Was there ever a card that was more clearly made for Commander? The latter ability is probably mostly flavor text. I mean, the Trample definitely matters, but the +1/+1 on a bunch of seven-drops doesn’t seem very impressive.
Grothama is a weird case. I know players who have been looking forward to a Wurm commander for ages, but I don’t think this is going to be it, although with the general quality of Wurms (looking at you, [scryfall]Craw Wurm[/scryfall], although I can’t be mad at that card…), you don’t really mind throwing them at this thing.
[scryfall]Ghalta, Primal Hunger[/scryfall] was spoiled early (or was it leaked, not sure, it was shown to be a promo card of some sort anyhow). It has kind of a unique bonus, if you ramp through creatures, so let’s see what we can come up.
First question: Why not [scryfall]Ezuri, Renegade Leader[/scryfall] or [scryfall]Kamahl, Fist of Krosa[/scryfall] instead? Ezuri is easy. I don’t have to limit myself to elves. Kamahl is a bit more difficult. First answer is I have done Kamahl and Baru is something new. Second answer is that Baru can bring something quite unique to the table. Each of the ramp spells in your deck becomes a mini-[scryfall]Overrun[/scryfall]. Or in some cases something much, much more.
This has been widely discussed and for a reason. There’s a couple of very good tools. This is my take.
There are 114 creatures in Standard with abilities that trigger when they enter the battlefield. I’m guessing there’s going to be a way to abuse this:
