Muerra, Trash Technician | Bloomburrow | Art by Volkan Baga
19, Jul, 24

MTG Animated Army Commander Deck Turns Trash Into Treasure

As is tradition in MTG, Bloomburrow comes with a quartet of preconstructed Commander decks alongside its main set. These were all revealed just yesterday, and Belgian MTG YouTuber Bandit had the honor of revealing the Animated Army Commander deck.

This list is all about generating piles of artifacts and enchantments, largely Food and Treasures, before cashing them in for value. We already saw the face Commander for this deck, Bello, Bard of the Brambles, back at the start of preview season. Now the other new cards are here, and there are some bangers in their midst.

Wildsear, Scouring Maw

Wildsear, Scouring Maw
  • Mana Value: 3RG
  • Rarity: Mythic Rare
  • Stats: 6/6
  • Text: Trample. Enchantment spells you cast from your hand have Cascade. (Whenever you cast an enchantment card from your hand, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)

Wildsear, Scouring Maw is the secondary Commander for the MTG Animated Army deck. This means that you can switch Bello, Bard of the Brambles with Wildsear and still have a great time right out of the box. Where Bello cared about both artifacts and enchantments, Wildsear is purely about the latter. Each enchantment you cast from your hand gains Cascade with Wildsear in play, which can lead to some very powerful plays indeed.

In formats like Modern, Cascade is typically used alongside powerful Suspend spells like Crashing Footfalls and Living End. Since these spells have no mana cost, cheap Cascade spells can cheat them out and bypass the waiting around for Suspend. While plays like this are typically less effective in Commander, they may well be viable in a Wildsear deck.

Using one mana enchantments like Abundant Growth, you can Cascade into cards like Wheel of Fate and Gaea’s Will, thus swinging the game in your favor. In addition to the raw value that comes from playing this card fairly, I could see Wildsear being a very popular red/green Commander indeed.

Brightcap Badger/Fungus Frolic

Brightcap Badger/Fungal Frolic

Brightcap Badger

  • Mana Value: 3G
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: 3/4
  • Text: Fungi and Saprolings you control have “Tap: Add G.” At the beginning of your end step, create a 1/1 green Saproling token.

Fungus Frolic

  • Mana Value: 2G
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: N/A (Instant)
  • Text: Create two 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens. (Then exile this card. You may cast the creature later from exile.)

Next up, we have a return to the Adventure mechanic from Eldraine, which has proven itself an excellent and reliable mechanic over the last few sets. Brightcap Badger is another great example, though ironically enough the MTG Animated Army Commander deck may not be the place it’ll shine the brightest.

Both sides of this card care about Fungi and Saprolings, which is a minor theme in the deck at best. Only Tendershoot Dryad really contributes to it, meaning the mana Brightcap Badger will be generating will mostly come from Fungus Frolic’s tokens. The Badger does create Saprolings each turn, so it’s self-sufficient in that sense, but it still feels weirdly out of place in a precon like this.

That said, the card has huge potential in other Commander decks. It’s an obvious slam-dunk in Saproling decks, but any Mono-Green or Tokens build can probably find room for it, too. It ramps, it builds a board, it gives you plays on both turn three and turn four: what’s not to love?

Evercoat Ursine

Evercoat Ursine
  • Mana Value: 4G
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: 6/5
  • Text: Trample. Hideaway 3, Hideaway 3 (When this creature enters the battlefield, look at the top three cards of your library, exile one face down, then put the rest on the bottom in a random order. Then do it again.) Whenever Evercoat Ursine deals combat damage to a player, if there are cards exiled with it, you may cast one of them without paying its mana cost.

From one returning mechanic to another, this is the double Hideaway card teased in Gavin Verhey’s Commander Hints video. Evercoat Ursine lets you stash away the two best cards in your top six for the winter, then cast them later when it gets through for combat damage. Given its high power and Trample, that’s likely to happen sooner rather than later in most games.

As with all Hideaway cards, Evercoat Ursine works best in a deck with lots of high-impact, high mana value threats. There are no restrictions on mana value here, so Eldrazi Titans fit into the Hideaway just as easily as tiny one drops. They’ll still get their cast triggers, too, since Hideaway lets you cast the cards you hide, not just put them into play.

While a tad slow, Evercoat Ursine is just a very solid value card, with serious high roll potential in the right deck. You can counteract that slowness with a Haste granter like Rhythm of the Wild, too. It may not look too special at first glance, but if you don’t deal with this card on sight, you can easily lose games to it.

Prosperous Bandit

Prosperous Bandit
  • Mana Value: 2R
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: 2/2
  • Text: Offspring 1 (You may pay an additional 1 as you cast this spell. If you do, when this creature enters, create a 1/1 token copy of it.) First strike. Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, create that many tapped Treasure tokens.

