Blooming and Brewing

Hello and welcome back to another set review on EDHREC! It's been a long and grueling month since my last one. Bloomburrow is here, and as I've recently been battling the mice living in the walls at my house, this set's flavor stings a little bit at the moment. Thankfully, the game mechanics more than make up for it, and given how I felt about Assassin's Creed, I'm happy to be back to writing a more positive review. We've got our newest Planeswalker card, TWO mythic Frogs, a bunch of Squirrels, Bats, and more to explore, so let's dive in and see what the set has to offer for the enemy color pairs and wedges.

Mythics

Arthur, Marigold Knight

Kicking things off with a precon alt-commander, Arthur here is fairly straightforward. Just make sure you've played at least one creature that can attack before you slam the Mouse Knight, and you're off to the races. A few things to note rules-wise: First, you don't need to attack the same player with Arthur and the other creature, so you can attack in the way that's most advantageous to you. Second, you won't get any attack triggers from the creature you find since it enters tapped and attacking. For those to trigger, the creature needs to actually be declared as an attacker. Third, you bounce the creature at the end of combat, giving you your second main phase to cast it if you want. Given all that, I think you'll want to focus on enters and leaves the battlefield abilities (is ETB now a dead acronym?) with Arthur. Look for some inspiration from Blink decks and add in some attacking spice.

Bria, Riptide Rogue

Bria was one of the first previews revealed from this set, so at this point, she's old news. If playing against Narset, Enlightened Exile at my LGS has taught me anything, giving all your creatures prowess is very powerful. Kind of odd they didn't template Bria the same way, but I digress. Narset's page is where I would look to get some initial ideas for building Bria as your commander, along with any of the many Izzet (blue-red) Spellslinger commanders. Naturally, Bria makes a good addition to the 99 of those decks as well. There will be tension in the deck between having creatures to pump and noncreatures to trigger their prowess, but you can get around that with cards like Krenko's Command or Talrand, Sky Summoner.

Flubs, the Fool

I'm certain there are many broken things to do with a Song of Creation in your command zone, especially in colors that can run Underworld Breach, Brain Freeze, and green's ways to Regrowth them. From what I've seen so far, this is my front runner for the best cEDH commander in the set, but I'll let Jake cover that over at Commander's Herald. For me, I just want to do one thing: Frog Madness. I LOVE discarding cards for value, and Flubs seems like a wonderful way to do that. Rielle, the Everwise seems like a good place to start for some ideas. I can also see taking Flubs in a Lands oriented direction with Crucible of Worlds and friends, which sounds like a lot of fun (and a potential article) to me.

Glarb, Calamity's Augur

I have wished for so long for a Frogs-matter commander in Sultai colors, so that I can finally play The Gitrog Monster and Grolnok, the Omnivore in the same deck. Glarb is here at last, and while he doesn't really care about Frogs as a creature type, I still think he's a powerful commander. Future Sight effects are a great source of card advantage, and Glarb comes with that crucial surveil 2 ability, allowing you to rearrange the top of your library to maximize the effect. Companioning Keruga, the Macrosage seems like an obvious deckbuilding choice as well, which means we can look for fun "secret" 1- and 2-drop spells like Adventures and split cards to add to the deck. Of course, you can indeed make him Frog kindred as I originally hoped for. If you do, be sure to share your list with me via Twitter.

Hazel of the Rootbloom

A legendary Squirrel that cares about tokens. Where have I seen this before? Hazel has a lot to live up to with Chatterfang, Squirrel General on the loose. I expect the 99 of both decks will be relatively similar, so one could go in the other and vice-versa. Perhaps have some fun and roll to see which one is your commander at the start of the game. Hazel is also useful outside of Squirrel decks, providing a big burst of mana for any token-focused deck. Copying the token on your end step is powerful too, especially if you've managed to create a token copy of something huge with Lithoform Engine's third ability or similar effects. Squirrels have always been a popular creature type and with more support coming from Bloomburrow, I'm sure we'll see a lot of Hazel decks.

