Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
See, I’m not all that interested in overstatted minions like these, especially not if they’re monocolored.
General (BLB) Bloomburrow Spoilers
- Thread starter TrainmasterGT
- Start date
It's probably hard to figure out how strong to design 2 MV aggro creatures in green. It takes a lot to make them viable in competitive constructed formats.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
For sure, because constructed contains a lot of stuff I don't want to touch with a 10-ft. pole when it comes to my cube
I love this guy. So much flexibility, and so elegantly laid out.
Not to mention the very cool squirrel warrior art.
Yes and no. Foraging gets harder if you have to do it two times. As nice as it sounds it gets much harder.
I love this guy. So much flexibility, and so elegantly laid out.
Not to mention the very cool squirrel warrior art.
This is the third Talent that I'm absolutely adding to my Cube, goodness!
It wasn't too long ago that I was excited for a 1MV prowess creature with extremely marginal upside in the form of Elusive Otter, and I have a copy of Triton Wavebreaker firmly in my on-deck binder as well! As the third 1MV prowess creature for blue, this is my clear favorite, and I love how it also triggers prowess itself. The upsides are both substantial but worth the mana investment, and the art is excellent. Very happy for how many enchantments this set is bringing to my Cube.
A bunch of the Commander cards have been leaked as well. I'll wait for the official release to discuss them since I want to be 100% on the mana costs -- some of them have that part covered by the leaker's fingers
Not really? I found 40k and Doctor Who incredibly rich in flavor as well. It's lovely, though, and certainly a more preferred aesthetic for MtG for me personally.
This card is awesome. I think it's funny that we went from 0 good one-mana Blue creatures with Prowess to 3 (all of which also can trigger Prowess) in less than a year. This is probably the first real slam-dunk card for me. I like Glarb, too, but I'm not going to play him if he's expensive, plus I'm still apprehensive about replacing Sidisi.
I agree. One of the lands is literally just a fountain lol.
I don't know what that is, so, no.
Wish that first raccoon was a 3/2 for 1G or something. GG is tough.
Second one is pretty beefy, but I like that they took some of the swinginess of ETB removal out of it. Giant Spider is in shambles.
That's honestly part of what makes it elegant - most decks can forage once (meaning that they have a reasonable chance of getting an off-curve 4/3 for
or an on-curve 4/3 + 1/1 for ), but a dedicated deck is rewarded with either an early 4/3 for or a 4/3 + a 3/3 for "on curve". And then most decks have a reasonable chance of double foraging once they start top-decking, so there's that.A few more interesting cards:
Beast Binder -
Creature - Rat Rogue
Vigilance
Beast Binder can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or greater.
Whenever Beast Binder attacks, target artifact, creature, or enchantment an opponent controls loses all abilities until your next turn. If it's a creature, it has base power and toughness 2/2 until your next turn.
1/3
Is it just me, or has there been a lot of blue vigilance in this set so far?
...
Of the three, the one that excites me the most is actually Caretaker's Talent. I would 100% play the following:
Caretaker's Talent-ish -
Enchantment
When ~ enters, create a token that's a copy of target token you control.
Whenever one or more tokens enter under your control, draw a card. This ability only triggers once a turn.
And the actual card is quite a bit better.
Well, as someone who likes W40K and Doctor Who, I liked those set, they were thematically on point.
Aside from the ugly frame and the fact it was designed for commander (which means a lot of 7ccm+ cows instead of potential interesting designs).
So, better is quite subjective but yes, it looks great. Flavorful, not sure. More "fitting with the rest of magic universe" if you want.
But your crusade against UB is about taste, not absolute truth.
I'm really starting to reach this point myself, tbh. It's getting to the point where literally every cube staple I enjoy playing with is getting power-crept and pushed out of my cube.For sure, because constructed contains a lot of stuff I don't want to touch with a 10-ft. pole when it comes to my cube
I don't need 3-5 more lines of text and all-upside cards in my games of Limited. Commander? Sure...I expect it. Every rare/mythic aggro card feels like a giant snowball that just totally wrecks your opponent. A lot of the midrange options feel like that too. Ugh.
