The sheer pleasure of opening my LGS's singles page and finding all the delicious commons and uncommons I want for my Peasant cube is so scintillating it should be narrated by Tim Curry.
General (BLB, BLC) Bloomburrow Testing/Includes Thread
- Thread starter TrainmasterGT
- Start date
Maybe this has been discussed already, but I feel like the average creature size in bloomburrow is bigger than usual? Not sure I'm a fan, for limited, seems like it compresses the games to fewer rounds.
I've been feeling the opposite pressure. Most of the creatures are little guys who can't beat the uncommon Calamity Beasts.
I think it would be a cool thing to start revisiting older testing threads a year or so out from when the sets first came out. Good way to see what stuck around for the long haul versus what ended up being a small test run.
Let's start with Bloomburrow!
I had only two inclusions on my initial post, but I ended up adding in Shoreline Looter as well as a replacement for Looter-il-Kor. I also found a slot for Emberheart Challenger for a while but I believe it got cut so that I could try out Gau, Feral Youth from FIC this year.
Kitsa, Otterball Elite is definitely a powerful card, but I didn't like how awkwardly it played between the Vigilance/Prowess/copying spells ability. It's definitely good but it felt really clunky to read and it wasn't very decision oriented. Maybe that's what you need from 2024 design, but Shoreline Looter just ended up being a much cleaner design. Between all of the added card draw and digging effects I've included in the last year I just didn't really need a 3rd looter that was less elegant to play with compared to Shoreline and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy (who does come with DFC baggage, but it's a classic card at this point after a decade).
Emberheart Challenger is definitely good enough to play on power level, but I went with Gau, Feral Youth in that same slot just because of the potential synergies across the board with a variety of other cards. It's just more interesting to play with and it's a more powerful threat for aggressive decks with a higher potential ceiling. Impulse card advantage is never bad in red, but between Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and Tersa Lightshatter there are other ways to peek deeper into the deck for card quality. It's definitely on the bench for now, might come back for another run in the future.
Finally, Glarb is my tri-color card of choice for my squadron system in Sultai colors. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is fun to play with but it just can't really hang in combat nowadays with my environment. It's really slow to get going whereas Glarb can set up as a nice roadblock and sift through the deck with surveil to bridge into the late game. It's played just fine so far, but I'd be open to swapping it out in the future if something more interesting comes along.
Final inclusions a year later:
Let's start with Bloomburrow!
I had only two inclusions on my initial post, but I ended up adding in Shoreline Looter as well as a replacement for Looter-il-Kor. I also found a slot for Emberheart Challenger for a while but I believe it got cut so that I could try out Gau, Feral Youth from FIC this year.
Kitsa, Otterball Elite is definitely a powerful card, but I didn't like how awkwardly it played between the Vigilance/Prowess/copying spells ability. It's definitely good but it felt really clunky to read and it wasn't very decision oriented. Maybe that's what you need from 2024 design, but Shoreline Looter just ended up being a much cleaner design. Between all of the added card draw and digging effects I've included in the last year I just didn't really need a 3rd looter that was less elegant to play with compared to Shoreline and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy (who does come with DFC baggage, but it's a classic card at this point after a decade).
Emberheart Challenger is definitely good enough to play on power level, but I went with Gau, Feral Youth in that same slot just because of the potential synergies across the board with a variety of other cards. It's just more interesting to play with and it's a more powerful threat for aggressive decks with a higher potential ceiling. Impulse card advantage is never bad in red, but between Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and Tersa Lightshatter there are other ways to peek deeper into the deck for card quality. It's definitely on the bench for now, might come back for another run in the future.
Finally, Glarb is my tri-color card of choice for my squadron system in Sultai colors. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is fun to play with but it just can't really hang in combat nowadays with my environment. It's really slow to get going whereas Glarb can set up as a nice roadblock and sift through the deck with surveil to bridge into the late game. It's played just fine so far, but I'd be open to swapping it out in the future if something more interesting comes along.
