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Hey Gamers! Bloomburrow arrives this week! For those who don’t know what that is, it’s Magic the Gathering’s latest expansion, set in a world like Redwall or The Wind in the Willows, with cute fuzzy critters that mostly get along.
Cute critters do well with human consumers. Stuffed animals are a pretty good indication, and those range from being a last-minute gift option to an all-out economic force like Beanie Babies. People love cute critters, and some love it even more when those cute critters wear people clothes.
I’m mostly indifferent to the cute critters. They’re fine. I’d rather have great mechanics and balanced card design as top priorities, myself, but the sales power of cute critters cannot be ignored, and here we are. Where’s that? On the cusp of another Magic set that will send players scurrying to build new decks. But can they?
Building Critter Decks
Bloomburrow presents the idea that you can pick your favourite kind of cute critter and build some decks with them. There are ten types in the set that received direct support: Bats, Birds, Frogs, Lizards, Mice, Otters, Rabbits, Raccoons, Rats, and Squirrels, and there is a tiny bit of Fish, Snail and Hamster synergy. One new card is a payoff for Saprolings and Fungi, and another is for Insects. None of these types are new to the game, so there will be a backstock of cards to draw from. So far so good for deckbuilding.
So what formats are we talking about? Let’s be real and discount Vintage and Legacy as possibilities for a critter deck. It would take multiple new powerhouse synergy cards that would have to be better than the Elf/Goblin/Merfolk synergies available now. Recent printings have affected those shells, but history is on the side of those established creature types. Timeless on Arena seems like it won’t be threatened either.
Modern is a tough go for critters, too. Modern Horizons 3 just dropped, and it was not full of critters. Type synergy is the domain of elementals in that format right now, and it’s tough to imagine the current critters being better than the equivalent options among Humans. Humans used to be a deck in Modern, but now it’s not good enough.
Pioneer? Explorer? Possible, but those are also very established metas. Pauper? Maybe, but we’d have to be talking about some unbelievable commons. By comparison, there’s a 2-card infinite combo available in Pauper using a card from Modern Horizons 3, and it’s hardly breaking the format.
Standard? I hope so, because that’s where cards from a new Standard-legal release should matter the most. But we’ll see. Limited? That’s where most of these critters will have their day.
I’ve almost always written about Commander, and that’s the elephant left in the room here. We all know by now that WotC designs for Commander in every release these days. Commander is also where most type-based decks see play. Where people try Horse decks and Beast decks and Cleric decks. Why not critters?
Let’s look at the viability of Bloomburrow critters in Commander!
Bats
Colour Identity – Black, with a splash of White and one single Bat in Black/Blue.
Creature Base – Despite being around since the early days of Magic, Bats top out at 43 cards (and 2 silver-bordered). There are another 12 cards that make Bat tokens, which is actually fairly good. Some of those are pretty fun, and have been waiting for a deck to come along to justify playing them. Stuff like Skeletal Vampire.
Among the actual Bats, we have a lot of weaker creatures. However there are a few decent options, and they have built-in evasion, which gives you the start of a strategy. From there, Bats often have abilities like lifelink, that simulate draining one’s life essence. As Bats do. Leaning hard from there into lifegain payoffs seems easy, and some of those are on cards that make Bat tokens.
Bats have an (un)natural connection to Vampires, and there’s some crossover among token makers and abilities. A Bat deck could easily have a Vampire Commander, and there are no shortage of options.
Among actual legendary Bats, however, there’s only the new Zoraline, Cosmos Caller in Black and white, and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal in mono-Black.
Payoffs – Other than abusing the OP Mirkwood Bats, it’s tough to imagine defeating a Commander opponent with just Bats. Zoraline’s Bat synergy gains life, but needs help past that. Most Bats can get in for damage via flying, but need something to add to the damage or make it more impactful.
One option is Blex, Vexing Pest from Strixhaven, who gives all Bats +1/+1, has a powerful draw spell/graveyard filler on the back side, adds Green to the Bat party, and even has a built-in lifegain trigger. No White, though, which excludes a few of the best Bat-based lifegain payoffs.
Another option is Bats and gadgets, ie. Equipment and Vehicles, like a certain DC superhero that will probably have a card someday.
Future – Bats do have some things going for them, other than the nearly infinite looks and flavours of Batman. For one, the recent introduction of the Cave land type is promising for future Bats, and Caves are likely to come up in small doses, like in a Commander precon or Horizon set. Second, the next set up is a horror set: Duskmourne. Probably some Bats there. A few more decent cards and a legend or two to bring it all together and Bats are mobile!
