Welcome to my 23rd HOT TAKES article on CubeCobra! Can Bloomburrow succeed where Lorwyn failed as a premier set without humans? Is it possible for anything to follow up the massive success that was Modern Horizons 3? Where do babies offspring come from? Let’s find out!
DISCLAIMER
These takes are just my opinion and I am generally viewing the cards on how I think they would perform in singleton cubes that are in the style of the MTGO Vintage / Legacy cube lists.
WHITE Jacked RabbitA scalable Skyknight Vanguard / Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin variant that’s presumably the father of everybody’s offspring in this set. While the tokens don't ETB attacking like Skyknight Vanguard or pump itself like Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, the versatility and scalability more than makes up for it. It's pretty trivial to pump this creature's power to increase its token output, and it can get really out of hand with things like Ocelot Pride / Securitron Squadron. Good scalable spells can be hard to come by in white, but this seems to be one of the better ones since it has the best floor at 2 mana, especially since you can always boost its power later.
Jackdaw SaviorKind of sort of a reverse Pre-War Formalwear, except not really. A 3/1 with flying is a decent place to start for a white 3-cmc creature since Elite Spellbinder / Flickerwisp are commonly played. This has a powerful ability for aristocrats and feels like Luminous Broodmoth more than anything to me. While this can only trigger on flyers, it at least triggers on itself too. Things like Selfless Spirit / Mulldrifter / Subtlety / Glen Elendra Archmage work well with this as flyers that can sacrifice themselves. This card ain't bad on its own and can really shine if you support aristocrats. Without aristocrats support though I do think this falls short to its competition. High powered cubes with a lot of combos would rather have the disruptive abilities of Elite Spellbinder / Aven Interrupter, or the ability to blink your monarch / initiative cards with Flickerwisp.
Beza, the Bounding SpringA new white comeback card. This being cheaper than Linvala, the Preserver and having 4 different comeback mechanics gives this a lot of potential value, especially with blink / recursion shenanigans. You gaining 4 life and / or making two 1/1 fish tokens on top of also getting a 4/5 elk can be extremely backbreaking vs aggro. This is one of the more difficult cards to evaluate without playing it since we can only guess how many triggers we'll get on average. This can range from absolutely bonkers value to just being a glorified Erhnam Djinn. I think this will be quite potent if it can consistently trigger at least two conditions on average.
BLUE MockingbirdA Flying Men variant that also serves as a scalable Clone. Being able to copy an early Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer / Ocelot Pride / Orcish Bowmasters / etc for /
is really nifty, especially since whatever you copy will also have flying. Evasion is especially key when you're copying a monarch / initiative enabler. While the scalability and floor of a Flying Men is nice, this does have a good amount of downsides compared to other Clone effects. This will always be mana neutral to whatever you're copying, this can't efficiently copy super fatties that are cheated into play, and you can only copy 0-cmc creatures (mainly tokens) if you blink / recur this. The super fattie scenario is especially a huge strike against it with things like Atraxa, Grand Unifier / Archon of Cruelty / Etali, Primal Conqueror running rampant. This is probably the 4th best clone in my book after Phyrexian Metamorph / Phantasmal Image / Flesh Duplicate.
Elusive Otter x Archaeomancer x Monastery Mentor on a class. This does a lot of things, but it's not particularly good at any of those things due to how slow it is. A 1/1 with prowess for is pretty whatever, and its other modes are very overcosted for what they're worth. While I'm a fan of a lot of cards that make multiple game objects for 1 mana, this is a far cry from Thraben Inspector / Gilded Goose / Spyglass Siren / etc. A creature that makes an artifact is far more valuable than an enchantment that makes a creature token since creatures are much easier to blink / recur than enchantments, and there are much more synergies for artifacts than there are enchantments. This is a pretty safe pass unless you're into Triton Wavebreaker I guess.
