In the world of MTG, it’s very natural for players to gravitate towards really flashy rares and mythic rares. During the spoiler season of an upcoming set, it’s often the big bombs and devastating haymakers that have us excited. However, if Bloomburrow taught us anything, it’s to not overlook small creatures or seemingly weak cards.
Synergy, versatility, and efficiency play a huge role in a card’s ability to see consistent Constructed play. As such, sometimes, it’s the basic common and uncommon designs that end up flourishing in a competitive environment.
Earlier, we discussed a modal Bloomburrow uncommon that has made its presence felt from Standard down to Modern. Now, we’re going to be talking about Cache Grab, a top-tier Bloomburrow common that plays a pivotal role in a surging Standard deck. Don’t let Cache Grab’s simplistic nature fool you; this card is as good as they come.
Cache Grab and Insidious Roots
- Mana Value: 1G
- Rarity: Common
- Text: Mill four cards. You may put a permanent card from among the cards milled this way into your hand. If you controla Squirrel or returned a Squirrel card to your hand this way, create a Food token. (To mill four cards, put the top four cards of your library into your graveyard. A fFood token is an artifact with “2, Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
Cache Grab is an interesting card that helps a lot with keeping synergistic decks consistent. Digging four cards deep for a permanent isn’t exactly exciting, but when you factor in Cache Grab’s ability to fuel your graveyard, the card becomes much more appealing. The fact that it can grab any permanent it mills over makes it a great inclusion in Standard Insidious Roots decks.
Insidious Roots shells, which put two players into the top 16 of a recent 462-player Standard event in Japan, improved a lot with the introduction of Cache Grab and Osteomancer Adept. Both of these cards help solve some major weaknesses the archetype has had in the past. First of all, a big flaw with Insidious Roots decks in general is that, when you don’t draw the powerful Enchantment or it gets destroyed, you’re in for a tough time. Well, Cache Grab helps you churn through your library to find Insidious Roots.
Meanwhile, Cache Grab puts extra cards into your graveyard that you can use when activating Osteomancer Adept’s ability. Notably, Osteomancer Adept is a Squirrel itself. So, if you control Osteomancer Adept when you resolve Cache Grab, you’ll generate a food token. You’ll even get this if you return a copy of Osteomancer Adept that you mill over with Cache Grab!
This Food can then be sacrificed via Forage to further maximize Osteomancer Adept’s activated ability. The more creatures you can bring back, the more tokens you’ll make off of Insidious Roots.
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Beyond Standard
- Mana Value: 1WB
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 4/3
- Text: At the beginning of combat on your turn, return target Vehicle card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Return it to its owner’s hand at the beginning of your next end step.
Even in decks with no Squirrel synergies present, Cache Grab is worth consideration. For instance, the card has shown up in some recent Abzan Greasefang decklists alongside Grisly Salvage. Grisly Salvage gets a bit of an edge as it digs one card deeper for Greasefang. However, Cache Grab has the added bonus of letting you pick up artifacts like Esika’s Chariot, which excel in attrition battles.
Beyond just Cache Grab’s role in Constructed, the card is also elite in Bloomburrow Draft. According to 17lands.com, a site that tracks user Limited data on MTG Arena, Cache Grab has the fourth highest win rate when maindecked of any common in the set. It is arguably the best green common in Blooomburrow Limited, especially when factoring in how strong the Squirrels archetype is to begin with. In a set with Forage and Threshold as important mechanics, an effect like this really shines.
Between the printing of Cache Grab and Malevolent Rumble, decks interested in card selection spells have received a noticeable boost in recent sets. Both of these commons played out better than they may have looked at first glance, and they are quite similar. Let this be a lesson that even the most unassuming, low-rarity card can really pull its weight in the right circumstances.
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