Title: Innistrad Block Review

Date Posted: Sun May/20/12 at 8:36am

Twogunkid

Posts: 2610
Joined: 22-Jan-10

Alright lets get this one rolling.

Favorite Common: Young Wolf One mana for a creature that pulls double duty and returns as a 2/2? I think I will

Favortie Uncommon: Cellar Door a good way to spend extra mana mill a card or two and maybe get a zombie.

Favorite Rare: Evil Twin a somewhat controversial call its a good card that offers a neat ability and can be quite fun in the right deck.

Favorite Mythic: Gisela Blade of Goldnight. Absolutely insane damage reduction for you and megadamage to your opponents. Guess who kicked Jor Kadeen out of my RW EDH spot?

Balance Grade: C, sorry the block seesawed in balance leaving me to see Avacyn restored as underpowered. White really got nothing too great out of these blocks and I feel blue is in a somewhat simmilar boat. BRG really enjoyed the block and while there are somecards for UW that will live on I don't see much coming for them out of Innistrad.

Flavor Grade :B+ I liked the gothic horror setting. It was a nice change of pace. I feel once again Avacyn restored is the low block on the totem pole, seeing as the flavor is not adequetely evident in the flavor text and the arts, and Dark Ascension offered little buildup to it. Good setting poor execution.

Overall Grade: B/B- it was a decent block, and I had fun playing it. There was more that could have been done and a little more balance between colors would have been nice.

Date Posted: Sun May/20/12 at 11:28am

Boyachi

Posts: 1553
Joined: 02-Nov-11

This block quite possibly had the best one turn drops ever.
Commons:
Black: Typhoid Rats. Everyone overlooked rats, until Innistrad. Chump block for removal.
Green: Young Wolf. I swear the dev. team made this card just to give green a chance in this block.
Red: Somberwald Vigilante. Give this guy deathtouch and he can take out a double striker.
Blue: Delver of Secrets. So, next turn it becomes a flying 3/2? It eats flying men for lunch.
White: Doomed Traveler. Strike him down and he'll become more annoying than you ever imagined.

Any Rarity:
Black: Gravecrawler.
Green: still Young Wolf.
Red: Vexing Devil. Single mana lightning blast or a 4/3.
Blue: stil Delver of Secrets.
White: Sorry, Champion of the Parish, but Doomed Traveller is still more annoying.

Mechanics
Fateful hour could have been used more, as I feel that miracle was overpowered in everything but blue (due to all the card drawing, they tried to give it to red, but the random discard factor doesn't hold a candle to Thunderous Wrath). Undying is more annoying than anything else, but I have to say it really helps capture the feeling of hopelessness that is going on in Dark Ascension's plot. The mechanics I like the most are soulbound and loner since they change up typical strategies.

The Creature Question
I'm not going to lie, I'm gunning to get a Gisela into my Reanimation deck. That being said, I'm going to test out the Griselbrand that I already have. 7/7 lifelink that I can instantly turn around and draw seven cards with seems like a bunch of fun. I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

Artwork
Beautiful.

Date Posted: Sun May/20/12 at 11:52am

SirZapdos

Posts: 329
Joined: 21-Jun-11

Here are my favourites, by set. I picked my favourites based on the entire card, that is, the artwork, the flavour and the playability.

Commons
Innistrad: Delver of Secrets. From a flavour perspective, it's a home run. It's also an amazing card.
Dark Ascension: Loyal Cathar. I love the design of this card. The art, the effects, the power level, and especially the flavour text. A triumph of top-down design, much like Delver.
Avacyn Restored: Thatcher Revolt. Looks like such a fun card.

Uncommons

Innistrad: Into the Maw of Hell. One-of-a-kind effect, amazing art and a really cool name.

Dark Ascension: Thraben Heretic. I think the art is very good, and the card itself can be extremely important.

Avacyn Restored: Defy Death, with Blood Artist a close second.

Rares

Innistrad: Blasphemous Act. Why yes, I would like to 104 damage for one red mana.

Dark Ascension: So many good ones here, like Geralf's Messenger, Hellrider and Thalia, but I have to go with Zombie Apocalypse.

Avacyn Restored: Dark Impostor. Again, I love the design. Very cool art, even if the ability is expensive. Burn at the Stake is a close second.

Mythic Rares

Innistrad: Geist of Saint Traft. Everything about the card is amazing. The artwork and flavour are great, aided in a big way by an article on dailymtg about Traft's backstory. The card itself is also fantastic.

Dark Ascension: Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Mythic in every sense of the word. Havengul Lich was a close second.

Avacyn Restored: Pretty tough, because so many of the mythics are really cool. But I'll go with Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. Looks like a blast to play with, and I really like the art.

Overall, a great block. I am very impressed with the new top-down design phase that Magic has entered. Tons of nice art and flavour in this set, along with a healthy mix of good cards. Avacyn Restored seems a bit too disconnected from Innistrad and Dark Ascension, at least at first glance, although I'm not sure it matters as much, since I dig its flavour as well.

Date Posted: Sun May/20/12 at 2:34pm

gericault5

Posts: 2788
Joined: 13-Oct-09

Twogun,

Have to agree with you about two things

Favorite common-young wolf and favorite rare evil twin-(I love clone decks)

However, my favorite mythic is Geist of Saint traft and favorite uncommon is a toss up between drogskol captain(how can one not like a ghost pirate) and strangleroot geist, 2/1 haster that becomes 3/2 haster

I for one am glad WU did not get alot of love, they have been on top for a while (though delver is still up there). I also am not that fond of restored. There are some good cards but really isn't anything in there that just grabs me. When the cards above came out, I was like, I"I got to get me some of those" and I had them ordered before they even came out. I don't feel that way about any of the restored cards (ok maybe alittle for the BB demon with undying, but still haven't ordered any)

As for the mechanics, I do like undying and soulbound could possibly be fun. I did like the idea behind fight but they did not build it enough. and morbid was a cool idea but wasted on to expensive creatures for the morbid abilities. I'm not a fan of the mircles. I would not call them overpowered because outside of blue they rely on luck to be drawn at the right time to be effective. and if you end up with them in your hand there cost to effect ratio is so out of wack they become dead cards

I do have to give a nod to the references to gothic horror stories, such as jekyll and hyde and the raven

And last but not least, my favorite artwork in the set: Little Red Riding Hood herself -Scorned Villager

Date Posted: Sun May/20/12 at 4:12pm

Boyachi

Posts: 1553
Joined: 02-Nov-11

Oh geez, I completely forgot about fight! The idea has been around for quite some time (Arena for some, Tangarth for first offical release that I can remember). I'm glad it got to see the light of day. I don't want to see it everywhere, but one or two cards each set would keep it interesting.

Random tangent: I want to see more Phyrexian mana cards.