Merfolk Looter with a glow up. The addition of vigilance + prowess + a third toughness + a Twincast ability is quite the upgrade from the original, not to mention all those abilities work very well together. Being able to attack, loot, and potentially draw something that you can cast to trigger prowess in combat gives a whole new meaning to “threat of activation”. Playing offense and defense at the same time while being able to loot makes this quite versatile. The Twincast ability is fairly reasonable to activate in the mid / late game since it only requires two prowess triggers to get to 3 power. And if you have any other way to boost Kitsa's power like with a +1/+1 counter or equipment, you only need 1 spell to activate it.
This card is really good since it does a little bit of everything: offense, defense, loots to fuel the graveyard for reanimator + various other things, and can be a strong payoff for spells matters. That being said, this card does have a lot of stiff competition. Duelist of the Mind / Ledger Shredder / Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel / Suspicious Stowaway can loot and also have evasion, which is extremely key for cubes that support monarch / initiative. While this has a strictly better creature half than Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, the real power in JVP is in its planeswalker form, which is generally much better in control shells since it can dodge / recur sweepers.
I do think this card compares most to Duelist of the Mind the most since they both have vigilance and highly scalable stats. I like Duelist of the Mind quite a bit more though since it has flying and can be much more explosive damage wise. One of the weaknesses of this card compared to other cards that put more power on the board with prowess like triggers is that everything else either has evasion like Duelist of the Mind / Slickshot Show-Off / Sprite Dragon or goes wide like Monastery Mentor / Young Pyromancer / Third Path Iconoclast.
While I do think this is a great card, I do think it's a bit overrated in comparison to its competition. We always talk about how stacked the red 3-cmc / white 4-cmc slots are, but we really don't mention blue 2-cmc that much. It’s understandable seeing how a lot of blue cards are fairly new, and they've all been EXTREMELY GOOD in my experience. You won't go wrong playing with this card, but at the same time you're not missing much if you skip this. Keep your tiebreakers in mind when trying to decide adding this over your current looters. My tiebreaker is monarch / initiative, but for others it could be Flame of Anor / Mox Amber, or removing DFC cards from your cube like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy / Suspicious Stowaway / Rona, Herald of Invasion. Speaking of Rona, that's the only commonly played looter that I like this over in a vacuum, although you'd probably want both if you're supporting Flame of Anor / Mox Amber. I'll probably give this a test in addition to the other looters just to see how they compare side by side, but my expectations are low in terms of this outperforming its competition for me.
Plumecreed EscortA 2/1 with flash and flying is a good baseline for any creature. This makes for a strong combat trick to protect key creatures while being able to pressure your opponent in the air. I like this more than Emrakul's Messenger since it has flash, but I don't like it as much as other 2/1 flyers with flash like Faerie Mastermind / Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel due to their ability to dig for cards. Other flyers for
like Duelist of the Mind / Ledger Shredder make this a very crowded space to break into. Not bad for an uncommon though.
Blue's take on Esper Sentinel. A 1/3 with evolve that can potentially draw cards is pretty close to blue Wall of Omens that can attack. It's very important to note that this triggers when your opponent casts a noncreature spell with mana value LESS than Pollywog Prodigy's power. Without any boosts, this can only trigger off 0 cmc noncreature spells, a single boost allows it to trigger off 0-1 cmc noncreature spells, etc. While this can grow on its own with evolve, I think this is quite slow unless you can boost its power reliably to 3. I'd rather reliably deal damage and loot with Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel / Suspicious Stowaway, not to mention Kitsa, Otterball Elite does a lot of what this card wants to do.
Shoreline LooterPower crept Looter il-Kor in rat form. Being straight up unblockable and being able to block is a nice upgrade to the original. This is also a nice payoff and enabler for threshold, which is always nice to see. I generally like Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel / Suspicious Stowaway more than Shoreline Looter, but this is a cleaner alternative to Suspicious Stowaway if you don't want to deal with the DFC / daybound baggage. This being an uncommon is really nice for peasant cubes, and being a rat rogue has decent tribal implications for things like Pack Rat / Seasoned Dungeoneer.
