Alright, let’s talk about this Bloomburrow set for Magic. I gotta be honest, my whole experience with it has been… well, not great. It just feels bad, you know?
So, I first heard about it, saw the art – all these little animal folk. Looked kinda neat, different. I thought, okay, maybe this will be a fun, lighter set. Something different from all the doom and gloom we sometimes get. I was genuinely curious, maybe even a little excited. I started looking at some of the early preview cards they dropped online.
Then came the pre-release weekend. I went down to my local game store, picked up one of the pre-release kits. Sat down, cracked open the packs. That’s kinda where the first ‘huh?’ moment hit me. As I was sorting through the cards, trying to figure out what to build, nothing really jumped out. The mechanics felt… okay, I guess? But putting them together, finding synergy, it felt like a real uphill battle right from the start. It wasn’t flowing like it usually does when you open a pool.
I cobbled together a deck, something green and white, I think. Played a few rounds. And man, the games just felt clunky. Lots of board stalls. Sometimes things just didn’t seem to do much. It wasn’t exciting. My opponents seemed to be having a similar experience. Lots of shrugging, lots of “well, I guess I attack with this?” It lacked that punch, that clever interaction you look for.
My Draft Experiences
Okay, so pre-release can be hit or miss. I decided to give drafting a serious try. Went online, fired up Arena, joined a few draft pods over the next week or so. And honestly? It didn’t get much better. Here’s what I kept running into:
- Signals were messy: Trying to figure out what was open felt way harder than usual. Packs felt kind of samey, without strong signals pointing you in a clear direction.
- Archetypes felt weak or unsupported: I’d try to draft a specific archetype that looked like it should work based on the cards, but the key pieces just wouldn’t show up. Or, if they did, the payoff wasn’t really worth the effort.
- Power level felt flat: Barring a few bomb rares, which is normal, the overall power level of the commons and uncommons just felt low. Games often devolved into who could play the most slightly-better-than-vanilla creature.
I tried forcing different color pairs, tried staying open, tried reading signals. Nothing consistently felt good to draft or play. It was just frustrating. I spent my wildcards and gold, and after maybe five or six drafts, I just stopped. It wasn’t fun anymore.
It’s not just about winning or losing. I’ve had fun with sets where I lost plenty. But the process of drafting and playing Bloomburrow just felt tedious. The cute theme wore off fast when the actual gameplay underneath felt so uninspired. It felt like a lot of mechanics that didn’t quite mesh, slapped onto admittedly adorable creatures.
So yeah, that’s been my journey with Bloomburrow. Started with some curiosity, went through the motions of opening packs and playing, and ended up just feeling disappointed. It just feels like a bad set to me, from a gameplay perspective. Maybe others are loving it, but for me, I found it really lacking. I’ve already moved on, looking forward to whatever comes next and hoping it’s a better play experience.
