by Johnny Cycles, January 30th, 2025
Hello! Welcome to a very special Commander Clinic! The Commander Clinic Contest has come to an end and I’ll reveal the winner at the end of this article. But first, here were the guidelines: build a deck with Bumi, Unleashed that is 1. under $100; and 2. with no game changers. The cost of Bumi does not count towards the $100 budget.
Ways to Build Around Bumi, Unleashed
When I first read all that text on Bumi, Unleashed, I, like most people I imagine, was immediately struck by the extra combat clause. With only land creatures able to attack in this combat, I thought about cards like Sylvan Awakening, which I’ve tried in my budget Omnath deck, and Natural Affinity, which I had only just recently purchased. These kinds of cards coupled with the new earthbending mechanic gives this angle of attack a ton of fun toys.
But then I reread all that text and noticed something most interesting. It doesn’t say, “Whenever Bumi deals combat damage to a player, untap all creature lands you control.” It says, “…untap all lands you control.”
Untapping ALL your lands is an incredibly powerful effect, as cards such as Wilderness Reclamation, Bear Umbra, and Sword of Feast and Famine demonstrate.
So while earthbending is the obvious strategy, what if we instead focused on firebending? We can play the best firebending spells that generate the most mana alongside cards like Ashling, Flame Dancer, Leyline Tyrant, and Electro, Assaulting Battery to ensure we don’t lost that mana, then cast something like Banefire to burn our opponent out.
The third way to take advantage of Bumi, Unleashed is to play value creatures up the curve as a means of taking advantage of all the extra mana we get after Bumi deals combat damage to a player. We can play a hasty threat or a kill spell in our first main phase, attack, untap all of our lands, and then cast a card draw spell or creatures that do things when they enter.
Are there more ways to abuse Bumi, Unleashed? There surely are, but these are the three that I started with when I first began pulling cards from my binders to form a pile of possible inclusions in the 99.
In the process, I realized two things. First, there isn’t enough room in the 99 for both an earthbending and firebending strategy, as I had originally thought there would be. Second, my firebending strategy involves a lot of expensive cards for it to work.
So I was left with picking between earthbending and value town.
The choice quickly became obvious: earthbending!
Why build around a new commander if you don’t build around the new mechanic that comes along with it?!
But not only that, earthbending incentivizes two other strategies that I love in Commander: counters shenanigans and landfall.
In case you weren’t aware, earthbending involves two things. First, it puts a certain number of counters on a land, making it a hasty creature in the process. Second, that creature land, if killed or exiled, returns to the battlefield tapped as just a land.
Throw in a handful of ways to turn all of our creatures into lands and the following deck began taking shape.
Decklist – Bumi, Unleashed
by Johnny Cycles
| Bumi, Unleashed |
Creatures (29)
| Llanowar Loamspeaker | |
| Shigeki, Jukai Visionary | |
| Sylvan Advocate | |
| Emrakul’s Evangel | |
| Fierce Empath | |
| Meltstrider Eulogist | |
| Tannuk, Memorial Ensign | |
| Toph, the Blind Bandit | |
| Tyvar, the Pummeler |
Artifacts (2)
| Arcane Signet | |
| Lumbering Worldwagon |
Enchantments (8)
| Hardened Scales | |
| Evolutionary Leap | |
| Bitter Work | |
| Branching Evolution | |
| Earthbender Ascension | |
| Garruk’s Uprising | |
| Terrasymbiosis | |
| March of the World Ooze |
Instants (11)
| Ranger’s Guile | |
| Snakeskin Veil | |
| Tamiyo’s Safekeeping | |
| Vines of Vastwood | |
| Abrade | |
| Inscription of Abundance | |
| Origin of Metalbending | |
| Wrap in Vigor | |
| Beast Within | |
| Natural Affinity | |
| Return of the Wildspeaker |
Sorceries (14) + 3 mfdc
Lands (35) + 3 mfdc
Ba Sing Se
Blighted Woodland
Burnwillow Clearing (mfdc)
Cinder Glade
Cragcrown Pathway
Crawling Barrens
Den of the Bugbear
Evolving Wilds
Hostile Desert
Lair of the Hydra
Mossfire Valley
Myriad Landscape
Raging Ravine
Restless Ridgeline
Rogue’s Passage
Tanglespan Bridgeworks (mfdc)
Temple of Abandon
Terramorphic Expanse
Volcanic Fissure (mfdc)
Forest (11)
Mountain (8)
Total Cost of Deck: $98.76 (see below for the breakdown of the price)
Deck Tech
Building this deck turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be! There are some really cool and unique cards that can help us take advantage of our lands being creatures that I have literally never played before. Furthermore, playing a new mechanic with its support cards has been a ton of fun! I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that building a new deck around a new mechanic and new cards would result in a good time, but I was. It helped that most, if not all, of these earthbending cards are not ones I’m playing elsewhere.
