Bloomburrow Key Art | Illustrated by Narendra Bintara Adi

As the sun rises upon Marvel's Spider-Man, we here at EDHREC figured that we would start a new series of articles, coinciding with each set's 1-year anniversary. We're a little late, but today we're examining Bloomburrow.

This set came out on August 2nd, 2024 to massive acclaim. But did players stay as hyped for the set as they'd hoped? What cards are Commander all-stars, even one year later? Come with us as we explore this fuzzy little woodland set and see what worked well for it.

General Notes on Bloomburrow

As mentioned above, Bloomburrow was released at the beginning of August in 2024. Many players anticipated that the set would be the best set of the year. And, for the most part, I saw that at this point, they see the set as an abject failure from a mechanical perspective. What went wrong here?

For starters, BLB came out on the heels of Modern Horizons III, one of the most pushed sets of the game's history, and certainly the strongest set of 2024, bar none. Compared to MH3, BLB was a fairly literal walk in the park.

But that's reflecting on sets that came before it. Why is Bloomburrow so undervalued in 2025's post-rotation Standard meta? Why is it so underused in Commander, for the most part?

For this, we can look at Magic Head Designer Mark Rosewater's State of Design 2025 article from earlier this month. Within it, Rosewater explores the praise his team got for sets, as well as the lessons the team has had to learn. And boy howdy, there were quite a few lessons to learn from this set. One of the lessons learned was that the set's animals were a bit skewed in a way that wasn't cohesive or, conversely, was too cohesive:

Commander is both currently the most popular tabletop format, and the most popular casual format. An animal theme is very appealing to casual players. But too many of the animals in Bloomburrow simply don't have enough cards to make a viable Commander deck. Some wished we had chosen animals with more backwards compatibility. Others wanted us to focus more on the ones that didn't have enough cards to allow us to make more. Creating new themes while also supporting a hundred card singleton format is an ongoing challenge that we have to work through. Some of this can be handled over time if we repeat themes, but it's a long-term answer to a short-term problem.

The Animal(s) in the Room

There were ten key animalfolk races in the set. Of these, Mice were represented in a huge way that was too powerful for Standard, if Heartfire HeroHeartfire Hero's ban was any indicator. Meanwhile, Rats were grossly underrepresented in the set. This led to an undervaluing of both blue and black in the set's Limited formats.

Otters were also not very cohesive, with fewer creature cards representing the race than those of the other races' creatures. Birds, here with a white-blue identity, wanted to be a support role type, but players wanted representation with a much more active stance in the game. Overall, blue was a massive cluster that didn't do the set any favors.

However, there was plenty of good to be had as well. We previously mentioned Mice and their power level. Squirrels, probably the biggest hype point for the set upon their return, were really cool for many players and even had a precon based primarily around them.

Frogs were probably the most adequately represented race in the set to contain a blue identity, and they were quite interesting. Plus, it was quite cool to see Bats and Lizards get more typal cohesion as two of the ten animalfolk races.

Some EDHREC Statistics

Where would this article be without some supporting statistics? I've compiled a few pieces of data surrounding the main Bloomburrow set and its corresponding Commander release.

Within the main set of Bloomburrow, these are (at time of writing) the top five commanders. This section will list their current number of decks represented on EDHREC, as well as their overall ranking on the site based on data from the past two years:

Main Set Commanders

• At #5 is Wick, the Whorled MindWick, the Whorled Mind, a black Rat with a blue-black-red color identity. With a total of 8,917 decks within EDHREC's database, Wick is ranked at #163 in terms of commanders with the most decks representing them. Wick's abilities are peculiar in that they interact with Snails more than Rats. This is vastly different from how Rats generally work within the set.
• The #4 main set Bloomburrow commander on the site is Helga, Skittish SeerHelga, Skittish Seer. Helga is a white-blue-green Frog with a suite of abilities that like when her pilot casts high-power creatures. As with Wick, this is very different from how Frogs typically work in the set. Helga is placed at #112 overall with 11,004 decks on the website.

• At #3 we have Glarb, Calamity's AugurGlarb, Calamity's Augur, a blue-black-green Frog Wizard. His abilities are fairly strange and, once again, are atypical of most Frogs in the set. With a present total of 13,729 decks on EDHREC, Glarb is at #76 in terms of popularity overall.
• #2's entry for the main set is Ygra, Eater of AllYgra, Eater of All. The only two-color entry in the upper echelons of the main set, Ygra's ability to turn all of your creatures into Food and fuel its buffs through their consumption was novel for the time. Nowadays, Ygra is a commander that seems to have walked so that Ragost, Deft GastronautRagost, Deft Gastronaut could run... er, float. Ygra has 14,141 decks available on EDHREC and is ranked at #73 overall for that reason. By comparison, Ragost has 6265 decks on EDHREC at this moment, but has also only been out since the start of this month.
• Finally, the #1 most popular main-set Bloomburrow commander is Baylen, the HaymakerBaylen, the Haymaker. A red-green-white Rabbit, Baylen is a little different from the other four on this list. His abilities aren't exactly what Rabbits do in the set, but unlike the other four legends here, Baylen's suite of abilities complement them in a big way. Because of this, Baylen commands 18,726 decks on EDHREC and, as such, is miles ahead of even Ygra at an overall ranking of #31.

Bloomburrow Commander Commanders

Additionally, since the set gave us a Commander precon suite, I'll also be extrapolating the same information for the Commander release.

