Today, the MTG Arena Innistrad: Midnight Hunt spoilers officially began! However, we had some idea of what to expect previously and a very brief teaser blog from Maro himself. As always, we’re going to keep this up to date, so make sure to check back daily to see what’s coming in MTG Arena for this expansion. This is a meaty expansion, featuring 277 regular cards (and 10 basic lands), but that’s not all. There are going to be some randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The regular cards also include 10 “Eternal Night” basic lands, which are gorgeous. Each type has two different pieces of black-and-white art with colored accents.

This is a really cool concept, to be honest. As always there will be borderless planeswalkers/other cards, showcase cards, and extended art cards. As new mechanics get revealed, and old ones get brought back, we’ll make sure to highlight those as well.  The original Innistrad had a Transform mechanic, where a card would transform into something else under specific conditions. However, now we have a more evolved version, Daybound, and Nightbound. These create two specific conditions:

• Day: As it becomes day, transform all nightbound permanents. If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.
• Night: As it becomes night, transform all daybound permanents. Permanents enter the battlefield nightbound. If a player casts at least two spells during their own turn, it becomes day the next turn.

You’ll see “Daybound” or “Nightbound” on cards that are afflicted by this, in the text box. We’ve seen at least one card so far that is Daybound/Nightbound – Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope/Arlinn, the Moon’s Fury. We discuss it below in the Multi-Colored cards section. There’s also Disturbed. Cards with a Disturbed cost can be cast from the graveyard, in their transformed state. You pay the Disturbed cost and cast it this way.

Tainted Adversary (2-Cost Creature – Zombie): When this ⅔ Deathtouch Zombie comes into play, you can pay 3 mana (1 black) any number of times. When you pay this one or more times, put that many +1/+1 counters on Tainted Adversary. Then make double that many 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens with Decayed. In the mid/late game, this could be really frustrating.

The Meathook Massacre (2+X Legendary Enchantment): I don’t recall ever seeing a Legendary Enchantment with an X cost. You pay X in addition to the 2 black mana. When this enters play, each creature gets -X/-X for the turn. Whenever an opponent’s creature control dies, you gain 1 life, and whenever one of yours dies, your opponent loses 1 life. Keep control of the board and sacrifice it all to make your opponent perish and suffer. Pretty big fan of how ridiculous this card could be.

Lord of the Forsaken (6-Cost Creature – Demon): Of course we have new, powerful demons! Lord of the Forsaken is a 6/6 Flying/Trample, so it’s already great value. But you can tap 1 black and sac another creature to make any player mill three cards. It even works in self-mill because of this. You can also pay 1 life to add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool. This can only be used to cast a spell from your graveyard. If you have a lot of Flashback cards that you could use to win the game with, throw some life at the problem! I’m definitely digging this. 

Jerren, Corrupted Bishop/Ormendahl, the Corrupter (3-Cost Legendary Creature – Human Cleric/Demon): It’s pretty frustrating to transform Jerren, Corrupted Bishop to his alternate form, but it’s doable. Lord of the Forsaken could help since it provides mana and requires us to pay life. The first form is a ⅔ for 3, and whenever it enters play or another nontoken Human you control dies, you lose 1 life and create a 1/1 white Human creature token. White/Black sac has a fun engine now! You can also pay 2 colorless to give a Human of yours lifelink for the turn. Then, if at the beginning of your end step, if you have exactly 13 life, you can pay 6 mana (2 black). If you do, transform into Ormendahl, the Corrupter. A 6/6 Flying, Trample, Lifelink, it’s worth transforming. The original form is also very good though! You can also sacrifice another creature with Ormendahl to draw a card. A free sacrifice engine is incredibly good. 

Champion of the Perished (1-cost Creature – Zombie):  Both the art and even flavor text are callbacks to an Innistrad card that I used to run in Modern Humans: Champion of the Parish,  “I stand for every cobbler, tanner, and fool in this town – and they stand for me.” The Champion of the Perished has a really fun throwback to that shown in the MTG Arena Innistrad: Midnight Hunt spoilers. It’s the same card, except now instead of being a Human Soldier, he’s a Zombie. Whenever another Zombie enters play for you, Champion of the Perished receives a +1/+1 counter. Originally it was for Humans. I absolutely love this as an evolution of a card. It’s an excellent card, and I appreciate the reference. I want to see this in Historic too, for Mono-Black Zombies. Very excited to see what the Zombie decks look like going forward.

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia (2-Cost Legendary Creature – Human Wizard): We have a sort of zombie-generator, in the form of this 1/1 legendary. If, during the beginning of your end step, you control no creatures with Decayed, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with Decayed. Decayed reads “This can’t block. When it attacks, sacrifice it at the end of combat.” So you can only have one out at a time through this unless you could somehow remove “Decayed”.

Curse of Leeches/Bloodsucking Darkleech (3-Cost Enchantment – Aura Curse/Creature – Leech Horror): This reminds me vaguely of the classic Takklemaggot. Curse of Leeches enchants a player. When it transforms back into Curse of Leeches, attach it to a player. That player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life at the beginning of that player’s upkeep. As a Daybound/Nightbound, the night form is a 4/4  Lifelink creature. Then when it becomes day again, it snatches onto a player’s throat. I imagine the current player that controls it gets to pick. I don’t know that I’d run it unless I can keep it daytime in perpetuity.

Gisa, Glorious Resurrector (4-Cost Legendary Creature – Human Wizard): Okay, I love Gisa. Control decks are going to love her too. If a creature an opponent controls would die, exile it instead. At the beginning of your upkeep, all creatures exiled with her go onto the battlefield under your control and gain decayed. If a creature with decayed attacks, you sacrifice it at the end of combat. They stick around until you do though, so just some food for thought.

Graveyard Trespasser/Graveyard Glutton (3-Cost Creature – Human Werewolf/Werewolf): This has Ward – Discard a card, so to make your opponents’ spells work on this card, they have to discard first. Whenever this enters play or attacks, exile up to one target card from a graveyard. If a creature card was exiled this way, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. It’s a 3/3 that becomes a 4/4 when it transforms. When it’s a Graveyard Glutton, you get to exile two cards from graveyards. Pretty interesting way to control graveyards, while also harming the other player.

Griselbrand’s Mask (3-Cost Legendary Artifact – Equipment): Griselbrand’s back! – In Pog Form. Not my words, the words of OSW and Milhouse. However, this is the artifact I was looking for. Sometimes we need to get one jerk through, and our opponent has no flyers. Equipping this costs 3 colorless, and it grants Flying/Lifelink. We can also pay X life when the equipped creature dies. X is equal to its Power. If we do, draw X cards. I like it as a tribute to Griselbrand, and because it can be a great way to get a game-winning amount of damage through – or just gain lots of free, easy life.

Butcher the Lineage (3-Cost Spell – Instant): Oh man, what a rude, disrespectful card. Absolutely love it. For 3 mana, this instant gives you a pair of choices. You can give a single creature -5/-5 for the turn, or you can give all creature tokens -2/-2 for the turn. For three mana, this is a bargain. It’s got great art, a terrific, fitting name, and is incredibly useful. Sure, it’s no Dismember, but it’s a fantastic card and will surely see use. If nothing else, it’s an incredible sideboard card, just in case.

Slaughter Specialist (2-Cost Creature – Vampire Warrior): With enough creature removal, this card could be very powerful. A 3/3 for 2, whenever it drops into play, each opponent makes a 1/1 white Human creature token. However, whenever a creature an opponent control dies, Slaughter Specialist gains a +1/+1 counter. All this needs is some flying or something and it could be really frustrating to play against.

Infernal Grasp (2-Cost Spell – Instant): A new MTG Arena staple among the Innistrad spoilers, it has you destroy a creature and lose 2 life as a result. I’m a fan of unrestricted creature destruction, even if you lose life for it. That’s not uncommon in MTG, so seeing it on an uncommon instant makes me happy. It’s going to pay big dividends.

