The Mechanics of Bloomburrow

Continuing Bloomburrow theme month, today I look at its new mechanics. But first, a wording change.

Veteran Magic players will notice that "enters the battlefield" text on cards has been shortened to "enters." 

Magic terminology evolves often. Wording changes like this are retroactively applied to previously-printed cards. Oracle, the official card database, will always provide the most updated text for a given card.

Most of the time, wording changes don't confuse people. But here, 'enters' does imply 'the battlefield,' per Mark Rosewater (head Magic designer).

On to the mechanics of Bloomburrow. There are five plus _, per the official site, and I'll cover them in the same order (but succinctly; see the official link for more details).

Offspring

Family matters! Offspring appears on many creature cards in this set. It is effectively a 'kicker' cost that creates a copy of the creature, but with base power/toughness 1/1. In Bloomburrow, it is on 17 cards across all colors.

Gift

Gifting something to an opponent (generally a card or token) makes your spell's effect more powerful, at the cost of giving your opponent something. In Bloomburrow, it is on 23 cards across all colors.

Forage

Foraging means to exile three cards from your graveyard or sacrifice a food. It is often part of a cost you pay for some effect. In Bloomburrow, it is on seven cards, all green/black and generally squirrel-themed. 

Valiant

Valiant is an ability word that has various effects, but it always triggers when a creature with this ability becomes the target of a spell or ability you control. In Bloomburrow, it is on nine cards, all white/red mice.

Expend

Expend is a triggered ability. Expend [x] means to spend [x] total mana or more during a turn. In Bloomburrow, it is on ten cards, all red/green and related to raccoons. 

Pawprints

Pawprints are a way to cost different modes on spells with choices. In the example above, the spell grants the caster up to five pawprints worth of modes. There are three modes to choose from, all with different costs. So here, you could create five rabbit tokens, three rabbits and exile target nonland permanent, or choose some other combination. In Bloomburrow, this is on five cards, one for each color.

Final Thoughts

I've enjoyed the mechanics of this set so far, with the caveat that the offspring mechanic can get complicated to track if you don't have the token(s). They've made the tokens—an astonishing 30 for this set—but getting only one token per pack (and that not a guarantee) means you'd have to collect an awful lot to get those.