Bloomburrow is many things. It's a fun hit of nostalgia for anyone who grew up on Redwall the dozens of popular products inspired by it, it's a creature-focused set that promises a slugfest limited environment, and it's a return to the design philosophy that gave us Onslaught and Lorwyn: creature types matter! On Bloomburrow, there are ten different kin – one for each color pair – and I want to break them down and see which have a chance to break out in Standard.
As of this writing, the servers have just recently shut down on the Bloomburrow Streamer Event, so I've had the chance to play with and against these decks and I have a number of thoughts. Given that all of these strategies rely on having some creatures online, I'd be remiss if I ignored the elephant in the room. Given the propensity of removal and sweepers in Standard, there's a high likelihood that none of these will step up and be competitive right away, but I don't believe we should dismiss them out of hand either. The following analysis is with that understanding, so keep that in mind as we go.
Birds – White/Blue
Birds have always had a mechanical identity of death matters and everybody flies. Unfortunately, we don't have a reprint of Soulcatcher or Soulcatcher's Aerie in this set, but we do have cards like Jackdaw Savior and Kastral, the Windcrested that call back to that bygone age. While the Bloomburrow birds will be excellent support pieces for many bird-themed Commander decks, I don't think a bird deck will pop up in Standard. That said, generically strong birds like Mockingbird or Salvation Swan will likely pop up in decks featuring strong tempo and/or blink themes that want to use fliers to close out games.
Rats – Blue/Black
The rats on Bloomburrow would have gotten along famously with the Nezumi from Kamigawa with cards like Azure Beastbinder and Shoreline Looter being straight-up unblockable, while others care about the number of rats you have like Persistent Marshstalker or Vren, the Relentless. Given that tons of rat support already exists in Standard with Karumonix, the Rat King and Lord Skitter, I do think a full-blown rat deck will likely exist, but probably won't reach top-tier play unless the meta shifts and Sunfall stops being an amazing card in most matchups. I wouldn't hold your breath on that, I'm afraid.
Lizards – Black/Red
Lizards on Bloomburrow are the absolute lords of the pings. The number of individual damage triggers you can get off cards like Iridescent Vinelasher or Gev, Scaled Scorch is nothing short of immense and they even have ways of gaining card advantage with cards like Fireglass Mentor or supercharging their damage with Valley Flamecaller. I think this archetype is the most out-of-the-box viable Standard deck of the lot with a ton of efficient damage popping off incredibly consistently. That said, I don't believe it will play faster or more consistently than the current Boros convoke decks.
Also, huge shoutout to Iridescent Vinelasher for being the standout lizard and possibly the best standout creature of the entire streamer event. Tons of folks experimented with it and the Aftermath Analyst / Nissa, Resurgent Animist package to phenomenal effect. Even if a lizard aggro deck doesn't happen, this landfall deck absolutely will.
Raccoons – Red/Green
Raccoons in this set feel very much like traditional Gruul Stompy – fun for new players, but far too slow to be competitively relevant. They also have the new mechanic expend which counts how much mana you've spent towards spells and triggers when you hit a certain threshold, most often four. Some of these effects are very powerful if you have raccoons in play, but they are incredibly soft to interaction. I suspect raccoons will be an excellent draft archetype as they're larger than many of the other creatures available, but a raccoon-centric Standard deck is unlikely.
That said, there are two raccoons in this set that I think will be relevant green threats in Standard for a long time: Keen-Eyed Curator and Scrapshooter. Both of these cards are overstatted and carry meaningful upside. I suspect opportunities for these two cards will show up for the next three years of Standard.
Rabbits – Green/White
The rabbits in this set are all about going wide and rewarding you for having gone wide. Cards like Burrowguard Mentor and Balyen, the Haymaker can provide powerful hits if you get a board state online and cards like Hop to It help generate lots of rabbits at once. Given the mechanical similarity this deck has to Boros Convoke, it's tough to think it will be as fast as a deck not restricted to creature types. Also, the comparison of Hop to It and Gleeful Demolition isn't exactly favorable. I think this deck is a very fun idea, but removal is far too prevalent for it to be successful. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.
