Bloom! There it is!

What’s good, Spirit Squad!

Today we’re gonna talk a bit about the (huge!) changes surrounding Magic: the Gathering and the release of the newest set, Bloomburrow! Bloomburrow, like Lorwyn, is a world without humans. But instead of Merfolk or Kithkin, this time we get a Magic: the Gathering-meets-Animorphs set with tons of real-life animals like Weasels, Rabbits, and Raccoons as playable creature types.

Also of note: this is probably the only way I’m gonna get to interact with furry animals without an allergy attack!

(Don’t let the artwork fool you, this card is gonna shake things up.)

Absolutely adorable artwork aside, Bloomburrow is also coming with some very real changes for everyone. The biggest of these changes is probably the fact that Bloomburrow will also be the benchmark for this year’s Standard rotation! Four sets are leaving Standard:

• Innistrad: Crimson Vow
• Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
• Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
• Streets of New Capenna

Four sets leaving Standard at the same time means that we’re going to have a very shaken-up first few weeks! But first, a thing that isn’t being shaken up at all: the Banned and Restricted list.

Not being shaken up? What.

We did talk about the Banned and Restricted list at length in our previous article (No Ban Hammer? Now What?), but the important part for Bloomburrow’s release is that Wizards of the Coast has straight-up said that there will be no changes until the August 26th Banned and Restricted update. So if you’re not a fan of cards like Nadu, Winged Wisdom or Grief, uh… I don’t know what to tell you for the next month or so. Come play Pioneer and new Standard?

(Public Enemy #1)

Yeah. I don’t wanna play Modern or Legacy right now. What’s even exciting?

Pioneer is surprisingly balanced, given how unbalanced Modern and Legacy happen to be at the moment. There is always a top tier of decks, but that’s every format in every game. But the top, let’s say, 5 decks aren’t so overbearing that you can’t play the others. In fact, a lot of the Tier-2 and even Tier-3 options can win tournaments on a very regular basis (humblebrags in Spirits).

The best part is that the format has a little something for everyone:

• Play a lot of Legacy and enjoy the Cantrip Cartel (Ponder and Brainstorm)? Check out Izzet Phoenix. You even get to play Treasure Cruise!
• Play a lot of Modern and, for some reason, enjoy Rakdos Scam? Cool, Rakdos is good in Pioneer too. You can choose between Vampires, a traditional midrange list, or even Transmogrify combo with Atraxa, Grand Unifier!
• Play Standard and don’t know what to do post-rotation yet? That’s fine, a lot of Standard decks happen to bridge into Pioneer just fine! A lot of your Domain cards will be playable in 5-Color Beanstalk in Pioneer. Boros Convoke is almost the exact same deck. Azorius Soldiers players will really enjoy Azorius Spirits. Humans are good in Pioneer too, but that’s an aggro deck instead of a tempo deck. Lots of options for you!

Standard is also brand-new as of this week, as discussed above. A lot of Standard decks from the previous format happen to be relatively untouched too! Golgari Midrange, 5-Color Domain, Boros Convoke, there’s a lot of decks that still function even without some of the key pieces players are used to from the previous format.

The best part of a new format is that there’s also plenty of space to brew! Cards like The Infamous Cruelclaw, Mockingbird, and Flamecache Gecko have the ability to inspire a lot of deck building shenanigans and I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what pilots come up with. Not to mention the various Talent cards!

…and if all else fails, Azorius Control will still exist. That’s been true for almost 30 years and isn’t changing now.

As for my end, here’s a brew I’ll be playing around with in Standard. Is it good? I have no idea yet! But I expect to have fun figuring out whether something like a Prowess deck has potential in a brand-new Standard format! To close out the day, here’s a deck list I plan on tinkering with over the next week or two to find out exactly that:

Temur Prowess

Standard

4 Elusive Otter/Grove's Bounty
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Slickshot Show-Off
4 Questing Druid/Seek the Beast
4 Scalding Viper/Steam Clean
2 Stormcatch Mentor
4 Stormchaser's Talent
4 Artist's Talent
2 Proft's Eidetic Memory
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Shock
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Shivan Reef
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Island (335)
2 Mountain (343)

While I don’t expect a deck like Temur Prowess to break the Internet or anything, I think it’ll be a lot of fun and there’s probably a lot of potential in a shell that gets this much support in multiple sets.

Hopefully Bloomburrow gets some of you as excited as I am about the next few months. Happy brewing, and I’ll see y’all on the next one!