Bloomburrow (BLB) Limited Set Review: Multicolor

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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Alania, Divergent Storm

Rating: 3.5/5

I’m never a fan of giving my opponent extra cards (unless I’m decking them), but being able to copy any spell for free is a powerful ability. I’m sure you don’t mind them getting a random card in exchange for you getting an extra removal spell.

Baylen, the Haymaker

Rating: 3.5/5

This is really a Selesnya card that requires you to produce red mana since it doesn’t do much in any other archetype. Luckily there are plenty of easy ways to enable that splash such as Hidden Grotto or Uncharted Haven.

As long as you have some tokens this is a nice way to break through a board stall by either drawing to your group pump spell or making Baylen tall enough to dunk all over them.

Burrowguard Mentor

Rating: 3.0/5

You want to have a whole bunch of bunnies for this to really go off. Well, you know what they say about bunnies…luckily you can replicate that in game to produce a bunch of them with Hop to It or Head of the Homestead.

Camellia, the Seedmiser

Rating: 4.5/5

This card reads good, but plays insane. You’re quite the miser when you open this one.

Sacrificing a food to make a squirrel and put a +1+1 counter on all of them is sick. It also makes math a serious chore since you can pump your whole side up multiple times for two mana a pop (provided that you have stuff to forage which squirrels always do).

It also makes blocking a real pain in the tuchus since all of your squirrels are now extremely menacing.

Cindering Cutthroat

Rating: 2.5/5

This feels great when it comes in with a counter and underwhelming when it doesn’t. You should change your rating accordingly based off of how often you think you’ll have the counter.

Clement, the Worrywort

Rating: 3.0/5

I wouldn’t worry about this too much as long as you are into the frog deck. All of the extra mana lets you get away with replaying the stuff you’re bouncing which, let’s be honest here, is going to be Pond Prophet.

Corpseberry Cultivator

Rating: 3.0/5

You are usually pumping out forages in the squirrel deck between Cache Grab and the other shenanigans. This grows off of every one of those as well as pumping out its own. It gets crazy in multiples because they all grow off of each trigger.

Dreamdew Entrancer

Rating: 4.0/5

This sends their creature straight to dream street to spend the next few turns napping in time out. It might not be removal, but it’s awfully close to it thrown onto a solid body.

You might be wondering about drawing the two cards and the trick is that you tap down your Pond Prophet and then bounce it to ensure that you draw ALL of the cards.

Finneas, Ace Archer

Rating: 4.0/5

I’m kind of disappointed that there isn’t a random creature named Ferb in the set. They didn’t even give poor Finneas a platypus (who may or may not be a secret agent). WotC really is Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated.

I don’t really have to explain that you want this in your Selesnya bunnies decks to go off. I would also recommend that you pack some combat tricks to ensure that Finneas trip into the red zone isn’t a one-time affair.

Fireglass Mentor

Rating: 3.5/5

Rakdos lizards is all about bringing the noise and bringing the funk. This guy makes sure that the gas keeps flowing while you’re going all in on your opponent’s face.

Gev, Scaled Scorch

Rating: 4.0/5

Gev makes sure all of your lizards enter the battlefield a bit bigger since he conveniently pings their face when you play one. You were probably turning guys sideways anyway, but he’s got your back if you can’t.

Glarb, Calamity’s Augur

Rating: 4.0/5

Unlike most of the set, this is a generically good card that you would be happy to splash in pretty much any archetype that Glarb touches. Deathtouch will make your opponent hesitant to engage in combat while the surveil lets you stack your deck to play the “free” cards off the top.

Head of the Homestead

Rating: 3.0/5

This art must have been what it looked like when people visited my mom’s house. A pile of rambunctious munchkins armed to the teeth ready to get aggro. 

I will once again repeat myself by saying “this card is great in the deck it was designed for”.

Helga, Skittish Seer

Rating: 3.0/5

Splashing won’t happen much in this set because you usually don’t want cards in other colors since they don’t really work as well in archetypes outside of the one they were intended for. It does, however, have plenty of ways to enable splashing a color. That makes these three color archetype specific cards fairly easy to run since people won’t be fighting over them to build soup decks.

This can be insane if you can cast it on curve. Realistically as long as you get a single trigger, you’re good. Anything past that is a sweet bonus.

Hugs, Grisly Guardian

Rating: 4.5/5

The only real drawback to this is that casting cost which is kind of nasty. A 5/5 trample for four is a huge beating and if you drop it later you can even get some extra cards out of the deal. I almost missed that it even has an Exploration tacked on to it.

Junkblade Bruiser

Rating: 2.0/5

You can’t play too many of these, but it’s a fine top end for your raccoon deck if you don’t get any of the better uncommon and rare ones.

Kastral, the Windcrested

Rating: 4.5/5

Kastral triggers off of itself, but it is nice to be able to drop this and crack in with a preexisting bird for a trigger. I feel like you’ll be drawing a card most often, but it’s probably bad news for your opponent if you are doing either of the other two.

Lilysplash Mentor

Rating: 3.5/5

I am, once again, shocked that a Simic card is really good with Pond Prophet. There are plenty of other things such as Treeguard Duo that work great with this, but you all know how much I love drawing extra cards. It’s even got a great body to go with all that value.

Lunar Convocation

Rating: 2.5/5

This slides right into the Orzhov bat deck as long as you have plenty of repeatable ways to gain life in it.

