Tokens! Brewing Commander MTG With Bloomburrow Preview Zinnia, Valley’s Voice

Move over, brat summer, it’s Bloomburrow weekend! After much anticipation, we have finally reached Prerelease weekend. May your pack pulls be hot, and your Prerelease kits be gas.

As you are reading this article, you will probably see me running around SCG CON Baltimore like an excited idiot, giddy over the gorgeous new game pieces. While I have maintained my strength on no new paper builds until Duskmourn, one commander from Bloomburrow is definitely challenging me: Zinnia, Valley’s Voice. I do a deckbuilding stream every week, and my latest victim was this Jeskai Bird. After many an Offspring pun (if you know, you know), I ended up making something so fun that I couldn’t help but share it with you fine folk. 

The Commander

Zinnia is a three-mana, 1/3, all Jeskai-pipped commander with flying. It gets +X/+0, where X is the number of other creatures you control with base power 1. It also gives creature spells you cast the brand-new offspring mechanic, which states that if you pay an additional two mana as you cast a creature spell, you get a token copy of that creature, except it’s a 1/1.

Such a fun ability definitely intrigued me. When I first laid eyes on Zinnia, I remarked at just how flexible this commander is. Folks in my chat told me they were building Zinnia as a one-mana flyers (aka “bees”) deck, an offspring deck, or an enters-ability-focused deck. Me? I’m a straightforward, aggressive builder. I wanted to cut out the middleman and make a deck focused around 1/1 token makers. 

Token Makers

Let’s start with the main goal of this deck: to make a ton of tokens. While Zinnia has the ability to make offspring, I wanted to focus on running things that make 1/1 creature tokens consistently. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things that can be offspring-ed, I just wanted to be more direct in my brew.

When I think of tokens, I think Elspeth, so my list runs OG Elspeth Tirel and Elspeth, Sun’s Champion! Making tokens in groups of three is valuable in a list like this. Since I want this to be an aggressive deck, I also made sure to include pieces like Myrel, Shield of Argive; Skyknight Vanguard; Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin; Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon; Rabble Rousing; Goblin Rabblemaster; and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar.

The thing that all of these cards have in common? They make tons of tokens when you attack! It doesn’t stop there, however. Illustrious Wanderglyph makes tokens every upkeep, The Locust God makes tokens whenever you draw, and Emeria Angel makes tokens whenever you play a land. While it may seem redundant, it is important to have as many ways as possible to make tokens in this deck. Zinnia relies on having a posse, so might as well hammer it in. 

Our final token makers are a bit more scattered. Oketra’s Monument and Defiler of Faith make tokens when you cast a white permanent or creature spell. Jacked Rabbit and Geist-Honored Monk make tokens on entering, and pieces like Monastery Mentor and Third Path Iconoclast whenever you cast a noncreature spell. To top it off, since we are in white after all, we also had to make sure that we are running Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Anointed Procession. Can you tell that this deck makes tokens?

Damage Dealers

While this deck is all about volume and mass, I want to be able to reliably kill my opponents if Zinnia is not on the battlefield. Decks should always have a Plan B, at least in my opinion. The Plan B for Zinnia is tons of noncombat damage before the combat damage.

Here, I took inspiration from my Locust God brew. Warleader’s Call; Purphoros, God of the Forge; and Impact Tremors deal damage to each opponent whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control. Raid Bombardment and Cavalcade of Calamity trigger and ping whenever a creature you control with power 2 (or 1 in the case of Cavalcade) or less attacks. That’s why there are essentially no Anthems in this deck. Much hinges on our tokens staying small.

Speaking of damage on attack, this deck also runs Hellrider, which deals damage to the defending player whenever a creature you control attacks. I love this card in this deck, especially since it can be offspring-ed by Zinnia, which means tons and tons of damage. Our final damage-dealing piece is Goblin Bombardment. Even when you have an army of critters at your command, there are times in a game when you can’t get through someone’s defenses. To counteract that, Goblin Bombardment turns your tokens into damage fodder. While no one wants to kill bunnies, sometimes it’s worth it.

While I like having options, it doesn’t hurt to plan around your commander either. Two pieces in this list help move things past the incremental pings listed above. Anyone remember Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar? While this little cutie isn’t partnered with Zinnia, it’s still a match made in heaven. Kediss makes it so that the damage Zinnia deals to an opponent is then forked and dealt to each other opponent. After extensive playtesting, Zinnia gets big and quickly. With Kediss out, that can be some hefty blows! Speaking of hefty blows, I was a bit cheeky and included Chandra’s Ignition in the list. While Zinnia may want to attack, sometimes things prevent combat. Since the buff Zinnia gets is a static ability, I thought running Chandra’s Ignition would be a good, yet passive way to win the game. 

Good Stuff

Let’s talk good stuff. This is the grease that makes the deck’s wheels turn. Card draw, ramp, battlefield wipes galore!

Starting out with battlefield wipes, we have Austere Command and The Battle of Bywater. These two battlefield wipes care about power and mana value, which this deck cares about in spades. Since tokens have a mana value of 0 and are all incredibly small, these two battlefield wipes help protect what we’ve built up.

Speaking of protection, we also have to include Teferi’s Protection and Clever Concealment. In the face of regular battlefield wipes, it’s important to make sure the army sticks around. It’s also why Boros Charm is in this deck! Indestructible, baby!

Card draw makes the world go round. Initially my list was lacking in this, but after some goldfishing, we discovered the perfect balance. In the form of creatures, we have card draw thanks to Esper Sentinel, Mentor of the Meek, and Rumor Gatherer. All of these can be copied with Zinnia, making them awesome additions.

In terms of noncreature card draw, we run the classic Windfall and Rhystic Study. Iconic and incredibly strong. Tocasia’s Welcome is a great piece for this list, as it cares about creatures with mana value 3 or less entering the battlefield. Since this deck is majority tokens, I think it fits the bill. Lastly, we have Coastal Piracy and Bident of Thassa. Since this deck wants to swing, why not get even more out of it by drawing some cards?

The final good piece of note is something brand-new: Sword of the Squeak. When brewing on stream, I had a handful of chatters asking for this piece to be cut. I strongly refused and am so happy I did, because I love how powerful this card is. It was, quite literally, made for Zinnia. It focuses on buffing the equipped creature for each creature you control with base power or toughness 1. Since that is quite literally 90% of the deck, it had to stay in. During playtests, it was noted that Zinnia (equipped with the blade) had power as high as 26. That is lethal! Also, the name of the card is adorable, so it stays. I make the rules.

Come Out and Play

Jeskai decks have always been rather touch-and-go for me. I like them, but I never felt drawn to brew one past the obligation of my stream. The colors separately interest me, but together don’t spark joy. Zinnia, however, sparked joy. I think there’s something so fun about using small and/or “weak” cards in a strategy (and by weak, I mean low power and toughness). I also adore how versatile Zinnia is.

After speaking with friends and folks in chat alike, I have come across a handful of different ways to build the same commander in such a strong way. I think that is the sign of a good card design. No matter which way it’s brewed, it is still fun and strong without being broken. And I think that’s a beat we can all dance to. Happy offspringing, deckbuilders!

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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
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