Pioneer: 5 Decks with Bloomburrow to try out!

The preview season for Bloomburrow has come to an end, and the launch of the expansion in Magic Online and tabletop is approaching, bringing with it the hype of trying new strategies and archetypes in the main competitive formats.

At Pioneer, the new set brings a dozen interesting cards to build around: be it a new typal with Birds, combo decks with The Infamous Cruelclaw, Ygra, Eater of All or Iridescent Vinelasher, or even new possibilities for established strategies with Rottenmouth Viper.

In this article, we present five decklists to try in the first week of the format at local stores or in Magic Online Leagues!

Azorius Birds

Spirits gained a not-so-distant cousin with Azorius Birds, one of the creature types that gained prominence in Bloomburrow. The inclusion of Plumecreed Escort, Mockingbird, and Jackdaw Savior, plus the release of Aven Interrupter in Outlaws of Thunder Junction give a solid enough shell for a list to work with Empyrean Eagle and Watcher of the Spheres.

Plumecreed Escort gives a good impression of Rattlechains, despite not offering Flash. Mockingbird becomes a copy of whatever you need in the match, including your opponent's creatures that you can benefit from, and it won't be surprising if it becomes a staple and/or becomes the most dangerous card of the archetype.

Jackdaw Savior offers recursion and will often be a removal magnet, where Dazzling Denial, Judge’s Familiar and Aven Interrupter can protect it. Furthermore, this new proposal for the format may unearth some staples from previous Standard seasons, such as Wingmate Roc.

Rakdos Cruelclaw

The Infamous Cruelclaw has a bit of a Tibalt's Trickery feel to it in creature form, and it's inevitable not to be tempted to make the most absurd play possible with the new creature.

In this list, our bomb to cast for free is Emrakul, the Promised End. Among the Eldrazi titans and other ridiculously expensive cards in Pioneer today, it is probably the most efficient due to its ability to ruin the opponent's plans by controlling their turn, sometimes generating more value than Atraxa, Grand Unifier.

Emrakul also interacts with our other proposal: using Caustic Bronco to reveal the Eldrazi titan and deal 13 damage to the opponent in a single attack. To complement this strategy, we have Insatiable Avarice and Scheming Symmetry to put our bomb on top, as well as discards, removals, and some value pieces in Rakdos colors for an efficient “fair” plan as we attempt the combo.

Rakdos Viper

Rottenmouth Viper is strong enough for us to try to build around it, and since it requires a high number of nonland permanents to cast early, we run a shell geared toward cards that put tokens into play, interact with each other, and can feed the creature early.

Bloodtithe Harvester and Voldaren Epicure, along with Charming Scoundrel can enable Viper as early as the third turn when sequenced and with Thoughtseize as a backup to protect it, a possible combination with Gleeful Demolition as well, which creates a more aggressive proposal for the deck.

Perhaps, this archetype can use the Food package, with Mayhem Devil and Cauldron Familiar along with Witch's Oven to accumulate permanents and put Rottenmouth Viper in play. But here, we present a more objective version aimed at speeding up the creature as soon as possible.

Golgari Food Combo

Ygra, Eater of All allows a combo with two copies of Cauldron Familiar, where one can sacrifice the other to return from the graveyard, leading to infinite damage. Despite its high cost, the free win potential is too great not to try to do something with it.

Our combo requires three to four pieces: Ygra, two Cauldron Familiar, one in the graveyard and up to one in play, and if both are in the graveyard, a third creature and/or Food token for us to sacrifice. Therefore, Stitcher’s Supplier and Gilded Goose are good additions to speed up our game plan, also complemented by Witch’s Oven and Trail of Crumbs.

Scavenger's Talent also feeds our strategy, helps us mill more cards and can even bring Ygra, Eater of All back from the graveyard to start the combo, adding even more consistency and complementing Deadly Dispute in our race for resources.

Golgari Scapeshift

Iridescent Vinelasher has a lot of combo potential on archetypes that put plenty of lands into play simultaneously, and nothing better than Scapeshift in this case to do that.

Our list aims to merge two different strategies: Aftermath Analyst interacts with the “Fetch Lands” from Streets of New Capenna and ramps quickly, while Scapeshift allows for a quick and efficient combo-kill, being our priority on the list and main target to be found with Pillage the Bog and Pitiless Carnage.

The combo, ideally, only needs five lands: when we use the Offspring ability with Iridescent Vinelasher, we create a copy of it and double our triggers. With Scapeshift, we can search for any number of “Fetch Lands”, and each one that comes into play will deal two damage to the opponent. When sacrificed and looking for another land, each one will deal two more damage, totaling 20, and with our Ramp package, we can close the game as early as the fourth turn.

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!