Ral, Crackling Wit

Looks like Storm is back on the menu boys. I've been lucky to review a lot of the Planeswalkers from recent sets, and this is certainly the splashiest (hehe Otters) one. Seeing storm printed on a Standard-legal card is something that was considered near impossible. We'll see about Standard, but I'm certain that reaching this ultimate will be near impossible in Commander. Your opponents simply won't let Ral live that long. Check out Crackling Spellslinger if you want to do those kind of shenanigans. Besides the target-painting ultimate, you get prowess Otters and the ability to filter through your cards, so Ral seems to be good for the same decks that we talked about above with Bria.

The Odd Acorn Gang

This is certainly the best-named Squirrel commander, and it also enables Squirrel Voltron. It's hilarious to think about all those Squirrel tokens tapping to make one of them gigantic. You can easily kill someone with commander damage from the Gang themselves, or spread the love around by making a bunch of trampling threats. Doing the latter will maximize the card draw ability, since you can get through to all three opponents and draw your three cards. We can put the Gang into the commander rotation of our theoretical modular Squirrel deck, or just stick with them and make nonstop It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia references.

Ygra, Eater of All

At first I thought Ygra's ward cost was basically hexproof, but then I realized it makes ALL creatures (not just yours) into Food, so really it's "Sacrifice a creature" unless of course your opponents have Food tokens lying around too. Ygra also has no inherent evasion, so unless you're suiting it up with something, growing it doesn't really matter all that much. The real way to take advantage of Ygra is as an immediate burst of Food for five mana, which can be used for all sorts of crazy effects. Peregrin Took and Experimental Confectioner can now go super-infinite, Night of the Sweets' Revenge is game ending, or you can just one-shot people with Feasting Hobbit and Banquet Guests. All this said, Ygra seems like a fine commander or addition for any Food deck.

Zinnia, Valley's Voice

If you're new to the game, you'll very quickly see that Magic players really love to copy their stuff. Zinnia is yet another commander to do the thing, though maybe not quite as broken as some other options like Miirym. I'd aim to fill my Zinnia deck with a bunch of ways to reduce the cost of creatures like Oketra's Monument or Watcher of the Spheres so I can get a bunch of tokens on the cheap. Populate effects like Nesting Dovehawk become really silly too, and feel free to leverage "low power matters" cards like Slaughter the Strong and The Battle of Bywater. Zinnia plays in some unique design space, so it's one of my favorite commanders from the set.

Rares

Alania, Divergent Storm

What was I saying about copying? Alania is probably the best Otter commander, since she'll make more Otters to support their theme of instant and sorcery spells. I love that she also has a bit of a political aspect that allows for some really fun gameplay, so I expect her to be pretty popular sight at the head of many new decks. Otherwise, stick her in a Spellslinger deck just like you would with Bria and Ral. In either case, surround her with Magecraft effects like Archmage Emeritus for maximum value!

Camellia, the Seedmiser

Yet another Squirrel commander to join Chatterfang, Hazel, and the Gang, so you can add Camellia to your rotation of leaders for the Squirrel deck too! We'll need a bit more Food-focused cards for Camellia to really pop off, but pumping all our Squirrels and granting evasion seems like a great way to end the game. Camellia's second ability reminds me a lot of Experimental Confectioner, so there's definitely some combo potential with Peregrin Took and some other cards too.

Clement, the Worrywort

Clement more or less turns every creature we play into a Shrieking Drake, except the bounce is optional since it's 2024 and we can never have downsides on cards. Anyways, we can easily re-use enter and leave the battlefield triggers, and if you throw a bunch of Frogs into the mix, they become mana dorks to help replay whatever you bounce. There are plenty of Frogs you could add to a Clement list, especially with all the support they're getting from this set like...