No Ashaya?
Before getting into my card choices, I’ll address the elephant in the room – no Ashaya, Soul of the Wild or Awaken the Woods. The cheapest copies of these cards are $16 and $18 respectively. That’s more than a third of our budget for two cards. I chose to play several powerful cards around $10 over these two bombs.
Primary Game Plan
We want to make our lands into creatures, either over the course of several turns with earthbending or all at once with something like Rude Awakening, grow them large with a Lord effect or an Overrun spell, and attack twice in a turn!
To do this, though, we have to ensure Bumi, Unleashed both deals combat damage AND doesn’t die. With this in mind, we’re playing a variety of ways to pump him and protect him.
Supporting our primary plan are ways to take advantage of the second part of earthbending – the land creatures dying. If our earthbended creatures are unable to punch through damage, we can gain value out of their deaths in combat via a number of cards, or, with one of my favorite combo pieces, sacrifice them all to Emrakul’s Evangel and get an army of 3/2 Eldrazi Horrors.
Finally, we’re playing a couple of landfall creatures to take advantage of our earthbended lands coming back to the battlefield. Honestly, I’m surprised I didn’t make room for more of these, but I have multiple landfall decks already in Commander and variety is the spice of life! Still, I think the deck’s power level would increase with a few more ways to take advantage of landfall, even if it’s not the busted way of Scute Swarm, but the gentle, slow beats of Ride the Shoopuf.
And that’s the deck in a nutshell! One thing I noticed immediately upon playing a few matches is that the inherent 2-for-1 (and more often 3-for-1) that comes with earthbending is a powerful strategy all by itself. Getting that second combat with Bumi, Unleashed is almost win-more.
Now let’s get to the breakdown of the deck. The deck can be divided into several parts. First, the earthbending spells. Second, turning all of our lands into creatures via other means. Third, Overrun effects to give all of those creature lands a buff. Fourth, ways to protect Bumi, Unleashed. Fifth, ways to buff Bumi, Unleashed to ensure he deals combat damage to a player. Sixth, counters shenanigans. Seventh, ways to play lands from the graveyard. Eighth, ways to sacrifice our lands and gain value from their demise. Ninth, card draw. Tenth, ramp. And finally, interaction/kill spells..
Phew, that’s a lot! And, like most good Commander decks, many of these cards pull double and triple duty, serving multiple purposes.
Let’s get to it!
Earthbending Spells
Earthbending is our most consistent way of making our lands creatures. Including our commander, we have 10 ways to earthbend.
Ba Sing Se – arguably our best means of earthbending, this land gives us a repeatable way to earthbend our lands.
Bitter Work – a 1-time effect that requires an additional mana investment, this enchantment’s chief job is to draw us cards.
Bumi, Unleashed – Bumi’s enters ability means recasting it from the command zone is almost a win for us!
Earth Kingdom General – our first 3-for-1. For , we get a 2/2 creature, a land that becomes a creature with 2 +1/+1 counters on it, and we gain 2 life. Not too shabby, especially as the lifegain is repeatable.
