We now have official announcements for spoilers from our new Standard Set, Bloomburrow. Considering that the initial spoilers from the pro tour were a tad underwhelming, it was refreshing to see some of the awesome new mechanics and overall flavor that we will get with this set. There were also some cards that were clearly used to replace cards that were going to rotate out, which is also convenient for us. We will also get some cards that help us reminisce about cards that we were missing, and commander players got a very pleasant surprise with the animal versions of some of our most beloved planeswalkers.
We needed something truly refreshing to fill the void that four sets will leave in this format, and from what has been revealed so far, it appears that we are well on our way. I'm sure there are also plenty of people who are flat out ready for a rotation right now, and they would take it even if we didn't get any new cards. I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to that. Thankfully, while we do get the rotation we so desperately need, we will also be getting some pretty sick cards. We will go over a few of my favorite new cards revealed so far, and what they may be replacing.
New Cards I'm Excited to See
You know I had to start it off with this one. It is effectively a reprint of Invoke Despair. It is pure evil mono black beauty as it was intended for your five mana sorcery spell. This introduces a new mechanic of paw prints to cast different modes of the spell. We cannot do all three modes, which some would say makes it a little more fair. You also cannot carry over paws for later like energy. I guess we could kind of think of it as use it or lose it energy, and you can only use it on that same card. Either way, this gives us some flexibility and it has phenomenal potential upside.
This card is literal vanilla on cardboard, but it is the simple, good removal that we have been asking for. It has an obvious drawback only being a sorcery, but it's nice to be able to target any creature for only two mana. It could possibly be a nice sideboard swap for when we need to remove artifact creatures. There are some matchups where Go for the Throat is flat out bad, and this is an easy like for like swap with it. We are happy to see Fell, even if it causes us to be a tad slower at sorcery speed. The fact that it is uncommon should help out with pricing and wildcards as well. It is also helpful that this card is coming because we will be losing Infernal Grasp.
Let's jump right into the big cat portion of the article. This Lynx is gangster. Not being able to prevent damage or gain life are serious static effects that affect the board in major ways. This card will have implications outside of just standard as well. This could be a key to shutting down Amalia Combo in Pioneer. It shuts off plenty of other combos that rely on life gain as well. Normally if we saw something that does this much for the mana, it would just be an enchantment. This card is even better because it is also a strong creature. If that wasn't enough, in true red color identity fashion, it deals damage to each player when it enters. Mono red doesn't mind this, because it runs a ton of basics. In eternal formats, however, this could be absolutely devastating. It is definitely the case that this could replace any four mana spell in mono red that is rotating out. We will just have to see if the red decks elect to play spells with that high of mana value. A lot of them seem to top out at three mana, but it is possible that this is enough incentive to go a little bit more towards midrange.
Well, this card and I have some things in common. We both eat everything. No, but seriously, this is another kitty that you can expect to ask some serious questions when it's on the board. She effectively has a ward cost of sacrificing a creature - and we know how powerful the other creature is that has that ability. It also turns all other creatures into food tokens, which is plenty powerful on its own. It really punishes decks that don't run creatures. If they don't have one, only a board wipe or edict effect can deal with this powerful cat. Like we said, it demands answers, and not everyone will be able to give those answers. Nothing immediately comes to mind as to what this card will replace, but I think it can hold its own as yet another awesome creature that Golgari Decks have access to.
Maha was the first preview that really made me believe in the potential of this set. It goes without saying that tons of ideas come to mind when we see the ability for this big bird. Equally, it is a card with great stats even if we leave out that ability. The ward cost of discarding a card is pretty sweet - especially considering that we are losing Graveyard Trespasser. This card immediately looks to be an adequate replacement for Junji. While I will miss that awesome dragon, it is pretty cool that it can be replaced with another strong flyer. We now have that and Aclazotz, and I think both are good, while also both serving their purpose in their own respective ways.
Expectations for New Standard
Ok, so you saw how many creature cards I listed above. We have some board wipes rotating out, and of course plenty will stay, but I am confident that within this new meta, we will see players being rewarded for playing creature-based decks. When it comes to a lot of the win conditions that the control decks are losing , a lot of those cards are being replaced by other creatures. This means they can't simply rely on planeswalkers and creature lands to win games, and thus would hopefully deter the prevalence of board wipes. We will have to see how things play out, but something tells me that a set that relies on kindred animals to make up the majority of the prints would have to foster an environment where people actually want to play the creatures.
