Modern Set Review: Bloomburrow

Bloomburrow spoiler season has finally come to an end. Bringing a world full of small creatures, Magic's new expansion features a lighter tone, inspired by classic animations from the 80s and 90s.

The set, however, is full of new and old mechanics and bold proposals for creature types and abilities, and in this article, we review the potential of its cards for the Modern format!

While four mana can put Beza, the Bounding Spring above Modern's cost standards in 2024 and take it away from being a staple, its versatility and range added to a good body for its cost make it a card with potential to appear on the Sideboard of decks like Azorius Control.

Dawn's Truce is the closest to Teferi's Protection we have right now and competes for slots with Surge of Salvation, which costs one mana less but only works for black or red spells. It can enter the Sideboard of non-interactive archetypes that need to protect their key pieces, such as combo decks.

A Scrap Trawler for creatures that interacts with flying should have some combo potential with Modern's vast card pool, perhaps alongside Luminous Broodmoth or cards that create Spirit tokens to be sacrificed with other cards, such as Carrion Feeder.

Jackdaw Savior doesn't look any better than Modern's other sacrifice loop options today, but we might be surprised by its long-term potential.

Dour-Port Mage has interactions with Shrieking Drake and other cards in its category, where we can combine it with Primal Prayers and Guide of Souls to go for infinite draws. This combo can be complemented with Thassa’s Oracle to win the game, but like all the previous options proposed with the enchantment, it requires too many pieces to work.

Four mana for a 4/4 without that much impact seems redundant and could take away any potential that Eluge, the Shoreless Sea has in Modern. However, reducing the cost of Counterspell and other blue spells by each turn, or reducing the colorless cost of other instants and sorceries of other colors is a strong effect, so it deserves an honorable mention.

Some combo decks don't mind giving their opponent a token if they're trying to close out the game in the same turn and need to deal with hate. In this case, Into the Flood Maw can have space on the Sideboards by dealing with any non-land permanent for one mana and at instant-speed.

Kitsa, Otterball Elite is a decent two-drop, grows with our spells and can copy a Lightning Bolt after attacking and/or even during combat. Such versatility should not be underestimated, and it can find a spot in Wizards lists, where it will copy Flame of Anor for an absurd value.

Stormchaser’s Talent offers a 1/1 creature with Prowess for one mana while triggering other creatures. Its other skills cost a lot, but they can serve as a mana sink in longer matchups. Possibly, it deserves a test on some versions of Izzet Prowess.

An Augur of Bolas on steroids isn't impactful enough for Modern, but the Wizard type in Thundertrap Trainer can give it a spot in lists with Flame of Anor, perhaps as a one-of or two-of.

The Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis we have at home. Huskburster Swarm may find a home in CrabVine variants and other Stitcher’s Supplier archetypes. It's not an instant staple, but it also doesn't feed from the graveyard in the same way that Gurmag Angler or other cards would, and we can still use it if the opponent pops a Relic of Progenitus or has Rest in Peace in play.

Iridescent Vinelasher turns every land drop into one point of damage and can appear in Black Burn variants, or even with some strange combo alongside Nadu, Winged Wisdom and/or Scapeshift.

Maha, Its Feathers Night turns Orcish Bowmasters into removal while having a relevant body, difficult to deal with through damage and with evasion. It might deserve a slot as a one-of in Black Midranges or make appearances on Cabal Coffers lists.

Emberheart Challenger competes with Slickshot Show-Off in the aggressive two-drop slot of Prowess decks, and Thunder Junction's creature leveraged the archetype, so a direct replacement won't happen at all.

In Gruul variants, it also doesn't have a spot because Questing Druid has a similar function and works as value and threat at the same time, without requiring other cards, so its potential is minimal for the current Modern outside the Mono Red version.

Stormsplitter multiplies for each instant or sorcery cast and requires five spells to deal lethal damage. The decks that, naturally, want it are Storm, but the math for using the card efficiently is awful since it requires being cast first and then starting a sequence - therefore, it shouldn't enable new strategies and/or replace the current Storm variants in Modern.

Sunspine Lynx can compete with Obsidian Charmaw as the red creature against non-basic lands for its range, of which it also deals with The One Ring and lifegain effects like the interaction of Guide of Souls with Ocelot Pride.

The lack of disruption doesn't do it any favors against Charmaw and its mana value doesn't help it against Bonecrusher Giant, but saving Sideboard slots can give it some space.

Perhaps Hardened Scales might be interested in Innkeeper’s Talent? For three mana, the enchantment protects your creatures and punishes free spells with Ward 1, but two mana for a card that does nothing on its own and has no synergy with artifacts and/or most of its creatures isn't where Scales wants to be right now.

For Modern, Keen-Eyed Curator is below Unlicensed Hearse as the best targeted hate against graveyards and probably above Scavenging Ooze in most lists due to its colorless mana requirement.

Its buff isn't that difficult to achieve in a format with Urza's Saga, so it is possible it might gain space on the Sideboards, either as a one-of to be found with Chord of Calling or with more numbers in other lists.

Pawpatch Recruit also interacts poorly with the current variants of Hardened Scales, but can appear in less popular and almost non-existent lists in the Metagame today, such as Mono Green Stompy or even in any Prowess variant that wants to benefit from the opponent's removals.

Honorable mention. Ravenous Squirrel and Chatterfang, Squirrel General exist in Modern and Camellia, the Seedmiser has some interactions with these cards, so it's possible some archetype might appear around them.

Amulet Titan already has large creatures that can generate value and interact with its game plan to choose from, but Hugs, Grisly Guardian is in the colors the archetype has run and generates a lot of value on its own, in addition to its 5/5 body offering a nice clock.

Goblin Electromancer suffered a power creep with Stormcatch Mentor, and the mix of cost reduction and Prowess with immediate impact could help the {R}} Storm to have more space in the Metagame.

Some players will definitely try to do Tibalt's Trickery stuff with The Infamous Cruelclaw to cast Emrakul, the Aeons' Torn or any other card for free as early as the third turn - they'll figure it out that attaching a similar ability to a creature and needing to make it attack makes this strategy worse than it already was with Kaldheim's counterspell.

Vinereap Mentor has an excellent body for its cost and interacts with both Squirrels and Food, so there's likely a home for it in Modern today, whether with The Underworld Cookbook or Chatterfang, Squirrel General - or both.

Three Tree City seems win more for all the format's typical decks today: Elves* probably prefer Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx due to the high green mana requirement of their cards while Goblins and Merfolks have little to no interest in this type of land, and Zombies can take advantage of other means of generating quick mana rather than waiting a few turns for it to work.

Overall, the new land doesn't seem relevant enough to have any competitive impact on the current Metagame.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!