Raccoon

Bloomburrow Anti-Typal Cards Query

Were there ever any anti-typal cards in Bloomburrow? It would have been interesting to see how an otter interacts with rabbits, or how bats interact with raccoons, etc.

Making typal work was hard enough without adding cards to discourage it.

Bats Bloomburrow Kindred / Typal Otters Rabbits Raccoons

Animal Inclusion in Bloomburrow

Regarding the Aardvark ask, they are African animals. Bloomburrow seems to be a Noeth American style biome (based on the raccoons and Opossums). I don’t think it would be a good fit for Bloomburrow 2. But it would be a GREAT fit for Zhalfir.

The biome does impact what animals we can use.

Bloomburrow Raccoons United States

Badgers to Raccoon Swap Timing

How late in the design process were badgers replaced with raccoon? Was the decision to make Gruul's mechanic expend already made by the time the swap was decided on? Or did market testing show the audience's preference before any of that was locked in?

The change was made mid vision design. I’m not sure when expend first got added. It was there at the handoff, although unnamed.

Badgers Expend Mechanics Raccoons Vision Design

Fifteen-Type Framework Layout

the Magic Story Podcast mentioned that in early concepting, Bloomburrow had fifteen focus creature types, with one for each monocolor in addition to one for each color pair. do you know what the layout of creature types was in that fifteen-type framework? (they mentioned Otters were originally mono-Blue, so I'm especially curious what the UR creature type was in that model.)

That model didn’t last very long. We talked about Raccoons being blue/red for a hot second.

Bloomburrow Colors Creatures Drive to Work Izzet (U/R) Monocolor Otters Raccoons Red Story / Lore

Badger Support in Future

You said raccoons and badgers were the options for red and green. Since raccoons won the race, will there be more badger support in the future?

If the creative of a card wants to be a Badger, it can happen.

Badgers Green Raccoons Red

Animal Colors Representation

On the topic of animal colors, why do we keep getting creatures of the night in Gruul colors? Most recently we had werewolves and raccoons show up in RG. Which one of these colors is supposed to be resonating with their affinity amongst the darkness? Red? Because it's closest to black? I feel like it's having a plant show up in Blue/White

Nocturnal animals don’t have to show up in black. Raccoons got red for their trickster nature.

Affinity Black Blue Colors Creatures Gruul (R/G) Plants Raccoons Red Werewolves White

Animal Appearance in Duos

From what I can gather all the duos, like Bakersbane Duo are in shards: Bakersbane duo is green but fits in a squirrel (bg) or raccoon deck (rg), making it a basically a Jund card. The black cards are an exception: Glivedive duo is in a wedge, Mardu (bat wb and lizard rb). Presumably the other black one will be squirrel (bg) and rat (ub)My question is: why? Is the pattern of shards intentional? Is the deviation to one color having wedges intentional?

The only guideline was each animal appeared in just two duos.

Bats Battle for Zendikar Black Colors Golgari (B/G) Green Gruul (R/G) Jund (B/R/G) Lizards Mardu (R/W/B) Orzhov (W/B) Raccoons Rakdos (B/R) Rats Squirrels Three Color Bakersbane Duo

Request for Legendary Raccoon

As a raccoon lover and Junk lover, may I request a legendary raccoon that cares about Junk tokens.

Perhaps one day.

Junk Raccoons Tokens

Raccoons and Junk Tokens

Were junk tokens considered for raccons? I think they would have been fun

They were not. Raccoons digging in trash is more about then living in a world with Humans.

Humans Junk Raccoons Tokens

Purpose of Bloomburrow Deck

Maro, Bloomburrow looks amazing, but I have one problem. I am a kitchen table player and I love creature type decks. Some decks (like my knights) regularly get new cards, but others (like my kithkin) might see a new card once a decade. For Bloomburrow, I know that rats, squirrels, and birds are likely to show up I. The future and have a ton of past cards to use, but for the types like rabbits or raccoons, I imagine they will not be supported long term. Why should I make a deck for those types?

Bloomburrow existing will make us create them more than we would of had it not existed. If volume of creature types is a core issue to you (and I get why it would be), yeah, I’d stick to the creature types that have more history with the game. But there are a lot of players who will have a lot of fun using Rabbits or Raccoons even if they have to stretch a bit (and probably play changelings).

