Is it time already for yet another Pauper set review?! You'd better believe it is! This time I'm here to talk to you all about one of the hottest Magic releases of the year: Bloomburrow. Whatever level of hype you thought was here for this set likely isnt anywhere near what a hot ticket release this is, largely being lauded for its amazing setting of cute, fuzzy animals and fun typal synergies. But how does it all stack up in regards to Pauper?

This set brings a whole slew of brand new commons to the table and im here to talk all about them. First, I'm going to spend some time breaking down some of the cards utilizing the new mechanics and then I'll check out all kinds of individual cards afterwards. There's a whole lot of ground to cover with this set so let's dive on in!

Offspring

Offspring is one of the more fun and innovative mechanics in some time. It's the sort of thing that leads to a lot of fun gameplay options and provides different degrees of utility between the early game and the late game. The problem here, though, is that most of them are far too expensive to make good use of in Pauper. Finch Formation, Thornplate Intimidator, and Rust-Shield Rampager are all way too expensive to be worth considering how minor the value you get for them actually is.

There's some small consideration for both Intrepid Rabbit and Steampath Charger as their abilities and offspring costs are fairly reasonable. Even if you're only priced into casting the actual card, it's not the worst rate. It's not exactly where you'd want to be in the realm of Pauper necessarily, but it wouldn't be the worst if you had to do it. Still, the payoff here is probably far too little to make work here for the format. I feel like they'll do this mechanic again later due to popular reception thus far, so it'll be interesting to see what offspring brings to the table again in the future.

Gifting

Gifting also makes for a really awesome new mechanic in terms of both flavor and function. Unfortunately, most of these aren't really all that great. Nocturnal Hunger and Mind Spiral are both really awesome effects, but too expensive to make use of reliably. Crumb and Get It is probably too weak, and Longstalk Brawl is just going to feel like Prey Upon most of the time. Sazacap's Brew strikes me as the one that has some potential use, as it's effectively a Thrill of Discovery with solid upside. We've been getting more and more of these Thrill variants lately, though, so I'm not sure I'd want this over something like Demand Answers or Highway Robbery. Still great to have, though.

Forage

The remaining three primary mechanics for the set only have a very low number of cards utilizing them, meaning there's likely not much to cover. That's especially true for forage, which only features a meager two cards. Treetop Sentries is far too expensive to get reasonable value out of and Corpseberry Cultivator is way too much work for too little benefit. I'd leave both of these cards in the dust and pretend this mechanic doesn't exist for the sake of Pauper.

Valiant

Remember heroic? Valiant is the new updated version of the mechanic, giving you value for not only targeting creatures with spells but abilities as well. Only three common cards use the mechanic here and none are particularly all that good. There might be some play for Whiskerquill Scribe's rummaging, but I wouldn't exactly count on it with how Pauper looks these days. It's likely the mechanic is revisited in the future, though, which could lead to it being a bit more viable in the format.

Expend

Expend once again only has a small number of cards at its disposal, and they're fairly difficult to utilize well. Consider for example that most decks like to use small casting cost spells or find alternate ways to cast them for free/at a discount. That makes it a bit harder than it might seem for a lot of decks to reliably hit the four mana expenditure to benefit these cards. Even if you can hit the expend trigger, it only happens once a turn and for extremely minimal value. I wouldn't put too much stock in these for the format, nor would I the mechanic as a whole were it to come back in the future.

Banishing Light

Hey, would you look at that! We got ourselves an unexpected downshift in this set! Unfortunately, this one happens to be a worse version of a card that's both already legal and sees no play: Oblivion Ring. It's certainly a good thing to have around and is a huge boon for Pauper off-shoots like Cube and Pauper Commander, but for competitive Pauper? Not a chance.

Carrot Cake

The playability on this one is pretty obvious. Not only do you get some small value just for playing it, but it also rewards you for sacrificing it. This is primarily meant to apply with the fact that it's a food that you can sacrifice, but there's enough ways to sacrifice artifacts for value in the format that you can chain said value off of this. Definitely not as good as some other cards like Ichor Wellspring, but has enough play that it'll be worth utilizing in the right kind of deck.

