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

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.

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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 power of Rakdos Dragons in this midrange Magic: The Gathering deck. Unleash combos, removal, and ramp for competitive edge in Standard.

This Deck is Sneaky Good! Get Ready for RAKDOS Dragons!

You didn't think I could only give you one dragon deck, did you? I honestly saw too many fun options to do just Boros, so today I'm bringing you another. This one steers toward the more midrange, good ol' honest Magic side of things. I wanted to center a deck around something that is more consistent with the status quo of dragons: carnage and destruction. We have plenty of removal in this deck, and a creature that doubles as a board wipe when needed. Since we aren't doing a super fancy combo in this deck, I wanted to add element of ramp to get to the higher mana spells that we have in the deck. We will be able to use early creatures to help out with that, and also a new fancy artifact. We will torch the board and force our opponents to be more resilient than we are, while flying over the top of what they might manage to keep on the board. Let's take a look at the deck and then I'll tell you some of my favorite things about it. You can see some of the fun that we will have right off the bat with this deck. We are looking to smash aggro decks, and still punish other decks that don't play to the board. Although this one has fewer dragons on paper, we have a few permanents that can actually turn into them, and this leads to some cheeky interactions. Let's check out some of the new cards from Tarkir Dragonstorm that are in this deck, and then we will go over some fun combos! Key New Cards

It's Time to Mobilize the Aristocrats with Mardu Combo!

There is an ongoing argument in both Standard and Pioneer currently. What color combination is the best for aggressive decks? We have seen people try out Jeskai Aggro to try and incorporate the best of both worlds between Azorius Aggro, and Boros Aggro. Some like to stick with Gruul Aggro because of the high rolls that it allows for, and there is also an argument that sometimes all you need is mono red - and the results have proven as much in major events. There has been a bit of a surge of some Mardu Aristocrat/Sacrifice decks, and today's list will follow that to some degree. We went a little bit more aggro-based, but there is a combo element to it, along with a healthy sideboard that should provide for balanced gameplay. We will look to get a bunch of creatures onto the board, and then create a bunch more based on the amount that we have, while punishing the opponent when they die. If that isn't enough, the go-wide strategy should also allow us to swing for ample damage at an ample pace. A new ability called Mobilize that is being brought to us in Tarkir Dragonstorm is going to allow us to pull off some pretty powerful swings in combat. Mobilize allows us to create a bunch of tapped and attacking 1/1 tokens based on either the number behind it, or circumstances that pertain to "X." Something that is particularly fun is that we can benefit from our creatures dying, because the mobilize ability requires us to sacrifice the creatures that we get from mobilizing at the beginning of our end step. This is yet another deck that can allow us to win on the end step which is always fun. Another fundamental reason why I think the deck is good is because we are rewarded for something that would normally be considered a setback. If you find enough ways to turn negatives into positives, it usually can translate into the small margins that win you a match. Enough of me blabbing. Let's take a look at the cool new cards! Key New Cards

Demons Are Getting New Toys, and This Deck is ROTTEN

We have seen the vast majority of the cards that will be released in Tarkir Dragonstorm, and the excitement is definitely building. Magic players are expecting this to meet the hype that Duskmourn brought us, and hopefully more. We were left a bit underwhelmed with Aetherdrift, but this is proving to be all but a filler set. It's something that is so easy to be excited for. Who doesn't love dragons?! Anyone with an ounce of nerdiness is interested as soon as they hear the word. Although I don't have a dragon deck for you today, I am going to do my obligatory Mono Black Deck for the new set. If you have read my articles in the past, you know that I do one every set - and this one is no different. We finally have enough cards from Tarkir to give me what I needed to make a new-and-improved Demons list for you. We have a new one that will let us pull off some combos on earlier turns, and hopefully have a better body early on to put pressure on aggro decks. I think that should give us a better shot against the meta, since the threat of a 5 damage crackback can definitely give someone extra things to consider in combat phases. He also isn't a bad creature to discard, as he has an ability to activate from the graveyard. This will help us against the bounce/pixie decks. We have ample graveyard hate and removal for the graveyard combo decks, so I like most of our matchups against the current meta. The only thing we will have to see with time is if the meta shifts with this monster of a new set. We really have some fun cards to add here, and we are adding another type of threat to the deck. We have historically not used our graveyard for much, but now we are able to get additional value from it with a new addition. Our sideboard even has a dragon with an adventure that reads like The Meathook Massacre! I've said enough, let's check out these cards. Relevant New Cards

Free Dragons = Turn 4 Wins!

