Sets Spoilers Over Innistrad (Digest)

[Aoret]

We usually end up doing this bit every spoiler season where we transition from SCD to a list of inclusions. It's a bit early yet, but I'm curious, so here goes.

What's everyone's short list looking like for their test pools thus far?

 

[psly4mne]

So far:
Avacyn
Relentless Dead
Asylum Visitor
Falkenrath Gorger
Diregraf Colossus (maybe)
Thing in the Ice (test)
Duskwatch Recruiter (maybe)

 

[yan]

thraben instigator
topplegeist
town gossipmonger
hanweir militia captain
bygone bishop
archangel avacyn
declaration in stone
gryffs boon

thing in ice
forgotten creation
geralfs masterpiece

relentless dead
heir of falkenwrath
asylum visitor
diregraf colossus
kindly stranger
elusive tormentor
gisas bidding
from under the floorboards
ever after
triskaidekaphobia


falkenrath gorger
scourge wolf
sin prodder
goldknight castigator
avacyns judgment

geistblast
skin invasion


duskwatch recruiter
tireless tracker
traverse the ulvenwald
vessel of nascency
cryptolyth rite
autumn gloom


prized amalgam
anguished unmaking
the gitrog monster
westvale abbey

 

[Tzenmoroth]

Falkenrath Glutton and Village Messenger, misc red cards can come out for these. I like getting more playable creatures at .
Arlinn Kord replacing Sarkhan Vol because upgrade.
Nahiri, the Harbinger replacing Butcher of the Horde oddly enough because my section was actually smaller that other guilds... because there are just so few good cards in it....
Heir of Falkenrath replacing Dusk Urchins, a card I really wanted to be good but alas...
Archangel Avacyn replacing Archangel of Thune. All of the upgrade.
Relentless Dead replacing Curse of Shallow Graves maybe, idk. This probably supports aggro and pox better.
Duskwatch Recruiter is a maybe, ramp or something might come out for it.
Thing in the Ice replacing Jhessian Thief. I wanted thief to be good but let's try a control finisher instead.
Asylum Visitor replacing Night's Whisper. I can't even deal with how much of a card this card is. This is such an upgrade.

 

[Meltyman]

So many cards i want to try out:

My main cube:
sorin, grim nemesis - Either a finisher with top or just a lot of life gain with -ability. I find this card interesting. Doesn't win on the spot, so a big plus!
nahiri, the harbinger - Works with Goblin welder and the -ability can get you out of sticky situations, again doesn't win on the spot, probably will replace Ajani Vengeant.
arlinn kord - first RG planeswalker that might actually stick in my cube, this card looks really sweet.

archangel avacyn - Potentially too powerful, but really interesting. Will replace Archon of Justice
Geralf's Masterpiece - Again, really interesting card for me. A bit hard to evaluate, but i think it's a really powerful finisher for blue, gotta test it.
relentless dead - The best 2-drop for black? yes please.
thing in the ice - There are so many interesting cards and for this i might be the most excited about... will replace Omenspeaker (that used to be Augur of Bolas).
Sigarda, Heron's Grace - Sigarda that isn't oppressive, but seems to be on par with meloku and friends ? yes please!

epiphany at the drownyard - card draw that scales pretty well the more mana you can add to it, seems sweet.
startled awake - hard to evaluate, but it represents a wincon and an infinite blocker, i like this card.

to the slaughter - interesting removal will replace a destroy a creature effect.
declaration in stone - white removal that does something else than just o-ring or journey to nowhere ??? YES PLEASE !! THANK YOU!!
sinister concoction - a bit niche, but i have reanimator in red and black, so i think this could make the cut.

---------------------------------------

Reject Rare Cube:

So many crappy cards, thank you wizards !

Westvale Abbey - might be overpowered, but i have to try it, seems so fun when the game starts to grind ( like it almost always will)
corrupted tombstone - bad manarocks are hard to come by in a rare form so i'll take it.
Tamiyo's Jounal - demonic tutor or card draw ? sick !
Brain in a Jar - just for the name... it belongs here next to Jar of Eyeballs
to the slaughter - not a bad card, but reject rare cube has to have removal and this is an interesting one! also hits Tibalt !
declaration in stone - again, not a bad card, but removal is hard to come by in rare forms and this is an interesting one.
confirm suspicions - counter magic and draw three, siiiiick!
Traverse the Ulvenwald - manafixing.
behold the beyond - for combo decks!