Birds
Colour Identity – All the colours! Birds of Paradise has produced them since Alpha.
Creature Base – With over 375 creatures, Birds are a big bad flock. There are also a few dozen cards that make Bird tokens. If there’s an issue with Birds, it’s that they’re spread out over a long time period of expansions and include things like Whippoorwill and Kangee, Sky Warden as being equally Birds. And of course Shabraz, the Skyshark and The Goose Mother.
There are some extremely notorious Birds, like Nadu, Winged Wisdom, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician and Kykar, Wind’s Fury, and some format allstar Birds, like Aven Mindcensor, Baleful Strix, Ledger Shredder, Gilded Goose and Wingmate Roc.
But there are also a lot of 1/1 Flyers with not much else going for them, and of course, there’s Darba. We know Darba is a Beast – it’s on the card – and many players always suspected Darba was also a Bird… and now WotC confirms it! You got there, Darba! Not all Birds can fly and that’s okay.
Payoffs – The Birds often lack synergy, size, and purpose. Derevi, Nadu, Kykar and new Commander option Zinnia, Valley’s Voice do not need any other birds, and probably want specific, non-Bird stuff to make powerful things happen.
Kastral, the Windcrested from Bloomburrow is a decent-enough Bird Commander option, though limited in colours. If you can get rid of the Finality counters and find a few other ways to beef up your Birds, things might be solid.
Maybe the key to building Birds is jamming all the Bird buffs together. There are some other good Bird legends that make Bird tokens or give Birds a boost, like Akim, the Soaring Wind, Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles, Gwaihir the Windlord, and Kangee, Aerie Keeper.
Birds certainly have a few other tricks and such nested away, like Swan Song and Strix Serenade as some of the best Counterspells out there. There’s Ravenform for removal, and the new Perch Protection for Shenanigans. One of my favourites is Soulcatchers’ Aerie, which I play in my Changeling deck.
While Birds are every colour, the Blue and White ones tend to lean into control strategy play, with abilities like Scry, Flash, blink and various forms of card advantage. If you control the board, size and synergy hardly matter as long as your flock has them on the clock.
Future – Birds are everywhere! While a specific focus on Birds might not be a thing for another few years, there will almost certainly be a few Birds in most sets going forward. We should see more of both the Aven-style Birdpersons, as well as the more conventional Bird-style Bird. Ledger Shredder and Nadu, Winged Wisdom are a clear indication that WotC won’t hesitate to hatch some powerful Bird cards.
Frogs
Colour Identity – Primarily Blue/Green with a fair amount in Black as well. A tiny bit of both Red and White, available on legends.
Creature Base – Wow, a lot of things qualify as Frogs: Anurids, Slaads, and of course, Toads. There are also Frogmites, Frogmyrs, Froghemoths and Frogantuas. There are 69 total Frog creatures in Magic, plus stuff like Tatsunari, Toad Rider and Croaking Counterpart that make relevant tokens. Tatsunari is one of a few notable legendary options, including The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride and Yargle, Glutton of Urborg. There are some other standouts, like Spore Frog, too.
Once you get past the good stuff it’s mostly obsolete junk like Chub Toad, but between the top tier and Changelings, there’s definitely enough viable Frogs to make a deck. There are 11 Frog Legends, plus Tatsunari as Commander options. Frog decks can totally be a thing!
Payoffs – I’ve played against a very powerful Frog deck in Commander. Some of the cards get out of hand when they combine. Cards like The Gitrog Monster and Psychic Frog are very very good, and provide card advantage to do other powerful things. Something that really helps Frog decks is that there are some playable utility cards like Rapid Hybridization and Incubation//Incongruity to bolster the theme.
Of the new legends, only Clement, the Worrywort mentions Frogs in the text box, and the effect makes for more creatures, not better ones. The others: Flubs, the Fool, Glarb, Calamity’s Augur, and Helga, Skittish Seer do not mention Frogs. Glarb and Helga both want mana value 4 or higher, which isn’t ideal with Frogs. Perhaps the best Frog Commander might be something like Morophon, the Boundless, which allows for any Frog cards you like.
Future – It’s likely Kermit will be a Magic card someday. If the Final Fantasy cards include Chrono Trigger, then we should also get Frog from that game. Maybe Battletoads? I’m not sure what else. Frogs are already in a solid spot, so a few additions here and there, plus reappearances of key legends, should keep the type hopping.