Mabel, Heir to Cragflame

Rating: 4.5/5

Mabel does so much for only three mana. She is a Glorious Anthem for the rest of your mouse army and comes with a really good equipment. That trample and haste really matters because they have to account for every creature off the top of your deck.

Mind Drill Assailant

Rating: 2.5/5

This does have a massive butt which can clog up the ground more than (Editor’s Note: Just assume Josh said some inappropriate toilet humor here). The surveil isn’t cheap, but it can add up until this beefs itself up to Juzam Djinn size.

Moonrise Cleric

Rating: 3.0/5

This card has played surprisingly good so far with flying performing better than expected and life gain pumping the breaks on aggro decks while triggering a bunch of other cards.

Muerra, Trash Tactician

Rating: 4.0/5

I do love the term trash tactician and will henceforth be referring to my friends as such when they make poor decisions.

This is a bit of an odd card because it can ramp you up quick as long as you’re on team trash panda. The problem is that you really want to expend 8 so that you get the extra cards to keep going. If you don’t you risk running out of gas and sitting there hoping to draw a couple of expensive cards in a row.

Plumecreed Mentor

Rating: 3.5/5

You’re already doing good with this as long as you have a non-flyer in play when it hits. I don’t think this is really worth splashing unless you have a deck with a decent number of flyers such as Orzhov bats. You’ll be golden as long as you end up with a decent mix of targets and ways to trigger it.

Pond Prophet

Rating: 3.0/5

This card is pure profit! See what I did there? Yeah, I know it wasn’t that clever. Work with me here, we’re almost done.

Years later and Elvish Visionary is still a great limited card. It also happens to be in the color pair (even though you can play it in any deck that is green or blue) that loves to bounce and blink everything. Even a terrible prophet can predict that will work out for you.

Ral, Crackling Wit

Rating: 4.0/5

Planeswalkers that can defend themselves are almost always good. This guy poops out a steady stream of his otter buddies that can do some serious damage since they all have prowess. He even grows its loyalty when you cast noncreature spells to keep himself around.

Seedglaive Mentor

Rating: 3.0/5

Valiant letting you put a counter on this can add up quickly especially if you have a repeatable source of targeting your creatures. Unsurprisingly it does exactly what the Boros deck wants to do, come at your opponent hard and fast.

Seedpod Squire

Rating: 2.5/5

You were thrilled to take a Phantom Monster back in the day, even a Snapping Drake was a good limited card back in the stone age.

I do really like flying in this set and it is a nice way to get some valiant triggers so this will certainly have its place. It even gives you a way to get some Valiant triggers.

Starseer Mentor

Rating: 3.5/5

This can hold back a surprising number of creatures in the format all while slapping on in up in the air. It plays great with cards like Moonrise Cleric to ensure that it is triggering every turn.

Stormcatch Mentor

Rating: 2.5/5

It’s not that this is a bad card, it’s that I don’t think Izzet spells is supported that well. When the deck does come together this can be a total house with the mana discount. It will have a giant bullseye on it as soon as it hits play though.

Tempest Angler

Rating: 2.5/5

Spellgorger Weird was a beating, but felt like it was a lot more supported than this does here. It’s fine as long as you believe that you can hit at least two counters with it.

The Infamous Cruelclaw

Rating: 4.0/5

This card can certainly be a roller coaster. You never know what you’re going to hit, but it’s usually going to be worth pitching your worst card to play it for free. I’d have it higher, but there are going to be plenty of times you play this and it just dies without producing any value.

Tidecaller Mentor

Rating: 3.0/5

This doesn’t have much appeal as a splash because you’ll be emptying your graveyard with Forage, but it is really sweet when you have a good Dimir deck that easily enables threshold.

Veteran Guardmouse

Rating: 2.0/5

I respect this veteran’s past service, but his current state means he won’t be seeing much action these days. The boros deck prefers cheaper drops, but one of these can be fine.

Vinereap Mentor

Rating: 3.5/5

This card enables so much nutty stuff for the squirrel deck by letting them Forage early. It even hits hard for two mana to encourage them to give you the second food.

Vren, the Relentless

Rating: 4.0/5

You want to be playing this with removal which luckily black has in spades. Outside of that make sure you play this before attacking to force your opponent to make a tougher decision.

Random note, the rats count Vren for a +1+1 so the first one comes out as a 2/2. I’ve already seen a couple people miss this so figured I’d throw it in.

Wandertale Mentor

Rating: 3.5/5

This curves nicely into a four drop that conveniently tosses a +1+1 counter right on this. With Gruul being notorious for playing some chonkers this should level up into a real threat with a swiftness.

Ygra, Eater of All

Rating: 4.5/5

This starts off large and ends up huge. You really want to combine it with Hunter's Talent or Overprotect to give it trample because it is pretty easy to sacrifice enough “food” to make sure it is lethal.

One thing to note is that the ward really just lets them sacrifice their worst creature so it’s not as big of a hinderance as it looks at first glance.

Zoraline, Cosmos Caller

Rating: 4.5/5

You usually want to wait until you can pay the two to play this and rack up some value. Waiting also gives you the opportunity to get more cards in your graveyard to get back with this.

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Wrap Up

I don’t really need to write a wrap up for the multicolor cards because it’s obvious that they are all powerful as long as you can play them. The only caveat is that some of them are limited by archetype instead of by color.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow with my limited review of the Artifact, Lands, and Special Guest cards of Bloomburrow. Until then, stay classy people!

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

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