 

[GiftsForgiven]

At the moment:

Archangel Avacyn instead of Baneslayer Angel (Baneslayer needs a downgrade in my cube)
Arlinn Kord instead of either Huntsmaster of the Fells (direct upgrade) or BBE.
Olivia, weird and bad name instead of... not really sure yet
Anguished Unmaking instead of Utter End.
Thing in the ice instead of increasing confusion
Heir of Falkenrath instead of Inverter of Truth

 

[shamizy]

This set is incredible. I don't think there's been a set in the last two years with more additions than this one that I'd like to try out:

Nahiri, the Harbinger - Ajani Vengeant is really freaking strong, might want a change of pace
Arlinn Kord - She's too awesome to not run, pretty powerful, and I just love flip cards
Archangel Avacyn - Interesting card, lots of potential as a control finisher
Topplegeist- Cool effect, good way to tap down a blocker and force weenie damage
Thalia's Lieutenant - Kinda shitty, but Champion into this into dudes sounds awesome
Relentless Dead - Really excited for this one, lots of potential here
Diregraf Colossus - Crazy card with Gravecrawler shenanigans, black threes and fours are so stacked though
Epiphany at the Drownyard - Looks fun, I'll try out anything to live the Lab Man dream more often
To The Slaughter - I love the art, will find a way to slot it in. Splash walker hate always welcome
Rattlechains- 2/1 Flash fliers are sweet, dunno how often that Spirit text will be relevant
Village Messenger - Sweet red one-drop, I could see this getting in for 4-5 pretty consistently
Declaration in Stone - Nice piece of removal, splash hate on Gravecrawlers, and it feels fair
Bygone Bishop - Some card advantage for weenies if they get wiped out after going wide
Thing in the Ice - It's just cool as shit
Duskwatch Recruiter - Very cool Green two-drop, also card advantage?! This does it all at uncommon
Eerie Interlude - ETB effects are king, let's see how good this one is. E-Wit Loops though...
Pack Guardian - Sweet flash card (great flavor too!), interesting means of turning dead lands into gas
Pious Evangel - Soul Brother + flip into another copy of Blood Artist. I'm all for giving BW more reach
Heir of Falkenrath - This card is amazing. Discard outlet and an aggressive 3/2 evasive beater. SOLD.
Compelling Deterrence - Great art, might have enough zombies after this update for it to be relevant

Depending on how much tribal is incidentally upgraded, I may look back into some cards from Innistrad block to see if I can bump up any further tribal support. I like having incidental tribal available as an option, some of my drafters seem to like building themed decks when they can. It's a bonus if two color identities become better established with higher payoffs as well.

 

[Aoret]

Cards I'll definitely make room for
archangel avacyn
relentless dead
diregraf colossus
asylum visitor
sin prodder
tireless tracker
bygone bishop
thing in the ice
arlinn kord
the gitrog monster
heir of falkenrath
pack guardian
duskwatch recruiter


Cards I'll play if I can find room or if I want to cut old stuff
geralf’s masterpiece
mindwrack demon
from under the floorboards
avacyn’s judgment
falkenrath gorger
hanweir militia captain
scourge wolf
deathcap cultivator
confirm suspicions
to the slaughter
sage of ancient lore
silverfur partisan
deathcap cultivator
obsessive skinner
prized amalgam
forgotten creation
skin invasion
kessig forgemaster
dauntless cathar
nearheath chaplain
moldgraf scavenger

ULD (if I don't just abolish it)
westvale abbey

 

[sigh]

topplegeist: may have to get this altered to say Boopgeist. Very cute.
scourge wolf: replacing viashano slaughtermaster. better "off" mode imo, and no multicolor effect to cause confusion
to the slaughter: out with Drown in sorrow, in with this awesome edict
westvale abbey: repeated token maker, sac outlet, and finisher? cool
declaration in stone: "fixed path" also not an enchantment
bygone bishop: white card draw on a not-bad-body with evasion. yes please
thing in the ice: blue 2 drop of the year. cool spells-matter/control finisher
relentless dead: replacing pack rat, being annoying to deal with but not just destroying the game...
asylum visitor: buh-bye pain seer. This is awesome
avacyn's judgement: Arc trail was a little feel-bad sometimes with it's easy 2-1. This is more fair on the front end, with cool upside
sin prodder: supercool and unique red card draw. replaced rekcless bushwhacker.
pack guardian: feeds straight into a theme-without-a-theme of "lands-matter". Love that it's finally a GY-feeding/synergy thing that doesn't cost five
the gitrog monster: GB engine of choice for me. Replacing Meren, which I feel can be a little autopilot and overbearing
Arlinn Kord: sweetest RG planeswalker yet, imo, working great in the "jund" deck. Replaces Mina and Denn.
nahiri, the harbinger: Love this PW very much. Provides GY filler, card selection, madness enabler even, and a cool ult.
anguished unmaking: this is utter end++ imo
gryff's boon: See alfonzo's reasons below.

