Noobs listen: This card is good. Life isn't that important.
Rhix
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(10 votes)
Even in decks that can't abuse the faerie status of this card, it is still very good. A single point of life a turn is such a small price to pay. Turn 2 bitterblossom has caused a lot of sighing where I come from.
bark_at_the_moonn
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(9 votes)
Very, very strong card. Pumps out attackers or blockers in exchange for life putting a definite clock on the game for someone. A must-remove threat.
sporvan
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(15 votes)
The card that helped push Faeries into the spotlight with a victory condition that is very hard to remove. It provides Faerie decks with a stream of faeries to overwhelm your opponent or act as defenders at the cost of 1 life a turn. When the life-loss becomes too much target it with the Champion ability of your Mistbind Clique since it is a Tribal card. It also has excellent synergy with Scion of Oona (pumps ups the tokens and grants the enchantment Shroud) and Spellstutter Sprite. Playable across multiple formats and even in non-Faerie decks, this card is fantastic and well designed. A gift from Oona!
Brendan0013
★★☆☆☆ (2.9/5.0)(4 votes)
This card makes playing a "Faerie" deck seem much more manly! Great artwork too! When you draw one of these babies in your opening hand, well it makes you smile!
Marrion
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(5 votes)
Best tribal card to be printed in my opinion!
thaviel
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I hate this although it proves once and for all that Yes, playing life is fine!
kuzimu
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(5 votes)
It's a ridiculously good card for only 2. If you use it with something else, of course. Fairy abilities are great, but I mean, think of the combos! Those alone amuse me! Dire Undercurrents isn't the cheapest way to ensure mass discards, but at least it will ensure a steady supply of one per turn. Oona's Blackguard is good too. An Essence Warden or a Soul Warden are two extremely obvious choices.
rb2k
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
Great enchantment. Tribal as well as a token generator for just 2 mana is really good. There is a lot packed into this card that is not evident when you first look at it. Also 1 life a turn, optional or not, is a really cheap price to pay for a 1/1 flying token every turn that can be used to chump or build up a critical mass of flying tokens. Best turn 2 play in standard right now.
platinumplague
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
one of the better enchantments in type 2 format runs well in fairy decks and black and white tokens recovers from any wog type spell so many ways to protect it with scion and mistbind clique along with only losing one life you can use glorious anthem with it to have bigger tokens very useful card one of my favorites
Demiajor
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
this is the best card of all times,
only I would like one that could produce Tokes like this:
Black Rose - Creature Token (Black) – Thrull Plant - 0/1
(Defender.) (T, Sacrifice Black Rose: Add B to your mana pool.)
good luck in everything to all ^-^... bye.
Demia JOR time.
VerdantForce
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
To me this is one of the best Black Enchantments ever printed... Phyrexian Arena, Bargain, Necro, and now Bitterblossom are without a doubt the best four black enchantments ever.
Owls_and_More_Owls
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Faerie-splosion!
Donovan_Fabian
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Bitterblossom + honden of cleansing fire = love <3
M-Bison
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(9 votes)
This card is savage in mono black, especially G/B decks not running dark confidant. Great on turn 1 w/ dark ritual and thoughtsieze, followed up by a sinkhole.
Zulp
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(4 votes)
It'd be better if it wasn't fairies. Goddamn those fairies.
Chrs84
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This has turned out to be a very painful card indeed! I get hit by this even when I'm not playing the game.
Hard to pass this card up if you're anywhere near being able to use it in your deck... unless the losing life thing freaks you out.
WER386
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Actually losing life IS important; you don't care about 1 life per turn loss until your on turn 11 and you foe has managed to get you into 2 life... In my opinion this is not too far (no, I'm not saying "kind of") from the Alara's Goblin Assault, of course, if you are going to play this, you must know how to get rid and/or protect this thing. It's not the typical card you put in every black deck just 'coz its good; but don't misunderstand me: this thing is a finisher dropped on turn 2, hard to remove, creature provider enchantment with loose drawback. I'm just sick of seen 2-and-half colors decks just to wear the Bitterblossom because they got low quantity of creatures. Just a reminder for most people who seem to have forgotten about this detail: this card was supposed to be used in the upgrade "going rogue" Morningtide theme deck and well, from there we got 2 decks: mono black rogues and the always loved and hated blue faeries.
UltimateSquirrel
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
aaah this card is expensive!
