Family Matters is the Jeskai Commander Precon from Bloomburrow. It features the main set mechanic Offspring, and encourages you to go deep on tokens while growing your Commander. Find out how to bolster this build with our $50 Budget Upgrade Guide.
Bloomburrow Commander has four Commander decks: Animated Army, Family Matters, Peace Offering and Squirreled Away. Today we’re going to check out the Jeskai offering, Family Matters, and figure out how good it is out of the box… and where to take it from there.
FAMILY MATTERS: ZINNIA, VALLEY’S VOICE
Zinnia is the face Commander, and she gives creature spells you cast Offspring {2}. In practice, this means you’ll get to pay two mana to get double the EtBs, but your towering Sun Titan will be joined by an itty bitty baby instead of a fully grown twin.
Not content just to give you value in that way, Zinnia also gets boosted by +X/+0, where X is the number of creatures with base power 1. Keep in mind that this means that if you buff or put counters on those tokens that you’ll still get the power boost.
Where this gets trickier is layers; making an Offspring of a Clone creature like Clever Impersonator that sets its power and toughness as equal to what it clones will not count toward Zinnia if it comes in as not a 1/X.
We’ll be upgrading with Zinnia in mind today, but who is the alternate Commander?
Arthur, Marigold Knight is a fixed Winota, and by that… I mean very, very fixed. Similar to Djeru and Hazoret, Arthur asks you to commit to the combat step. I think the best Arthur decks will look quite different to this precon, so I won’t be concentrating on him today. Cool card though. Jeskai Knights anyone?
NEW CARDS?!
Family Matters has a bevy of new cards, and some of them are real stand-outs – not just within the precon, but for future deckbuilding. Here are my standout picks:
Pollywog Prodigy is some really good repeatable draw, and a card I’d much rather run instead of Rhystic Study. A lot of Simic decks will find this very easy to get growing.
Agate Instigator is sweet in party decks, but also in decks that already want cards like Purphoros, God of the Forge. Spreading your pings out over two bodies is solid redundancy.
I love a good one-sided board wipe, and tapping your board to annihilate everyone else’s is a surefire way to spring into the lead. It’s a great way to break parity in Precon battles, but can be played elsewhere (Boros Soldiers, or Goblins, anyone?)
FAMILY MATTERS $50 BUDGET UPGRADES
When I set out to upgrade this deck, I had the following in mind:
- Paying {2} each time we cast a creature is prohibitive without some cost reduction.
- Clones are strong, so which are the best budget ones?
- If we’re making tokens with our Commander in play, how do we make more?
- Can we increase our consistency?
The $50 budget got us 16 cards to upgrade the deck with.
Cloud Key and Semblance Anvil will help to reduce the overall cost of our creatures, with the latter essentially giving us a “free” offspring for a lot of spells. Oketra’s Monument is another good cost reducers, especially as it makes 1/1 Warrior Tokens to pump our Commander.
Ingot Chewer and Mulldrifter can be cast cheaper when evoked, and then instead of paying the full whack, you can just make Offspring to keep one and get an extra EtB for value. Speaking of which, more card draw from Welcoming Vampire is much appreciated.
Recruiter of the Guard gives us a way to dig for removal or roleplayers like our Clones.
Mocking Doppelganger with Offspring means two of the biggest things Goaded, which is a great way to stay alive; Phyrexian Metamorph provides flexibility with Phyrexian Mana helping to encourage Offspring.
Nesting Dovehawk can be found off of Recruiter and, if you choose to Offspring it, can quickly call in the rest of the cote. Determined Iteration is another cheap way to get more out of our EtBs, especially when Delney is out of our budget.
The deck needed a few more finishers, so Sublime Archangel with her daughter can give you 21 damage on Zinnia in no time. Angelic Aberration, meanwhile, can convert all of those Offspring into 4/4 Angels.
Speaking of finishers, try using Brudiclad to turn all of your Offspring into Inferno Titans. That’s pretty neat.
Oh, and Demonstrate copies the creature spell, including the fact you paid the Offspring cost, which is a cute and powerful interaction. So yeah, we’re playing Silverquill Lecturer.
The cuts I made are in the sideboard. In short, I took out some high-cost effects that we don’t need, like Helm of the Host and Rose Room Treasurer, that seem mana intensive given our strategy. I also cut Junk Winder because the card just isn’t that fun, and this deck is decidedly casual. Time Wipe isn’t doing much for us and we have other wraths.
FURTHER UPGRADES: COMBO POTENTIAL
Zinnia decks have access to many infinite combos, with most of them using Cloudstone Curio. The Offspring will bounce the original creature back to hand, and you can go around again.
Peregrine Drake and Palinchron are the big hitters for this, giving you infinite mana, EtBs, and tokens. Cloudstone Curio is a little pricey of a combo to fit into a budget build, as I don’t like to play such combos unless I can also add relevant high power pieces such as tutors and cards like Dockside Extortionist – which is also another great option to Offspring.
Cloud of Faeries and Priest of Urabrask are both options to make infinite tokens too, and if you have a Roar of Resistance or other haste enabler, its like you have a Splinter Twin in the Command Zone.
If you’re playing the Infinite Mana combos, then Meticulous Excavation is a good piece to have as backup.
EVEN MORE UPGRADES
Combo isn’t the only direction to take the deck. Mondrak and Anointed Procession are slam dunk includes – you’re having twins!
Delney from MKM is another sweet include, doubling all of your Offspring EtBs – and a fair few of their parent’s, too.
I think there’s a Jeskai Goblins build of Zinnia to be honest, and if you’re moving toward one creature type, Mana Echoes is an interesting option.
Cheap clones are great here, so that you can pay the Offspring cost. Flesh Duplicate is one of the best, and its price tag reflects that.
If you decide you want to go the Purphoros/Impact Tremors/etc route, then obviously slam those in, but don’t miss Warleader’s Call – you can get the buff and still buff Zinnia.
Call the Coppercoats is a spicy one in this sort of build, as it functions somewhat like a combat trick to boost Zinnia’s damage.
Pricier evoke creatures like Solitude and Fury can contribute a lot to the board in an Offspring deck for very little cost. Evoking them and paying the {2} feels like cheating, let’s be honest.
Cheap draw engines like Esper Sentinel and Faerie Mastermind are bound to exile in a Zinnia deck, which sounds even more disgusting the more I think about. So much value.
If you’re going the combo route, Imperial Recruiter is a good include, as is Spellseeker to dig for interaction.
END STEP
Zinnia is a sweet Commander for those who love EtBs and playing creature decks. It’s entirely customizable around the creatures you love to play, and if you want to take it to high power tables? Well, there are more than enough combos to satiate you. Pretty sweet Precon, all in all.
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.