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.
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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A bear (well technically a squirrel and a raccoon, but you know what I mean) that comes with a food is a solid deal. The potential expend pump is just the gravy on top of that delicious food.
I’ve already talked about how expend is a difficult mechanic to consistently enable since it requires you having the spells to cast for it, but with this one your opponent really has to consider the threat of you playing an instant to give it indestructible before they try to interact with it.
Now this one you might want to be expending before combat so your team of trash pandas have vigilance. There are also going to be times that you want to use it as a trick so this seemingly straight forward card actually takes some decision making.
I considered the “IIIII wiiiiillllll always love you” for this bodyguard, then I realized most of my audience would have no clue what I was talking about. Some of my references are a bit outdated, but I proudly have no clue what is going on with a skibidi toilet.
You want some cheap ways to produce food or fill your graveyard to maximize this. Potentially getting 7/6 of stats for four mana is a bargain.
Every time I’ve seen this hit play so far the opponent has said a couple of expletives, that must mean it is good.
This might not be much of a sleeper coming off of Malevolent Rumble in MH3. You’re not guaranteed the extra value of the token like Rumble, but you do have a solid chance of getting a food if you’re squirrely. You also actively want to put cards in your graveyard in this set and this is an instant.
This card is alright on its own as a three-mana ramp spell that gives you a 1/2 body with it. You mainly want to lookout for this when you have a bunch of ways to bounce or flicker your own creature.
I love this card in combination with Cache Grab, but its great in any of the grindy food decks. You’re going to have to take this early because it’s value bleeds over into any of the other green decks while a lot of the cards are better in specific archetypes.
It’s not hard to control a token, but you do have to watch out for getting blown out if you only have one. It doesn’t feel like you’ll ever have to invest a premium pick on this.
I’m happy with this as a decent sized card advantage creature that can ramp you. I wouldn’t actively look for creatures with greater toughness to support this, but there are plenty of solid cards that just happen to have those stats.
It’s not likely that you are going to get to ten lands, but I’ve already seen some games get there in this format so it’s just a nice bonus when you get there.
There are decks that might really want this, but most of them aren’t going to have enough tokens to guarantee that it is worth playing. This can copy food tokens as well as whatever creatures you have running around so maybe that will lead to some shenanigans worth doing.
It’s far too situational for my tastes, but you go ahead and do you.
I’m not even going to make the pushed Colossal Dreadmaw jokes, we all know. This moose is massive compared to everything else running around.
The flash lets you potentially eat an unsuspecting attacker and reach ensures it doesn’t care if that creature is up in the air. The vigilance means they are going to have to do something about it if they want to get attacks in.
This is really meh if you aren’t playing a token deck, but being only good in the right deck is the story for most of the cards in this set. So many cards are close to unplayable if you’re not in the right tribe.
It is a decent way to get a valiant trigger every turn if that’s what you’re trying to do.
I like this better in a forage-based deck then using it to try to enable some multicolor shenanigans. While obviously it’s a great way to add a splash to the aforementioned forage deck.
One mana tricks tend to overperform and there are a bunch of valiant creatures running around. This just doesn’t have a huge effect on the board.
Trying to surprise their flyer always sounds like a good idea with these spells, but you are usually playing your trick into open mana with that. Good luck with that.
The other day we were joking about the opponent never having a creature token when you play this while they always have a pile of them when you don’t draw it. Obviously, that’s part of the same algorithm that determines exactly how to match you against the perfect counter to your deck in an insidious plot to drain all of your money.
This is a chonker with a bunch of versatility built into it. Being able to pick off one of the green classes or a Patchwork Banner is a great option when the floor is 6/5 worth of stats for five mana.
I can’t wait to kill someone with this and tell them that they forgot about Dre.
This has the potential to be straight up (sigh…fine, I’ll say it) nuts as long as you are playing the squirrel forage deck. It’s going to kick your opponent right in the acorns when you end up with a 7/7 trample (or more) for only three mana.
This might be an uncommon, but it sure doesn’t play like one. That’s right everyone, we’re peeping a mythic uncommon here.
A two-mana bite spell is a good card on its own so the rest of this is just extra gravy. The trample is a huge addition to level two letting you ignore their chump blockers especially if you happen to have some deathtouch critters.
I don’t think anyone is going to complain about drawing an extra card every turn with stage three. Yup, this is good.
Would you like to have a Luminarch Aspirant that is significantly harder to remove? I thought you’d be interested in that. While level two isn’t quite as impressive, level three doubles those counters up along with any other counter shenanigans you’re getting up to.
Being able to screw with your opponent’s graveyard is great considering how much the graveyard matters in this set. Being an above rate creature that gets insanely big when it gets personal delirium is looking nice too.