However, one standout note that I need to stress is that of Flubs, the FoolFlubs, the Fool. Flubs wasn't in a precon, but was an exclusive Buy-a-Box promo.

This caused a degree of added hype to the Frog Bard. Previously, exclusive Buy-A-Box cards, such as Nexus of FateNexus of Fate, warped the formats they were printed in. However, Flubs was merely Eternal-legal. While he was strong, he wouldn't be able to warp Standard or Modern.

With that, here are the top five most popular commanders from Bloomburrow Commander:

• Surprisingly, at #5 is Hazel of the RootbloomHazel of the Rootbloom. Early speculation definitely helped Hazel, as many players tried desperately to guess what Squirrel cards wouldn't see a reprint in Squirreled Away, Hazel's precon. Unfortunately, this deck hasn't quite stood the test of time. Hazel ranks at #181 overall, with only 8,243 decks on EDHREC.
• Ranking at a #4 placement far above Hazel is Zinnia, Valley's VoiceZinnia, Valley's Voice. Now, this perhaps doesn't sound like it's a big difference. However, Zinnia, a white-blue-red Bird from the Family Matters precon, commands 12,092 decks on EDHREC. This leads Zinnia to an overall rank of #93 on the site.
• At #3 is the aforementioned Buy-A-Box promo Frog Bard, Flubs, the FoolFlubs, the Fool. Flubs didn't have his own precon, as mentioned earlier. However, this hasn't stopped players from making a total of 15,465 decks, all databased on EDHREC. As a result, Flubs's blue-red-green self ranks as #60 in overall popularity on here.

• #2 is Bello, Bard of the BramblesBello, Bard of the Brambles a red-green Raccoon Bard from the Animated Army precon. Bello is also rather surprising here, as I certainly undervalued this commander and its precon during previews. However, to my shock and awe, Bello decks number at 15,971 right now, and Bello ranks as the #55 most popular on EDHREC overall.
• The most popular commander from the Bloomburrow Commander release is Ms. BumbleflowerMs. Bumbleflower, a green-white-blue Rabbit who leads the Peace Offering precon deck. This commander is more versatile than the average group hug commander, despite the precon being geared towards that playstyle. As a result, Ms. Bumbleflower has 18,239 decks currently backing her up and a resultant popularity rank of #33 overall.

Notably, Chatterfang, Squirrel GeneralChatterfang, Squirrel General is more popular than any of these commanders. This is important because Chatterfang is a Squirrel, was reprinted in Squirreled Away, and still ranks higher than not only Hazel but all the other precon commanders here. With 20,412 decks on EDHREC, Chatterfang presently ranks as the #20 most popular commander on the site.

On the Cards for the 99

The top main-set cards in the 99 of decks were as follows:

• Innkeeper's TalentInnkeeper's Talent (100,230 decks, 5% of 2,226,159 decks)
• Caretaker's TalentCaretaker's Talent (105,090 decks, 5% of 2,220,514 decks)
• Dawn's TruceDawn's Truce (168,551 decks, 8% of 2,234,755 decks)
• Patchwork BannerPatchwork Banner (228,044 decks, 5% of 4,792,449 decks)
• Three Tree CityThree Tree City (249,123 decks, 5% of 4,836,132 decks)

Ubiquitous cards like Three Tree CityThree Tree City and Patchwork BannerPatchwork Banner dominate the top of this list. At an inclusion rate of 5% of the decks they can slot into, both cards have largely commanded a high-ish price on the secondary market. The other cards at the top are more niche than that, but they also have a fairly high secondary market price tag.

As for the top five newly-printed cards from preconstructed decks to grace the 99:

• Tempt with BunniesTempt with Bunnies (40,934 decks, 2% of 2,218,141 decks)
• Jacked RabbitJacked Rabbit (41,236 decks, 2% of 2,218,141 decks)
• Twenty-Toed ToadTwenty-Toed Toad (48,203 decks, 2% of 2,352,551 decks)
• Agate InstigatorAgate Instigator (69,736 decks, 3% of 2,352,041 decks)
• Pollywog ProdigyPollywog Prodigy (84,882 decks, 4% of 2,352,551 decks)

Conclusion

I wasn't a huge fan of this set. Sure, flavor-wise, it offered a lot of the traditional tropes that Magic: The Gathering ought to provide. I especially liked the Frogs, Squirrels, and, to a lesser extent, Bats. The Calamity Beasts were also such a cool and inspired touch for this setting.

But Mark Rosewater's gleaned lessons held very true for me in that there felt like a lot was missing. It was either an issue in Box A or one in Box B, and sometimes even both. I really didn't see a lot of merit in using the set's mechanics to any real advantage.

Sure, I made Commander decks from Zinnia and Hazel, but overall, these decks weren't vibing the way I wanted them to. This, in turn, proved symptomatic of a greater problem with the set's design.

As a final note, from a financial perspective, Wizards of the Coast printed this set straight into the ground. There are so few cards in this set that actually retain much value at all. Hype can be a double-edged sword.

At first, I felt like Kamahl, Pit FighterKamahl, Pit Fighter in his famed quote on ManabarbsManabarbs: "I don't know why people say a double-edged sword is bad. It's a sword. With two edges." But I think, nowadays, Bloomburrow has taught me the error of that line of thinking. Now, I'm sadder-but-wiser for it.

An Open Call for Opinions

So, with that, I want to open the floor to you, dear readers. What was your opinion on Bloomburrow a year ago, and what is your current opinion of the set? Do you like it more, or less, than you did back then? Has it aged like a fine wine, or like warm cheese? Sound off below!