Earthbender Ascension – another super powerful card for what it does. I really think this card could slot into any X/G deck as simple value. We get to earthbend 2 and ramp for 3 mana. We only need to make three more land drops to unlock the power of that huge block of text, something that is laughably easy in Commander. Once that’s done, we have a counters-matter enabler, as well as a means of punching through damage. Pick up your copies before the price jumps to $10! Finally, peep that huge Badgermole in the background. So sweet.
Earthbending Lesson – the most vanilla of our earthbending spells, sometimes you just need a way to earthbend. Still, this card could probably be cut for something more impactful if you’re not building on a budget. Worth noting, it is one of five Lessons we’re playing that can give us extra value out of Toph, Hardheaded Teacher.
Rockalanche – this card becomes exponentially more busted when not on a budget… As is, we at least get to do it twice!
The Boulder, Ready to Rumble – another repeatable way to earthbend, assuming this Human Warrior Performer survives combat.
Toph, Hardheaded Teacher – our final means of earthbending repeatedly AND a potential commander for this deck. Note that we get to earthbend 1 on the cast trigger of ANY spell. The graveyard recursion is nice, but we won’t always have a target, while the Lesson clause is not totally irrelevant, since we play five lessons.
Toph, the Blind Bandit – for 3 mana, we get a 2/3 with the potential to be so much more and a 2/2. If you haven’t been convinced of the power of earthbending yet, these 10 cards provide us with SO. MUCH. VALUE!
Turning Lands into Creatures
Besides earthbending spells, we play a variety of other ways of making our lands into creatures in order to get all that value out of Bumi’s extra combat clause. Some make all of our lands creatures, while others can only turn a single land into a creature.
Embodiment of Insight – a powerful support card for our creature land strategy thanks to the vigilance it grants them. In a non-budget deck that can save mana between phases, this card is even more of an all-star. In our deck, it gives us a repeatable way to make our lands into creatures, even if only until end of turn.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa – requiring a single per land we turn into a creature probably means we won’t net much advantage out of this ability until our second combat. Still, it’s nice to have this ability on a creature. Furthermore, his Overrun effect is the real reason he’s in the deck. Kamahl, Heart of Krosa didn’t make the cut mostly because it costs and nearly $5, while this Kamahl is two mana cheaper and a whopping .79 cents.
Llanowar Loamspeaker – a mana dork that can also animate a land!
Natural Affinity – I’m not sure when I ordered this card, but it was before Avatar: The Last Airbender was spoiled, so I guess I had other plans for it at some point. There are a couple of strange things about this card. First, it’s an instant, which is nice, except the lands are creatures only until end of turn. This allows for some surprise blocks, I suppose, but 2/2s can only survive combat against the smallest of creatures. Second, and more surprisingly, the effect isn’t just our lands, but ALL lands. That’s right, when our opponent goes to sweep the board, we can respond with this spell. Assuming we have ways to play lands from the graveyard, say, like with Splendid Reclamation, then this may be the nastiest play I can imagine.
Rude Awakening – is a lot for either half of this spell, while is even more. Still, since we won’t want to do this until we’re ready to swing for lethal, this kind of mana investment is probably okay.
Sylvan Awakening – now this is the kind of spell that needs to be an instant and last until the end of your next turn. Alas, it’s still not bad and probably a strict upgrade to Sylvan Awakening.
Waker of the Wilds – a repeatable way to make our lands into creatures, this is one of our better non-earthbending cards. The lands stay creatures, for one. For two, we put counters on the lands, which synergizes with our other counters shenanigans.
Overrun Effects
We typically don’t want to lose our lands in combat, particularly since we want to use them in a second combat. To help ensure their survival, we’re playing a number of ways to pump our creatures. Note that even though this section is named after the sorcery Overrun, I’ve largely eschewed sorceries and instants that pump our team in favor of creatures that do it. Why? Well, since our creature land strategy is a bit underwhelming, having a big body to stick around after we’ve pumped our team once is a big plus.
