After last week’s Commander Deep Dive into Bello, Bard of the Brambles, today I wanted to take a look at another new legendary creature from Bloomburrow Commander, specifically the amusingly named Ms. Bumbleflower!
Ms. Bumbleflower has all the hallmarks of a “group hug” commander and is in the Bant colors just like one of the original “group hug” commanders, Phelddagrif. Whenever you cast a spell, a target opponent draws a card, and you get to put a +1/+1 counter on a target creature. That creature gains flying until the end of the turn, and it’s important to note that it can be any creature, so if you cast a spell at instant speed, you could affect combat by giving an attacker evasion, or by making a creature able to block in combat. Giving an opponent a card is a great way to gain favors in a game of Commander, since Magic players generally love drawing cards more than just about anything.
Of course, most of the time, you’ll be putting that +1/+1 counter on your own creature, and potentially giving it flying to swoop on the attack. And notably, the second time Ms. Bumbleflower triggers in a turn, you yourself get to draw two cards – so everybody wins!
Let’s dig into what sort of cards we might want in a Ms. Bumbleflower deck!
Cheap Instants
A significant portion of your deck should probably be cheap instants, which will increase the chances of you double-spelling either on your own turn – possibly in the middle of combat – or during an opponent’s turn. The “tutor” spells like Mystical Tutor make a pretty good way to start your double-spell turn, since you’ll get to draw the card you searched up, along with a bonus card, when Ms. Bumbleflower draws you two cards.
Another neat trick is casting Reprieve or Remand on your own spell, returning it to your hand to cast again later, replacing itself, and then Ms. Bumbleflower will draw you two more cards.
I also like Experimental Augury for the card selection, but even better is the proliferate, which will boost the +1/+1 counters you’ve been putting on creatures.
Other Cheap Spells
Cheap spells you cast at sorcery speed is another arrow in your quiver, helping you to have a double-spell turn and potentially get two of your attackers a little bigger and up in the air for the turn. I’m a huge fan of Twists and Turns in Commander generally because of its ability to transform into Mycoid Maze, but being able to scry 1 and then explore will be particularly nice for setting up your extra draw, and it will occasionally support your +1/+1 counter theme. Wizard Class leveled up to three will also nicely support that +1/+1 counter theme. Wild Growth works great here, since it basically pays you back the green mana you spent immediately, which should make it easy to double-spell on your turn.
Free Spells
While Wild Growth is basically free, we can also dip into actual free spells like Gitaxian Probe, which you can cast for two life instead of a blue mana. Noxious Revival can be cast for two life too, at instant speed, potentially setting up a nice-draw two with the card you put from your graveyard on top of your library. But note that you could potentially put a card from an opponent’s graveyard on top of their library and then have Ms. Bumbleflower let them draw it if it will help stop another opponent from winning the game.
You should also take a look at the free spells that untap lands, like Cloud of Faeries and Rewind. Further, there are spells that you can cast for no mana if you control your commander, like Obscuring Haze.
Buyback Spells
Buyback spells can keep your hand full of action later in the game when you’ve got enough mana to pay the buyback cost, though notably Sprout Swarm’s added convoke ability can help discount your overall mana cost the more creatures you have that can tap to help pay the cost… such as the Saproling creatures it makes!
When You Draw Cards
Assuming you’re reliably drawing two cards from Ms. Bumbleflower, you can take advantage of some of the card-drawing payoff cards. Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse will make you Cat tokens, and you can even dump extra mana into her activated ability when it’s time to alpha strike someone, assuming your hand is large.
And then there’s The Council of Four, which will benefit you both when you draw extra cards on your turn and when you have an opponent draw a card on their turn, and more than occasionally make you a 2/2 Knight token along the way.
+1/+1 Counters Matter
There is no shortage of cards that support +1/+1 counter strategies (in fact, I’d say there are way too many of them), so you can pick and choose your favorites in the Bant colors and have at it. The ones I selected here seem particularly nice with how Ms. Bumbleflower operates, and I’m especially excited for Evolution Witness, which can constantly bring back permanents that end up in your graveyard. Dusk Legion Duelist, Fathom Mage, and Danny Pink are great at keeping your hand stocked. Rishkar, Peema Renegade will let all your creatures with +1/+1 counters tap for green mana, which should help you double-spell early and often. And if you own an Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, it should do good work for you here!
