Innistrad: First Thoughts on the Horror Within

Vampires, werewolves, vengeful spirits, mad scientists…the new Magic: The Gathering set leaves no gravestone unturned when it comes to Gothic horror tropes. Built from the top down to exude flavor, the set is sure to entice with its rich stories, characters and ideas…but how will it play?

Already, players are concerned with the unveiling of an innovative but controversial new mechanic: double-faced cards.

Watch the transformation!

Many classical horror stories are at their heart about transformation, and Magic: The Gathering is showing this with cards that literally have two faces. When the conditions printed on the card are met, the player is prompted to turn it over to reveal the other face and its inherent powers.

While a very flavorful way to convey humans transforming into werewolves, bats into vampires and Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde, there are some game play issues to be solved. One is the fact that with card text printed on both sides of the card, players will have to take extra steps to conceal that information.

Information plays a powerful role in Magic: The Gathering, so Innistrad offers a few solutions to this problem. One is a regular backed checklist card that allows players to mark which double-faced card is in their deck. They would play with the checklist card in their library and hand, giving nothing away until they play the spell and retrieve the double-faced card from their sideboard.

The other option presented would be to use opaque sleeves until the spell was cast, and then remove it from the sleeve when the transformation occurs. Now, Magic: The Gathering players are used to adopting, but this has sent ripples through the community. I for one feel that it will take some getting used to, but will work well after everyone adapts.

Most serious players use sleeves for constructed tournaments already, so that shouldn’t be hard to implement. For more casual or limited games, players usually have the cards memorized a few weeks into the cycle, so using the checklists shouldn’t be a huge concern.

No card type is safe from the transformational power of double-faced cards. Magic: The Gathering is offering a new first with Innistrad as well: a double-faced Planeswalker…who is also the first of his kind to have five printed abilities!

See the new and….improved(?) Garruk!

Not that’s my idea of a Planeswalker. Garruk is on Innistrad hunting the elusive and powerful Lilliana Vess, and he has a full toolbox at his disposal. He packs creature removal, offensive and defensive token generation, card advantage and finishing power in the way of a graveyard fueled Overrun!

Speaking of the graveyard…in a world teeming with ghouls, zombies and spirits, Magic: The Gathering is bringing back a popular graveyard mechanic as well. Innistrad will mark the return of Flashback, the powerful ability to reuse powerful spells after they have entered your graveyard. Now instead of waiting to cast your powerful sorcery, feel free to use it now and then buy it back for more value later!

This is one Flashback you won’t want to miss

So the big question with all these mechanics is, how will Innistrad play? With the previous set being the aggressive M12 core set and the introduction of Flashback, I expect early games of Innistrad to progress a little bit slower. There will be some deceptively quick opening plays though featuring some low priced creatures with very good abilities.

One that has already caught my eye is the blue take on The Invisible Man, Invisible Stalker. The combination of Hexproof and Unblockable means that there is no downside equipping him with equipment or Auras and taking large chunks out of an opponents life totals. Innistrad also provides fun tribal synergies with cards like:

Mayor of Avabruck//Howlpack Alpha

If you are lucky enough to open this one and some other werewolves in your packs, I expect you could deliver quite the beating before you opponent even knew what hit them!

In all, the combination of flavor and mechanics has me drooling at the mouth waiting for my first opportunity to play with Innistrad. Make sure you look for a local pre-release party when the set first hits the street on Sept. 24th. Or are you afraid of the things that go bump, slither, and moan in the night?


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