Bloomburrow Set Review - White | Commander's Herald

Dewdrop Cure| Chris Rallis)

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

Bloom Box

Welcome to the wonderful world of Bloomburrow! I'm Michael Celani. You may know me for How They Brew It, Am I the Bolcast?, and for my completely reasonable and normal amount of attraction to Mr. Foxglove. I'm reviewing the white cards this time around, because this Magic: The Gathering set has white cards in it and I always review the white cards in Magic: The Gathering sets.

Anyway, statistical analytics suggests that you've already skipped to the card you care about, so why wait? There's bunnies we have to go visit, so ~~let's hop to it~~ ear we go!

Mythics

Beza, the Bounding Spring

According to the lore, Beza, the Bounding Spring is a Calamity Beast, but the only thing calamitous about Oko's idea of a perfect husband here is its long, meandering text box. Let's parse it out a bit.

When Beza, the Bounding Spring enters ~~the battlefield~~:

You create a Treasure if an opponent has more lands than you;
You gain 4 life if an opponent has more life than you;
You create two Fish if an opponent has more creatures than you; and
You draw a card if an opponent has more cards in hand than you.

This looks an awful lot like Sunset Revelry, and that comparison does Beza, the Bounding Spring no favors because it turns out Sunset Revelry kinda sucks.

To be fair, in other formats, Sunset Revelry is a potent anti-aggro card, but we play a version of Magic where attacking before turn ten is actually a felony. Thus, it only found homes in decks that care specifically about Humans, so replacing Humans with a much less supported and (let's face it) far worse tasting creature type isn't going to turn any heads. Even if you were to factor in the additional Treasure token, which comes in too late to ramp into most commanders by the way, Beza still ends up down a mana compared to its inspiration.

But wait! Beza, the Bounding Spring is in fact a creature, and creatures can be blinked and stuff. If our plan is to abuse Beza's zone change trigger, that could change the calculus. (It goes without saying that if you're not planning to, don't bother with Beza; Master of Ceremonies or Keeper of the Accord both have higher ceilings at the same mana value, and both repeat themselves with no external input.)

So how well does Beza, the Bounding Spring fit into the blink archetype? It's obviously not a win condition. Unlike, say, Archon of Cruelty, flickering this Elk over and over isn't going to clinch the game for you, because it's limited by how well your opponents are doing. The best you could ever hope to for here is infinite Treasure, and if that's your goal, I have a Dockside Extortionist to sell you.

That pretty clearly pigeonholes Beza as a value piece alongside cards like Wall of Omens, Wood Elves, and Eternal Witness, but even in this context it has hurdles to overcome. It's at the top end of the mana curve for cards in its role; the only playable creatures in the strategy more expensive in terms of casting cost are Cloudblazer and Mulldrifter, both of which guarantee two cards per trigger.

Speaking of guarantees, Beza makes none. There's just too many holes for me to feel comfortable. It can't rescue you from a group slug player where everybody's at a minuscule life total, it can't put more toughness on the board versus decks going tall, and it especially can't save you from a hand flooded with lands.

Even if you're willing to ignore that, the card can't help but feel like an amalgamation of "nice to haves" instead of "need to haves." It's so unfocused. Let me put it this way: without the card draw, would you be all that thrilled with a Treasure, 4 life, and two 1/1s? If your answer to the above question is "no," flicker Inspiring Overseer instead of Beza and guarantee the card and at least a little bit of life.

Alternatively, if you go just one mana higher, you can get an amount of 1/1s equal to your devotion to white, or you could drain at least six life from your opponents, or you can even reanimate any creature you want. Sorry, Beza, but you're just too expensive and too inconsistent for me to recommend.

Season of the Burrow

If you thought Outlaws of Thunder Junction was complicated with its spree mechanic, wait until you read the Season cycle, each of which has (correct me if I'm wrong here) thirteen possible outcomes! Okay, fine, I'll admit that the phrase "up to" is doing a lot of heavy lifting for that number, but there's still five versions of these spells that you actually need to care about. For Season of the Burrow, it can:

Create five Rabbits;
Create three Rabbits and exile a thing;
Create one Rabbit and exile two things;
Create two Rabbits and return a permanent from your graveyard to the battlefield with an indestructible counter; or
Exile a thing and return a permanent from your graveyard to the battlefield with an indestructible counter.

