Magic: The Gathering’s most anticipated release of the year is finally here! Bloomburrow, set in a fantastical world of tiny woodland creatures, is a magical place full of adventure and wonder. Every planeswalker that steps on the plane becomes a cute little animal! Bloomburrow brings with it a new Standard rotation, a bunch of new mechanics, and a new cast of cuddly characters.
Standard is Finally Rotating!
After last year’s shift to a 3-year standard rotation, things have been a little dull. We had to have a leap-year to accommodate the new schedule but now things are back on track and rotation will remove the oldest 4 sets every year from Standard. This year, we’ll be saying goodbye to the following sets:
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Innsitrad: Midnight Hunt
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Innistrad: Crimson Vow
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The Streets of New Capenna
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Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
What this means is that the cards in your collection that come from the above four sets will cease to be legal in Standard, but remain legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, and Commander. This also means that Standard manabases, metagames, and deck construction are all about to change! After a year of stagnation, rotation is like a cool breeze in one of these hot summer days.
Bloomburrow Prerelease
For those of you new to Magic: The Gathering, a prerelease event is a time to test new cards in a fun and friendly environment. On July 26th at 7pm and 27th at 5:30pm, every participant gets a special prerelease kit containing 6 Bloomburrow Play Boosters, a limited-edition life counter die, and a randomized promotional card! From that kit you build a makeshift deck and then we all play a casual tournament to learn about the new cards!
For those of you who have been around a while, you’ll know that prereleases are one of the most fun and engaging events that MTG has to offer and Bloomburrow turns this up to 11 with the awesome woodland fantasy theme. We’ll see ya there!
New and Returning Mechanics
Bloomburrow brings with it a handful of new mechanics. Gamers Grove will go over them all at the prerelease but it never hurts to be prepared! Here’s a quick look at what to expect:
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Gift: In Bloomburrow, all our new animal friends are always giving each other gifts — whether mischievous or otherwise. Some cards in the new set allow you to give your opponent something — usually a free card draw or small token creature— in exchange for having a more powerful effect.
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Offspring: Many cards in the new set have the Offspring ability. This allows you to pay an additional cost while casting the card to have it create a 1/1 copy of itself when it enters. Now your fluffy friends can make little buddies of their own!
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Forage: What’s a woodland setting without foraging for berries and nuts? To Forage a spell, you exile 3 cards from your graveyard *or* a food token in order to unlock an additional effect.
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Expend: This is a new mechanic introduced to MTG as a whole, not just However, it is being introduced in this set. When a card cares about Expending, it counts the total mana you’ve spent in a turn. For example, if you pay 2 mana on Grizzly Bears and 1 mana on Lightning Bolt then you have Expended 3 total mana.
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Valiant: Valiant is a new keyword that is sort of an upgraded Heroic if you remember that mechanic from Theros. Valiant triggers whenever your creature becomes the target of a spell or ability.
Those are the main things to keep in mind as you build your prerelease decks! Additionally, we’ll be seeing the return of Class cards, Food tokens, and the changing of “enters the battlefield” to the much shorter “enters” for card abilities.
Bloomburrow Themes — The Return of Typal!
One of the major themes of Bloomburrow is the return of Typal (formerly Tribal) as a design direction. Your mice will care about mice, your frogs will buff other frogs, and your otters will help other otters! These themes have always been a big draw to planes such as Lorwyn, Ixalan, and Innistrad so we’re very excited to see how the new Types play out!
Preorders
Wanna get your hands on product early? Gamers Grove has Bloomburrow prerelease tickets, booster boxes, bundles, and commander decks listed on our website available for preorder! You’ll be able to pick up your orders starting on July 26th, alongside our prerelease events. Commander decks are selling fast so be sure to grab them while you can!
Wrapping Up
This has been your crash course in Bloomburrow! Consider joining us this weekend for our prerelease events where you can test new cards, meet new friends, and experience all there is to experience in the world of Bloomburrow. Thanks for reading and, as always, we’ll see you at the Grove.
