Magic: The Gathering: The Jolly Balloon Man Commander Deck Guide

The Jolly Ballon Man is a legendary creature introduced in Magic: The Gathering's Commander format. This Boros (red/white) commander is all about copying your creatures and taking advantage of their various enter the battlefield and death triggers.

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The Jolly Balloon Man plays a bit like a blink deck, slowly building up advantage until you are ready to win the game. You'll be drawing a ton of cards and generating a ton of creature tokens with a Jolly Balloon Man deck. If this is the gameplay style you like in your Commander deck, then The Jolly Balloon Man is the right commander for you.

Decklist

Commander: The Jolly Balloon Man

Agate Instigator

Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier

Ao, the Dawn Sky

Atsushi, the Blazing Sky

Beza, the Bounding Spring

Circuit Mender

Combat Celebrant

Enduring Innocence

Ertha Jo, Frontier Mentor

Fanatic of Mogis

Gold Myr

Inspiring Overseer

Iron Myr

Karmic Guide

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Loran of the Third Path

Marvin, Murderous Mimic

Mentor of the Meek

Meteor Golem

Nesting Dovehawk

Ornithopter of Paradise

Overlord of the Boilerbilges

Overlord of the Mistmoors

Priest of Urabrask

Rumor Gatherer

Skyclave Apparition

Solemn Simulacrum

Spirited Companion

Star Athlete

Trumpeting Carnosaur

Village Bell-Ringer

Wall of Omens

Welcoming Vampire

Witch Enchanter // Witch-Blessed Meadow

Witty Roastmaster

Wurmcoil Engine

Zealous Conscripts

Approach of the Second Sun

Blasphemous Act

Split Up

Chaos Warp

Eerie Interlude

Ephemerate

Generous Gift

Path to Exile

Swords to Plowshares

Arcane Signet

Ashnod's Altar

Boros Signet

Halo Fountain

Idol of Oblivion

Illusionist's Bracers

Magewright's Stone

Patriar's Seal

Skullclamp

Sol Ring

Sundial of the Infinite

Talisman of Conviction

Thousand-Year Elixir

Wayfarer's Bauble

Caretaker's Talent

Goblin Bombardment

Impact Tremors

Tocasia's Welcome

Warleader's Call

Battlefield Forge

Boros Garrison

Clifftop Retreat

Command Tower

Exotic Orchard

Fountainport

Inspiring Vantage

Minas Tirith

x8 Mountain

x11 Plains

Reliquary Tower

Rogue's Passage

Rugged Prairie

Sunbaked Canyon

Sundown Pass

Sunscorched Divide

War Room

The decklist consists of 37 creatures, three sorceries, six instants, 14 artifacts, five enchantments, and 34 lands. For the most part, creatures and lands are all you need in the deck, with the rest of the cards acting as support for them.

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Key Cards

The Jolly Balloon Man

The commander of the deck, The Jolly Balloon Man is a major part of what makes the deck stand out. For just one mana, you can create a token of any creature you control (but as a 1/1 with flying). There are multiple creatures you can copy that will untap The Jolly Balloon Man, letting you use the effect for however much mana you have.

Since The Jolly Balloon Man has haste, you can use its effect the same turn it enters the battlefield. You can copy any creature, not just nonlegendary. While copying a legendary will cause it to immediately die due to the legend rule, you still take advantage of its enter the battlefield trigger, or often more importantly, its death trigger.

Nesting Dovehawk

Nesting Dovehawk is the most consistent way to keep the tokens you generate with Jolly Balloon Man around. When you populate, you create a copy of a creature token, and while the Jolly Ballon Man token has to be sacrificed, copies of the token do not. This means the token Nesting Dovehawk creates will stay on the battlefield at the end step.

Nesting Dovehawk is a way to double up on the effects that you are utilizing with Jolly Balloon Man. This helps you to draw a ton of cards and start creating a permanent board presence. Nesting Dovehawk also grows in stats as more creature tokens enter, making it a powerful offensive and defensive creature later in the game.

Wurmcoil Engine

Wurmcoil Engine is one of the best cards you can copy with Jolly Balloon Man. While a 1/1 token won't do much, it will still create the two 3/3 tokens on its sacrifice (one with deathtouch and one with lifelink).

Since nothing will happen to the original Wurmcoil Engine, you can keep copying it to make more of the Phyrexian Wurm tokens. This, combined with other burn damage cards, can snowball out of control if your opponents don't take care of the original Wurmcoil Engine.

Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier

The best card, when combined with your commander, Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier, can turn Jolly Balloon Man copying one creature into copying all of your creatures, so long as you have two mana to pay. This gives you a ton of triggers to work with and extra tokens, which can be enough to swing out for lethal damage.

Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier will cause a ton of tokens to be created, so it's especially strong with cards that deal burn damage when a creature enters the battlefield. The effect applies to any ability that targets it and sets you up for infinite combos.

If Jolly Ballon Man, Agrus Kos, Priest of Urabrask, and Village Bell-Ringer are on the battlefield, you can create an infinite amount of tokens. Use Jolly Balloon Man on Agrus Kos, activating it to use the effect on all creatures you control to make token copies of them. Village Bell-Ringer will untap Jolly Balloon Man and Priest of Urabrask will give you three mana to be able to afford looping this combo infinitely.

Combat Celebrant

Combat Celebrant is a way to gain a lot of extra combat steps, especially late-game when you have the excess mana to be able to use Jolly Balloon Man's effect multiple times a turn. You always want to be exerting it, gaining extra combat steps to constantly be dealing damage.

There are a lot of different ways to keep using Combat Celerant's effect. If Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is on the battlefield, you can get infinite combats without needing the mana to do so by copying it by tapping Kiki-Jiki. Alternatively, Jolly Balloon Man is a way to have the combo in the command zone (although it is not infinite in this case).

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How To Play The Deck

The Jolly Balloon Man is all about generating advantage, drawing cards until you reach your primary win conditions. Despite Boros being infamously bad at drawing cards, thanks to copying permanents like Wall of Omens, Spirited Companion, and Inspiring Overseer, this downside is erased entirely.

There are a ton of useful cards for Jolly Balloon Man to copy. Trumpeting Carnosaur lets you discover five to cast another spell for free; Atsushi, the Blazing Sky enters then dies to the legend rule, letting you create three Treasure tokens, and Karmic Guide can return any creature from your graveyard back to the battlefield.

One downside of the deck is that it is very weak to interaction. You have to target a creature for Jolly Ballon Man's effect, meaning your opponents have the chance to use a removal spell before it resolves. In addition, a board wipe will set you back drastically, as it can struggle to build back up from nothing.

The main win conditions of the deck arewinning through combat, burn damage, or by using Approach of the Second Sun. Since you can draw so many cards, casting Approach from the Second Sun is very easy, and will instantly win you the game if it resolves. Alternatively, there are a lot of ways to generate infinite combat and infinite creatures to swing out. With the cards that burn for creatures entering the battlefield, your opponents' life totals will melt away and clear a path for victory.

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