Part 3 of the Bloomburrow Commander Precon upgrades, we have Peace Offering. This is a ‘group hug’ deck, which is meant to give all players value. This is one type of deck I have issues with. One of the better commanders for this is Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis, as at least you are gaining more value than everyone else.
My problem with this type of deck is it pushes any disparity in power levels of the deck further if the effects are not targetable. This lets the strongest deck get further ahead. Peace Offering is helmed by Ms. Bumbleflower.
She isn’t bad in terms of ‘group hug’ as you can get more value than your opponents. If you can double spell in a turn, then you get two cards, a +1/+1 counter and temporary flying. Over giving a card. Although the 2 cards you get require the second spell.
What is nice is that you can be political as its target opponent who gets to draw. Which is what 'group hug' decks try to be. Friendly, giving everyone resources, and making deals so as not to get targeted.
But this is where it fails. It relies on other players to hold their end of the deal. This is where targeted effects are required, if someone breaks it then you can stop giving them resources.
Another pitfall of these decks is being able to finish. Many slots are dedicated to the ‘group hug’ side, so how do you actually win unless you are just playing for second?
I prefer what decks I like to call “Bear Hug” decks. These are the same as traditional group hug decks, but they give out a caveat regarding the resources given. Oh, you are drawing extra cards? Well, take 2 damage from my Megrim or tax them with Smothering Tithe - which is a card I would love to add to this deck as a suggestion, but it's way out of budget.
Speaking of that, I haven't explained this blog. This is all about upgrading the four Bloomburrow Commander decks on a budget of £10. So all 10 of my suggestions are going to work on punishing or gaining extra value out of any benefits we give to our opponents. With that, let's get into it.
Table of Contents
Budget Upgrades
Upgrade 1
Champions of Minas Tirith is the backup to deals of not being attacked. It forces your opponent to pay for each card they have in hand. It also introduces the Monarch into the format, allowing you to draw more cards. You can also be sneaky with Ms. Bumbleflower. If the player casts cards to try and keep up an exact amount of mana to be able to attack you, you can cast a spell and force them to draw, stopping them from being able to attack you.
Sphinx of Enlightenment is the first being cut. This is a decent body, being a 5/5 flyer for 6 mana. It's the downside of giving 3 cards to your opponents. While being a powerful negation tool. I just want to be greedy and keep private my card draw, which the Monarch does. You can even make a deal to pass this between you and another player by letting a small creature hit each other. And if another player manages to steal it - a large flying Ms. Bumbleflower can soon take it back.
Upgrade 2
While a Fog can be a blowout or be used to save someone else, you really need a way to finish off the player. Unless you have a large Ms. Bumbleflower that can finish the job you are very much reliant on the attack being a failed alpha strike, and the other player can take advantage. Otherwise it will just happen again next turn.
Riot Control isn't just a Fog, though. There is a nice life gain added to it to help justify the increased mana, but I would much rather have my suggestion of Portal Manipulator. This is the bigger brother to Portal Mage, allowing you to reselect all the targets. Being better than a Riot Control as you can force damage into your opponents or create some unfavourable attacks. This is a nice get out of jail free card or a continental removal spell if you can politic. Which is exactly this deck.
I will put a quick caveat that this is currently a Clue exclusive card. So supplies might dry up if it doesn't see another reprint, and for the current price, it's hard to say no.
Upgrade 3
We aren’t playing Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, for the front side. We are very much wanting Heliod, the Warped Eclipse. Being able to cast with flash and getting a discount for each opponent's draw. So you can even use Ms. Bumbleflower's card draw to give to another player and still get the discount. Although the front half of Heliod can still do some work, bringing back some good cards like Simic Ascendancy and Wizard Class.
I am unfortunately cutting Rites of Flourishing, an enchantment which could have been brought back with Heliod. I think this is a trap card. It's what I was talking about in the introduction. This one in a vacuum is a symmetrical effect. Everyone gets more card draws and more land drops. But this significantly favours big mana decks that can make use of all the extra mana. While this isn't as egregious as Heartbeat of Spring, I don’t think Peace Offering is going to be the best deck to take advantage of these benefits, and you will be punished for playing it. Probably by an Eldrazi player.