I am very turned off by these cards. Haven't seen a single card I really even want to try out. (Given recent history of set releases, that's kinda crazy.) However, I remain optimistic--we will see!
After being back into the game for a few years now, I'm definitely hitting that "release fatigue" wall that everybody who's invested in the game seems to run into lately. I just cannot do a round of cube updates every like, two months while also trying to gauge how the cards from the last set are fairing. Especially because I'm only drafting once a month. I haven't actually added anything new since MKM, so I'd be like three sets behind by the time BLB comes out. I think the folks who only update a couple times a year are probably onto something. My eyes are just glazing over as I read these previews even though the aesthetic and mechanics of this set should be for me more than anything else they've put out in the past couple years. It's like my brain is telling me "no way man I am not retaining this information it cannot possibly be that important".
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Pile of commander cards are up:
That's tempting. It's a bit slow but that's an interesting build around.
They made a big chungus magic card (This card looks nuts I'm gonna try it)
This might be too anemic a body but this kind of effect is something I'd been looking for. Interesting option for sure.
Okay so hear me out: I'm always on the lookout for sweepers you can play in your creature decks, because I find that just restricting comeback cards to control doesn't fit my goals. I'm sure you've been in plenty of boardstates where your only out was a wrath, but your deck was worse for including it.
Stuff like this (and Crippling Fear, and Delayed Blast Fireball, and probably a pile of others I'm forgetting) at least introduce the possibility that you might run a sweeper with more than 2 creatures in your deck and not be making a mistake
This specific design I'm not sure I'm sold on, it's barely castable if you've got 2 creatures in play, so if you're losing (when you'll need this the most) it likely costs too much.
On the other hand, If I am going to be putting a one sided sweeper in my cube, I am interested in the idea that it costs you a combat step to pull off.
Okay obv this is a less serious suggestion but GIFT AN OCTOPUS
That's tempting. It's a bit slow but that's an interesting build around.
They made a big chungus magic card
(This card looks nuts I'm gonna try it)This might be too anemic a body but this kind of effect is something I'd been looking for. Interesting option for sure.
Okay so hear me out: I'm always on the lookout for sweepers you can play in your creature decks, because I find that just restricting comeback cards to control doesn't fit my goals. I'm sure you've been in plenty of boardstates where your only out was a wrath, but your deck was worse for including it.
Stuff like this (and Crippling Fear, and Delayed Blast Fireball, and probably a pile of others I'm forgetting) at least introduce the possibility that you might run a sweeper with more than 2 creatures in your deck and not be making a mistake
This specific design I'm not sure I'm sold on, it's barely castable if you've got 2 creatures in play, so if you're losing (when you'll need this the most) it likely costs too much.
On the other hand, If I am going to be putting a one sided sweeper in my cube, I am interested in the idea that it costs you a combat step to pull off.
Okay obv this is a less serious suggestion but GIFT AN OCTOPUS
I am pretty pumped for this one in my MP cube. You now have Molten Gatekeeer, Warleader's Call, Impact Tremors to make a theme (or token payoff) out of it. There is OG Purphoros, but 2 damage is too easy for my liking.
Didn't expect a Storm payoff in White! Finishing a Storm turn with a 5 mana card is rough though, so the best results are likely to cast this then pass the turn which is super sketchy. Will definitely find a home in my MP cube, but probably not my 1vs1 cube.
We've got the whole of the main set up today and should have the whole of the new Commander cards in short order @TrainmasterGT . I'm ready for the Testing thread!!
I love it so much! This kind of ability is so much better at 2 mana than at 3, but it lets you play it as a fake Krenko if you want, or even as a GIANT BUNNY that releases a litter at a time!
From my comments on Reddit:
Purphoros, God of the Forge is in nearly 5% of all Cubes, and is one of the five most-played 4-drop creatures in Red according to CubeCobra. It's a great card that's not had its spot threatened in my 720 list in the decade it's been around because it's a resilient way to close out a game with a go-wide/tokens strategy.
