Bloomburrow (BLB) Limited Set Review: Artifacts, Lands, and Special Guests

Hey everyone! I finally swung the door of the content creation dungeon open and took a step out into the sunlight. I could feel the wind in my hair and the sweet scent of flowers in the air. I thought I was finally able to take a well-deserved break when I realized I had actually just walked through a portal to a strange new world. Not only that, but I’ve been anthropomorphized into a freaking squirrel. It’s not the first time I’ve had that problem (don’t ask questions about Bob the Magic Squirrel, trust me, it’s not a path you want to go down), but at least we know that everything is about to get nuts.   

I’ll be grading the entire Bloomburrow set for limited purposes. Maybe one day I’ll get out of this endless labyrinth of content creation, but today is not that day.

Here’s the usual grading scale:

• 5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Gruff Triplets, Virtue of Persistence, The Eternal Wanderer)
• 4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Virtue of Loyalty, Imodane's Recruiter, Realm-Scorcher Hellkite)
• 4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Faunsbane Troll, Gumdrop Poisoner, Talion's Messenger)
• 3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Candy Grapple, Hearth Elemental, Torch the Tower)
• 3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Shrouded Shepherd, Spellscorn Coven, Sharae of Numbing Depths)
• 2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Evolving Wilds, Archon's Glory, Flick a Coin)
• 2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Mintstrosity, Ice Out, Grabby Giant)
• 1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Titanic Growth, Scarecrow Guide, Territorial Witchstalker)
• 1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Dark Tutelage, Kindled Heroism, Impact Tremors)
• 0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. Cards that “could” be situationally decent, but bad in most situations. (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Mana Flare)
• 0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. They rarely print cards this bad these days. (Hew the Entwood, One with Nothing)

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Artifacts

Barkform Harvester

Rating: 1.5/5

I haven’t seen an archetype that wants to burn through the whole deck quickly so you can set your draw every turn with this. While this doesn’t feel like the fastest format, I don’t really see it coming down to decking that often either.

You can use this with shuffle cards such as Heaped Harvest and Fountainport Bell to get your goodies back in your deck, but it’s not exactly what I would call reliable.

This is mostly filler for when your deck doesn’t get there and you just want a curve filler of a specific creature type. 

Bumbleflower’s Sharepot

Rating: 1.5/5

I’m not looking to spend seven mana to kill a permanent. Part of it is that the upfront two mana would usually be better spend advancing your board so you have to hope it slips into your curve somewhere to get to play the five-mana removal spell later.

Fountainport Bell

Rating: 1.5/5

Not the best fixing, but at least you can basically cycle it for two mana if you don’t need a land. It does contribute a little bit to various themes like adding a card to the graveyard for Forage or Threshold, but not in a particularly meaningful manner.

Heirloom Epic

Rating: 1.5/5

We are way, way past the days when Jayemdae Tome was a playable constructed card. No, seriously it was in “The Deck” back in the Type One days. It might even still be played in Old School, but I’m not willing to dive into Reddit to find out.

This is a significantly upgraded version and it’s not even that good in limited. Magic has certainly evolved over the years.

The big thing here is that you don’t often get an opportunity to use mana sink type cards these days. Even though this comes down cheap, it will often just sit there while you play a normal game. The durdly decks such as Simic would rather be doing frognanigans while the fast decks don’t want to play a card that doesn’t kill the opponent.

Patchwork Banner

Rating: 3.0/5

This plays significantly better when you have drafted your deck correctly. Most of the well built archetypes are going to be almost all of the same creature type making this a Glorious Anthem that also ramps you.

Short Bow

Rating: 2.5/5

Did you know that equipping triggers valiant? That makes this an excellent way to pass it around your team for only one mana a pop. 

Starforged Sword

Rating: 1.0/5

I guess the picture is supposed to be what happens when Cloud wanders into Bloomburrow and is trying to fly with his Buster Sword.

This feels like an equipment out of the old days when they had no clue how to balance them properly. It’s big, expensive, and somehow has a drawback.

Tangle Tumbler

Rating: 1.0/5

This goes significantly up in the token deck, but a Dragon Blood isn’t cutting it in 2024.

Three Tree Mascot

Rating: 1.5/5

This format doesn’t really care about splashing around, but you can run this if your deck does. It can also be a generic version of any creature type based off of what bonuses you have for that.

