I was skeptical initially, despite the trust I have in Magic: The Gathering ‘s creative team. I’ve been playing on and off for the better part of twenty years now; MTG has tried some experiments in that time that didn’t quite pan out, but in the grand scheme of things, Mark Rosewater and the team have shown they’re committed to making the game better and growing it over time. Sometimes sets just don’t land for every player, though, and a set with only animals for creatures felt like one of those for me initially.
Art by Steve Prescott
Yet, after seeing the curtain pulled back on Bloomburrow during a press event, my mind has changed. I never thought I’d be making a deck of soldier mice, but you firmly have my attention now, MTG .
While the lack of humanoids is a big departure, Bloomburrow has some heavy Ravnica vibes to me—but in a way that doesn’t rely on the pre-established guilds of that plane or their conventions. Strixhaven took a similar approach, with colleges within a magical academy instead of factions vying for influence over a massive city-state. This time, there’s a heavy focus on two-coloured tribes, each with their own identities.
Take, for instance, the white-red Mousefolk. These brave mice take notes from their equivalents in Ravnica and Strixhaven : they have many soldier cards, and their signature keyword, Valiant, puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature the first time it’s targeted by one of its owners’ spells each turn. Their foil in blue-black, representing an already prevalent tribal type, are the Ratfolk, who are more secretive and play into graveyard and mill mechanics.
Bloomburrow ‘s tribes play into some animals’ real-world personalities, like making the blue-red Otterfolk clever daredevils or giving the green-white Rabbitfolk a strong focus on community. At other times, it takes some interesting creative liberties, like making Squirrelfolk into black-green stewards of the cycle between life and death or imagining Frogfolk as seers and diviners. Raccoons here aren’t the same rascals that tear your garbage bins apart at night, but rather capering entertainers and bards or free-spirited wanderers.
“Ultimately, MTG Bloomburrow ‘s potential for multiplayer and Commander is what finished sealing the deal for me.”
TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow; fight beside mice, frogs, bats, birds, lizards, squirrels, and other critters as you restore the balance of peace in the Valley and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
NOW WITH 9 PLAY BOOSTERS—Get the best of Draft and Set Boosters, combined into one! Play Boosters are great for Limited play and fun to open, with a possibility of multiple Rares and at least 1 shining foil card in every pack
As one might expect from a set with heavy tribal themes, there’s a cycle of uncommon mentor cards to help unite each tribe’s presence in a deck. Magic: The Gathering Bloomburrow also contains a cycle of Mythic sorcery cards called seasons, which use a unique “pawprint” mechanic to let the player customize the spell’s effects. As demonstrated by Season of Weaving, the player can use this 6-mana spell to draw five times or to copy a token and then return any permanents that aren’t lands or tokens to their owner’s hand.
Another new mechanic, Expend, rewards you for spending a certain amount of mana each turn—Junkblade Bruiser has expend 4, so when you spend your fourth total mana to cast a spell that turn it gets +2/+1 until end of turn. (Expend activates even if you spent that 4 mana on a spell that got countered, so it can be a bit of a consolation prize.)
Offspring, on the other hand, is a more flavorful mechanic that leans into Bloomburrow ‘s critter focus. It allows the player to add additional mana to a creature card’s cost to summon a 1/1 token copy of it—and each card with Offspring will also have a bespoke printed token card available in packs, as seen in Tender Wildguide’s adorable example. Cards with Forage, meanwhile, let you expend a Food token or exile three cards from your graveyard to achieve another effect, like Osteomancer Adept.
TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow. Battle your friends with armies of adorable critters and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
BRING THE TABLE TO LIFE—Make trash and smash all who stand in your way with the Racoon Bard, Bello, at your side. One critter’s trash is another one’s treasure.
TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow. Battle your friends with armies of adorable critters and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
SQUIRRELS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN—Stock up on tokens, then spend your hoard to clean house with an army of squirrels
TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow. Battle your friends with armies of adorable critters and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
PREPARE FOR A SPECIAL DELIVERY—Jovial troubadour Zinnia delivers the pain, plus a whole litter of offspring to overwhelm your opponents.
