Commander Review: Best Bloomburrow Cards

Bloomburrow is here! This set brought us several furry little creatures, as well as many new mechanics and interesting additions for one of the most beloved Magic: The Gathering formats: Commander!

Today, let's review the best Bloomburrow cards for Commander. Please note: we only reviewed cards from the main set, even though there are 4 new precon Commander decks with several new cards.

As usual, we separated these cards by colors and rarity, respectively.

New Set Mechanics

Bloomburrow brought us several new mechanics. If you'd like to see more about them, check out this article by our house Judge, Antonio Faillace!

Rare

Our review starts with Caretaker's Talent, which is part of a new class cycle. Caretaker's Talent has three great effects: its level 1 draws us cards on our turn or our opponent's, if you can create tokens (creature tokens or not) on your opponents' turns. Its level 2 is quite interesting, particularly because it doesn't state which type of token you'll get to create.

This means, if your deck can copy permanents, this class' level 2 will be incredibly strong. Finally, its level 3 buffs creature tokens.

All around, it is a great card for any token archetypes.

Dawn's Truce will be a very popular protection in Commander. It is basically a white Heroic Intervention, but it draws a card for your opponent, which is an almost insignificant drawback for you, as it will also save your permanents.

Furthermore, you'll also get hexproof, so it is even more useful than Heroic Intervention in that sense. Dawn's Truce easily fits Commander's standard list of protections.

You can never have too many global removals, so, here is Starfall Invocation. Even though Commander has better removals for even less mana, the great thing about Starfall Invocation is that it reanimates one of the creatures you destroyed with it if you "Gift" your opponent a card.

Many decks rely on having their commander on the board, so a removal like this is perfect to deal with your opponents' boards and keep your most important creature on your board. Voltron decks, for instance, will be glad to add Starfall Invocation to their arsenal.

Mythic

Beza, the Bounding Spring apparently does everything. This is a 4-mana creature with possibly 4 different effects when it enters the battlefield, so it's incredibly strong, particularly if these effects happen multiple times throughout the game.

It can easily go into any and every white blink deck, and will always be impactful, whenever you do play it. Beza, the Bounding Spring will be quite popular in this archetype.

Uncommon

Tea? Yes, please! This is another class in our review, and this time it's gossipy mice. Gossip's Talent is an incredibly interesting and powerful class if you take a good look at its whole kit.

Its level 1 lets you surveil 1 whenever one of your creatures enters the battlefield, a simple effect, but quite versatile. You can definitely get a lot from it, for instance, to remove any card you don't want from the top of your deck. Its level 2 gives you some evasion, and, even though it's for a creature with 3 power or less, it can be crucial, particularly if you trigger an ability with it. Its level 3 is the most fascinating of them all: whenever one of your creatures deals combat damage to an opponent, you can blink it. You can do a lot with this, not only in blink decks, but also in several other builds that play many ETB effects. Particularly because this card lets you blink any creature that deals damage, and not only one.

Only time will tell us which decks will make Gossip's Talent shine.

Though there are many great counters in Commander, Long River's Pull is not overshadowed by any of them. Be it in budget or the most expensive builds, it is a decent counter with a small drawback.

Arcane Denial works well in this format, so Long River's Pull could perform just as well.

Rare

Dour Port-Mage has a lot of potential, and may become quite popular in Commander. This cute Frog was already great just for its card draw, but its ability, which returns one creature to its controller's hand, is extremely useful, particularly as you can play it at any speed.

This means you can both save creatures in critical moments or just return one creature that has a great ETB to your hand as you pass.

It's interesting to note that Dour Port-Mage will also draw you a good number of cards when you target bounce your creatures or bounce them all globally, so it is even better. Obviously, blink decks will get a lot from Dour Port-Mage, but other archetypes could easily add this Frog to their builds as well.

Fortunately for spellslingers, we got Stormchaser's Talent.

