Is bitter blossom really that good?

ajvanadri · Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 10

This is reguarding top tier decks.

I've been wondering about bitterblossom.

I see a lot of people saying to add it to almost every deck, and I can see its advantages,but, looking at the curent metagame, is it worth running outside of faeries?

Vs most any aggro deck (RDW/Kithkin/Some of the merfolk builds): baiscly, they get you to 10 -14life by the time the blossom gets online, and after that your forced to chump every turn, you might stall taht one turn you need to wrath, but by that point your so far behind your blossom will kill yuo before you can win the game.

Vs most control builds (toast, UW lark, bant/esper control):
These decks mostly dont care if you get a blossom out, since they can usally stall for 20+ turns and and wrath as often as they need to keep from dieing, along with cards like finks and revelark, they can stem the dmg from any tokens or anything else really, since thats the whole point of their decks.

Vs combo: well theres not really any combo in the format out side of elfball, and they play more like an aggro deck then anything else out there.

The only real good use for blossom as far as I can see is to side it in vs decks like fellowship of the ring, or other mid range decks (like fae or GB elves/rock)

I would love to hear your guy's opinions/flames for and agaist this card in standard.

Vesuvian · Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 6

Yes, it is that good.

MCDrake · Joined: 29 Nov 2008 Posts: 3

JeZeus · Joined: 05 Sep 2004 Posts: 13

Well do you see anyone playing U/g faeries anymore Razz

Vedrfolner · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 211

Your analysis is all wrong.

Vs aggro, it comes online before the opponent has taken more than 5 life usually. After that you have defense and offense all in one card, at the cost of only one life per turn. It is not the only card in the deck, and the sheer card and tempo advantage of Bitterblossom makes sure that you can stabilize and take control of the game without spending vast resources.

Vs control, you don't actually need another card. It wins the game all by itself. Wrath of God is NOT an answer to Bitterblossom. It is a tapout or near-tapout that only trades tempo, not cards (0 for 1). Neither is targeted removal, it is a waste and most players will avoid killing tokens unless they really really needs to. An unanswered Bitterblossom is a disaster for any control deck, because it comes on top of other threats that needs to be answered, and it needs to be answered at the cost of cards that should be used to gain board or hand control. If the tokens don't kill you, the other cards in his deck will.

It isn't playable in ALL decks running black, since it is not that fast and is antisynergistic with cards like Cloudthresher and sweepers like Infest and Wrath of God. But it is the best 2-drop and one of the best 2cc black cards in Standard, so it should be considered in any deck.

SerialX · Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 49

Bitterblossom in Faerie decks can be championed for Mistbound when you are getting low, you can bounce with crpytic in control, and aggro is usually all in anyway, so yes, there really is no downside to playing bitterblossom.

ajvanadri · Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 10

Well, I may be wrong in my analisys, but what brought up this question was the fact that I havnt lost to a deck other then faeries that landed a bitter blossom since lor/shadow block.

Maybe the people I play agaist just suck.........

manaBURN · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 1

That card is amazing....it is controls best friend as it gives you evasion creatures while you keep your hand open for counters and what not. Its great for aggro as well, as you are getting dudes out to support your onslaught of creatures etc...again, this card is probably the 2nd best card in standard (maybe first), but to me Cryptic is the best....

Again if you are running black at all this should be a consideration....

Vedrfolner · Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 211

Well, what I have found is that it is rarely a good choice to chump with the first token you get. Once you get two and can deal 1 damage to them while chumping each turn with the second, you are in a much better situation. If they don't run burn, I recommend using the open mana and cards in hand to build up 3-4 tokens instead, even if you go below 10 life.

But I bet this is quite obvious and standard usage of the card, so the interesting bit is how you manage to outplay a good deck dropping an early Bitterblossom consistently the last six months. You have a good matchup vs BRG tokens, Wizards and black-based 5c control?

ILikeBananas · Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 3

If you think it's bad, you are probably playing RDW. There's no way a resolved bitterblossom is bad vs control. They have to spend a card to get rid of bitterblossom, and even then, there are likely left over tokens unless you answered the turn right after. Read verdfolner's analysis again and again until you think bitterblossom is the (2nd) greatest card in standard.

Blossom is a very poor top deck late game but the upside of dropping it early easily outweights that risk.

Even in a control deck with infest/wrath/cloudthresher, it's still a consideration because after you sweep the board, guess who recovers board position faster? Many modern control decks pack life gain like kitchen finks. Don't be too shocked if you ever see a QnT deck with bitterblossom.