At long last, one of the biggest events for MTG players is finally here! Spoiler seasons are great for hyping up the general community, but they have nothing on the game’s Magic Con events.
From gigantic competitive tournaments that shake metagames to their core, to detailed panels that shine a deeper light on the game of Magic, Magic Cons truly celebrate the game in its entirity.
One of the biggest event for many MTG players at these Magic Cons is the spoiler panel. These panels allow players to steal a glimpse of multiple MTG sets yet to be released in just one sitting. For the Magic Con Chicago panel, one of these sets is Bloomburrow, a new plane that does not have a single human being on it!
Instead, players will be immersed in a world of ‘cute anthropomorphic animals’ in the words of MTG designer Mark Rosewater. From the artwork we received in this early look, a lot of these animals certainly look eerily similar to our favorite Planeswalkers!
There aren’t as many spoilers for the new Bloomburrow set as the other sets featured in this panel – as we still have some time before this set hits stores. Regardless, villains and heroes were revealed for the first time today. Let’s take a look!
Mabel, Heir to Cragflame
According to today’s reveals, Mabel, Heir to Cragflame is the protagonist for this set. For reference, Kellan’s arc ends with Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
Like many of the characters revealed so far, Mabel seems to have a small familiarity with an existing, or former, Planeswalker. This one reminds me a bit of Rowan, but the other Planeswalker-esque animals have way more similarities.
Players who are excited for Mabel’s Mice Typal payoff will be thrilled to know that, according to Rosewater, the Boros theme for the Bloomburrow set will be revolving around Mice. If you ever wanted to build a Mice Typal Commander deck, now’s the chance!
Mabel’s viability, honestly, is going to depend on how good their mice compatriots are. Creating Cragflame on entry is certainly impressive, as this equipment is capable of giving any creature a slew of aggressive keywords. There is certainly potential here, but Mabel is not blowing my socks off.
Read More: Wizards Reveals MTG Fetch Land Reprints and New Free Spell Cycle!
Lumra, Bellow of the Woods
Even though Lumra was quickly shown off as a new Bear Commander, the card actually tailors itself more for a Landfall strategy. This creature is a lot scarier than it looks, and because its effect appears to rely on it entering the battlefield, it can easily be abused with Blink and Panharmonicon effects.
Lumra is quite literally a Splendid Reclamation on a stick. When Lumra enters, not only will you mill four cards, but they will return all your lands to the battlefield tapped.
This immediately makes Spelunking look even more terrifying in competitive formats. A fringe Scapeshift strategy already exists in Pioneer that can go infinite utilizing Spelunking, Scapeshift and Splendid Reclamation. Through Blink effects, you could easily cycle Scapeshift and Lumra’s ETB effect with some setup.
Even if the Splendid Reclamation effect is underwhelming, as long as you have a decent amount of lands, Lumra is quite a capable board presence.
This card looks absolutely fantastic for Commander players, and could even make some appearances in some lower powered competitive formats. Six mana, however, is a lot for a creature that needs to be built around to some extent, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Bloomburrow Lore Details
Alongside just a few new MTG spoilers, a lot of lore-related details were revealed about MTG Bloomburrow. As mentioned before, Mabel is the hero of the story, while the villains appear to be predator animals under the name of Calamity Beasts. These Beasts have been on a rampage across the world.
Aside from four cute critters revealed to be traveling alongside Mabel, Ral appears to be appearing in this set as… an otter? This image depicts the card art for a card named Ral, Crackling Wit, so this certainly seems to be the Planeswalker we’re all familar with.
Additionally, another image was revealed depicting a Fox wearing Jace’s signature garb. That card has not has its name revealed yet. What does it all mean? We’ll have to wait and find out!
A Lot More to See!
Sadly, there isn’t a large amount of stuff that was revealed for players in regards to the upcoming Bloomburrow set. That said, the set still has quite some time to hit shelves, so this makes sense.
Fortunately, for players looking to dive into new MTG spoilers, there are a ton of spoilers that were revealed for Modern Horizons 3, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and Assassin’s Creed all had a ton of reveals during the Magic Con Chicago preview panel.