Birds Bloomburrow Casual Play Creatures Kithkins Knights Mark Rosewater Rabbits Raccoons Rats Squirrels

Racoon Vs. Tanuki Type

With the introduction of Racoon as a relevent type will we see the 2 Tanuki cards from NEO erratad to Raccoon Dog?

I’ve been told by experts in the topic, Tanuki aren’t Raccoons, even though they are sometimes referred to as “raccoon dogs”.

Dogs Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Raccoons

Raccoons over Badgers in Bloomburrow

Mark, I am a huge fan of the animal fantasy genre stories (Redwall was a favorite growing up) and particularly of Badgers, and I got really excited when Hugs was shown in the first batch of previews. I was somewhat heartbroken to find out that the Red-Green tribe was Raccoons rather than Badgers. I understand that Raccoons are likely a more popular creature, but I wanted to both express my love for Hugs specifically and a desire to give him more friends.

Badgers started as our choice for red/green. Part of our research was to look into market research on other animal choices and Raccoons scored very high, so we made the swap.

Badgers Batches Bloomburrow Creatures Green Gruul (R/G) Raccoons Spoilers

Bloomburrow's Play from Exile

With the few "play from exile" cards we've seen and raccoon being associated with trash, were Junk tokens considered for bloomburrow?

Not that I know of. Green doesn’t do impulsive draw.

Bloomburrow Green Junk Raccoons The Exile Zone Tokens

Consideration for Raccoon Mechanic

Raccoons eat garbage so was there any consideration for the raccoon mechanic to be something about the graveyard?

We talked about it, but Squirrels being in black/green just made it a better mechanical fit.

Golgari (B/G) Green Mechanics Raccoons Squirrels The Graveyard

Raccoon Tribes in Bloomburrow

Hi Mark, I was wondering if with bloomburrow coming out soon, would there be enough support for a raccoon tribal set? I love my trash pandas and think it would be so much fun!

Bloomburrow is making more Raccoons than any other set in history.

Bloomburrow Kindred / Typal Raccoon

Teasing Future Creature Types

Your ability to subtly hint at the future sets never stops amazing me. It wasn't too long ago since you've discussed giving a creature the same creature type twice around here, and now you're teasing a "Raccoon Berserker", which might as well be just "Raccoon" written down twice. Well played!

: )

Berserker Creatures Humor Raccoon

Raccoon, Rat and Lizard Coloration

Did you consider racoon u/b (sly raccoon) rat r/b lizard r/g?

No. Lizard and Raccoon happen long after Rat was cemented in blue/black. Also, Raccoons are core green, so blue/black is odd for them.

Black Dimir (U/B) Green Gruul (R/G) Lizard Raccoon Rat

Legendary Raccoon Gratitude

Haven't really had an opportunity to tell you this, but thank you for making a legendary racoon for that one Bloomburrow Commander deck. One of my friends tends to either brew his own decks or borrow our precons, but this time he's actually going out of his way to buy that deck for himself, so feel free to give out some high fives on his behalf.

Will do.

Appreciation Bloomburrow Commander Commander Decks High Fives Raccoon

Gruul Precon Query

My roommate is obssessed (for some reason) with the idea that you personally made a Raccoon the commander of the Gruul Bloomburrow Precon. Did you actually work on these decks?

I worked on the set (Doug Beyer lead vision design and Ian Duke led set design), but not the Commander decks.

Bloomburrow Commander Commander Decks Doug Beyer Gruul (R/G) Raccoon Set Design Vision Design

Bloomburrow Animal Guessing

Can I guess the animals for each color in Bloomburrow? WU: Birds, UB: Bats, BR: Lizards, RG: Raccoons, GW: Rabbits, WB: Badgers, UR: Otters, BG: Squirrels, RW: Mice, and GU: Frogs

Everyone is free to guess. Here’s what I said in today’s panel. 1) There are ten two-color pairs.2) Every one is a different animal. 3) Red/white is Mice.4) We’ve seeded some cards in previous sets.5) I said that Rabbits and Frogs were two of the animals.I won’t tell you if you’re correct, but I enjoy seeing guesses.

Azorius (W/U) Badger Bat Bat Bird Bloomburrow Boros (R/W) Colors Frog Golgari (B/G) Gruul (R/G) Izzet (U/R) Lizard Mouse Orzhov (W/B) Otter Rabbit Raccoon Selesnya (G/W) Simic (G/U) Squirrel White