Welcome back, loreseekers! Today we're looking at Magic's brand new plane: Bloomburrow! As a new plane, there aren't a lot of deep cuts to talk about yet. Bloomburrow is an adorable fantasy world of anthropomorphic animals. There's a great three series of planeswalker guides if you want to know everything about the worldbuilding, so I'll mostly be tackling the cards that tickled me the most. Let's dive in!

The Best Legends

Bello, Bard of the Brambles by Slawomir Maniak

These are not, 'the best legendary creature cards', but the three cards I thought worth calling out above the others. Zinnia, Valley's Voice's use of the offspring mechanic is inspired. Zinnia is a stork that mechanically brings you babies. If you're not familiar with that, 'storks carry babies' is infamous as a classic dodge for parents asked by their children where babies come from. Zinnia is heavily implied to not originally be from Bloomburrow, although they are a natural flier, so it's possible they were an aven. Bello, Bard of the Brambles has a Hedron on his staff! His bio states that he's been all over the multiverse through Omenpaths, but his favorite trinket is that Hedron. Finally, Flubs, the Fool's art references the very common art of the Tarot card, the Fool, as first spotted by Chase, aka ManaCurves:

I love the Tarot reference here! pic.twitter.com/NF3ZUvkoLI

— chase ? #SCGBaltimore (@ManaCurves) July 9, 2024

Byrke, Long Ear of the Law is a great rabbit joke, playing on the phrase 'Long Arm of the Law' (which means that it's hard to escape the Law's reach). Baylen, the Haymaker is someone else I want to talk about, if only because he inspired me to do a riff on Little Bunny Foo Foo:

The Puns and Jokes

Baylen, the Haymaker by Ryan Pancoast

Let's be real here. I'm a dad who loves dad jokes, so a big draw with Bloomburrow for me is the sheer volume of puns in the set. One of my favorite unspoken puns is that the frogfolk mechanic, as seen in cards like Dour Port-Mage, is that the Frogfolk literally bounce cards (bounce being a colloquialism for effects that return cards to your hand).

Carrot Cake is of course, less cake and more carrot, but you get the idea. Crumb and Get it looks like a batfolk holding a massive baguette of some kind. Hop to It is a term that means 'go get something done', but in this case it's actual bunnies hopping. Shrike Force is a pun off 'strike force', or a small combat unit. Kitnap is a pun on kidnap, using the phrase 'kit' which means a young fur-bearing animal.

A Pearl of Wisdom is a term for a pithy statement containing some sort of deeper truth, in this case it's a literal pearl. Shore Up appears to be a ratfolk using clams as a shield, hence the pun: "Is that all you got? Put some mussel into it!" (mussel instead of muscle). Sugar Coat is a term that means 'to try and sell a bad thing by putting it nicely', but in this case it's literally turning someone into a confection. Take Out the Trash is an expression that means 'deal with an unpleasant person', and in this case it's literally using trash to do so.

War Squeak is the mouse-equivalent of a war cry. Bark-Knuckle Boxer is a play on bare-knuckle boxing, but obviously the raccoonfolk are using tree bark instead. Cache Grab is a play on the phrase cash grab, but applied to squirrel caches. High Stride is a play on high tide, with the rabbitfolk literally striding through the high tide.

Overprotect is my favorite 'fun' card in the set. It's a frogfolk who has gone a little overboard protecting themselves. Polliwallop is a play on polliwog, the stage in a frog's development cycle. Wear Down is a beaverfolk who apparently has a thing for chewing down trees holding birdfolk aeries. Tangle Tumbler is a katamari (for those of you who don't know, Katamari is a cult classic video game about creating a giant jumble of junk). Jacked Rabbit is a play on Jack Rabbit, except this one is muscle bound (which is often referred to as being jacked). Finally, Rolling Hamsphere is quite literally a Hamster Ball in the style of Myr Battlesphere, and I love it.

The Story of Lily of the Valley

Repel Calamity by Ryan Pancoast

Repel Calamity and both art styles for the Seasons cycle tell the early tale of Valley, when the mousefolk hero Lily of the Valley defeated Wildsear, Scouring Maw and brought about the current age of peace in the valley. The entire tale is in the Planeswalker Guides you can find online, but here's a card-by-card breakdown for you. What I really like about these is the standard card art tackles these as if they were diegetic, in-universe art.

Season of the Burrow is a quilt of some kind that depicts animalfolk living underground to escape the chaos of the Calamity Beasts on the surface. For a long time, this was how they survived. Season of Weaving is leatherwork (perhaps a saddle) that depicts the first animalfolk to learn magic, or as they call it, weaving. Season of Loss depicts a wood painting of scores of animalfolk being lost at the mercy of the Calamity Beasts. Season of the Bold appears to be an illuminated manuscript depicting Lily taking a stand against Wildsear. With all that sorted Season of Gathering appears to be a wood relief of animalfolk society coming together in Valley.

The Talents

The Talent Cycles are a wonderful addition to the 'Class' subtype for Magic. What I really like about these cards is that they're not soldiers or anything, but are mostly professions or common archetypes for a peaceful village. Outside of Bandit's Talent, of course.

The Dragonhawk

Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest by Antonio J. Manzanado

Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest appears to be a 'Bloomsona' version of a dragon from Dragonlord Kolaghan's brood (although not Kolaghan herself as many suspected in the lead-up). This is our first hint at what's coming with the current year-long Dragonstorm arc, and that maybe, just maybe, the Omenpaths aren't necessarily a good thing when it leads to invasive species crossing planar boundaries. You can spot Dragonhawk in a few other cards as well, including Banishing Light and Dire Downdraft.

Bloomsonas

Ral, Crackling Wit by Chris Seaman

Finally, I just wanted to break down what we currently know about Bloomburrow's fursonas, or Bloomsonas, if you will. Some sort of enchantment on the plane, and it's explicitly stated that it's not clear from what or when, transforms non-Bloomburrowans when they arrive into an animal to better fit in. What are those animals? We have a few ideas, but outside of Ral, Jace, Dragonhawk, Zinnia, and Vraska, these are more what-ifs. Dragonhawk obviously became a giant bird to blend with the Calamity Beasts. By extension, this probably makes Kolaghan's Bloomsona a bird as well, right?

• Domri Rade is a Porcupine, which makes sense because he's prickly.
• Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest is a bird (hawk).
• Garruk Wildspeaker is either Badger or a Wolverine? I can't tell
• Huatli is a tropical birdfolk.
• Jace Beleren is a foxfolk.
• Ral, Crackling Wit is an otterfolk.
• Vraska is a lizardfolk, specifically a snakefolk (although there's some incongruity with a brief mention in the story, we don't actually SEE her form so it's possible Helga didn't know what a snakefolk is versus a regular lizardfolk)
• Liliana Vess is a squirrelfolk.
• Narset is a birdfolk, but I'm not sure the breed.
• Kiora is a salamanderfolk, specifically an Axolotl.
• Karn is a treefolk, specifically an Ironroot Tree.
• Nissa Revane is a frogfolk.
• Sorin Markov is a batfolk (duh).
• Tamiyo is a rabbitfolk (it's been my opinion for a while that moonfolk should be rabbits).
• Teferi Akosa is a birdfolk, specifically a Secretary Bird.
• Tezzeret is a ratfolk (yeah he is).
• Zinnia is heavily hinted as to being from off-plane, and is a birdfolk, specifically a stork.

That's it for now! I won't have time for more articles before Duskmourn, so see you there!