MTG Bloomburrow introduces powerful new 'Offspring' mechanic

During the recent MTG Bloomburrow preview session, we learned about a new mechanic: Offspring. This is a brand-new ability that will appear in this upcoming Magic: The Gathering set. While it will only primarily affect cards that have this keyword on it, there will be ways to grant your other cards Offspring as well.

As such, this feature could create some very interesting decks in not just Standard, but Commander, and perhaps even other formats too. If you’ve ever created a powerful creature, but just wished you could get a great ETB effect one more time, look no further.

There will be plenty of cards in MTG’s Bloomburrow expansion with Offspring. It will be very interesting to see if people find ways to use this mechanic with other powerful cards from sets like Modern Horizons 3. But for now, let’s take a look at exactly what this ability does.

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What is the Offspring mechanic in MTG Bloomburrow?

Mice tribal have a powerful ally with this card (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Offspring is a brand-new keyword appearing in MTG’s Bloomburrow expansion. It allows you to create 1/1 versions of particular cards, provided you pay the additional cost while casting the creature that has the ability. The card's exact wording is as follows:

“You may pay an additional 2 as you cast this spell. If you do, when this creature enters, create a 1/1 token copy of it.”

In the example given initially, the Flowerfoot Swordmaster, you have a 1-white creature, a 1/2 with Offspring and Valiant. The Valiant ability grants all Mice you control +1/+0 until end of turn, whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each turn.

It’s going to likely be common with Mousefolk and Rabbitfolk, and is a fantastic way to “go wide” and suddenly swarm players with lots of extra creatures. Another example given was the Warren Warleader, which allows you to create an additional 1/1 white Rabbit creature token that’s tapped and attacking or grant your attacking creatures +1/+1 until the end of turn.

Paying the extra 2 makes it pricey at a total of 6 mana to cast, but just look at the amazing value you get for it. You can buff your creatures or simply add more every single time you attack. Offspring promises to be a very interesting, and potentially powerful, keyword in MTG in the Bloomburrow expansion.

Want to go wide - and then wider every turn? This Rabbit helps out (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Another interesting facet of these cards, is those creature tokens also appear to have their same mana value, instead of 0 - as typical creature tokens do. This means that when you use board wipes focused on mana value, you cannot simply wipe them out by paying 0 mana.

While typically, not every creature you have will have the Offspring keyword in MTG, if you are running the Blue/Red/White legend Zinnia, Valley’s Voice found in the Commander Deck Family Matters, they will! It grants Offspring to every creature spell you cast, and can also buff itself based on the number of creatures you have with a base power of 1. So, it’s going to be a devastating combo with low-cost creatures.

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MTG Bloomburrow releases on August 2, 2024, and will feature Booster Packs, as well as a quartet of powerful Commander decks.