commander · Bello, Bard of the Brambles
Animated Army (BLC).
A Gruul enchantment-creature deck led by Bello, Bard of the Brambles, animate your enchantments into creatures, swing with an army of living spells, and close games with damage multipliers like Warstorm Surge.
The Commanders
Animated Army is a Gruul Commander deck from Bloomburrow built on an unusual angle: turning your enchantments into creatures and attacking with them. Bello, Bard of the Brambles leads it by giving your enchantments (Auras, global enchantments, Sagas) base power and toughness equal to their mana value, then paying you off for attacking with them. The result is a deck where a Warstorm Surge is also a 5/5 attacker.
Bello, Bard of the Brambles animates your enchantments into creatures with power and toughness equal to their mana value. A three-mana enchantment becomes a 3/3. A six-mana enchantment becomes a 6/6. With damage multipliers and enters-the-battlefield triggers, this creates an army from permanents that opponents rarely point removal at. Bello rewards building with high-mana-value enchantments and turns the typical control weakness of enchantment-heavy lists into aggressive board pressure.
Key Cards
Warstorm Surge
Damage on a trigger every time a creature enters the battlefield. With Bello animating enchantments, each enchantment you cast sets off Warstorm Surge for damage equal to that creature's power. Cast a six-mana enchantment and it's a 6/6 that immediately burns any target for 6. Cast three in a turn and that's three separate Warstorm Surge triggers. The deck uses it as a burn win condition outside of combat, and it's very hard for opponents to interact with.
Gratuitous Violence
A three-mana enchantment that doubles all damage your creatures deal. Under Bello it's also a 3/3 attacker. When your animated enchantment-creatures swing, Gratuitous Violence doubles every point of combat damage. Pair it with Warstorm Surge and each creature entry deals double its power. It's the deck's most efficient multiplier: three mana, and it joins the attack the moment it lands.
Rampaging Baloths
One of the deck's strongest non-enchantment threats. Every land drop makes a 4/4 Beast, and this deck runs enough ramp to hit multiple land drops a turn. Those Beasts attack alongside the animated enchantments. Baloths needs no setup beyond itself, spits out tokens right away, and puts a fast clock on the table. Against decks short on sweepers, the Beast army alone can close before the animation engine even comes together.
Tendershoot Dryad
Token generation on a schedule. Tendershoot Dryad makes a 1/1 Plant at the beginning of each player's upkeep, so three or four Plants a round in a four-player game. Once City's Blessing is active (ten or more permanents), those Plants come in as 3/3s. It builds a token army independent of the animation plan, giving you backup board presence and chump blockers that buy time for the main engine to close.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger
A 12/12 trampler that costs as little as two mana. With Bello creating a board full of animated enchantments-as-creatures, Ghalta's cost reduction frequently brings her down to two or three mana on turn five or six. A 12/12 trampler that enters and triggers Warstorm Surge for 12 damage to any target is often lethal. She's the deck's biggest single threat and requires a two-for-one answer or she ends the game by herself within two attacks.
Etali, Primal Storm
Free spells every attack. Whenever Etali attacks, exile the top card of each opponent's library and you may cast those spells for free. With three opponents in Commander, that's three free spells per combat step. Etali piles up card advantage while pressuring the table, and every free cast might be another enchantment to animate with Bello, another multiplier, or removal to clear blockers. One attack step gives you a whole extra turn's worth of resources.
How to Play
Start with ramp. This deck wants six or seven mana to deploy multiple enchantments a turn, so get Sol Ring, Gilded Lotus, or green ramp down by turn three. Bello lands turn four or five, once you have the mana to also cast an enchantment the same turn. Set up Rampaging Baloths or Tendershoot Dryad early for board presence while the engine comes online.
The win is straightforward: get Warstorm Surge into play, then cast expensive enchantments that each deal their mana value in damage on entry. Three of them in a turn is 15 to 20 damage split across the table. Gratuitous Violence doubles that. With Etali stealing opponents' best spells and Ghalta closing through combat, the deck has plenty of backup paths. Attack early and often, because nobody expects Bello's enchantments to swing back.
