Bloomburrow: The Best Black and Red Cards

I said that black had some of the best cards in Bloomburrow, and I was not kidding. Some are eerily close to historically powerful cards and are within a cost range that most decks can use. The best of the red cards aren’t as clear cut, but it’s astonishing how aggressive they’ll be in the right deck.

I expect to see all of these cards in popular strategies.

Cruelclaw’s Heist

Hello, Thoughtseize, but a little more balanced. This card is going to see play in all of the same decks that would like Thoughtseize. The ability to take a card and ruin your opponent’s plan is strong enough, but sometimes that second ability is absolutely worth giving your opponent a card.

Darkstar Augur

Hello, Dark Confidant, but a little higher costed. I’m almost seeing a pattern or something. The cloning trick is good and worth using in the right build, but it also having flying that’s of the most interest. Darkstar is an aggro card, through and through, and getting in attacks as you get card advantage is just awesome.

Fell

A no-condition kill spell for under three mana. I think this is a first? Yes, it is a sorcery, and that does limit what you can do with it, but it’s so effective. A creature is just gone. Decks are going to run four. Control decks might splash black just for this card—and for Cruelclaw’s Heist, naturally.

Emberheart Challenger

Haste and prowess on a small creature. That works wonders. Like I said about Kitsa, Otterball Elite in the previous Bloomburrow list, I would’ve been happy with the abilities alone. But also making it so that you can chain spells—including pump spells—makes this an excellent aggro card.

Heartfire Hero

It’s that last sentence of text that made me like this card. Yes, it keeps getting bigger each time you aim a pump spell at it, and that’s good. But part of why it’s good is it makes sure that the second ability keeps being scary. Opponents that don’t deal with this card fast enough (say, with a Fell) will be less and less willing to destroy it. And that’s what I like in aggro cards.  

Sunspine Lynx

They put Price of Progress on a creature and then added clauses so that opponents can’t stop it from happening. I wish this card had “cannot be countered” but otherwise, it’s a delight of a winning move. Four mana is often the top end of red aggro decks—and other variations—and this fits that role perfectly.

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And that’s the second Bloomburrow article done. Next up, we have green—which is basically more aggro—and multicolored, which has a clear color-combo that’s clearly the best (in this set). We’ll also go over the two lands that are decent, just to round things out. I’ll see you then for all of that, on Wednesday.

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