Cards in Hand
Psychosis Crawler is a great way to turn your card-drawing power into chip damage that can really add up over time, and if your hand is regularly well-stocked, it becomes quite a battlefield presence for blocking or attacking—especially if you give it flying and it can evade blockers.
Baldin, Century Herdmaster loves if you have a bunch of cards in hand, boosting the damage output of up to 100 target creatures when it attacks. Can you attack with 100 creatures in a game of Commander? You’ll never know if you don’t try!
Combat Damage Triggers
On a smaller scale than 100 creatures attacking, Ms. Bumbleflower can give one or two of your attackers flying, which hopefully will mean they can deal combat damage to an opponent, so I’d like to have cards that can take advantage of that. Kodama of the West Tree seems like the first choice here, helping you ramp your mana and make it easier to have double spell turns. Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth has a fantastic combat damage trigger, and since it already has trample, giving it +1/+1 counters along with flying should mean seriously fun times for your attack steps.
Old Gnawbone is a pricey card, but if you own one, it seems great to have in this deck; casting it should let you make a sizeable flying attacker that can then attack and generate a bunch of Treasure tokens, which should let you cast your second spell to draw two more cards.
When an Opponent Draws Cards
You’ve probably seen people talking about using Psychic Possession alongside Ms. Bumbleflower, and that is indeed a spicy combo! Just keep in mind that you’re basically locking in for whom you’ll be using Ms. Bumbleflower’s trigger to draw cards for as long as Psychic Possession is on the battlefield, but all those cards are probably worth losing that flexibility.
I’d be strongly tempted to run Stormseeker in this deck to smack someone’s life total equal to the number of cards they have in their hand at instant speed—you’ll even get a Ms. Bumbleflower trigger from it for an extra point of damage!
More Shared Draw
If we’re going to help our opponents draw, and then benefit from it, then we could add a few other ways to have our opponents draw, such as Kwain, Itinerant Meddler and Selvala, Explorer Returned. Loran of the Third Path is a bit more discriminating, letting you and a target opponent draw a card.
Group Hug
If you really want to lean harder on the group hug theme, there are a bunch of cards that support that strategy, and I’ve got a few of them listed here. I’m a huge fan of the new Bloomburrow Commander spell Perch Protector—since you can cast it at instant speed, you can inject the gift extra turn between two other opponents and really disrupt everyone’s gameplan while you chill out safe behind your Teferi’s Protection with four 2/2 Bird tokens.
Communal Brewing is another new Bloomburrow Commander card that supports both the “have your opponents draw cards” and “+1/+1 counters” themes. And of course, you’ll want to play Tempt with Bunnies—who doesn’t love bunnies? And cards?
Which other cards would work great in a deck built Ms. Bumbleflower? Which of Bloomburrow Commander‘s new legendary creatures are you most excited to build around?
Talk to Me
Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter! I run polls and start conversations about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun! You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.
I’d also love it if you followed my Twitch channel TheCompleteCommander, where I do Commander, Brawl, and sometimes other Magic-related streams when I can. If you can’t join me live, the videos are available on demand for a few weeks on Twitch, but I also upload them to my YouTube channel. You can also find the lists for my paper decks over on Archidekt if you want to dig into how I put together my own decks and brews.
And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
Visit my Decklist Database to see my decklists and the articles where they appeared!
***
SCG CON is coming to Tampa, FL on September 6-8! The world’s premier trading card game convention features three full days of Magic: The Gathering, Flesh and Blood, Disney Lorcana, and Star Wars Unlimited action:
- Magic: The Gathering Modern $10Ks on Friday and Saturday; cEDH $5K; Super Sunday Regional Championship Qualifiers in Standard, Pioneer, and Modern; and Commander Celebration
- Flesh and Blood Rosetta World Premiere, Calling, and Battle Hardened events
- Disney Lorcana Core Constructed $2K and $1K events
- Star Wars Unlimited Premier Constructed $2K and $1K events
- Side events all weekend long
And so much more!
Plus, meet fan-favorite special guests and artists!
Best of all, SCG CON is free to attend!
Make your plans for SCG CON Tampa!