Blossoming Tortoise – this Turtle is great in our deck! It doesn’t just give us a Glorious Anthem effect for our land creatures, but it also helps us get lands back from our graveyard. These lands don’t count towards our one land drop a turn, so if we have a landfall card out, we get extra value out of this triggered ability. Reducing the activation cost of our lands is also not nothing in our deck. Ba Sing Se‘s activation becomes , while we have nine other lands with activation costs, from Myriad Landscape and Rogue’s Passage, to Raging Ravine and Den of the Bugbear. All in all, this card is an auto-include in a deck like ours and why I’m splurging on it at almost $9.
Earthshaker Giant – one of my favorite cards few people are aware of, I even made a video about it. A 6/6 trampler is what we get for paying one more than Overrun. Worth it.
Fecund Greenshell – a powerful double anthem effect in the late game, we have seven ways of triggering that last block of text.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa – in today’s world of power creep, there is no way this creature would be a 4/3… Please note that its Overrun effect is repeatable. For our creatures get +6/+6 and double trample. Just kidding. Double trample isn’t a thing, but it should be!
March of the World Ooze – it’s hard to describe how much joy I got when I saw this in my binder and realized that all of our creature lands would become 6/6s. Whichever ones were earthbended would also keep their counters, making them even larger. And, as probably the only person to play Ooze Tribal at a Modern FNM, my janky heart sings at the thought of playing this card.
Pyrewood Gearhulk – another powerful creature that pumps our team, this time we don’t get trample, but vigilance and menace is pretty good. It’s a sign of how many such creatures like this have been printed that this mythic with a single printing is under $1. End-Raze Forerunners has long been my go-to budget-friendly Overrun card, but I’m glad to play something different in this build. Honestly, though, the Boar could have a home here, as well.
Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss – this card is why brewing in Commander (and on a budget) can be so rewarding! I don’t think I’d ever even give this card a second look if it weren’t for our plan of making lands into creatures. But what a great fit for our strategy! We’re mostly interested in the buff it gives our team, but if we weren’t on a budget and went the firebending route, then this card would be nuts in that deck. We can only trigger that last block of text with both halves of Rude Awakening and our commander after it’s been sent back to the command zone at least once, but that’s fine with us. Finally, that name!
Return of the Wildspeaker – our only non-creature buff spell, we’re playing this for the flexibility we get with the card draw half of it.
Sylvan Advocate – our cheapest creature land buff, we’ll rarely want to cast this on turn 2.
Tyvar, the Pummeler – yeah, our creatures don’t get trample, which may be the difference between winning and losing some of the time, but I imagine that a single pump on top of double combat will result in death for our opponent or killing all of their creatures. The first block of text is some nice protection.
Ways to Protect Bumi
I can’t speak to 4-person Commander, but the meta in my Duel Commander play group is full of targeted removal and ways to protect one’s commander. It took me awhile to get onboard with playing these kinds of protection spells, as there are so many splashier cards we could play. But I’ve begun to view these the same as mana rocks/ramp. Certain decks just need them.
Our deck is not as dependent on its commander to win as some other decks I’ve built, but we would still like to untap with him and get at least one extra combat. Is that too much to ask?
Kogla, the Titan Ape – what a great card for us! Sure, it won’t help Bumi survive combat in order to get through damage, but it does protect him from spot removal and sweepers. Furthermore, it lets us earthbend 4 again without having to pay the commander cost. And all this on the back of a big beater that can answer problematic permanents. This card makes me so happy.
Origin of Metalbending – for an additional we get a Snakeskin Veil with some flexibility.
Ranger’s Guile – besides hexproof, the benefit of this spell is that it can help Bumi, Unleashed get that single point of damage through a blocker our opponent thinks is big enough to stop him.
Snakeskin Veil – ditto that, but now we get a counter. Sweet!
Tamiyo’s Safekeeping – protection against spot removal and sweepers that destroy.
Vines of Vastwood – another great way of both protecting Bumi and punching through damage.
