What Happens in Bloomburrow?
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- Calamity comes to Bloomburrow! Can Mabel, Helga, Hugs, Gev, Zoraline, and Finneas catch up to Cruelclaw before Maha brings night down upon The Valley? Find out in this recap of the official story for Magic: The Gathering's latest set!
Read the official story: bit.ly/MTG_Sto...
About the sunhawk drawing: I think Helga actually drew the Dragonhawk, but since she didn't know what it was, she assumed it was the sunhawk. If I remember corectly, she even says that some parts of the drawing don't actually match the sunhawk.
I just went back to check and you're right. It starts out by saying "What she'd drawn most closely resembled the Sun Hawk, though her rendering was crude compared to the king's tome." And then it goes on to say "Her penciled lines conveyed power, ferocity, the shading behind the creature suggesting a thunderous storm rather than a bright, blazing sky."
So yeah I guess her drawing was closer to Dragonhawk. Still doesn't explain where the actual Sun Hawk is, though.
Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker is also here ...
It was a picture of Healer Hawk, the true one mana MVP!
@@MagicArcanum The Sun Hawk wasn't seen. If we're honest we haven't seen any of the other Calamity Beasts aside from Maha and the Floodgar (Eluge called as a card).
Also WotC has maybe released way too many Calamity Beasts we had not heard of before.
@@Morte_n I know we have a few other Calamity Beasts as cards (Ygra, Wildsear, Lumra, and Beza), not to mention one of them was used in the advertising for the setting
I love the idea of Phyrexians coming in to invade and just all turning in to rats or something and then just peacing out again. 😆
Gin-Gitaxias showing up as a rat: "Yeah, this ain't it chief. I'm outta here."
I'd imagine it wouldn't be as disorienting or as detrimental as you'd think. You'd just have cybernetic rats with buzzsaws for teeth and bleeding glistening oil.
Or giant insects 😆
What if the Phyrexians took the form of toy solders and marched through the woods. It would almost make sense since they are artificial in nature 🤷♂️
@@franzgriffle6063 They are flesh and metal as one, all of the strength none of the weakness. They are a cult of perfection.
“Oliver, who is also the mayor from JAWS!” Had me do an actual real life spit-take in public
“Kings in the dark” = eldrazi disturbed by Jace’s interplanar shenanigans. Change my mind.
(they aren’t happy with the Sylex nuke going off in the blind eternities)
They sure are taking their time to react ._.
@@FranciscoJG It's not called the blind ETERNITIES for no reason ;)
@@TheScarnak omg lol
Kinda hoping that this will wrap back in with Kasmina being enigmatic and junk, and the dark observers that were half mentioned during the phyrexian invasion
The sylex blast detail actually sells me on this, I would have thought fomori otherwise
Unless the fomori somehow are the eldrazi 🤔
There are some points to add that might help explain the lore:
1) It is possible, but unconfirmed, that Phyrexians might have entered the plane and were turned into metal trees by the magic of the plane.
2) Bloomburrow is a much larger plane than just the Valley the story takes place. There are a lot of hints at it on cards in the set that there are many things happening outside the borders of this small valley.
An Omenpath could have opened outside those borders.
3) It is also hinted that the magical effect that transforms visitors into animals on this plane might be artificial in nature and not a natural feature of the plane itself. It is hinted that it could be anything from a spell, artifact or a powerful Calamity Beast that is causing it.
That first part is interesting when you consider the Karn special guest card having him also be a tree. Either that's a big coincidence, or the theory was concocted from Tree-Karn.
but still
even if phyrexians were turned into metallic trees, all of them being turned the invasion just be stoped by luck would be very disappointing
but well, it's MTG lore making, disappointing is it base quality
There is definitely an omen path in Bloomburrow given that Bello the raccoon bard from commander precon is known as an omen trotter and has been traveling through other planes. Not sure how many but there is at least one and from the chaos warp art in the precon, probably two.
Not to mention Bello has a hedron in his staff
Gotta say, I wouldn’t have read it if it weren’t for your recap videos of the omenpath arc, and I’m so glad I did because this story was PHENOMENAL everyone should read it
Missed opportunity to show Garruck as a honey badger
Honestly this is what makes me wish we had a 3 part series for this plane . I started playing a few years ago when that ceased but I would love to slow down for the story.
Also your comment about the Avengers makes so much sense for universes beyond versions for these cards. Can’t wait to see if that happens!!!
Thank you for all you do. I love catching up on the lore and let it suck me in to the entire game.
100 % agree!
I couldn't help notice every name change you gave the Rat hermit. It drew my attention more than the rest of the story XD
I feel like Bloomburrow could be a full WoTC setting if they wanted to invest in it. Books, comics, cartoons, a D&D campaign book, etc.