Final inclusions a year later:
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This is a good idea, both to see which inclusions have lasting impact, as well as any cards people have added since the initial release.
Personally, I don't cube with any Bloomburrow cards.
Personally, I don't cube with any Bloomburrow cards.
I knew I had at least one, but I would not have guessed that I'm at 6/450 Bloomburrow [edit: +1 BLC, oops!] at the moment:
3-4 of these will likely get cut someday, but I'm still gonna do a full writeup cause that's the fun of it!
Stormchaser's Talent: I was mega-late to the party on this one. Had to pay $10 for the foil Otter token alone while it was dominating Standard. I was late, but I'm no fool: this one's never getting cut. It makes Monastery Swiftspear look like Warship Scout. Prowess one-drop, noncreature itself to trigger other prowess things, very slow infinite loop with the Cryptic Commands of the world, surprisingly fast win condition after you pour eleven mana into it. It does it all.
Mockingbird: I like a good clone. It's no Phantasmal Image, it's no Phyrexian Metamorph, but it's interesting. Feels marginal on power level in 2025, like I'll cut it whenever some other interesting blue creature comes along. Still sad Flesh Duplicate is UU and not 1U.
Thundertrap Trainer: Who knew that all it took to make Augur of Bolas good was seeing one more card, getting artifacts/enchantments/planeswalkers, and "kicker 4: make a 1/1 copy"?
...okay, when I put it like that this one seems like it should have been a no-brainer from the start, but again, I missed the boat. Also, it's an otter. My wife loves otters
Pawpatch Recruit: While my counters-theme is not fully materialized, this little guy was a pain in the ass to play against in Standard in a really laudatory way. Very difficult for people doing unfair things to beat, not at all hard to outclass in fair combat, but still a reasonably powerful Jungle Lion++. I think it will stick around a while - even leaving one counter behind when it dies to a one-for-one is a lot of value, let alone the Offspring mode.
Tender Wildguide: A two drop. I'm going to cut it pretty soon. You see, Scythecat Cub is like forty goddamn dollars. So I just kept this instead.
Innkeeper's Talent: I really like Luminarch Aspirant. In return for not getting the body, it's only an additional G for the surprisingly relevant Ward 1, and there's a Doubling Season dream attached. (Is there a name for that half of Doubling Season? The other half is Parallel Lives, but Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is the only other card that does it for any kind of counter on any kind of permanent (and also player, lol get poisoned))
edit: forgot to check for BLC, yes I'm also running Jacked Rabbit! It's mediocre on 2, but Ravenous is such a good scaling mechanic that it ends up being one of the best "two-drops" in your deck, like a far more burly Securitron Squadron.
3-4 of these will likely get cut someday, but I'm still gonna do a full writeup cause that's the fun of it!
Stormchaser's Talent: I was mega-late to the party on this one. Had to pay $10 for the foil Otter token alone while it was dominating Standard. I was late, but I'm no fool: this one's never getting cut. It makes Monastery Swiftspear look like Warship Scout. Prowess one-drop, noncreature itself to trigger other prowess things, very slow infinite loop with the Cryptic Commands of the world, surprisingly fast win condition after you pour eleven mana into it. It does it all.
Mockingbird: I like a good clone. It's no Phantasmal Image, it's no Phyrexian Metamorph, but it's interesting. Feels marginal on power level in 2025, like I'll cut it whenever some other interesting blue creature comes along. Still sad Flesh Duplicate is UU and not 1U.
Thundertrap Trainer: Who knew that all it took to make Augur of Bolas good was seeing one more card, getting artifacts/enchantments/planeswalkers, and "kicker 4: make a 1/1 copy"?
...okay, when I put it like that this one seems like it should have been a no-brainer from the start, but again, I missed the boat. Also, it's an otter. My wife loves otters
Pawpatch Recruit: While my counters-theme is not fully materialized, this little guy was a pain in the ass to play against in Standard in a really laudatory way. Very difficult for people doing unfair things to beat, not at all hard to outclass in fair combat, but still a reasonably powerful Jungle Lion++. I think it will stick around a while - even leaving one counter behind when it dies to a one-for-one is a lot of value, let alone the Offspring mode.