Ancestral Mirror/Inherited Demon (2-Cost Artifact/Black Creature – Demon): I love the idea of a haunted mirror, and that’s what this is. Shame it’s not a painting, so it can’t be FFVI’s Chadarnook. The artifact portion can be tapped for 1 colorless and tap it, as well as pay 1 life and discard a card to draw a card and then mill a card. That’s a lot. You then place a Ritual Counter on the mirror. If there are 3 or more counters on it, remove them, and transform them into Inherited Demon. You can only do this as a sorcery. The Demon is a 4/4 Flyer, and you can pay 3 (1 black) and exile target creature from a graveyard, to put a +1/+1 counter on the demon. Okay, I love that as a mid-game way to ramp some damage on the board. 

Doomblade Scoundrel/Doomclaw Marauder (4-Cost Creature – Human Rogue Werewolf/Werewolf): Doomblade Scoundrel has Flanking, without having flanking. Creatures blocking it gain -1/-1 until the end of the turn as a 4/3. Its Night form is a 5/3and still has that -1/-1 power. Whenever a creature that blocks it dies though, its controller loses 1 life. It’s also a 5/4. So that’s neat. I don’t think this card is great, but I can see it being very useful in Drafted.

Necrosynthesis (2-Cost Enchantment – Aura): Put this on a creature you’re looking to deal out some punishment with. That creature gains “Whenever another creature dies, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.” As long as things are dying, they will grow in power. When this creature dies, you look at the top X of your cards (X is its power) and pick one of those cards to put in your hand. The rest go on the bottom. That’s incredibly useful in two ways. It’s low-cost too, so I can see it being useful.

Covert Cutpurse/Covetous Geist (3-Cost Creature – Human Rogue): A Disturb creature, it can be cast as a different card from your graveyard, that exiles if it would be put in a graveyard from anywhere (2/2, Flying, Deathtouch). The base creature destroys a creature you don’t control, that was dealt damage this turn when it comes into play. You want to use this, and get it into the grave as soon as possible. Love that Disturb form.

Morbid Opportunist (3-Cost Creature – Human Rogue): We’re seeing more “This ability triggers only once each turn” and it makes sense. For this ⅓, whenever one or more creatures die, draw a card. You can probably see how abusable that would be, especially in decks that splash deck. It’s easy to suddenly draw four or five cards – but that was cut off at the pass. 

Dreadhound (6-Cost Creature – Demon Dog): It’s very expensive, but it’s a 6/6 Demon. That’s what I expect. When it enters play, you mill three cards. Then, whenever a creature dies or a creature is put into any graveyard from play, all opponents lose 1 life. That’s why I like it, but I wonder if, by the time this card comes into play it’s too little, too late. Depends on if we can retrieve it and put it into play from the graveyard earlier. I like it as an idea, but I don’t know if it’s going to be a great pick.

Stromkirk Bloodthief (3-Cost Creature – Vampire Rogue): A very simple, useful card. During your end step, if your opponent lost life this turn, you put a +1/+1 counter on target Vampire you control. If you can just deal 1 damage, you can buff a Vampire on your end step. So not too shabby.

Defenestrate (3-Cost Spell – Instant): Defenestrate: To throw someone out of a very high window to their death. On a personal level, I’m excited this card even exists, based on its name. It’s a simple spell though – destroy target creature without flying. Yup, love it. Here’s to you, Li Ru.

Ecstatic Awakener (1-Cost Creature – Human Wizard): A 1/1 that can transform into a mighty Demon! A 3-cost ability has you sacrifice another creature, that has you draw a card, and then transform Ecstatic Awakener. You can only activate this once per turn. Then it becomes Awoken Demon, which is a 4/4 Demon. Shame it doesn’t have flying, but you can have a 4/4 on turn 3 or so, which is grand.

Blood Pact (3-Cost Spell – Instant): An incredibly useful common even at three mana, a player draws two cards and loses 2 life. Drop this at the end of your opponent’s turn to get some extra draw when the enemy is out of responses. 

Duress (1-Cost Spell – Sorcery): Duress is reprinted! An opponent reveals their hand and you pick a noncreature, nonland card from it. Then that player discards it. I adore Duress as an excellent turn-1 play. So glad it’s back. 

Crawl from the Cellar (1-Cost Spell – Sorcery): Not enough instants in Black, that’s for sure. This lets you return a creature from your grave to your hand, then give a zombie you control a +1/+1 counter. It’s got a decent Flashback, so it’s not too shabby. 

Morkrut Behemoth (5-Cost Creature – Zombie Giant): A massive zombie at 7/6! You can either sacrifice a creature with this or pay an extra 2 mana. I’d sacrifice the creature, honestly. It’s also got Menace, so it needs to be blocked by two or more creatures. All this jerk needs is trample to really shine.

Doll Stitcher/Toy Factory (3-Cost Creature – Human Wizard): This is an interesting card for Dimir Zombies. It has you create a 2/2 Black Zombie creature token with Decayed, whenever you cast an instant or sorcery. Then at your upkeep, if you have 3 or more creature tokens, you can transform the Doll Stitcher. Toy Factory is his other form, and it has creature tokens you control lose all abilities and have a base power of 3/3. At the beginning of your upkeep, you can transform it back. You want to have access to some Zombie tokens/other creature tokens that don’t have Decayed. The idea is that you transform it, make your tokens into 3/3s, lose things like Decayed, and transform it again to make more zombies. Rinse and repeat. It’s a little slow, but I like the idea in a control deck.

Lier, Disciple of the Drowned (5-Cost Legendary Creature – Human Wizard): What a gross card. “Spells can’t be countered.” Your spells, the other player spells. Your Instants and Sorceries now all have Flashback, equal to the card’s mana cost. That will overwrite your previous Flashback cards too. A ¾, you might be worried that it can easily be removed with damage/elimination spells. While yes, that is technically true, consider that we’re in Blue! We can exile, phase out, return to our hand, none of which require a counter. I’m a pretty big fan of Lier, and would love to see this sort of thing see regular play.

Spectral Adversary (2-Cost Creature – Spirit): “Adversary” seems to be the creature type that each color has 1 of. They all let you pay a mana cost any number of times when it comes into play – in this case, 2 (1 blue). A 2/1 with Flying/Flash, that cost adds that many +1/=1 counters on Spectral Adversary, then up to that many other target artifacts, creatures, and/or enchantments phase out. They don’t exist for a turn. You can use this to clear your opponent’s board, then attack and win!

Triskaidekaphile (2-Cost Creature – Human Wizard): A triskaidekaphile is someone with an unnatural obsession or love for the number 13. It’s also a ⅓ Human Wizard (Rare) in the spoilers for MTG Arena Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. This 2-cost wizard grants you no maximum hand size. On top of that, it has a weird, but amazing win condition! I love alternate win conditions, and if you think I won’t build a deck around this, then you don’t read my work! At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have exactly thirteen cards in your hand, you win the game. It can also draw a card for 4 mana. So just get 13 cards in hand and win! Time to spam card draw shenanigans. Such a big fan of this.

Sludge Monster (5-Cost Creature – Horror): This is a form of Pacifism in the shape of a creature. When the Sludge Monster enters play or attacks, put a Slime Counter on up to one other target creature. Non-Horrors with Slime Counters lose all abilities and have a base power/toughness of 2/2. Those creatures can still attack but suddenly all those buffing abilities, sacrifice powers, mana tapping abilities? All gone. So while sure, it’s a 5-cost Horror, it’s also a 5/5. It’s more than worth it.

Geist Patrician (3-Cost Creature – Spirit Knight): This is going to make Flashback much easier to pop. A 2/2 Flyer for 3, grants other Spirits +1/+1. In addition, Spells that you cast from your graveyard cost 1 less to cast. Very fun, easy-to-use card.

