Bloomburrow Mechanics: Gift

Posted on July 30, 2024

Never look a gift horse in the mouth, they say. Of course, they probably don't play Magic: the Gathering.

Bloomburrow brings an unusual mechanic, Gift. Gift is an ability added to different cards which allows you to promise a benefit to an opponent while adding an effect or bonus to your own spell. The keyword "gift" is printed on each card with the ability.

There are, as of the set's release, six different possible Gifts. The first four are in the whole set; the last two are in the Commander precons:

Gift a card (the opponent draws a card)

Gift a Food (the opponent makes a Food token)

Gift a Treasure (the opponent makes a Treasure token)

Gift a tapped Fish (the opponent creates a 1/1 tapped {U} Fish token)

Gift an Octopus (the opponent creates an 8/8 {U} Octopus Creature token)

Gift an extra turn (the opponent takes an extra turn after the current turn ends)

If the Gift is on a permanent card, the Gift is given as the spell resolves. If the Gift is on an Instant or Sorcery, the Gift is given before any of the other effects of the spell happen. Note the reminder text on Nocturnal Hunger. In both cases, if the spell is countered, the Gift will not be given.

A few more things.

Some spells require additional choices to be made or targets to be chosen in the event the Gift is given. If you don't give the Gift, don't worry about those things! It only matters if you give the Gift.

If you copy a spell for which a Gift is promised, the copy will also have the promised Gift, and you can choose a new recipient for the copied Gift. On the other hand, if you create a token or otherwise create a copy of a permanent that's already on the Battlefield (with something like Clone), you won't have promised a Gift, and any additional effects from the Gift won't happen either.

Oh, and you can't pay a Gift cost more than once.

Limited Implications

In Limited, options are always good. With Nocturnal Hunger, for example, you can kill an opposing thing no matter what, but if the two life really matters (because, say, you're at 5 life) you can give the Food token and not lose the life. This is good.

On the other hand, most of the Gifts are quite valuable. A free mana, a free Creature, and especially a free card is a lot of value to give to an opponent in a format where card quality is lower and resources far more limited. Even a Food token is important, because life matters a lot more in a format like booster draft. Consider a card like Longstalk Brawl (which is the kind of removal spell you'll often find in a limited environment):

Putting that +1/+1 counter on your own Creature can make or break the outcome of this fight, and certainly the extra power can be relevant when it comes time to enter the red zone. However, giving your opponent the Fish means they wind up with the same amount of Creatures they started with - not a great outcome when casting a removal spell - and they now have a chump blocker for whatever thing you just put the counter on, or a Creature they can use their own tricks on.

The lesson is, I suspect, to be shrewd in your Gift-giving. Only give the Gift if the benefit outweighs the cost, and think carefully about how much effect one extra card or an extra Creature can mean.

Commander implications

The obvious place for Gifts in Commander is in Group Hug decks, where the deck plays spells which benefit everyone at the table, regardless of whether the deck attempts to win. Anything which provides a benefit to another player can be great in such a shell, especially if it's the newer style where the idea is to help those who need it, not everyone evenly.

Commander is also a format where options are excellent and politics matter. Because you can give the Gift to anyone, you can use Nocturnal Hunger on someone's Old One Eye and give the Food token to someone else. Perhaps it's the player who needs the life the most, or needs a permanent to sacrifice to some other effect, making you a friend along the way. Additionally, the individual effects of each Gift lower quite a bit in a format like Commander, where card draw is common, a 1/1 token often gets forgotten, and Dockside Extortionist regularly spits out dozens of Treasure tokens. That means wrenching more value out of a spell like Parting Gust is worth it: exiling someone's Eldrazi is absolutely worth a 1/1 Fish.

Starfall Invocation is also a very powerful board wipe in Commander, because winding up with one of your Creatures back on the 'field (especially if the Creature has a great Enters effect) is 100% worth giving someone an extra draw.

Good luck building with Gift!

Be sure to check out the other Bloomburrow mechanic guides!