The first quality that stands out to me here is that that's a lot of creatures on one card for the cost. I'd judge five total dudes as a good outcome from a Reverent Hoplite, and Season of the Burrow guarantees that for you from an empty board. If you're in a go-wide deck that cares about tokens, such as Cadira, Caller of the Small (get used to seeing her; she's getting a lot of love this set), that might be worth the include all on its own.

Unfortunately, I'm less impressed with the removal portion of the card. Season of the Burrow can't match the power of a sweeper, nor the flexibility, speed, and economy of white's single target removal. The Rabbit-and-double-exile mode in particular reads to me as a bad Return to Dust catapulted into an even more odious tier of garbage since it rewards your opponent with cards for the inconvenience. It's unplayable draft removal bad. (And for you smart-alecks in the comments, I don't want to hear that "well, technically, you can target your own things to draw cards!" When's the last time you Oblation'd your own permanents from a position of anything other than pure desperation?)

Our final option to consider is a bog-standard Sun Titan trigger with the twist that your target comes back indestructible. My dream here is Wall of Glare. Outside of that crushingly impossible alternate reality where my combos work and my Rampant Growth article was well-received, I suspect that this mode will rescue tons of early game snowball engines that get rightfully targeted for being a massive friggin' problem when they stick around. God, this is going to revive so many Rhystic Studies, isn't it?

Weirdly, despite lambasting the removal mode, I actually think that the removal and recursion version of the card is the best one. You can be a real petty son-of-a-gun with it if you want, too; rescue your blown-up Esper Sentinel and exile something from the guy that blew it up in the first place. As fun as reviving something and making it indestructible is, though, my verdict is that you need the go-wide synergy to consider this card over, say, Sun Titan. It would really suck to draw Season of the Burrow after a Farewell if you don't care about playing lots of creatures to the board.

Warren Warleader

Warren Warleader is an attacking-matters creature with the enviable position of not needing to attack, itself, to get its benefits. That means this fuzzy friend can stay safe and sound in his little hidey-hole as a Saproling or whatever goes off to die in your name. Now that's leadership.

Thanks to offspring, you have two ways to play Warren Warleader. For the four-mana version, you're either getting a Rabbit every time you attack (bad; play Adeline, Resplendent Cathar instead) or getting a +1/+1 anthem on your attacking creatures (also bad; play literally any other anthem, which has the benefit of working on defense in addition to being cheaper).

Yup, Warren Warleader has Fair Charm Syndrome, where all of the options you could choose are at least one mana overcosted. Ever notice how the most popular "charms" actually have modes on rate with the casting cost of the spell? Boros Charm has its board-wide protection, Return of the Wildspeaker has its draw, Rakdos Charm its burn, Drown in the Loch its counterspell; those cards avoided Fair Charm Syndrome and are promoted to playable as a result. In general, modal spells and modal abilities on permanents either need to have a mode that's too cheap for the flexibility or be so ubiquitously useful in every game state (Abrade) to be worth including in a deck, and Warren Warleader has neither attribute.

But what about the six-mana version? If you pay the additional two, Warren Warleader comes with his adorable, please-don't-think-about-the-implications-of-this son, also named Warren Warleader. That means when you attack, you're choosing between a +2/+2 buff, two Rabbits, or one Rabbit and a +1/+1 buff. Is this enough to shatter the glass ceiling and promote Warren Buffet here to a playable card? Well... no.

Even though we doubled the number of Buns, it's a bad sign that even the six-mana version pales in comparison to Adeline, Resplendent Cathar. I'm nonplussed by the anthem/attacking token combination, too; it's just not worth the cost. +2/+2 when attacking is more interesting, though at that price point I'm looking for options to close out the game, including go-wide combat tricks such as Overrun and Akroma's Will.

Is there a home for the hare, or is it always destined to lose the race, outclassed by pretty much any other go-wide staple? Well, coming in with a copy of itself does have other applications that can put it over the edge in specific scenarios. Namely, clones have the same mana cost as the original, which is useful for devotion and Chroma. You can also populate the clone copy or target the copy with abilities that can only work on tokens. If you're doubling enters triggers, it will double the offspring trigger, too. These idiosyncrasies apply to every offspring creature, so keep them in mind when judging whether or not to include one in your deck.

