Welcome Magic lovers!
Bloomburrow spoilers have been dropping for the last week, as we near the official release on August 2nd, and while there were initial murmurings of the anthropomorphic animal set feeling 'powered-down' when compared to recent behemoths like Outlaws of Thunder Junction or Modern Horizons 3, there are still plenty of potent new toys coming to the Standard format. Today, let's go over some of the more powerful cards that have been spoiled already in Bloomburrow.
Innkeeper's Talent
Innkeeper's Talent draws immediate comparisons to some of the powerful cards in Standard's past, such as Ranger Class and Luminarch Aspirant. Those two cards saw plenty of play in tier 1 Standard during their tenure, and Innkeeper's Talent seems like it easily could follow suit.
Permanently pumping a creature each turn is already the kind of slow drip that will eventually overwhelm a careless opponent, while leveling up costs a mere single green mana. Paying that gives not just creatures, but all permanents one controls with counters Ward 1, which is a very powerful effect that many players won't fully appreciate until they face it. Creature removal will almost certainly be taxed, as one's creatures should all be sporting counters after the Innkeeper's Talent sits in play for a couple of turns, but not being able to blow up an opposing Wedding Announcement or planeswalker without paying the Ward 1 will be very frustrating when it comes up. The final level of this enchantment is a little more costly at four mana, but getting the latter half of the very powerful Doubling Season can be game-winning, especially when one considers all the ways to put counters on every creature that already exist in Standard. Remember, leveling up doesn't turn off the previous levels; you simply get all of the effects at once. In addition, enchantments are already harder for most decks to deal with than a creature like Luminarch Aspirant, giving Innkeeper's Talent even more resiliency. Expect to see a lot of this powerful leveler in future Standard.
The Infamous Cruelclaw
Stop me if you've heard this one before: a difficult-to-block, three-mana creature walks into a bar and hopes to draw some cards…
Creatures such as this abound in Standard, like Glissa Sunslayer, Preacher of the Schism, and Florian, Voldaren Scion to name a few, and while they can be a great source of card advantage, The Infamous Cruelclaw can do so much more.
As a 3/3 with Menace, in a removal-heavy color combination, it shouldn't be too difficult to get through and connect with this slippery weasel mercenary, and if one does, Cruelclaw will not only 'draw' a non-land card, but also allow one to cast it for free by discarding any card. Not a card with the same mana cost, or a card that costs more. No extra hoops to jump through here, just discard any card. This means a turn three The Infamous Cruelclaw can cast a seven-mana spell like Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Breach the Multiverse on turn four, three full turns sooner than should be possible. Setting it up is as easy as casting an Insatiable Avarice on turn four, putting the seven-drop of choice on the top of one's deck, then swinging with The Infamous Cruelclaw that was cast the previous turn and, voila.
Now, despite this being a very powerful effect if pulled off correctly, it's stapled to a creature that, while difficult to block, still dies to every two and three-mana removal spell in the format. Additionally, if the opponent knows that the potential to slam a giant monster on turn four lurks under the surface of one's deck, it makes The Infamous Cruelclaw a lightning rod for said removal. Will the potential for doing something broken like play an Atraxa on turn 4 be fully exploited in the coming Standard format by this wily weasel? Only time will tell.
Sunspine Lynx
While some cards beg to be built around, to have their bizarre synergies explored and tinkered with in order to realize their full potential, others are so obviously built for a singular purpose that it's impossible to miss how potent they will be in a deck that aligns with said purpose.
Sunspine Lynx knows exactly what it wants to do and which deck does it best: a mono-red deck that's killing the opponent as quickly as possible. Sporting a fairly large body for four mana, the Lynx brings board presence, but also simply and elegantly shuts off any hope the opponent had of stabilizing and surviving by not allowing players to gain life while also stopping them from preventing damage. Even all-powerful Modern staple The One Ring must bow to the Lynx, as its Protection will no longer prevent damage!
As if that wasn't enough, Sunspine Lynx is also capable of entering the battlefield and doing a ton of damage to decks playing many non-basic lands. Standard has plenty of excellent mana fixing, and even two-color decks are playing a slew of non-basic lands, so that ability should be excellent. Price of Progress was a spell powerful enough to be played in Legacy at one point, and now it comes stapled to the back of an elemental cat. How times have changed.
I expect the Lynx to be an excellent sideboard, or even main deck, card in every red aggressive deck in Standard going forward.
Iridescent Vinelasher
This innocuous little lizard assassin may be the most talked about card spoiled in Bloomburrow thus far. At a casting cost of one, it's so efficient that even though it dies to the ubiquitous Cut Down, one is never down mana on the exchange. At three mana, one can utilize its Offspring ability to produce a 1/1 copy of the Vinelasher, to really turn things up. How does exactly does it turn up the heat? With its Landfall ability that pings the opponent for one damage every time a land enters the battlefield under one's control.
At first, it may not seem like much damage, but there will still be very powerful engines like Aftermath Analyst in Standard post-rotation, and flipping seven or eight lands into play with a couple of Iridescent Vinelasher on the battlefield will almost certainly be lethal damage. Imagine casting Worldsoul's Rage and effectively doubling or even tripling the damage by not only hitting them for X but also putting X lands into play which also deal one or two damage each, depending on how many lizard assassins are on the field. When one realizes just how many cards can fetch lands from one's deck and slam them into play, from Invasion of Zendikar to Cartographer's Map, or that Fabled Passage will also be in Bloomburrow, it becomes clear how potentially insane Iridescent Vinelasher can become. I expect the Vinelasher to see play in some of the more broken combo decks in Standard during its time here.
Let me know what you think the most powerful Bloomburrow cards are, and why!