Thundertrap TrainerAugur of Bolas 2.0. Being able to dig deeper, get more things than just an instant or a sorcery, and having offspring is worth having 1 less toughness. Being a potential 2 for 1 with no drawback (other than potentially whiffing) is a pretty good deal for . That being said, Narset, Parter of Veils has shown that this ability can whiff more often than you think. A lot of decks would rather have the flexibility of Impulse / Chart a Course, and this is incompatible with Oath of Druids. The offspring mode is very expensive. I don't think this is a bad card per se, but it does seem very filler-ish to me.
Kind of sort of Counterspell x Arcane Denial. At the time of writing this, I currently have 257 non-creature spells (56.3% chance) and 199 (43.6%) creature spells in my cube, so this will draw my opponent a card more often than not. While this lacks the clean mana cost of Arcane Denial, not having your opponent gain card advantage every time is a nice bonus. Another one of the advantages of Arcane Denial is that your opponent doesn't draw the card immediately, where they will with this. Like Arcane Denial, you can turn the draw against your opponent with things like Hullbreacher / Orcish Bowmasters / Sheoldred, the Apocalypse / etc.
I've always been a big fan of Arcane Denial, and I think this is quite good also. I do think Arcane Denial is a good amount better though because of its mana cost and how a lot of combo decks can use it to both by time against your opponent and dig for your their combo pieces. mana cost can be restrictive at times as Counterspell / Mana Drain have shown that for years. That being said, I do like this a lot more than most Negate / Quench / Cancel variants out there, making this a decent option for larger cubes.
Strictly better Hero's Downfall. This is a nice supplement / upgrade to the original, although not reliably costing in the early game does make this much less desirable than things like Bloodchief's Thirst / Bitter Triumph / Sheoldred's Edict.
Murder for . Killing planeswalkers or being an instant would've gone a long way, but I do appreciate the elegant design. That being said, I don't really like this more than whatever the best Terror / Doom Blade variants are, and I'm not even playing those these days.
A 1/2 with a fairly cheap offspring cost and a landfall trigger is definitely eye-catching. 2 toughness is the new 2 power with a lot of dividable burn like Fury / Pyrokinesis running around. The landfall trigger to ping your opponent helps make up for its lack of a second power. The offspring ability being cheap in combination with its landfall trigger gives this a powerful ceiling. Each land becomes a Shock to your opponent, and a fetchland is Lightning Blast to their face. This has a lot of potential with Fastbond / Scapeshift combos, and is a great crime enabler, especially with Freestrider Lookout. This seems worth testing if you support all those things, but I'm currently on the fence about it. It's fairly anemic on its own and my black section really doesn't have much use for this right now. I'll definitely keep an eye on this, especially if we get more things that reward us for enabling crimes.
Osteomancer AdeptKind of sort of Lurrus of the Dream-Den x Underworld Breach. A 2/2 with deathtouch for is a decent floor considering how high the ceiling of its activated ability can be. Being able to re-cast any creature regardless of size is a nice upgrade from Lurrus of the Dream-Den, but it does come at the cost of forage and being restricted only to creatures. The ability isn't useful until at least the mid-game, making this quite slow. A 2/2 with deathtouch is in an awkward space where it's not too offensive, and its low stats means it can't force a lot of unfavorable trades like how Preacher of the Schism can. Emperor of Bones also does a lot of what this wants to do and is a much stronger card overall. A 3rd toughness or something would've gone a long way for this, but even then this card is still a bit slow for what it wants to do.
Dark Confidant x Batman. A flying Dark Confidant for is okay on its own, but 2 flying Dark Confidants for
while having the option of the
mode gives this a lot of potential. The offspring mode potentially leading to a 4 for 1 after a single turn cycle is extremely powerful, not to mention other cards it can draw afterwards. Making a flying body or two makes this decent at contesting monarch / initiative. Having two Dark Confidants can be risky, but your opponent might be tempted to not attack into them, which can buy you time and save you life. I think this card has a lot potential, especially since black can still use some help in the 3-cmc department. I generally like this more than Preacher of the Schism due to this having flying and having the offspring mode.