This could help take care of that "under-monetization" they groused about.
Bloomburrow is probably my favorite set since the first Eldraine, just from a story, card art and feel perspective
Speaking of the phyrexian invasion if youll remember the flavor text on one of the cards (i think it was baleful strix but I could be wrong) mentioned that the creature was not a calamity beast nor was it a normal civilized creature it came from beyond the valley which is similar to a conversation elspeth had with daxos on theros where when asked where she came from replied that she came from beyond an endless forest.
My assumption was that because Vraska and Jace appeared in a dream, Helga saw them not as animal-shifted versions of themselves but as their usual selves, and "lizardfolk" was the closest she could come to describing a gorgon
According to the wiki, the Sun Hawk is represented by the card Pyreswipe Hawk, so that's interesting.
King in dark can only mean one thing.
Yawgmoth busting through the blind eternity with old phyrexian: time for round
Except it’s kings plural
The story definitely feels like it has a lot of "and then" moments instead of "because of" moments.
Woo storytime!…I look forward to these vids every time a new set comes out.
Thank you, I can’t read magic lore unless explained to me by a man with a most exquisite moostache
Alwais so awesome being here for these video,a true pleasure! Thanks Ryan!
18:44 tbh I think it’s a good idea to have a plethora of villains again. When I started you had bolas the eldrazi Tezzeret Phyrexians plus the evils on each plane. If anything the omenpaths give WotC writers the opportunity for more antagonists as the story progresses
Nice little storytime as I enjoy my lunch. Cheers!
I've been waiting for this video! Thank you so much in advance
You're so welcome!
We can presume:
• The other frogs just didn't want to go with Helga because she's weird (I know the feel .-.)
• The rat scouts have perished =[
Kolaghan dragons have fully feathered wings. I would like to assume Dragonhawk's wings didn't get more batlike when getting transformed into a hawk. The Bladewing dragons from Dominaria had 4 "batlike" wings.
It's interesting that the Gruul commander deck indicates Bello has looted other planes, but they aren't a planeswalker the art on Chaos Warp is another raccoon being ported to Kamigawa.
As someone who read Redwall books when I was younger, the story inconsistencies and plot contrivances are on theme for a Redwall story, so don't worry about them too much. Why did another Calamity Beast appear to only move them downriver a bit to the one group of friendly rats that could help them? Because they needed to be there to advance the story. Why did they not see the other rat scouting parties previously mentioned? Because the ghost of Brian Jacques - who briefly possessed the creative department - got bored of the plotline, forgot about it, and moved on.
Listening to this brought me back to my childhood.
I totally love this and agree that smaller digestible stories are JUST fine!!! Loved Bloomburrow. This would actually make a great world to explore in a trilogy kind of like Lorwyn world of light and Shadowmoor world of dark. Can’t wait until they return and hopefully they fill in the holes. Here’s hoping they don’t spread too thin and go in a million different directions. Weatherlight is another example of a simple story for a great set.
Bloomburrow has a good "mix" I'd say. We still get to have a Planeswalker be part of the story, but they're kind of secondary to a self-contained story on the plane.
Similar to how Kellan's story arc was separate but ran parallel to Jace and Vraskas story arc, I think the dragon storm arc will be similar, they confirmed the dragonhawk is a native of bloomburrow born from a dragon storm that leaked through an omenpath into Bloomburrow so I think we will see that play out while the fomori/jace stuff is set up in small part and saved for after Tarkir 2.
The existence of Fountainport makes me wonder if normal sized humans/people existed on the plane and they built said fountain and probably other thing and some magic affected the plane making everyone animals
the showcase foil where she returns the egg is gorgeous
There's only 2 badgers and neither have an ability called "Blind Rage", which was like, the one thing badgers worried about in the stories. Because it was literal. They would go into an unstoppable frenzy and lose their eyesight. Huge flavor fail.
I mean it isn‘t literal redwall, but yeah huge missed opportunity not to have an enrage badger commander
@@Breadcutter I'd take a crossover Lady Cregga Red-Eyes yeah!
There's a meme of otter Ral screaming at the sky being angry at Jace lol
I really wanted to love the story. It had so much good going for it, between the awesome worldbuilding and the return to a more "isolated" feeling of the plane. But it just did the old Magic thing where it tries to do too much in too little space and yet still somehow ends up feeling like it didn't do enough. We have a party of seven characters, four of which are completely pointless, one of which is only kind of pointless, and one of which actively detracts from the story, journeying around the land on what should be an epic quest, but they don't ever really...DO anything. They just shuffle from point A to point B, getting information dumped in their laps, end up in the villain's lair, then the story just sort of resolves itself, with nothing the heroes actually did feeling like it amounted to anything.