Tender Wildguide: A two drop. I'm going to cut it pretty soon. You see, Scythecat Cub is like forty goddamn dollars. So I just kept this instead.
Innkeeper's Talent: I really like Luminarch Aspirant. In return for not getting the body, it's only an additional G for the surprisingly relevant Ward 1, and there's a Doubling Season dream attached. (Is there a name for that half of Doubling Season? The other half is Parallel Lives, but Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is the only other card that does it for any kind of counter on any kind of permanent (and also player, lol get poisoned))
edit: forgot to check for BLC, yes I'm also running Jacked Rabbit! It's mediocre on 2, but Ravenous is such a good scaling mechanic that it ends up being one of the best "two-drops" in your deck, like a far more burly Securitron Squadron.
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@Seeker and I are on pretty much the same page here. My Cube is 60% bigger, and I have 80% more cards from the set still in Cube a year later -- mostly the same ones.
I'm still playing all of my top three "instant all-stars" from last July:
Jacked Rabbit was my favorite card going in, and it still is. Right now, it feels impossible to imagine cutting the Rabbit, but I guess Stoneforge Mystic felt that way a few years ago. That said, this is exactly the kind of card my playgroup and I like to play with, so if there's going to be a "best in class" for white 2s, I'm happy with this guy being in the conversation.
Stormchaser's Talent is fine. I don't like that it has a unique token for my Cube (a reoccurring issue I have for this set) but it's probably the best Archaeomancer variant available, and I like this effect to exist. I also like giving blue decks something to do early, as my MV distribution has drifted quite radically into prioritizing sub-4 MV creatures and I don't want blue mages getting run over.
Scavenger's Talent has survived many near-cuts, despite "not working" yet. According to my cube's Playtest data on Cube Cobra, it's pretty much the least likely card to make the mainboard of a sample draft online, only getting included 22.7% of the 64 times it's been drafted, and only getting picked 11.2% of the time overall (which, while low, is still in the acceptable range considering there are 15 cards in a pack). That said, it's a cool card, and I like trinket artifacts a lot. There are few repeatable ways to make them, especially for so cheap, so in a world where Stridehangar Automaton and Academy Manufactor are top picks, I think I'll keep giving this a chance.
Dewdrop Cure has over-performed. I don't like how many words it has on it, though, and Scout for Survivors may take its place for that reason alone, even though I think it's generally much worse. I have seen people read it three times during the draft trying to math it out and make sure they're understanding all the different knobs and considerations.
Dour Port-Mage has over-performed and is generally awesome. There are a million reasons I was sad to cut Barrin, Tolarian Archmage recently, but this mini-archetype (especially with beloved pet card Tameshi, Reality Architect) is really better handled by cards that are generically good like the Port-Mage and Jill, Shiva's Dominant. I think I was trying to get too clever here. Still, Barrin has a permanent home in my on-deck binder because I love him.
I agree with Seeker's assessment of Mockingbird and Inkeeper's Talent 100%. Extremely happy with both.
Tender Wildguide and Pawpatch Recruit are fine. Again, I really don't like the unique tokens they require, but they're both among the best versions of what they do, supporting a +1/+1 theme in G in a way that feels additive rather than forcing a lane. Darkstar Augur was not interesting or loved enough to maintain its slot, though I think it's certainly good enough.
Flamecache Gecko stuck around for longer than I expected, but is now departed. There are plenty of variations of this effect but I liked the potential repeatability that the Gecko brought, even if it asked you to do more than most of its peers. However, I think the card quality was just too low here compared to everything else in my Cube, and I don't think the off-color activation cost helped perceptions around who the card was for. Honestly, I may be interested in the recently spoiled Avatar common Yuyan Archers since it's a 3/1 reach for the same cost, and has a "may" unlike FOMO. Also, Rix Maadi Reveler is absolutely cooler the Gecko, so I don't know why I didn't just play that in the first place.