A big stat monster with ward for . Giving your opponent's creatures base toughness of 1 essentially gives everything of yours deathtouch. This really pairs well with red and all its dividable burn / Earthquake effects, or things that give your creatures -X/-X like Toxic Deluge / Spitting Dilophosaurus. Delayed Blast Fireball / Night Clubber become powerful one-sided sweepers with this. Even without all those interactions, this is fairly strong on its own. 5 toughness keeps it out of burn range, and the ward really discourages you from trying to trade down in combat or aim two burn spells at it. That being said, this can be a bit slow and low impact by itself. This lacks the modality of Harvester of Misery and surprise factor of Necron Deathmark. This certainly isn't bad, but a Baneslayer Angel with ward is still a bit of a hard sell for me in 2024.
Fact or Fiction x Skeletal Scrying. Being scalable and not having your opponent involved in the card selection is a nice upgrade over Fact or Fiction. On the other hand, being a sorcery and losing life is quite the downgrade. This is extremely inefficient at , does a decent Fact or Fiction impersonation at
, and scales pretty well afterwards from there. As somebody who loves Fact or Fiction more than most people, I'll be the first to admit that it's definitely seen better days. Power creep has turned what used to be a very high pick that's auto playable in any blue deck into a slow value card that has decent applications as a roleplayer to fuel the graveyard. As much as I want to like this, it's too slow for me in 2024. What I'm looking for are more variants of Sauron's Ransom (preferably mono colored) that aren't as punishing / demanding as Painful Truths / Shadow Prophecy.
A new grow creature for . Starting off as a 1/2 that can easily turn into a 2/3 and deal 3 damage by itself by turn 2 is a good place to start. The activated ability doesn't have a sorcery speed timing restriction, so you can use this on your opponent's turn if they pay life to activate a fetchland or something. This is very reminiscent of Warden of the First Tree to me. The first activation isn't as big (2/3 vs 3/3), but the attack trigger and ability to pump itself easily again more than makes up for it. The attack trigger being a crime enabler is also really nice for things like Duelist of the Mind. I think this card is quite good and is probably one of red's better creatures for a single
due to its durability, reach, and scalability.
A modal Impact Tremors / Purphoros, God of the Forge on a stick. This doesn't pack much of a punch by itself, but any amount of token generation and its offspring mode gives this a lot of potential. Seems like a slam dunk to me if you're already running things like Impact Tremors / Purphoros, God of the Forge / Warleader's Call, but pretty passable if you're not.
Emberheart ChallengerA new 2/2 with haste + upside. This combination of stats + haste + prowess is unprecedented at this mana cost, with the two closest things being Slickshot Show-Off and Fugitive Codebreaker. Khenra Spellspear has shown me how powerful a 2/2 with prowess can be for , and I like haste more than trample since it can pick off planeswalkers and contest monarch / initiative better. The valiant ability is a nice bonus, although I do think a lot of people have fallen for the trap of its additive distraction. It's by far the least important line of text, but at the same time there's probably more ways to trigger it than people think. There are a lot of cheap equipment these days and things that give +1/+1 counters now like Luminarch Aspirant / Inti, Seneschal of the Sun / Bristly Bill, Spine Sower / anything that generates maps / initiative cards / etc. I generally like this more than other 2/2s with haste like Robber of the Rich / Bloodthirsty Adversary and seems fairly equal with Reckless Pyrosurfer. Can’t say I like this more than Slickshot Show-Off more since that flies and can be much more explosive.
