Bloomburrow Set Review - Reprints

Nick Wolf • July 25, 2024

Set Review
Bloomburrow Reprints cover image
 

White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts/Lands | Allied Colors/Shards | Enemy Colors/Wedges | cEDH | Reprints | Pauper/Budget

Put Some Mussel Into It

Another Magic: The Gathering release is upon us, this time centered around little woodland critters, and like the characters who become furry when they arrive on the plane, many of Bloomburrow's reprints are also animalized. Or, as paraphrased from the paraphrasing Oppenheimer: "I am become mouse, destroyer of cheese."

Unlike previous Reprint Review entries, however, Bloomburrow complicates things even more. In addition to the main set reprints, of which there are 10, there are also 11 reprints contained within the set-specific Starter Kit. None of the reprints in either category are interesting, with Fabled Passage the most financially relevant reprint at only $3.50. It's also the 15th version of the card, and it hasn't even been around for five years yet.

Among the other main set reprints are a few draft role-players, like Banishing Light, Run Away Together, Shore Up, and Uncharted Haven, along with the usual quintet of basic lands. Again, other than new art for each -- admittedly very good art, regardless of your opinion on pocket-sized mammals -- nothing cromulent on which to write an entire Reprint Review.

Over on the Starter Kit side of things, we've got well-trod returns of Colossification, Rabid Bite, Sword of Vengeance, the 50th reprint of Giant Growth, and the "fixed" Braingeyser in Mind Spring. Also joining the party are the first reprints of Thieving Otter and Serra Redeemer.

Instead, the real meat on the Reprint bone is found in the Bloomburrow Commander Decks as well as the set's Special Guests. Regarding the Commander Decks, there are 271 reprints in total, which includes all the "Imagine: Courageous Critters" treatments that see our favorite non-animal characters turned into animals, and our favorite animal characters turned into, well, animals.

We'll talk about those later. First, we need to go over the Special Guests.

Special Guests

All together there are 10 of them, and they're an interesting mix.

Here's the list:

Some of these, like Swords to Plowshares and Sword of Fire and Ice, have seen plenty of versions over the years and their presence here only serves to provide players with a critterfied version of the art. If you looked at SoFI way back in Darksteel and thought, "Man, this card is cool, but what it really needs is an otter swinging it around," then boy, howdy, it's your lucky day. 

Slyvan Tutor, on the other hand, is seeing its third reprint and all versions go for around $50, and Ledger Shredder sees its spot in Special Guests as its first reprint since it debuted in Streets of New Capenna. 

And then there are the Rats. Both Relentless Rats and Rat Colony are Special Guests, and with any card featuring the clause "a deck can have any number of cards named X", the price becomes a huge factor in tempering your excitement for new versions floating around. Outside of Secret Lair reprints, Relentless Rats was last seen in Time Spiral Remastered with old borders, and that version's around $3. At the moment, the Special Guests version is $20 apiece.

Special Guests haven't been around for very long. They debuted as a bit of extra pixie dust to prey on poor impulse control back in Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and with Bloomburrow there are now 63 in total since that start, but historically, albeit in that limited timeframe, many of them carry a significant premium over other versions and have held their value pretty well. The Special Guests version of Victimize from noted garbage set Murders at Karlov Manor is $10 while every other version of the same card is less than a buck, for example.

Anyway, let's get to those Commander Deck reprints.

Bloomburrow Commander

Kalonian Hydra

Did we need it?

Kalonian Hydra first appeared a decade ago in Magic 2014, and with its reprint now, we've seen the big guy seven times now. This is its fourth inclusion in a preconstructed Commander product. Despite all that, it's still around $12. Even Baloths fear its feeding time, or so I've been told.

The card is undeniably cool, but there's no reason for it to be so expensive. It's never had new art, and outside of a Spanish-only 30th Anniversary Play Promo, it's never had any special border treatments or anything. Incluso los báloths le temen cuando es su hora de comer, or so I've been told.

It's just always there, doing its thing, eating Dragons out of the sky despite not having reach.

Did we want it?

It's a dang good card, and ten years later still holds its own in green decks. We see it in 51,370 decks, good for 3% of all decks on EDHREC playing green. It fits snugly in both Hydra decks and decks that care about +1/+1 counters, which as it turns out, is a lot of decks. Those two verticals are evidenced by its frequency in Zaxara, the Exemplary and Shalai and Hallar, who combined represent 8,860 decks featuring Kalonian Hydra. 

Bootleggers' Stash

Did we need it?

