GamesCard GameMagic: The GatheringWizards of the Coast broke glass on the alarm marked ‘anthropomorphic animal Magic set’, and it seems to have workedWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesCard GameMagic: The GatheringWizards of the Coast broke glass on the alarm marked ‘anthropomorphic animal Magic set’, and it seems to have workedWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
There are 10 main animal types in Bloomburrow: rabbits, birds, otters, squirrels, raccoons, rats, lizards, bats, mice, and frogs. (Along with a handful of possums, and others.) It’s tough to build a deck around just one of them, and they synchronize well enough you probably wouldn’t want to. I ended up building a white/black deck with a couple of Salvation Swans that can give flying to other creatures (shades of the seagull who helps the rabbits in Watership Down), which obviously would be wasted if the whole deck was birds. I’ve got a couple of lizards in there to take advantage of this.
The main synergy in my deck turns out to be hurting other people, and also myself. I’ve got a bunch of cards that trigger when I gain lifeandwhen I lose it, but only when it happens on my turn. To really get this engine going I have to be pinging myself for damage, which is always fun because it feels so bold. Oh, these life points? Yeah, I don’t need them. I’ll just throw a few off the pile.
Lunar Convocationis the MVP here, taking a point of life away from other players if I gain any. And if I both gain and lose life, it gives me a free 1/1 bat. When I gain or lose life, the Star Charter also lets me look at the top four cards on my deck and if one is a creature with power of 3 or less, put it in my hand. (The Star Charter itself is a creature with power 3, so I could use this to go fishing for more.) The Starlight Soothsayer lets me surveil if I gain or lose life, and the Starscape Cleric makes everyone lose a life if I gain any, in addition to the point they’re losing thanks to Lunar Convocation.
In my first match I manage to get all these cards in play, along with a lizard assassin who gives me a point of life and causes a point of damage to opponents every time he attacks. Salvation Swan gives that lizard flying, making them key to my whole annoying schtick. Unfortunately I don’t pull Lunar Convocation in either of the games that follow and my deck doesn’t have much card draw, but when it’s humming along it’s a fun time.
Image1of6(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
Image1of6(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
Image1of6
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
That’s a deck with several bats in it, but a modest number of birds and lizards as well. There’s a bunch of duo cards in Bloomburrow that represent palled-up pairs of animals, making biodiversity trivially easy to achieve. Bakersbane Duo presents a team-up between a squirrel and a raccoon who work together to steal pastry, which is adorable.
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Also adorable is the gift mechanic, which makes some cards more powerful if you give your opponent a little present. That present might be just a 1/1 fish, or it might be a food token they can trade for three life points. There ended up being so many food tokens handed out in my last match of the night—a four-player free-for-all—that I had to bust out the tokens from Tales of Middle-earth that show Frodo all trussed-up in cobwebs for Shelob, which were amusingly jarring next to all the delicious banquets and pies.
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
Two paths diverged in the woods. One led toward a set that was based on the Disney’s Robin Hood variety of anthropomorphic animal fantasy, where all the animal-folk live in towns, where a fox and a lion can be about the same size, and where some of the characters being predators and others prey doesn’t really matter. I’m glad Wizards of the Coast went down the other path with Bloomburrow, toward a setting full of what TV Tropes callCivilized Animals, as opposed toFunny Animals. The end result is a set full of adorable art and broad appeal, rather than something that would be, you know, kind of furry.
Bloomburrowwill be out on August 2 for both paper Magic and Arena.
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