Quick Links
Magic: The Gatheringis at its best when it has levity and fun, without spilling over into Unfinity-levels of silliness. Think sets like The Lost Caverns of Ixalan and Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty; with their well-realised worlds and memorable cards, they felt like high-points for the game.
After a year of sets that have been good, but not necessarily all-timers, Bloomburrow could be the next big thing for Magic. Its debut today unveiled a whole host of new cards, a world populated entirely by woodland animals, and mechanics that could have a big impact when the set drops on August 2.
The Lore Of Bloomburrow
Magic’s multiverse is a huge place, but most planes have some kind of human on them. Not Bloomburrow. Instead, every sentient being here is an animal, such as the brave Mice, the mysterious Bats, or the chaotic Raccoons.
Even planeswalkers who come to Bloomburrow find themselves transformed into creatures, as happened to Ral Zarek when he got a new, otter-y look on his arrival. This idea is the basis for the Imagine: Critters subset, which reimagines planeswalkers as they’d look when they come to Bloomburrow.
But Bloomburrow isn’t a completely cozy and twee place – the Calamity Beasts cause havoc wherever they go, and it’s up to Ral, the mouse Mabel, and her band of allies to save their home of Valley, and the wider plane of Bloomburrow, from these gargantuan enemies.
The Mechanics Of Bloomburrow
With the launch of Bloomburrow, the Standard format is having its biggest shake-up in years. Not only will we be saying goodbye to Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, Innistrad: Crimson Vow, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and Streets of New Capenna, we’ll also be getting a whole host of new and returning mechanics.
New Mechanic: Offspring
It’s a meme in Magic that every mechanic iseither flying or kicker, and offspring definitely doesn’t help with those accusations. It’s effectively kicker, but with a really massive upside.
Offspring is an additional cost found on creature cards. If you pay the offspring cost while casting the creature, when it enters, you’ll also get a 1/1 token copy of it. This means that you not only get an additional blocker, but also additional enter triggers and double the abilities.
While offspring is an additional cost you pay while casting, the actual act of making the token copy is an enter trigger. This means it’ll be doubled by things like Panharmonicon or Roaming Throne.
Offspring is the main mechanic of the white/green Rabbits, but also headlines as the key mechanic of the red, blue, and white Family Matters Commander deck.
New Mechanic: Forage
Wizards of the Coast has been eager togive Food some more utility, besides just being sacrificed for life. We saw a bit of this in last year’s Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, but Bloomburrow really makes Food a central theme with foraging.
Foraging allows you to either exile three cards from your graveyard, or sacrifice a Food. This is a cost that can be used for all sorts of things, but is mostly found in the black and green colours for things like graveyard reanimation or buffing up your creatures with +1/+1 counters.
New Mechanic: Gifting
Continuing the theme of additional costs and ‘basically kicker’-style mechanics, gifting has your opponents make tokens to improve the effects of your spells.
Parting Gust can be used as a regular blink spell for two white mana, which is good but not great. If you gift a tapped Fish, though, your opponent will make a 1/1 blue Fish creature, and then you can outright exile a nontoken creature instead. You’re giving your opponent a creature, but it could be commiseration for exiling their much larger one.
It’s important to remember that gifting happens as you cast the spell, and doesn’t need the spell to resolve. If you promise a Fish, and thenyour opponent countersthe spell, the Fish will still be made.
New Mechanic: Expend
Magic loves its big-mana archetypes, but Bloomburrow is the first time you’ll be actively tracking how much of that mana you’ve spent in a turn with expend.
Expend only counts the mana you pay to cast spells, so activated abilities, ward costs and the like don’t matter. The effects are somewhat small, as you’re using the mana to cast big spells already – for instance, Muerra, Trash Tactician gives you three life once you’ve spent your fourth mana, or gives you impulsive draw if you’ve expended eight mana.
But if you can stack up expend effects, you’ll be getting a lot of extra value off of casting the big spells you want to play anyway. Going big and expending mana is the theme of the red/green Animated Army Commander deck, making this mechanic firmly one for the Raccoons.
New Mechanic: Pawprint Modal Spells
Modal spellsallow you to make choices over a spell’s ability as you’re casting it. Usually we see it as a “choose one” effect on cards like Archmage’s Charm or Boros Charm, but sometimes you’ll get a lovely “choose one or more”, as on a Farewell.
Pawprints aren’t a resource like energy or mana – you may’t save them between casts, and you can’t cast a load of them all at once and use their paws interchangeably. But it still gives you control over the effects of your spells to a degree we’ve never seen before.