Upgrade 4/5
The next two cards I’m adding together. That means I need to cut two cards as well. These are going to be Secret Rendezvous and Tempt with Discovery. I'm cutting Secret Rendezvous for the same reasons as Sphinx of Enlightenment. This is undermined a little by my next addition of Forced Fruition, but I will explain the difference.
Tempt with Discovery is a very on style card. But it comes with a lot of risk, allowing your opponents also to tutor a land card. If this was limited to basics, then it would be a fine and solid ‘group hug’ card. But you can get any. This is also fine if you are playing against non upgraded preconstructed decks. But unfortunately this deck doesn't have many utility lands - the best being Reliquary Tower, the others being the 'scry lands' and, I stretch calling them, utility lands. Wizards could have put the 'surveil lands' in instead for better value. What you need to pair with Tempt is the 'land destruction lands' with the easiest being Strip Mine. But you could also add the newer Demolition Field and the on theme but slightly worse Field of Ruin. Tempt with Discovery works as follows:
You search for a land and put it onto the battlefield. Any triggers that this would cause are paused because nothing can happen while a card is resolving. Cards like Hypergenesis can get nightmarish with triggers. They will be put onto the stack in player order, with active players first and resolving last. But only after Tempt has finished resolving, once you have picked a land. The next player (player A), in order, gets to choose if they are getting a land only. They don't get it yet if they choose to do so. Then this repeats, so player B then makes the choice only knowing if Player A is getting a land. Then finally, Player C chooses. Then if any of A, B or C choose to get a land, they do so. Revealing all at the same time. Then you get to get a land for each of them. This is where the land destruction comes in. So you can remove any broken lands that they have. If they didn't, then you can get yours instead. But there aren't any in this deck. Also, if you are playing in a higher powered pod, then the other players should also be packing these land destruction lands, very much limiting the use of Tempt with Discovery and why you don't see it in the higher level deck lists. I will add that the land bases for all 4 of these are better than most of their predecessors.
There is a saying “too much of a good thing”. Forced Fruition is very much the definition of this. This limits the number of cards your opponent can cast, giving you an alternative win condition. As long as it isn’t removed, they don't have a way to shuffle back in. The problem is it lets your opponents filter their hands into the best cards, although it does the same for you as well. To go along with this we have Dreamborn Muse. This will mill your opponents equal to cards in hand. This inclusion might not be for every deck, but I have included it to discuss a secret strategy. You could use mill as a win condition. Alongside more draw to help get through your opponent's deck.
I will just add this footnote. I don't think Forced Fruition is the best card to add, but I very much think it's a fun card. As an alternative win condition, you are going to need to add more protection in the form of counterspells and a way to shuffle your graveyard back in. I just wanted to highlight this card, and I think it fits the group hug style of this deck.
Upgrade 6
Zur's Weirding is a very strange card. Everyone playing with hands revealed means no more surprises. It also allows you to show that you aren’t a threat. But the main reason is the second ability which allows anyone to pay 2 life to stop a card draw. This then allows you to try and practice politics to keep important cards out of your opponent's hands. Although it does work against you, hopefully, your opponents aren’t trying to stop your cards. Even if they are, Ms. Bumbleflower should be able to keep you in cards or really tank the life totals so you can just finish them off.
Martial Impetus is a perfectly fine card, being able to goad the biggest creature. While also incentivizing that player to attack your opponents with all their other creatures. I wouldn't blame you for not swapping this card, but the idea was to highlight some more obscure cards.
Upgrade 7
Luminarch Ascension is a card I haven't played with in a while. It’s normally reserved for a ‘pillowfort’ deck, which this deck has some parts of, as it can be hard to fulfil the requirements for the payoff. That is if you manage to, either through denial or careful politicking. You get a very strong rate. (1)(W) For a 4/4 flyer at instant speed without any limits. I think this deck is the perfect home for this card. You just have to craft those deals to get the advantage out of it, but that is the whole point of this deck. This card pairs nicely with Hoofprints of the Stag. While being harder to get going initially, it has no maintenance to keep making the tokens. However having a similar effect in a deck makes it more consistent.
