Tiny Tails, Big Adventure: A Sneak Peek at Bloomburrow: Themes, and New Mechanics.

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Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow; fight beside mice, frogs, bats, birds, lizards, squirrels, and other critters as you restore the balance of peace in the Valley and prove that bravery comes in all sizes!  In this article we will briefly glimpse inside the magical world of Bloomburrow and just touch lightly on the themes and new mechanics.  There are several new mechanics to learn and even one returning card type that was first introduced in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set.  So, get ready for the feathers and fur to fly, let’s part the bushes and get started.

The Set Contents

Before we get to the critters, let’s look under a few stones.

-Bloomburrow (BLB): The main set, featuring a huge assortment of cards, kindred (typal) choices, and some cards you defiantly will recognize.

-Commander (BLC): The perfect cards to power up your commander decks, and typal decks.

-Special Guests (SPG): Ten reprints of old favourites like “Sword of Fire and Ice”are included in this set.

Set Notes: Starting with this set, the phrase “Enters the battlefield” is shortened to "Enters". The “post-combat main phase” is also now referred to as the "second main phase."

So What’s The Story?

It all takes place on the plane of Bloomburrow, a world devoid of humans where animals reign supreme.  The world is home to several types (typal) of animal species frogs, otters, rats, squirrels, lizards, raccoons, birds, mice, rabbits, bats, and more! These animals have advanced and intricate cultures, and wear clothes, armour, talk and wield magic.  Although not humanoid in size or appearance these cute anthropomorphic critters also have among them Planeswalkers that have traveled and transformed into their animal counterparts to fight along side the inhabitants of this plane against the forces of the “Elemental Calamity Beasts” (Birds, Bears, Elk and Wolves) and the Great Night Owl that seek to plunge the realm into darkness and chaos.

Themes and Mechanics

Bloomburrow combines older mechanics and supporting abilities for new Typals. Each Limited color pair represents a dedicated creature type.

Offspring:   When you cast a creature spell that has an offspring cost and pay its additional offspring cost, you create a 1/1 copy of it. Although it sets the creatures power and toughness to 1 its abilities are still in full effect.  Each Offspring card in Bloomburrow has a matching token with unique art to represent the copy.

 

 

 

 

 

Valiant:    This is a new ability word that highlights triggered abilities that trigger whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each turn.   Remember that valiant abilities trigger during opponents' turns as well, but only once each turn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forage:  By exiling three cards from your graveyard or sacrificing a Food you can trigger the listed ability on the card.  Note that you can't sacrifice a Food to both forage and for its own ability to gain life. If the ability triggers “whenever you forage,” it's looking specifically for the instruction to forage. If you just exile three cards from your graveyard or sacrifice a Food for other reasons, you haven't foraged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expend:  

You track how much mana you've spent to cast spells over the course of the turn, if it is equal to or exceeds the expend cost listed on the card, the effect triggers.  This trigger happens only once a turn and not repeatedly for every amount equal to the expend cost.

For example, Junkblade Bruiser's triggered ability is looking for you to spend your fourth total mana to cast spells during a turn. On the off chance you don't speak Raccoon Berserker, I'll translate his warnings:

An ability like that can trigger only once each turn. It's looking specifically for the fourth mana, not every fourth mana.

The permanent with the ability needs to be on the battlefield to see you spend the mana. Notably, if you spend five mana to cast Junkblade Bruiser itself, its ability won't see that. By the time it's on the battlefield, you're spending—at best—your sixth mana to cast spells that turn, so the ability will have to wait until next turn to trigger.

It doesn't matter what happened to the spells you cast. They could have resolved, not resolved, been countered, or they could even still be on the stack. You cast them. That's the important thing.

All mana you spend to cast the spells counts, not only mana to cover the mana cost. Additional costs such as offspring costs, alternative costs, and the like are all factored in.

 

Gift:  This Mechanic is an extra cost that grants an extra benefit to one of your opponents. Gifts include things like card draw and 1/1 Blue Fish tokens. The gift only happens if the original spell resolves and if the caster “promised” the gift to that opponent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something Cool:  The set introduces the “Pawprint” symbol that is used on the cycle of five “modal” Season cards.  These cards allow you to expend up to 5 pawprints in various combinations (or modes) to gain benefits.  Examples include card draw, tokens, or bounce effects!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Favourites Return:  “Storm” appears as a cameo mechanic on Ral, Crackling Wit's ultimate loyalty ability, and “Threshold” is a limited archetype in  U/B.  Also look for the return of “Flashback” coming to a graveyard near you!  In addition, the enchantment card type “class” returns to help you power up your creatures  with a focus on bakers, blacksmiths, artists, and other villagers. 

A Look at Archetypes for Limited:

Bloomburrow has a typal theme. Each color pairing is associated with one of the creature types, with a particular strategy associated to it:

Well my friends that is the end of our forest frolic near Three Tree City. 

I trust that you have a keener knowledge of this new set and that you take the opportunity to add these cards to your decks and collections!

WT Magnus. 

Looking for More Bloomburrow?  Check out our page here for Products and Events!

A big thanks to Wizards of the Coast and MTG Fan Wiki for source info and images.

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