Here's the first reprint of Bootleggers' Stash, a card that make a lot of noise among the social media Discourse when it was revealed as part of Streets of New Capenna, but was quickly forgotten. Think back: were you one of the people gnashing their teeth at the idea of a green artifact that made Treasure tokens? Odds are you might have been. It's okay, we've all been there. Because of all that buzz, both positive and negative, the card debuted with a prerelease price tag somewhere in the $65 range. 

Today, it's a bit more affordable, and with a reprint, it might get even cheaper. I hope you didn't preorder it in 2022, is all I'm saying.

Did we want it?

I don't mean to downplay its power, of course. It's a fantastic card in the right circumstances. It didn't Ruin Magic™, as some might have claimed it would, but decks that like Treasure, tokens, or Treasure tokens certainly love playing Bootleggers' Stash. It's in 46,206 decks, good for 2% of all decks playing green. Most commonly, it's in Chatterfang, Squirrel General, where we see it in 41% of all Chatterfang decks. And speaking of that fuzzy little guy...

Chatterfang, Squirrel General

Did we need it?

Obviously it's not surprising that we got a reprint of Chatterfang in Bloomburrow, but did you guess that we'd get three reprints of it? I sure didn't, but I've given up on trying to predict things related to Magic around the time of War of the Spark. 

We first met Chatterfang in Modern Horizons 2 released in June of 2021, so it's barely three years old. Technically that was the only printing thus far, but in MH2 there were actually three versions as well, so even though Chatterfang has only been in two sets, there are six distinct versions of the card. Welcome to the future, I hope you're not an online singles vendor.

It's interesting that with Bloomburrow's trio of versions, we'll get the cheapest and most expensive versions of Chatterfang simultaneously, as the regular boring basic version will probably become the most affordable, while the one with all the yellow filigree doodads will jump to the top of the price list. 

Did we want it?

Chatterfang's a popular little guy. As a commander, it's ranked the 29th-most popular commander currently on EDHREC, with 13,779 decks dedicated to it. It's second only to Lathril, Blade of the Elves in terms of popularity among decks, and is the most popular leader for Squirrel decks by a large margin. Chances are you either have a Chatterfang deck or have played against one, so it's nice that there are now even more versions of the card out there to keep things interesting.

Luminous Broodmoth

Did we need it?

Back in my day, the only way to get anything back in white was with Resurrection, and we were fine with it. Then Ikoria came around and gave us this big furry bug that not only brings things back to life but gives them the ability to fly around, and also Mothra was there? I don't know, 2020 was a weird time.

Luminous Broodmoth returns both as a regular reprint as well as an Imagine: Critters version, and it's a welcome choice. We haven't seen the moth since it debuted in Ikoria, and due to its scarcity and uniqueness, it's hard to find a copy for less than $10. Hopefully that'll change, because it's a critical card in mono-white reanimator strategies that I can't stop trying to build.

Did we want it?

Among the 1.9 million decks on EDHREC playing white, Luminous Broodmoth's in 2%, or 37,770 total. Unsurprisingly, the mega-popular Teysa Karlov likes the moth quite a bit, but I enjoy the 916 people who put the moth in Brion Stoutarm. And there are only 34 Celestine, the Living Saint decks in all of EDHREC that play Luminous Broodmoth. It's a cutting edge vector, get in on the ground floor.

Helm of the Host

Did we need it?

Originally from Dominaria, Helm of the Host returns in a modern artifact border after a quick sojourn into brown town as a The Brothers' War Retro Artifact. People really enjoy making copies of their creatures and are gladly willing to pay a total of nine mana to do so. As a result, the cheapest version of the card is $10+, and that's probably going to stay where it is despite the reprint in Bloomburrow, since we're getting the same art. 

Did we want it?

Due to its colorless identity, Helm of the Host can be played in any deck, so out of the 4.2 million decks logged on EDHREC, Helm's in 3% of them. In other numbers, 136,761 decks play Helm. Its most popular commanders include either ways to make that cast/equip cost cheaper, like Godo, Bandit Warlord, or reasons to stomach that cost for the benefit, like Etrata, the Silencer. We see it most often in Adrix and Nev, Twincasters, however, since one token is fine, but twicer is nicer.

Saw in Half

Did we need it?

I'm sure you remember the weirdness that was Unfinity, and its special attention paid to whether or not the holo seal on the bottom of the card was an oval or an acorn. Saw in Half was an oval at the time, but now in Bloomburrow, with art updated to feature a squirrel, it might have been more appropriate as the acorn. 

