Animated Army Upgrade Guide: 15 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on September 7, 2024

Bello, Bard of the Brambles | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

Magic's Commander precons have a poor reputation for being weak, unfocused, and generally bad. I can’t claim this is an inaccurate reputation, but they seem to get better every week, and I’ve found that upgrading EDH precons to smooth out their wrinkles can be a lot of fun.

I’ve been looking forward to Bloomburrow for a while, and this MTG set doesn’t disappoint. The Animated Army precon looks fantastic. Gruul commanders have some of the most interesting designs in the format, and Bello, Bard of the Brambles, one of the strongest Bloomburrow commanders continues that trend.

Let's dig through the trash and find some treasure for this bard raccoon commander!

Deck Overview

Sanctum Weaver | Illustration by Kimonas Theodossiou

The two major weaknesses of Commander precons are a lack of focus – precons often attempt to support too many themes – and too many off-theme cards that are printed into the deck, probably because WotC just needs to find a place to introduce those cards to the Commander format.

EDH precons also tend to have weak mana bases and poor mana curves, plus an overreliance on board wipes as their only form of interaction.

Animated Army stands out as a better-built than most. This Bloomburrow Commander precon doesn’t suffer from that lack of focus. Sure, some of the cards are out of place, but it’s not trying to juggle too much. It has a strange token subtheme, but that’s only a few cards. And it has plenty of ramp to support its need for expensive artifacts and enchantments, with many of the artifacts and enchantments that work with Bello adding mana themselves, which is just good deckbuilding.

I’m overall quite pleased with this deck. It’s likely to play well right out of the box. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t improve it!

Sale

Magic: The Gathering Bloomburrow Commander Deck - Animated Army (100-Card Deck, 2-Card Collector Booster Sample Pack + Accessories) Red-Green

• TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow. Battle your friends with armies of adorable critters and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
• BRING THE TABLE TO LIFE—Make trash and smash all who stand in your way with the Racoon Bard, Bello, at your side. One critter’s trash is another one’s treasure.
• EPIC MULTIPLAYER BATTLES—Commander is a multiplayer way to play Magic, an epic, free-for-all battle full of strategic plays and social intrigue
• INTRODUCES 10 COMMANDER CARDS—This deck introduces 10 never-before-seen Commander cards to Magic: The Gathering, including 3 foil cards (one of which is Borderless!)
• CONTENTS—1 ready-to-play Animated Army Bloomburrow Commander Deck, a 2-card Collector Booster Sample Pack, 10 double-sided tokens, and 1 deck box

$44.00

Buy on Amazon

Upgrade Plan

First up, let’s ditch the handful of token cards that don’t belong in the deck. After that, let’s cut cards that are slightly out of place or weaker than other options. I often focus on trimming one or two excess themes to bolster a third theme when upgrading decks. Since I don’t need to do that here, I'm adding better card draw, interaction, and a touch of ramp.

Animated Army falls for the classic precon weakness of minimal interaction, so I’ve added more to make sure the deck can keep up. If you draw more cards than your opponents and kill the cards they're drawing, you’ll have a decent shot at winning the game. Most of these upgrades work with Bello, though a couple of the cards I’m adding are creatures or other spells.

Case of the Locked Hothouse

Suggested Cut: Domri, Anarch of Bolas

I understand the logic of adding Domri, Anarch of Bolas. This deck wants ramp, and the fight ability isn't bad. And those Imagine: Courageous Critters reprints are cool, to boot!

But Domri doesn’t really do anything in the deck, whereas Case of the Locked Hothouse curves nicely with Bello, ramps, and draws cards once you get to the late game. In short, this case solves this deck's every need!

Sanctum Weaver

Suggested Cut: Brightcap Badger

Brightcap Badger is a prime example of a reasonable Magic card slotted into a precon because there was nowhere else to put it, even though the card doesn’t work within the precon.

Sanctum Weaver’s baseline is a 2-drop mana dork that taps for a single mana, but this deck gives it a much higher ceiling. This only needs to tap for 2 mana to be exciting, and you often get much more.

Etali, Primal Conqueror / Etali, Primal Sickness

Suggested Cut: Etali, Primal Storm

I don’t disagree with the role Etali, Primal Storm plays in this deck; when you have this much ramp, a few big spells are worth adding. I do think that this Etali is rather weak in the current EDH landscape. Etali, Primal Conqueror power-crept the original elder dinosaur into obsolescence, so let’s make the easy upgrade.

Elvish Archivist

Suggested Cut: Alchemist's Talent

Alchemist's Talent will be fantastic with Treasure commanders, but Animated Army isn’t a Treasure deck. This deck creates virtually no Treasure tokens, making Alchemist's Talent expensive and unwieldy.

Sneaking in some enchantresses helps the deck immensely, though you have to acknowledge that too many of them can mess with the artifact/enchantment split. Luckily, Elvish Archivist works with both! You get an extra card or two plus a powerful creature for a mere 2 mana.

Chimil, the Inner Sun

Suggested Cut: Bootleggers' Stash

Bootleggers' Stash is highly overrated. I could get behind it if you were trying to do something with artifact tokens, perhaps with cards like Reckless Fireweaver.

