Animated Army Precon: Decklist, Value, and Verdict

Overall, Animated Army looks like a reasonable, though not wholly original take on Gruul. There’s a reasonable amount of value and an interesting strategy that I’m sure will appeal to many. I think it could do with some upgrading, particularly with some of the raccoons from the main set. To me, it’s the least interesting of the four decks.

Bello, Bard of the BramblesWildsear, Scouring Maw

This deck’s Gruul commander is Bello, Bard of the Brambles. This legendary raccoon bard turns all your artifacts and enchantments into 4/4 indestructible creatures, assuming they have a mana value of 4 or greater. This plays right into the expend mechanic from the main set, which encourages you to spend at least 4 mana each turn.

There are a lot of cards in Animated Army that this works great with, like Thickest in the Thicket, which can target itself with its own enters ability. Then you can attack with an 8/8 indestructible creature and probably draw two free cards in your end step.

Animated Army's alternate commander is Wildsear, Scouring Maw. This elemental wolf gives enchantment spells that you cast from your hand cascade. There are only 13 enchantments in this deck, so this feels like it’d be more at home in a deck with a heavier enchantment focus, or as the commander of its own purpose-built deck.

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.

Draftsim's upgrade guide makes 15 changes to this deck. The first picks (hover for the card):

• Case of the Locked Hothouse
• Sanctum Weaver
• Etali, Primal Conqueror / Etali, Primal Sickness
• Elvish Archivist
• Chimil, the Inner Sun
• Asceticism

• Official Bloomburrow Commander decklists (Wizards of the Coast)
• All 5 Gruul Commander Precons in Magic Ranked by A.L. Walser (September 20, 2026)
• Here Are the 22 Best Commander Precon Decks for 2026 by Ignacio (Iñaki) (September 8, 2026)