Wrap in Vigor – I honestly don’t know why more decks don’t play this card. It currently sees play in 1.42% of decks. I get that a card like Heroic Intervention is strictly better, but the cheapest copy of that card is $11, while Wrap in Vigor will set you back just over a $1. Also of note: according to an advanced search on Oracle, there are only three instants that have the text, “regenerate each creature you control” and this is one of them. To see the rest, click here!
Ways to Ensure Bumi, Unleashed Deals Damage to Opponent
That’s kind of a mouthful, huh? But we want ways for Bumi, Unleashed not just to avoid dying to spot removal, but to trample over whatever blocker(s) our opponent throws in front of him so that we get that sweet, sweet second combat. These are the cards that do that.
General Marhault Elsdragon – one of my new favorite cards, I love everything it does for a creature-based strategy. With this Elf Warrior out, our opponent will need to block with a single creature with 8 or more toughness to stop Bumi from hitting them.
Halana and Alena, Partners – another great enabler for creature and counters-matter strategies, this duo can grow Bumi, Unleashed to massive proportions in just a few short turns. AND, since it triggers at the beginning of combat, we get to do it twice when we hit our opponent with Bumi.
Mightform Harmonizer – this Insect Druid turns Bumi, Unleashed into a better Tifa Lockhart and Tifa Lockhart is pretty busted.
Fang, Roku’s Companion – a rare Dragon from Avatar: Jumpstart, Fang can pump Bumi +4/+0. That it comes back after death is all gravy!
Rogue’s Passage – who needs a buff spell if you can just make Bumi unblockable?
Counters Matters
Magic is full of ways to double up counters, as well as ways to take advantage of those counters. Due to budget constraints, we are not able to play all of them (did you know The Ozolith is up to $56???), but we are splurging on one powerful synergistic card. Since earthbending puts counters on the lands that become creatures, these are all ways to take advantage of that.
Branching Evolution – thanks to numerous reprints, this card costs only $3. With it on the battlefield, earthbend 4 becomes earthbend 8.
Hardened Scales – I typically cut this enchantment from most of my counters-matters decks as being too unimpactful. However, since we’re on a budget, I’m including it. Even now, though, I’m eyeing Loading Zone as a replacement. is a lot, though.
Terrasymbiosis – one of our big money cards, its synergy with earthbending is too good to pass up. This card is busted if you haven’t seen it in action.
Playing Lands from the Yard
Magic has a lot of ways of returning and/or playing lands from the graveyard. Unfortunately, many are not budget friendly. However, this isn’t really what our deck is about. Rather, we’ve made room for some of these cards simply for value. After all, we do play some budget fetchlands, as well as creature lands that might get killed.
Blossoming Tortoise – one of our best ways to repeatedly recur lands from the graveyard. Note that we don’t have to choose from among the cards milled.
Perennial Behemoth – a budget-friendly creature that lets us play lands from our graveyard. Yes, we’re paying full value for it, but we do get some additional benefit out of it thanks to its unearth.
Splendid Reclamation – a great way to get any of our creature lands that haven’t been earthbended back on the battlefield should they fall victim to a sweeper.
Titania, Protector of Argoth – a 1-time land recursion, we will ideally get one of our fetchlands back with her enters ability.
Ways to Sacrifice our Creature Lands
Since earthbending ensures our earthbended lands come back to the battlefield should they die, we are incentivized to find ways to sacrifice them ourselves for value. We aren’t overly committed to this strategy, though I really hope I get to live the dream of using Emrakul’s Evangel to sacrifice a bunch of earthbended lands to get an army of 3/2 Eldrazi Horrors. Dream big!
Emrakul’s Evangel – we won’t surprise anyone with this card, unfortunately, since we have to untap with it before we can use it, but I’m still stupidly excited to use it. The dream shall be realized!
Evolutionary Leap – a great way to nerf targeted removal, we will use this to dig for whatever creature we need. Of course, this is also the one drawback of the enchantment. Sometimes what you need is a removal spell, not a creature. Still, if left unanswered, the card advantage we can accrue over the course of a game is insane.
