MTG Bloomburrow gives Badgers the spotlight with first-ever Commander

Hugs, Grisly Guardian from MTG’s Bloomburrow set is a huge, well-muscled menace that can Trample over opponents, impulse draw as it enters, and drastically improve your Land output.

Magic: The Gathering’s Bloomburrow reveals are ramping up as the August 2 release date approaches. As part of Bloomburrow’s official story chapters, Wizards has revealed a brand new card in Gruul colors that is viable as a Commander.

Hugs, Grisly Guardian is the first time that a Badger Creature has been Legendary, meaning this overlooked Creature type is finally capable of heading up a deck by itself. Previously, the closest you could get would be the Badger-summoning Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer.

Hugs is an impressive 5/5 with Trample that can be cast for a default of RRGG, but also includes an X-cost. Unlike other X-cost Creatures like Hydras, paying in additional mana to Hugs, Grisly Guardian doesn’t improve the card’s fairly substantial stats. Instead, for each additional mana that is paid, an additional card is exiled when Hugs enters the field. Those cards can then be cast for the remainder of the turn.

While you can pump a great deal of mana into Hugs’ casting, it’s better to keep some in reserve to ensure you can actually cast the cards that are exiled, rather than going all-in like as many other X-cost spells encourage you to do.

Finally, Hugs, Grisly Guardian allows you to pay an additional Land on each of your turns as long as this Creature remains on the field.

Green mana always excels at Land ramp, and by accelerating ahead of your opponents in mana production, Hugs both speeds up your gameplay and allows for a greater number of cards to be exiled if the card needs to be recast

Hugs’ suite of abilities makes for a solid Gruul value and combat package, working equally well at the helm of a Commander deck and as an additional piece of existing Landfall decks like Lord Windgrace.