MTG Bloomburrow Previews: Card List, Spoilers and more!

Update 17/07/2024:

With the run up to Bloomburrow being filled with spoilers, Wizards of the Coast have given us an insight into what to expect with the Starter Kit decklists, the new mechanics and how to collect Bloomburrow! We'd like to focus on the mechanic announcements, so keep reading to find out how these new keywords will work in your upcoming games so you aren't blindsided!

New Mechanics

Before you dive headfirst into the latest set from Magic the Gathering, you should be aware of the mechanics prevalent within Bloomburrow. There are 6 to talk about, so let's just get straight into it!

Offspring

This is a new keyword that plays heavily into the anthropomorphic-animal theme. Offspring is an optional additional cost which you can pay, or not, as you cast the card. Upon paying the cost, you create a 1/1 token copy of the card. For example, a 2/2 Tender Wildguide Creature you can pay 2 in addition to your casting cost and create a 1/1 Tender Wildguide Token Creature. It has exactly the same abilites, mana value, mana cost, creature types and name as the parent creature - except it has a differing power and toughness.

If the creature with offspring leaves the battlefield before the triggered ability resolves, you will still create the token. Each card that has the keyword offspring will have a printed token variant of it available with all the relevant characteristics. To top it off, the kids get their very own artwork!

Gift

 Another new keyword joining us with this set is Gift, and this represents an additional cost. There are several different gifts within the set. Essentially how this works is as follows; as you cast a permanent spell with gift, you can promise this gift to an opponent if you want. How nice! This is, of course, optional - and if you have more than one opponent you can only choose one of them at most. Note that we said promise. They don't get the gift yet, only when the permanent enters does the chosen opponent receive the gift.

Each cad with gift will have additional, or alternative effects, if the gift was or wasn't promised. An example would be the card Kitnap, who's gift ability indicates the following actions to be taken:

Gift a card (You may promise an opponent a gift as you cast this spell. If you do, when it enters, they draw a card.)

Enchant creature.

When Kitnap enters, tap enchanted creature. If the gift wasn't promised, put three stun counters on it.

You control enchanted creature.

As you can see here, if you promise a gift then your opponent draws a card. This card also allows you to enchant a creature, so arguably you could enchant the card they just drew. However, if you don't promise a gift, you must place 3 stun counters on Kitnap. So there is a downfall if you don't promise a gift - we suppose this is for interaction reasons more than anything else. It gives you the opportunity to take control of a situation, but at a cost that benefits your opponents. It is worth noting that if the spell doesn't resolve, gifts will not be received.

Forage

We've got offspring on the board and we've been giving gifts like it's someone's birthday - now it's time for a feast! The next new keyword is Forage, which shows up as a cost you pay in various circumstances. To forage, you either exile three cards from your graveyard or sacrifice a Food. You can't sacrifice a Food both to forage and for its own ability to gain life, so keep this in mind. It's also worth noting that any ability that triggers whenever you forage, you must look specifically for the instruction to forage. You can't just exile three cards willy nilly, the instruction must be there. Take Osteomancer Adept, for example.

Deathtouch

[Tap] Until the end of turn, you may cast creature spells from your graveyard by foraging in addition to paying their other costs. If you cast a spell this way, that creature enters with a finality counter on it. (To forage, exile three cards from your graveyard or sacrifice a Food. If a creature with a finality counter on it would die, exile it instead.)

Essentially, this allows you to cast creature spells from your graveyard, but the cost is additional foraging. So you must tap and forage. Make sense? Good!

Valiant

Our fourth keyword to learn is Valiant. This ability word highlights triggered abilities that trigger whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each time. Let's take a look at some card abilities to understand this better, introducing Seedglaive Mentor:

Vigilance, haste

Valiant - Whenever Seedglaive Mentor becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it.

That's pretty easy to grasp. For each first instance of this card becomes the target of a spell, or ability, that you control it gets a +1/+1 counter. That seems like a pretty neat deal!

Expend

Our penultimate word to learn is expend. This new rules term tracks how much mana you've spent to cast spells over the course of the turn. Wait, what?

Basically, for an indicated total amount of mana you have expended, you will trigger an ability. But this is quite particular, as it's quite a strict ruling. We'll use Junkblade Bruiser as an example:

Trample

Whenever you expend 4, Junkblade Bruiser gets +2/+1 until end of turn. (You expend as you spend your fourth total mana to cast spells during a turn.)