Rares

Caretaker's Talent

Instant staple, and it's not even close. This is a can't-miss pick on the level of Obeka, Splitter of Seconds, and -- wait, Kyle chose Ertha Jo, Frontier Mentor as his can't-miss for Thunder Junction? Well, Kyle's articles are super cool regardless. Besides, I thought Duke Ulder Ravengard would be the most popular commander from Battle for Baldur's Gate, so I guess I can't throw stones. Cough.

Anyway, not only is Caretaker's Talent a cheaper Bennie Bracks, Zoologist that you don't have to wait until the end step to get your card from, you can sink more mana into it later to turbo-populate, and more still to buff up all your creature tokens.

The fact that its second level is so cheap really impresses me; I can imagine doing something disgusting, like encoring an Angel of Indemnity, then using my last white pip to get a fourth, more permanent version. Caretaker's Talent also has the Three Blind Mice hack, where token copies of Caretaker's Talent can be easily parlayed into more token copies of Caretaker's Talent. This has a practical limit, though, because drawing a card when you create a token is mandatory, and you don't want to deck yourself, but getting five or so of them should drown you in enough value over the course of a few turns that you'll easily win.

Getting to the third level is a lot more of an investment, coming out to eight mana in total, but having it split across multiple turns really makes the cost palatable. I adore that the buff truly feels optional in a way that a lot of other Classes miss the mark on; it rewards you for doing what the Class wants, but it's not necessary to make the card worth playing. A lot of Classes either fail to be truly impactful until you get to that last level (Wizard Class), or have a last level I would never in a million years consider activating (Druid Class, Fighter Class). Caretaker's Talent feels like I get two cards in one, and that's spectacular.

If you're creating tokens every turn, are capable of making token copies of enchantments, or even just going wide, slam this and don't look back. I suspect it's going to join the pantheon of white's three-mana value pieces alongside Tocasia's Welcome, Mentor of the Meek, Welcoming Vampire, and Rumor Gatherer.

Dawn's Truce

The other instant staple in the set. I go back and forth between whether this or Caretaker's Talent is the best white rare, or maybe even best white card in the set. (We'll get to that the third contender later.)

Dawn's Truce adds to white's illustrious line of protective instants and sorceries, last updated with Modern Horizon 3's Flare of Fortitude. I had a gigantic write-up back in that set review of how to analyze which one of these you should go with, and you should read that if you're looking for a more in-depth dive on the subject.

Dawn's Truce is a fairly general-purpose defensive spell with a few great attributes. Like Heroic Intervention, you can use it to nullify most sweepers and all single-target removal, but unlike Heroic Intervention, it's also capable of protecting yourself from game-ending spells and abilities. In particular, this can blank an Aetherflux Reservoir activation, which is an incredible ace to have up your sleeve when you find yourself sitting across from that loaded shotgun. It's very cheap at two mana, and it protects your lands, too, so even Armageddon won't be able to touch you. Even if you cast that Armageddon yourself, you monster.

Its only major drawback comes with the gift mechanic: you only actually get the indestructible portion of the spell if you let another player draw a card. I've heard people consider this an upside in Commander, since you can use it to bargain with other players, but don't get it twisted: it is a downside to give your opponents free value. Personally, I don't think it's enough to kill the card. If you're dodging a sweeper, protecting your whole board is well worth the disadvantage, and if you're just sidestepping single-target removal, you don't need to give the gift away in the first place.

Jackdaw Savior

Jackdaw Savior is a Scrap Trawler for flying creatures. If a creature you control with flying dies, it lets you return another creature card with lesser mana value from your graveyard to your... battlefield?! It doesn't go to your hand? This bird's the word!