A class card for… storm? Being able to rummage whenever you cast a noncreature spell is unprecedented as far as I'm concerned. While the ability to give your spells a discount is more expensive than your typical Baral, Chief of Compliance / Goblin Electromancer, this has the benefit of the level 1 ability while being more sturdy due to being an enchantment. The level 3 ability isn't too relevant in storm unless you have Grapeshot or something. While storm has a lot of narrow support cards it could be playing, I've seen many people play much worse cards trying to support that archetype. This having the rummage ability at least makes this one of the more interesting and unique ones.
Dragonhawk, Fate's TempestA new take on Bonehoard Dracosaur. This triggers on ETB + attack instead of upkeep which is a nice upgrade, but lacks the raw value of Bonehoard Dracosaur's guaranteed double exile while generating 3/1s and treasure tokens. Losing first strike isn't that big of a deal, but being vulnerable to Karakas is. Bonehoard Dracosaur also gives you bonuses even if you end up playing the cards from exile, where this only gives you the damage bonus if you don't cast those spells like Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
Despite the shortcomings compared to Bonehoard Dracosaur, I actually like this more than Bonehoard Dracosaur simply because it can close out games faster. This can deal 9 damage by the time Bonehoard Dracosaur can do 5 damage, and Fanatic of Rhonas has shown me that ferocious is much easier to enable now. While I don't like this more than your typical Thundermaw Hellkite / Glorybringer variant since those have haste and can close out games even faster, I do think this is at least worth for cubes that are already running Bonehoard Dracosaur.
GREEN Pawpatch RecruitA Jungle Lion that can intercept and do other things… and is a rabbit! A 2/1 with trample and two other lines of text for probably already makes this the best 2 powered green creature for
not named Hexdrinker. The offspring cost is fairly cheap and pairs well with its triggered ability to put +1/+1 counters on other creatures when your opponent targets one of your creatures.
tokens /
stompy /
Nadu decks all love this card for various reasons. Nadu, Winged Wisdom is especially a nice interaction since you can get up to 3 Nadu triggers with this with a single spell from your opponent. While I don't explicitly support green aggro, this is of those green aggro cards that can be really good in cubes that don't explicitly support it like Hexdrinker / Caldaia Guardian / Warden of the First Tree have been over the years.
A very power crept Withered Wretch in green that's bigger than Scavenging Ooze right out of the gate. This costing instead of
is a bummer, but its activated ability costing
instead of
does make up a lot for that. Scavenging Ooze often isn't the best turn 2 play unless you're up against a graveyard heavy deck, and you're generally not activating it until turn 3 unless you have mana acceleration. That helps mitigate the opportunity cost of not being able to cast Keen-Eyed Curator consistently on turn 2. This turning into a 7/7 with trample if you've exiled a delirium worth of cards makes this a very relevant topdeck in the late game. Scavenging Ooze can get bigger and grow faster than Keen-Eyed Curator can in a lot of scenarios, and the lifegain is often very relevant in the late game.
While this doesn't unseat Endurance as green's #1 graveyard hate card of choice, this does give both Scavenging Ooze and Cemetery Prowler a run for their money. I'd argue that this can at least take Cemetery Prowler's position in my graveyard hate totem pole, and possibly even Scavenging Ooze's. I do think Cemetery Prowler is a bit underrated due to its body and cost reduction ability, but not being able to exile cards at instant speed can be very detrimental to your health.
Tender WildguideThis set's Utopia Tree variant. The offspring mode being able to ramp you to 6-7 on curve is cool, and being able to self pump makes this a decent blocker. While this does a little bit of everything, it's not particularly good at one thing. Lacking the reliability of Sylvan Caryatid, explosiveness of Lotus Cobra, or ceiling of Fanatic of Rhonas makes this card feel very uninspiring to me.
Innkeeper's TalentLuminarch Aspirant in class form. Not being attached to a creature like Luminarch Aspirant / Bristly Bill, Spine Sower is a bummer, but is a decent tradeoff for being a sturdy enchantment. The level 2 giving your permanents counters is a nice payoff for counters matters. The level 3 gives you the Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider ability to double your counters. Unlike Doubling Season, this does double the amount of counters you add on plus abilities of planeswalkers. Luminarch Aspirant effects have proven to be very strong, but this does have a lot of competition with things like Bristly Bill, Spine Sower / Court of Garenbrig. I'm not in the market for this, but I can see this being popular in more fair environments that heavily supports counters matters with things like Hardened Scales / The Ozolith.
