One of the absolute best parts of Bloomburrow is the Imagine: Courageous Critters showcase line. These cards depict what would happen if a selection of MTG’s most famous Creatures and Planeswalkers visited Bloomburrow, undergoing the same animal transformation as Ral Zarek in the set’s official story.
Now, a new Secret Lair release has been leaked early, featuring an expanded selection of Imagine: Courageous Critters cards. This Secret Lair includes some all-time-great Magic characters like Tezzeret and Sorin Markov, so fans of Bloomburrow’s aesthetic will want to snap up this release when it becomes available.
While not all of these Secret Lair cards can be officially confirmed yet, the MTGSecretLair Twitter account did confirm the Sorin Markov variant, making the rest of the cards highly likely to be legitimate. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more about this Magic: The Gathering Bloomburrow Secret Lair release.
All Showcase: Bloomburrow Secret Lair leaked cards
Sorin Markov
Magic’s most notorious vampire is back as – what else – a blade-wielding bat. Seeing Sorin’s trademark white hair make the transition into this new form is certainly a sight, making this one of the most imaginative and flat-out fun Imagine: Courageous Critters cards.
Sorin Markov is a black-mana Planeswalker that can be cast for 3BBB. This is a hefty investment outside of mono-black decks but is well worth it thanks to the card’s bevy of game-changing abilities.
From dropping an opponent’s life total down to just ten, to completely taking over another player’s next turn, Sorin Markov is a Planeswalker to be feared, adorable bat form and all.
Hualti, Radiant Champion
This Ixalan-based Planeswalker joins Bloomburrow’s bevy of birds, and can significantly boost every other Creature on your board.
Huatli is the rare Planeswalker whose +1 ability is solely dedicated to gaining loyalty counters. This works out in Huatli’s favor though, allowing you to stack those counters high and convert them into a huge +X power boost with her second ability.
Finally, Huatli can grant you an emblem (which cannot be removed) granting a reliable, powerful card draw effect whenever you play a Creature.
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Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
A simple, straightforward Simic Planeswalker that soups up high-power Creature decks, Kiro transforms here from a graceful merfolk to an adorable axolotl.
Coming in for 2 generic mana and your choice of green or blue, Kiora is a Simic staple for furthering the big-mana game plan. Outside of this though, the card can be highly useful in decks that make good use of untapping like Alaundo the Seer.
Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
Master of the Bridge stands tall among MTG’s many Tezzeret variants, being an incredible value engine and game-ender for Artifact decks running both blue and black mana.
By granting affinity for Artifacts, this planeswalker makes casting even your most expensive cards a breeze. Add on an exceptional burn-and-lifegain ability as the card’s +1, and its recursion and free-casting abilities are just icing on the cake.
Artifact players will be ecstatic to see this version of Tezzeret finally receive a reprint, and it’s only fitting that the cunning, self-serving Artificer should be reimagined here as what he has always acted like – a giant rat.
Vraska, Golgari Queen
The fan-favorite Gorgon Golgari boss returns in an incredibly fitting form here, being a regal, throne-sitting snake.
Vraska provides card draw and repeatable destruction with her first two abilities, but the real prize here is the card’s final ability. For an admittedly steep -9 cost, Vraska will cause any opponent you manage to deal combat damage to instantly lose the game.
While this Secret Lair continues an unfortunate trend of a set’s Showcase treatments being split into a separate, limited-run release – forcing collectors to fork out more to complete the set – at the very least, these cards are creative, high-value reprints.