It’s day one of Bloomburrow spoiler season, and we already have a ton of MTG cards to look at! Some powerful old card types are coming back to light in this cute and cuddly anthropomorphic set! Even some old Planeswalker powerhouses have been unable to escape the effects of this plane, turning into cute and cuddly critters themselves!
Old reprints that broke entire formats, as well as old mechanics that were just as problematic, will be reappearing in Bloomburrow. Will they ruin formats just like they used to? We doubt it, but it’s cool to see this stuff reappearing regardless!
Ral, Crackling Wit
Ral, Crackling Wit is definitely geared toward decks that want to cast a lot of noncreature spells. Considering Ral, Monsoon Mage from Modern Horizons 3 had a very clear Storm payoff attached, this isn’t too surprising.
What is surprising is seeing that Storm is indeed returning to Standard. This card was technically leaked ahead of time, but Storm returning to Standard in any form is something that would be difficult to believe.
Either way, the Storm payoff that Ral offers is really difficult to access. You need to Ultimate Ral to even get a taste of this, and -10 is quite a hefty cost to pay. You need to be casting a lot of noncreature spells to access this ability somewhat reliably.
Add on the fact that Ral doesn’t really do much on impact, and this Planeswalker may be rather difficult to actually use. We expect this to be an ok Planeswalker as far as Standard goes, but someone will definitely try to break it.
Artist’s Talent
Artist’s Talent introduces the return of the Class enchantment to Bloomburrow! These first appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures of the Forgotten Realms set, representing various classes you could become in the game. You’ll have the first ability on the card when it enters. Other abilities can be unlocked permanently, or at least until the enchantment is dealt with, by paying a mana cost. You can find that cost in the ‘level’ section of the card.
Each type of animal has its role in Bloomburrow, and these Talent cards somewhat show that off. Artist’s Talent synergizes with noncreature spells, offering looting, discounts, and, finally, a damage boost on noncombat damage.
This definitely won’t see play past Standard and Commander. The looting ability is quite cheap to access, but requires other cards to create any value. If abused, this could see some play in more powerful formats, but the other effects cost far too much mana to unlock outside of a Standard and Commander environment.
Bria, Riptide Rogue
Bria, Riptide Rogue is another card that was technically already leaked or revealed. You can find this card in the Starter decks releasing alongside Bloomburrow, but Bria is Standard legal.
The Izzet archetype in this set cares about Otters and spellslinging. Bria is a great representation of this, encouraging you to cast as many noncreature spells as you can to buff your entire team.
As far as playability goes, Bria will likely suffer the same relegation to Commander and Standard as many new cards do in a core release. Bria needs other cards to create significant value, which means it is behind the curve for four mana in most formats. That said, with some help, Bria can dish out a terrifying amount of damage, making it interesting in slower formats that can support it properly.
Byrke, Long Ear of the Law
Byrke, Long Ear of the Law is the other Starter deck exclusively available in Bloomburrow. While Bria’s deck teaches new players about noncreature spells, Byrke teaches players about different types of counters that can appear on a creature.
Byrke truly wants to go wide and represents what the Selesnya Rabbit archetype is trying to accomplish in Bloomburrow. Create a ton of bodies, pump them all up, and swing in!
Byrke is incredibly expensive but packs abilities to make the investment worth it. That said, you really need the right deck to make this card work. Doubling +1/+1 counters on attacking creatures is powerful, but only if you have the support to make six mana worth that ability. This will not see play past Commander thanks to this.
Fireglass Mentor
Fireglass Mentor is the uncommon signpost payoff for the Rakdos Lizard archetype. These guys are creative artists who enjoy destroying their creations just as much as they enjoy creating them. They also really like fire.
Losing life is the theme that the Rakdos Lizards want to see. This particular Lizard offers recurring card advantage as long as you can satisfy its creative needs. Impulse drawing one card with some card filtering is quite powerful, but you have a small window to play the card, much smaller than Impulse Draw cards have been giving players in recent times. For that reason, you really need to make sure your deck is built in a way where you will not be leaving your cards in exile.
That said, Fireglass Mentor provides a lot of card advantage for its mana value, as long as you can synergize with it properly. This card could have some untapped potential.
Glarb, Calamity’s Augur
We were introduced to Mabel, the hero of the Bloomburrow story, rather early on in the First Look for Bloomburrow. Now, we are introduced to Glarb, an evil Frog who wants to upset the very forces of nature.
Glarb rewards ambitious players who want to go big. Frogs are like seers on the plane of Bloomburrow, and Glarb’s ability to look into the future and interfere with truly powerful things is harrowing. As long as you’re casting gigantic spells, Glarb can offers some strong card advantage.
Surveiling as a tap ability offers consistent card filtering as well as opportunities to set up your deck and abuse Glarb’s other abilities. This card looks quite powerful for Standard and could make itself a capable Sultai Commander.
