As it says on the title, lets guess what animal you think each planeswalker would become when coming to Bloomburrow and see which, if any, anyone gets right when we get the promos what if cards later this year.
Confirmed;
Ral- Otter
Jace- Fox
List of planeswalkers (who showed up on cards, feel free to think ideas for others;
Fully human/ no animal features
Ashiok
Aminatou
Basri
Chandra
Calix
Dack
Dakkon
Daretti
Davriel
Dihada
Domri
Dovin
Elspeth
Estrid
Freyalise
Garruk
Gideon
Guff
Huatli
Jared
Jeska
Jaya
Kaito
Kasmina
Karn
Kaya
Koth
Liliana
Lukka
Nahiri
Narset
Niko
Nissa
Nixilis
Oko
Rowan
Saheeli
Samut
Serra
Sivitri
Szat
Teferi
Teyo
Tezzeret
Tibalt
Tyvar
Urza
Venser
Vivien
Vronos
Wanderer
Will
Wrenn
Yanling
Yanggu
Humans/humanoids who transform
Arlinn
Sarkhan
Humanoids with animal features/beast folk
Ajani
Angrath
Kiora
Quint
Sorin
Tamiyo
Vraska
Windgrace
Xenagos
Is already an animal/closet enough
Bolas
Grist
Ugin
Also, we know that there are ten tribes or animal races inhabiting bloomburrow. Here's my list. (Confirmed color/race pairs in bold, my predictions in non-bold)
Birds / Storks, commander of the RWU deck and RW is mice and UR is otters Foxes? Depends on whether Jace turned into a native animal or if the special what-ifs treatments can be any animal. Lizards Badgers, Hugs has a red glowing gauntlet, and he seems to be the msucle of the group. Making the biggest animals in Bloomburrow RG makes sense, but they compete for the slot with raccoons... Rabbits, GW legend in starter pack Bats, most bats have been printed in WB recently and they have been described as Squirrels, Commander of BG commander deck Frogs, makes the most sense, I'd almost put it in as confirmed Otters, UR legend in starter pack Mice, confirmed in panel
Special mentions of creature types not confirmed for Bloomburrow but that were printed recently:
- Foxes, mostly printed in white and green but Jace's card would be blue, but both WU and GU are already taken unless Frogs are... UB?
- Raccoons. There's a commander on the RG deck, but due to the Hedron in his staff he might be a planeswalker. However, one of the special basic lands arts shows a raccoon planeswalker who might not be that character (different staff). Plus, there have been quite a few raccoons printed recently which would line up well with Bloomburrow tribal support, even Coati Scavenger has been made a raccoon. Problem is, if Raccoons are RG, then there's no room for badgers unless they are GU or UB...
- Turtle, quite a few turtles in standard, but they don't fit anywhere
I pretty much agree with this, UB is the tricky color pair and the badger character seems to want to either wants to be GB or RG which seem filled by raccoons and squirrels respectfully already. That said we might see some small animalfolk that are more one-offs and badgers aren't gonna be a deck but there are badger folk on the plane. Looking through creature in standard also seems to not be any clear UB animal pair like the others got.
I think the Jace fox thing might be more that foxes are said to be cunning which has often be used to describe Jace and a nod that foxes will show up in blue/find a traditionally blue animal creature to turn Jace into.
From the first look article it dose seem Jace isn't here but Ral is, which would in part explain why he wasn't given a card in MKM outside them implying he is still a planeswalker and Kaya had the 1 planeswalker card slot.
At Chicago we also got a look at Bloomburrow enough to talk so here we are.
Bloomburrow is a "funny animal" world, no humans, only talking animals who are in size to real world counter parts. A group of small adventurers sets out into the bigger world as the "calamity beasts", elemental predators of this plane, have start going on larger rampages. Our protagonists is Mabel a mother mouse who is joined by Gev a lizard, Hug a badger, Finneas a rabbit and Zoraline a bat.
On this plane we also have been shown both Ral, in the form of an otter and Jace in the form of a fox.
We are a week away from the first look at Outlaws of Thunder Junction so figured I'd get us started as info will start to come. Of note unlike MKM story which had a murder myster elements, spoilers will mostly be used for leaks and anything official shown by wotc or source they allow is considered fair to post here however you wish.
Yee-haw Outlaws of Thunder Junction is a villain set mixed with the Wild West and Weird West genre, showing magics rogue gallery from across the multiverse who have used the newly opened omenpaths to gather onto the plane of Thunder Junction. Most clearly shown amoung them is Oko the antiauthority fey who may or may not have lost his spark and likely will run into Kellan, his son who has been looking for his father.
