The Calamity Beasts are a new cycle of creature cards, each possessing unique and powerful abilities, making them valuable additions to many decks. On top of possessing game-warping abilities, these mono-colored legendary elementals also have a central role in Bloomburrow’s lore.
In this context, a cycle of cards in Magic: the Gathering refers to a group of cards, typically one for each color, that share a thematic or mechanical similarity. One of the most popular cycles of creatures, for example, has been the Titan cycle, originally printed in M11. Now, Bloomburrow brings its very own flavor to the cycle of mono-colored creatures with the Calamity Beasts.
3. Beza, The Bounding Spring
- Mana Cost: 2WW
- Type: Legendary Creature – Elemental Elk
- Rarity: Mythic
- Ability: When Beza, the Bounding Spring enters, create a Treasure token if an opponent controls more lands than you. You gain 4 life if an opponent has more life than you. Create two 1/1 blue Fish creature tokens if an opponent controls more creatures than you. Draw a card if an opponent has more cards in hand than you.
A 4/5 elk elemental for four mana is not bad, but with zero keyword abilities, Beza mostly just sits lazily on the battlefield. Her strength solely comes from her enter-the-battlefield effect. White is known for blink strategies in which creatures enter and re-enter the battlefield multiple times to maximize the benefit of their strong ETB abilities. Beza would fit perfectly into one of these decks.
By blinking her again and again, a player could benefit from her abilities multiple times. Unfortunately, Beza’s ETB effects heavily depend on the board state. It is rather unlikely that a player will be able to take full advantage of her abilities, even in a game of Commander with multiple opponents.
2. Lumra, Bellow of the Woods
- Mana Cost: 4GG
- Type: Legendary Creature – Elemental Bear
- Rarity: Mythic
- Ability: Vigilance, Reach. Lumra, Bellow of the Wood’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control. When Lumra enters, mill four cards. Then return all land cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
Although bears are currently popular among Commander players with the recent release of several legendary bear creatures, Lumra does not take the number one spot in this list. Not because she isn’t an incredible, giant monster of a card but because of how high the bar is in this cycle. For Lumra to shine and be as impactful on the game as one wishes, she requires a filled graveyard and an entire land-matters strategy wrapped around her.
Without trample or evasion of any sort, a mere 1/1 token could block all of her damage, no matter how oversized she grows. However, her enter-the-battlefield effect is remarkably powerful, even game-ending with the right lands. As with most green strategies, Lumra is slower than her counterparts but makes up for it with an incredibly powerful ability.
1. Maha, Its Feathers Night
- Mana Cost: 3BB
- Type: Legendary Creature – Elemental Bird
- Rarity: Mythic
- Ability: Flying. Trample. Ward – Discard a card. Creatures your opponents control have base toughness 1.
Maha, Its Feathers Night is the real deal among the Calamity Beasts cycle. A 6/5 flyer with trample and ward is a terrifying threat to look at from across the table. This gigantic night owl can take down most flyers and still dish out trample damage to the opponent. But Maha’s passive ability is much more frightening and far-reaching than her brute force.
Maha basically turns your opponent’s formidable army into an army of mice. Even though they keep their strength, turning them into X/1s is incredibly powerful. Paired with black enchantments such as Night of Soul’s Betrayal, Curse of Death’s Hold, or creatures like Kaervek, The Spiteful, you can easily lock your opponents out of playing creatures for the remainder of the game. They can still play their creatures if they wish to do so, but they immediately die as soon as they hit the battlefield.
As of the time of writing, we are still waiting for Wizards of the Coast to spoil the red and the blue Calamity Beasts. Stay tuned for updates, as the two undisclosed legendary elementals will surely change the rank of each Calamity Beast.