Lilysplash Mentor
On the topic of Frogs that can see the future, Lilysplash Mentor is a signpost uncommon for the Simic Frog archetype that appears in Bloomburrow. These little guys care about hopping around, which is represented via Blinking cards.
Lilysplash Mentor appears to be a way to enable the other payoffs available to the Frog archetype. Since this card’s capabilities largely depends on what else you have going on, Lilysplash Mentor is a bit difficult to assess.
Osteomancer Adept
Squirrels are the Necromancers of the Bloomburrow world, which is a rather funny concept to swallow. Osteomancer Adept offers a rather impressive ability for a two mana creature. Being able to recast creature spells from your grave is exciting! This obviously has some likeliness to Underworld Breach, but is much less impressive than the other variant.
As powerful as the Squirrel Warlock is, Osteomancer Adept can only re-cast creature spells, and those creatures gain a Finality counter. This reduces the Squirrel to being mainly a value piece, and not a combo machine, unless the creatures being resurrected are already part of a toolbox strategy.
In this sense, Osteomancer Adept has a lot of potential. Could this be used as a way to make something like Amalia Combo even stickier? I don’t see how this card is better than existing options, but it is a possibility. Heck, if a creature combo deck appears in Standard, Osteomancer Adept could make it problematically consistent.
Parting Gust
Another card that was technically leaked, Parting Gust introduces the new Gift mechanic. Basically, you can decide whether or not you want to gift an opponent something – a small benefit of sorts. If you do, the ability of your card changes.
Gifting a tapped Fish Token turns this from a Blink effect into a permanent piece of removal. The trade off is likely worth it since a 1/1 Fish is unlikely to get much done. Notably, if this spell gets countered, even if you intended to Gift something to the opponent, they will not receive the gift.
Plumecreed Mentor
Plumecreed Mentor represents the signpost uncommon for the Azorius Bird archetype. This one is pretty straightforward. Birds care about Flying, so this archetype cares about Flying. Interestingly, the archetype also appears to care about creatures without Flying, so drafting the Bird archetype properly won’t just be about getting as many Fliers as possible.
Season of Weaving
Ok, there’s a lot going on with this one. Season of Weaving introduces a new type of modular choice, granting each mode a different cost. You get five paw points to use (that’s what we’re calling this for now), and different abilities cost different numbers of paw points.
This means that Season of Weaving is capable of doing a ton of different things. You can Cyclonic Rift the entire board, create a few copies of things and draw a card, or draw five new cards! Of course, the combinations go even further than that.
Season of Weaving is quite powerful, but it’s also quite expensive. A six mana Sorcery is a big cost to swallow in most formats, so we don’t see this card seeing play outside of Commander and Standard. That said, Season of Weaving is capable of turning a game on its head.
Seedglaive Mentor
Seedglaive Mentor showcases the Boros Mousefolk archetype. Valiant is a new mechanic that works similarly to Heroic, but abilities can also trigger it. Since Valiant is so much easier to trigger than Heroic, you can only use it once per turn.
So, the Boros Mousefolk archetype appears aggressive and wants to use a lot of combat tricks to fight when they absolutely have to. How brave!
Starseer Mentor
Starseer Mentor is the signpost uncommon or the Bat archetype. These snobby nocturnal creatures care about life gain and loss and can offer benefits whenever your own life total changes. Outside of Draft, Starseer Mentor is particularly underwhelming. This just isn’t worth spending five mana on.
Three Tree City
Another card previously leaked, Three Tree City offers a Kindred-esque spin on the ever-popular Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. This card is definitely harder to use than the Devotion-fueled monster, but creating a bunch of cheap tokens can create nightmarishly powerful amounts of mana, as long as all of those tokens are the same creature type. You can read more about how to use this new powerhouse here.
Read More: Bloomburrow Debut Spoilers Feature Incredibly Pushed Typal Support Cards!
Tidecaller Main
Tidecaller Mentor introduces the Ratfolk archetype to Bloomburrow. These Rats are trusted to keep secrets.
This signpost uncommon brings back yet another old mechanic from Magic’s past: Threshold. Race your way to seven cards in the graveyard and gain explosive benefits.
More Spoilers to See!
These aren’t the only spoilers that we have access to so early into the spoiler season! You can find a collection of new, powerful Typal cards here. Additionally, we have some early insight into the new Commander decks, including the new face Commanders of each deck. You can find those cards here.
A collection of Planeswalker reprints are also coming to Bloomburrow, like a particularly foxy Jace that we see above. You can read more about that shortly.
Finally, we will have a few exclusive reveals from Bloomburrow to share with you! That takes place on July 12, so make sure to tune in then!
Read More: MTG Bloomburrow Face Commanders Boasts Game-Ending Animation Commander!
