Bloomburrow Announcement - Exciting News and Insights!

Bloomburrow Has Announced Itself, and We Have Some Stuff to Talk About!

Explore the latest announcement from Bloomburrow with our in-depth discussion. Discover new features, updates, and what this means for fans and users alike

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

Magic the Gathering Card - Season of Loss - MTG Circle

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.

Magic the Gathering Card - Fell - MTG Circle

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.

Magic the Gathering Card - Sunspine Lynx - MTG Circle

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.

Magic the Gathering Card - Ygra, Eater of All - MTG Circle

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.

Magic the Gathering Card - Maha, Its Feathers Night - MTG Circle

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.

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I am a Magic The Gathering competitive player, and streamer. I specialize in homebrew decks. My favorite formats are: Standard, Pioneer (Explorer on Arena), and EDH. I first started playing MTG in 2001, and have played on and off since then.

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Explore the highs and lows of MTG 2024, from format shakeups to standout cards and controversies. Discover key changes in Standard and more.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Recapping MTG in 2024

2024 was a huge year for MTG. It was a lot of things. Controversial, exciting, frustrating, promising, and refreshed. We saw some formats get ruined, then fixed, then ruined again. We saw some great changes to Standard that not everyone was fans of at first, but they seemed to quickly warm up to them. We saw Wizards effectively abandon a format in favor of propelling Standard into a more prominent position. We saw some great cards printed for Standard, and some promising things to come in the next year that were announced. Along with that, a fair amount of people were still bothered by the new trajectory of the format. Some are calling into question the longevity of MTG now with the heavy lean into Universes Beyond. A little bit of everything happened this year in the MTG world, and it was interesting if nothing else. On a personal level, it was also a hell of a year for me, as I took down two different events and grew a lot as a player. We are going to look at The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from this year! The Good I have to admit, I'm pretty excited that we have an infinite gain and drain combo in Standard right now. With Enduring Tenacity and Bloodthirsty Conqueror having made a lot of my dreams come true in my favorite format. Although the deck isn't the most viable in the format, it is incredibly fun to play, and I'm just happy that we had such exciting cards printed in the format. It leads to good card design going forward, and gives us promise for what's to come in the next year.

Want to WIN Games in Standard? Play These Cards!

People often discuss win rates when cards are included in a deck, or maybe win rates if a card is drawn during a game. There is even something to take from the percentage of decks a card appears in. Sure, we can say x and y are good cards to put in your deck, but what cards are truly the best? Which ones give you the best chance of winning a game after you cast them? We are going to look at those cards today. We are effectively examining the biggest bombs in the format. There is still a concept of not relying on one card to win the game, and using synergies to win. I get it. I would invite you to consider, however, even if you do not plan to play any of these cards, you should definitely be aware of what is a bomb that needs your attention in the format. Without further ado, let's check out the bombs in Standard, and see how insane their win rates are. Standard Cards with Highest Win Rate (When Cast) Note that this statistic is simply if the card was cast from someone's hand. It does not look at whether or not the spell was resolved. I think this has bearing on the outcome of the game as well. If it gets countered or removed, we know it is also that much more important. This is why I believe looking at win rate when cast is the best metric for the biggest threats.

This Deck is Giving Everyone PROBLEMS in Pioneer

This is starting to feel like déjà vu. Remember the last time a Rakdos Deck was extremely powerful and the most popular deck in Pioneer? Interestingly enough, it is another midrange shell with a powerful combo. What's different this time, however, is that the cards are a lot more fair. This list is a little bit more well-balanced in my opinion. There is no broken turn three "deal with a Veinripper or lose" in this deck. It simply uses all of the best midrange value cards so well and with such synergy that most decks in the format cannot keep up. Nothing in the deck really feels broken to the point where you could pick out what card to ban. A lot of the cards that are good in the deck are played in other decks, so bans could have adverse effects that aren't good for the format. Nonetheless, the meta will either have to adapt to it, or we will need to see some new cards printed that make another deck good, or there will possibly end up being a ban. Rakdos Demons currently takes up 46% of the metashare, and it has plenty of top finishes in every tournament that it's in. To put things in perspective, the next closest deck in the format when it comes to metashare popularity is a few decks that have 6%. Rakdos Demons has consumed the format, and it would be hard to find someone who would tell you that it isn't the best deck. What's nice about it is that it is also playable on Arena, and because of Pioneer Masters, we aren't even missing any cards. You can jam this on MTGO, or Arena, or in paper. Either way you spin it, this deck kills! What I find interesting about how this deck has developed is that the list only plays two actual demon spells now. We have moved past the other demons that were in the list that could make things a bit clunky. Now, the deck is much faster. It has a lot of plays on turns two and three, and plays threats on those turns that demand answers, as opposed to dropping bombs on turn four. This deck oddly enough, only has 2 four mana spells. It's astonishing how much the list has evolved, and also how aggressive it has become with the tweaks. You've likely seen a few of these lists floating around, as it has been a deck for a few months now, so I will go over a couple of cards that have been added to it recently that contribute to the aggressive nature of the deck. New Additions