My first instinct is that this goes infinite with clone creatures. Clones have a low mana value while they're in the graveyard, but as they enter the battlefield they transform into a permanent with a potentially much higher cost. So, as long as you have a clone in the bin, a clone in your hand, and a sufficiently pricey piece of poultry on your table, you can play one as a copy of your big bird, sacrifice it to revive the other, have the new clone come in as a copy of your big bird, and keep the chain going until you win. In particular, two clones, Jackdaw Savior, and Keiga, the Tide Star would let you steal the entire board. Bonkers.

Even outside of chicanery, being able to slowly chain down a list of fliers in the graveyard with an Ashnod's Altar is going to give you so much value. On top of that, it counts itself when it dies, and it comes in at the all-important three mana value, meaning most of white's revival has no problem bringing it back if it gets sniped. Absolutely absurd, and I'm hard pressed to invent a reason why I'm not putting this in flying-matters decks.

Jacked Rabbit

Smash. I mean, this card is smashing! Ha ha. Please ignore the fact I snuck a furry sticker into one of my previous articles. No, I'm not telling you which.

Jacked Rabbit reminds me a lot of Threefold Thunderhulk, and if you were to pay the into Jacked Rabbit to get it to cantrip to its ravenous ability, then they're both seven mana and, therefore, comparable. At that rate, you're looking at a 6/7 that makes six Rabbits when it swings. That's pretty good, and although the wind-up turn is a bit of a bummer, by the end of the second turn both creatures would have given you six tokens. Jacked Rabbit pulls ahead in this imaginary scenario by having cantripped itself and by scaling faster, so I'm thinking it's a pretty good drop-in replacement unless you care about artifact tokens specifically.

The real upside here is that you can play Jacked Rabbit at other mana values, and honestly treating it as a straight two-drop in a deck with tons of anthems also seems like a winning plan. Anthems pull double duty for Jacked Rabbit: they not only increase the number of Rabbits it puts onto the field, they also buff those Rabbits into actual threats which will quickly overwhelm your opponents. Decks like Minthara, Merciless Soul, which scale over time, are a perfect fit for this type of strategy.

Murmuration

Funny joke, Wizards. When are you going to acknowledge Magic's true best creature?

It's easy to treat Murmuration as a joke. On paper, it looks you're getting a Storm Crow per spell, which is funny, but that doesn't affect the game in a palpable way. However, you have to take into account that Murmuration also buffs your Birds, so as long as it's on the field it's less like you're getting copies of Storm Crow and more like you're getting copies of Armored Griffin, a card with kickass art that I bet looks incredible in foil.

Birds are fairly well known as an aggressive creature type, so if you're already all-in on the strategy then this is an effective anthem for your deck. Don't make the mistake of slotting this into your storm lists, though. If you have a high or even infinite storm count, you should probably just win the game the turn you have the infinite storm count instead of needing to wait a whole turn cycle to swing with your army of meme Birds.

Perch Protection

I love the audacity of this card, but sadly, it's my duty to inform you all that Perch Protection was printed for the shock value of the phrase "gift an extra turn" rather than an actual attempt to create a playable game piece.

I understand that the idea is to use Teferi's Protection stapled to a reverse extra-turn spell in an attempt to get your enemies to bash each other in while you remain completely unscathed. The problem with that strategy is it relies on your gift's recipient playing along instead of just tossing your plan in the trash. At best, your foe knocks out your other two opponents and dies to your crackback like a dunce. At worst, they spend their extra turn amassing a ton of value, becoming really difficult to kill, and then passing, all while you're incapable of interacting because you've phased out all your lands.

All this at twice the cost of Teferi's Protection means if you're holding Perch Protection up, you're most likely not doing anything on your main phase, so in a way you're giving away two extra turns. The only way I can see this strategy even remotely working is if you have a Geode Rager in play and you've managed to goad the go-wide player who happens to be at exactly eight life with no flying blockers.

Too expensive to cast defensively, too dangerous to cast offensively. I'll pass. And no, playing Perch Protection without the gift is not worth considering.

Salvation Swan

Like Restoration Angel? Here's another one.

Well, I suppose it's worth pointing out that Salvation Swan is a slow flicker. It's also worth pointing out that Salvation Swan blanks on a substantially bigger fraction of the creature roster, to the point where I think it's actually a problem for blink decks. For example, you can't save an evoked Mulldrifter with Salvation Swan, nor can you flicker Cloudblazer or Inspiring Overseer. You can't even set up fun chains with Flickerwisp or Yorion, Sky Nomad!

