MTG Madness – Into the valleys of Bloomburrow Prerelease

You can dive into detailed descriptions and grades of every Magic: The Gathering card from the Standard-legal Bloomburrow set by subscribing to MTG Madness.

Our second installment of MTG Madness has officially dropped, featuring what you need to know before heading into Prerelease Bloomburrow events from July 26 to Aug. 1. All subscribers will get a detailed breakdown of the 281 cards included in the main set for Limited Draft and Sealed gameplay. Every card was graded based on early play through the Bloomburrow Early Access MTG Arena event and years of Limited experience.

Knowing Draft archetypes is great as a foundation but Sealed, the format played at Prerelease events, is slightly different. The money spent to play at the event gets you a Prerelease Kit, which includes six Playbooster packs and a bonus Prerelease promo card. The 40-card deck you craft comes from these. 

• Six Bloomburrow Play Boosters  
• One traditional foil year-stamped rare or mythic rare Bloomburrow promo card  
• One MTG Arena code card 
• One deck box 
• One Spindown life counter

Bloomburrow is an aggressive Limited set, even in Sealed where the tempo is typically slower. Because of faster-paced games, be careful about splashing too many colors into your deck. Most times, you’ll have to add a third color, but I would use that third color to splash bombs and top-tier cards only if possible. 

Unless you’re comfortable playing Control and Midrange styles, I recommend building your Prerelease deck on the aggressive side. Don’t skip the one-drops, especially because many of them are powerful. And don’t weigh down the top-end with cards you may never be able to cast because games end so quickly. 

Here’s a basic breakdown of what you should include in a Sealed Prerelease deck for Bloomburrow. 

• At least two one-drops, maybe even three depending on how aggressive your deck is
• Around seven two-drops
• Six to eight three-drops
• Two to three four-drops
• One to two five-drops
• One six-drop or higher
• 16 to 17 basic lands. 

Much like Constructed, the Bloomburrow Sealed tempo requires you to play cards on Curve or you’re likely to fall behind and lose. Have answers to early-game plays and a strategy to Curve into your bigger plays that end games. 

Read more about the top-tier Draft archetypes by signing up for the MTG Madness newsletter today so you can feel confident at Bloomburrow Prerelease events and Limited events on MTG Arena when the Standard-legal set is digitally released on July 30.