Lifecreed Duo

Soul Warden variants are a dime a dozen these days, but even Impassioned Orator saw some play in extremely fringe builds. This too is extremely fringe, but the flying utility is worthwhile for the handful of decks that want it.

Sonar Strike

Can't say I'm the biggest fan of these kinds of effects in Pauper, and that's certainly not changing much here. That said, it's worth noting that the playability goes up considerably if you can reliably utilize bats alongside it for the extra life gain.

Thistledown Players

Cards that untap permanents are always good, and this is a decent body in a color that doesn't seem to untap stuff nearly enough. More often than not it feels like white is doing the tapping rather than the untapping, so this is a pretty decently welcome option to have in your toolbox, especially with White Weenies on the rise.

Dazzling Denial

The easiest comparison to this card is Lofty Denial, which similarly can act as a cheaper counter or a big one provided you have a flier. While the front end of this is certainly better, it's much harder to set up the back end in a format like Pauper. If you're looking to run it, you're probably already running the fliers to warrant Lofty Denial so play that instead, though it's fairly rare if that card ever sees serious competitive play to begin with.

Nightwhorl Hermit

Three mana is a tall ask here, but it's not hard to get the threshold ability online, making this a pretty good way to push damage while simultaneously blocking pretty well. The mana cost is a big problem, though, and it's the kind of card that fits into the same shell as something like Tolarian Terror, so the likelihood of it seeing major play is pretty unlikely for my money.

Pearl of Wisdom

This card's usefulness hinges entirely on how many playable otters exist, of which there aren't really all that much. This is the sort of card that becomes better as more cards get released, but right now isn't going to move the needle.

Diresight

Read the Bones has historically shown up occasionally in the past, and this is just a strictly better version. That having been said, though, it's been years since the card saw active play. The question remains as to whether or not a surveil version will be worth utilizing today. There's utility when paired with cards like Tolarian Terror and Gurmag Angler, so it certainly has playability to it, but will that be enough to make it? I'm not so sure on that.

Ravine Raider

This is probably the cheapest common shade-style card I can think of in some time (i.e. a Black creature that can be pumped). Menace is pretty solid evasion too early on, making this a pretty reasonable option for Black-based aggro decks if you're looking to get in early damage that can scale better as the game goes on.

Savor

There's been a number of ways to give creatures -2/-2 for 2 mana before, and this isn't the greatest taking the removal side alone into consideration. However, the fact that it leaves behind a food token opens you up to some additional synergy plays, like adding to Affinity or providing fuel for Deadly Dispute. It's probably not enough to make it in most cases, but the versatility here means it'll likely show up in specific builds from time to time.

Kindlespark Duo

We've got ourselves another Thermo-Alchemist variant! More specifically, this is a bit closer to Kessig Flamebreather and Firebrand Archer in that it triggers off of any noncreature spell, not just instant or sorcery. That said, three mana is a massive hindrance to this one so I wouldn't expect it to see much play if any.

Might of the Meek

If you have a mouse in play, this is pretty solid, but mice are low in numbers as is a prevailing issue with many commons in this set. If more playable ones show up later that might be of use, this card's stock could go up a bit, but as is Crash Through is just going to be better.

Take Out the Trash

Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I can't think of many removal spells that let you outright rummage. Previous iterations like Fire Prophecy and Volcanic Spite went to the bottom of the library instead of giving you a discard option. Normally that would be huge, as you could enable synergies like Reanimator to take out an opposing creature while pushing your game plan. The main issue is once more needing a raccoon to make this work, so for now it's a no-go but may have uses at some point.

War Squeak

This is a functional reprint of Hammerhand, which hasn't seen play in years and even then barely got played to begin with. Does 8 copies open it up to being more useful? Unfortunately, the answer is likely not.

Cache Grab

More fuel for the self-mill decks out there! Getting any permanent out of the deal feels very akin to what has made Malevolent Rumble so good for Bogles. Most other options only give you a small selection of card types, so having the option to grab more things is always good. Still, Rumble is going to be much better most of the time unless you can manage the squirrel synergy, which you likely won't.