This class works slowly, but each of its levels brings you many rewards. Its level 1 is quite basic: it just creates a 1/1 Otter token with prowess. Its level 2 returns one instant or sorcery in your graveyard to your hand, which is quite useful for the type of decks Stormchaser's Talent will work in.

Finally, it also creates an army of Otters with prowess: any time you cast an instant or sorcery, it creates an Otter token. As we said before, spellslinger decks will truly enjoy its last effect, and it can even be a finisher depending on how many Otters you create with it.

Wishing Well is the card you open in a Bloomburrow booster and think, "it's probably for Commander". It is stamped with everything Commander is about, and has a good design: it lets you play instants or sorceries from your graveyard according to coin counters.

Decks that give you more coin counters with abilities like proliferate will definitely get more out of Wishing Well, but even other decks can use this card, and it is still viable in budget or more casual builds.

Mythic

Eluge, the Shoreless Sea is quite a Fish for Commander! It might be quite interesting as a Commander, but it also works well as one of the other 99 cards, considering there are many cards that interact with flood counters, even a few blue ones.

A build with nonlegendary clones, for instance, would be quite fun, as you'd significantly discount the cost of your spells, so you could focus on a big spell build or even X-cost spell builds.

Another strong Commander as well as a great card among the other 99 is Kitsa, Otterball Elite. Its effect, which draws a card and discards another, is quite interesting, but what makes it strong is the fact it copies instants or sorceries for just 2 mana. To do that, Kitsa only needs to have 3 or more power, which is quite easy, particularly with its prowess.

Spellslinger decks will easily add Kitsa, Otterball Elite in their builds, but other archetypes will also get a lot from this little Otter, as all colors have great spells to copy.

Season of Weaving is from the Seasons cycle, and there is one for each color. Its modal mechanic, with the tiny paw prints, is quite interesting, and quite versatile, as it lets us choose as many modes as we want as long as they add up to 5 paw prints in total.

Season of Weaving not only draws us cards, but also lets us create a token which is a copy of one of our creatures or artifacts, and also returns all nonland, nontoken permanents to their owners' hands.

This card will be really useful in decks that create many tokens and also other blue builds, as it is a global bounce that draws us cards and lets us keep at least one creature or artifact on the board. All in all, it is a great card, and will potentially be in many Commander decks.

Uncommon

It is undeniable how far Magic: The Gathering has come in terms of power level when we see that, in older sets like Theros, the very first one, Hero's Downfall was a rare card. Today, Feed the Cycle is an uncommon card and basically does the same as Hero's Downfall but better, if you use its forage: exile three cards from your graveyard or sacrifice a Food.

Using its forage is also quite easy - even if your deck can't create Food, exiling 3 cards from your graveyard is relatively easy to do, depending on the game state. This will be another great and cheap target removal in Commander.

Starscape Cleric is great to ping some damage to your opponents and drain the bit by bit. Its offspring is what makes it great: with two of them on the board, for each 1 life you gain, your opponents will lose 2 life. Aristocrat decks can easily add Starscape Cleric to their builds, particularly as it is so cheap.

Regardless of where it sees play, it will definitely annoy your opponents as the newest life drain creature in lifegain decks.

Rare

Scavenger's Talent is the black Squirrel class, and has really interesting effects. Its level 1 creates Food tokens when one of your creatures dies. You can then use these creatures to pay for other cards' forage cost, sacrifice them later to gain a little bit of life, or activate other effects.

Its level 2 effect is the most interesting one: any time you sacrifice a permanent, target player mills 2 cards. You can use this as a finisher in several situations, or just use it to fuel your graveyard in self-mill builds.

Finally, its level 3 lets you reanimate a creature at the beginning of your end step if you sacrifice 3 other nonland permanents. But there's a drawback: it will have a finality counter, so you might just lose it for good, but, because it is so cheap, and you can use it at the end of every turn, it is incredibly powerful.

Sacrifice decks could certainly find some space for Scavenger's Talent.

And, speaking of black Squirrels, we have Osteomancer Adept.