Outlaws;
Oko's Gang;
Oko - Home plane unknown
Vraska - Ravnica
Ashiok (no card)- Home plane unknown*
Rakdos - Ravnica
Tiny Bones- Dominaria
Annie Flash (New)- Home plane unknown
Fortune (Annies Mount)- Home plane unknown
Kellan- Eldraine
Breeches - Ixalan
Malcolm- Ixalan
Eriette- Eldraine
Gisa- Innistrad
Geralf- Innistrad
Kaervek- Zhalfir
Satoru Umezawa- Kamigawa
On the one hand it makes sense to have the metropolitan plane into a hub, but on the other hand... What happens to the guilds? If Ravnica's identity is "cosmopolitan hub" then there really isn't going to be much space for the ten guilds which already kinda have barely any room in the modern one-set-per-world paradigm.
Just depends on what they want to focus on or how they want to handle it. We just got a guild-less Ravnica set with Murders as an example or they could just have the "cosmopolitan hub" be more of a background theme much how Ravnica aspect as a a city plane has show up now and then in card but never the major focus of the set.
I do wonder if the Omenpaths are going to stay with MtG permanently, or if they are just a thing for the Omenpath arc.
Just to be a bit clear (and this itself was a tad confusing I had to look more into it); the omenpath arc is only Wilds of Eldraine - Outlaws of Thunder Junction. It is meant to be somewhat of its own story arc while being 1/3 of a larger story saga (that we haven't been told the name of due to spoilers), with the next upcoming sets which make up the Dragonstorm Arc and an arc that we also haven't been told the name of due to spoilers.
On that some of my guess with the new niv info about the story arcs. I think we gonna kinda see it go;
Omenpath arc- the aftermath of the phyrexian war and the people of the multiverses first contact and using of omenpaths
Dragonstrom arc- planes now more connected and traveling between planes is now easier for the average person. Leans into the death race set and the theory Duskmourn is a plane that trapped/fed on planeswalkers and now getting omenpath travelers.
Unknown arc- The big bads strike using the omenpaths. My guess is the Fomori who lost the means to travel planes now try to reclaim their empire now that they can once more travel the planes via omenpaths. If not the Fomori I'm gonna guess its a similar idea, a being or group taking advantage of the newly connected multiverse to take over.
I actually like when characters get new costume designs when going to other planes, makes more sense they try to adapt some to the new enviorments like how a lot of planeswalkers on Innistrad wore coats as the climate is often "see your own breath" cold.
I find it kind of silly that this is an "old timey western set" and that translates to "characters you've seen before all cosplaying"
Keep in mind this set is meant to be a villains set mixed with wild west. While Wild West Set has been a fan request, seemly the higher up weren't as keen so they compromised on mixing it will a villains of magic theme (which was something they been wanting to do since magic origins). Similar idea with Kamiagawa 2; we get a return to Kamigawa but its re-flavored some as a cyber punk.
I'm sad that they abandoned the Fuse mechanic on split cards. :/
Yeah, and it would have been neat on cards which could go monocolor if you wanted too.
I like these hybrids though. Forgot that this hadn't been done before either - really like that with the two hybrid guilds it can go monocolor if you want.
They haven't "abandoned" fuse, last Ravnica they noted they like to have the split cards doing different things each Ravninca set;
I really these stories, as said the 10 chapters really helps with the pacing issues we have since Zendiakr 2 and allowed room for the characters to have some good characterization and character journey which can be most as magics story is plot based vs character based most of the time. Ravnica having a well detailed law and political system and popular well know characters that could be suspects and meaningful deaths also worked so well for a murder mystery.
As for the murder mystery it was fun and I like about the creative bumps that magical elements brings to the genre as well as many of those elements where used to make the mystery more harder to solve in ways setting without magic can't and as mentioned the Ravnica characters really made a fun cast for this.
Confirmed;
Ral- Otter
Jace- Fox
List of planeswalkers (who showed up on cards, feel free to think ideas for others;
Fully human/ no animal features
Ashiok
Aminatou
Basri
Chandra
Calix
Dack
Dakkon
Daretti
Davriel
Dihada
Domri
Dovin
Elspeth
Estrid
Freyalise
Garruk
Gideon
Guff
Huatli
Jared
Jeska
Jaya
Kaito
Kasmina
Karn
Kaya
Koth
Liliana
Lukka
Nahiri
Narset
Niko
Nissa
Nixilis
Oko
Rowan
Saheeli
Samut
Serra
Sivitri
Szat
Teferi
Teyo
Tezzeret
Tibalt
Tyvar
Urza
Venser
Vivien
Vronos
Wanderer
Will
Wrenn
Yanling
Yanggu
Humans/humanoids who transform
Arlinn
Sarkhan
Humanoids with animal features/beast folk
Ajani
Angrath
Kiora
Quint
Sorin
Tamiyo
Vraska
Windgrace
Xenagos
Is already an animal/closet enough
Bolas
Grist
Ugin
I pretty much agree with this, UB is the tricky color pair and the badger character seems to want to either wants to be GB or RG which seem filled by raccoons and squirrels respectfully already. That said we might see some small animalfolk that are more one-offs and badgers aren't gonna be a deck but there are badger folk on the plane. Looking through creature in standard also seems to not be any clear UB animal pair like the others got.
