My old friend Patrick Chapin famously divided all creatures into two piles:

• Mulldrifters
• Baneslayers

Baneslayers - named for Baneslayer Angel (a card Brian Kibler once called "the best large creature of all time" after winning a Pro Tour with it) - are those whose value is in the body. Baneslayer Angel is a great example with its incredible mana rate and many abilities. But Jackal Pup is also a Baneslayer.

Mulldrifters are creatures whose value comes, at least in part, from some ability other than just the body. Mulldrifter itself, for instance, draws two cards when it enters the battlefield. In 2024 a great many playable creatures tend to be Mulldrifters.

A good way to figure out if a creature is a Baneslayer or a Mulldrifter is if "it just dies to Doom Blade" or not. A Doom Blade really quiets a Baneslayer Angel. Often it won't even get one lifelink in. But a Doom Blade on a Mulldrifter? It already drew two cards! Poop emoji. For all its flash, Chapin insisted that Elder Gargaroth was a Baneslayer for this reason. Cards that create a lot of resources can be Baneslayers, in particular when they need a turn cycle (or more) to start generating value, especially through attacking.

Imagine the classic duo:

Ophidian - Baneslayer

Man-o'-War - Mulldrifter

Kibler had barely finished the "best large creature of all time" sentence when the nice people in Renton, WA printed Primeval Titan. Titans represent a quasi third group: Basically they're Mulldrifters that also have awesome bodies or abilities that you might want attached to the body. Llanowar Visionary, for example, is a Titan.

As an interesting side note, Bloomburrow has a fair number of cards that are Titans... Sometimes.

A 3/3 flying, vigilance that gains life and sometimes draws cards is very Baneslayer at three mana. But at five mana you get the real Titan show. Your play pattern can be to either discard or trade with a three mana card before turn five, and then Zoraline will pay you back. Notably it might not be "right" to wait until five mana... It's just Titanic.

Zoraline is a Baneslayer that can graduate to Titan. Mabel is more a Mulldrifter that can. Whether you are the three mana or the five-mana version of this card, you get Cragflame. The opponent can kill Mabel and you'll still have Cragflame for your next creature to exploit. It's just at five mana you have the 4/4 with a thousand abilities, which is much more impressive outside the Mouse-buffing text.

Despite its kind of adorable name, Hugs makes for a pretty Titanic threat; at least at five or more mana.

Its body would have made for the best offensive creature in multiple eras. 5/5 trample for four mana is just a very solid rate.

... which means no one would pay the deck-building cost of having Hugs in a deck just for the body. That said, playing it for four is in the range; it's just not Titanic.

Imagine playing Hugs for six mana and having a bad outcome (you exile two lands). Well Hugs will let you play at least one of them immediately; and if you played it off-curve, both.

Maybe the best card in the set?

Also a totally conditional Titan. You can theoretically play Beza when you're ahead and it will just be a 4/5 for four mana.

Then again some other times it will draw more cards than Tidings for less mana. You just have to be okay with one of the cards you get being a Lotus Petal and some others being a couple of Fish.

These two are always Titans:

What is there to say about this card? 5/5 flying for five with two incredible abilities? Needless to say Dragonhawk itself has the requisite power to make x=1; anything beyond that is gravy. Who am I kidding? Even one creature beyond that doubles the efficacy of an already efficacious set of abilities.

The implication here is that Lumra start off at least 6/6 most of the time (and then get bigger).

The hack is that, while Lumra itself mills four cards, you can have lands in your graveyard for any number of reasons along the way. Maybe not Streets of New Capenna-style sac lands in Standard any more... But Demolition Field or Fabled Passage... And the sky's the limit once you leave Standard.

Maybe

Is Ygra a Titan?

To be a Titan it would have to be a Mulldrifter first.

Don't get me wrong: I think Ygra is good. But Sheoldred's Edict will put it away like any other creature; as will Sunfall or any number of sweepers.

But yes, Ygra does have Titanic elements when taxing the opponent a Food. But not always.

Five Hot Takes

1. Removal is only going to be medium in Bloomburrow Standard.

Picture this: Your opponent plays a small Hugs, Grisly Guardian for X=1 and leaves the card in exile. They play an extra land from hand and say "Go." You untap and kind of brush the sweat from your brow. I guess this is why it's in my deck, you think to yourself. "Get Lost the Hugs." They now obtain two Map tokens. Could be worse, right? You could be taking five next turn. The opponent kind of grins and draws their card. "Map tokens, huh?" They show you the card from exile... Another Hugs! This time X=3. Do you see where this is going?

