Bloomburrow releases on July 26, and with it comes four new Precon Commander decks: Animated Army, Family Matters, Peace Offering and Squirreled Away. What are the highlight cards from the precons? What new cards are worth checking out?
EMBARKING ON A JOURNEY TO BLOOMBURROW
It seems fitting we start with Flubs, the Fool, the Buy-a-Box promo for Bloomburrow. Flubs is a homage to the Rider-Waite Tarot card The Fool, the first card in the Major Arcana. Form meets function, and Flubs cannot retain all of that potential, causing you to be in top deck mode, unsure of where you’re going next.
As a card, it looks like a fun Commander to build around. Temur is usually a combination that promotes excess, whether in counters, lands, or cards. Flubs feels restrained and an interesting build around, but one that can still be cracked wide open if you build it right.
Animated Army brings Bello, Bard of the Brambles. Feels like a build-around Commander to me, and not one that you’re likely to run in the 99. The same can’t be said for Wildsear, Scouring Maw. I think alone, this card can do a sterling job as a Commander of Gruul Enchantments (you know, the color pair that loves to restrict itself to only playing creatures?). It can also just sidle into the 99 of any Enchantress build that’s in red and green. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s doable.
Peace Offering’s group hug Commander Ms. Bumbleflower is decidedly decent. It attacks and blocks well, and has one of the best group hug abilities I’ve seen since Breena. She’ll obviously slot into K&T, but will likely helm decks otherwise. Mr Foxglove is a deceptive fellow, and the deckbuilding decisions aren’t straightforward. It’s a very cool design, and rewards you playing your hand out – or just casting Solitary Confinement. Eww.
Chatterfang decks get to decide on two new Squirrels from Squirrelled Away. Hazel of the Rootbloom is a big mana dork, but does, to be fair, ask you to tap your team (or your food, clues, or treasures). She also populates your squirrels twice or your non-squirrel tokens once on your end step. That’s a lot on one card.
The Odd Acorn Gang is a squirrel haymaker, albeit one that’s telegraphed. I’d say it’s worth the include just for the card draw.
Zinnia, Valley’s Voice from Family Matters can swing wildly between a value EtBs deck and a combo deck, and will prove to be a popular Commander for that very reason. It’s pretty close to having Splinter Twin in the Command Zone. Arthur is fine, but nothing to get too excited about. It’s a fixed Winota in many ways.
BLOOMBURROW COMMANDER: WHITE
Jacked Rabbit is one Jacked Rabbit! It can come out larger the further you are into a game, and benefits from other cards that can put counters on it. Pretty solid in the likes of Cadira & co.
Murmuration is great in Birds decks but also actually in Enchantress decks. Plenty of Enchantress decks can chain multiple spells, and having flyers to block or attack with helps them win games. If you’re in Selesnya and run a cheeky Emeria Angel too with some landfall action from Burgeoning, Exploration and Case of the Locked Hothouse? Murmuration seems grand.
Perch Protection is a very powerful protection spell, but it comes with a huge downside; you have to gift an extra turn. In casual playgroups this could prove to be pretty funny, but at six mana? I’d rather not give someone the chance to plot my downfall.
Steelburr Champion is exciting for all of the Selesnya, Mono White and Orzhov lifegain/counters decks. Growing a board for very little investment rocks.
Tempt with Bunnies is… well, you got me. I’d be tempted, I’ll be honest. Quite often you’ll be getting full value off this, which is four cards and four rabbits. For three mana? That’s really, really good. I want this for my Boros Tokens deck.
BLOOMBURROW COMMANDER: BLUE
One of the better new cards, an Evolve creature that continues to draw multiple cards as the game progresses, for just two mana? I’m in.
A new win the game effect? IN BLUE?!
Easier to fulfill than Triskaidekaphile, and arguably more useful as the game progresses, Twenty-Toed Toad is a solid pickup for counters decks. The fact it wins you the game in two different ways that aren’t exactly twenty but can be higher means it’s a very achievable win condition.
BLOOMBURROW COMMANDER: BLACK
Hazel’s Brewmaster is a confusing card. Why do the foods have activated abilities? Are they being prepared al dente? Are they imbued with the magical essence of what’s being consumed?
Either way, in a dedicated food or squirrels deck it’s pretty decent, especially if you exile your own mana dork.
The strawberry was definitely on the turn. Exchanging your graveyard for food at a rate of 3 cards to one food might seem steep, but an explosive generation of Food tokens can swing a game in the right build. And would you look at that – there’s a payoff baked into the card.
