Bloomburrow: A Furtastic Adventure
Anyone who plays any sort of TCG has undoubtedly heard of Magic: The Gathering. Having been around for more than 30 years, it’s been one of the most popular card games to ever exist and has constantly evolved and expanded over the years. This year however, they released a new set that is especially exciting: Bloomburrow!
Bloomburrow is a world of heroic mice, sinister rats, aggressive lizards, playful otters and more!
That's right, it's all about talking animals in a fantasy world. Each color duo is considered a “draft archetype” and represents a different animal tribe and theme:
Rabbits - White/Green, themed around creating tokens and buffing them
Birds - White/Blue, themed around flying creatures and giving non flying creatures flying.
Bats - White/Black, themed around life manipulation
Mice - White/Red, themed around the new keyword Valiant, which triggers an effect the first time the creature is targeted by a spell or ability
Otters - Blue/Red, themed around casting spells and boosting your otters with prowess
Rats - Blue/Black, themed around Threshold and filling the graveyard
Lizards - Black/Red, themed around being aggressive and triggering effects by damaging the opponent
Squirrels - Black/Green, themed around recycling graveyard cards or food tokens using the new Forage mechanic
Raccoons - Red/Green, themed around playing big creatures and triggering the new Expend abilities
Frogs - Green/Blue, themed around “hopping” off and on the board and enter the battlefield effects
Besides these, this set also has new mechanics in the form of Offspring and Gift, both of which are pretty interesting. Offspring allows players to pay an additional cost to create a token copy of a creature when that creature enters. Usually these creatures have passive or enter the battlefield effects that make the additional cost worth considering. Gift which is seen mainly on sorceries and instants can grant an additional effect if the casting player offers their opponent a “gift” which can either be a card draw, a food token or a fish. It's an interesting concept though many of the cards I’ve seen with this mechanic are not worth giving the opponent an extra card for the bonus outside of specific circumstances.
Having played with some of these new cards already, I’m already intrigued by the possibilities. Obviously I love the otters, not only is Blue/Red one of my favorite color duos ever, but it's also a lot of fun to sling spells and then attack with the now buffed otters. Rats offer a different type of playstyle by being unblockable and having additional effects that trigger as the graveyard gets filled, and even attempting to control the flow of the game, leading to potentially longer matches. I also enjoyed seeing the mice at work, the new Valiant keyboard offers some potent buffs and lets them make the most of equip effects and enchantment auras. I haven’t had much opportunity to experience the other tribes as of this writing, but I’m definitely excited to see how they work and play.
Bloomburrow releases officially on August 2 wherever you get your TCG cards, and it became available on MTG Arena on July 30th if you prefer or want to try a virtual format. New to Magic and need a little help? I have a beginners guide I wrote a few years back for an entirely different project if you want to check it out. Finally, feel free to watch the adorable trailer for Bloomburrow here.
Have you played with the new Bloomburrow cards? Let us know your favorites in the comments. Thanks for reading!
