Zoraline, Cosmos CallerZoraline, Cosmos Caller | Art by Justin Gerard

Finishing up the Halloween theme from the last few weeks is a less creepy creature type and more a creatures-of-the-night vibe. If you’re out late at night, you may have heard them chirping as they hunt in the cover of the night. This week, we’re going batty with a creature type that got major support from Bloomburrow: Bats.

Bats are omnivorous animals. Some favor vegetation, like fruit bats, while others favor the blood of domesticated pack animals such as cows and horses, like vampire bats. Bats depictions in Magic tend to favor vampires, draining the life out of opponents and playing around with life gain and loss. As a result, they favor the Orzhov colors - there are even a few members in the Orzhov Syndicate.

Bats tend to be small fliers, taking small nips out of opponents rather than huge chunks. As a result, they tend to go wide, with a similar philosophy and style to an Edric, Spymaster of TrestEdric, Spymaster of Trest Flying MenFlying Men deck or a budget Sephara, Sky's BladeSephara, Sky's Blade deck. While those commanders have an advantage in card velocity or raw power, Bats have resiliency and reach from the addition of black.

The commander for today's deck, Zoraline, Cosmos CallerZoraline, Cosmos Caller, is a strong example of the meshing of the two concepts. Zoraline is a cheap flier that rewards attacking and can reanimate permanents every turn. But how do we get these pieces to fit together? And are there enough playable Bats to make a cohesive strategy?

What Does Zoraline, Cosmos CallerZoraline, Cosmos Caller Do?

Zoraline is an excellent offensive threat and deck centerpiece. 3/3 with flying and vigilance for three mana is a solid rate. Seven hits to take a player down with commander damage is a bit much, but we’re not trying to win that way - we just want to live in the red zone as much as possible.

Why do we want to live in the red zone? Because Zoraline’s second line of text gains us a life for each attacking Bat. It is worth noting that Zoraline doesn’t have to venture into the red zone herself for the ability to activate, and that her ability activates even if she’s the only attacker. But she gives us another incentive to attack, as if we needed one.

When Zoraline enters or attacks, she reanimates any nonland permanent with mana value three or less for the low, low cost of a black mana, a white mana, and two life. This is the ability that’s going to define the build: We want to load the deck up on cheap permanents that are able to sacrifice themselves for value or that are likely to die.

The last ability is also going to determine which Bats we run. There are certainly some cool options that are a bit pricey, like Skeletal VampireSkeletal Vampire, but they don’t come down early enough, hit hard enough, or synergize with our commander.

Thankfully, there are plenty of small bodies, some of whom provide additional bodies or life drain effects.

Key Cards for Zoraline, Cosmos CallerZoraline, Cosmos Caller

Our commander wants Bats that get into the red zone early and can sacrifice themselves late, to be reanimated with her ability. One of the clearer examples of this is StirgeStirge, a 1/1 flier for one mana that can sacrifice itself for two mana and a life to draw a card. Cheap flier early, draw spell late, reanimate to draw another card - perfect Bat.

Blight KeeperBlight Keeper is another Bat that our commander makes better: same stats and evasion, but it can sacrifice itself to drain four life from an opponent for a whopping eight mana. While this may seem overcosted, a deck of 1-2 mana permanents means we’ll often have extra mana lying around. And the drain combined with our evasive beats can take an opponent by surprise.

While cheap fliers are excellent at combat, sometimes they need a bit of help. Flowering of the White TreeFlowering of the White Tree adds a good amount of power to our board, and even gives our combat-loving commander a special boost.

The Meathook MassacreThe Meathook Massacre is an absolute beating, giving us a board wipe that our commander can help us come back from. We can even reanimate the Massacre, giving us the ability to play an Aristocrats-style strategy and making blocking even less appealing.

Speaking of repeatable removal, we can use cards like Executioner's CapsuleExecutioner's Capsule as sneakily as a Glissa, the TraitorGlissa, the Traitor deck, popping an opponent’s creature and then bringing it back with Zoraline to pop another one.

Boom BoxBoom Box is another intriguing option, as it hits an artifact, a creature, and a land for six mana. It’s a two-drop to cast, however, so we can reanimate it with Zoraline to build-a-DecimateDecimate.

While being able to reanimate our permanents is a form of repeatable card advantage, we need more to offset the glut of cheap fliers.

Folk HeroFolk Hero lets us draw a card for each Bat we cast, which helps us capitalize off of that glut and dig for what we need. Anvil of BogardanAnvil of Bogardan is an interesting political option, giving cards to the table while filling graves. The hope is that we're able to use our grave better, or that we can use cards like Nihil SpellbombNihil Spellbomb to offset any advantage we might accidentally cede.

Our nonbasics are primarily centered around swarming the board. Windbrisk HeightsWindbrisk Heights and Path of AncestryPath of Ancestry help us to dig through the deck and provide some extra card advantage. Vault of the ArchangelVault of the Archangel is a massive beating for combat-oriented decks, making blocking unsavory with deathtouch and winning races with lifelink.

How Does This Zoraline, Cosmos CallerZoraline, Cosmos Caller Commander Deck Win?

We’re looking to beat down with small fliers early and often, with the backup plan of reanimating cheap black and white permanents that sacrifice themselves to accrue incremental card advantage.

Zoraline, Cosmos CallerZoraline, Cosmos Caller Commander Deck List

Conclusion

Bats can be kind of spooky, but while they may survive off of blood, they certainly don’t suck! Bloomburrow Bats are actually kind of cute and cuddly!

But how would you build Bats? And how do you feel about the shadowy nighttime creatures?

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