MTG Bloomburrow’s Legendary Bat is a killer lifegain Commander

Zoraline, Cosmos Caller is a Bat Commander from MTG’s hugely-hyped animal-only Bloomburrow set, and this card shows that Bats will bring Orzhov lifegain back to prominence.

Bloomburrow features varied factions of animals – each with their own fantasy role to play – including brave warrior Mice and prophetic Frogs (which are ever-popular among MTG players.)

Zoraline, Cosmos Caller gives MTG players a taste of how Bat Creatures will play in the set, and it looks like classic Orzhov strategies are getting a shot in the arm.

Zoraline is a Legendary Bat Cleric Creature that can be cast for 1WB. This 3/3 comes equipped with Flying and Vigilance, making it a great combat commander in the early game that can chip away at an opponent’s life totals.

While many Orzhov lifegain strategies – chiefly the plane of Ixalan’s vampires – rely on the Lifelink ability, Zoraline takes a different approach to raising your life total through combat.

Rather than gaining life equal to the amount of damage you deal, this Commander does not require you to break through opponents’ defenses, as its lifegain effect is tied to an attack trigger. Whenever a Bat Creature you control attacks, you gain 1 life.

If Bats can make use of Bloomburrow’s Offspring mechanic or any of MTG’s white-mana token doublers, this archetype will be able to rack up a huge life total by throwing weak Creatures at opponents over and over.

Zoraline, Cosmos Caller has more to offer than just lifegain though, giving plenty of reasons to attack as often as possible with this aggressive Orzhov Commander.

Whenever this Creature enters the battlefield or attacks, you may pay a cost of WB and 2 life. When you do, Zoraline can return a nonland permanent with mana value 3 or less from your grave to the field.

While this is a cheap, flexible recursion effect, be warned that the returned permanent comes with a Finality counter, so it’s best to pick a card that will have the biggest impact for the turn that it’s on the battlefield.

Alongside the evasive, ETB-triggering Frogs, Bats are shaping up to be one of the most exciting Creature types in Boomburrow, and we’ll be digging deep into the others as spoiler season continues.