Mill_Master
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(5 votes)
Listen to me all of you... turn one; Swamp + Thoughtseize... turn two; Swamp + Bitterblossom... turn three; Swamp + Contamination = GAME OVER.
A3Kitsune
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
@MDStrawHat, this is a cheeper (in terms of casting cost) Faerie version of Breeding Pit, and that is a great card, part of a great many combos. Get it? This is a cheeper version of an already great card, it should be easy to figure out that this card is great as well.
LeoKula
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
I think Tarmogoyf in indeed super expensive because most magic players just want to follow the trend and play 4x tarmogoyf in any deck, so the price goes through the roof even tho its not that game breaking of a card. But Bitterblossom is definitely amazing, can single handedly deal with stuff like Marit Lage and other huge creatures.
spectermonger
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
w/ oona' blackguard--a hypnotic specter each turn for 1 life. Believe me, it adds up.
Ashamed
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Criticize this card all you want, of course it's expensive. But when you can't summon anything and you're swarmed by boosted up faeries then you know how this card is so devastating. I've seen someone running mono-black with this, beat them by leaving them at one life. If you're going to run such a card make sure you actually have some synergy with it before you waste $40-50 on a set.
maida_16
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(8 votes)
This *** of a card killed my parents and burned my house down. Definitely a massacre.
Fumi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is a great card for Rogues. Works very well with Oona's Blackguard and/or Stinkdrinker Bandit among others. Your games shouldn't be lasting long enough for the life loss to become a major issue tbh.
Reins
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Regarding the Artwork: I'm a big fan of Rebecca Guay but for some reason I just don't like her Lorwyn block art. In a set that seemed to be perfectly suited to her whispy folk style so many of her additions were overly dark or confusing.
Bitterblossom basically makes the fae archetype work, so it's basically an auto 5/5 for making such a powerhouse possible. I have never piloted Fae, but anyone who has even seen the deck run knows it deserves it.
Also, for those saying Tarmogoyf is a bad creature, get your head out of your ass and try playing with the card. Do you really like getting your comments given bad ratings because you say something stupid? It's one of the most cost effective beaters the game has. Who care if it's a vanilla creature with no abilities? It's usually one of the biggest bodies on the board for just 2cmc and is easily splashable. The card makes some Legacy decks work, which is a lot to ask of any card for that matter.
Kryptnyt
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't like to play faeries but I'd love to have a playset of this card, maybe they'll come down to 2 bucks each after they rotate out of ext... Like said before, its a Breeding Pit with much less mana investment. Also, most cards that bleed your life total won't kill you if they give you cards to play with, in this case, cards onto the field. Its like if you made a deck with Necropotence and only had 1/1 fliers in your deck.
DacenOctavio
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
It was pretty awkward when I roflstomped a guy playing this with my meek and pitiful Drake Familiar. Pretty awkward indeed.
A card so good it makes me want to run it in my Sigil Captain deck. Do you know how good something has to be to make you run black in a Sigil Captain theme deck? Banned in Modern good, that's how good. Oh yah, and it played a big part in making the game unbearable for a while there too, so there's that.
Degrees of separation until someone mentions Doubling Season: 2 Current average: 3
AncientTimer
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
How exactly does it fit in the Color Pie that Black of all the colors has the best token generator in the game? Should be Green or White.
Force-feeding Black fae to the masses.
FogRaider
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Why is this showing up in Modern-only searches after it's been banned from Modern?
Azazyel
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
WIZARDS
Y U NO LET ME PLAY MAI FA GGOTBLOSSOMS IN MODERN!?
JoshMagic
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Unfreakingbelievable... i want 5...
KerosAohco
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A great way to devastate a control player, overrun plainswalkers, or just plain ol' beat down. Add a Bad Moon or an Oona's Blackguard before hand and watch your opponent squirm.
GengilOrbios
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I've been playing this card for over 3 years now and I have to tell you it's seriously overrated. Faeries is actually the only deck where you can play this and then again, faeries is not a strong deck. This card had its time. But it definetely is over now that we have delver of secrets. So long, my friend.
Ferlord
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Bitterblossom is such a deadly card. For any of those cards that require a mandatory sacrifice (Old Demons, for example), this is a perfect solution to that.
I run a Mono-Black Contamination Control deck, but I used Ornithopter's and Kobold's as my sacrifice outlets. If I can somehow Dark Ritual into Contamination on turn 1, I've essentially started a clock against non-artifact and non-black decks.
If I fetched out for a playset of this, I can do so much more without relying on the 0-cost creatures (although I have 24 in the deck)...