But hey! At least the creature you target comes back with a flying counter, which makes it impossible for a flickered Salvation Swan to target the same creature twice in a row. Alright, I give up; I don't know what deck is this needy for a way to give creatures flying after protecting it from a board wipe.

At the very least, I think it would be hilarious to play this into an Archetype of Imagination so it can blink itself over and over again.

Starfall Invocation

Though the gift gives your opponent a card, Starfall Invocation isn't card disadvantage, since it grants the comical benefit of resurrecting one of your creatures that it killed. This is a deceptively strong effect, as not only will you be the only one left with a creature, that creature will have been laundered through the graveyard, getting both its dies and enters triggers for free. All that's done during the resolution of the spell, so unless your opponent controls something like a Rest in Peace, there's no opportunity for your opponents to exile your graveyard in between using, say, a Soul-Guide Lantern.

Blood on the Snow did something very similar back in Kaldheim, and it was always absurdly punishing when paired with a creature that could recur it back into your hand. If you're in blue, raising Archaeomancer from Starfall Invocation can easily lock your opponents out of the game until they're willing to spend removal on what's effectively a vanilla 1/2 to them.

For my money, the best place to put The Moon Howling at Three Wolves is very clearly Liesa, Forgotten Archangel decks, as it upgrades the destroy to an exile, and you can choose to return Liesa to the field while your other creatures make their way back to your hand. Just be aware that your friends will hate you for this and I take no responsibility for your keyed car.

Steelburr Champion

Steelburr Champion is two Sunscorch Regents for the price of one. Unfortunately, this pipsqueak plagiarist and its copyright infringing son only trigger on noncreature spells, and they lack the flying and lifegain that makes its draconic cousin such a threat. I prefer the original for its raw power and lifegain synergy, but this version is stronger on defense thanks to their vigilance and split bodies. If you're between the two, determine whether you need more power on offense or defense and then pick whichever is right for your deck.

Tempt with Bunnies

In the best case, Tempt with Bunnies is a better Cut a Deal that comes with four Bunnies. In the average case, Tempt with Bunnies is a Divination stapled to a Raise the Alarm that also drew an opponent a card. In the worst case, you've played an unblinkable Spirited Companion for one more mana.

I never liked relying on cards where the deciding factor of their playability is whether or not my opponents are capable of making good choices. The smarter your playgroup, the less so it is for you to run Tempt with Bunnies.

Valley Questcaller

I suspect the Commander-relevant creature types that come out of Bloomburrow will be Rabbits and Birds. Bats don't have a strong commander or cohesive identity yet, and Mice are currently relegated to a rather weak aggro archetype that won't make a splash in the format. On the other hand, Rabbits have a chance specifically because of Cadira, Caller of the Small, and Birds are a shoo-in because they've always been a valid creature type to build around. So pick this up if you've got a Bird deck or a Cadira list.

Uncommons & Commons

Builder's Talent

The second level on Builder's Talent is insane and pretty wholly the reason you should play it. It looks inconspicuous, but it's missing a "triggers only once each turn" rider, and more importantly, it's missing a "nontoken" clause. Think about that: for every Treasure you make, every Food you cook, every Clue you meticulously leave to taunt the police, you get a +1/+1 counter as a reward, and that's not to mention any actual artifacts and enchantments you play trigger it, too.

The third level is also notable, since it's on rate for noncreature reanimation. I don't think it meshes quite as well with the base class as Caretaker's Talent did, since Builder's Talent rewards token generation more than actually playing artifacts and enchantments, but I could see a case made for it.

If you're making tons of noncreature tokens and your deck cares about combat at all, consider Builder's Talent and use its second level only in an emergency.

Dewdrop Cure

Reanimating three two-drops should make Dewdrop Cure an absolute house in anything that would run Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

Unfortunately, the more I see these two-drop-specific reanimation cards, the less I think it works in Commander, or at least in casual Commander. You need to have an abundance of early game creatures to make it worth including, and even worse, they have to be in the graveyard. I don't think there's really a point where bringing back three average two-drops will make a dent in the game unless you're doing something busted. It's different if all your two-drops are Dockside-tier, but I doubt most casual decks reach that point.