Rakdos is one of the most competitive guilds in my Cube, but somehow Gev, Scaled Scorch has stuck around for a year. He asks a lot out of players, needing to get that damage in for his effect to work, and also dedicates half of his textbox to trinket text. But he's still a legendary 3/2 for 2 that does a synergy or two. I actually think this reappraisal is a good time to cut him, honestly.
Hired Claw was great...but that was it. Slots are competitive, and being really really ridiculouslygood looking strong is not enough, and sometimes is a detriment at one mana.
Wildsear, Scouring Maw needed more enchantment support, and to not be a 5MV dude who still requires extra work to maximize value from, no matter how fun it is.
Hazel of the Rootbloom would probably still be in Cube if I still had a seventh of each color pair. Just a little slow, and Vinereap Mentor is probably plays out similarly enough anyways for half the mana.
Contrary to my expectations, the wordy Kitsa, Otterball Elite managed to bump out Duelist of the Mind and Ledger Shredder. Is that right? Am I happy with that?
Agate Instigator is a card I've been eying all year and will probably join the Cube when I get a copy....of both it and its token.
Thundertrap Trainer would be in if I wasn't getting so annoyed at all the single token cards required. I have to draw the line somewhere. Goodness.
Caretaker's Talent is currently on-deck and feels like too much of an EDH card to go hard for, but I like its effect and I know it'd get drafted regularly. Staff of the Storyteller performs quite well, so I'm somewhat optimistic this will work, even if you have to pay twice as much for the initial token. Still, it's extremely slow, and will generally be 3MV for no effect when you cast it. Rough.
I'm still playing all of my top three "instant all-stars" from last July:
Jacked Rabbit was my favorite card going in, and it still is. Right now, it feels impossible to imagine cutting the Rabbit, but I guess Stoneforge Mystic felt that way a few years ago. That said, this is exactly the kind of card my playgroup and I like to play with, so if there's going to be a "best in class" for white 2s, I'm happy with this guy being in the conversation.
Stormchaser's Talent is fine. I don't like that it has a unique token for my Cube (a reoccurring issue I have for this set) but it's probably the best Archaeomancer variant available, and I like this effect to exist. I also like giving blue decks something to do early, as my MV distribution has drifted quite radically into prioritizing sub-4 MV creatures and I don't want blue mages getting run over.
Scavenger's Talent has survived many near-cuts, despite "not working" yet. According to my cube's Playtest data on Cube Cobra, it's pretty much the least likely card to make the mainboard of a sample draft online, only getting included 22.7% of the 64 times it's been drafted, and only getting picked 11.2% of the time overall (which, while low, is still in the acceptable range considering there are 15 cards in a pack). That said, it's a cool card, and I like trinket artifacts a lot. There are few repeatable ways to make them, especially for so cheap, so in a world where Stridehangar Automaton and Academy Manufactor are top picks, I think I'll keep giving this a chance.
Dewdrop Cure has over-performed. I don't like how many words it has on it, though, and Scout for Survivors may take its place for that reason alone, even though I think it's generally much worse. I have seen people read it three times during the draft trying to math it out and make sure they're understanding all the different knobs and considerations.
Dour Port-Mage has over-performed and is generally awesome. There are a million reasons I was sad to cut Barrin, Tolarian Archmage recently, but this mini-archetype (especially with beloved pet card Tameshi, Reality Architect) is really better handled by cards that are generically good like the Port-Mage and Jill, Shiva's Dominant. I think I was trying to get too clever here. Still, Barrin has a permanent home in my on-deck binder because I love him.
I agree with Seeker's assessment of Mockingbird and Inkeeper's Talent 100%. Extremely happy with both.
Tender Wildguide and Pawpatch Recruit are fine. Again, I really don't like the unique tokens they require, but they're both among the best versions of what they do, supporting a +1/+1 theme in G in a way that feels additive rather than forcing a lane. Darkstar Augur was not interesting or loved enough to maintain its slot, though I think it's certainly good enough.