Dreamdew Entrancer

...this card. You can play the Entrancer, and stack the triggers such that you tap your own creature, draw the cards, then bounce it back to your hand with Clement's ability, so you don't even care about the stun counters. It can also be used as a political tool to help an opponent dig for an answer. All around, a fun pair of cards and of course: Frogs.

Fisher's Talent

One of the beautiful things about Magic is that it evokes images of what you could do with arcane power. Guaranteeing that I catch larger and larger fish wouldn't be the first thing I'd do, but it's certainly not the last. With Fisher's Talent, you get the best part (an extra card each turn) up front, with the upside of larger and larger tokens as you level up. I have two issues though: one, you can't guarantee that you'll make the token. And two, your opponents will eventually want to kill this and you'll have sunk a lot of mana into it and it'll die to a Haywire Mite. It might be worth a try in token or Sea Monster decks but I'd look elsewhere for card advantage.

Lunar Convocation

Readers of my usual articles probably know that I love Orzhov (black-white). This whole gain or lose life theme that the color pair gets in this set seems like the exact thing that will make me go 1-3 in many Arena drafts. As for this particular enchantment, I'm not sure. Clearly it goes in a Lifegain deck, which enables the first ability. The second ability which gets you the Bat can be enabled by activating the third, but only before you go to your end step and assuming you've already gained life. The best comparison I think is Dawn of Hope, so if you're playing that I'd take a look at this. I'll need to see this in action before I add it in. Come check out the Orzhov discord server if you want to convince me otherwise.

Mabel, Heir to Cragflame

Mabel is going to be at the top of a lot of decks based on the cuteness factor alone, but she's just another Boros (red-white) Equipment commander. If she's going to lead your deck, make sure to put in extra Mice, otherwise you could slot her into the 99 for any of the other million commanders in this archetype. Since we have so many of them, here's a deckbuilding challenge: Boros Equipment with a legendary subtheme. Another article idea aside, Mabel isn't anything exciting.

Octomancer

This is the first card with the gift mechanic that we've seen, which I think is a wonderful multiplayer mechanic. It allows for some sweet politics and funny stories, which is what Commander is all about. With or without the gift, Octomancer is awesome. Its triggered ability says EACH end step, so you can combine it with your instant speed token generators to really pop off. You can throw this Frog into any Simic-based token list like Esix or Xavier along with cards like See Double and Cackling Counterpart.

Rapid Augmenter

Clearly this Otter has had some run-ins with the Izzet League. Rapid Augmenter belongs in deck right alongside the new Ral, Peezy, or anything else that's making a critical mass of x/1 tokens. That's right, tokens will trigger that second ability over and over again and turn Rapid Augmenter into a giant, unblockable threat. Also, since the Otter only cares about the base power, you can still use anthem effects to pump up your now hasty tokens. Kykar or another token based commander that touches blue and red would very much enjoy this as an addition to the 99.

Zoraline, Cosmos Caller

Are we sure this is a 2024 card? Zoraline seems like a bad Sun Titan. You need to pay life and mana to rebuy something, it can't be a land, and it comes with a finality counter so you can't loop anything. Three mana 3/3, flying, vigilance is a nice stat line, and I suppose you can enable a lot of life gain in the Bat kindred decks. Overall though, as a commander or a card in the 99, this seems pretty underwhelming to me. Sad Orzhov noises for this set.

Uncommons & Commons

Stormcatch Mentor

Only one lower rarity card I think is worth mentioning, but look at what they did to Goblin Electromancer. Sure, it's not strictly better because the Goblin is a 2/2, but come on. Semantics.

Well, that's all we have for now, but don't worry, Duskmourn is right around the corner. In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you. Drop a comment down below and let me know what I got right, wrong, or missed about anything from Bloomburrow. You can find my regular series, Brew For Your Buck every other Tuesday on EDHREC, or hit me up on Twitter @BrewForYourBuck. I hope you're excited for what this new set is bringing, and I'll see you next time!

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