Mabel, Heir to Cragmaw Deck Tech
After All, I Still Love Redwall
Many people grew up with The Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, but my favorite fantasy series growing up was Redwall. I read the titular book so many times I wore out the binding. It's the story of a young anthropomorphic mouse who rallies his friends and family into a militia and leads them into battle against the forces of darkness that besiege his home, aided by the sword and shield of a mythical hero.
Bloomburrow, as a set, evokes everything I loved about the Redwall series, and, in a swan song to the set before delving into the horrors of Duskmourn: House of Horror, I thought I'd make an ode to the story that was an indelible part of my childhood.
Core Synergy
Mabel, Heir to Cragflame is the perfect allegory for Matthias, the hero of Redwall. She makes other mice stronger through her inspiring presence, and she leads them into battle with a legendary Equipment, Cragflame, which grants +1/+1, vigilance, trample, and haste. She also boasts aggressive stats and a low mana cost, although the Cragflame doesn't come equipped and it costs a couple of mana to equip. The haste becomes superfluous if Cragflame isn't equipped the turn a creature comes out, so Mabel essentially costs to cast and equip, unless we can go through some other means.
When someone's home comes under attack, there are no punches that can be pulled in the name of self-defense, and, in the case of Bloomburrow mice, that includes sending one's offspring into battle for a good old-fashioned family-style beatdown. Mabel cares about the number of mice, and cards like Manifold Mouse do a great job of producing bodies.
The defenders of Redwall are valiant, and that's shown best when they take up arms. In this deck, Equipment are the most likely cards to trigger Valiant, and passing them from creature to creature is a great way to accrue value. Mouse Trapper, in particular, helps to create openings to attack, especially when there's an opponent that's short on creatures.
Mice, as a creature type, do predate Bloomburrow, but not with much of an identity. In fact, before Bloomburrow, being a Mouse instead of a Rat felt like a small difference that could cost a lot of value. Eldraine plants, like Raging Battle Mouse, do a great job of enabling double casting, saving mana for equip costs, and adding power to the board.
Canyon Jerboa is one of the more adorable Mice in Magic, and it predates the influx of Mice in Bloomburrow. The ability to add anthems, and even layers of anthems with fetch lands, is particularly nasty in a deck that specializes in going wide with little critters. This may be a thematic deck, but it's also a strongly functional one.
Pests of Honor and Armory Mice are both solid creatures in a deck that has a lot of cheap permanents. Celebration should be activated almost every turn, and it synergizes well with offspring, which makes multiple permanents out of singular cards. As with other relatively new creature types, changelings help to shore up the numbers, and Taurean Mauler and Mirror Entity are two of the more aggressive and powerful "Mice".
Win Conditions
Sunforger is a key spell for Boros-inclusive decks, and this one's no different. We might not be the best at using it, but it's usually prudent to pack a package of cheap instants to search for in a pinch, even if there are only a couple of truly strong options. There are more than a couple, however, so we'll be dropping the hammer as often as we can.
Since our Mice are relatively cheap and small, most of our mana is going to be spent casting Equipment and paying equip costs, especially later in the game. Lightning Greaves, in particular, can be easily swapped around our little Valiant militia members, triggering each of them as it goes, before finally settling on a summoning sick creature, imbuing it with haste.
What are we hoping to get with the Sunforger? The following spells are our primary offensive targets; they're all ways to get our army through the gates and spilling over into our enemies' life totals. After all, Mice often burrow their way into homes, and this is no different!
Card Selection
If we're going to run cards that work with Sunforger, we need to be prepared to draw them without it. We also need to minimize the likelihood that that will happen. As a result, we run various tutors for our key Equipment, such as Steelshaper's Gift, that give the deck a toolbox feel without upping the power level too much.
Heroes fight with class, so, if we're going to play as heroes, we might as well be a member of the Fighter Class! Each ability is relevant, from finding an Equipment to reducing equip costs to attempting to force an unwilling creature to block. One of the best ways to remove a creature in a removal-light deck is to put its controller in a position where they need to use it for defensive purposes.
Protection Effects
Since we're going wide, we need some forms of protection against board wipes. The particular ones we use are instants, so we can search them out with Sunforger in a pinch. Boros Charm is the poster child for such an effect, as both are from the same guild and have been paired together for a long time. Burn, double strike, and mass indestructibility are all solid abilities here.
Clever Concealment is one of the nastier spells in the deck. Like Flawless Maneuver and Flare of Fortitude, it allows the army to protect itself without having to pay any mana. Being able to choose which creatures get the benefit gives the controller a lot of options and enables the deck to control combat and focus on the positive interactions while making risky plays with impunity.
The general plan is to flood the field with an army of Mice with Equipment backup. We can use the Equipment to grow creatures, operate a toolbox of offensive and defensive interaction, or trigger Valiant for incremental value. Eventually, we find a hole in our defenses and we swarm in, feasting on our opponents as they frantically try to plug the holes where we've chewed and clawed through.