Flamecache Gecko stuck around for longer than I expected, but is now departed. There are plenty of variations of this effect but I liked the potential repeatability that the Gecko brought, even if it asked you to do more than most of its peers. However, I think the card quality was just too low here compared to everything else in my Cube, and I don't think the off-color activation cost helped perceptions around who the card was for. Honestly, I may be interested in the recently spoiled Avatar common Yuyan Archers since it's a 3/1 reach for the same cost, and has a "may" unlike FOMO. Also, Rix Maadi Reveler is absolutely cooler the Gecko, so I don't know why I didn't just play that in the first place.
Rakdos is one of the most competitive guilds in my Cube, but somehow Gev, Scaled Scorch has stuck around for a year. He asks a lot out of players, needing to get that damage in for his effect to work, and also dedicates half of his textbox to trinket text. But he's still a legendary 3/2 for 2 that does a synergy or two. I actually think this reappraisal is a good time to cut him, honestly.
Hired Claw was great...but that was it. Slots are competitive, and being really really ridiculously
Wildsear, Scouring Maw needed more enchantment support, and to not be a 5MV dude who still requires extra work to maximize value from, no matter how fun it is.
Hazel of the Rootbloom would probably still be in Cube if I still had a seventh of each color pair. Just a little slow, and Vinereap Mentor is probably plays out similarly enough anyways for half the mana.
Contrary to my expectations, the wordy Kitsa, Otterball Elite managed to bump out Duelist of the Mind and Ledger Shredder. Is that right? Am I happy with that?
Agate Instigator is a card I've been eying all year and will probably join the Cube when I get a copy....of both it and its token.
Thundertrap Trainer would be in if I wasn't getting so annoyed at all the single token cards required. I have to draw the line somewhere. Goodness.
Caretaker's Talent is currently on-deck and feels like too much of an EDH card to go hard for, but I like its effect and I know it'd get drafted regularly. Staff of the Storyteller performs quite well, so I'm somewhat optimistic this will work, even if you have to pay twice as much for the initial token. Still, it's extremely slow, and will generally be 3MV for no effect when you cast it. Rough.
Still included
Like Miles, I am a big fan of the Rabbit. It’s a scaling self-contained token engine that also acts as an equipment/counter/aura/combat trick payoff. I can see that being too much for a lot of cubes, but not mine!
Talent is an insane Blue one drop with late game value and combo potential. The fact it triggers prowess too makes it a long term inclusion.
Kitsa is obviously a good creature. Since I support Jeskai Ascendancy, I want a looter that taps to draw. It’s wordy enough that the third ability could not be there and I would be happier.
Didn't work out
I thought this would work out so much better than it did. Black wasn’t set up to get and use the landfall triggers so it fell flat.
These cards are in my maybeboard and I frequently consider them.
Maybeboard
A crazy spell velocity payoff that fills the GY like nobody's business. You can use the following chapters, but the first one is plenty good enough since it isn't capped! I often add the card and remove it afterwards, but writing this makes me realize that this shouldn't be the card that I cut if my discard density is too high.
If I wanted a six drop in Green, this would likely be it (or close with Prime Time). Recurring all you lands on ETB makes for a ton of mana. The mill helps, but this shines in your GY decks. If you have a way to sacrifice lands and blink Lumra, then that is a really cool mana engine (but totally win more).
I didn’t give this a long testing time but it was good as most adventures are. 3 mana instant for 2 tokens is mid, but untapping on turn 4 and slamming the Badger refunds you two mana immediately. Could be a good piece for the Insidious Roots token mana deck if you want redundancy and Earthcraft is too much.
Never found a slot
Mockingbird
Thundertrap Trainer
Scavenger's Talent
Agate Instigator
Coruscation Mage
Inkeeper's Talent
These cards are super sweet IMO, but I haven't found the room to include them.