It's Official, We've Lived Long Enough to See Ourselves Become the Villain. Time for Mono Black Discard

There comes a time in every Magic player's tenure where they are simply fed up with everything that they are seeing in the meta. Some move to playing decks that remove everything, or decks that counter everything - sometimes both. Some of us simply don't let our opponents have any cards in hand, and that's what I've opted to do today. There's something that just feels right about making the opponent have zero cards in their hand while we continue to draw and play threats onto the board. Discard went well in the meta a few months ago before Duskmourn came out, and I think it is possible for it to be good again. The win rate so far with our deck is solid, but it is different from the one we played before. This time we are looking to add some card superiority into the list, and the same card that accomplishes that allows us to play fewer creatures to focus on more discard spells, and efficient removal. Let's take a look at the new discard deck in the Foundations Meta. This deck got a little bit more consistency and some extra win conditions from Duskmourn, and it is refreshing to know that we have more threats to draw, and we now have a higher likelihood of drawing them. We want to try and draw as many cards as we can with this deck, because some of the better lists that are out there will also draw a ton of cards. We look to punish our opponent for drawing cards, and for not having cards in their hand. We also look to benefit from drawing cards while punishing our opponent simultaneously. The list has a ton of removal, because frankly there are some cards that are just too difficult to deal with in Standard and I got sick of waiting to sideboard and hoping that I drew the answers. We will go over the key changes from previous versions, and then we will go over the sideboard guide! New Additions to Mono Black Discard

Checking in on MTG Modern After the Recent Bans (and Unbans)

We are almost two weeks out from the recent bans in Modern, and there is now enough data to see if anything has really changed. Banning cards like The One Ring and Amped Raptor was an attempt to level the playing field in a format where it seemed as if it was difficult to win if you didn't play those cards. Both cards were two of the most popularly played nonland cards, and it was getting to the point where player sentiment about the format was increasingly poor. Wizards knew that they had to do something, and they also needed to do something that kept things interesting after banning two powerful cards. To keep things fresh, Wizards also unbanned Splinter Twin, Green Sun's Zenith, Mox Opal, and Faithless Looting. This seems to be somewhat reasonable so far. All of the cards light up different archetypes, and this was a clear effort to breathe life into the format. Now that Wizards has made their intentions clear on what they wanted to see out of the format, it begs the question: Has anything actually changed? Most Popular Cards in the Format Post-Bans Although it is refreshing to not see The One Ring as the most commonly played card in the format, there are still some of the usual suspects that round out the top ten most played nonland cards. Long story short, the energy decks are still the most popular, and the cards that are staples within the lists unsurprisingly are the most commonly played nonland cards in the format. Oddly enough, it appears that Mardu Energy has now become more popular than Boros Energy, which is an interesting shift.

A Product Change is Coming to Play Booster Boxes, and People are NOT Happy

Although we are still getting used to the new cards brought to us by Foundations, we have begun to get announcements about the next Standard-legal set, Aetherdrift. Aetherdrift will be the first set to come out in 2025, and it will also be the first Universes Beyond Standard-legal set. For those who aren't familiar, Universes Beyond sets are the ones that do not exclusively involve the traditional MTG characters and planes, although they can still be incorporated. What they do for the characters in the Universes Beyond sets is to have somewhat of a crossover between MTG and another universe in popular culture. We have seen them do Lord of the Rings, Assassin's Creed, etc. What is unique about the Universes Beyond sets going forward is that they will now be Standard-legal - something that has not been the case up until now. In fact, almost all of the Universes Beyond sets were strictly Commander, Legacy, and Vintage-legal up until now, with the exception of Lord of the Rings also being legal in Modern. That is a change that we did know about , however, but the latest updates follow up on the new changes that we will see starting next year. Changes to Play Booster Boxes So what is this big change? How will it affect MTG?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Recapping MTG in 2024