Grafted Identity (4-Cost Enchantment – Aura): Sacrifice a creature when you cast this. It’s worth it. This enchants a creature, and you gain control of it! You also give it +1/+1! This card is not only playable, it will get used. 4 mana is a good cost for this. We get to play the classic Nicholas Cage film Face-Off in MTG! Love to see it. 

Malevolent Hermit/Benevolent Geist (2-Cost Creature – Human Wizard/Spirit Wizard): Malevolent Hermit is a Disturb card, so its other form is neat, but if it would go to the graveyard from anywhere, it is exiled instead. The base form, Malevolent Hermit is a 2/1, and you can sacrifice it for 1 blue mana, to counter a noncreature spell, unless the controller pays 3 colorless. However, you want Benevolent Geist more. A 2/2 Flyer, noncreature spells you control can’t be countered. I want to see this in Izzet spell decks, since we can play it for the Disturb cost, and make our spells unable to be countered (noncreature anyway). 

Memory Deluge (4-Cost Spell – Instant): This is a pretty interesting card, that gets better in Flashback. You look at the top X of your deck, where X is how much mana you spent on the spell. Two of them go into your hand and the rest hit the bottom of your deck. The Flashback cost is 7 mana, so it’s even better there. Either way, it’s a rad card. 

Ominous Roost (3-Cost Enchantment): Here’s a card to go with Doll Stitcher. When this enters play or when you cast a spell from your graveyard, create a 1/1 Blue Bird creature token with flying. It can also only block creatures with flying. It’s going to really work well with your Flashback cards and can help you get those 3/3s online.

Delver of Secrets/Insectile Abberation (1-Cost Creature – Human Wizard/Human Insect): A classic reprint! Delver of Secrets is back! A 1/1 for 1, you look at the top card of your deck during your upkeep. You can reveal it if you’d like. If you reveal an Instant or Sorcery, transform this into a 3/2 Flying Insectile Aberration. What a fun card. He’s gone up a rarity, too! Originally a common, now he’s uncommon. 

Firmament Sage (4-Cost Creature – Human Wizard): Another day/night card. If it’s neither day nor night when this enters play, it becomes day. Then whenever day becomes night or vice versa, draw a card. I like it as a potential serious card draw card, but it’s going to be interesting to see frequent day/night transitions are.

Consider (1-Cost Spell – Instant): This is considered to be a new “staple” card. A staple is a card that will be typically found in almost every deck with the appropriate color. It’s like our new version of Opt. It has us look at our top card, and we can put it in the grave if we wish. Then we draw a card. An incredibly fun card for reanimator, or simply to trigger a variety of graveyard-based effects. Here’s hoping Threshold comes back. 

Secrets of the Key (1-Cost Spell – Instant): This could be a fun staple. You cast it on turn 1, to Investigate. Investigate has you create a colorless Clue artifact. It has 2 Colorless: Sacrifice this Artifact: Draw a card. If you pay its Flashback cost (4 mana, 1 Blue), Investigate twice. 

Pantry Zombie (1-Cost Creature – Zombie): With all the tokens and zombies we’re making, sometimes we want to look at the top of our deck for stuff. In this case, we have a ⅓ Defender Zombie – new to me. You can tap 3 untapped creatures you control to look at your top card. You can choose to put that in the grave if you want. Very fascinating card, especially for its cost. I think I like it.

Component Collector (3-Cost Creature – Homunculus): Another way to tap/untap nonland permanents! Huzzah! If it’s neither day nor night, it becomes day when this enters play. Then, whenever it changes to day or night, untap or tap a nonland permanent in play. Doesn’t have to be yours! A ¼ is a solid defender, so I really like this as a potentially solid common.

Unblinking Observer (2-Cost Creature – Homunculus): Mana Dorks for Blue! But only for Instants, Sorceries, or Disturb costs! A 2/1 though, it’s a bit dangerous, but I like it anyway. Could be one of the useful creatures for Izzet spells. 

Otherworldly Gaze (1-Cost Spell – Instant): An excellent way to put cards in your graveyard if you need to. You can look at the top 3, and put as many into your grave as you want. The rest go back on top in any order. So you can organize your next few draws, and put stuff in the grave that you want there/need there. It’s also got Flashback at a low price, at 2 mana (1 blue). Reanimator Decks love it! Heck, self-mill might like this too for 1 mana.

Wrenn and Seven (5-Cost Legendary Planeswalker – Wrenn): Wrenn is a Dryad planeswalker and travels the dimensions with her Treefolk symbionts. The first we saw of them was Wrenn and Six. She binds to Treefolk and controls them. Instead of naming the treefolk, she numbers them, a pretty cold, calculated way of dealing with things. In the MTG Arena Innistrad: Midnight Hunt spoilers, she’s a 5-cost Mythic Rare planeswalker, who starts with 5 Loyalty. She has four abilities and is honestly incredibly powerful. It’s interesting to see her as a mono-Green instead of Green/Red. Her abilities read as follows:

• +1: Reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all land cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest into the grave.
• +0: Put any number of land cards from your hand into play tapped.
• -3: Create a Treefolk creature token with reach. It has “This creature’s power and toughness are equal to the number of lands you control.”
• -8: Return all permanent cards from your graveyard to your hand. You get an emblem with “You have no maximum hand size.”

A very interesting planeswalker, that’s for sure. Especially for people who like to land ramp, or get unlucky and have a mid-game hand full of lands. Since we can flood the board with lands, we can then retrieve all those creatures/spells we got rid of, and now cast them much easier! That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.

Consuming Ooze (5-Cost Creature – Ooze): Consuming Ooze is a pretty interesting Ooze. Its power is equal to the number of card types among cards in your grave and its toughness is the same number +1. Then, at the beginning of your end step, create a green Ooze creature token with the same ability. It would be more terrifying if it read “all graveyards” instead of “your graveyard”. Not super powerful, but it is interesting. The major problem here is its casting cost though. I don’t know that it’s reliable enough to warrant this cost and ability.

Saryth, the Viper’s Fang (4-Cost Legendary Creature – Human Warlock): At first, this confused me, because I was thinking about it way too hard. This ¾ for 4 grants your tapped creatures Deathtouch (other than her). Other untapped creatures you control have Hexproof, in addition. You can tap 1 colorless and her to untap another target creature or land you control. It’s very good because of that. She synergizes amazingly well with Fynn, the Fangbearer. He makes your deathtouch creatures deal out 2 Poison Counters when they deal combat damage to a player. I don’t know if she’d be good in Fynn decks for Historic given she costs 4 mana. I like that we can also use this to untap something to prevent it from being destroyed (via Hexproof) or to mana-fix a problem. Very interested to see if this works out as a useful card.

Unnatural Growth (5-Cost Enchantment): What a fun, frustrating card! At the beginning of each combat, you double the power and toughness of each of your creatures until the end of turn. The interesting part is that it happens on your opponent’s turn too! It’s going to be really hard to get the drop on you if your creatures are always buff. Sadly, the buff isn’t permanent. 

Augur of Autumn (3-Cost Creature – Human Druid): All this needs is “You can play multiple lands a turn”. A ⅔ Druid, you can look at the top card of your library at any time, and you can play lands from the top of your library. This also features Coven. If you meet the requirements, you can cast creatures from the top of your library too! So you can cast a creature, then play the land underneath it. Big fan of this card.

Willow Geist (1-Cost Creature – Treefolk Spirit): A 1/1 with Trample sounds really lame. But it can grow really fast, depending on what you’re building. Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on Willow Geist. So you have to have multiple, separate instances of cards leaving your graveyard. Then, when it dies, you gain life equal to its power. This means if you exile 3 cards from your graveyard, it gains +1/+1. If you do three separate instances, it’s 3 +1/+1 counters. Play patient, and smash people with a humongous Treefolk.