Like Miles, I am a big fan of the Rabbit. It’s a scaling self-contained token engine that also acts as an equipment/counter/aura/combat trick payoff. I can see that being too much for a lot of cubes, but not mine!
Talent is an insane Blue one drop with late game value and combo potential. The fact it triggers prowess too makes it a long term inclusion.
Kitsa is obviously a good creature. Since I support Jeskai Ascendancy, I want a looter that taps to draw. It’s wordy enough that the third ability could not be there and I would be happier.
Didn't work out
I thought this would work out so much better than it did. Black wasn’t set up to get and use the landfall triggers so it fell flat.
These cards are in my maybeboard and I frequently consider them.
Maybeboard
A crazy spell velocity payoff that fills the GY like nobody's business. You can use the following chapters, but the first one is plenty good enough since it isn't capped! I often add the card and remove it afterwards, but writing this makes me realize that this shouldn't be the card that I cut if my discard density is too high.
If I wanted a six drop in Green, this would likely be it (or close with Prime Time). Recurring all you lands on ETB makes for a ton of mana. The mill helps, but this shines in your GY decks. If you have a way to sacrifice lands and blink Lumra, then that is a really cool mana engine (but totally win more).
I didn’t give this a long testing time but it was good as most adventures are. 3 mana instant for 2 tokens is mid, but untapping on turn 4 and slamming the Badger refunds you two mana immediately. Could be a good piece for the Insidious Roots token mana deck if you want redundancy and Earthcraft is too much.
Never found a slot
Mockingbird
Thundertrap Trainer
Scavenger's Talent
Agate Instigator
Coruscation Mage
Inkeeper's Talent
These cards are super sweet IMO, but I haven't found the room to include them.
Evaluating this as a Rix Maadi Reveler variant that needs to jump through hoops and not a Burning-Tree Emissary variant with an attached mana sink feels a bit off to me.
What this thread is telling me is that I should pick up a copy of Stormchaser's Talent at some point, I clearly didn't evaluate it as highly as I should have on first go around. Maybe I'll even swap in Kitsa again for a run for cube this weekend as I forgot that it was a Wizard for an additional Flame of Anor option. Also the idea of being able to maybe copy the Flame is the type of dream my drafters would love to play with.
Lumra is also a cool option I forgot about. Summon: Titan is taking over that slot for now but maybe in the future if I add in a few more graveyard pieces to work with.
Lumra is also a cool option I forgot about. Summon: Titan is taking over that slot for now but maybe in the future if I add in a few more graveyard pieces to work with.
The thing with Burning-Tree is that it only is a value engine in such narrow situations in the first place that adding another requirement to that makes it a bust at that goal. That's been my experience, at least. Flamecache Gecko was only really played in decks that wanted to discard a bunch of cards.
I didn’t give this a long testing time but it was good as most adventures are. 3 mana instant for 2 tokens is mid, but untapping on turn 4 and slamming the Badger refunds you two mana immediately. Could be a good piece for the Insidious Roots token mana deck if you want redundancy and Earthcraft is too much.
I've been trying to justify this card for so long, but I think I just need to play it. I adore the badger.
I'm shocked that no one else was on Plumecreed Escort.
If this was a faerie people would be drooling over it.
I also run the following:
Cruelclaw is never coming out, but the other two are negotiable. Repel Calamity is my current favorite "medium" white removal, but it's not quite what I want. Mabel is a really cute card, but a little clunky and I've always regretted sidelining Adult Gold Dragon for her, if not quite enough to undo the swap. I just don't quite need the top end for aggro, and Cragflame gives her the right amount of resilience to removal--not too much, not too little.
If this was a faerie people would be drooling over it.
I also run the following:
Cruelclaw is never coming out, but the other two are negotiable. Repel Calamity is my current favorite "medium" white removal, but it's not quite what I want. Mabel is a really cute card, but a little clunky and I've always regretted sidelining Adult Gold Dragon for her, if not quite enough to undo the swap. I just don't quite need the top end for aggro, and Cragflame gives her the right amount of resilience to removal--not too much, not too little.