MTG Bloomburrow ‘s last new mechanic, Gift, will surely inspire some specialized multiplayer-focused Commander decks. When casting a card with this mechanic, you may promise an opponent the “gift” indicated on the card, like drawing a card or getting a certain creature token. They only get the promised gift if the card enters the battlefield successfully, and cards with Gift will have follow-up conditions depending on whether or not the promise was successfully delivered.
In other words, it’s like a bribe or asking that player to let your spell resolve without a counterspell. This might also make your card the prime target for another player’s counterspell, though. For the MTG veterans, the concept reminds me of the amazing Commander 2011 premade Commander decks, and particularly a friend’s savvy bargaining skills with Zedruu the Greathearted during multiplayer games.
TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow. Fight beside adorable critters and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
GET ALL 4 BLOOMBURROW COMMANDER DECKS—Make trash and smash with Animated Army, make offspring and go wide with Family Matters, make friends and then end them with Peace Offering, or hoard tokens to defeat your enemies with an army of squirrels with Squirreled Away
TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow. Battle your friends with armies of adorable critters and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS—Win friends and influence players with Ms. Bumbleflower, building up +1/+1 counters along the way, then watch the table crumble under your kindness!
Ultimately, MTG Bloomburrow ‘s potential for multiplayer and Commander is what finished sealing the deal for me. While it has the makings of a thrilling set in Standard play, the old Casual, kitchen-table-Commander player in me roused when seeing just a taste of these new offerings.
Of course, half of what brings the new cards and setting to life is the art direction, and it’s readily apparent that a lot of conscious thought went into designing Bloomburrow ‘s aesthetic. Anthropomorphized animals can look pretty goofy sometimes, and the initial announcement last summer left some (like me) wondering if the set would have an overly cartoonish feel, not unlike the Un- sets.
However, the cards revealed so far are every bit as Magic as any other set, even without humans. The famous Redwall series was a major inspiration, and contributions from guest artist David Petersen, author and illustrator of Mouseguard , helped set the tone as well. As game designer Neale Laplante Johnson related during the press event, a conscious effort went into giving each animal group a distinct identity with something aspirational about them instead of leaning into more malicious, demonized interpretations of them that may exist—hence the face turn for raccoons and bats, for example.
That’s not to say that Wizards of the Coast isn’t having a little fun with the setting, though. Planeswalker Ral Zarek appears in Otterfolk form on a new card in Bloomburrow itself, while a cycle of variant cards dubbed “Imagine: Critters” reprints beloved planeswalkers in (non-canon) anthropomorphized form—sort of a “what if” scenario for how they would appear if they arrived on this plane.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor, becomes a fox; Tamiyo, Field Researcher, appears as a Rabbitfolk; and Liliana of the Dark Realms becomes a necromantic squirrel. Sure to be among the more expensive cards, they’re either a reflection of how Bloomburrow ‘s tribes work or pretty clever plays on the characters’ personality and backgrounds (even if it still stings seeing Tamiyo reprinted after her untimely demise/corruption in Neon Dynasty ).
On the other side of these reveals, Bloomburrow ‘s premise has truly won me over. With any luck, this could scratch the same itch as Ravnica while giving that plane a little time out of the spotlight—and infusing both tribal and Commander play with plenty of new life.
Bloomburrow arrives on MTG Arena July 30, while preorder events kick off on July 26 before its global release on August 2.
TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow; fight beside mice, frogs, bats, birds, lizards, squirrels, and other critters as you restore the balance of peace in the Valley and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
FUN TO OPEN. FUN TO PLAY—Get the best of Draft and Set Boosters, combined into one! Play Boosters are great for Limited play and fun to open, with a possibility of Art cards, Showcase cards, additional Rares, and a foil card in every pack
LOOKING TO HOP INTO MAGIC?—Everything you need to play your first game of Magic: The Gathering is right here. Shrink down to critter size and battle for the Valley with two pre-built 60-card decks.
TINY TAILS, BIG ADVENTURE—Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow; fight beside adorable critters and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!
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