Harvestrite Host

It's a shame Harvestrite Host only cares about Rabbits, relegating him to the Cadira-zone, because I would have liked to see another twist on Rumor Gatherer.

Hop to It

Oh shoot, they did my pun. I'm gonna have to replace it up above.

If the creature type doesn't matter, put in Distract the Guards first, since in theory you can cast that for its freerunning cost. Hop to It is still the second best version of this effect printed at this cost, though.

Lupinflower Village

As a nonbasic, Lupinflower Village has surprisingly few downsides. It enters untapped and can tap for colorless, so it's at least as good as a Wastes. It can make white, but only for creatures. Since it's meant to be included in a creature-focused deck anyway, that downside should be relatively moot. If your deck includes Bats, Birds, Mice, or Rabbits in abundant enough numbers, go for it.

Mabel's Mettle

Mabel's Mettle is intended to trigger Valiant or Heroic twice on one card. If you're not trying to accomplish that, you're probably better off running Phalanx Tactics, which, incidentally, was also a card meant to boost Heroic.

Parting Gust

This is the third candidate for best white card in the set. If removal and protection spells are a deck's vegetables, then Parting Gust is goddamn ambrosia.

As a removal spell, Parting Gust is effectively a Stroke of Midnight that costs a little bit less, but can only hit nontoken creatures. It's facing some stiff competition in the two mana removal space, especially with Get Lost and Bovine Intervention, both of which are more flexible, but Parting Gust makes up for it by exiling its target instead of destroying it.

It can't be understated how strong this is: prior to Parting Gust, exiling a creature at instant speed for two either gave your opponent an actual threat, a chance at an actual threat, or had some ridiculous restriction on what you could target. Yes, Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile exist and will realistically never be powercrept, but those don't also double as protection spells.

If you choose not to give a gift, then Parting Gust becomes a slow blink that you can use to save your commander from a Farewell, stop a win condition of yours from getting Chaos Warp'd, or even just for some extra value at the end of your antecedent's second main phase. As gravy, the creature you blink also comes back with a +1/+1 counter for no reason.

It's an absurd amount of flexibility to put on a two-cost card, to the point where I'm including it over Path to Exile. As someone who was not extremely excited about Get Lost or Bovine Intervention, you should take my word that your white decks need a copy of Parting Gust. It really is that good.

Shrike Force

Well, this is a fun little homing missile for those Ardenn // Jeska decks. All you'd have to do is get him to seven power and this little pun can murder a man.

Star Charter

Star Charter is a pretty good lifegain payoff, since it turns out a substantial portion of lifegain theme creatures have three or less power. If you have enough creatures in your lifegain deck, then you can treat this chiropteric chaplain as an almost guaranteed draw, and since it triggers on your end step, you can reap the rewards right away.

Crumb and Get It

Do you think there's a combo out there with one of these gift spells and Zada, Hedron Grinder? Like, maybe you get a hundred creatures, then you copy a spell that gifts a card, and that forces your opponent to draw out a hundred cards and die instantly?

I know that has nothing to do with Crumb and Get It, but this is the card that made me think about that. It's now my goal to gift a guy to death.

Lifecreed Duo

Lifecreed Duo is the first flying Soul Sister (unless you count Guide of Souls), which makes it pretty good in Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn. You can put the counters from Lathiel onto Lifecreed Duo and swing in for tons of damage pretty easily.

Nettle Guard

This little guy is valiant, but not valiant enough for me to consider him over Cathar Commando, who has the same statline and flash.

There's a few great inclusions this time around, especially if you're going wide. White's protective tools are extremely strong in this set, and protection tends to be an evergreen inclusions in Commander decks, so I don't think you can go wrong with a few packs here or just a bunch of copies of Parting Gust. Seriously, get some Parting Gusts, they're so good. Are you excited to slot in anything from this set into your decks, like Season of the Burrow or Parting Gust? Please send me all your Parting Gust related feedback below. Oh, and the rest of the cards, too. And while you're at it, don't forget to check out all the other set reviews here on Commander's Herald and EDHREC. See you next set!