Prosperous Bandit is a bit more subtle than its predecessor, but it’s still a nice piece of cardboard for any deck that cares about Treasure. A 2/2 First Strike for three is a poor rate, but Offspring 1 can make it acceptable by throwing in a 1/1 copy. Both bodies also get to generate Treasure when they deal damage, which can result in two tapped Treasures a turn in ideal circumstances.

For the most part, this looks like a poor man’s Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Both are three mana 2/2s that make Treasure at a baseline. Fable only needs its token to attack to do so, however, whereas Bandit actually needs to connect for damage. Fable also lets you loot and becomes a powerful threat later, so it’s not a particularly fair contest.

That said, Fable is a very expensive card, so a ‘Fable at Home’ variant is welcome. Prosperous Bandit also plays better in go-wide decks and with Racoon typal synergies, so it has some edges it can work for sure. Making Treasure early is one of the most powerful plays in modern Commander games, so I wouldn’t count this card out. Not by a long shot.

Pyreswipe Hawk

Pyreswipe Hawk
  • Mana Value: 3RR
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: 4/4
  • Text: Flying, Haste. Whenever Pyreswipe Hawk attacks, it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the highest mana value among artifacts you control. Whenever you Expend 6, gain control of target artifact as long as you control Pyrewipe Hawk. (You Expend 6 as you spend your sixth total mana to cast spells during a turn.)

There’s a lot going on with Pyreswipe Hawk. On one hand, its a hasty flier with the potential to hit very hard out of nowhere if you have a big artifact in play. On the other, it’s a means of passively stealing artifacts from the rest of the table every single turn, as long as you can keep the mana flowing.

There’s a lot of synergy between the two abilities here. Stealing an expensive artifact will let Pyreswipe Hawk swing for more damage next time. Equally, ramping this out early and snatching up opposing mana rocks can be an absolutely deadly play. Certainly, one that won’t win you any friends, anyway.

Given that it presents a threat on two different axes, Pyreswipe Hawk is going to be a must-kill in a lot of scenarios. If you want to use that Expend ability, then, you’d better invest in some protection. Otherwise this mighty Bird, certainly one of the best cards in the MTG Animated Army Commander deck, will have its wings clipped prematurely.

Trailtracker Scout

MTG Animated Army Commander Trailtracker Scout
  • Mana Value: 1G
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: 1/3
  • Text: Tap: Add one mana of any color. Whenever you Expend 8, return target permanent card from your graveyard to your hand. (You Expend 8 as you spend your eight total mana to cast spells during a turn.)

Expend is a bit of a signature mechanic for the Raccoons of Bloomburrow’s main set, so it makes sense that there’s another Expend card in the Raccoon-led Commander deck. Trailtracker Scout is a classic two-mana mana dork, providing perfect fixing on a 1/3 body. In addition, it can also be a repeatable Evolution Witness, provided you can spend a whopping eight mana on spells in a turn.

Eight is a lot of mana, even by Commander standards. You can’t factor in activated abilities here either, which makes things more difficult. To hit this ability, you either need to be playing a constant flow of small spells, or a single big spell a turn. Both can be viable, depending on how you build your deck. Both can also benefit from getting a card back out of your graveyard every single turn.

Once things get going, the cards you recur can trigger the Expend ability here, creating a powerful endless loop. Even if you never get to this point, though, Trailtracker’s extra mana will be invaluable in the early game, and a 1/3 blocks pretty well too.

Rolling Hamsphere

MTG Animated Army Commander Rolling Hamsphere
  • Mana Value: 7
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: 4/4
  • Text: Rolling Hamsphere gets +1/+1 for each Hamster you control. Whenever Rolling Hamsphere attacks, creature three 1/1 red Hamster creature tokens, then it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Hamsters you control. Crew 3.

Bloomburrow has a lot of cards competing for the coveted ‘Best card Name in the Set’ trophy, and Rolling Hamsphere is a strong contender. It’s also just a strong card, name aside. There’s only one Hamster card in Bloomburrow’s main set and it’s in white, so you won’t be running it in this deck. That said, Rolling Hamsphere is more than capable of fueling its own Hamsters-matter shenanigans with its attack trigger alone.

Crew 3 is easily manageable, and once you can Hamsphere can swing as a 7/7 that deals three damage. Not hugely exciting for seven mana, but not bad. Things really get exciting when you consider the turn-on-turn value this can generate. As a Vehicle, your opponents will find it tricky to remove on their own turns. On top of this the more Hamsters you have, the more powerful it gets.

Hamsphere definitely needs a ramp shell to succeed, but a fully colorless cost means that the likes of Sol Ring and Mind Stone can contribute to it coming down early. It’s a classic ‘will get out of hand if left unchecked’ kind of card, with a lot of potential alongside token doublers and Haste granters.