This cute little Squirrel brings back a creature from your graveyard with its ability. For its forage, as we said before, you can simply exile three other cards from your graveyard. Despite its finality counter, Osteomancer Adept lets you reanimate essential creatures for your matches, particularly if they have any abilities you can use as you cast them.

It will be a great, cheap addition to reanimate decks, and a great emergency blocker as well because of its deathtouch.

Iridescent Vinelasher will be a great addition in black landfall decks. It is incredibly cheap, and its offspring deals at least 2 damage to an opponent for each land that enters play under your control, so it is a great finisher in the right builds.

It is a good source of damage that could be even stronger if you use infect with it somehow, or any effect that triggers when you deal damage.

Darkstar Augur is a good source of card draw, and gets even better with its low-cost offspring. Furthermore, black is more than used to its life loss drawback, so you can add it to many builds. It basically represents 2 flying bodies for just 4 mana, which will you also draw you cards throughout the game, so it's definitely worth a shot.

We have many options if we want to reanimate something in Commander, but Coiling Rebirth is really interesting, as it creates a 1/1 copy of the creature you reanimated if it's not legendary and if you draw your opponent a card. This opens many possibilities for us, particularly if we reanimate and copy creatures with a great ETB.

A Coiling Rebirth on a Gray Merchant of Asphodel, for instance, may just win you the game. Its cost is also fair compared to what it does.

Wick, the Whorled Mind deserved an honorable mention because it could be a very fun Commander. The fact it is Grixis is unusual, but it brings a lot to Rats and Snails. It seems like a fun deck to pilot!

Mythic

Maha, Its Feathers Night is incredibly strong, both as your Commander or as one of the other 99 cards. It could be essential for several absurd strategies, and it's a 6/5 with flying and trample that protects itself with ward when you discard a card. That means your opponents will need at least two cards to deal with this Bird.

Maha has a lot of potential and might become quite popular, particularly with other cards that reduce the toughness of your opponents' units.

They wanted to turn Torment of Hailfire into a creature, so we got Rottenmouth Viper. This Snake could cost only one mana thanks to its additional cost, which is sacrificing permanents. It also enters play and triggers its ability, the one with blight counters, at the same time, and, the more counters you have, the more problematic it is.

In builds that give you even more of these counters, like proliferate builds, it will be quite powerful, but, on its own, Rottenmouth Viper is already quite strong.

Season of Loss is the black Season, and is exactly everything this color represents. For 5 mana, you can force each player to sacrifice at least 5 creatures, and that's only one of the modes it includes. Its card draw mode is incredibly strong, particularly if you pick it twice right after you get hit with a global removal.

Finally, its third mode, which makes your opponents lose life equivalent to how many creatures are in your graveyard, can easily be a finisher. This card is quite strong and versatile, and will be another great black utility removal for Commander.

Uncommon

Blacksmith's Talent is blacksmith Lizards' red "Talent". This is a simple card, but its upper levels have a lot of potential for aggression.

Its first level is even somewhat overshadowed by the other ones. Its second level cheats out the equip cost of target equipment at the beginning of the combat, and thus saves you a mana. Finally, its third level gives double strike to all your equipped creatures during your turn, besides haste.

Even though this effect is only active during your turn, it is enough to finish a game in the right deck, usually in the equipment archetype. This is a great uncommon.

Coruscation Mage is another creature that deals damage to your opponents when you cast instants or sorceries. And, like all offspring creatures we listed so far, the fact you'll get to double this effect thanks to its offspring makes it even stronger. Spellslinger decks will definitely want to make friends with these little Otters.

Rare

And here's another red class: Artist's Talent. All the levels in this class are quite interesting.

Its first level draws you cards if you discard some, which is not unusual for red cards. Its second level discounts not only instants and sorceries as usual, but also all your noncreature spells. Finally, its level 3 makes all your noncombat damage deal an extra 2 damage.

This card fits red really well, and has a well-rounded kit. It can easily fit many decks, as it is very versatile.