Card Advantage
Every deck needs to draw cards. We have some of the usual suspects in our list, but we also get to play some super fun cards we wouldn’t otherwise.
Analyze the Pollen – ramp early, a tutor late, this isn’t technically card advantage, but still, it feels good paying to get a finisher. Or our next card…
Beast Whisperer – I’m splurging for this Elf Druid, whose cheapest copy is $3.60.
Garruk’s Uprising – we have 14 creatures, including our commander, that can draw us a card off of this enchantment. But honestly, the card draw is more gravy. We are mostly interested in the trample. However, given how many of our finishers give our creatures trample, this card may need to be replaced with something else.
Fecund Greenshell – with only seven ways to trigger the card advantage part of this Elemental Turtle, it’s unlikely we’ll net a bunch of cards off of it.
Fierce Empath – another tutor that can find us a finisher.
Meltstrider Eulogist – a powerful card-draw engine to complement our earthbended lands.
Return of the Wildspeaker – we should be able to draw a bunch of cards off of this flexible instant.
Shigeki, Jukai Visionary – a late addition to the deck after I needed to cut about $20 worth of cards. I like that it synergizes with our lands matter strategy, but its the channel ability that made me choose it.
Tannuk, Memorial Ensign – I love this card. Are there better card draw spells in our colors? Probably. But sometimes you just have to listen to your heart.
Ramp
Most of these are the usual suspects. The challenge is finding cheap enough ramp.
Analyze the Pollen – not really ramp, but will let us keep some land-light opening 7s.
Arcane Signet
Farseek
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma – a late addition that replaced Nature’s Lore due to price. I like all the extra value we get from this Bear, even if its ramp comes later than is ideal.
Lumbering Worldwagon – another perhaps unexpected ramp card. For 3 mana, we get a land on the battlefield and a potential threat that will get us a land with every attack. Pretty sweet.
Shared Roots
Sylvan Scrying
Removal
Lots of flexibility here. This is one place I’d consider shoring up after some testing. Nine interaction spells is a good number, but we are only playing one conditional sweeper (no Blasphemous Act) and very little unconditional removal (Beast Within). I’ve prioritized flexibility, whether in these spells having more than one mode or in double-faced lands that can serve as removal in a pinch.
Abrade
Beast Within
Bridgeworks Battle
Inscription of Abundance
Mizzium Mortars
Origin of Metalbending
Price of Freedom
Stump Stomp
Sundering Eruption
Creature Lands
I’d be remiss not to mention the creature lands we’re playing. After all, who needs to jump through all those hoops to make our lands creatures when we can play lands that can become creatures all by themselves?
Crawling Barrens – note that we can put the counters on this land without making it into a creature, making it a mana sink if nothing else.
Den of the Bugbear
Hostile Desert – we have a number of ways of getting lands in our yard to pay for this ability.
Lair of the Hydra
Raging Ravine
Restless Ridgeline
Ideal Hand and Game Play
Being a creature-based deck that is reliant on both our commander surviving and our lands becoming creatures, our ideal opening hand will have three lands, some form of ramp, and at least one earthbending spell. From there, we’re hoping to find a protection spell and more ways to turn our lands into creatures until we find an Overrun effect.
That being said, the deck plays a very powerful Midrange game thanks to the inherent 2- and 3-for-1s built into earthbending as a mechanic. There will be games in which we find some landfall pieces or a sac outlet that will change our primary strategy and let us grind out victory thanks to sheer value. In these situations, Bumi, Unleashed is almost an afterthought.
Similarly, in many games, Bumi, Unleashed‘s biggest impact will be in bringing a 4/4 body to the battlefield thanks to the other synergies built into the deck. In this situation, any kind of second combat feels great, but isn’t necessary.
Weaknesses
Many of our spells that turn our lands into creatures are for only a turn or make them into lowly 2/2s. Without the creatures to buff them, we can be left with an underwhelming army that can’t attack, leaving cards like Sylvan Awakening rotting in our hand. Similarly, if we have a draw that supports our primary game plan and our opponent is able to answer Bumi, Unleashed through our protection, then we can struggle to get value out of many of our cards.