Bloomburrow is introducing a new way to have “choose one or more” effects, with pawprints as currency. When you cast a spell like Season of Weaving, you have five pawprints to spend however you see fit. This could be a big boardwipe for three paws, and then two additional cards, or you could just pump it all into drawing cards and put five of them into your hand.
Returning Mechanic: Class Enchantments
One of the best things about Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures In The Forgotten Realms was its introduction of Class enchantments. These cave you handy effects that got better as you levelled them up, and were a great way to represent the various character classes of D&D.
Bloomburrow is bringing Classes back, but this time instead of Rogues and Warriors, they represent the hobbies and jobs of the creatures of Valley. Take Artist’s Talent, which rewards you casting noncreature spells, before turning into a stellar damage booster that’s sure to become a key part of mono-red aggro decks post-rotation.
Returning Mechanic: Threshold
The final central mechanic of Bloomburrow is one from way back in Odyssey – threshold.
Threshold gives your permanents or spells various bonuses if you have seven or more cards in your graveyard. It looks like this is mostly going to be found in black and blue, with Tidecaller Mentor letting you bounce permanents back to their owners’ hands if your graveyard is big enough.
It’s going to be interesting balancing threshold in a set that also has forage, a way to exile cards from your graveyard. Both look centred on black, but could work against each other if you’re not careful.
Limited Archetypes
Wizards is keen to emphasise that Bloomburrow isn’t a kindred set in the same way worlds like Ixalan or Innistrad are. It has a creature type for each of its colour pairs, but synergy between them is also a big part of the set.
Flying, tokens, aggro, lifegain
Flying, graveyard, spellslinging, bouncing
Graveyard, tokens, lifegain, aggro and lifeloss
Aggro, lifeloss, spellslinging, expending, artifacts and enchantments
Rabbits, Frogs, Squirrels, Raccoons
Tokens, bouncing, graveyard, expending, artifacts and enchantments.
Including multiple creature types in each colour is the best way to remain competitive in the format. Going whole hog on just one is likely to see you missing out on effective tools – if you’re playing a blue/white deck, you may focus primarily on Birds, but you’ll also have plenty of Mice, Frogs, Rats, Otters, Bats, and Rabbits to include as well.
Showcase Treatments And Imagine: Critters
Every Magic set has its alternate art treatments, but Bloomburrow’s feel extra special thanks to both their vibe, and some of the big artists contributing to them.
Showcase Woodland
The primary showcase frame for Bloomburrow is Woodland, which gives the cards a whimsical storybook illustration feel. Each colour has their own designs to reflect a different biome, such as the lush vegetation of green, or the withered brambles of black.
Though every card we’ve seen in this frame so far has been lovely, of particular note are the cards by David Petersen, who you might know as the creature and artist behind Mouse Guard, one of Bloomburrow’s biggest inspirations.
Raised Foil Anime
Wizards has been trying hard to raise Magic’s profile in Japan for years now, with things like the Japanese alt-arts found in Strixhaven: School of Mages, and manga-inspired art in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Jumpstart 2022.
Bloomburrow will also be getting anime cards, which can be found in Collector boosters. While I’ve personally been lukewarm on manga cards in the past (especially Jumpstart’s), these all fit the cutesy tone of the setting incredibly well.
This treatment is where you’ll find Mitsuhiro Arita, a legendary artist who has been illustrating Pokemon cards for decades. This is his first time contributing to Magic, with the anime treatment for the Calamity Beast Lumra, Bellow Of The Woods.
Imagine: Critters
The final special treatment is Imagine: Critters. As we saw in the main set with Ral, anyone who travels to Bloomburrow will be transformed into a creature to better fit in. This is an oddity for Magic, but it’s also a ripe opportunity for some fun Planeswalker cards.
These cards aren’t legal in Standard unless the card already was before this printing.
So far, two have been revealed, with Jace, the Mind Sculptor reimagined as a fox, while Tamiyo, Field Researcher turns into a Rabbit, reflecting how the design of Moonfolk like Tamiyo were inspired by rabbits in the first place.
I really want to know what happens if someone like Angrath, Ajani, or Grist travels to Bloomburrow, seeing as they’re already animalistic in nature.
Commander
As usual, releasing alongside Bloomburrow are four preconstructed Commander decks that include new cards for the Vintage, Legacy, and Commander formats.
All four decks come with a full-art Commander, tokens, life tracker, and a two-card Collector booster sample pack.
Magic: The Gathering
Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the biggest tabletop collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and do battle with other players. In excess of 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.
