So apparatly our new spring block is return to Innistrad. Do notice the similarities to the title of one of H.P lovecrafts short stories Shadows over Innsmouth. My hope is that the plot twist is that Emrakul is inside the moon.
General Shadow over Innistrad - April 2016 Trailer
- Thread starter Rasmus Källqvist
- Start date
So apparatly our new spring block is return to Innistrad. Do notice the similarities to the title of one of H.P lovecrafts short stories Shadows over Innsmouth. My hope is that the plot twist is that Emrakul is inside the moon.
Emrakul likes to wreck time, so I don't think it is him. Kozilek on the other hand is the 'butcher of truth' and loves breaking you mentally with illusions and whatnot. So why not Kozilek being the moon? I mean, what would be more disturbing than the moon falling and you only had three days to stop it.
I can already feel the disappointment of another 'return to' set not being able to live up to the hype.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
the most overrated set in Magic returns for a surely uninspiring sequel!
Laz
Developer
Why has Magic made us cynical? I remember when I used to be really excited about new sets. Now, ever since Theros, I have been on my guard.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Less tribal, moar graveyard shenanigans plz!
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Dom Harvey
Contributor
but who's the Invisible Stalker?
it's a metaphor for the player obv
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I don't know what you are talking about. I'm having flashbacks to a limited format where Burning Vengeance was a legitimate draft card, and it was awesome!
This trailer was pretty lame, I guess bad shit is happening in Innistrad? I don't want this shadow to have anything to do with Emrakul, it would be lame. Too much Eldrazi crap crammed in if that were the case (since I'm like 90% sure Kozilek is back in the next set).
Many of the recent trailers sucked, but I loved every single Theros block trailer though. Those were so awesome, especially BNG and JOU with Xenagos and Erebos voices:
And I don't agree with Innistrad being overrated. It gave us powerful cards for every format, cool decks all throughout its run in Standard, and the draft format (from the two retro INN drafts I've done) were really fun. Also had one of my favorite mechanics of all time in Flashback. The only thing that they fucked up on was Invisible Stalker in Limited because that was some bullshit. An uncommon shouldn't be damn near unbeatable with like 2 reasonable answers in the format.
Many of the recent trailers sucked, but I loved every single Theros block trailer though. Those were so awesome, especially BNG and JOU with Xenagos and Erebos voices:
And I don't agree with Innistrad being overrated. It gave us powerful cards for every format, cool decks all throughout its run in Standard, and the draft format (from the two retro INN drafts I've done) were really fun. Also had one of my favorite mechanics of all time in Flashback. The only thing that they fucked up on was Invisible Stalker in Limited because that was some bullshit. An uncommon shouldn't be damn near unbeatable with like 2 reasonable answers in the format.
Laz
Developer
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
gg
Yeah... Not their finest moment. But other than that, Innistrad was a very pleasurable draft format with a lot of different strategies, some of which were wonderfully exentric. Who would have thought you can actually successfully draft around Splinterfright or Runic Repetition?
Dom Harvey
Contributor
I stand by Innistrad draft being overrated. The removal was expensive and sparse, which led to a lot of non-games, and this was exacerbated by the Werewolf mechanic and cards like Invisible Stalker or Travel Preparations.
For Constructed, the set took a traditional and essential weakness of blue - its cheap threats - and made blue the best colour in that regard with Delver of Secrets (and the less said about Geist of Saint Traft the better...). Old-school control decks are close to being unviable most of the time in Eternal formats because aggro-control is a permanent Tier 1 deck, and there's no reason to play a deck like Zoo in Legacy any more when a blue shell gets a better one-drop as well as much better disruption. Snapcaster is a fun card, but there's basically no reason not to play it in a 'fair' blue deck (outside of the hyper-efficient Delver decks you saw with Treasure Cruise and still see in Legacy, but that's a problem in itself) and if you don't you become a lot weaker in any kind of blue mirror.
For Constructed, the set took a traditional and essential weakness of blue - its cheap threats - and made blue the best colour in that regard with Delver of Secrets (and the less said about Geist of Saint Traft the better...). Old-school control decks are close to being unviable most of the time in Eternal formats because aggro-control is a permanent Tier 1 deck, and there's no reason to play a deck like Zoo in Legacy any more when a blue shell gets a better one-drop as well as much better disruption. Snapcaster is a fun card, but there's basically no reason not to play it in a 'fair' blue deck (outside of the hyper-efficient Delver decks you saw with Treasure Cruise and still see in Legacy, but that's a problem in itself) and if you don't you become a lot weaker in any kind of blue mirror.