But you just want a few big artifacts in play like Chimil, the Inner Sun, which protects your spells from countermagic and casts a bunch of free spells. A much better use of 6 mana, if you ask me.

Asceticism

Suggested Cut: Evercoat Ursine

I really like Evercoat Ursine and look forward to adding it to a couple of my decks. But it does nothing in this deck. The deck doesn't care about big creatures, casting spells from exile, or dealing combat damage with cards that haven’t been animated with Bello.

Asceticism provides protection from your opponents’ interaction, both targeted removal and board wipes, thanks to the activated ability. And Bello animates it, which is just enough reason to play a green enchantment over a solid but unsynergistic green creature.

Court of Ire

Suggested Cut: Decimate

Call me a coward, but I don’t like Decimate. I often find myself needing to blow up one of my own artifacts or enchantments, and I don’t want to put myself in that situation.

It takes Court of Ire a little longer to accrue value, but the combination of card draw and interaction in a single package makes this red enchantment perfect for the deck.

Bladegriff Prototype

Suggested Cut: Grothama, All-Devouring

Grothama, All-Devouring is another fine bit of top end to ramp into, but Bladegriff Prototype is much more interesting. Bello, Bard of the Brambles offers haste and that 4/4 power/toughness base to enchantment and artifact creatures if they’re large enough, so an artifact creature with a powerful saboteur effect that also gets a power boost seems like a great inclusion. And it kills things!

Glorious Sunrise

Suggested Cut: Tendershoot Dryad

Tendershoot Dryad falls under the “three-token cards” umbrella. It’s not bad, but Glorious Sunrise does so much more for this deck! I’m primarily interested in the card draw, but the ramp and mild Overrun effect both have a place in this game plan.

Eidolon of Blossoms

Suggested Cut: Path of Discovery

Eidolon of Blossoms is what Path of Discovery wants to be.

Exploring when creatures come into play isn’t bad, but drawing cards is better. Eidolon is an ideal enchantress because it replaces itself, so you draw one card even if it’s the only enchantment you draw. That’s rarely the case, but part of building sound decks involves minimizing the possible fail cases, making Eidolon of Blossoms better than Enchantress's Presence or Argothian Enchantress within this deck’s context.

Guardian Project

Suggested Cut: Harmonize

Harmonize isn’t a bad form of card advantage, but part of upgrading a deck means doing better than “not bad.” Guardian Project works very well with Bello; your artifacts and enchantments enter as creatures during your turn, so you’ll have plenty of triggers.

Sure, this might die before you get the three cards Harmonize offers, but I’m happy to gamble a card or two for the much higher ceiling and synergistic package this green enchantment comes with.

Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

Suggested Cut: Rampaging Baloths

Vehicles work beautifully with Bello, especially those with strong attack triggers, like Skysovereign, Consul Flagship. It fills a similar role to Rampaging Baloths in that it’s a big thing to ramp into, but I’d rather pick off small creatures that could multiblock my 4/4s than make more 4/4s.

Gimli’s Reckless Might

Suggested Cut: Teapot Slinger

I don’t hate Teapot Slinger. It works with the primary strategy of deploying big artifacts and enchantments, but I want synergy pieces to give me something more impactful than damage. It takes very little effort to enable formidable for Gimli's Reckless Might and I enjoy the reward: interaction!

Goblin Anarchomancer

Suggested Cut: Burnished Hart

I’ve never been a fan of Burnished Hart. It’s just a little slow for my taste. Goblin Anarchomancer has my vote for one of Gruul’s () best ramp cards. It’s cheaper than the Hart and can have a greater impact thanks to the high ceiling of cost reducers.

Bushwhack

Suggested Cut: Grumgully, the Generous

There’s not much of a parallel to be drawn between Grumgully, the Generous and Bushwhack. Grumgully was a tenuous inclusion that became much worse once I cut the token subtheme. Bushwhack is just a solid card. It’s basically a tapped land that becomes a kill spell later in the game. It’s like a cup of gas station coffee—far from flashy or great, but it gets the job done.

The Final Deck and New Cards

Skysovereign, Consul Flagship | Illustration by Jung Park

The upgrades I’ve outlined above have two goals:

• Cut the unnecessary token subtheme, and
• Get some better interaction and card draw into the deck.

While Animated Army should play pretty well out of the box, these changes make its best qualities shine. If you want to try them out for yourself, you can purchase all the new cards with the shopping cart button on the decklist!

Commanding Conclusion

Goblin Anarchomancer | Illustration by Joe Slucher

I’ve always enjoyed upgrading Commander precons, and it gets better and better mostly because the quality of precons seems to slowly but steadily rise with each MTG set. The Animated Army precon has high card quality and decent focus right out of the box! These changes just remove some of the garbage for treasure.

How would you have upgraded this deck? Which Bloomburrow precon are you most interested in playing with or against? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord, and if you are curious about the other three Commander precons from Bloomburrow, check out our Peace Offering Upgrade Guide, our Squirreled Away Upgrade Guide, or our Family Matters Upgrade Guide.

Stay safe, and keep dumpster diving!

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