Sneak Into Festival (6-Cost Spell – Sorcery): Some have said this is a weaker version of Collected Company. In a way, I agree. CoCo is instant, and it’s cheaper. But this does more than simply pull a pair of creatures. This looks at the top five of your deck and lets you take two permanents with a total Mana Value of 5 or less into play. The rest go on the bottom of your deck. It’s also got a very expensive Flashback of 10 mana (3 green). Unlike CoCo, you can pull lands, artifacts, enchantments, things like that. So I think this card is useful with decks that have mana ramp. 

Tovolar’s Huntmaster/Tovolar’s Packleader (6-Cost Creature – Human Werewolf/Werewolf): Finally, Werewolves get a solid late-game bomb. This is a 6/6 or 7/7 for 6 and has Day/Nightbound. The first form creates two 2/2 green Wolf tokens when it comes into play. His other form also creates these 2/2 Wolf tokens but also creates them when he attacks. You can also pay 4 mana to make another wolf or werewolf you control fight a target creature you don’t control. I like it as a way to keep cranking out Wolves, and with the right Werewolves out, they could be very big and annoying. In Limited it will be terrific but in Standard? I think it will still see use.

Contortionist Troupe (1+X Green Creature – Human): A non-Hydra that comes in with X +1/+1 counters? Oh yes. And it’s a human, making it better! You’re going to see a lot of human love here. A 0/0 with Coven, reads “At the beginning of your end step if you control three creatures with different power, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.” So I’m a huge fan of this, so we can make our allies bigger and meaner without a lot of difficulty.

Clear Shot (3-Cost Spell – Instant): A target creature of yours gets +1/+1 for the turn, and it then deals damage equal to its power to an opponent’s creature. They don’t get to strike back, but with your big-power creatures, this could be hilarious.

Hound Tamer/Untamed Pup (3-Cost Creature – Human Werewolf/Werewolf): More Werewolves! Hound Tamer is the Daybound version and is a 3/3 Trample that can give a creature +1/+1 for 4 mana (1 green). But what you want is Untamed Pup. It’s a 4/4 Trample and still can put +1/+1 counters down. But it grants other Wolves and Werewolves you control Trample. That’s a pretty big deal when you want to be aggressive.

Pestilent Wolf (2-Cost Creature – Wolf): A mediocre, but an interesting creature, it’s a 2/2 for 2. It can gain deathtouch for 3 mana, but if you run Saryth it’s not a relevant ability (except on defense).

Snarling Wolf (1-Cost Creature – Wolf): Snarling Wolf’s a bit better than Pestilent Wolf, I think. It’s a 1/1 for 1, but it can gain +2/+2 once per turn for 2 mana (1 green). Not too bad, but they’re both filler cards. Could be fun in Draft, or filler for low-cost early aggression. We’ll see what “Wolf” Lord shows up to change my mind.

Howl of the Hunt (3-Cost Enchantment – Aura): A Flash enchantment for green! Love seeing all this Flash for Green. This enchantment untaps the creature if it’s a Wolf or Werewolf. It also grants +2/+2 and Vigilance, so it’s fairly useful for a common.

Bird Admirer/Wing Shredder (3-Cost Creature – Human Archer Werewolf/Werewolf): Both of these have Reach, and are a Day/Nightbound card. Bird Admirer is just a ¼, and Wing Shredder is a ⅗. It’s not bad, but a 3-cost for this feels a bit underwhelming.

Sunstreak Phoenix (4-Cost Creature Phoenix): This is a worthwhile Mythic Rare. A 4/2 with Flying, it becomes day if it isn’t day or night when it comes into play. Then, whenever day becomes night or vice versa, you can pay 2 mana (1 red). If you do, you can return Sunstreak Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Sure it doesn’t come in untapped, but that’s probably going to be fine. If nothing else, it forces your opponent to respond to it or get hit for 4 damage again. There are also ways to untap permanents though, depending on your color setup.

Light Up the Night (1+X Spell – Sorcery): Hey, the Protomen get a reference in MTG Arena spoilers of Innistrad! Well, not really, but I can dream. This spell deals X damage to any target, and it deals X+1 instead if that target is a creature or planeswalker. You can also Flashback this for 4 mana, and removing X loyalty counters from the various planeswalkers you control to deal X damage. X in this instance cannot be 0. An alternate win condition for Red-splashed control decks? Very possible. 

Geistflame Reservoir (3-Cost Artifact): Speaking of casting instant and sorcery spells, hello Geistflame Reservoir! Another reprint, whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, put a charge counter on this. You can tap 2 (1 red), and tap it to deal X damage to any target (by removing charge counters). You can also tap 2, and tap this to exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. Even better if you can Scry the top of your deck. Figure out what you need to play early, and do it!

Curse of Shaken Faith (2-Cost Enchantment – Aura Curse): Is your opponent casting a lot of spells, but you need them to cut that stuff out? This enchant player triggers each time your opponent (or whoever targeted) cast a spell other than their first spell each turn or copies a spell. Then, it deals 2 damage to them. Yeah, huge fan of this as a counter-play option. This stops Storm decks dead in their tracks, but it is also useful against other archetypes. That’s what makes this one good. In particular, it harms players when they set up their Werewolf nonsense.

Falkenrath Pit Fighter (1-Cost Creature – Vampire Warrior): At first, I wasn’t thrilled about this 2/1 for 1. You pay 2 (1 red) and discard a card and sacrifice a Vampire to draw two cards. You can only activate it if your opponent lost life this turn. While that sounds like a raw deal, remember, Madness is back. We can cast spells for better costs if they’re discard this turn. Just keep that in mind.

Reckless Stormseeker/Storm-Charged Slasher (3-Cost Creature – Human Werewolf/Werewolf): Okay, I really like this for aggressive red decks. One thing that slows those decks down is a lack of haste. We have a Daybound/Nightbound creature here. Stormseeker gives a creature of yours +1/+0 and Haste until end of turn at the beginning of combat. If it is night, you have the Storm-Charged Slaher, and it grants a creature of yours +2/+0, Trample, and Haste for the turn. It says “target creature you control”, so you can target it. Just some food for thought.

Burn Down the House (5-Cost Spell – Sorcery): Was this named for the classic Talking Heads song, “Burnin’ Down the House”? Well, it’s another “choose one” spell, but a bit pricey. At 5 mana, you can either deal 5 damage to each creature and each planeswalker, or you can create three 1/1 red Devil creature tokens. They have “When this creature dies, it deals 1 damage to any target”, and they all have haste until the end of turn. I like the first choice more, especially when we combine it with Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer.

Smoldering Egg/Ashmouth Dragon (2-Cost Creature – Dragon Egg/Dragon): This could be a fun wincon for Izzet Spells. A 0/4 Defender, whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, put a number of Ember Counters on the Egg equal to the amount of mana spent to cast it. If it has 7 or more Ember counters on it, remove them, and transform. Ashmouth Dragon is a 4/4 Flyer, and whenever you cast an Instant or Sorcery, this deals 2 damage to any target. It takes some setting up, but even countering spells can deal damage, and I love that. Especially for 2 mana. It’s 100% worth playing in my eyes. 

Play With Fire (1-Cost Spell – Instant): Short, simple, and to the point, we have our new direct damage staple for Red. Play with Fire deals 2 damage to any target, and if the target was a player, we also Scry 1! Love it, absolutely love it. I don’t want to see people use it against me, but that’s to be expected.

Village Watch/Village Reavers (5-Cost Creature Human Werewolf/Werewolf): The Village Watch card is okay, a 4/3 Haste for 5. However, it has Daybound. When it becomes night, the Village Reavers is way better. It gives Wolves/Werewolves you control now have haste and becomes a 5/4. I like that way more. With the right control of the board, you can play pretty aggressively with this.

Thermo-Alchemist (2-Cost Creature – Human Shaman): Oh lord, Thermo-Alchemist got a reprint. It’s not too big of a surprise, considering the power of instants/sorceries for Blue/Red. This is a 0/3 with Defender, that you can tap it to deal 1 damage to each opponent. Whenever you cast an Instant or Sorcery, untap Thermo-Alchemist. This is even more fun when you can copy spells, which is pretty easy right now. It’s definitely going to be viable as a wincon in Historic.

