There appear to be a lot of Bloomburrow cards that are really easy to gloss over. Many of these cards have incredibly powerful effects with a lackluster clause. If you manage to abuse the clause, then you can abuse the card. A great example of this is the new MTG Bloomburrow rare Dour Port-Mage. This is one step away from something terrifying, and it’s not difficult to take that step.
Dour Port-Mage
Dour Port-Mage essentially offers you a card whenever a creature you control leaves the battlefield. All you need to do is make sure those creatures aren’t dying. This is easier to do than you think.
Rest in Peace is one way to take this card, though it is a mediocre one. This ensures that every time another creature you control dies, it gets exiled instead. This will trigger Dour Port-Mage’s ability, allowing you to draw cards. While this combo is fantastic, on its own Rest in Piece is a bit of a dud that lacks immediate impact. Due to this, it may be relegated to just being sideboard tech that’s occasionally extra useful.
Getting away from Rest in Peace, any combo that blinks cards infinitely can use Dour Port-Mage as a win condition. You can find a series of mono-blue infinite ETB combos here from Commander Spellbook. Naru Meha, Master Wizard and Ghostly Flicker accomplish this and can be used with an infinite deckout combo using the new Bloomburrow card Starfall Invocation.
The only thing to make sure of when using these combos is that you can stop the combo at some point. Otherwise, Dour Port-Mage will deck you out, and you can do nothing to stop it.
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Enter: Norin, the Wary
Norin, the Wary is perhaps the card that players are most excited about brewing around in conjunction with Dour Port-Mage. Having this card leave the battlefield without dying is almost effortless. Dour Port-Mage rewards Norin’s cowardly efforts with a new card. This engine, which can come online as early as turn two without mana acceleration, awards a card a turn, which can go a long way.
Norin the Wary has seen buyouts on the secondary market when combos involving the card surface. This combo is ultimately a slower card advantage engine, so it may not take off in any way, shape, or form. That said, if you want to try this, we recommend picking up Norin sooner rather than later, just in case.
Weaknesses
While Dour Port-Mage can be a potent draw engine, it doesn’t do much to protect itself. Dour Port-Mage comes equipped with an activated ability that can save your other creatures while drawing cards, but it doesn’t actually do anything to protect itself. Dour Port-Mage cannot draw cards off of itself leaving the battlefield, and it can’t save itself with its own ability. This is practically begging your opponent to remove your Dour Port-Mage.
For that reason, it’s best to commit your Frog when you know you can get some immediate value off it. If you’re worried that your Frog is going to eat a Go for the Throat, do your value-generating plays in response if you can do them at instant speed.
Ultimately, Dour Port-Mage seems absolutely fantastic in a wide range of Commander decks that can easily abuse it. As far as constructed formats go, Dour Port-Mage offers a lot of power for formats with smaller card pools like Standard. As long as someone can find a way to unlock this card’s potential, it could become a real menace.
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