It is $12+ each, however...
atemu1234
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Takes less than twenty turns to win with this i suppose. :) @ancient timer It produces these tokens by saccing your life. That is anything but green or white. And maybe Eon Hub would work well with this.
BongRipper420
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Rebecca Guay never disappoints. Art gets 5/5 easy.
As for functionality, this card is obviously awesome. There are tons of different deck types that can get great maximum mileage out of this relatively hard-to-remove 2 drop. It may not look like much at first glance, but there's a reason this is banned in Modern.
pedrodyl
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Damn you Bitterblossom and your ability to be championed by Mistbind Clique!
Werewolf-
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Easily one of the most powerful enchantments and token producers ever printed. Like with Necropotence, paying life isn't much of a drawback when the power you're buying can win the game before the lifeloss even starts to matter.
Necropotencia
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
@ AncientTimer
Black decks should be able to generate nearly any effect of the color pie as long as the right price is paid, usually by sacrificing creatures or directly paying life. That's my opinion, but I'm probably biased because I think black is the coolest color in MTG. lol
BegleOne
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Looking back at this card, years later, and I still can't believe they actually let Rebecca Guay do the art for a format staple.
sigh
Obviously, that's proof that they never intended this to be any good.
This is a great card, no doubt about it, but why does it bear a $20 price tag? It doesn't show up in most tournament decks I see.
Smoke_Stack
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@cyberium because it was the core card from the 2008 Fae deck that wrecked house in standard. it's banned in modern (pity) but still costs $20.
Lifegainwithbite
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Reminds me of Phyrexian Arena.. same level of power and same bleed effect that rarely matters.
Bobth
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Depending on your deck, seeing the enemy play this can put a smile on your face. I happen to like fog effects, as well as Curse of the Pierced Heart and Shrine of Burning Rage. If playing a pure aggro deck, just make sure you have tramplers, as you should anyway. I played casual decks against faeries in Lorwyn block and didn't see this card as a main problem - just a fair one.
This is one of those cards where it's hard to realize just how powerful it is until you've seen it in action.
Consider. If your opponent lacks a way to block flying creatures, it will deal the following damage in the turns after it hits play. 0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21 damage after 7 turns, all on its own. That's roughly as much of a threat as a 3-power creature -- for two mana, with evasion. More importantly, it imposes that threat while being resistant to creature removal, slowing down only slightly if a single fairy is killed; and even enchantment removal is less valuable against it, because if they don't take it out early they still have to deal with the faeries it produced. And that's before you get into ways of boosting their power.
Swarming flying tokens is vicious. And that's just the most straightforward use for this card; there's lots of things you can combo it with -- or, if you're forced to use the tokens defensively, it's probably still going to buy you significant time.
SAUS3
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This card is broken. Not only can it provide lots of aggression through poking your enemy to death (while leaving mana open to counter their spells), you can use it to generate a stream of chump blockers.
@Smoke_Stack It was used in legacy too (I don't know if it still is or not). It was mostly used in suicide black legacy decks. They pumped out efficient creatures (this included) and ruined their opponents' hands with thoughtseize and hymn to tourach.
EGarrett01
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
I love how black keeps conning Wizards into letting it pay 1 life to get a handful of cards or an army of free creatures. And R&D falls for it everytime.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Plague Spitter is hilarious against this. That card saves my ass in legacy (as it did against this the other day) more times than I can find. Same goes for casual multiplayer, etc..
That said, this card is decent at stalling, chumping, pushing through damage next to a finisher, and generally supporting card advantage in an aggro strategy; something that is rare.
Continue
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
And for the first time, Bitterblossom is legal in Modern. I look forward to abusing this thing.
Hussalo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Illness in the Ranks
SNIKT
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Can't believe this card is unbanned in a few days.
angrybob4213
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
And so Bitterblossom jumps from a $20 card to a $75ish card overnight...
Narffet
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
... and since I kept all my Lorwyn Faerie funtimes, suddenly I have the cardbase for a modern-worthy deck, by accident, and at no additional costs for myself.
It's an odd feeling with not having to strive or power-trade to get what you need when a format changes.
Silence9
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
It is great, don't get me wrong. But it should have never been banned. There's always ways around a card, especially now. Hello! Illness in the Ranks. One mana says they lose 1 life every upkeep for every blossom they have in play. Still 5/5 card.
Quotations
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
welcome to modern
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Contamination enabler. Gee, I hope you weren't planning to cast any white/blue/green/red spells...