Flame Channeler/Embodiment of Flame (2-Cost Creature – Human Wizard/Elemental Wizard): The 2/2 Flame Channeler transforms into the Embodiment of Flame when a spell you control deals damage. So it’s very easy to trigger. Embodiment of Flame gets a Flame Counter anytime a spell of yours deals damage, which is going to set up something frustrating! You can pay 1 colorless and remove a Flame Counter to exile the top card of your library. You can play that this turn! You’re seeing more and more of that, probably. Blue/Red spells is certainly making a comeback. 

Seize the Storm (5-Cost Spell – Sorcery): Here’s your game-ending card for UR Spells. A five-cost Sorcery, it creates a Red Elemental creature token with Trample and “This creature’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard, plus the number of cards with flashback you own in Exile.” It also has Flashback for 7. You can drop some major damage with this. All it needs is Haste to be your game-ender though. If it did, it would probably be Rare or Mythic Rare. Just keep it alive and let it win the game for you.

Lunar Frenzy (1+X Spell – Instant): A very simple spell. A creature you control gets +X/+0, First Strike, and Trample until the end of turn. This could be your game-winning bomb for a creature, to make sure you seal the deal.

Spellrune Painter/Spellrune Howler (3-Cost Creature – Human Shaman Werewolf/Werewolf): Whenever you cast an Instant or Sorcery, this creature gains +1/+1 (Painter), or +2/+2 (Howler). It’s a Daybound/Nightbound, and is a ⅔ or ¾ base respectively. A fun card for spell decks, that’s for sure. 

Festival Crasher (2-Cost Creature – Devil): A classic Red creature is back – When you cast an Instant/Sorcery, give it +2/+0 for the turn. All we need is a way to give it Flight or some form of Unblockable, and we can turn this into a serious game-ender. 

Abandon the Post (2-Cost Spell – Sorcery): A nice, easy spell. Sadly it’s not Instant. Up to two target creatures can’t block this turn. I’d love it if it were Instant, but it’s still good as a Sorcery. It’s also got Flashback, so you can do it one more time. 

Ardent Elementalist (4-Cost Creature – Human Shaman): An excellent card that brings back an Instant or Sorcery, when this enters play, pick one and put it back in your hand. It’s a 2/1 though, so its only real purpose is to bring back a spell, and probably be a chump blocker. 

Enduring Angel/Angelic Enforcer (5-Cost Creature – Angel): This is not a Day/Nightbound card, but it does Transform. I adore this card, casting cost aside. A 3/3, Flying, Double Strike, Hexproof, if you would have your life total reduced to 0 or less, you transform her instead into Angelic Enforcer, and your Life Total becomes 3. If Enduring Angel doesn’t transform this way, you lose. So if your opponent can stop it from happening, you still lose. Angelic Enforcer, however, is an */* with FLying, and you still have Hexproof. Its Power and Toughness are equal to your life total, and whenever Angelic Enforcer attacks, double your life total.

What you’d want I think, is to trigger this, heal yourself, and attack, so your life total doubles, and she gets stronger. Your life total grows in response to the attack trigger, so her own attack becomes better. If only we could give her Lifelink as well. . .

Fearless Adversary (2-Cost Creature – Human Scout): This is an incredible card, no matter how you slice it. This is your game-winning card, your early-game “get some threat on the board card”, it buffs itself and has Lifelink. This card is one of the best in the set right now. When this 3/1 Lifelink comes into play, you can pay 1 White/1 Colorless as many times as you wish. For each of these, put that many Courage Counters on Fearless Adversary. Then, creatures you control get +1/+1 for each courage counter on Fearless Adversary. It’s easy to see why this card is overwhelmingly good. 

Sigardian Savior (5-Cost Creature – Angel): This could be run in White Weenie Aggro as a way to pull a few cheap creatures back from the grave to seal a game up. It’s also a 3/3 Flyer, but 5 is kind of a lot. I like the idea behind it, but the casting cost and the Mana Value of 2 or less? Ehh. I want to hold off before I really say one way or another if this is going to be used. I’m not so sure as of right now.

Brutal Cathar/Moonrage Brute (3-Cost White Creature – Human Soldier Werewolf/Red Creature – Werewolf): In cases like this, the default form is the one I focus on as far as organizing. Brutal Cathar is a 3-cost 2/2, and when it enters play or transforms, exile a creature your opponent controls until this creature leaves the battlefield. I love that it also can happen when it transforms into the 3/3 First Strike Moonrage Brute.

Curse of Silence (1-Cost Enchantment – Aura Curse): I’m always a fan of cards like this. When this enters play, attach it to a player and choose a card name. Spells with the chosen name that player cast cost 2 more colorless to play. In addition, whenever an enchanted player casts a spell with that name, you can sacrifice this Curse. If you do, draw a card. It’s not crippling, but it can slow someone down hard in the early game.

Adeline, Splendid Cathar (3-Cost Legendary Creature – Human Knight): More Coven Math decks are coming! This creature’s power is equal to the number of creatures you control, so in White Weenie, it’s going to be really mean. It also has Vigilance for more aggression. This card will help Coven Math decks since its number changes every turn potentially. Whenever you attack, you create a 1/1 white Human creature tapped and attacking the player or planeswalker you initiated on. It’s a pretty nice card, honestly.

Vengeful Extermination (8-Cost Spell – Sorcery): If your opponent is running a token/swarm deck, this will be their worst nightmare. This will be an incredible sideboard card. It costs 1 less for each creature in play and destroys all creatures. If there are at least 6 creatures in play, this costs 2white. Brilliant.

Sungold Sentinel (2-Cost Creature – Human Soldier): A 3/2 Human Soldier, it has you exile up to one card from a graveyard when it attacks or comes into play. It’s also got Coven, so it requires you to have 3 cards with different power scores. If you do, you can pay 2 mana (1 white), and then you choose a Color. Sungold Sentinel gains Hexproof from that color until the end of turn and can’t be blocked by creatures of that color. This isn’t Protection. It doesn’t prevent cards you use of that chosen color from affecting this creature. It doesn’t stop enchantments or equipment. That said, I love this card, and Mono-White is looking very pretty.

Sigarda’s Splendor (4-Cost Enchantment): What a fun lifegain card! When this is put into play, note your current life total. At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card if your life total is greater than or equal to the last noted life total. Then note it again. You’ll do this every turn of yours. Whenever you cast a white spell, you gain 1 life. Easy-peasy. Could be a lot of fun in Historic Lifegain decks too! I like this as a way to keep Mono-White decks in the game if things go sour. 

Fateful Absence (2-Cost Spell – Instant): I kind of wish this exiled instead of destroyed. That fits White better, in my opinion. But this is an incredible card. It destroys a creature or planeswalker at instant speed. Your opponent does investigate as a result, so they get one of those colorless Clue artifact token 2 Mana+Sac this: Draw a card. But 2 mana for instant destruction in White? Love it.

Beloved Beggar/Generous Soul (2-Cost Creature – Human Peasant/Spirit): The Beloved Beggar is a regular 0/4 with no real power other than Disturb. You can cast this from your graveyard, transformed for its Disturbed cost. In this case, it’s 6 mana (2 white). The other form is Generous Soul, a 4/4 Flying/Vigilance, and if it would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it. I like this idea, as an early-game blocker into a mid-game powerhouse.

Gavony Dawnguard (3-Cost Creature – Human Soldier): This comes with Ward 1 and is a 3/3 Soldier. If it’s neither day nor night, it becomes day as this enters play. In addition, whenever day becomes night or vice versa, look at the top four of your deck. You may reveal a creature card with Mana Value 3 or less from among them and put it in hand. This card is incredible for an uncommon. You have to pay attention to the night/day cycles and manipulate them to make your White Weenie Human deck be as frustrating as possible. Oh yeah, this is going to be a White staple.