ScrapshooterReclamation Sage in raccoon archer form. This being a 4/4 with reach makes this much more useful when you don't have anything to target, especially on curve. Gift means this will be card neutral when you actually do blow something up, but that also means you can have your cake and eat it too if you pair this with a Hullbreacher effect. Costing makes this difficult to splash for. Reach is a nice bonus. The gift trigger also means that you can't blow up something if you blink / recur / Green Sun's Zenith for this. Even with all its drawbacks, this is still a pretty respectable card in a lot of cubes. Unpowered cubes don't have to worry as much about fast artifact mana, and powered cubes can really appreciate having both early game aggression and disruption.
A versatile new token generating adventure card. Assuming this survives the whole turn, this makes 6 power spread over 4 creatures and can ramp you up to 8 mana the next turn. That's not a bad position to be in by turn 3 or 4. The adventure half being an instant is also a nice bonus. While this does a lot of things, it's not particularly great at one thing. Both of its modes are pretty weak on their own, and getting the full value out of it requires a good amount of time + mana. Cankerbloom is probably the only other commonly played card that benefits from the fungi + saprolings matters ability. This ain't a bad card by any means, but I see this shining much more in fair environments than an MTGO Vintage style cube.
Rootcast ApprenticeshipA green confluence with 4 options. Putting two +1/+1 counters on target creature and target opponent sacrificing a nontoken artifact can make this feel like Fiery Confluence in certain scenarios. Copying a token can be powerful, especially if you're curving Blade Splicer / Sandstorm Salvager into this. Making 1/1 squirrels isn't the most efficient use of this card, but it's okay if you just need bodies to put on the board or need to fuel Gaea's Cradle. This card is interesting, but I wish the modes were ordered / worded a bit differently. Being able to make squirrels and then choosing to put counters on them would've made this card much more flexible. Upgrading the artifact sacrifice mode to straight up Naturalize would've also been nice. This is a far cry from Fiery Confluence / Mystic Confluence, but not a bad option for more fair cubes that want a versatile +1/+1 counter enabler combined with a token payoff card.
OTHER Gev, Scaled ScorchAn aggressive persist enabler. A 3/2 with a pay 2 life ward trigger that can potentially give other creatures a +1/+1 counter when they enter is really aggressive for a 2-cmc creature. This is an infinite persist enabler if your opponent lost life this turn. This pairs really well with Murderous Redcap since it both deals direct damage and has persist. The lizard clause will be flavor text most of the time. But even without persist / lizard shenanigans, this card is still just a really strong beater. Securitron Squadron has really shown me how powerful a 2-cmc creature that gives other creatures +1/+1 counters when they enter. This having to cause your opponent to lose life is well worth the tradeoff of not being limited to only pumping tokens. Don't sleep on this card, it has quite the bite for its casting cost.
Glarb, Calamity's AugurA new Courser of Kruphix variant. Deathtouch, being able to cast spells with mana 4 or greater from the top of your library, and tapping to surveil 2 are all nice upgrades over Courser of Kruphix. Not being an enchantment is also generally an upgrade since it makes this less fragile and not vulnerable to things like Pest Infestation / Reclamation Sage. While all those upgrades are great, having a mana cost of makes this much more narrow compared to Courser of Kruphix / Augur of Autumn. Losing Courser of Kruphix's landfall trigger to gain 1 life is pretty crucial for Fastbond shenanigans. As much as I would love a new and improved Courser of Kruphix variant, it'd have to be more pushed than this to justify the
cost. Leovold, Emissary of Trest costing
doesn't help either.