Bats – White/Black
The bat deck in this set feels very similar to the fan-favorite Ajani's Pridemate lifegain decks. While we don't have Soul Warden or Lunarch Aspirant anymore, Case of the Uneaten Feast and Lifecreed Duo are available to boost our newest pridemate in Essence Channeler. Essence Channeler proved to be an absolute bomb winning many games in the streamer event even when it was the only reasonable threat on the board.
Bats also care about having lost life during your turn for cards like Lunar Convocation which gives pain lands and even the much-maligned (by me) Thran Portal a home. Also, the kindred legend Zoraline, Cosmos Caller is an absolute unit at only three mana and can supercharge this deck like crazy. I honestly do expect to see people attempting this on the ladder once rotation comes to Arena and I suspect it will do well.
Otters – Red/Blue
Otters are our latest spell-slinging friends who are home to the set's only planeswalker, Ral, Crackling Wit. Their primary mechanic is prowess and they have a ton of non-creature spells that support them specifically like Pearl of Wisdom and Stormchaser's Talent. In my experience playing with and against otters, Stormchaser's Talent proved to be incredibly powerful and Valley Floodcaller could also flip a game on its head. Timing how to deploy the prowess creatures versus when to save mana for noncreature spells is a skill-testing challenge, but I trust people will rise to it.
I would be absolutely shocked if a full-on otters deck emerges in Standard, but with cards like Slickshot Showoff and Monstrous Rage already around, I'm sure some of the otter support pieces will find their way into aggressive prowess decks.
Squirrels – Green/Black
If you've lived in a college town and ever had a picnic, you know that squirrels are very food motivated and are willing to do whatever it takes, so black-aligned food fits them very well in my opinion. The standout card for me in this archetype was actually Scavenger's Talent. It does everything this archetype wants by paying you back for sacrificing material, milling yourself, and even offering a path to reanimate big threats. Squirrels also synergize phenomenally with Ygra, Eater of All for crazy combo potential.
Given how many amazing green/black graveyard archetypes already exist such as Squirming Emergence and Insidious Roots, I'm positive these pieces will click together into something competitive. They also align amazingly with the Wilds of Eldraine food/bargain cards like Experimental Confectioner and Lich Knight's Conquest. Keep an eye out for these little fluffballs.
Mice – White/Red
Mouse type has been a fringe one for some time on cards like Cheeky House Mouse or Enchanted Carriage, but now they're fully supported as Boros warriors. The valiant mechanic works well with equipment or combat tricks and mice are just incredibly efficient at punching in fast. A turn-one Flowerfoot Swordmaster into a turn-two Manifold Mouse represents a four-damage turn-two attack and it only gets bigger from there. Three-mana sweepers will be necessary to deal with these guys but, unfortunately, they're not uncommon in Standard.
I think mice could make for a legitimate pivot for Boros convoke players if WotC acts on the comment that they might ban Knight-Errant of Eos out of the format. As it stands, the mouse setup has little crossover with the current Boros deck while having the same feel. I don't think it replaces convoke any time soon, but I'm hopeful it will someday.
Frogs – Green/Blue
Frogs are an interesting bunch as they have individual threats that grow as the team bounces around them. Mistbreath Elder and Valley Mightcaller are probably the two strongest one-drops in the set if supported and Three Tree Scribe and Sunshower Druid support them very, very well. I found the deck an absolute joy to pilot and even a blast to play against. I hope this deck catches on and becomes the Simic tempo deck we never really had while Delver of Secrets was legal. I'll be sure to play this on my stream after it releases if you want to see it in action.
Notably, the legends in frogs, Glarb, Calamity's Augur and Helga, Skittish Seer both care about casting large creatures while the other frogs in the set work better if you have a lot of small creatures entering and leaving constantly. I honestly think the legends are designed for Commander or to support different archetypes entirely which is a bit of a bummer as other kindred legends really boost their kin well.