Cathar’s Call (3-Cost Enchantment – Aura): Okay, this card I like. It’s a 3-cost Aura for one of your creatures. It grants Vigilance and “At the beginning of your end step, create a 1/1 white Human creature token.” Huzzah, constant tokens! Play this on something that’s likely going to be safe though, or something you can protect, so you can constantly put creatures. Might be a fun card for Angels/Soul Sisters in Historic. 

Duelcraft Trainer (4-Cost Creature – Human Soldier): A 3/3 First Strike is a solid card either way. But it also has Coven. So if you can trigger it, a creature you control gains Double Strike until the end of turn, at the start of your combat. You can make some definitely beefy, frustrating combat phases thanks to a couple of Duelcraft Trainers.

Unruly Mob (2-Cost Creature – Human): Simple and to the point, this is a 1/1 that gains a +1/+1 counter when one of the creatures you control dies. In an aggressive, White Weenie deck this could turn into a powerhouse. 

Candletrap (1-Cost Enchantment – Aura): This is a new form of Pacifism, in a manner of speaking. This Aura grants the target “Defender” – so they can’t attack. They also take no damage in combat. So it’s great to use if you need a blocker. But you can also use it on your opponents’ creatures. If you have Coven (3 or more creatures with different powers), you can pay 3 (1 White) to sacrifice this enchantment, and exile the enchanted creature. So it has a lot of promise.

Lunarch Veteran/Luminous Phantom (1-Cost Creature – Human Cleric/Spirit Cleric): This card is pretty much the same in both forms – more or less. Both 1/1s, both give you 1 life whenever another creature leaves the battlefield. The Luminous Phantom is a Flyer though, and Lunarch Veteran has Disturb, so you can replay him from the grave to get the Luminous Phantom form. I like it as an ability though, as a way to keep sacrifice decks going strong.

Blessed Defiance (1-Cost Spell – Instant): This is a card you cast when something of yours is definitely going to die. That way, you take the other card with them. A creature you control gains +2/+0 and Lifelink for the turn. Then, when that creature dies this turn, create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying. 

Homestead Courage (1-Cost Spell – Sorcery): A decent Sorcery with a 1-white Flashback, it grants a +1/+1 counter to a creature you control. They also get Vigilance for the turn. So it’s really not too bad. There’s a lot of +1/+1 counters going around this expansion! 

Gavony Silversmith (4-Cost Creature – Human Soldier): Speaking of +1/+1 counters! When Gavony Silversmith enters play, put a +1/+1 counter on each up to two target creatures! Huge fan of stuff like this, especially when I have options to pull the card out of play and put it back into play! Love buffing my mono-white buddies.

Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope/Arlinn, the Moon’s Fury (4-Cost Red/Green Legendary Planeswalker – Arlinn): A card with Daybound/Nightbound, depending on the situation, it changes the abilities/form it comes in as. If it’s night, it will enter as Arlinn, the Moon’s Fury (Nightbound). Otherwise, you will likely play this as Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope (Daybound). She has two sets of abilities, neither of which feature a game-breaking ultimate.

Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope Abilities:

• +1: Until your next turn, you may cast creatures as though they had flash, and each creature you control enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
• -3: Create two 2/2 green Wolf creature tokens.

Arlinn, the Moon’s Fury Abilities:

• +2: Add 1 Red and 1 Green Mana
• +0: Until the end of turn, Arlinn, the Moon’s Fury becomes a 5/5 Werewolf creature with Trample, Indestructible, and Haste.

It feels like you trigger her +1, and don’t cast any spells for the turn. Instead, you play any number of creatures on your opponent’s turn, to make it Night. Now, you can use her +0 to make her into a 5/5 with Trample/Indestructible/Haste. Buff her even more if you can, and swing nice and hard. She’s suddenly a very safe, very powerful attacker. And you’ll have defenders to protect her when it becomes day again. It’s going to be interesting to see if there’s only one Day/Night effect in the game, or if each player has their own time to adhere to.

Sigarda, Champion of Light (4-Cost Green/White Legendary Creature – Angel): An Angel that is a Human Lord? Yeah, checks out. A 4/4 Flying/Trample, Humans you control also gain +1/+1. Whenever she attacks, if you control three or more creatures with different powers, look at the top five of your deck. You can reveal a Human from among them and put it into your hand. The rest go on the bottom of your deck. Now that sounds like a lot of fun to use. She’s perfect for the reoccurring theme of GW Token Humans in the MTG Arena Innistrad: Midnight Hunt spoilers.

Teferi, Who SLows the Sunset (4-Cost White/Blue Legendary Planeswalker: Teferi): This card looks amazing until you realize every White/Blue deck is going to run a playset of them. With a base loyalty of 4, it’s got some really really obnoxious powers. Is it overpowered? No, probably not. Is it wildly powerful and going to frustrate players? You bet. Will it wind up getting banned out? The jury’s out on that. Here are the abilities he possess:

• +1: Choose up to one target artifact, up to one target creature, and up to one target land. Untap the ones you control, and gain 2 life. Tap the ones you don’t control.
• -3: Look at the top three cards of your deck. Put one in your hand and the rest on the bottom of your deck.
• -7: You get an emblem with: Untap all permanents you control during each opponent’s untap step and You draw a card during each opponent’s draw step.

Good. God. You can slow down your opponent during your turn, and if you get that -7, you have free mana/creatures every single opponent’s turn, and draw during their turn too. Thanks, I hate it. The control player in me adores it, but I understand how often I’m gonna see it.

Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor (4-Cost Blue/Black/Red Legendary Creature – Human Warlock): This comes from the Commanders for the expansion, so it’s also Standard-legal I’m sure. It’s a 2/4 with Deathtouch. Whenever a Curse of yours goes into the graveyard, return it to the battlefield, attached to you at the beginning of the next end step. Then, during the beginning of your upkeep, you can attach a Curse of yours to another player. If you do, draw two cards. So you suffer a tiny but, then you make the other player suffer in response. DUnno if anyone’s going to use it in Standard, but I do so like the idea behind it.

Galvanic Iteration (2-Cost Spell – Instant): Flashback’s back, baby! Flashback spells can be cast from your graveyard for a different cost (1 Red, 1 Blue, 1 Colorless here), and then you exile it. For this, when you cast your next instant or sorcery spell this turn, copy it, and you can choose new targets. I love a good duplicate spell, and with creatures like Festival Crasher, we can see a lot of uses. It’s a quality card that doesn’t cost too much.

Tovolar, Dire Overlord/Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge (3-Cost Green/Red Legendary Creature – Human Werewolf): We have a 3/3, that when transformed, becomes a 4/4. He’s also Daybound/Nightbound. Whenever a Wolf or Werewolf you control deals combat damage to a player, you draw a card – in both forms. However, at the beginning of your upkeep, if you control three or more Wolves/Werewolves, it becomes night. Then you can transform any number of Human Werewolves you control. However, Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge can tap 1 Red, 1 Green and X to make a Target Wolf or Werewolf gain +X/+0 and Trample for the turn. I love that as a possible way to ramp someone into an impossible-to-stop amount of damage. Very cool Werewolf Legendary revealed in the MTG Arena Innistrad: Midnight Hunt spoilers!

Can’t Stay Away (2-Cost White/Black Spell – Sorcery): Adorable ghost cats coming back to eat? Love it. This Black/White sorcery has Flashback and can return a creature card with a Mana Value of 3 or less back into play from your graveyard. However, if it would die, exile it instead. A fairly useful card with an equally high Flashback (5 mana, 1 white/1 black). I can see this being pretty useful, even without Flashback.

Rite of Harmony (2-Cost Green/White Spell – Instant): I love this spell. A two-cost GW spell at Instant speed, has you draw a card every time a creature or enchantment enters play for you. Token swarm could lead to a lot of card draw. Feels potentially abusable. However, it’s even got Flashback for 4 mana (1 Green, 1 White). 