Lizards
Colour Identity – Almost entirely Black, Green and Red, with a tiny bit of both Blue and White.
Creature Base – Lizards have a long and weird history with Magic, and what is or isn’t that type has been pretty inconsistent. Viashino is a really old creature type, dating back to Mirage, and is a race of Lizardpeople that were not considered Lizards until recently. Good for Lizard players, I guess, but pretty confusing. I’m not sure what to make of Surrakar or Salamanders, but they are currently not Lizards.
In Magic, Dinosaurs are also not Lizards, including cards like Dromosaur and Gnathosaur which were originally printed as Lizards, then changed to be Dinosaurs. Those cards have not been reprinted, however, so their only paper printings say Lizard.
So what does that leave us? Around 160 Lizard creatures and a small group of token makers like Predatory Advantage and Subterranean Tremors. Lots of options, although many are like Nema Siltlurker and Obstinate Familiar, aka barely playable.
The best Lizard cards in Magic are unquestionably Basking Rootwalla and Blazing Rootwalla, which see current Vintage play. Neither of those is really that appropriate for Commander, though. Basking Broodscale is part of that big time Pauper combo, and there are some playables from early Magic, and the very cool Lizard Blades but beyond that, Lizards need help.
Payoffs – There are a handful of Lizard payoffs in Bloomburrow, and nothing much elsewhere. The Bloomburrow ones are okay, but won’t make much of a dent in your average Commander game. Among them, Lizard legend Gev, Scaled Scorch is the best of a weak bunch, which is good, because Gev is the only Lizard legend in the set.
Lizards do get an okay damage booster in Valley Flamecaller, which does well with a card like Dagger Caster, but the drop off from there is significant. The best options are to choose one of Laughing Jasper Flint or Ognis, the Dragon’s Lash and focus on either Lizard Outlaws or Lizards with Haste.
Future – Lizards could be in a lot of future sets. They’re adaptable and survivable, especially in hostile environments. WotC just needs to keep on top of what’s a Lizard and what’s not. Marvel will definitely give us The Lizard, and maybe we’ll get a Secret Lair of the Hasbro executives too!
Mice
Colour Identity – Red and/or White. Also a single Legend with a blue identity, and a green/white sticker card from Unfinity.
Creature Base – Tiny, of course, but not in any good way. There are 23 total creatures with the Mouse type (none with ‘Mice’). That includes the sticker card, Tusk and Whiskers. The creatures are small in terms of stats, and while they might be something in a 60 card or limited format, the effects they create are… well… small. Changelings will bolster the ranks but are unlikely to provide the feel of mice.
Payoffs – Few and small. 6 of the 23 Mouse cards also have Mouse or Mice in their text, and there are a total of 8 others that aren’t Mice themselves. Several of these make Mouse tokens and little else.
Mabel, Heir to Cragflame, a Mrs. Brisby lookalike, will likely be a popular if not very powerful Commander. Despite being a Mouse anthem, she will likely struggle to fill out a Mouse deck. Arthur, Marigold Knight is very cute, but has no specific Mouse synergy. Cards like Adaptive Automaton can only do so much.
Future – Mice are everywhere in the real world, but their presence in Pop Culture is pretty concentrated in Disney and a few other cartoons like Biker Mice from Mars, Tom & Jerry, Mighty Mouse, etc. These are tough to imagine as Magic crossovers. The tale of Desperaux might make for a Secret Lair some day, but that’s a long shot.
Magic chose a flagship rodent in 1993 with Alpha’s Plague Rats and given support to that type ever since. While Mice can slowly build up ranks, they’re in the same design space and will need a specific push forward to ever be playable as a group.
Otters
Colour Identity – Blue/Red. One single Green card exists: Elusive Otter‘s adventure. Saffi Eriksdotter and Gollum, Patient Plotter just miss as Green/White and Black options.
Creature Base – There are 20 Otters. Which is really 18, because Elusive Otter is the only Green one and Lutri, the Spellchaser is banned in Commander. Ouch. Almost all of the Otters are new with Bloomburrow, and there are only 2 (legal) legends to use as Commanders, Alania, Divergent Storm and Bria, Riptide Rogue. Both are Blue/Red.
