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Matt
Midnight Hunt, the 89th expansion for Magic: The Gathering, is closing in fast. This expansion is part one in Magic’s two-part return to the plane of Innistrad, with part two, Crimson Vow, expected in November. Innistrad is a setting that’s near and dear to a lot of players hearts. The gothic-horror-inspired plane is full to bursting with interesting lore and game mechanics, and the grim, grand, and archaic
aesthetic – brought to life on the cards with evocative art – definitely lends to its success. In this article, I wanted to give new and returning players an overview of what makes this setting so damn cool, and highlight some of the mechanics making a return to game.
Gothic Horror
Innistrad is a plane that draws heavily from gothic fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, and neatly couples it with a Germanic and Eastern European aesthetic to create a setting that feels both formidable and bleak. Colossal structures, tangled forests, and cruel, jagged landscapes are only pieces of what await you in this cursed place.
The plane is home to many human settlements, but here, humans are at the bottom of the food chain. Zombies, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, demons, and devils see them as little more than prey, sport, or – at most – a means to an end. As soon as the sun sets danger creeps in, and with it a fear of every flitting shadow, every sudden sound. How can one rest easy when they’re always trying to catch what’s in the corner of their eye? It’s maddening… Thankfully, humanity is not alone in their battle to survive here. They have the 
protection of angels.
But humans vs monsters isn’t all of what makes Innistrad a cool plane. Aristocratic vampires have complicated inter-house politics, human churches infect mortal minds with rigorous and dogmatic zeal, ambitious and amoral stitchers sow together corpse after corpse in the hopes of creating the perfect undead being (or, at the very least, a personal army), and a being of unknowable, ancient, and eldritch power is imprisoned in the moon, gazing down from behind its veil of silver until such a time that it can make its return…
Midnight Hunt
Midnight Hunt is a werewolf-focused set, and as such you can expect to pull plenty of werewolves from your booster packs – this means a lot of transforming double-faced cards. In Midnight Hunt, a lot of creatures have the keywords “Daybound” and “Nightbound.” This mechanic centres around the day-and-night cycle of the plane. Very simply, if it’s day, creatures enter the battlefield daybound. The same is true for nightbound and night. And when day changes to night, or night to day, these creatures transform.
Making a return for this set is the Flashback mechanic. Flashback is a way in which players can cast instant and sorcery spells from their graveyard, though usually for a higher mana cost. We’ve seen Flashback in Innistrad before because it gels well with the “graveyard matters” theme of plane, but with this set, for the first time ever, we’re going to see this mechanic on multicoloured cards!
Speaking of “graveyard matters,” you can expect to raise a lot of undead during your visit to the plane. Zombies have always been a mainstay of Innistrad, and this time around they come with a slight drawback. Creatures with “Decayed” can’t block and are sacrificed at the end of combat if you attack with them. Conversely, creatures with “Disturb” can be cast from your graveyard, though they transform in the process. I don’t have much of an opinion on Decayed, but I think Disturb is neat thematically, and it gives 
something to players who love playing humans AND spirits.
Finally, the last thing I wanted to look at were the vampires. Even though Crimson Vow will undoubtedly give us many more vamps, a few do make an appearance here, and it’s interesting. Mechanically, a lot of Midnight Hunt’s vampires seem to value aggression, having abilities that trigger or can only be activated if an opponent has lost life this turn. This means, for vampire players, the meat of a lot of their games will happen during their second main phase. While combat is far from the only way a player can lose life, I like this take on vampires as it encourages bold, aggressive, and sometimes risky play.
All of that said, Midnight Hunt is only half of what we can expect from Innistrad this year. With Crimson Vow releasing in November, fans of the plane and fans of the game are going to get a lot of cool and interesting new pieces to play with.