I recap SO nice, I had to watch it twice. Thanks Ryan and Nicole.
This is set up like a dnd module if they don't make a bloomburrow campaign setting I'll be upset
@@raymondrohling4472 about that...I think the module came out first
I really miss the times when the story was allowed to span two or three sets.
This story is good and enjoyable but, just like you said, it feels rushed to fit in five chapters... basically like a disney movie: they put the basis for an epic journey that get solved way too fast leaving a heckton of loose ends.
Obviously the main concern of wizards is the cardgame, but it would be nice for them to give something more to those who follow the lore.
I mean... we've gone a long way from the times when they released a full book for each expansion and, while I understand that writing a book each time might be too much, this feels like we've gone to the opposite end of the spectrum: from too much to too little.
Also, 100% agree on magic not needing a big bad: I hate how nowadays everything needs to be a multi-chapter mega-saga.
100% agree n2: Gev is THE BEST! That little lizard is hilarious while also being more than just comedy relief, a really well written character.
I’m glad you addressed some of my issues with the story although just to add a few more:
1) while the story is nice (a little rushed maybe but nice) it kinda feels weird that we don’t get any info on Jace or the others since it’s the whole reason Ral is there. They kinda just drop it. Personally I thought that maybe Jace was also doing something with the Calamity Beasts and that’s why the Gar was rampaging.
2) Ral mentions that he needs to warn others about Jace and the omen path hopping dragon but, idk that feels kinda premature. It’s something I’ve noticed a lot in recent years of MTG story. Characters go warn other characters of a growing problem, but since they don’t know literally anything except “Person A is being suspicious or bad” it doesn’t really help anyone. Also, now granted dragons are a favorite of mine and I’m not super up to date on MTG but, don’t like 99% of planes have dragons? Don’t get me wrong an omen path jumping dragon sounds dangerous but given dragons frequency it’s feels a little less of a major issue to warn other planes. Also like, ya ofc there is a dragon jumping planes. The omen paths can be used by anyone, that’s part of the concern. Unfiltered access of both good and evil
Side note: While I’m still on the fence if MTG is really giving Jace a villain arc or not, I’m getting an impression that his and Vraska’s plan is similar to the Mending
Perhaps the oil did reach Bloomburrow. Maybe the oil is what makes everything all adorable and animal-like. A complete 180 of what the oil actually does.
2:56 Two Years?! Was that the amount of time that passed after MoM?
Yes. It has only been a year for us but in-universe, Ral notes it has been two years, and that tracks with how long it took Kellan to travel the multiverse and find Oko, among other benchmarks.
Just to add on, iirc in the wilds of eldraine story/cards I think it's mentioned or eluded to that about a year or so passed since the invasion at the time that story takes place?
Always best not to assume real work time is the same as in game time
If I’m not mistaken, a lot of there’s between rise of the eldrazi and battle for Zendikar take place concurrently
I laughed at the avengers reference. And we're a Gev household now. I hope we return to the plane. The story felt really right for the aesthetic and themes. Not so much an existential threat or a true super evil. Just breazy shenanigans of a not to threatening world. Reminds me of something id have read as a kid which I think magic could do with more of.
Hey Ryan, thanks for making these videos. They're how I keep up with the lore.
Let's be frank, the real mouse hero is the manifold mouse
15:50 What about the fact that Jace, Proft, Etrata and Niv Mizzet all appear in the duskmourn story and play quite a substantial part in it, but don't get a card? (So far, since the spoilers haven't finished dropping. I am hoping I will be proved wrong.)
I had a lot of fun with this one! No side stories is definitely a crime though. Very cute little world, and I think they really nailed the tone.
Imagine Emrakul shows up to Totaly-NOT-Just-Redwall and becomes a Squirrel.
Vraska changing into a Basilisk lizard 😂
Man I would have loved a fully flashed out book of the story. I Love this set to its core. I think the last time I got so excited was in Shadows over Innistrad. Really love your content!
Mabel: What is my purpose?
Wyleth: You pass sword.
Speaking of fun tails…
Gotta love the shock of the valley critters when Ral tells them he’s not sure if he will come back because he didn’t enjoy having a tail
Woot glad to have ya back. Been waiting for this video
Since there seems to be no trace of Phyrexians, my headcannon is that Realmbreaker got them to the uncharted wilds full of Calamity Beasts and they destroyed the army before any actual damage was caused
Might be that all the phyrexians turned into something mundane like bugs or something similar.