3 cards do make Otter tokens, and there are also 20 cards in Blue/Red that are either Changelings or make Changeling tokens, but getting enough Otters to make an Otter deck is going to be really tough. Going 5 colours with Morophon, the Boundless gets more Changelings and such, but you might as well stick to Blue/Red.
Payoffs – Alania, Divergent Storm as a Commander is a legit Otter payoff. Copying Otter spells is probably enough to turn borderline Otters into value plays, and makes for an instant strategy. Giving opponents card draw can either be an unfortunate downside, or a fun bargaining chip, depending on your meta. Luckily, Alania is not limited to Otters, and any deck built around it will be able to play other stuff that doesn’t take away from the Otters. Basically you can still play a fairly Ottery deck without a lot of Otters in it. Which is about the best you can do with the cards available.
The other Otter legend, Bria, Riptide Rogue is much more suited to leverage Prowess creatures, and while some of those are totally Otters, most are not, including the best ones. The deck may lend itself to leaning on the Commander and a Voltron-style strategy, which may make it an Otter deck after all.
Future – There are not a lot of Otters in Pop Culture at all. What do we even draw from here? Unless a new, Otter-forward property emerges and insists upon itself, we’ll have to rely on WotC making up their own Otter characters going forward.
Rabbits
Colour Identity – Mostly Green/White with a few legends that extend into either red or blue. The only others outside the legendaries are a weird black rabbit in Kezzerdrix, an equally weird blue rabbit in the classic Vizzerdrix, and Rabbit Battery.
Creature Base – New. Outside of the Drix’s and the Battery, most of Magic’s Rabbits are very recent. The old stuff is borderline unplayable, like Jackalope Herd and Zodiac Rabbit. There are only 29 Rabbit creatures total, with a handful more making tokens. It’s going to be a reach to find Rabbits, and there’s little point to straying outside of Green/White, even for good Changelings.
But there are a few very good cards among the Rabbits, like Pollen-Shield Hare and Preston, the Vanisher, as well as the cards from Bloomburrow. Despite their lack of depth, Rabbits do seem to have the jump on some of the other types.
Payoffs – Surprisingly, the Rabbit cards have a solid synergy brewing, and a bit of an identity. Rabbit legends synergize with tokens, like the above Finneas, Ace Archer or Baylen, the Haymaker, which both have a solid token payoff. Many of the current Rabbit cards fall somewhere into this paradigm, making or enabling tokens themselves. There isn’t a lot of random ‘gets +1/+1 and vigilance until the end of the turn’ stuff like in the other types of Bloomburrow.
The other legends, Ms. Bumbleflower and Byrke, Long Ear of the Law, don’t synergize with Rabbits specifically but are solid enough on their own that they could be Commanders or otherwise part of a Rabbit strategy.
Future – Final Fantasy is likely to include a few Viera, like FF12’s Fran, but beyond that? Bugs Bunny, Tiny Toons, and Roger Rabbit could be Secret Lairs. Watership Down maybe? Usagi Yojimbo? Bucky O’Hare? Rabbids? The Coneys in LotR did not translate to cards, sadly.
It’s hard to imagine a lot more concentrated Rabbit support in future, but there is a trend of making Rabbits into Magician characters, so it’s likely we’ll see a few legends at least.
Raccoons
Colour Identity – Almost all Green/Red, with one creature in each of Black and White.
Creature Base – 22 creatures total, plus one with a silver border (Squirrel Dealer). Mostly from Bloomburrow and a handful from New Capenna. Not good. Which also describes the average creature with this type. Leaning on Changelings is likely, and those will probably be most of your best creatures.
Payoffs – Muerra, Trash Tactician is the most obvious Commander option, and can provide a modest mana boost. Valley Flamecaller makes Raccoons do 1 more damage. There are some other minor stat buffs and +1/+1 counters. And that’s about it.
A few cards, including Muerra, synergize around the new Expend mechanic, but not enough to mount a strategy, and only 5 total (non-Changeling) Raccoon creatures are 4+ mana cost to actually synergize with Expend. Bloomburrow’s other Raccoon legend, Bello, Bard of the Brambles does not need or want other Raccoons. I won’t say the options for a Raccoon deck are trash, but at least that would be on-theme.
Future – Rocket Raccoon from the Marvel universe will likely be a card, but unless we see another Plane like Bloomburrow or maybe Dumpsters of New Capenna, Raccoon players will have to be content with scraps.
