Following its release, Bloomburrow just keeps getting better and better. Over the past few weeks, myriad competitive archetypes have appeared, combatting concerns about the set’s power level. In addition, new Bloomburrow cards are now being revealed, amplifying the growing excitement even more.
As usual, these new cards are part of the accompanying Alchemy set. Only available on MTG Arena, at first, these cards typically further the set’s themes with unique digital-exclusive mechanics. For Bloomburrow, this means even more cute critters providing interesting typal support.
Euru, Acorn Scrounger
On paper, Bloomburrow already had an amazing new option for Squirrel Typal decks. Helming the Squirreled Away precon, Hazel of the Rootbloom offered a fantastic assortment of token creation and ramp. Sadly, this card didn’t make it over to MTG Arena.
Due to development constraints, the Arena team had to pick between adding the face Commaders or Courageous Critters. For better or worse, Wizards chose to go with the latter. This left Brawl players without a super compelling Squirrel Commander as Camellia, the Seedmiser doesn’t cut the mustard.
Thankfully, this injustice is finally being fixed through Euru, Acorn Scrounger. Capable of Conjuring Chitterspitter onto the battlefield, this card builds its own Squirrel army. As if that wasn’t good enough, Chitterspitter can even buff that army, which Euru helps with too. If you’re looking to build a Squirrel Typal Brawl deck, this card is for you.
Outside of Brawl, Euru likely won’t have much competitive appeal. This is quite the downgrade compared to Rusko, Clockmaker who is similarly a 3/3 for four who Conjures a 3 mana artifact. Sadly, unlike Rusko, Euru requires you to Forage to Conjure Chitterspitter, which massively diminishes its synergy with flicker effects.
Despite this, arguably needed, downgrade, Euru, Acorn Scrounger is still a fantastic addition to MTG Arena. After all, they finally give Squirrel fans a viable Commander option in Brawl. This card could technically work in Commander too, albeit with a fairly significant tweak.
Instead of Conjuring Chitterspitter, a paper-playable Euru could just create a token of this card. While this may be an easy reprint, it’s sadly unlikely it will ever happen. In Mystery Booster 2, Conjure cards weren’t reworked to make them playable, so it seems Wizards isn’t jumping that shark for now.
Tasteful Offering
While Euru, Acorn Scrounger might be a bit of a needed dud, Tasteful Offering has real potential. In the right deck, this card offers a compelling amount of consistency, for very little cost. Played right, this card is two mana to draw two nonland cards and create a Food token.
Admittedly, to facilitate this targeted card draw, you do need to sacrifice at least two permanents. This is theoretically very easy at the moment since Forage and Food tokens are so prevalent. Tasteful Offering will even give you one of these tokens so you’ll always have something to sacrifice.
On the surface, Tasteful Offering seems like an amazing card that’s suited to a vast number of decks. Like Bramblearmor Brawler, however, this card is a bit of a trap. Few MTG decks in Alchemy, Historic, or Timeless are actively sacrificing their board. The one deck that does, Golgari Yawgmoth, will struggle to find a place for this card, even though it’s good.
Thankfully, while it may be competitively lackluster, in Brawl, this card is easy to activate. Not only does it work wonders alongside Euru, but Treasure tokens will activate this effect too. Since these tokens are so prevalent in Brawl matches, many decks will benefit from running this card. It could even slide into Grixis Heist thanks to Impetuous Lootmonger’s antics, but that remains to be seen.
Plenty More Coming Soon
So far, we’ve only seen three of the 30 cards in Alchemy: Bloomburrow. The rest are expected to be revealed this week, with a large dump likely happening on Monday the 19th. While it doesn’t look like we’re getting any new mechanics, hopefully, the set will further Bloomburrow’s typal themes. From the initial spoilers we’ve seen so far, we’re getting exactly that.
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