The deck is designed to fight through this and win without this angle of attack, but there’s no accounting for variance.
And the Winner is…
Now on to what we’ve all been waiting for!
Congratulations to TheMagicFroggo!
Here is their winning deck:
Decklist – Bumi, Unleashed
by TheMagicFroggo
| Bumi, Unleashed |
Creatures (27)
| Dryad Arbor | |
| Brown Ouphe | |
| Dragonmaster Outcast | |
| Scute Mob | |
| Aftermath Analyst | |
| Cankerbloom | |
| Sylvan Advocate | |
| Atalan Jackal | |
| Evolution Sage | |
| Primal Adversary | |
| Toph, the Blind Bandit | |
| Ashroot Animist |
| Ancient Adamantoise | |
| Borborygmos Enraged | |
| Liege of the Tangle |
Planeswalkers (4)
| Nissa, Who Shakes the World | |
| Nissa, Worldwaker | |
| Nissa, Vital Force | |
| Nissa, Genesis Mage |
Artifacts (7)
| Exploration Broodship | |
| Anduril, Narsil Reforged | |
| Gruul Signet | |
| Key to the City | |
| Firewild Borderpost | |
| Ghirapur Orrery | |
| Gauntlet of Power |
Enchantments (10)
| Onslaught | |
| Stocking the Pantry | |
| Druid Class | |
| Colossal Majesty | |
| Earthbender Ascension | |
| Rites of Flourishing | |
| Tale of Katara and Toph | |
| Earth Surge | |
| Leyline of Abundance | |
| Virtue of Strength |
Instants (3)
| Blessed Respite | |
| Volt Charge | |
| Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi |
Sorceries (7) + 1 mfdc
| Analyze the Pollen | |
| Reckless Handling | |
| Stump Stomp (mfdc) | |
| Unnatural Restoration | |
| Decimate | |
| Overwhelming Stampede | |
| Boundless Realms |
Lands (41) + 1 mfdc
Burnwillow Clearing (mfdc)
Cinder Glade
Copperline Gorge
Cragcrown Pathway
Fire-Lit Thicket
Game Trail
Karn’s Bastion
Karplusan Forest
Raging Ravine
Rockfall Vale
Rogue’s Passage
Rootbound Crag
Forest (17)
Mountain (13)
As you can see, this deck is built around animating lands, pumping those lands, and winning via combat. I won’t do a breakdown of the deck, but you can see a lot of the same strategies being employed that I chose, from counters shenanigans, to Overrun spells, to Lord effects.
But what is so cool about this deck is how many cards TheMagicFroggo found to support a similar strategy as the one I chose. Besides the three pictured above, there are great synergistic cards like Kalonian Hydra, Tale of Katara and Toph, Druid Class, Anduril, Narsil Reforged, and Liege of the Tangle. This last one was on my short list, but I cut it due to its high mana cost.
In fact, our decks only share 7 cards, not counting lands, making their 99 almost totally different.
Conclusion
That’s it for my first ever Commander Clinic Contest! Thank you to everyone who submitted a decklist! It was a lot of fun seeing what people came up with.
As to my impressions of Bumi, Unleashed as a commander? I think he makes for a super fun card to build around. Earthbending is a powerful mechanic with just enough support cards to make it work in Commander, without it being all earthbending, all the time.
Furthermore, the mechanic incentivizes us to play other secondary strategies like counters shenanigans, landfall, and sacrifice for value that give the deck a variety of fun and different lines. We aren’t just about getting that second combat!
Thanks for reading and watching! I’ll catch y’all on the next one!