So this means four very important things: It triggers once each turn, and is specifically looking for the fourth mana, not every fourth mana; the permanent needs to be on the battlefield to see you spend the mana, and the ability will likely have to wait until the next turn to trigger as at best you will be spending your sixth mana to cast spells that turn; it does not matter what happened to the spells you cast, whether they're unresolved or countered, you cast them; 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.

This is quite a convoluted rule, but in the long run depending on what cards with what beneficial abilities you are promoting, could really put you ahead in your game.

Pawprint Season

The final keyword from Bloomburrow is Pawprint Season! These are essentially a cycle of flexible cards that indicate different seasons. As you cast one of these modal spells, you can choose up to five pawprints worth of modes. Pawprints are a new symbol that are exclusive to these cards, and aren't a resource like mana or energy. You can't save them or carry them over from one spell to the next. Let's take a look at the card Season of Weaving for this example:

Choose up to five [Pawprints] worth of modes. You may choose the same mode more than once.

[1 Pawprint] Draw a card

[2 Pawprints] Choose an artifact or creature you control. Create a token that's a copy of it.

[3 Pawprints] Return each nonland, nontoken permanent to its owner's hand.

So with this example, you can see the cost and what modes you can use in correspondence with the maximum 5 Pawprints permitted. You can choose either of the first two modes more than once, and the last mode would be too many pawprints to repeat. You can choose a variant of permutations, and you don't even have to choose 5! But it's usually a good idea to get as much as you can from your season.

Now that we've covered the keywords, why not check out the card reveals below? Just click the handy button to send you straight there! You can also read our original spoilers blog for more information on Bloomburrow, or pre-order all your essentials today! Bloomburrow releases on August 2nd, so best get prepared!

Original 09/07/2024:

Magic The Gathering Bloomburrow is the first set in the Dragonstorm Arc, and it features furry friends from this brand new Plane! In Bloomburrow, a ragtag team of adorable anthropomorphic adventurers must band together to go on an important quest and save the realm from calamity beasts and the Great-Night Owl. (That's quite the quest!) The folks over at Wizards of the Coast have begun their card previews after giving us a glimpse of the story so far for this upcoming set, and boy do they look absolutely stunning! Let's break down what we've learned so far:

The Story so far

Bloomburrow has some heavy Wind in the Willows vibes within its conception, so that must mean it comes with a story! Wizards were kind enough to post this on their site for you to read at your leisure, or listen to the audio story, telling the story of how Ral is chasing Jace Beleren across the plane - but not only is it nothing like he's ever experienced before but it has quite literally transformed him into an otterfolk due to the Plane's natural magic! Now he must enlist the help of Mabel and her friends in finding Beleren, who has disappeared like a sly fox. If you're invested in the story of the Magic the Gathering TCG, this definitely seems like a set to pick up!

The Products

With Bloomburrow, we can expect the usual product line up. MTG Play Boosters and Collector Boosters will be available, as well as your standard Bundle featuring 9 Play Boosters. You can also pick up some Commander Decks with the featured colours; Peace Offering (Green/White/Blue), Animated Army (Red/Green), Squirreled Away (Black/Green) and Family Matters (Blue/Red/White). With this set also comes a Starter Kit featuring Byrke, Long Ear of the Law and Bria, Riptide Rogue! You can pre-order any of these products for release day on August 2nd on our site!

The Cards

We're going to get straight into the good stuff - the cards. First of all, we can expect our traditional foils and borderless frames to make a comeback as usual and the artwork for these truly stands out. From artists such as Airi Yoshihisa and David Petersen creating some of the artwork for this set, you're spoilt for choice when picking out which cards to use in your deck. Will you choose the Field Notes, Borderless Anime or Showcase Woodland?

Speaking of Showcase, legendary artist Mitsuhiro Arita features in this set too! You may recognise him from games such as Pokemon, Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei. His work is definitely not to be snuffed at! These woodland showcase cards are available in the traditional foil treatments and can be found in all products except decks!

If you want to see what cards to expect on August 2nd, check them out below! Be sure to pre-order and secure your MTG Bloomburrow products in time for release day!