All 5 Pawprint Season Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on October 30, 2024

Season of the Bold | Illustration by Eli Minaya

Many songs mention seasons or use them to invoke imagery. Whether you’re reminiscing about days gone by to Terry Jacks’s Seasons in the Sun, out to prance with the Zombies’ Time of the Season or hopping onto the Season Cycle for a trip with XTC, the changing of the seasons inspires many of us.

The Bloomburrow Magic set is filled with seasonal references too, like how the full art lands show the same landscape in four seasons. In terms of spells, the designers have given us a new riff on modal spells, one that makes use of pawprints! To the dismay of website coders everywhere.

Let’s look at the pawprint seasons from Bloomburrow and put together our own magical almanac!

What Are Pawprint Seasons in MTG?

Season of Loss | Illustration by Dominik Mayer

The pawprint seasons are a cycle of mythic rare, mono-color sorceries in the Bloomburrow MTG set. They’re modal spells that allow you to choose more than one mode, and to choose some of them multiple times, but the total impact of the spell is restricted.

Each mode of a pawprint season card has a pawprint value of 1, 2, or 3 pawprints, and you can gain up to 5 pawprints worth of value when you cast the card.

Looking at Season of Loss, its first mode has everyone sacrifice a creature, the second draws you cards, and the third drains your opponents’ life. You can mix and match the modes up to a total of 5 pawprints, which means you can only ever get the third mode once when casting these spells.

Each of the seasons is moderately color-intensive, asking two pips of its respective color. However, the individual modes tie into multiple archetypes that these colors explore or pair with, so there’s a give-and-take at play. All in all, these pawprint seasons are among the best cards in Bloomburrow.

#5. Season of the Burrow

I play more than a few decks that dip into white and use tokens, so I love the idea of a modal spell that can build my board warren or chip away at my opponent’s. I can see using Season of the Burrow alongside some token doublers and Impact Tremors effects. The last mode can reanimate an important piece with a little bit of protection in the form of an indestructible counter. My only issue is that I wish I weren’t giving my opponent a card along with my removal, but I guess there had to be a wart somewhere.

#4. Season of Loss

The Season of Loss sure lives up to its name. This black sorcery‘s first mode creates a lot of death around a multiplayer table, while the second rewards you for sacrifice creatures with cards. The final mode drains life and can be a finishing move in the right deck.

All three modes are worthwhile and have their homes. Aristocrats decks can use virtually all of these modes, while the final mode is best if you’re self-milling, discarding, or otherwise filling your graveyard. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan’s descend mechanics and Murders at Karlov Manor’s surveil lands are some other synergies from some of Bloomburrow’s immediately preceding sets.

#3. Season of Gathering

Green’s season plays into three of green’s signature mechanics: +1/+1 counters, killing artifacts and removing enchantments, and paying you off for having creatures with a high power stat.

The counter-giving mode doesn’t target, which means it won’t work with Bloomburrow‘s valiant mechanic, but it distributes counters on a creature even if  it has shroud (see: Lightning Greaves) and I’m burying the lede by not even mentioning the ability words.

The removal comes as a sweeper, and you have the flexibility to choose both permanent types. But you don’t dodge the effect yourself, so you probably aren’t using that in a more generalized modified build.

The +1/+1 counters on Season of Gathering and in this set in general give Sovereign Okinec Ahau some support in all its relevant formats, and is one of the strongest seasons in Bloomburrow Sealed or a BLB Draft.

#2. Season of Weaving

While all Seasons have a mode that draws cards, of course the blue sorcery would get you the most. Season of Weaving is probably the best of the pawprint seasons for Bloomburrow Limited, but in constructed it suffers a little by costing 6 rather than 5, especially when blue needs green’s ramp or red’s Treasure cards to help it ramp.

Pay 6, draw five isn’t a bad worst case, but the final mode is a mass bounce effect  clears the board of nontoken creatures. That’s especially helpful if you’re running a board full of tokens yourself, perhaps a fleet of flying Thopters. It also helps to shut down someone who has managed to accumulate a bunch of +1/+1 and other counters on their side of the board.

The second mode is useful for artifact and copy/clone decks alike, though most decks playing a Season of Weaving will have something worth copying. This mode also doesn’t target, which comes with its perks and drawbacks.

#1. Season of the Bold

The floor on Season of the Bold is paying 5 mana for 5 Treasures, triggering effects that pay you off when artifacts enter the battlefield. You won’t be able to use them until your next turn or until you untap them, which is a drawback that makes this fair. I guess.

The timing on the second and third modes encourages you to play this red sorcery during your first main phase (and before you play you land drop) to maximize the time you have to play the exiled cards. You get until the end of your next turn to play the exiled cards, which is a lot more than we usually get on effects like these, but both modes benefit from more time.

Exiling cards to play them should play well with payoffs from other sets in BLB’s Standard environment, like the discover payoffs from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan or the plot payoffs from Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Pinging for 2 every time you cast a spell for a full trip around the table is great, although you’ll already have used 5 mana to get that.

If you’re already playing with lots of Treasure tokens or you have cost reduction on your instants and sorceries, that may not matter as much. This mode also plays well if you’re playing Izzet () prowess, which… I mean, have you seen Bria, Riptide Rogue?

Wrap Up

Clement, the Worrywort | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

And that’s the tale of the pawprint seasons of Bloomburrow, a flavorful take on the modal spell. Mark Rosewater has acknowledged that a similar template with a different symbol is a possibility for future sets. I don’t hate the idea, although I’m not the one who has to figure out how to add it to our codes, like .

What do you think of this cycle of mythic cards? Which ones do you want for your Constructed and EDH decks, and which ones do you hope to play in Limited? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and, uh, season’s greetings?