Bloomburrow is very nearly upon us, and speculation on the set’s power level in various formats is rife. For the most part, things look fairly reasonable, which may mean a minimal impact on the likes of Modern or Pioneer. Commander, on the other hand, is going to have a field day. The following are our picks for the 5 best Bloomburrow cards for Commander.
As a quick disclaimer, these are specifically cards for the 99 of decks, not the Commander slot. If you’re interested in the set’s best offerings in that department, we have that list right here. The following are cards that play a supporting role, but do so very, very well. Keep an eye out for them, whether it’s in your Prerelease pool or on the singles market.
5 | Vren, The Relentless
Ironically enough, the first entry on our list is a card that could actually do a solid job in the Command Zone. I see it being much more widely used as a card in the main deck, however. Vren, the Relentless does a lot of things that are great in the format. It provides passive graveyard hate, builds you an army, and protects itself. Not a bad deal at all for four mana.
Naturally, the card will do its best work in Rat Typal decks, but I think it works perfectly well on its own. Opposing creatures die all the time in Commander, and every time they do Vren progresses your board presence. All while turning off dies triggers and graveyard shenanigans. His ability also triggers when opposing creature tokens die, too, which boosts its value immensely.
If left unanswered, Vren will take over the game in a turn cycle or two, guaranteed. He’s not the easiest to answer, either, thanks to that Ward 2. Basically, any deck playing both blue and black needs a good reason not to run Vren. He’s well-costed, well-statted, and a stellar combination of a tech card and a threat all in one. Compare him to existing staple Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet for a succinct reminder of how far Magic’s power level has come.
4 | Caretaker’s Talent
Token decks are getting a huge push in Bloomburrow. Not just from the Offspring mechanic, but from all the individual support cards printed for types like Rabbit and Mouse. Caretaker’s Talent is one of the best of these, and probably the best of the new Bloomburrow Classes overall. The first level, which is yours for just three mana, lets you draw the first time you create a token each turn.
That covers creatures, of course, but also Food, Treasures, Clues, and all the other artifact tokens that have made themselves at home in recent Magic. It’s very easy to trigger, in other words, which makes Caretaker’s Talent a white Phyrexian Arena at a baseline. Possibly better, if you have ways of making tokens during your opponents’ turns. Of course, being a Class, it has two more tiers to it as well.
Level two lets you copy any token you have in play for one mana, which is a solid deal even if you only get a Treasure. It also guarantees an immediate draw from level one, if you drop the Class with four mana to spend. Finally, level three is a substantial anthem effect for all of your token creatures, turning even humble 1/1s into considerable threats.
With how much hype token strategies are getting in Commander off the back of Baylen, the Haymaker alone, it’s hard to imagine Caretaker’s Talent being anything other than a slam-dunk. And while the last level may seem to confine it to go-wide decks, the fact it also counts artifact tokens gives it scope to show up elsewhere, too.
3 | The Season Cycle
When it comes to Commander, flexibility is king. Four players mean the range of gameplay possibilities expands massively so being prepared for everything is hugely important. The new Season cycle from Bloomburrow exemplifies the idea of flexibility perfectly. Like Commands, they each have multiple modes you can pick from. Unlike Commands, they have a neat internal ‘Paw Print’ currency you use to choose your options.
This gives each Season a huge range of possible outcomes. Well, five to be precise. You can go all-in on the one-paw mode, or mix things up with the two or three paw modes. It all depends on the game state. Interestingly, all five Seasons offer you a way to draw cards, which means they’ll never really be dead. They also offer a range of tech effects that can help out specific strategies.
The white Season can bring a key permanent back for good thanks to Indestructible. The blue one can wrath the board. Black can burn the table out if you have a loaded graveyard. The red Season can ramp and ‘draw.’ And the green Season can wipe out artifacts and enchantments. These are all powerful effects, made all the better by the minor extra options they offer on the side.
Of the five, I’d say the blue and black Seasons are the most likely to see Commander play. All five have real potential though, especially in decks that care about all three of their modes. Having one of these in your hand is like having five separate cards in your hand: very, very powerful indeed.
2 | Festival Of Embers
This next one’s a bit of a trip down memory lane. Festival of Embers bears a striking resemblance to Past in Flames, a classic card that can put in work in both combo and value lists. Festival sticks around permanently, however, with the trade-off that your spells damage you when you cast them. Oh, and that anything that would go to your graveyard gets exiled instead.
This means that you really need to pick the right moment to cast Festival of Embers. You need to have the spells you want lined up in the graveyard already, and not be worried about anything else being exiled. This makes it less flexible than Past in Flames, but potentially much more powerful. Rather than being a one-turn blowout card, Festival is more of an ongoing value engine. If you’re going into a grindy game, this is the card you want in your corner.
Of course, the elephant in the room when discussing this card is Underworld Breach. A much cheaper, much more open version of the same effect. However, as with Past in Flames, the cards in your graveyard can only for one turn. This is a much better option for explosive combos than Festival, but a worse one for winning fair games.
That’s where this newcomer’s strengths truly lie. If you’re not the kind of player to loop spells for a Storm kill, then Festival will let you relive the glory of your early game with minimal drawbacks. Should it come to it, you can always sacrifice it later if you really need to.
1 | Fountainport And Three Tree City
As with most Magic formats, lands are the unsung heroes of Commander. The cards that boost consistency, and provide minor but meaningful advantages, all while not really taking up real card slots. Lands that become staples are often very expensive because of how easy it is to include them in multiple decks, and Bloomburrow brings two new contenders that I foresee following this exact trajectory.
Fountainport is up first, and it’s an absolute banger. It only produces colorless mana, and all three of its abilities are fairly overcosted, but that doesn’t really matter. The sheer flexibility on offer here makes it a near-guaranteed inclusion in a huge number of decks. I talked above about how token decks will be on the up soon, and this plays perfectly with them. Fountainport feels a lot like Trading Post, an artifact that sees a lot of Commander play in its own right. Given the low opportunity cost of running it, I’d say the land version was even better.
The other land from Bloomburrow that will likely become a new Commander staple is, surprising no one, Three Tree City. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx was underestimated at first but quickly became an all-star soon afterwards. Players aren’t going to make the same mistake again, and therefore Three Tree City, a very similar card, is already preselling for big chunks of money. It’s an obvious include in any typal strategy, which accounts for a lot of the format. It may be a boring choice for the top spot, but sometimes raw power wins out. All hail our new typal overlords.
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