We are officially in the perpetual spoiler season of the MTG year, and Wizards has not been disappointing us. Most people can get behind a set centered largely around dragons, and it definitely helps that the plane itself is one that we have wanted to see them bring back for a long time. Over a decade later, we are going back to Tarkir. I played a good bit of Magic and did a lot of deck building the last time we had some fun dragons on Arena, and I knew that this set was going to call me back to those days. My favorite archetype a couple of years ago was Boros Dragons. I largely played that in the Alchemy format, but I am going to bring you a Boros Dragons Standard Deck today. We are going to take advantage of a combo that is used in Standard currently, but we are going to use a different payoff this time. We are going to cast dragons for FREE and then either they will have the opponent dead just from entering, or we will hopefully have a way to give them all haste! We will take a look at the new cards that are awesome. Then I'll let you know about the combo that will help us get there. We want to keep the board as clear as we can for our dragons and then slam them all on the board at once to clean things up. We also have some smaller creatures that we can use to chump block earlier in the game. When needed, we also have board wipes to deal with other creatures. New Cards from Tarkir Dragonstorm

I See a Monument and I want it Painted Black

It's been a few weeks since Aetherdrift came out, and we are starting to see the cards that are standing out in the meta. We didn't expect the set to change things too much with regard to what we have been seeing. What we did get from it is a nice supplement to many other decks. Although we did not get a ton of format-shaping cards, we have seen a couple that have lit up fringe archetypes. What I've brewed for today plays off of a familiar archetype, and it was one that we kind of already had, but it allows us to pivot in a certain way and get additional value from it that we may not have gotten in the past. One of the biggest things that our deck can do is have plenty of action on the end step/cleanup step. It's an interesting scenario because usually when we think of the cleanup step at the end of each turn, we remove damage, and we discard to hand size. Usually discarding to hand size is pretty much the final step, and there aren't any triggers... until now. We will be using Monument to Endurance to have triggers when we discard to hand size, and get additional value from it. Now we don't care if we end the turn with nine or ten cards in hand, because we are going to benefit from it. This will help us possibly get in some finishing damage against our opponent, or get extra value. It is worth noting that this will cause triggered abilities on the cleanup step, and this is something that our opponents can respond to. This has historically been a point in the turn where no player can respond to actions. We'll take a look at the relevant cards in the deck, and then I'll detail a few fun combos that we may see during gameplay. Relevant Cards

We've had a Couple of Weeks to Try Achievements on MTG Arena, and I have Opinions

The economy on MTG Arena has always been a pain point, and a grand debate over how far a digital version of a card game should go to ensure players feel as if they are getting proper value for their time. Wizards has two different versions of its beloved game on the internet, and they both seem to have their benefits and drawbacks. On February 11, Arena launched the Achievement System to reward players for hitting milestones in-game, and completing specific tasks. While it is always fun to do these kinds of things in each game, something that gamers always do is assess whether the reward for doing so in-game is worth putting forth the extra effort for the task. While there are some things in the achievement tab that I believe to be kind of fun, and certain things that I know people will want, I view the entire thing as largely a waste of time. Today we will look at why the new feature on Arena simply isn't enough for what the game should have, and what it could be. The Good and The Bad There are plenty of things that we love about Arena, with how it is the easiest way to play our favorite decks from Standard, and not spend thousands of dollars in doing so. It is probably the most efficient way to try out decks. We also love the wildcard system. Although it is not the easiest to obtain them, it is great that a rare/mythic wildcard could buy a rare/mythic card that is of any value and it still just costs one wildcard. This was especially helpful in getting a play set of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. I still don't have a play set in paper simply because I don't want to spend that much money on it, but on Arena it was easy. I had the wildcards to do what I needed. The only part where this may be lacking is the economy itself. What if we could earn wildcards for hitting certain achievements (I.E. the achievement tab giving us wildcards instead of sleeves, etc.)? I believe that the rewards from this new feature being solely cosmetic underscores the ongoing issue of the economy on Arena simply not being enough for us.

This Deck is Sneaky Good! Get Ready for RAKDOS Dragons!