Decklist – Bumi, Unleashed – by Price
by Johnny Cycles
| Bumi, Unleashed | $9.01 |
Creatures (29)
| Llanowar Loamspeaker | .25 cents |
| Shigeki, Jukai Visionary | .25 cents |
| Sylvan Advocate | .43 cents |
| Emrakul’s Evangel | .39 cents |
| Fierce Empath | .19 cents |
| Meltstrider Eulogist | .20 cents |
| Tannuk, Memorial Ensign | $1.65 |
| Toph, the Blind Bandit | .20 cents |
| Tyvar, the Pummeler | $4.42 |
| Beast Whisperer | $3.60 |
| Blossoming Tortoise | $8.62 |
| Earth Kingdom General | .20 cents |
| General Marhault Elsdragon | .25 cents |
| Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma | $1.00 |
| Halana and Alena, Partners | .99 cents |
| Mightform Harmonizer | $1.54 |
| Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss | .30 cents |
| The Boulder, Ready to Rumble | .20 cents |
| Toph, Hardheaded Teacher | $1.20 |
| Waker of the Wilds | .27 cents |
| Embodiment of Insight | .26 cents |
| Fecund Greenshell | .85 cents |
| Fang, Roku’s Companion | .51 cents |
| Perennial Behemoth | .51 cents |
| Titania, Protector of Argoth | . 36 cents |
| Earthshaker Giant | .88 cents |
| Kamahl, Fist of Krosa | .64 cents |
| Kogla, the Titan Ape | $2.59 |
| Pyrewood Gearhulk | .86 cents |
Total: $40.61
Artifacts (2)
| Arcane Signet | .51 cents |
| Lumbering Worldwagon | .81 cents |
Total: $1.32
Enchantments (8)
| Hardened Scales | $1.75 |
| Evolutionary Leap | .70 cents |
| Bitter Work | .23 cents |
| Branching Evolution | $3.02 |
| Earthbender Ascension | $4.79 |
| Garruk’s Uprising | .59 cents |
| Terrasymbiosis | $9.57 |
| March of the World Ooze | $1.56 |
Total: $22.21
Instants (11)
| Ranger’s Guile | .19 cents |
| Snakeskin Veil | .20 cents |
| Tamiyo’s Safekeeping | $3.00 |
| Vines of Vastwood | .95 cents |
| Abrade | .20 cents |
| Inscription of Abundance | .25 cents |
| Origin of Metalbending | .20 cents |
| Wrap in Vigor | $1.07 |
| Beast Within | .68 cents |
| Natural Affinity | $3.08 |
| Return of the Wildspeaker | $1.07 |
Total: $10.89
Sorceries (14) + 3 mfdc
| Analyze the Pollen | .44 cents |
| Bridgeworks Battle (mfdc) | $1.26 |
| Farseek | .54 cents |
| Mizzium Mortars | .60 cents |
| Price of Freedom | .24 cents |
| Shared Roots | $1.24 |
| Stump Stomp (mfdc) | .50 cents |
| Sylvan Scrying | .29 cents |
| Rockalanche | .21 cents |
| Sundering Eruption (mfdc) | $1.23 |
| Sylvan Awakening | $2.30 |
| Earthbending Lesson | .15 cents |
| Splendid Reclamation | .54 cents |
| Rude Awakening | .88 cents |
Total: $10.42
Lands (35) + 3 mfdc
| Ba Sing Se | $5.51 |
| Blighted Woodland | .31 cents |
| Burnwillow Clearing (mfdc) | (included above) |
| Cinder Glade | .25 cents |
| Cragcrown Pathway | $2.67 |
| Crawling Barrens | .25 cents |
| Den of the Bugbear | $1.42 |
| Evolving Wilds | .18 cents |
| Hostile Desert | .25 cents |
| Lair of the Hydra | .34 cents |
| Mossfire Valley | .25 cents |
| Myriad Landscape | .25 cents |
| Raging Ravine | .25 cents |
| Restless Ridgeline | .45 cents |
| Rogue’s Passage | .35 cents |
| Tanglespan Bridgeworks (mfdc) | (included above) |
| Temple of Abandon | .38 cents |
| Terramorphic Expanse | .20 cents |
| Volcanic Fissure (mfdc) | (included above) |
| Forest (11) | |
| Mountain (8) |
Total: $13.31
Total Cost of Deck: $98.76
