Magic: The Gathering has revealed all four face commanders for the hotly anticipated Bloomburrow set, and it’s looking like quite a diverse set of precon decks. Here you’ll find all four commanders, plus a little bit of extra insight we gleaned in a preview from Annie Sardelis, the design lead on the Bloomburrow commander decks.
The most immediately eye-catching of the upcoming Commander precon decks is Squirreled Away, purely because it’s centered around a very popular MTG creature type. Yep, if you didn’t already know, Bloomburrow has a squirrel precon.
However, this deck is also a tokens deck, and its MTG commander, Hazel of the Rootbloom, can tap your tokens for mana while also copying tokens – making two copies if that token was a squirrel. Sardelis suggests the play pattern will often be “creating the quirkiest token you can and then copying it a whole bunch”, so perhaps there’ll be some unusual squirrel tokens within.
Then we have the Gruul deck, Animated Army, led by Bello, Bard of the Brambles. An interesting theme for the red/green color combination, this racoon turns all your artifacts and enchantments that aren’t equipment or auras into 4/4 creatures every turn. However, they have to cost at least four mana, so whereas Hazel’s deck is token central, you’ll want to steer well clear of tokens in this deck.
While it would be flavorful for a deck whose tagline is ‘Make Trash, Do Smash’, we’ve been told that the Junk tokens introduced earlier this year in MTG Fallout won’t be in the deck.
Animated Army is sold to us as a ramp deck that’s perfect for Timmies: “If your favorite way to play Commander is casting big stuff that costs a lot of mana, this deck is for you,” Sardelis says.
Next up we have Family Matters, led by Zinnia, Valley’s Voice. This bird bard gets stronger the more tiny creatures you have, and gives all your creature spells the new Offspring mechanic, letting you make tiny 1/1 versions of your more powerful monsters.
Sardelis says the deck will appeal to anyone who wants to “make a baby version of an Inferno Titan.” The deck also has a small power one theme, to go with its commander’s ability.
Finally we have the wonderfully named Ms. Bumbleflower, leader of Peace Offering, a Bant Group Hug deck that lets other people draw cards when you cast spells. Bumbleflower makes you draw two cards on your second spell each turn. She also gives your creatures +1/+1 counters and temporary flying (does she carry them on her back as she jumps?).
As well as “giving out cards to everyone in a friendly fashion”, Sardelis tells us Bumbleflower will be making good use of the new Gift mechanic, which replaces players’ best permanents with useless tokens like 1/1 fish, and puts us more in mind of leaving a calling card after a heist than giving someone a present.
For more Magic: The Gathering content, check out our MTG release schedule guide, and our guide to how to build a MTG deck.
Source: Wargamer
