Bloomburrow brings along with it a ton of new Typal; trends for Commander players to try. Otters may be one of the most popular among these, and it’s difficult to blame anyone for wanting to try them. Who doesn’t want to try these playful sea pups for themselves?
Choosing your cuddly Commander may be the most difficult thing to do to start things off. There are a few different options to choose from, and we’re here to help!
All MTG Legendary Otter Cards
Four Legendary Otters exist in Magic: the Gathering, not including any Legendary Changeling creatures. Sadly, one of those Otters was pre-banned from the Commander format: Lutri, the Spellchaser. Due to this card’s Companion restriction being inconsequential in Commander, it was determined to be simply too powerful. As a result, it never stood a chance in the singleton Commander format.
That leaves Alania, Divergent Storm, Kitsa, Otterball Elite, and Bria, Riptide Rogue as your three Otter Commander options. These three Commanders are trying to accomplish different things, but they all care about Spellslinging.
Kitsa, Otterball Elite has a problem that the other two Commanders don’t: it’s color identity. If you really want to jam as many Otters into a deck as you can, Kitsa comes up short. The card does offer a lot of powerful things for a spellslinger deck, but if your goal is to just jam a bunch of Otters, we recommend you look elsewhere.
That leaves Bria, Riptide Rogue and Alania, Divergent Storm. Let’s take a closer look at these two Legendary Otters.
Alania, Divergent Storm
- Mana Value: 3UR
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 3/5
- Card Text: Whenever you cast a spell, if it’s the first instant spell, the first sorcery spell, or the first Otter spell other than Alania you’ve cast this turn, you may have target opponent draw a card. If you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for that copy.
In our opinion, Alania, Divergent Storm is the best Otter Commander you have at your disposal. Any Political Commanders have a layer of protection that cannot be seen by the naked eye. This Otter has a ton of power attached to it, but Alania offers your opponent’s cards in exchange for this. If a player is starved of resources, they may be incentivized to help protect your Commander, as your best interest also becomes their best interest.
If someone threatens to remove Alania, you can simply promise them a card instead. You’re definitely getting the better end of the deal, and some players will recognize that and remove Alania anyway, but you can then simply give your cards to the other players.
Alania offers a copy effect for your Instant, Sorcery and Otter spells once per turn. This goes above and beyond your other Commander options, offering rewards for not just Instants and Sorceries, but Otters as well. For all of these reasons, we recommend Alania, Divergent Storm as our Otter Commander of choice, but Bria, Riptide Rogue isn’t a terrible option, either.
Bria, Riptide Rogue
- Mana Value: 2UR
- Rarity: Mythic Rare (Starter Kit Only)
- Stats: 3/3
- Card Text: Prowess, Other creatures you control have Prowess. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, target creature you control can’t be blocked this turn.
One of the biggest things holding back an Otter Commander deck is… a lack of Otters. Bloomburrow is the first set to seriously grant Otter support to MTG. As a result, there are a surprisingly thin amount of Otters available to play. Some Otters, like Elusive Otter, aren’t even in an Izzet color identity, which makes things even more difficult.
Bria, Riptide Rogue may be an Otter, but you don’t need Otters to make it work. Don’t get us wrong, many of the new Bloomburrow Otters are simply good inclusions to this deck, but Bria cares more about making a wide board and pumping it up.
For that reason, cards that create multiple bodies are best with Bria, Riptide Rogue. As good as Stormcatch Mentor is for an Otter deck, Bria would prefer something along the lines of a Hordeling Outburst.
Fill your deck up with cards that create multiple bodies, like Young Pyromancer. Combine those with instant and sorcery cantrips like Consider, and add in a few pieces of hard card advantage to complete your Bria, Riptide Rogue masterpiece.
Our Verdict
As we previously stated, Alania, Divergent Storm is your best choice for an Otter Commander. That said, don’t forget about your Changeling options. If you want to stuff as many Otters and Changelings into your deck as possible, you might want to consider simply running Morophon, the Boundless. This would allow you to run the maximum amount of Otters and Changelings possible.
All in all, no matter what Otter Commander you decide to try, we’re sure that it will be plenty of fun for your Commander table.
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