And maybe:
archangel avacyn
inexorable blob
kindly stranger
autumnal gloom

Most excited by the delirium mechanic in this set, and hoping they continue this mechanic, even bring it back in the future. I think there is a lot of design space with it. Also noticed that almost all of my swaps are for the low end of CMC. Interesting.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

I had really high hopes for this set, and now I'm kind of in a funk about it. There's only a few things that I want to add at the moment, but hopefully I'll get a bit more inspired after the pre-release or hearing back from your play test reports. I purposefully don't play DFCs in my cube as I really cannot be arsed with flipping them about and I haven't found a solution that I like so far. There aren't really any essentials that I feel I'm missing out on though. Maybe my expectations were too high, but for a set that's about the graveyard, I would have hoped for more interesting stuff.

Things I like, which will almost certain to make it in:

Bygone Bishop - This card is great, and probably my favourite from the set. Gives white card advantage, evasive, and a spirit for the day we reach natural Tallowisp density. I really like investigate, the artifact tokens open up lots of other potential synergies. I've seen lots of people saying they will swap out Mentor of the Meek, but I'm playing both and think this could lead to some really cool decks.

Sin Prodder - I recently made a push to make aggro evasive, so things in red that make things difficult to block like menace are good, and the mini game decision is interesting and potentially supports graveyard strategies too - it's cool and not unfair, but I'll probably be more excited once I see it in action.

Vessel of Nascency - Cool graveyard feeding support that gives a play on turn one, simple but a good cog for the wheels of the cube.

Nahiri, the Harbringer - Hoorah, an interesting boros card! I love the looting ability, it helps decks play more smoothly and supports graveyard themes. Plus having main deckable enchantment (and to an extent) artifact removal is great.

Things I am considering, depends on reports backs and if I can make swaps:

Angelic Purge - I know it's not the most powerful but I like giving white a reason to look for cards that support the sacrifice deck. Not being an enchantment is good too, I'm actually quite keen on this.

Griff's Boon - I know this is controvertial, and I don't want to cause another argument about it, but the reasons I am thinking about it are:
* I'm trying to make aggro win through how it evades, rather than fireblast or surprise flying double strike. I recognise that the power buff isn't fantastic but the evasion is very supporting to what I'm trying to do.
* I have quite a lot of self mill and milling this is a free, albeit expensive card.
* If you kill the creature (or in response) you can come back again - providing inevitability in a way that continues to allow both players to participate.
* It provides another reason for white to think about the graveyard, which has been lacking until now.

Topplegeist - I was excited when I first saw this, it's a fair aggro card that helps white care about the graveyard. My main issue is going to be finding room for it. (And it's a spirit too, come on Tallowisp!)

Asylum Visitor - I guess...? I just don't get the hype on this, perhaps if I supported black aggro more or wanted to really push a discard deck. I get that it's powerful but I find it a bit dull. I can see how you might all think I'm weird here.

Pale rider of Trostad - I'm intrigued by this. I see that it's potentially card advantage, and I'm already playing Rotting Rats, but I like the way that it provides a decent roadblock as a blocker but has evasion to nip in too. It puts cards in the graveyard that want to be there but hopes you have the right deck otherwise it's card disadvantage. I actually quite like this.

Tireless Tracker - Investigate, yay! Dull stats that make it easier to kill, boo! I'm blah about this.

Traverse the Ulvenwald - Early land fixing, and then a mini game to turn it into a tutor. I think this might work, but would need to make room.

The Gitrog Monster - This is pretty cool, although I don't have fetchlands, I do have self mill. This is the kind of card that makes me want to build an environment around it, even though I don't have to as it's cool. This is a probable add.

EDIT: Forgot about
Declaration in Stone - Mostly for the ability to slaughter tokens, it's fine, would need to make room.

