So what even is a critter?! There seem to be a few different groupings in Bloomburrow that lump a number of critters together, and they're grouped by color, since that's how Bloomburrow as a set is designed.

• White: Valley Questcaller and Lupinflower Village affect rabbits, bats, birds, and mice.
• Blue: Valley Floodcaller and Lilypad Village affect birds, frogs, otters, and rats.
• Black: Valley Rotcaller and Mudflat Village affect squirrels, bats, lizards, and rats.
• Red: Valley Flamecaller and Rockface Village affect: lizards, mice, otters, and raccoons.
• Green: Valley Mightcaller and Oakhollow Village affect frogs, rabbits, raccoons, and squirrels.

Sword of the Squeak affects hamsters, mice, rats, and squirrels. So basically every creature type is represented twice among the five-card cycles, then mice, rats, and squirrels get a third mention on Sword of the Squeak, and hamsters get a first mention.

While I love bats (flying puppies), birds, lizards, and otters (swimming puppies), I think I want to limit this description to tiny, furry guys. That being the case, let's define our critters as follows:

• Rabbits
• Mice
• Raccoons
• Squirrels

We'll call these the furry critters. I originally included rats, but with 103 different rat creatures, that could easily be their own topic. Then later perhaps we can cover flying critters and scaly critters.

Let's begin!

Arthur, Marigold Knight

Gotta be honest: the main reason I loved this card when I first saw it was because it was shockingly adorable. Then I read it and realized it was actually pretty dang good! Arthur has big Winota, Joiner of Forces energy, and if you're able to set up the top of your deck in any way, it would be an absolute blast to see this little mouse cheat an Emrakul into play (or some other monstrous creature).

Keen-Eyed Curator

Keen-Eyed Curator is nice because it feels like an upgrade of multiple creatures. Specifically Werebear for the power and toughness bonus, and Scavenging Ooze for the ability to exile any card from a graveyard. While its cost is more prohibitive at GG, being a 3/3 for two mana is great, and becoming a 7/7 is a pretty insane stat. The fact that you can also exile cards in your own graveyard to buff the lil Curator really gives them a lot more potential to hit the four card type criteria.

Warren Warleader

I love Warren Warleader because it's basically just an upgrade of Leonin Warleader. While spending four mana gets you the same 4/4, this time you get a choice upon attacks: you get either a single 1/1 without lifelink, or you get to buff all your attackers for the turn.

One huge distinction is the fact that Warren Warleader's abilities trigger upon attacking with any creature, and not just the Warleader itself. So if you manage to spend six mana for two copies of the Warleader, then end up attacking that turn with a different creature, you could easily get two 1/1s or give your entire team +2/+2 on the same turn. This is a great "army in a can" card, and I'm kind of surprised it doesn't seem more Constructed play.

Jacked Rabbit

Speaking of armies in cans, get a load of this guy. Ravenous is a super cool ability that debuted in the Warhammer 40k set, and you might be surprised to know that Jacked Rabbit is the only card in the "Magic" universe to have the ability so far. Ravenous is not only a great way to scale cards (like kicker!), the bonus of drawing a card when X is five or more is such a nice one, turning your ravenous creatures into mini Mulldrifters.

Jacked Rabbit has big Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin energy, but the scalability is where it really shines. It's great on two mana and it's great on seven mana, netting you more creatures - and potentially a card! - the later into the game you are.

Scrapshooter

I do love that a few of the raccoons are just upgraded versions of existing Green tropes. Scrapshooter feels like a much more efficient Reclamation Sage or Thrashing Brontodon. Only it has reach, and you don't have to sacrifice it to destroy the artifact or enchantment. The nice thing here is that a 4/4 for three mana is just great by itself, but then you add all these other abilities, along with some really amazing art, and Scrapshooter just becomes a top tier critter.

Hare Apparent

Just like every other creature that has no deck quantity limitations, Hare Apparent has been extremely popular, and is already a $5 common in a brand new set. Thankfully Foundations packs will be opened until 2029, so there should be a good number of copies floating around eventually. Which is nice, because I'm assuming people are playing like 20 copies of these dudes in their decks, which is Apparently over $100 right there!

Mabel, Heir to Cragflame

Mabel just happens to be an adorable mouse lord, but even if you don't have any other mice, she's a 3/3 for three mana that makes an equipment! That's just a good deal. She's basically a Stoneforge Mousetic. (See what I did there?) So, you know, once you manage to equip her, she's suddenly a 4/4 with vigilance and trample (and haste, assuming you were able to equip the turn she was played), which is actually quite the formidable creature for three mana.

And if you do have other mice in your deck...well that's just fantastic.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!

Frank Lepore

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