Embark on a Journey to Bloomburrow: Magic: The Gathering's Newest Set

Tiny tails, big adventure! Bravery comes in all sizes! Put your best paw forward and enter the world of Bloomburrow. When elemental forces rage out of control, the salvation of the Valley falls on the shoulders of its smallest protectors. Fight beside mice, frogs, bats, birds, lizards, squirrels, and other critters as you restore the balance of peace…

Bloomburrow is coming this summer and is arguably the most anticipated Standard-legal set of the year. Set on an ‘animal plane’, Bloomburrow is full of cute little animals that are about to set out on a big adventure. Think Eldraine meets Lorwyn meets Homeward Bound…. let's find out more!

Valley Unveiled: The Setting of Bloomburrow

Valley is Magic: The Gathering's first all-animal plane, providing its animalfolk inhabitants with a vibrant, countryside home. Some of these critters enjoy the tranquil life, while, for the bold and inquisitive, big adventures await. The balance of nature is threatened as the Calamity Beasts and the Great-Night Owl put all of Valley’s inhabitants in danger. The animalfolk will have to band together to defend their homes.

Heroes of Bloomburrow: Mabel and Allies

Mabel, a mousefolk mother and reluctant hero, will lead a party to uncover what has befallen a neighbouring town. So far we’ve only seen the artwork for the rest of her group, but it appears to contain a speedy Lizard, a super strong one-eyed badger, a rabbit archer, a frog mage, and some kind of lightning bat. It also seems Ral Zarek, taking the form of an otter, will also join them!

Elemental Adversaries: Threats to Valley

The peace of Bloomburrow is threatened by elemental Calamity Beasts, huge predators that are causing destruction on a huge scale as they ravage the lands. They are led by Maha, known as the Giant-Night Owl or the Eclipse Owl.

The Art of Bloomburrow: Card Design and Artwork

The art of Bloomburrow is as enchanting as it is stunning. As Wizards described it, the art ranges from the ‘seasonal to the pastoral, storybook to notebook.’ As the seasons are a crucial part to life on Bloomburrow, the set features full-art basics for each season, which I don’t think we’ve seen since the seasonal Mishra’s Factory variants in Antiquities in 1994! I can’t wait to get my hands on a set of each!

A woodland showcase treatment presents a fantastical storybook art style, reminiscent of Aesop’s Fables and fairy tale style of Eldraine. Five of these feature art from guest artist David Petersen. Legendary artist Mitsuhiro Arita also has a card in the set – the borderless version of the Calamity Beast Lumra, Bellow of the Woods.

Lumra is also featured on another treatment found in the set, the ‘field notes’ variant which looks like a diagram from a biology text book! A select number of rare and mythic Calamity Beasts can be found in field notes form.  

As with many Magic: The Gathering sets these days, MTG Bloomburrow also features borderless anime versions too. Lastly a Courageous Critters treatment reimagines what some renowned Planeswalkers would look like if they visited Bloomburrow and turned into animals – and it looks like a fox Jace is one of them! It’s unclear at this stage if these ‘walkers feature in the story, but I’d assume not and that they are more akin to the ‘what if’ Compleated Planeswalkers from Phyrexia: All Will Be One.

What's in the Set: Bloomburrow's Contents

At this point we know very little about the set’s contents, but there are a few clues. It appears Bloomburrow is a ‘typal’ set focused on creature types, with each of the 10 colour pairs focused on a different creature – likely to be something like mice, frogs, lizards, bats, birds, otters, rabbits, raccoons, rats and squirrels. It also seems that Mabel, who herself is red/white and so suggesting that mice will be focused in those colours, leads a party with one creature from each type, and therefore each colour pair. It also seems there is a new mechanic called ‘Offspring’ but we don’t know what it does. I’d imagine it would make tokens of some sort!

Release Countdown: How to Get Bloomburrow

MTG Bloomburrow is available to pre-order now with Play Boosters, collector Boosters, Start Kits, Prerelease Kits, Bundles, and Four Commander Decks. The Magic story released 2 July, with the debut and first previews on 9 July. Previews will finish on 19 July, soon followed by the MTG Arena release on 30 July and the global tabletop release on 2 August. For those interested in gameplay events, pre-releases at local game stores are from 26 July to 1 August, and WPN Open House events are on 2 August.