Bloomburrow spoiler season is now upon us, and there’s a lot to look forward to. This set is chock full of adorable creatures and intriguing typal support. For those interested in building a Commander deck around one of these underrepresented creature types, now may finally be your chance.
Speaking of which, it appears as though the face Commanders for the four Bloomburrow EDH Precons have now been revealed. From an aggressive Raccoon legend to a card-drawing Rabbit general, these Commanders are not messing around. Let’s take a gander at what each Commander deck has in store for us.
Bello, Bard of the Brambles
Kicking things off, we have Bello, Bard of the Brambles. The Legendary Racoon is part of the Animated Army Commander deck. Based on the deck name and the brief description on the box, it makes sense for the face Commander to help turn your “useless” artifacts into attackers. Bello certainly delivers in this regard, and the effect it has on the game can be enormous.
The key is to fill your deck with lots of ways to generate non-equipment artifacts and non-aura enchantments. Of course, you can always just add a bunch of basic artifacts and enchantments to the deck, but to get a bit more out of Bello, it’s best to play cards that create a multitude of artifact or enchantment tokens at once.
Cards like The Reaver Cleaver, for example, become even more threatening than they already are. Whether you’re making tons of Treasure tokens with Dockside Extortionist or excess Food tokens with Peregrin Took, Bello can turn all of your mediocre tokens into monsters. The fact that these tokens will have Haste means your opponents constantly have to be weary of a big attack out of nowhere. If you can continue to connect in combat, things start to snowball as you draw more and more cards. Bello is really cool, and does a lot for three mana when built around.
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Hazel of the Rootbloom
Up next, we have Hazel of the Rootbloom. Hazel of the Rootbloom is another legend that works extremely well with tokens. This time, instead of turning your tokens into creatures to bash with, Hazel lets you utilize any number of your tokens as mana sources during your turn. Treasures, Foods, creature tokens and more all work in this case.
On top of that, you also get to make copies of your most impactful tokens at the beginning of your end step. If you’re able to make a token of a giant monster or a creature with an impactful enters-the-battlefield trigger, say with Mirrorpool, Hazel can start making more and more copies every turn.
Of note, you get an extra token if what you’re copying is a Squirrel token. Obviously, Hazel works perfectly alongside Chatterfang, Squirrel General. With cards like Maskwood Nexus in play, though, you can start making double copies of any creature token of your choice. Eventually, the amount of mana Hazel can potentially generate is insane. Big X spells like Finale of Devastation should help end the game easily. The world truly is your oyster.
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Zinnia, Valley’s Voice
Zinnia, Valley’s Voice is our third face Commander, and while it doesn’t have quite the immense upside of the previous two, it’s still a very cool card. There are two nice ways to abuse Zinnia’s abilities. The first way is to focus on casting creature spells with potent enters-the-battlefield effects. Being able to freely make token copies of those creatures is nice. Even though the tokens will only be 1/1s, you’ll still get the benefits from the triggered abilities.
The other way to maximize Zinnia is to play a ton of 1/1 creatures and 1/1 token generators. Zinnia is a 1/3 Flier at its base, but a well-timed Secure the Wastes could allow you to threaten a ton of damage out of nowhere. Throw in some Voltron elements, and your opponents have to start worrying about Commander damage. Zinnia opens the door for a lot of unique deckbuilding opportunities.
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Ms. Bumbleflower
Lastly, we have Ms. Bumbleflower. This cute Rabbit is all business, serving as a neat leader for a group hug deck. The main goal here is to try to cast two spells in one turn as frequently as possible. This way, you make up for the downside of letting an opponent draw a card when you cast your first spell.
In multiplayer games of Commander, however, even this isn’t too big of a downside. You can use Ms. Bumbleflower in a political manner, helping the player in the weakest spot. You can even put the +1/+1 counters that Ms. Bumbleflower provides on an opponent’s creature of your choice, perhaps incentivizing them to attack elsewhere.
There are a handful of cards that can minimize Ms. Bumbleflower’s downside while in play, too. Smothering Tithe, for instance, becomes an even scarier value machine when you start forcing opponents to draw cards. You get to use Ms. Bumbleflower strategically in this case, specifically targeting an opponent that can’t pay the two-mana tax.
Overall, Bello and Hazel seem like the most powerful Commanders of the bunch. Still, all four cards offer intriguing play patterns that make them rather appealing. Bloomburrow seems like a really sweet set, and the face Commanders are no exception.
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