Croaking Counterpart (3-Cost Blue/Green Spell – Sorcery): This card is incredible, I don’t care what anyone says. This spell creates a token that’s a copy of a non-Frog creature. The only difference is that it’s a 1/1 green Frog. The reasons that make this incredible are twofold. Flashback, and it doesn’t have to be your creatures. Your opponent has a card with an unrealistically good power, and you want to access it? Now you can, with Croaking Counterpart! Love this card so much. Thank goodness it’s not an Instant though.

Liesa, Forgotten Archangel (5-Cost White/Black Legendary Creature – Angel): This. Card. Wow. A Flying/Lifelink ⅘, and whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, return that card to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step. If a creature an opponent dies, exile it! Suddenly, board wipe is a very powerful tool for you, the White/Black control player. Just keep something to prevent Liesa from dying (Indestructible maybe?). 

Siphon Insight (2-Cost Blue/Black Spell – Instant): This card screams the phrase “In response to. . .”. You can look at the top two of an opponent’s deck at Instant speed with this. For the meager cost of 2 mana (1 black, 1 blue), you can exile one of them face down and put the other on the bottom of that player’s deck. Now you can look at/play that exiled card for as long as it’s exiled, and spend mana of any color to do so. Its Flashback is only 1 more colorless mana, so I’m in love with/dread this card. It’s going to be really frustrating. Some people think it’s bad, but I don’t agree. I like the idea of watching your opponent start scrying and setting things up, and stealing from them. Or simply denying a potential amazing card from my opponent. 

Dire-Strain Rampage (3-Cost Spell – Sorcery): What an interesting card. I’m sort of torn, partially thanks to its 3-mana cost and being a Sorcery. You destroy a target artifact, enchantment, or land. If a land was destroyed this way, its controller can search their library for two basic lands and put them into play tapped. Otherwise, they get to seek one basic land and put it into play tapped. It also has a 5-cost Flashback. Now, if we have cards that let us steal/borrow enemy permanents, I think this could be useful. Borrow something from the other player, and then destroy it, for more land for you. I’m torn, but I think it could be good.

Old Stickfingers (2+X Black/Green Legendary Creature – Horror): How is this not a Scarecrow Horror? When you cast this, you reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reach X creatures. Put those creatures in your grave and the others on the bottom of your deck. Old Stickfingers has Power/Toughness equal to the number of creatures in your grave. So it’s useful, interesting, but I don’t know that it’s going to be amazing unless you could make it unblockable.

Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer (3-Cost Red/White Legendary Creature – Human Knight): Several of these multi-colored legends seem built for Brawl/EDH instead of Standard play. Rem Karolus is great though either way. A ⅔ Flying/Haste, it has two very important abilities. If a spell would deal damage to you or a permanent you control, prevent the damage. Then, if a spell would deal damage to an opponent or one of their permanents, it deals that much plus 1. If your opponents want to deal with you or your permanents, they have no choice but to use direct removal on this first or kill it in combat. The positive side, you can run this in a deck with AOE damage spells with zero fear. Now your allies survive all spell damage board wipe.

Ludevic, Necrogenius/Olag Ludevic’s Hubris (2-Cost Legendary Creature): Named (likely) after a form of therapy, and transforming into a hideous creature, the result of its own hubris, the naming conventions of this card really tickle me. Whenever Ludevic enters play or attacks, you mill a card for this ⅔. Then you can also pay 2 black, 2 blue and X, to exile X creature cards from your graveyard. This transforms Ludevic, Necrogenius. X cannot be zero, either. You can’t do this at Instant speed, thankfully.

Olag Ludevic’s Hubris is the transformed card, and when it changes, it becomes a copy of one of the creature cards exiled, except it retains the name “Olag Ludevic’s Hubris”, is 4/4, a Black/Blue Legendary Zombie. It also gains a +1/+1 counter for each exiled card. This is a pretty interesting way to get a powerful ability back, and also a huge legendary zombie. This might be better in Brawl/EDH, but for now, I like it.

Vadrik, Astral Archmage (3-Cost Blue/Red Legendary Creature – Human Wizard): If it’s neither day nor night, now it’s day! Oh man, the more time it changes time, Vadrik gains +1/+1 in the form of a counter! He’s a ½, so it takes a while, but this will be in Instant/Spell decks. Why? Your Instant/Sorcery spells cost X less to play, where X is Vadrik’s power. He’s also only 3 mana, so he’s reasonable to play. 

Slogurk, the Overslime (3-Cost Green/Blue Legendary Creature – Ooze): Another useful Commander! A 3/3 Trample, Slogurk gains a +1/+1 counter anytime a land is put into your graveyard. When it leaves play, return up to three target lands from your grave to your hand. That’s a solid way to make sure you have lands to play at all times in self-mill. Then you can remove 3 +1/+1 counters to return Slogurk to your hand. Or you could just flicker it out of play and back in/bounce it back to your hand. It’s an interesting card, but I dunno how viable it is right now.

Dennick, Pious Apprentice (2-Cost White/Blue Legendary Creature – Human Soldier): Dennick will be a fine commander, but I think he has a lot of uses outside of Standard. One of the things I was thinking about was for physical MTG/MTGO – Modern Humans. He’s a great way to stop really obnoxious graveyard plays like Snapcaster Mage, Dreadhorde Arcanist. So this is a ⅔ for 2 with Lifelink. Cards in graveyards can’t be the target of spells or abilities, which is incredible. Now your opponents can’t retrieve or exile cards from graveyards, period. He’s also the first really goodDisturb card, in my opinion. His other form is Dennick, Pious Apparition. He’s a 3/2 Flyer, and whenever one or more creatures are put into graveyards from anywhere, Investigate. This can trigger once each turn. So that means we can create Clue artifact tokens so we can draw cards. 

Florian, Voldaren Scion (3-Cost Black/Red Legendary Creature – Vampire Noble): I’m interested in this card. A 3/3 with First Strike, during your Postcombat Main Phase, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the total amount of life your opponents lost this turn. Exile one of these and put the rest on the bottom of your deck. You can play the exiled card this turn. That is potentially massive if you’re holding mana until the secondary Main Phase, which you should probably be doing anyway! Black/Red Vampires are also shaping up pretty nicely.

Hallowed Respite (2-Cost White/Blue Spell – Sorcery): Need one of your creatures to get a little stronger? Hallowed Respite exiles a nonlegendary creature (yours or theirs), and then returns it to play. If it entered play under your control, it gains a +1/+1 counter. Otherwise, you tap it. And it has Flashback for 1 more mana. So you can use it to strengthen an ally, or tap your opponent’s lone blocker, so you can swing through on them. A very solid card for UW control.

Angelfire Ignition (3-Cost Red/White Spell – Sorcery): No, this isn’t about the website. This is a way to put damage on the board with incredible amounts of safety. When you cast this, a creature you control gets 2 +1/+1 counters. Then, until the end of turn, it gains Vigilance, Trample, lifelink, Indestructible, and Haste. Oh, and this has Flashback (4 mana – 1 white, 1 red). You can set this up on a flying creature to just overwhelm someone, or a huge grounded creature to make sure you win the game. Love/hate this card in equal measures.

Join The Dance (2-Cost Green/White Spell – Sorcery): Huzzah, tokens! A Sorcery for Green/White creates two 1/1 white Human creature tokens. That sounds simple enough, but it also brings back a fun, useful mechanic. Flashback is back! It lets you cast a card with Flashback from the grave, for a specific cost. Then you exile that spell. The original is 1 white, 1 green, but this Flashback cost is 5 mana (1 green, 1 white). Sounds like we’re getting more Humans and Human tokens, and that is just fine by me.

Bladestitched Skaab (2-Cost Blue/Black Creature – Zombie Soldier): This is a weak sort of “Zombie Lord”, but it’s still useful. A ⅔, other Zombies you control get +1/+0. I say weak because Lords typically give +1/+1. I still like Bladestitched Skaab in terms of its ease of play. It’s got value without a doubt.

