When Bloomburrow was announced earlier this year, like many others, I was excited about the idea of a Redwall-esque setting filled with cute creatures. I've been playing squirrels since Odyssey when I did my first booster draft and went P1P1 Chatter of the Squirrel, and every time we get a new squirrel card, I treat it as an event.

So, with Bloomburrow preview season upon us, what better time to take a look at one of the most beloved creature types in Magic? Here are the Top 5 squirrel cards and, since there aren't really a ton of squirrels, the Top 5 squirrel "enablers" (cards that create squirrels without being squirrels themselves) in Magic history.

The Top 5 Squirrel Enablers

Honorable Mention

Squirrels have always existed on the edge of tournament-legal Magic, primarily finding their home in the wacky land of silver-bordered cards, to the point that the Acorn symbol became the default for non-legality with Unfinity. No card better exemplifies this than Squirrel Farm. Printed back in OG Unglued, and with what is quite possibly the best art/flavor-text combo to ever grace a Magic card, squirrel fans have been Rule 0'ing this card into their decks since the creation of the Commander format.

Number Five

Both a squirrel creator and a way to turn those fuzzy little 1/1s into fearsome beasts. I have lovingly dubbed this The Acorn Assault Rifle, as it can get out of hand if left unchecked.

Number Four

One of the better utility lands in any squirrel deck, making your best squirrels harder to kill, or keeping an annoying blocker around forever. You haven't lived until you've given a squirrel token flying and watched it stonewall a Marit Lage token for five turns.

Number Three

One of the few squirrel cards to actually make it into serious tournament play. Did you know that Earthcraft is banned in LEGACY because it was too powerful when combined with Squirrel Nest? Squirrel Nest has also been a kitchen table staple since its first printing.

Number Two

Deranged Hermit, along with his furry minions, was the foundational card for the original Rock deck. Deep Forest Hermit, the non-Reserved List cousin, hasn't seen nearly as much play, but both bring the army-in-a-can aspect to squirrels. Squirrels are inherently a "go wide" strategy, and these two cards exemplify that better than any others.

Number One

I've been playing with squirrels a long, long time, and no card has won me more matches in those decks than Squirrel Wrangler. It can come down on its own in the late game and take over a board state, creating an army of squirrels outright or turning an existing army into finishers. Any deck that can recur lands from the graveyard should consider this, and any deck that makes squirrels should see this as their ideal finisher.

Before we get to the actual squirrels, I wanted to give a special shout-out to squirrel tokens. Of all the creature types in Magic, none have a wider selection of amazing art for their tokens. My personal favorite is from Unfinity, but you can find a thousand great tokens available online from independent artists.

The Top 5 Squirrels

Honorable Mention

If there was only one card from these lists that I could move from silver-bordered to regular Magic, this would be it. Squirrellink is an ability that needs to be printed on more cards!

Number Five

The Uncounterable, Indestructible Squirrel is probably the best squirrel card to be printed into Standard this decade. I am still bitterly disappointed that we didn't get to see a Toski compleated card (as shown in some of the promotional art).

Number Four

The only official squirrel lord that's not bound by a silver border. At 2 mana, this is priced to be playable, and I could easily see it being reprinted in Bloomburrow. If enough squirrels are printed to make it viable, this would be a staple for any squirrel deck.

Number Three

As I said earlier, squirrels have traditionally been a "go wide" strategy, and this is the card that capitalizes on that horde of tokens the best. Even the mighty Emrakul learned that the flavor text of the Squirrel Mob still rings true: "An army of squirrels is still an army."

Number Two

Someone decided that squirrels needed to bypass Standard and jump straight into the Modern format with Modern Horizons 2, and doing so let them push the power level on our first Legendary Squirrel. Unless something from Bloomburrow ends up being better, this would be the most powerful squirrel to build a deck around. Chatterfang shines in Commander, but I would love to see this reprinted in Bloomburrow as it's just not powerful enough to see play in Modern.

Number One

While Ravenous Squirrel may not be the most powerful squirrel, it is the most useful. This can plug itself into any squirrel deck and get the party started on turn one, while also providing late-game power, turning any chaff you have lying on the battlefield into lifegain and cards. This gets the nod over Chatterfang because it has better generic usage and can still demand an answer as early as turn one. Not only limited to squirrel decks, any sacrifice deck will want to look at this.

If I had a wish list for Bloomburrow, I'd hope we get a couple more Legendary squirrels for Commander and at least 5-10 more squirrel-specific cards to flesh out the type. I will be keeping an eye on the spoilers, hoping my favorite critters are given the cards they deserve!

~Travis Hall