The Jolly Balloon ManThe Jolly Balloon Man | Art by Campbell White

Have you seen the new Scary Movie? Either way, get ready to re-enter everyone's favorite haunted house! In today's Fire and Ice, we'll be focusing on a particularly scary commander from Duskmourn!

Welcome once again to Fire and Ice, the data-driven series where I go over cards that are becoming more or less popular for different Commander decks, and talk about why they may be gaining or losing popularity. I'm Julia, EDHREC's Duchess of Data, and I'm super excited to jump into today's article!

Using EDHREC's data, we'll draw conclusions from that data about how certain commanders' decks have changed over time, give insight into how the format's players are thinking about new cards, and hopefully provide some tech for your favorite commander's list.

Today, we're focusing on The Jolly Balloon Man, a downright terrifying commander that released just a little while ago! This commander has frequently been compared to Kiki-Jiki, Mirror BreakerKiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and leads some super cool combo-focused decks. Let's see what this man's plan is!

The Jolly Balloon ManThe Jolly Balloon Man

What's Hot and What's Not for The Jolly Balloon Man?

Decks led by this commander seek to make copies of creatures with impactful ETB triggers, combat damage effects, and death triggers. Because the tokens that our Clown commander creates have flying and are sacrificed on our end step, there are tons of juicy targets for his ability.

Among the Balloon Man's most popular cards are Enduring InnocenceEnduring Innocence (54% inclusion rate), Ertha Jo, Frontier MentorErtha Jo, Frontier Mentor, and Solemn SimulacrumSolemn Simulacrum (80% inclusion rate).

What's Fiery for Jolly Balloon Man Decks?

Colossus of the Blood AgeColossus of the Blood Age - Fire Score of 14.56

This six-drop has a colossal Fire Score, and a colossal impact on the game. We get a souped-up Lightning HelixLightning Helix to point at our opponents when this creature enters, and then we get to replace the worst cards in our hand when this creature dies. We can even use its death trigger to simply draw a card if we like everything in our hand!

This is a perfect inclusion for Jolly Balloon Man decks, and it's not crazy to think that this Construct was constructed with a commander like ours in mind.

Big Mother MouserBig Mother Mouser - Fire Score of 5.50

This is another fantastic target for our commander's copy creation ability. This Robot will attack as a flying 5/5 thanks to its counter doubling ability, and will create four 1/1 creature tokens when it dies on our end step. That's a pretty consistent stream of damage to point at our opponents, and the creature tokens that Big Mother Mouser creates on death will quickly get out of hand for other players at the table.

It's also great that this creature costs just , allowing it to hit the board early enough in the game to be a consistent target for The Jolly Balloon Man.

Slash, Reptile RampagerSlash, Reptile Rampager and Raphael, Tough TurtleRaphael, Tough Turtle - Fire Scores of 4.52 and 2.67

These creatures may have vastly different mana costs, but they serve a similar purpose: whittling down our opponents' life totals. We'll be making lots of tokens, meaning we'll get lots of alliance triggers from both Slash and Raphael. It's also neat that Slash makes a creature token upon attacking, as that'll net us a free ping from him each and every turn.

Both of these creatures are legendary, so we won't typically make copies of them with our commander's ability. But, they're still strong creatures that merit a spot in the 99 of most (if not all) JBM decks.

Kirol, Attentive First-YearKirol, Attentive First-Year - Fire Score of 2.90

Here's another legendary creature that we won't target with our commander's ability! Instead, we'll use Kirol to copy the triggered abilities of the tokens that The Jolly Balloon Man creates.

By tapping two of our creatures, Kirol lets us copy a triggered ability we control, and we can even choose new targets for the copy! That means we can choose to draw more cards (by copying the death trigger of the aforementioned Colossus of the Blood AgeColossus of the Blood Age) or remove opposing threats (by copying Skyclave ApparitionSkyclave Apparition's ETB).

Village PillagersVillage Pillagers - Fire Score of 1.75

This creature is so interesting. It'll deal one damage to all of our opponents' creatures, à la Blazing VolleyBlazing Volley, but that damage sticks around in the form of -1/-1 counters. We'll also make a few Treasure tokens with this creature, adding to its appeal.

If we manage to copy this creature with our commander, we can repeatedly deal damage to our opponents' stuff and create more Treasures when creatures die. If we've got two Village Pillagers on board when its ETB trigger kills opposing creatures, we get to make two Treasure tokens per dead creature!

Yes, is a big ask for a small initial effect. But, this creature can really shine if we make copying it with our commander a priority.

What's Icy for Jolly Balloon Man Decks?

Chaos WarpChaos Warp - Ice Score of -2.25

In a Boros () deck like this one, there's no good reason to play Chaos Warp. provides access to creature removal (Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares), artifact/enchantment removal (DisenchantDisenchant), and even multi-purpose removal (Generous GiftGenerous Gift).

Chaos Warp's got a massive downside, and it's just not worth using when we've got access to higher quality removal spells!

One of our writers put together a much more in-depth analysis of why this card doesn't merit inclusion in many Commander decks anymore. Feel free to check it out at this link.

Rootborn DefensesRootborn Defenses - Ice Score of -1.97

This protection spell can create a copy of one of our JBM tokens that we won't need to sacrifice on the end step. This is a great spell to have in our back pocket, as it protects our board from sweepers while still providing us with a good bit of value.

But, there's a strange push-and-pull that happens with the timing of this spell. Most JBM decklists don't have a consistent way to keep many creature copies available beyond their end step, while most board wipes will be cast at sorcery speed on opponents' turns. Rootborn Defenses does let us make a copy of one of our creature tokens in theory, but we won't often have a creature token around when a board wipe hits the stack and we're most likely to actually cast this reactive spell.

Circuit MenderCircuit Mender and Wall of OmensWall of Omens - Ice Scores of -1.79 and -1.71

Despite providing a bit of card advantage (and life gain, in Circuit Mender's case), these creatures really don't do enough to earn a place in an optimized JBM 99. There are other creatures that provide a similar amount of card advantage and have other redeeming qualities at the same place in our mana curve.

Some examples are Professional Face-BreakerProfessional Face-Breaker, Loran of the Third PathLoran of the Third Path, and (arguably) Tataru TaruTataru Taru. Cantrip creatures like Circuit Mender and Wall of Omens have unfortunately been outclassed.

Loyal WarhoundLoyal Warhound - Ice Score of -1.75

The ramp creatures (Loyal Warhound, Knight of the White OrchidKnight of the White Orchid, and others) seem to be good fits for this deck. But, they'll only ever really grab us one land. If we try to make copies of these creatures repeatedly, it won't be long before we have the same number of lands as our opponents and these creatures no longer trigger upon entering the battlefield.

With that in mind, mana dorks like Iron MyrIron Myr or mana rocks like Arcane SignetArcane Signet are likely better pieces for our 99. They'll consistently make mana, regardless of the game state they enter into, which sadly can't be said for Loyal Warhound.

What's in a Jolly Balloon Man Deck?

Here's a Jolly Balloon Man list with all of his hot cards and none of his cold cards:

Conclusion

Most of the cards that we talked about in this article are part of Jolly Balloon Man lists as synergy pieces. They won't win us the game immediately, instead providing us with some incremental value. But, there are tons of combos that this commander provides access to.

Among the easiest is this combo with Village Bell-RingerVillage Bell-Ringer, and there are tons of ways to go infinite with this Clown.

If you'd like to see more of those combos, check out this page on Commander Spellbook. I'll see you all next week for another (hopefully less spooky) edition of Fire and Ice.