Druid of the Spade, Stickytongue Sentinel

I'm going to touch on both of these together because they play in a very similar space, in this case being extremely useful for aggressive Green decks. If you might guess, that sounds a lot like Stompy. So, will these cards make Stompy good enough again? No, they won't. Stompy is a deck that thrives on being as cost efficient as possible and having creatures at 3 mana - even if they're decent - is too tall of an ask for those lists. Even in the days when Stompy was far more relevant, Elephant Guide was the only 3-drop that would show up, and even then it was a rarity half the time.

Heaped Harvest

As far as ramp abilities go, this one's pretty solid, if expensive. The real benefit is that once it's on the battlefield, you can then sacrifice it with something like Deadly Dispute and get another land in addition to the other value. It's still not quite as good as other ramp options currently out there nor will it likely make the cut in Golgari Gardens, but it's some good synergy worth mentioning as it's the kind of thing that can fuel untapped synergies/lists.

Polliwallop

I mean, if you're able to run a bunch of frogs, I guess this is probably fine? Good luck finding enough frogs to make this cost reduction - and by extension the card itself - worthwhile in any meaningful way.

Sunshower Druid

Most Green creatures that dish out a counter on entering do so at a rate of two mana, though they usually bring with them an additional effect. The only one mana one I could find is Bond Beetle, which never saw much play. This is a far better rate on this card, though, providing a better blocker and also gives you a point of life as well, all of which is good at helping against aggressive strategies. I don't think it will necessarily be enough for most decks, but it's definitely a noted improvement on prior designs.

Cindering Cutthroat

Three mana for a 4/3 that can get menace isn't a bad deal at all, and is probably one of the better aggressive rates in some time. If you're playing an aggressive deck and want a solid top end finisher around three mana, this is about as good as you're gonna get. Thing is, most of those decks prefer to keep most - if not all - of their cards around one or two mana, so it's unlikely this makes a major impact, but it wouldn't surprise me to see it in small doses either.

Mind Drill Assailant

Self-mill is pretty trivial, so getting a four mana 5/5 on the board is pretty reasonable. It definitely doesn't feel great when compared to the likes of Tolarian Terror and Gurmag Angler, but it's another reasonable option to have, especially given that it can surveil if you have mana to burn through as well.

Pond Prophet

Interestingly, there hasn't been a Blue 2-drop creature that outright draws a card like this. Most of them usually perform a one-time loot effect instead, meaning you have to discard a card as well (see this set's own Bellowing Crier). Green decks won't want this when they already have access to Elvish Visionary and the like, but non-Green decks that do a lot of flickering might get some solid use out of this card.

Tempest Angler

I realize this card probably looks fairly appealing to some people, but it's worth pointing out that Spellgorger Weird is generally better in most ways. There's some potential creature type synergies to consider here, but largely they're not relevant enough to matter in Pauper.

Bumbleflower's Sharepot

As is right now, I don't think there's many decks looking to take advantage of this. Perhaps something like Altar Tron could make use of the extra artifacts to churn through, but that would be it right now. I will note, though, that this marks a continuation of cheap artifacts that produce an extra artifact as well, which makes unbanning cards like Atog and Disciple of the Vault a harder sell even if the artifact lands are banned. It's pretty clear that we're going to continue getting these as time goes on and that makes it that much less likely those cards can return to the format in the future.

Fountainport Bell

Traveler's Amulet has never really been a very good Pauper card because only finding a basic land is often irrelevant. This allows you a lot more flexibility, though, in that you can simply not choose to find a land and then cycle it away later. That's almost certainly worse than something like Chromatic Star or Chromatic Sphere, but it's helpful for something like Altar Tron to cycle through the deck and also has mana fixing considerations in other decks. I wouldn't put money on this being a serious contender, but I imagine it'll be a solid roleplayer in the right situation.

Hidden Grotto

It's worth mentioning that we've now got a non-desert copy of Conduit Pylons for decks that might care about that. Not much else interesting about this one, though.

And that's a wrap for Bloomburrow! Admittedly, I'm not so sure this set is going to have the biggest impact on the format right now, but has some great cards as well as some serious long-term potential. If you're still itching for more new common cards to play with in the format, don't worry one bit! Duskmourn: House of Shadow is right around the corner barely two months away, meaning I'll be back soon enough with yet another Pauper review! Until then, which cards are you most excited to play with in your decks?

Paige Smith

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