You can remove some from your own graveyard to get that sweet +4+4 if your opponent isn’t cooperating with putting all the different types in theirs.
A fight spell is a lot worse than a bite spell, but it is only one mana. I like this in chonky green decks instead of go wide ones where you’ll be struggling to find easy fights.
A massive vigilant creature with reach is going to force your opponent to go wide or go home. (or have removal, but damage based isn’t going to get it done) This will usually get a couple lands back when you play it, but maybe even more when you are playing Cache Grab or looters to fill the yard.
You don’t have the option to not return a creature if you have another one in play so you really want to be playing cards like Pond Prophet to really profit off of it. In that case it will always be ahead of the curve on its way to beatdown town.
This is a giant (growth) sized Gaea's Gift that can do so many different things for you. This card is there for you whether you need to shut down a removal spell or push a bunch of damage.
While I’m not particularly high on this, I am happy running one of them especially if I have food synergies. Getting to pop off a Wax-Wane Witness or an Innkeeper's Talent is great when you need to do it. Having a floor of two mana to cycle it and getting a food out of it keeps it playable.
Somewhere Savannah Lions is telling stories about how great it used to be. We get it buddy; you scored two touchdowns in that High School game in the nineties.
This is so insane when you have both because they can’t really do anything to your creatures without creating a huge problem for themselves. I’d have it higher, but sometimes your opponent’s plan doesn’t involve interacting with your creatures.
This is alright, but I’d much rather have Curious Forager. Giving them a card isn’t a huge deal if you have two things worth bringing back, but it’s not high on my list of things to do.
I feel like I keep repeating myself, but this is another card that can be insane in the right deck (frog tribal) while being merely alright in other decks.
This is a legitimate form of evasion with so many small creatures running around Bloomburrow. It’s also a perfectly reasonable cost for the offspring even if a somewhat evasive 1/1 doesn’t make that big of an impact.
A 4/4 reach for three is a nice curve filler as long as you are heavy green. A card for popping off an artifact or enchantment is a steep price, but worth it when you need it.
I don’t know how often that second option is ever going to kill more than one thing and it does put your own artifacts or enchantments under the bullet as well.
The first one can act as an Overrun effect ton win the game on the spot. If it can’t get the job done, then you’ll just have to settle for adding a couple of counters while drawing five.
It doesn’t do anything if you don’t have any creatures in play, but its not like a Green deck was winning if that was the case anyway.
The “up to” really makes this card tick because you don’t want to get stuck having to bounce something when you just need to drop a body into play. There are a ton of things worth picking up for value and you’re not restricted to running this in Frog tribal.
This appears like a solid card advantage engine on the surface, but you need a lot to go right for it. If you have double Corpseberry Cultivator going then this can pump out some cards. If you just have a few counter producers then this shouldn’t be in your deck.
Think about it like this, you are three mana into breaking even if you had this out when a card added a counter. That’s not even getting into how this can be a dead draw off the top of your deck. It’s going to be rare that I’ll be playing a deck that I actually want this in.
While this bear only taps for green, it can tap for two mana of any color if you can forage which is much easier to pull off than you would think. Not only that, but it can start tutoring up squirrels once your hand runs dry.
I normally love a mana fixing two drop that can do some early blocking. The problem is it doesn’t do anything else later and is missing a relevant creature type.
This is basically asking you how may ways are you packing to bounce your own critters. It’s a decent body for the mana so it only takes one counter to feel like you are ahead in the deal.
This plays great with any kind of trample because it can pump for a massive amount under the right circumstances. It obviously performs well with the bounce your own stuff plan even if it is a bit pricy to replay it.
One of the many ways that the squirrel deck can pile up value by giving you a Giant Spider that replaces itself. It really helps against the Orzhov bat decks giving you the opportunity to stabilize and take over with your squirrel army.
While not a great card to top deck later on, it can be a wrecking ball when you drop it turn one. The critter selection covers pretty much everything associated with green so it’s going to be growing with a swiftness. It’s not limited to once per turn or per creatures entering so when you play a token card such as Hop to It you end up with three counters.
You’re not going to wear me down enough to convince me to play this in the main. Strictly in the sideboard.
Wrap Up
Green feels awesome with so many solid creatures and value generating cards. It has the two best class cards by a wide margin and a whole bunch of great cheap rares. That’s not even getting into the pile of squirrels and how good that deck feels to be playing when your opponent is trying to be aggressive. I expect to be drafting a ton of Green this set.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow with my limited review of the Multicolor cards of Bloomburrow. Until then, stay classy people!
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
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.