Sunspine Lynx is a great source of damage, particularly for mono-red decks. One of the things red struggles with the most is dealing with the 120 life all three opponents have combined, and, if they gain life or prevent damage in any way, it will really disrupt the rest of the match.

However, Sunspine Lynx will deal with both of these problems at once, and is also a mini-Price of Progress. Furthermore, most Commander decks use many nonbasic lands, so Sunspine Lynx will often deal a lot of damage.

Mythic

Stormsplitter is a new, great finisher for the spellslinger archetype. It is a bit similar to Scute Swarm, but it creates copies whenever you cast an instant or sorcery. A Stormsplitter turn with at least 4 spells will get you 16 Otters, for instance.

You'll often see this card in multiple decks just before you lose the game.

Uncommon

Stocking the Pantry stood out to me because it is quite simple. It draws you cards if you simply remove a supply counter from it and pay two mana. +1/+1 counters are quite common and popular in Commander, so getting supply counters on this enchantment won't be all that hard. It's a simple card that could perform really well in this format.

Rare

For the Common Good really surprised me. It creates copies of a target token, gives all your tokens indestructible until your next turn, and also gives you 1 life for each token you control.

Both in decks centered around creature tokens or decks that create tokens of any type of permanent, this card will be incredibly impactful, particularly if you cast it with a high X.

We got Innkeeper's Talent as green's class this time. Its first level gives you a +1/+1 counter to put on one of your creatures at the beginning of combat, and, at first, it might seem too basic. However, its second level gives ward 1 to any permanents you control with counters, which makes its first level better.

It is interesting to note that planeswalkers will also get ward 1 from Innkeeper's Talent. And finally, speaking of planeswalkers, its third level doubles the counters you put on permanents or players. It is basically a budget Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider that protects your permanents with counters.

It might have a future in +1/+1 counter decks, planeswalker decks, and maybe even poison counter decks.

Mythic

And, of course, here we have one of the first cards from this set we ever saw in spoilers: Lumra, Bellow of the Woods. This Bear will probably see a lot of play because its ETB reanimates all lands from your graveyard. It also has vigilance and reach, which both make it even more powerful, particularly as it has power and toughness equal to how many lands you control. That's what makes it a really powerful creature.

Self-mill decks and many other archetypes will definitely enjoy Lumra, Bellow of the Woods.

This is the last Season in our review: Season of Gathering. Its first modal effect isn't that strong, after all, it just gives one of your creatures a +1/1 counter, vigilance, and trample. However, what makes it stand out is its other two modes: it destroys all artifacts and/or enchantments in play, or draws you cards equal to the greatest power among creatures you control. Green always draws a lot of cards, and this card is definitely one way to do it. It's almost like a Rishkar's Expertise, but with more modes.

Uncommon

Goblin Electromancer has definitely been powercrept by Stormcatch Mentor. Obviously, decks that use Goblin Electromancer will also use Stormcatch Mentor, as they do the same thing, but Stormcatch Mentor is more aggressive because of its prowess and haste.

It is a good way to discount costs in spellslinger decks.

Rare

And, speaking of spellslingers, we have Alania, Divergent Storm. This cute Otter easily copies instants, sorceries, or other Otters with its ability, but you'll have to draw your opponent a card as well.

There are many ways to use Alania, as it always copies the first spell you cast that turn. You can copy either an Expropriate on your turn or a Nexus of Fate on your opponent's turn. The sky is the limit for Alania, Divergent Storm: extra turns, big spells, burn - anything that Izzet players can possibly imagine.

Baylen, the Haymaker is a great commander for decks with creature tokens. It is basically a token-focused Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca, as it lets you use all the tokens on your board with summoning sickness to create mana, draw cards, or just grow this cute Rabbit warrior.

Its colors also match the token archetype perfectly, so you'll get to use great cards in your build with it, too.

Yeah, there's something for Squirrels too! Camellia, the Seedmiser is a great addition for this creature type, as it gives evasion, namely menace, to all your Squirrels and grows them by putting a +1/+1 counter on each of them you control.

