Mono green decks have been a staple in Standards past and fan-favorite archetype for players for decades. Unfortunately, for the past two years, mono green has struggled to keep up with the card advantage and removal of other colors, even with eye-popping cards like Defiler of Vigor and Nissa, Ascended Animist. But will Bloomburrow help change this trend and get green back in the conversation?
The Last Time Green Was Great
Mono green aggro was a top-tier meta deck prior to Standard's 2022 rotation because it had a perfect curve of overstated creatures in both the two- and three-mana slots (pictured above) and the most mana-efficient removal in the format with Blizzard Brawl. Heck, prior to the ban, even its lands could turn minimal mana into repeatable damage thanks to Faceless Haven. The sweeper package back then wasn't as robust as it is now either.
Now, green has some very high-statted creatures, but they tend to be too expensive to be impactful before your opponents are ready with either clean creature removal (Get Lost, Go for the Throat) or sweepers like Sunfall. What we've seen from Bloomburrow so far doesn't exactly address that, and it doesn't look like aggro will be the way to go. That said, there are plenty of other Bloomburrow could bolster in fun ways.
Green-Based Tempo?
Frogs in Bloomburrow show some promise with Mistbreath Elder being the key build-around. A 2/2 for one is amazing and its downside of having to bounce another creature on upkeep can be leveraged to our advantage by using cheap creatures with ETBs such as Cenote Scout or Pond Prophet. This approach would leverage a more tempo-style of play with protection spells and removal keeping our opponent on a big frog-shaped clock from the get-go.
Llanowar Stalker is another card that could help add power to this deck's bounce theme in multiple or simply grow our elder turn-over-turn for only a single green. Fight spells like Hard-Hitting Question would be perfect, and it might be worth a splash into blue for support creatures like Harrier Strix or Tishana's Tidebinder. It's a shame that Winterthorn's Blessing will be rotating just as Mistbreath Elder arrives because it's the key piece that card has always wanted to support. Honestly, in the right shell, Mistbreath Elder could make a Standard delver-style deck viable just as Delver of Secrets itself rotates out.
What About Ramp?
The two cards pictured, Tender Wildguide and Clifftop Lookout, might not seem like much at first glance but I believe they could be part of a powerful ramp strategy in Standard's future. Tender Wildguide is a two-mana dork like Llanowar Loamspeaker or Reclusive Taxidermist, but the offspring mechanic is very notable here. For two mana, you ramp for one mana, but if you have four mana when you cast this, you ramp for two, making it on par with something like Invasion of Zendikar. I also love that it has a tap ability you can use if you choose not to spend the mana on anything to buff its stats. This is one of the best two-mana mana creatures we've seen in some time, so it'll be interesting to see if it fits anywhere.
Clifftop Lookout, on the other hand, leverages an ETB to get lands on the field making it a possible inclusion in the tempo build we discussed above. It can be repeated, and the land isn't restricted to basic, so in builds full of utility lands, it could be a valuable way to dig for those. Notably, a three-drop 1/2, even with reach, isn't much to write home about in constructed, but I believe it will see play in domain-style ramp decks running very few basic lands now that Topiary Stomper is rotating. This card will also become significantly better once Llanowar Elves returns to Standard in November because it could potentially hit the board on turn two to support turn-three five-drops.
For the Common Good is nothing short of amazing if you have even a single token online. The meteorites from Roxanne, Starfall Savant or an artifact Vaultborn Tyrant could easily snag a win with minimal effort, not to mention all the cards that generate tokens of permanents that were never meant to be tokens (Doppelgang, Reenact the Crime, See Double). This spell is mana intensive but could get out of hand fast.
Season of Gathering is part of a high-profile cycle in this set, so I wanted to call it out. It can draw a lot of cards if you have large creature online, plus it can boost your creatures notably with its single-paw mode. I don't believe it will be worthwhile unless you can get advantage out of its two-paw mode of blowing up either enchantments or artifacts, though. As sideboard tech against decks featuring these card types heavily, this could be a powerful top-end.
The Removal
Theory crafting around splashy spells is all fine and good, but without removal, green is going to struggle when lined up against colors that have access to it. We have some good removal pieces like Pick Your Poison and Hard-Hitting Question, but it might not be enough to keep up with the likes of black or white. Fortunately, Bloomburrow has a few role-player removal spots that will likely see play out of sideboards or even main decks depending on how the meta shakes out.
Green has had beef with fliers since the start of the game with Hurricane showing up in Alpha, so cards like Broken Wings and Plummet have been staples for a long time. Unfortunately, given how narrow this effect is, these cards generally line bulk bins and often don't even see play in limited outside of best-of-three sideboard inclusions. I think Pawpatch Formation represents a sea change in Wizards' design philosophy around this effect, though, that could give it main-deck appeal. This card can't hit artifacts like Broken Wings, but it has a that simply draws a card and makes a food which ensures it is never dead in hand. It's also an instant for only two mana. Against decks running Leyline Binding and Atraxa, Grand Unifier, this is amazing.
Wear Down, on the other hand, is a puffed up Naturalize similar to cards like Wilt. It's a bit narrower because it is a sorcery and is only better than a traditional Naturalize effect if you have multiple targets. While giving your opponent a card is a downside, if you're blowing up their Simulacrum Synthesizer and Portal to Phyrexia, though, you probably won't mind. This might see play in sideboards if an artifact deck rises out of the rotation ashes.
This Set’s Dreadmaw
If you've spent just an hour on Twitter looking at Magic creators, you've probably seen posts about Colossal Dreadmaw. The card has become a meme and Wizards has leaned into it with recent designs like Colossal Dreadmask and Earthshaker Dreadmaw. Bloomburrow is no exception with a card mirroring its stats perfectly but with a lot more going on.
Galewind Moose is probably as unplayable as every other dreadmaw we've seen printed recently, but it has one edge gives me pause. Flash addresses green's most glaring weakness: board wipes. Being able to flash in a threat after a wipe resolves gives green flexibility to dodge removal and apply pressure in ways they traditionally struggle to. A 6/6 that doesn't generate card advantage probably still isn't good enough, especially when Smuggler's Surprise still exists and can give cards like Vaultborn Tyrant or Atraxa, Grand Unifier effective flash for the same cost, but I like the design on Galewind Moose and it might be sideboard tech against control that they absolutely won't see coming.
Also, Colossal Dreadmaw fans, don't worry, this didn't kill your beloved Dreadmaw. Dreadmaw hasn't been playable for years and we should just appreciate that we have an excuse to talk about it again.