The Planeswalker's Guide to Bloomburrow mentions that Wildsear's flame is so hot that it "burns through the seams of this plane and the next." Which means that, perhaps during the battle with Lily in the past, pseudo-omenpaths were burned into existence in Valley. Although this would provide an explanation to why non-Realmbreaker omenpaths exist (thus precluding an invasion by Phyrexians), it doesn't quite explain how most of the critters of the plane don't know about them, unless perhaps this knowledge was some of the secrets locked away during the Weaver's Calamity. It also doesn't explain why denizens from other planes wouldn't stumble into them and know about their existence as well, unless most of them were just small enough for varmints to pass through but not larger beings.
*CANON
Helga feels like an unsparked planeswalker to me. I hope we come back to Bloomburrow at some point.
I think it is kind of funny how Bloomburrow uses the same basic plot as the old Kamigawa. To increase his power, the ruler steals a child from an immensely powerful supernatural being, and so the supernatural beings all go on a rampage and the common people suffer.
there are very few snakes in bloomburrow, so i think helga has never seen one and just thought it was lizard without legs
Enjoyed the story, nice and simple feeling like a fairytale which I'm sure was intentional to suit the setting.
I wonder if the Vraska snake/lizard thing is that she was a snake and Hegla saw her as a snake, but didn't know what it was since she had never seen one before (maybe they exist only in the wilderness or something). So the closest animal, the one most resembling snakes, is Lizard. It was Helga making sense of what she saw. Plus since we know her augury at the start was a lot weaker, maybe it was a more blurred vision.
Rottenmouth Viper confirms snakes exist here. I guess it's possible Helga doesn't know that, but she was educated in Fountainport and has studied their records of animals - that's why she described her own drawing of the Sun Hawk as "not as good as the murals in the archives."
I'm brand new to magic and your channel. Amazing story and video you got a new subscriber!
Am I the only one who thinks The Infamous Cruelclaw looks suspiciously familiar to Rowan?
A very simple story that works in the setting. Lovely
The story is so small that we don't get to explore the inhabitants dealing with the Calamity Beasts.
So are we all in agreement lily of the valley is actually liliana of the veil? No? Just me? Because it seems very obvious but is never paid off.
Lily of the Valley is an actual flower that exists in our world. Lily, the character who created the safe space on Bloomburrow known as "The Valley" has a lineage that can be traced from herself, to Mabel's mother Iris, to Mabel herself. Even today, The Valley has lily flowers in it, affectionately called "lilies of the valley" in reference to the original Lily and her contributions to The Valley, while being a fun nod to our own planet's flower.
Liliana once carried a powerful artifact known as The Chain Veil. It was a mask she could wear over her face to amplify her powers. As far as we know, she's never been to Bloomburrow and even if she had, it would have been during a time in her life when she would have had no interest in protecting the critters there from the Calamity Beasts. Even if she did, I don't think they'd call her Liliana of the Veil, and even if they did, I don't think they'd self-edit that to Lily of the Valley.
I am very confident there is zero connection between Lily of the Valley and the planeswalker Liliana Vess.
what happens in bloomburrow, stays in bloomburrow
After i see the "Machado de Assis" plaque on the image behind you, i can't stop looking x.x A great writer.
I liked this set and its small closed story a lot. I agree, there should have been more cards representing the legendary appearances. I hope they revisit the place soon. Duskmourn has been surprisingly fun, but doesn't really feel in place with things as they've been going. I want to see Bloomburrow fully explored. I want to see the weasels, badgers, turtles, moles, etc
I would say that Helga doesn't know what a snake is so she assumes that Vraska is a lizard because that's what she thinks Vraska is.
Rottenmouth Viper confirms snakes exist here. I guess it's possible Helga doesn't know that, but she was educated in Fountainport and has studied their records of animals - that's why she described her own drawing of the Sun Hawk as "not as good as the murals in the archives."
Snakes are part of the lizard clade, so calling Vraska a lizard, even if she turns out to be a snake, is completely correct from a zoologic perspecitve.
@@FiboSai no they are not. at least not by bloomburrows standards, every calamity beast shown is one an elemental and 2 something that would prey on the majority of BB's civilized inhabitants. Snakes, Owls, lynx, Gar, Hawk, Bear, wolf, it also seems that there are gentler calamity beats such a Beza. but generally most of the calamity beats are creatures you wouldn't classify as prey animals.
@@guardshack1223 You missed the point. I know that snakes and lizards are different creature types. But so are dog and wolf, which are almost the same species.
My comment was supposed to be humorous. Snakes as a class are nested inside the squamata, which includes everything we call lizards, such as geckos and iguanas. In fact, iguanas are more closely related to snakes than geckos, so if both of those are lizards, snakes are lizards too.