Removal is going to have some context. In similar deck matchups, it's going to create leverage via mana efficiency. But the sheer number of creatures I predict, with so many Mulldrifter- and Titan-reminiscent effects, is going to make situations like the above Get Lost feel really common.

Lots of creatures I said? You know who didn't rotate?

How do you think that's going to look in creature-on-creature matchups?

There are just so many Titans! How is the average Doom Blade going to look up against Mabel, Heir to Cragflame (even the three-mana version). It's kind of one-for-one-half. The next Mouse is just going to be big and hasty.

Ultimately, I suspect that we're going to see grind-fests that are resolved by he who hath the highest leverage creature. Ygra could be really good here; in part because removal will be so medium.

Sleeper hit: Deadly Cover-Up. Why? Because in a world where the highest leverage creature is a good, taking out all their copies of the highest leverage creature is even higher leverage.

2. Planeswalkers are mostly going to be worse on average.

The good news? Poor Ral isn't going to be too lonely as the only Planeswalker in the set; with so many good creatures, there will be a lot of attacking going on. Planeswalkers tend to thrive when they're either not being attacked or can exploit attacks by managing time or other resources. Whereas a bunch of the new crowd are going to get stuff like haste and trample for free. Squish.

You might have been able to predict this anyway. The only Planeswalker coming in being Ral, Crackling Wit; but The Wandering Emperor leaving (along with some other playables). Clearly The Wandering Emperor is the most important departing Planeswalker for Standard, but other rotating cards have been headliners at various points. One of them even getting the "this should probably be banned" treatment [it shouldn't have been banned]. REMEMBER WHEN Wrenn and Seven WAS THE HOT NEW CARD?

3. Linear or Complicated Board States Will Be Somewhere Between "Good" and "Hilarious"

First of all, Camellia doesn't seem to be mising seeds in the classical sense of a miser. Its not saving seeds. Rather Camellia seems to be mising seeds in the Magical sense of "I might as well do this."

Remember when I said "hilarious" a second ago? What if Camellia teamed up with Ygra. They're both in Golgari, right? That means that every Squirrel is now a Food. You can sacrifice Food to give a buff to Squirrels. But what you're actually sacrificing are Squirrels that are conditionally Food that will then ultimately make more Squirrels.

What becomes important when you have these things together? A situation like this isn't that farfetched. Busting through with a competing fair creature deck might be problematic. This is also why my early advocacies are for Control and (earlier today) Deadly Cover-Up.

Let's look at a simpler one:

Classic Baneslayer, right? Decent stats + flying for a reasonable cost. When it gets in it has a kind of Ophidian effect. Minus a little targeting resilience (which is a big deal to be fair) this card isn't so far off of Dragonlord Ojutai, which was one of the best cards of its Standard era.

By itself Kastral is "just" a creature waiting around to die to the opponent's removal; or, failing that, get blocked in combat.

But if you have any number of preexisting Birds your turn five can be exciting. Remember when I said "good" a second ago? Literally any Birds, followed by Kastral, will yield an exciting effect.

4. Toughness Is Going to Matter More Than Usual.

Usually who gives a hang about toughness. Power is where it's at, right?

But I think that given the number of creatures that are predicted to be on at least one side of the table, cards like Virtue of Persistence are going to gain new context.

And in Black?

This card has a "cool" ability that doesn't necessarily matter all that much. Combat is mostly about power; and even if you're blocking you can probably still get good trades in with 1 toughness.

But what if you combo with another non-rotating also-ran?

Olle Rade won a Pro Tour by biasing his creatures to 3 toughness. Other people had 2/1 creatures for three mana. The man behind Sylvan Safekeeper played a gaggle of 2/3 Spiders for three mana instead. Why? Olle understood the sweeper of the format was Pyroclasm.

This kind of attention to toughness hasn't come up in twenty-eight years. But I think we might see it resurface here. Play four or more toughness in your Maha deck and you might get paid extra... Especially given how many cards we've mentioned are coming in at 3/3 for three.

5. Creature Costs are Getting Pushed, Especially on Baneslayers

I don't know if this card is going to be good. I do know there will be lots of creatures all over the place; and that the original cost for this card - without trample - is literally 2x its CMC.

I think part of this might just be an experiment to figure out just how far WotC can push Baneslayers given the appetite for Mulldrifters and Titans.

There are my takes. Blazing! Now it's time to go actually get a game in.

LOVE

MIKE