Well their 'return' blocks have all tried to stay on-theme of the plane (artifacts-matter, GUILDS, and lands-matter most recently) so what exactly is innistrad's 'main theme' that they will refocus on? Graveyard-matters, right? Transform cards will probably return (much to my disgust) but Flashback is the 'basically guaranteed' thing, right?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Innistrad's main theme is "gothic horror". Unlike the previous three sets, it's a top-down designed world, so basically none of the mechanical "themes" are guaranteed. If anything though, the tribal aspect is surely something that will return, as humans vs. werewolves/vampires/spirits/zombies so defines this world. I'm curious if the new block takes place before or after the original Innistrad. If after, the cursemute happened, which basically precludes werewolves as a returning tribe. Interesting!
I'm a little surprised at how soon they're returning to an existing setting; Mirrodin's and Ravnica's revisits were seven years separated from the original, Zendikar's was six, and Innistrad's will be five, though I suppose it makes sense if they're tasked with coming up with two worlds a year now. I'd rather see one new setting and one old setting a year, but something tells me we're going to be returning to planes multiple times, which might mean more old stuff than new overall. (In which case, can we go back to Lorwyn, one time? I need to know what happens after the Great Aurora and things go bad...!)
But mostly I'm excited at getting more graveyard-based cards and themes for cube, especially playable self-mill and flashback spells. More Firebolts and less Geistflames this time, please!
But mostly I'm excited at getting more graveyard-based cards and themes for cube, especially playable self-mill and flashback spells. More Firebolts and less Geistflames this time, please!
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
MaRo has stated it should be about 50/50. There's both new worlds and old worlds in the pipeline. Personally I'ld like returns to Kamigawa and Dominaria
Yeah, the new block paradigm has put some more pressure on the creative team, so they're easing the load a bit with this stuff. I'm convinced these new return sets are going to feel pretty different to earlier ones, since they're probably not going to be the same flashy nostalgia return sets, rather just the continuation of whatever was going on in that block the last time.
I was talking to chris' wife about this on wizards and after their last few dud returns and treasure hunting pack gimmicks she is accusing them of nostalgia mining. Having barely drafted zebdikar or innistradt I can't say for certain but the new zendikar seems like it's being propped up with chase rares and the draft format seems kinda meh and I did get to draft pretty much every ravnica format and they seemed to have botched that one too (though all the constructed playable commons were a nice touch.)
I think before we take our next trip to alara or god forbid new phyrexia maybe a lowkey return to domination or some time travel thing to jamuura. Something with fewer constraints on thematic revisiting and an incentive to get back to core magic.
Honestly I don't think I've been on board with the art direction of this game since the damn loxodon were invented. Now every set we gotta have a new type of freaking pet people with no thematic purpose.
I think before we take our next trip to alara or god forbid new phyrexia maybe a lowkey return to domination or some time travel thing to jamuura. Something with fewer constraints on thematic revisiting and an incentive to get back to core magic.
Honestly I don't think I've been on board with the art direction of this game since the damn loxodon were invented. Now every set we gotta have a new type of freaking pet people with no thematic purpose.
I do remember talking to anotak about making a lovecraftian horror themed set.
I find it supes unlikely that this one will resemble anything of innsmouth though, have we seen anything involving woman stealing sea people in innistradt so far? Great Gods under the ocean that decadent tribals trade their souls to for prosperity? Innistradt didn't seem like a place of esoteric mystery, that was more like zendikar, innistradt was a place of unveiled dangers and Eastern European Renaissance. Id kinda they rather not try to half ass lovecraftian themes really but it might be fun if they could do a good job.
I'm just not sure "lole eldrazi spawn are mutating the avabruck" is gonna cut it. The spawn lost all their scariness the same way they mishandled the phyrexians.
I find it supes unlikely that this one will resemble anything of innsmouth though, have we seen anything involving woman stealing sea people in innistradt so far? Great Gods under the ocean that decadent tribals trade their souls to for prosperity? Innistradt didn't seem like a place of esoteric mystery, that was more like zendikar, innistradt was a place of unveiled dangers and Eastern European Renaissance. Id kinda they rather not try to half ass lovecraftian themes really but it might be fun if they could do a good job.
I'm just not sure "lole eldrazi spawn are mutating the avabruck" is gonna cut it. The spawn lost all their scariness the same way they mishandled the phyrexians.