A strong non Goblin Rabblemaster variant for Boros. This is more mana efficient and better in aggro than Kellan, the Fae-Blooded, but lacks the ability to tutor specific combo pieces like Splinter Twin / Swift Reconfiguration / Sword of the Meek. The equipment this creates is quite strong, giving Mabel a hidden 5 mana mode as a 4/4 with vigilance, trample, and haste. This is a solid card in its own right, but has a ton of competition with all the great mono red and white 3-cmc threats. Not to mention that Boros is stacked with great options like Forth Eorlingas! / Otharri, Suns' Glory / Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury / Comet, Stellar Pup / Eomer, King of Rohan / etc. While giving other mice you control +1/+1 might mostly be flavor text right now, more playable mice in future sets can give this a nice boost later down the line.
The Infamous CruelclawAn aggressive cheaty face enabler that can serve as a discard outlet. Being in Rakdos colors means this fit into reanimator / Sneak Attack shells. Not having to discard a card until you decide to cast the exiled spell is nice, and the damage trigger works extremely well with things like Vampiric Tutor / Imperial Seal / etc. That being said, this is pretty random without something that can manipulate the top of your library. Reanimator + Sneak Attack + cheaty face shells in general are pretty strong. This is probably a tertiary enabler at best, and being a small creature means it's incompatible in Oath of Druids shells. This is definitely a fun card since it has a lot of Magical Christmas Land scenarios that'll be a hoot and a holler, but this seems like a low priority in any of the decks that actually want it.
Zoraline, Cosmos CallerSun Titan x Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. This has a Lurrus of the Dream-Den quality to it as a 3-cmc creature that can recur things. Lurrus of the Dream-Den has the advantage of being able to recur a 0 cmc nonland permanent immediately and recur things more than once, but Zoraline, Cosmos Caller does have a generally better body as a 3/3 with flying and vigilance. Since its second triggered ability is on enters or attacks, this does a decent Sun Titan impersonation at 5 mana, although it's quite mana intensive requiring . The life gain trigger is nice since it counts itself and helps mitigate the life loss of its other trigger, although the only other commonly played bat is Deep-Cavern Bat.
While this card is pretty respectable on its own, there is a lot of redundancy and competition in its role. Lurrus of the Dream-Den is much more versatile in several ways such as being a companion, strictly better mana cost with hybrid mana, and being able to recur things immediately without requiring available. Serra Paragon is mono colored and has a key 4th toughness, and Guardian Scalelord is a powerful midrange top end spell that can buff other creatures and recur things for free. That being said, another Lurrus of the Dream-Den variant is enticing, so this seems worth testing out if you have a
slot to spare.
A land with a menu of options that reminds me of Trading Post / Staff of Domination. This does a little bit of everything, but its options are very inefficient. Only tapping for colorless doesn't help either. I recently tested Lazotep Quarry has recently reminded me how high the bar is for colorless utility lands. That was a bit more narrow than I thought it was going to be, but its ability was powerful enough where the cost justified the means. I can't say the same for Fountainport.
HOT TAKES TIER LIST TIME!Criteria is based on the following:
Amount of cubes I think a card will see play, particularly in powered / high powered settings.
How long I predict they will last in cubes.
How cards compare to their competition in terms of function and cmc.
The cards within the tiers are unordered:
TOP HIGH HIGH-MID LOW-MID LOW NICHE BOTTOM FINAL THOUGHTSPower level wise, Bloomburrow is an average set a best, IMO. A lot of things that I’m interested in are either sidegrades or second / third string options, but nothing really feels like a slam dunk (to me at least).
I hope they do more things with offspring and the pawprint mechanic of Season of Loss. I didn’t include those and many other cards in the article because those cards were giving me seasonal depression. I love the flavor and mechanics of Bloomburrow, I think there’s a lot more they can do with it in the future.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if there's a card that I missed and I'll respond back with the hottest of takes! Also, feel free to join the Online Cube Drafts Discord Group to discuss all things Cube plus use Xmage to host tournaments to draft / play with our own cubes!
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