Alchemist’s Talent

MTG Animated Army Commander Deck Alchemist's Talent
  • Mana Value: 3R
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: N/A (Enchantment: Class)
  • Text: (Gain the next level as a sorcery to add it’s ability) When Alchemist’s Talent enters, create two tapped Treasure tokens. 1R: Level 2 – Treasures you control have “Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: Add two mana of any one color.” 4R: Level 3 – Whenever you cast a spell, if mana from a Treasure was spent to cast it, this class deals damage equal to that spell’s mana value to each opponent.

Despite its chunky costs, this card right here is probably the best one from the MTG Animated Army Commander deck. It’s a Class, which means its power grows over time as you invest in it. It also, in a sneaky way, essentially pays for itself in just a single turn. When you drop Alchemist’s Talent, you get two tapped Treasures, which is a slow start to be sure. Things really pick up after that, however.

Assuming you drop a land on turn five, you can use two lands to level this Class up, thus doubling the value of your Treasures. You can then use one from the enters trigger and your other three lands to push this up to level three. Finally, you can cast a two drop with the other Treasure, and burn the whole table in the process. Very slick indeed.

That’s not a hugely powerful turn, but it assumes no other Treasures or synergies at all. If you’ve generated a couple in the early turns, you can end the sequence by casting a six drop instead, for a lot more table-wide damage. Treasures are so common in Magic now that an effect like this, which makes them better and makes them a win condition, has a very real chance of becoming a new Commander staple.

Thickest In The Thicket

MTG Animated Army Commander Thickest in the Thicket
  • Mana Value: 3GG
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: N/A (Enchantment)
  • Text: When Thickest in the Thicket enters, put X +1/+1 counters on target creature, where X is that creature’s power. At the beginning of your end step, draw two cards if you control the creature with the highest power or tied for the highest power.

The last of the new cards from the MTG Animated Army Commander deck is another with a pretty great name. I can definitely see ‘Thickest in the Thicket’ being a font of memes in the months to come. It helps that the card is also a fantastic mono-green draw engine, which is always welcome given the color’s lack of good options in that sphere.

In order to draw cards at all, however, you do need to control the Thickest creature in the Thicket. Power-wise, at least. This makes the card ideal in any kind of Voltron deck or a deck where big creatures are the norm. Five-color Eldrazi will get a lot of use out of this, for example. This card also doubles the power of your biggest creature via counters when it comes in, so even a midrange threat can turn on the card draw tap in certain scenarios.

Thickest in the Thicket isn’t great from behind, but when you’re at parity or ahead its fantastic. That likely means it’ll get a spot in a lot of green decks, even if they only play fair creatures. Drawing two extra cards a turn is just that good.

Special Mention: Beaver Domri

MTG Animated Army Commander Domri, Anarch of Bolas
  • Mana Value: 1RG
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Stats: 3 Loyalty
  • Text: Creatures you control get +1/+0. +1: Add R or G. Creature spells you cast this turn can’t be countered. −2: Target creature you control fights target creature you don’t control.

That wraps up the new cards Animated Army brings to the MTG Commander table. Before I go, I do want to give a quick special mention to the deck’s Imagine: Critters planeswalker, however. These cards have generated a lot of discussion in the community so far, Tree Karn in particular. If you pick up this deck, you can get your hands on a Beaver version of Domri, Anarch of Bolas.

This is a fine addition to a creature-focused red/green deck, but as a sub-$2 card normally the value here is mostly in the new artwork. Thankfully, it’s excellent. The red spines perfectly translate Domri’s signature mohawk, and the huge buck teeth are the perfect combination of goofy and intimidating. This is an excellent animalized planeswalker and a nice bonus for picking up an already solid deck.

Reasonable Reprints

MTG Animated Army Commander Good Reprints

Domri isn’t the only interesting reprint here, however. Animated Army also comes with 89 others, some of which have real financial value. Tendershoot Dryad, which we mentioned earlier, goes for a cool $15. Not surprising, since its token creation ability triggers on each upkeep, not just your own. That means it scales incredibly quickly in Commander, making it a must-answer threat.

Green draw staple Greater Good also sees a reprint here and is another card that costs around $15. In any big creature deck, this can draw you a ton of cards, filling your graveyard all the while. A surprising value hit here is Grothama, All-Devouring, a $9 card. This massive Wurm from Battlebond is a very unique design that allows opposing creatures to essentially attack it directly while giving their owners cards if they do. It also puts 10 power into play for five mana, which synergizes nicely with a lot of cards in Animated Army.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Animated Army is an interesting MTG Commander list. The two Commanders push artifacts and enchantments, but the other 98 cards span a range of themes, from big creatures to go-wide tokens. This leaves the overall deck feeling a little unfocused, but the upshot is that it presents a diverse range of threats, with which you can have a diverse range of play experiences. It may not have the most raw power out of the Bloomburrow Commander decks, but Animated Army may just be the most fun to play.

Read More: MTG Peace Offering Commander Deck Boasts Frog Alternate Win Condition

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