Land

Fabled Passage

Rating: 3.5/5

This is unsurprisingly going to be good just like it has every other time it’s been printed. This set likes the extra card in the yard and this stands out more than normal without an Evolving Wilds running around.

Fountainport

Rating: 3.0/5

You’ll want to be running this in any deck that doesn’t have heavy color requirements. While a colorless land can occasionally be a problem this has some nice abilities to produce some value out of a land slot.

Hidden Grotto

Rating: 2.5/5

I only value the first one at this grade and it drops off pretty hard after that. The surveil is nice with all the graveyard synergies running around, but you really don’t want to be paying two mana for fixing your mana that often.

Lilypad Village

Rating: 3.0/5

All of the villages have the drawback of not being able to use the colored mana to play noncreature spells so while they are good, you can’t play too many of them. You really have to count up the cards you can and can’t play off of these villages before you determine if you can consider it a source of that color.

You’ll get some solid run out of this one especially if you are in the frog deck that wants to keep replaying your creatures.

Lupinflower Village

Rating: 2.5/5

This one lets you sacrifice it to get a creature so it will be more valuable in the decks looking to go later. The Boros decks are trying to race your opponent down so you most likely won’t have enough time to use this.

Mudflat Village

Rating: 3.0/5

While this seems very similar to the white one, I like being able to get a specific creature back from my graveyard much better than hoping that the one I want is in my top six cards. There are also a lot of key bats and squirrels that are great to play more than once.

Oakhollow Village

Rating: 2.5/5

The green decks are fairly mana intensive so you might have problems still having two extra mana after you pay for them.

Rockface Village

Rating: 3.0/5

This is obviously at it’s best in the Valiant deck as a repeatable source of triggers.

Three Tree City

Rating: 0.5/5

Nope, don’t do it. This isn’t constructed.

You need to have four creatures of a specific type out for this to do anything. While I can maybe see it doing something in the bunny token deck, it’s not worth it compared to spending most of its times as a colorless mana.

Uncharted Haven

Rating: 3.0/5

They went with this in the set that would have loved for it to be Evolving Wilds, but it’s still a fine mana fixer.

Special Guests

Swords to Plowshares

Rating: 4.0/5

A true classic makes its return. One mana to exile any creature is really, really good. You really don’t care about giving them life when you’re going up this much on mana in the exchange.

Ledger Shredder

Rating: 4.0/5

You know you’ll be double spelling to fuel this, but it also forces your opponent to choose between stunting their development or letting you get value every time. This card was great the first time, but it’s even better in a set that wants to fill the graveyard.

Rat Colony

Rating: 1.0/5

This is garbage especially as a Special Guest, but hear me out here. If you’re in the rat deck, it could be a decent size for the cost. It’ll probably just end up trading for a token, but I tried.

Relentless Rats

Rating: 0.5/5

Terrible limited card. A difficult to cast Gray Ogre. Hard pass.

Kindred Charge

Rating: 2.0/5

This is really expensive, but I could see it being a good finisher in Gruul Raccoons.

Sylvan Tutor

Rating: 0.5/5

Do you have an unbeatable bomb creature and really low quality in the rest of your deck? Then you can consider running this. The rest of the time this should be sitting in the sideboard (preferably someone else’s). Tutors aren’t good in normal limited and this one makes you go down a card.

Toski, Bearer of Secrets

Rating: 4.5/5

Toski can draw you a ridiculous number of cards which leads to drawing even more cards. He makes them reconsider every block they do because they can’t just let you draw ta pile.

On top of that, he’s Indestructible. Good luck with that.

Frogmite

Rating: 0.0/5

Another hard pass. There isn’t an artifact theme in this set so this is almost always going to cost four or three at the very best. It is a frog so technically it has some synergies, but not enough to ever even consider this.

Sword of Fire and Ice

Rating: 5.0/5

For those of you who haven’t had the joy to draft this before, it is absurd. Giving you a Shock and a card whenever it gets through is filthy. Mix it with some evasion and it will bury them in no time.

On top of that, sometimes you just play the Izzet player who will scoop as soon as this hits the battlefield.

Secluded Courtyard

Rating: 1.0/5

This can’t cast noncreature spells so it is limited like the villages without any of the upside. You are also stuck only getting mana for one creature type. While you are likely to be focused on only one creature type, I’d still rather have a basic land.

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Wrap Up

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow with my guide to Bloomburrow Limited Archetypes. Until then, stay classy people!

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

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