I found the story very entertaining, I can't wait for the next visit. I hope Mable and her family are happy.
WELCOMEEEEEEEEEEEE BACK RYAN!!! I missed yoooowwwww~
God this set makes me so upset they don't do proper blocks anymore, but at the same time like, I don't think I could have stomached 3 New Capenna sets.
Always love these, thank you!
Sounds like a fun and concise story. Maybe Bloomburrow will become a tourist destination, because people want to see what animal they end up as.
Eluge makes my thalassaphobia spike to a 10, great card!
Caramal Frappuccino has got to be one of the Magic characters of all time! 🙌😂💀
Sinister Monolith is one of the big "what is going on here" cards, I couldn't find anything in the worldbuilding articles that really explains what it is. The commander art of terramorphic expanse also has some similar stuff going on
Maha just dropping by wishing to party like "It's Feathers Night!" 🎶💫🎶
That's really unfortunate. Five stories for a new plane. That's already too few, even for a normal plane's story. They don't even explain why this plane turns people into animals. Ral was also a weird choice and I can't help but feel he would've had an easier time asking Garruk to help track Jace. Too bad Wizards forgot he exists. The biggest issue is the plane's isolation
Hugs is the best part of the story 😌
Eluge is such a cool creature too it’s so sad they didn’t have him have a cooler part
Also, as a person with ADHD, Helga is a perfect representation of it, as well as a perfect encapsulation of the phrase "show don't tell"
23:46 this excuse sounds like a cop out (and it is) but there are in fact some legless lizards that are not snakes because they have the ability to blink.
As a person with autism, you have it
@@Justnothankyou132 What’s this? I have autism? The next thing you’ll tell me is that the sky is blue
I've been waiting for this video!!
The best part of any expansion, the Arcanum video!!! 🎉🎉🎉
The Dragonhawk is something they're warned about in advance but they take that route anyways because it is way faster.
"How can anybody not like that joke!?" 😂💀
I would really like to see more smaller stories like this, with an over arching plot in the background for why we're here.
I need Ryan to know: I had time to read the web stories. I have collected the spotlight cards.
I just prefer hearing Ryan tell the story.❤
Awesome as always.
Your mustache is Majestic
Loot being hard to see, with a dark cloud following him in Helga's vision seems like a pretty straightforward confirmation that the "kings in the dark" are the Fomori. Totally agree about the strangeness regarding Vraska's appearance, though. Going through the story, I just accepted that lizardfolk would be the closest animalfolk for her to change into, but then the secret lair art came out and just made things needlessly confusing.
Always nice your TLDR on set's story
That Vraska being a snake in her card thing was really bothering me. My best theory is that she is a legless lizard?
Maybe it's because Snakes on this plane exist just as big fauna, so seeing one downsized made Helga think Vraska was just a lizardfolk....
or maybe it is just bad coordination between story and cards.
@@MrBreakmind unfortunately I think the most likely possibility is the latter
"The group's save point." Gaha
I've been too focused on Duskmourn so I was eagerly awaiting this episode. Definitely seems like there was a disconnect between the writers and the creative team, but I don't know how their timelines interact. Feels like something they could fix in post, retconning the stories to line up with the cards. I personally wouldn't mind if they did more of that (because this isn't the first time this has happened), but I'm sure a vocal subset of redditors would.
His comment about us not wanting to read the chapters. Man. Just tell us what we’re here for 😂😂
Ral wanting to kill Jace is so relatable. Only not actually wanting to kill him, more like graviously harm him
I liked a lot. It was simple, and it worked well that way. I enjoyed the little details about the way that the different animals fight and all that. My biggest doubt is about sizes, because wolverines and badgers are not that differents on sizes... but iberian and european creatures tend to have different sizes than american ones that are more the reference, so I get it a bit.
I kinda hope Ral stays in Otter form when he planeswalks away :3
I super super hope the Sunhawk is actually a Blue/White or White bird....Maybe in the next Valley/Bloomburrow set we'll get more Azorius birdy goodness
I think Bloomburrow was my favorite set aestheticly since New Capenna. Especially because it's something new and not a revisit to an older plane
Well, in defense of making Vraska a snake in one scenario and a lizard in the other: From the standpoint of evolutionary biology, snakes are a subgroup of lizards. It depends a little on how exactly you define lizards, but if it's supposed to be a valid category (including every species that decends from a certain point in the family tree), snakes are in fact lizards.
Doesn't help that much, but I just like to be a nerd.
10 minutes in
What a twist with the frog king
Loving it
Can't wait to continue
Gtg for now