To make room, I'm cutting Triskaidekaphile. While a fun alternative win condition, it is super vulnerable. A three toughness creature with no protection. As much as people joke about “dies to Doom Blade”, this really will. I have it as 2 mana, either ‘do nothing’ or ‘take a removal card from an opponent’. Without being able to flash it in for a surprise win it will probably sit there until you are nearing the condition, then die. In other decks, you can pump mana into draw cards, but it feels a little redundant in this deck. For these reasons, it's getting dropped.
Upgrade 8
Viseling is one of those punishment cards I was talking about. This is a call back to another card - Black Vise. I have gone for Viseling even though it is easier to remove as it's a creature. This is because it gets all of your opponents, unlike Black Vise. In Bant (Blue, White and Green), we are very limited to which cards we can use to punish. The ones we can are out of budget, otherwise I would be adding in Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora. That said, the deck already has Psychosis Crawler. Although this is more hate for you drawing cards than punishing your opponents.
It may be counterintuitive to cutting a card draw card, but Kwain, Itinerant Meddler not only gives them life, it is a may ability. While a perfectly reasonable card, not having it targeted means you are helping the entire table, and you are not able to politic and make direct deals.
Upgrade 9/10
So far I have focused on the group hug side of the cards, but what about Ms. Bumbleflower counter synergy? As this deck is Bant (White, Blue and Green), you do get access to a lot of the counter matters cards. Most of these are in green, such as Doubling Season and both Ozoliths (The Ozolith and Ozolith, the Shattered Spire). Unfortunately, these are out of the budget, but my next two additions aren't: Animation Module and Kami of Whispered Hope.
Animation Module lets pay (1) and get a servo every time you put a counter of a creature, netting you a small army. This is part of a cycle with Decoction Module and Fabrication Module. If you have all 3, you get an energy, a +1/+1 counter and 1/1 servo for (1), which creates a loop as long as you can keep paying (1). The problem is the other modules don't do a lot outside of this loop.
Something that does work is my final suggestion, Kami of Whispered Hope. This can work by itself as an expensive mana dork. But it shines with the +1/+1 counters in it. Kami adds extra value in additional counters. Also, if you choose to add them to the Kami itself, you can try to gain even more mana. It’s also one the cheapest of its kind in terms of price for extra counters.
Ghirapur Orrery is similar to Rites of Flourishing. You can use the extra land drops you can’t always capitalise on all the mana. Ghirapur Orrery is also worse, as you are less likely to be able to trigger the draw. Unlike Rites, this requires you to be empty handed. With Ms. Bumbleflower keeping you topped up, this is less likely to happen. Coveted Jewel, while fitting on the theme, gives your opponents too much value. I very much reserve this card as a combo one. Going off by repeatedly blinking it, gaining mana and card draw in the process. I think in this deck it is too risky to add.
Final Thoughts
I will make a quick note here. I definitely prefer the alternative commander, Mr. Foxglove — he is just stronger. He doesn’t give an advantage to your opponents and can cheat on mana, putting in large creatures. If you run out of cards, you can redraw with the ability as well. All the control is on you. The only downside is that it's a 5 mana commander without inbuilt protection or haste.
But back to Peace Offering with Ms. Bumbleflower. I think with some serious changes, mainly removing all the non-targeted benefits from the deck, Peace Offering can become a serious deck. Especially when paired with a scheming pilot. ‘Group hug’ decks in the construction phase take much more careful planning if you are trying to build one that isn't just aiming for second place. They can broker deals with the other players and then have a backdoor to finish them off. Ms. Bumbleflower can be this, as a large flying rabbit will soon end people. The only problem is that it's very telegraphed. I would much rather have a surprise from hand to suddenly surprise the table with, being all ‘friendly’ in the early to mid game. Don’t attack me. I'm giving you all these advantages. But, I’m able to take them away if they start to attack. Then, when it's time to close out after drawing your deck, you can finish them off.
Without Black or Red, you don’t get access to big damage spells. You could try generating infinite or very large amounts of mana and using mass draw spells to force an empty library win. Minds Aglow comes to mind (pun intended) as it fits the theme and can also be your win condition at the end. I hope to see you in the final blog. As always, good luck and have fun.
PS. All the card prices were accurate at the time of writing.
Non Budget Upgrades
'More', you say? Here are another 10 upgrades that were too expensive to include in our budget list:
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