt the bird” for how important it was to get rid of Birds of Paradise if it ever hit the battlefield.
A one-mana mana dorkthat can tap for any color for unconditional usage is something that only Birds of Paradise can do. Even though the card has been around since the very start of Magic in its Alpha set, it’s still one of the best mana dorks in the entire game.
1Teferi, Time Raveler
Slow Things Down
Teferi, Time Raveleris among the strongest three-mana planeswalkers in the whole game. It shuts down your opponent’s ability to use spells at instant speed while letting you use your own sorceries as if they had flash. The -3 is even useful early in the game to bounce a problematic permanent to the hand for tempo plays.
The static ability is the main attraction for Teferi, Time Raveler, but the loyalty abilities are all useful as well and help to keep Teferi healthy with loyalty counters so it’ll survive combat steps. It’s a staple across every format it’s legal in, and the best of the Courageous Critters cards.