Moonstone Eulogist feels, like many of the Bats in this set, very Elden Ring coded. Idk, it just has a vibe, you know? We’ve seen the blood token text on Kamber before, but now it’s paired with lifegain and generates a really tall flying creature. Great top end for Rakdos artifacts decks.
Swarmyard Massacre is a pickup for any deck that uses these creature types. It’s also excellent for your pick-a-mix Changeling decks that hope to use as many creature types and Changelings as possible.
BLOOMBURROW COMMANDER: RED
I’m a big fan of spreading impact tremors over multiple creatures. It’s redundancy for removal, sure, but at the end of the day – it triggers itself and triggers your other effects, twice, because of Offspring.
Damn, and I just deconstructed my Rakdos Burakos deck, too. Paying two mana to upgrade this feels pretty good, especially as the boost in mana production for your treasures essentially pays you back. At Level 3, you get “Coinstorm Surge”, but pointed at each opponent, not just one target. It’s a great way to end a game.
A one-sided boardwipe than can kinda be free? I’m all over this. Goblins, primarily, will see a lot of use out of this, but so too will all manner of tokens decks. Very cool.
This Raccoon looks just innocent enough to make you pause before you remove it, but you shouldn’t let that get in the way. Two bodies with “treasurelink” is wild, and extremely powerful. This kind of mana generation might even just be good enough to run in an equipment deck, to be honest. Especially an Eivor deck wanting to run Bludgeon Brawl.
Pyreswipe Hawk is really solid in a mono-red artifacts shell, a shell I quite like at the moment, ever since it picked up a bunch of cool effects. Between the colorless-matters stuff like Echoes of Eternity, and Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant, mono-red artifacts can be a dream easily achieved. Pair this with ways to cheat big artifacts out and have some fun.
BLOOMBURROW COMMANDER: GREEN
Hold on a second, is this an answer for treasure and other artifact token bull****tery?
It kind of is, in the sense that it’ll stop them expending tokens until they find removal. In the meantime, you can gain tempo advantage and start to hammer them down. In Golgari or Jund shells this is quite tasty.
Communal Brewing is such a hard card to evaluate. In a pod of experienced or sweaty players it’ll more than likely just be a second copy of Master Chef. In a pod of absolute casuals, it’ll be insane beyond belief. Your most likely experience is a Master Chef that draws one player a card and gives you two counters instead of one. If that’s worth three mana, then go for it.
Evercoat Ursine has my brewing juices going, and I’m thinking about Blitzing it in Henzie.
Outside of that rather pushed interaction, how good is it? Well, it’s decent in a Bears deck, that’s for sure, but if you run it elsewhere, it feels more Gruul than Golgari.
Gourmand’s Talent feels… actually pretty good? The first mode is largely forgettable outside of dedicated food payoff decks (where it shines), but the rest can be used relatively well in lifegain shells in GW and Abzan. Maybe Archangel of Thune is a foodie.
I like Rootcast Apprenticeship quite a bit, though it is weird it doesn’t have the little paw prints on it. The create a token mode will see the most play, and in dedicated decks where this’ll pop off, you can expect to enjoy making a loooooot of tokens. Did I mention Adrix & Nev recently? I think I did.
BLOOMBURROW COMMANDER: THE REST
Fisher’s Talent is cute. For four mana, you get to essentially draw another card each turn while sometimes making a token. Once you level it up, you start making Sharks, and eventually 8/8 Blue Octopi instead. If you run Shark Typhoon, this gets even better.
Octomancer is a lot of fun. You don’t have to gift someone an 8/8, but if you do, it means at its floor it’s making you an 8/8 that end step. Your opponent will likely try and force you to trade with theirs before you have fun, though, so keep it in mind.
This is like Kappa Cannoneer, but an Otter that cares about small creatures. I happen to think it’s pretty good, especially as it triggers off of mass token generation.
Finally, Sword of the Squeak. It’s essentially a Stoneforge Masterwork for an additional Mana that lets tokens decks have that kind of buff without being married to a creature type. Decks with lots of Humans and Soldiers will rejoice. Especially if their commander flies, like Aurelia, the Law Above…
The free equip is nice, but not why you’re playing this.
END STEP
And that’s the new Bloomburrow Commander cards accounted for. There’s plenty on offer if you’re not set on buying a precon, but I’d recommend the precons this time around because they’re a lot of fun, pretty powerful, and good to upgrade.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.