It also creates Squirrel tokens, which is wonderful, considering you need to use forage with its activated ability. And, as forage also lets us sacrifice a Food, we'll get to create another Squirrel token for our army of cute furry creatures.

It is great either as your commander or as one of the other 99 cards in Squirrel decks.

More rodents! Vren, the Relentless is a Rat with incredible effects. It can be your commander or simply go into some Rat-focused list, but, even in other decks, Vren, the Relentless will be great. It has a built-in gravehate and makes the most out of it by creating Rat tokens. It also protects itself well with its ward 2. It is consistent and powerful, and could be quite popular in Commander.

Mythic

We also got Frogs: Glarb, Calamity's Augur, in Sultai colors. This Frog will be great as your commander or among the other 99 cards in several builds. The fact it lets us cast spells from the top of our deck, even if only spells that cost 4 or more, is remarkable, precisely because it will be an extension of the cards we have in our hands. And, to make it even better, Glarb, Calamity's Augur also gives us surveil 2 so we can shuffle our top deck around and find answers.

Playing lands from our top will also help us find more cards to play from our deck itself. Be it in big spell decks, or reanimate decks, Glarb, Calamity's Augur definitely stands out in our review.

Speaking of Frogs, we also have Helga, Skittish Seer, in Bant colors. This cute little Frog has a lot of potential because it gives us a lot: when you cast a creature with a total mana value of 4 or greater, you'll draw a card, gain 1 life, and Helga, Skittish Seer will get one +1/+1 counter.

This isolated effect is already quite strong, but, besides this, Helga also creates mana for us equal to her power. The drawback is that we can only spend this mana on creatures that cost 4 or more, or X-creatures. This means we can add this card to big creature decks, or even Hydra decks!

And her Bant colors are also great for a creature-focused deck, as it will give us some sustain and control as well. It is an outstanding commander.

Of course, this is the meme commander of the year: The Infamous Cruelclaw. There are many funny builds around with 98 lands and Worldfire, or 98 lands and any other gigantic cards you'll cast with The Infamous Cruelclaw's effect, but, obviously, you can build something better for this cute little Weasel.

This card has already inspired many debates in the community, but only the future will tell what we'll see in Commander tables from now on.

Ygra, Eater of All deserved an honorable mention in our review. This predator turns all other creatures into Food tokens, is in the perfect colors for a Food token deck, and grows when a Food is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, either your opponents' or your own.

Cards like Bane of Progress or Season of Gathering are global removals with Ygra, Eater of All, and also grow considerably, so this card might be an interesting commander.

Finally, we have the iconic Ral, Crackling Wit. This beloved planeswalker has come to this plane as an Otter, and has a very peculiar way of giving you loyalty counters besides activating abilities: any time you cast a noncreature spell, Ral, Crackling Wit gets a loyalty counter. This means you'll be able to use its last ability quite fast, maybe even in the same turn you cast it, depending on the game state.

Its last ability, in turn, is incredibly strong: besides drawing three cards, all your instants and sorceries will have storm. As we said before, big spells or burns are already problematic when you use them only once, so they're even worse when they have storm. Thanks to Ral, Crackling Wit, they might just have it.

Rare

Fountainport is a very versatile land. It draws cards, creates Fish tokens, and Treasures. Of course, not every deck will get the most out of this land, but it is a viable land for many Commander archetypes.

To finish our review, we have Three Tree City. This land is a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for a certain creature type, and, as kindred decks are quite popular in Commander, it will be quite popular as well. After all, this card will give them a lot of mana.

Elves, Goblins, Merfolk, Humans… Whatever type you choose, this card will give you and your decks a lot of value.

For a plane that doesn't have any Humans, Bloomburrow gave us a lot. All of its cute, furry, and lethal friends brought a lot of diversity to the game, particularly as they improved several kindred archetypes, besides also bringing us a few new ones.

Commander will get a lot from most of the cards we showed in our review, as well as many others we didn't mention. All of these wonderful commanders will definitely inspire great builds!

Did you enjoy our review? Miss any card? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!