Hey everyone! Bloomburrow is finally going to launch on MTG Arena tomorrow. Are you ready to get umm… adorable? The set looks like a massive shakeup from the recent limited experiences. One of the big changes is that this is our first play booster experience without a bonus sheet so decks will be slightly fairer. Understanding the archetypes is more important with a focus on two color decks and less power spikes. Today I’m going to be going over all of the limited archetypes while providing skeletons for them.
For those of you new to this, archetype skeletons are example lists of what a good (but not great) version of that deck would look like. They are built with limitations to ensure they are realistic because when you’re in the wide-open bomb filled lane, you really don’t need to know that kind of stuff. These are the type of decks that could trophy, but aren’t guaranteed to.
The outline that we are using for this exercise will exclude all mythics. Since we’re in the play booster era and there is no bonus sheet it will be two rares, five uncommons, and not more than 2 of any base common.
For simplicities sake, the mana bases are going to be static with eight of each basic land and one Uncharted Haven. This is not necessarily the proper mana base for each of these, but we’re just keeping it simple here.
We’re used to Azorius being based around fliers; this is the same thing with a bit of a twist. You still have all those fliers, but now they boost non-fliers requiring you to have a mix of the two in your deck.
It was a bit of a challenge finding the right ground creatures for this considering that you want to win through the air. Waterspout Warden covers both bases by being a non-flyer for getting bonuses, but takes to the skies. Warren Elder is another great ground addition that contributes towards winning in the air.
The Orzhov deck is based around both gaining and losing life. It has a variety of ways to drive the opponent batty with all the triggers you’ll be getting off of this. You’re going to be much more focused on the life gain portion which will make racing you a nightmare.
Between all of the life you’re gaining and the spot removal for key creatures, it’s going to give you plenty of time to win through the air.
Boros is going to Boros. This time the mechanic is Valiant which is a fixed version of Heroic where you get a Valiant trigger whenever you target that creature with a spell or ability for the first time each turn. You’ll be leading your little mouse army to war and watching them tear your opponent up.
The Selesnya deck is the go wide deck of the format based around dropping a whole bunch of rabbits. It’s pretty basic; play a mess of dudes and light them up with a mass pump spell. Since everything in the deck is a Rabbit, Patchwork Banner is Glorious Anthem which is pretty dece when going wide.
The Dimir deck is themed around rats and getting Threshold. It isn’t quite an aggro deck or a control deck though you can tilt it more towards one of them depending on your draft.
Simic is the king of durdling around to produce extra value. You’re blinking and bouncing all of your frogs to hop on over to victory lane. It is rather mana intensive, but you should be drawing enough extra cards to hit your land drops. There are some considerations for eighteen lands because of this, but I did make a rule about ignoring the mana bases in this article.
Rakdos is in the business of getting rowdy and business is booming. There are a bunch of creatures that get a bonus if your opponent was dealt damage this turn including the busted Thought-Stalker Warlock. It’s easy to trigger these since you are going hard and fast at them with enough removal to ensure that happens.
Golgari is a grindy midrange deck based around squirrels and food. I will say that choosing the second rare (Camellia was easy) was difficult because there are multiple great ones designed for this archetype. While I’m not a fan of Heaped Harvest in decks that aren’t splashing, you have so many ways to sacrifice it away without paying the mana that it is worth it here.
Unsurprisingly Gruul wants to play some giant beaters and send them straight into the red zone. It has some mana dorks to ramp and then a steady stream of chonkers to play to trigger all of those expend fours.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with my over and underperformers of Bloomburrow after I get a few days to jam a disgusting amount of drafts. Until then, stay classy people!
I’m always open to feedback, let me know what you loved, what you hated, or just send dog pics. You can contact me at:
Josh is a member of the elite limited team The Draft Lab as well as the host of The Draft Lab Podcast. He was qualifying for Pro Tours, Nationals, and Worlds literally before some of you were born. After a Magic hiatus to play poker and go to medical school, he has been dominating Arena with over an 80% win percentage in Bo3 as well as making #1 rank in Mythic.