Agate Instigator does an impressive Purphoros impression. It has a mix of upsides (flexibility on when you cast it, letting you get half of the effect online earlier, multiple bodies) and downsides (easier to interact with, double R in the cost) to the point that I think it's nearly as good as Purphoros, but not a good candidate for straight-up replacing the Theros god.
That said, I'm a little surprised not to see more conversation around this card so far! It's a redundant effect that I imagine a lot of Cubes would want. I'm not sure if I do, especially with the volume of great red 2 and 4 drops coming out in just the last month, but it's absolutely a powerful card I'll need for my on-deck binder at minimum.
Big fan of this one, it's really weird but seems really cool. Delayed Blast Fireball was either too broken or useless so this seems like a much better route to go for my list.
I love it so much! This kind of ability is so much better at 2 mana than at 3, but it lets you play it as a fake Krenko if you want, or even as a GIANT BUNNY that releases a litter at a time!
From my comments on Reddit:
Purphoros, God of the Forge is in nearly 5% of all Cubes, and is one of the five most-played 4-drop creatures in Red according to CubeCobra. It's a great card that's not had its spot threatened in my 720 list in the decade it's been around because it's a resilient way to close out a game with a go-wide/tokens strategy.
Agate Instigator does an impressive Purphoros impression. It has a mix of upsides (flexibility on when you cast it, letting you get half of the effect online earlier, multiple bodies) and downsides (easier to interact with, double R in the cost) to the point that I think it's nearly as good as Purphoros, but not a good candidate for straight-up replacing the Theros god.
That said, I'm a little surprised not to see more conversation around this card so far! It's a redundant effect that I imagine a lot of Cubes would want. I'm not sure if I do, especially with the volume of great red 2 and 4 drops coming out in just the last month, but it's absolutely a powerful card I'll need for my on-deck binder at minimum.
Big fan of this one, it's really weird but seems really cool. Delayed Blast Fireball was either too broken or useless so this seems like a much better route to go for my list.
Totally, it is impossible to get a real impression of a card within a couple drafts. I've been very happy with my two updates per year, only adding cards in between when they are printing really exactly what I wanted for a long time.
Also, when you only update every 6 month or so, you have enough time to really think the update through. Often I've noted a change I wanted to make and then by the time update season came, I didn't. Sometimes because the card I was going to cut suddenly performed better or they printed something even cooler for that slot.
I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger on my 6 month update because a new set drops before I can sort out my update.
I've been shifting to this as well. Stretching out to 6 month updates after Bloomburrow comes out.
I've also been setting up a test cube on cube cobra. Then I can make whatever changes I want and use the Compare Cubes function to compare the testing cube to the base cube. I did that recently and realized I didn't miss any of the cuts. Any ones I do miss get put back.
Makes the updating much smoother and feel less clumsy.
I've also been setting up a test cube on cube cobra. Then I can make whatever changes I want and use the Compare Cubes function to compare the testing cube to the base cube. I did that recently and realized I didn't miss any of the cuts. Any ones I do miss get put back.
Makes the updating much smoother and feel less clumsy.
My reply to this has been censored by an admin. I never said their joy should be negligible. There are million of fans of Magic. No matter what Wizards print there will always be someone who likes and dislikes a product. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to discuss them. Especially on a forum that is made for discussions.
I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but I'm seeing multiple cards featuring humans/angels. Giant Growth is just the exact same art. I thought there were no humans on the plane. I thought it must have been pushed through last minute, but I'm seeing other cards with it as well. For a world which had really been doing the flavour well, this feels like a miss. Edit:Serra Redeemer
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Awesome! I will set it up in the morning once the rest of the official renders are up on Scryfall
They’re doing a standard-legal welcome kit as part of the product line for this set, so all of the reprints are part of that item. They won’t be in boosters, just new player decks designed to introduce people to the whole Magic multiverse and not just Bloomburrow.