Faithful Mending (2-Cost White/Blue Spell): This is another really solid card for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. A White/Blue instant, it has you gain 2 life, draw two cards, and then discard two cards. It’s also got Flashback for a minor 1 more colorless mana. The reason it’s such a reasonable Flashback cost is likely that you also discard. But I can see a lot of uses in an Esper Reanimator, or something similar. It’s a very cheap Discard engine, which also has a lot of benefits.

Vampire Socialite (2-Cost Black/Red Creature – Vampire Noble): A 2/2 Menace is pretty neat at 2 mana, and when it enters play, if an opponent lost life this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on each other Vampire you control. In addition, as long as your opponent lost life this turn, each other Vampire you control enters play with an additional +1/+1 counter on it. So this is an awesome card for 2 mana. It’s so easy to make your opponent lose life too in Black/Red. 

Kessig Naturalist/Lord of the Ulvenwald (2-Cost Red/Green Creature – Human Werewolf/Werewolf): Oh, Kessig Naturalist I think you’re pretty great. Not overpowering, but neat. When it attacks, add 1 red or 1 green mana to your pool. Until the end of turn, you don’t lose this mana as steps and phases end. That means you can use that mana in combat or at the end of your turn to cast something else. Pretty nifty. Lord of the Ulvenwald, its Nightbound form grants that same mana but also is a 3/3 instead of 2/2, and other Wolves/Werewolves you control get +1/+1. So we want it to be Night as long as possible.

Arcane Infusion (2-Cost Blue/Red Spell -Instant): Look at the top four of your deck and choose an instant or sorcery to put in your hand, and it has Flashback. This one’s a no-brainer. An amazing card that Blue/Red spells has to run. 

Devoted Grafkeeper/Departed Soulkeeper (2-Cost White/Blue Creature – Human Peasant/Spirit): I really like the normal version of this card. A 2/1 that has you mill two when it comes into play. Then, whenever you cast a spell from your graveyard, tap a creature you don’t control. That’s a lot of fun. You can cast it for its Disturb cost from the grave, to become a 3/1 Flyer, that can only block other Flyers. If this would go to the grave from anywhere, exile it instead.

Ghoul Grizzly (4-Cost Black/Green – Creature – Bear Zombie): A Zombie Bear! A 4/3 Trample, it gains a +1/+1 counter for each creature that died this turn. With smart removal technique (or combat), we can get a very big Zombie Bear.

Rootvine Creeper (2-Cost Blue/Green Creature – Plant Horror): This has the power to be incredibly overpowered. It can be tapped for 1 mana of any color, or for 2 mana of any color – only for spells in your grave. Or you can pay 2 (1 green, 1 blue) and exile it to return a card with Flashback you own in Exile to your hand. You can’t keep doing it at least, but you can get a really powerful card back again, which is amazing. If nothing else, it’s a valuable mana dork.

Unnatural Moonrise (2-Cost Red/Green Spell – Sorcery): Is the other player stopping you from keeping it nighttime? Do you need to close out a game, but just can’t get it to shift to the evening? Unnatural Moonrise makes it Night immediately. Then until the end of the turn, a creature gains +1/+0, Trample, and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card”. And has Flashback!

Rite of Oblivion (2-Cost White/Black Spell – Sorcery): You have to sacrifice a non-land permanent to use this. However, in doing so, you can exile a non-land permanent. This lets you exile just about anything your opponent has that you don’t like – and it has Flashback! Control decks are getting more and more fun tools.

Sunrise Cavalier (3-Cost Red/White Creature – Human Knight): This is an interesting card if nothing else. If it’s neither day nor night, when this comes into play, it becomes day. Then, whenever day becomes night, or night becomes day, a creature you control gets a +1/+1 counter. I like it, but I don’t know if day/night transitions are going to be fast enough to be worthwhile. There’s still time to see.

Winterthorn Blessing (2-Cost Green/Blue Spell – Sorcery): This is a great way to get early damage on the board. You give a creature of yours +1/+1 and tap a target creature you don’t control. That creature doesn’t untap during that player’s next untap phase. And it has a reasonable Flashback! It’s a terrific way to make someone stronger while also sneaking in some easy damage in the early game. Thank goodness it isn’t Instant Speed.

Pithing Needle (1-Cost Colorless Artifact): PITHING. NEEDLE. IS. BACK. Oh yes, God is good all the time. This is an incredible card if you know your opponent’s win condition. As this enters play, choose a card name. Activated abilities of sources with that name can’t be activated – unless they’re mana abilities. Consider this: Planeswalkers – Now they can’t use that planeswalker’s ability unless it’s for mana. It has to be an activated source, so passive abilities still trigger. It also stops someone from equipping a piece of equipment – provided that equip ability hasn’t been activated yet. You could use it on The Celestus to prevent your opponent from changing day to night and vice versa.

The Celestus (3-Cost Legendary Artifact): This is an interesting card at the very least. It’s a Mana Generator, and if it’s neither day nor night, it becomes day when this enters play. You can also pay 3 and tap it to turn night into day. Otherwise, it becomes night, but you can only do this as a Sorcery. Whenever day becomes night or vice versa, you gain 1 life as well. You can also draw a card, but if you do, discard a card. It’s an interesting card, but I don’t love it. I want to see what people can do with it.

Moonsilver Key (2-Cost Artifact): A fetch card, this can be sacrificed for 1 mana/tap it, to search your library. It will allow you to find a library for an artifact with a mana ability, or a basic land. Then you put it into hand. Pretty interesting way to get your mana up. I’d like to see this in Historic Colorless decks as a way to get some of the bigger mana generators out. 

Mystic Skull/Mystic Monstrosity (2-Cost Artifact/Artifact Creature – Construct): If nothing else, I think this is an interesting card. Not altogether useful, but neat. It has two tap abilities. Tap 1 colorless and it to get 1 mana of any color, and you can tap 5 and this, to transform it to a Mystic Monstrosity. That is a ⅚ creature that makes your lands have “Tap: Add one mana of any color.” This is the part I like, mana fixing. But it takes 5 mana to do it, and that makes it feel a bit expensive. I don’t hate it, but I don’t think it’s going to be useful unless it’s in a very specific deck type.

Crossroads Candleguide (4-Cost Artifact Creature – Scarecrow): Scarecrows are back! This isn’t one of the ones of old though. It exiles a card from a graveyard when it comes into play, and it can be a form of mana fixer. For 2 colorless you can get 1 mana of any color. Not wild about it, but I’m curious to see how it pans out.

Silver Bolt (1-Cost Artifact): I was expecting this to be equippable, but alas. You pay 3 and sacrifice it to deal 3 damage to a creature. If a Werewolf was dealt damage this way, destroy it. A great way to deal with powerful Werewolf Lords. I don’t know if the cost is worthwhile, but maybe as a sideboard card?

Hostile Hostel/Creeping Inn (Land/Artifact Creature – Horror Construct): Ahh, a land that turns into a creature, in a more literal sense! The Hostile Hostel requires you to tap 1 colorless and sacrifice a creature to give it a Soul Counter. If it has 3 or more Soul Counters, you remove them, transform it, and then untap it. This can only be done as a sorcery. Now, we’ve got a 3/7 Horror Construct! When it attacks, you can exile a creature card from your graveyard, and if you do, each opponent loses X life, you gain X life. X is the number of creatures you’ve exiled with Creeping Inn. So it can get meaner and meaner. You can also phase this out for 4 colorless if you want to keep it safe. This is an interesting card that you can slowly whittle away at someone’s life total with. Could be a lot of fun as an option in say, a Zombie Deck or a White Weenie deck where you have tons of small, sacrificial pawns.

Evolving Wilds (Colorless Land): Just want to touch on this very briefly. It’s a land we’ve seen reprinted time and time again. You sacrifice it to search for basic land in your deck and put it into play tapped. We aren’t getting the wildly powerful version from Eldraine.