Saw in Half is a bizarre card and does something no other removal spell does. That, and the fact that it's seen play in Legacy, is why it's around $12. Along with Comet, Stellar Pup, it's far and away the most expensive card out of Unfinity if you don't count the planet-themed shocklands. One of the things Mark Rosewater has always said about his beloved Un-Sets is that the cards within could be legal outside of silver borders, perhaps with minor tweaking, and that dream of his became a reality in earnest with a Saw in Half reprint.

Did we want it?

Of black decks on EDHREC, Saw in Half is in 2% of them, or 46,734 of the logged 2,025,751 lists. It's the 26th-most played black instant, which isn't really that interesting when you consider that that puts it behind things like Imp's Mischief, Tainted Pact, or Culling the Weak, which are all arguably even more situational. Still, it's not not played, and decks that like it aim to make use of the added triggers you get, like Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, who sees Saw in Half played in 2,040 decks. The highest synergy with a commander, however, is with Kokusho, the Evening Star, where a shade over half (ironically, 50.67%) of Kokusho decks on EDHREC also play the instant.

Swarmyard

Did we need it?

Similar to Chatterfang, this one seemed all but guaranteed to be included in Bloomburrow, but that didn't stop people from trying to buy up the versions from Time Spiral and Time Spiral Remastered on the off-chance that it was skipped as a reprint and the price of it would balloon. It was reprinted, though, and currently the Bloomburrow version is at least a few bucks cheaper than the others. I don't think this'll be a bulk box rare any time soon, but hopefully you didn't spend $14 on what will now be a seven-dollar card.

Did we want it?

Do you play Insects, Rats, Spiders or Squirrels? Then yes, you probably want Swarmyard. I do want to note that I appreciate Wizards of the Coast confirming what I've always felt, that Squirrels are just as gross and useless as the other three critters on the card. While Yavimaya Hollow is technically a better card, it's also $70, so if you're concerned about the relevant creature types on Swarmyard, or playing a lot of Changelings, it's the more economical pick.

At the moment, Swarmyard is played in 43,596 decks on EDHREC, but that number's sure to rise as people get their hands on the precon in which it comes. I'll let you guess which commanders use it the most, but I'll give you a hint: it's not Ezrim, Agency Chief Detective decks.

Has Anyone Seen Fli-fli?

Perhaps the most interesting thing related to Bloomburrow reprints is the greater-than-normal cards with new looks. First, let's take a gander at Imagine: Courageous Critters. The "Imagine" versions, 28 in total, are a bit of a Universes Beyond-but-still-Within look at Magic characters through a woodland creature lens. As the lore goes, whenever any sentient being visits Bloomburrow, they're turned into some sort of critter, so Imagine: Courageous Critters does exactly that: imagines characters as courageous critters.

24 of the 28 Critters are found in Collector Boosters, while four of them are in the 99 of the Bloomburrow Commander releases. Additionally, there are 20 "raised foil anime cards," four of which are also Imagine: Critters. 

Anyway, here's the list:

*Elspeth, Domri, Garruk and Tamiyo are in the 99 of the Family Matters, Animated Army, Squirreled Away, and Peace Offering Bloomburrow Commander decks, respectively.

As for which are also anime-ized, which I assure editors is a real word, those would be:

Japanese versions are only found in Japanese-language Collector Boosters, with English versions in all other languages of Collector Booster. These are going to be worth significantly more than their non-anime Imagine counterparts, with Liliana specifically already preordering for more than $400. As the official "Collecting Bloomburrow" article said, "opening one of these is a truly special event."

Not every problem is a calamity

I hope you like cute li'l guys, because artists really outdid themselves for Bloomburrow, and art directors were slinging out commissions like there was no tomorrow, as we were provided quite a few new looks for old favorites. Instead of mind-numbingly going over each and every one, we'll continue the theme of this Reprint Review and return to yet another bullet-point list.

Weirdly, Beast Within didn't get new art. One would think that the entire theme of Bloomburrow is essentially "the beast within." Oh well.

Chittering, Skittering Death

That's a ton of reprints, and some of them are actually good. 

It's pretty clear that designers went batty to ensure Bloomburrow would be a hit. It's no secret that 2024 hasn't been the most thrilling year in Magic so far, so Bloomburrow needed to reinvigorate the playerbase. Assassin's Creed sure didn't.

Did they succeed? As far as reprints go, it's a pretty good mix, and the new art for many of the cards is very solid. Are you buying into Bloomburrow? Hit me up below.