Rats
Colour Identity – Until Bloomburrow, every Rat in Magic was Black. There are a handful of multi-coloured Rats of course, and Wilds of Eldraine did have a bunch of Red cards that made Rat tokens, but until now, we have had 0 non-Black Rats. Now there are 6 mono-Blue ones.
Creature Base – There are 95 Commander-legal Rats, but as many players know, that’s deceptive. Deceptive because of two Rats, Relentless Rats and Rat Colony, that can be played in multiples. Finding enough good Rats for a deck is less difficult than finding enough copies of these cards. And then the remaining Rat cards get to fight for spots.
Rat decks both benefit and struggle because of the ‘any number of’ cards. They benefit because just slamming copy after copy of Rat Colony is a solid way to win games. They struggle because any new unique Rat card has to fight against a mountain of synergy, and they seldom win.
Payoffs – The main question is whether or not you’re playing the ‘any number of’ Rats. If you are, there are deck guides all over the internet for that stuff. It’s also a strategy that involves playing the same card over and over, so I don’t feel the need to break it down into further detail.
If not, things get murky. There are enough Rats and tokens to fill out the deck of any Rat Commander, but a fair amount are going to be small and weak. The top Rat Commanders, Marrow-Gnawer and Karumonix, the Rat King, use Rats as a blunt object and hardly need more than bodies. The ‘any number of’ Rats work just a little too well with them to bother with others.
The multi-coloured Rat legends, like the new Vren, the Relentless, at least offer another colour as Commanders. While it might not provide many useful Rat bodies, Blue has all sorts of things to supplement Rats. Thematically, Blue’s suite of theft cards would fit nicely, and Mind Control is perfect for representing Ratatouille. Unfortunately, it’s probably still best to play Vren with a bunch of ‘any number of’ Rats. Vren does seem very good for that.
Some of the Rat legends, like Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm, Lord Skitter, Sewer King, and Nashi, Moon Sage’s Scion are cool, and could be Commanders, but either have to survive a lot of combat or don’t unite the Rats. Or both. A few Rats, like the new Wick, the Whorled Mind, which cares more about snails than Rats, and Greasefang, Okiba Boss, who prefers Vehicles, could both have a Rat sub-theme.
Rats got a couple of cool new cards in Bloomburrow that aren’t Rats themselves, like Swarmyard Massacre, which calls back Swarmyard, another top card for Rats. These cards in particular show off the advantage Rats and Squirrels get for simply being Magic critters for a long time.
Future – Like some of the critters on this list, Rats are Ratpersons on some planes, like Kamigawa, and sewer vermin on others, like Ravnica. Basically they’re a lot of places, in a lot of forms. While that means they should be in the mix for a long, long time, it’s important to note that Rats didn’t have to share any design space with Mice until recently, and should have their numbers impacted as a result.
Squirrels
Colour Identity – Mostly Green and Black, with a touch of White.
Creature Base – Considering Squirrels have been a notorious and nutty part of Magic for decades, I was shocked to learn there are only 30 playable Squirrels in Commander (and 5 Silver/Acorn). There are additionally 25 cards that make Squirrel tokes but are not Squirrels, and a handful of cards with Squirrel bonuses. That seems strange, because Squirrels were a focus of Modern Horizons 2.
What that means is that playing Squirrels is going to be pretty limited. You’ve got your token makers and a mishmash of support effects, and not a lot of choice otherwise. Luckily, some are extremely powerful, like Squirrel Nest, a former Constructed allstar alongside Earthcraft, and the new Bloodroot Apothecary, which is designed to send treasure-based decks to poisontown in a hurry.
Payoffs – Any Squirrel deck is going to need to lean hard on the Commander. There’s a very popular option in Toski, Bearer of Secrets, who doesn’t need other Squirrels, but is very strong for card advantage. The big drawback is being mono-Green.
If you go into Black, there are three new options in The Odd Acorn Gang, Hazel of the Rootbloom, and Camellia, the Seedmiser. All of these seem okay, and none really jumps out as the best of the group. You can also add Chatterfang, Squirrel General to that mix, pick one as the Commander and play the others in the 99. It’s really too bad Earl of Squirrel isn’t legal or legendary, as it would be a really fun Commander option.
To win with Squirrels, you’ve probably got to do something like Overrun, both to be on theme and to leverage the main Squirrel advantage of making lots of Squirrel tokens.