I think the Jace fox thing might be more that foxes are said to be cunning which has often be used to describe Jace and a nod that foxes will show up in blue/find a traditionally blue animal creature to turn Jace into.
Bloomburrow is a "funny animal" world, no humans, only talking animals who are in size to real world counter parts. A group of small adventurers sets out into the bigger world as the "calamity beasts", elemental predators of this plane, have start going on larger rampages. Our protagonists is Mabel a mother mouse who is joined by Gev a lizard, Hug a badger, Finneas a rabbit and Zoraline a bat.
On this plane we also have been shown both Ral, in the form of an otter and Jace in the form of a fox.
Yee-haw Outlaws of Thunder Junction is a villain set mixed with the Wild West and Weird West genre, showing magics rogue gallery from across the multiverse who have used the newly opened omenpaths to gather onto the plane of Thunder Junction. Most clearly shown amoung them is Oko the antiauthority fey who may or may not have lost his spark and likely will run into Kellan, his son who has been looking for his father.
Outlaws;
Oko's Gang;
Oko - Home plane unknown
Vraska - Ravnica
Ashiok (no card)- Home plane unknown*
Rakdos - Ravnica
Tiny Bones- Dominaria
Annie Flash (New)- Home plane unknown
Fortune (Annies Mount)- Home plane unknown
Kellan- Eldraine
Breeches - Ixalan
Malcolm- Ixalan
Eriette- Eldraine
Gisa- Innistrad
Geralf- Innistrad
Kaervek- Zhalfir
Satoru Umezawa- Kamigawa
Other ruffians / Omenpath travelers
Capenna
Jolene
Yuma (New)
Roxanne (New)
Fiora
Selvala
Marchesa
Innistrad
Rutstein
Oliva
Kraum
Gitrog Monster
Kaladesh
Gonti
Kaldheim
Magda
Kamigawa
Nashi
Ravnica
Fblthp
Lazav
Ghired
Shandalar
Riku
Tarkir
Vial Smasher
Zendikar
Bruse
Ertha Jo
Homeplane unknown
Obeka
Stella (New)
Miriam (New)
Lilah (New)
Leaks
Kambal- Kaladesh
Just depends on what they want to focus on or how they want to handle it. We just got a guild-less Ravnica set with Murders as an example or they could just have the "cosmopolitan hub" be more of a background theme much how Ravnica aspect as a a city plane has show up now and then in card but never the major focus of the set.
Just to be a bit clear (and this itself was a tad confusing I had to look more into it); the omenpath arc is only Wilds of Eldraine - Outlaws of Thunder Junction. It is meant to be somewhat of its own story arc while being 1/3 of a larger story saga (that we haven't been told the name of due to spoilers), with the next upcoming sets which make up the Dragonstorm Arc and an arc that we also haven't been told the name of due to spoilers.
On that some of my guess with the new niv info about the story arcs. I think we gonna kinda see it go;
Omenpath arc- the aftermath of the phyrexian war and the people of the multiverses first contact and using of omenpaths
Dragonstrom arc- planes now more connected and traveling between planes is now easier for the average person. Leans into the death race set and the theory Duskmourn is a plane that trapped/fed on planeswalkers and now getting omenpath travelers.
Unknown arc- The big bads strike using the omenpaths. My guess is the Fomori who lost the means to travel planes now try to reclaim their empire now that they can once more travel the planes via omenpaths. If not the Fomori I'm gonna guess its a similar idea, a being or group taking advantage of the newly connected multiverse to take over.
Keep in mind this set is meant to be a villains set mixed with wild west. While Wild West Set has been a fan request, seemly the higher up weren't as keen so they compromised on mixing it will a villains of magic theme (which was something they been wanting to do since magic origins). Similar idea with Kamiagawa 2; we get a return to Kamigawa but its re-flavored some as a cyber punk.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/the-legends-and-characters-of-murders-at-karlov-manor
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/planeswalkers-guide-to-murders-at-karlov-manor
Ravnica has trains and subways since Ravnica 3.
Why would this resurrect Chandra? She's not even dead.
They haven't "abandoned" fuse, last Ravnica they noted they like to have the split cards doing different things each Ravninca set;
Ravninca 1- Two colored split cards
2- Fuse
3- One side hybrid, One side two colored
4- Both sides hybrid
As for the murder mystery it was fun and I like about the creative bumps that magical elements brings to the genre as well as many of those elements where used to make the mystery more harder to solve in ways setting without magic can't and as mentioned the Ravnica characters really made a fun cast for this.