Sootoo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Best and most beautiful enchantment ever printed, by far. Wished most other cards were at least half as nice as this. It's just perfect.
Comments (67)
only I would like one that could produce Tokes like this:
Black Rose - Creature Token (Black) – Thrull Plant - 0/1
(Defender.) (T, Sacrifice Black Rose: Add B to your mana pool.)
good luck in everything to all ^-^... bye.
Demia JOR time.
Hard to pass this card up if you're anywhere near being able to use it in your deck... unless the losing life thing freaks you out.
I'm just sick of seen 2-and-half colors decks just to wear the Bitterblossom because they got low quantity of creatures.
Just a reminder for most people who seem to have forgotten about this detail: this card was supposed to be used in the upgrade "going rogue" Morningtide theme deck and well, from there we got 2 decks: mono black rogues and the always loved and hated blue faeries.
I've seen someone running mono-black with this, beat them by leaving them at one life.
If you're going to run such a card make sure you actually have some synergy with it before you waste $40-50 on a set.
Also, for those saying Tarmogoyf is a bad creature, get your head out of your ass and try playing with the card. Do you really like getting your comments given bad ratings because you say something stupid? It's one of the most cost effective beaters the game has. Who care if it's a vanilla creature with no abilities? It's usually one of the biggest bodies on the board for just 2cmc and is easily splashable. The card makes some Legacy decks work, which is a lot to ask of any card for that matter.
Like said before, its a Breeding Pit with much less mana investment. Also, most cards that bleed your life total won't kill you if they give you cards to play with, in this case, cards onto the field. Its like if you made a deck with Necropotence and only had 1/1 fliers in your deck.
Oh yah, and it played a big part in making the game unbearable for a while there too, so there's that.
This links to Breeding Pit which (in the Fallen Empires printing) links to Doubling Season.
Degrees of separation until someone mentions Doubling Season: 2
Current average: 3
Force-feeding Black fae to the masses.
Y U NO LET ME PLAY MAI FA GGOTBLOSSOMS IN MODERN!?
This card had its time. But it definetely is over now that we have delver of secrets.
So long, my friend.
I run a Mono-Black Contamination Control deck, but I used Ornithopter's and Kobold's as my sacrifice outlets. If I can somehow Dark Ritual into Contamination on turn 1, I've essentially started a clock against non-artifact and non-black decks.
If I fetched out for a playset of this, I can do so much more without relying on the 0-cost creatures (although I have 24 in the deck)...
It is $12+ each, however...
@ancient timer It produces these tokens by saccing your life. That is anything but green or white.
And maybe Eon Hub would work well with this.
As for functionality, this card is obviously awesome. There are tons of different deck types that can get great maximum mileage out of this relatively hard-to-remove 2 drop. It may not look like much at first glance, but there's a reason this is banned in Modern.
Black decks should be able to generate nearly any effect of the color pie as long as the right price is paid, usually by sacrificing creatures or directly paying life. That's my opinion, but I'm probably biased because I think black is the coolest color in MTG. lol
sigh
Obviously, that's proof that they never intended this to be any good.
I do think faeries are too good as a deck type, but if you're going to ban a card it should be Spellstutter Sprite or Mistbind Clique.
Edit: @.5 rating
It was sarcasm...
Consider. If your opponent lacks a way to block flying creatures, it will deal the following damage in the turns after it hits play. 0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21 damage after 7 turns, all on its own. That's roughly as much of a threat as a 3-power creature -- for two mana, with evasion. More importantly, it imposes that threat while being resistant to creature removal, slowing down only slightly if a single fairy is killed; and even enchantment removal is less valuable against it, because if they don't take it out early they still have to deal with the faeries it produced. And that's before you get into ways of boosting their power.
Swarming flying tokens is vicious. And that's just the most straightforward use for this card; there's lots of things you can combo it with -- or, if you're forced to use the tokens defensively, it's probably still going to buy you significant time.
@Smoke_Stack
It was used in legacy too (I don't know if it still is or not). It was mostly used in suicide black legacy decks. They pumped out efficient creatures (this included) and ruined their opponents' hands with thoughtseize and hymn to tourach.
That said, this card is decent at stalling, chumping, pushing through damage next to a finisher, and generally supporting card advantage in an aggro strategy; something that is rare.
It's an odd feeling with not having to strive or power-trade to get what you need when a format changes.
Wished most other cards were at least half as nice as this. It's just perfect.