Future – Squirrels have an iconic role in Magic, but I’m not too optimistic that we’ll see too many going forward. Squirrels thrive in peaceful tree-heavy settings, and that’s not that many planes in the Magic multiverse right now. They’re also not that big in Pop Culture, and there aren’t any Universes Beyond full of the little scurriers. We might see them here and there, like Toski, or in a supplement set, but Bloomburrow is likely the last big source of support for a while.
Fish, Fungi, Hamsters, Insects, Saprolings, and Snails
Fish – Surprisingly, Fish are not much of a type in Magic, topping out at about 40 cards. They’re almost all Blue, and are almost all unplayable. Many have no abilities, or some limited self-buffing. It doesn’t help that Sharks, Leviathans, Krakens, etc. and other sea creatures are considered a different type, whether they are or not in real life.
Bloomburrow’s Fish tokens make for some potential, especially when paired up with a card like Fisher’s Talent, but the lack of unifying legends, and minimal Fish support overall, are keeping this type in the tank. Too bad Frost Fair Lure Fish from Dr. Who isn’t legendary.
Fungi – With only a single Fungus card in Brightcap Badger (not a Fungus), the type is barely affected. The bonus, giving all your Fungi the ability to tap for G, can be useful if you have a lot of Fungi and want to cast a finisher. There are over 60 Fungus creatures in Magic to choose from to make it happen. Much less exciting if your main (or only) Fungus is your Commander (6 options, most good), but probably worth looking at regardless.
Hamsters – While there are almost no Hamster cards in Magic, there’s only one that needs to matter: Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes. This OP Planeswalker can be your Commander, and when it is, provides all the Hamster you need. The raw power of the card can knock down a table of opponents by itself, and doesn’t need much help, but Bloomburrow has a couple of interesting options for it.
Both of Sword of the Squeak and Rolling Hamsphere leverage Hamsters for extra value with Minsc and Boo. The Sword attaches to any new Boo token, and the Boos make the Sphere bigger. Of them, the Sword is probably more attractive because Boo beatdown is the wincon, usually, but the Sphere will keep you rolling in Hamsters, and that’s the dream for any would-be Minsc.
Insects – Already an established type (over 200 Insects in Magic) with interesting Commander options like Grist, the Hunger Tide, Insects didn’t get need much help from Bloomburrow. It is interesting to see how small a part Insects played in an environment that would normally include them. The one card they do get is Swarmyard Massacre, mentioned above in Rats, which is excellent for Insect decks.
Saprolings – Brightcap Badger is the only card for this type, as well as Fungi, but it’s much better for Saprolings. The adventure aspect provides a built-in 2-for-1, so the value is hard to beat among existing Saproling cards. I guess it’s a Saproling staple, but who knows what that means. Saproling is not a type on any non-Changeling creature and is only on tokens. Several other types of creatures make them, mainly Fungus and random Commanders like Rith, the Awakener. While the future of Saprolings is unclear, we do know from other tokens that they are neither Fungus or Plants, which narrows it down I guess.
Snails – Mentioned above in the Rat section, Wick, the Whorled Mind is a reason to play Snails. Sadly, the only non-Changeling option at present is Skullcap Snail. We’ll have to wait until the cross-plane racing sets for more.
Conclusion
In order from least playability-added to most playability-added in Commander, here are Bloomburrow’s critters!
Special Mention – Hamsters – Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes are team Hamster, and might have a couple new cards for their deck. Those decks are very strong, and might be better than any type-based deck out there. If the new cards turn out to be a big deal in the deck, Hamsters could be #1 on this list… but that seems very unintended, so they get a Special Mention instead.
16 – Badgers, Weasels, Snakes, Elk, Bears, Cats, Possums, Skunks, Coyotes, Crabs, Wolverines, Boars, Moles, Foxes, Dragons, and Wolves – These are all the types that got a creature or two in Bloomburrow, but no further support. That’s fine, and fills out the lore and ecosystem both, but when you go to build a Mouse deck and find there’s not enough Mice, it’s frustrating, because any of the Moles or Possums or Weasels could have been a Mouse. The set has 10 types with direct support, and they could have narrowed down the rest. Some of these types have lots of historical Magic support already (Wolves, Dragons), but they’re not the types Bloomburrow is showcasing.
I don’t know what Hugs the Badger is dishing up, but I don’t want any. Unnecessary cringe card is cringe, and could easily have been a Lizard or Raccoon. Can I sell my LGS my unwanted Hugs?
15 – Fungus – Only one new support card in Brightcap Badger, but it’s not bad. Since many Fungus make Saprolings, the card has a lot of value.
14 – Snails – Only one new support card for a type with only 1 creature, but the new card, Wick, the Whorled Mind, is a Commander with a 3-colour identity that’s half decent.
13 – Saprolings – Not all Saprolings do Fungus, but Brightcap Badger does Saprolings very well. Only one support card, but it’s a staple.
12 – Fish – A new legend in Eluge, the Shoreless Sea and a bunch of tokens do not make for a cohesive Fish-based strategy… yet. Lots of cards though. Gifting a Fish is weird on a plane where the critters are people.
11 – Insects – Already strong as a group, and Swarmyard Massacre looks like a sweet addition. Did not get a presence in Bloomburrow despite being in the right size and ecosystem range, which is weird. Any of Rats/Lizards/Raccoons could have been Insects instead.
10 – Raccoons – They added numbers and a couple legends, but will still struggle to make a deck. Most of the previous Raccoons were New Capenna trash, and some are the wrong colours for the new legends. The signature ability, Expend, lacks power and Raccoon synergy.
9 – Lizards – If you can get past the identity crisis (Viashinos – yes, Dinosaurs – no), there’s still not much here. Only one new Lizard legend in the set, and poor support. The new legend, Gev, Scaled Scorch is good, though, and some other recent Lizards like Laughing Jasper Flint make things interesting. Better creature base than Raccoons, but not by a lot.
8 – Mice – It sucks to put Mice here, but there’s so few, and they’re so small that a Mouse deck hardly seems possible. The legends look cute and fun, but I doubt the decks will have many, or any, other Mice.
7 – Otters – Like Mice, Otters are few, but they’re generally bigger and some fly and/or draw cards. The main Otter legend, Alania, Divergent Storm, looks good and will make Otters relevant, but the deck is probably a stock list leaning on Blue/Red spell goodstuff.
6 – Rabbits – While Rabbits have low numbers, the creatures have a good synergy brewing, and most revolve around tokens in some way. A couple of the new legends make things even more cohesive and potentially competitive, and the Rabbit legends overall are good. Hop to it, builders!
5 – Bats – With plenty of existing Bats, Bat token makers, and Vampires, there are no shortage of options to fill out the Bat decks. Competitiveness might be an issue, and the most of the best cards might be Vampires, but there’s some cohesion and flavour to be had for sure. Flying helps a lot, and unlocks a few strategies that other critters can’t leverage so well, like combat damage triggers on Equipment.
4 – Squirrels – Shockingly low numbers are bolstered by good token production and a solid competitive history. Being a showcase creature type in Modern Horizons set helps. Being a showcase creature type in an Un-set at least helps on the kitchen table. A very good group of legends, in colours that can make lots of mana and leverage creature tokens.
3 – Frogs – Decent numbers and some very strong cards make for some great Frog potential. Almost the best creature base on this list. Not a lot of cohesion, but some of the threats are so game-warping it hardly matters. Fan favourite Frog legend The Gitrog Monster is up to 3 powerful versions, and Yargle, Glutton of Urborg is at 2. All of the new legends could make for strong decks, though maybe not that much with other Frogs.
2 – Rats – Rats needed nothing from Bloomburrow, but still got a few new things to gnaw on. The best is new legend Vren, the Relentless, who adds Blue on top of a strong Rat payoff. Maybe not enough to dethrone the existing Rat champions as the go-to Commander, but you never know. The bar to clear to get in a Rat deck goes through Relentless Rats and/or Rat Colony but some Bloomburrow cards are gonna try and make the leap. Stuff like Patchwork Banner and Swarmyard Massacre will probably get there, as well as minor optimizations from cards like Mudflat Village.
1 – Birds – The skies are wide open for Bird builders! Bloomburrow didn’t explode the type into a new stratosphere, and the new legends aren’t that amazing, but Birds were already the most established type, in the most colours, and only really need some cohesion at this point. There are some seriously powerful Birds out there, and there are all sorts of utility spells, enablers and even mana producers among them. The most notorious card in Magic right now, Grief… I mean Nadu, Winged Wisdom… is a Bird.
Birds are established enough that they could fill out a deck that has another identity as well, like a control deck, and the fact that many have flying is a big plus, and another source of bonuses, like from Favorable Winds. Building around Birds might not be new for some, but there are enough cool optimizations in Bloomburrow, plus powerhouses like Murmuration, that Birds should soar.
Thanks for reading!
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