And that's more or less it. Other things that were on my longer list but I'm probably not taking forward are:

Not Forgotten
Thraben Inspector
Pore Over the Pages
Rattlechains
Welcome to the Fold
Crawling Sensation
Stoic Builder
Anguished unmaking
Sigarda, heron's grace
Skeleton Key
Drownyard Temple

I've not seen any discussion of Skeleton Key, any thoughts on it? Cheap Trinketable equipment that helps evade, provides selection and feeds the graveyard. Is it too weak to be an option? Would like to see it in action.

 

[sigh]

I think one of the problems with SOI for us environment designers is Madness, which tales out a decent chunk of the set for consoderation. Madness is an A/B mechanic, meaning you need explicit madness enabling along with actual madness cards. It was the same way with OGW and colorless, but at least the "/B" there is just lands.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

I think one of the problems with SOI for us environment designers is Madness, which tales out a decent chunk of the set for consoderation. Madness is an A/B mechanic, meaning you need explicit madness enabling along with actual madness cards. It was the same way with OGW and colorless, but at least the "/B" there is just lands.

I just don't find the madness cards in this set all that interesting. Sure, you could build a black red madness control theme (which might be okay I guess and give rakdos a different identity) but you would need to craft your other removal to be 'worse'. I just don't get it.

Maybe I just need more sleep.

 

[sigh]

I just don't find the madness cards in this set all that interesting. Sure, you could build a black red madness control theme (which might be okay I guess and give rakdos a different identity) but you would need to craft your other removal to be 'worse'. I just don't get it.

Maybe I just need more sleep.

No, you are spot on, I think. They probably got a little overcautious with Madness, and that makes for cards that don't really stand out enough to carve out a whole support structure from RB/u

 

[Coke No Ice]

I think one of the problems with SOI for us environment designers is Madness, which tales out a decent chunk of the set for consoderation. Madness is an A/B mechanic, meaning you need explicit madness enabling along with actual madness cards. It was the same way with OGW and colorless, but at least the "/B" there is just lands.

You're right that Madness needs parts A and B to work but you can also replace cards with Madness with cards that have other functions in the graveyard, like flashback, unearth, and scavenge. Then you need other ways to capitalize on the graveyard so that even if you ditch something that doesn't have madness (there will be lots of things that don't have madness) you aren't just card disadvantaging yourself out of the game.

This is pretty format warping, though. It's not something that you can just jam in any old cube and hope it works. I will post my experiments on this subject once cubetutor updates.

 

[ahadabans]

Glad someone brought up Skeleton Key. I initially dismissed it because of Mask of Memory (which draws 2 instead of 1). But is Skulk worth swaping cost/equip cost and losing one on the draw? I still don't think so, but curious what everyone else's opinion on that was.

 

[shamizy]

Madness is a bit too low on the power scale for me to add it to my cube; it just requires too many changes to the rest of the cube design to be viable. There's just not enough of a payoff yet for it to be viable enough for me. As of right now, Madness is just additional flavor text on most of the cards that I might be interested in trying out though I imagine that it could happen every now and then. There's just not a critical mass of powerful/interesting enough cards for me to try and push it as a real archetype yet, might be like 2-3 away though.

 

[sigh]

Glad someone brought up Skeleton Key. I initially dismissed it because of Mask of Memory (which draws 2 instead of 1). But is Skulk worth swaping cost/equip cost and losing one on the draw? I still don't think so, but curious what everyone else's opinion on that was.

guess I'm thinking the Mask beats out the Key a little. Maybe. We haven't seen skulk in action yet, and if that's a valuable evasion ability I could see the key being worthwhile. Drawing two rather than one is just so powerful though...

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I'll have to play the limited format first, but right now nothing is really jumping out at me either.

Most of the (non obvious power max $$$$) cards seem fun but disjointed, and very picky about what environments they would want. Need to play the limited though to get a feel for some of these mechanics.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Cards I will definitely test:
Archangel Avacyn
Relentless Dead
Thalia's Lieutenant
Vessel of Nascency
Always Watching
Asylum Visitor
Eerie Interlude
Heir of Falkenrath
Duskwatch Recruiter
Pack Guardian
Insolent Neonate
Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Nahiri, the Harbinger
Olivia, Mobilized for War
The Gitrog Monster
Prized Amalgam
Drownyard Temple
Westvale Abbey


Cards that are interesting in some capacity:
Arlinn Kord
Reaper of Flight Moonsilver
Lambholt Pacifist
Nearheath Chaplain
Pale Rider of Trostad
Gryff's Boon
Essence Flux
Town Gossipmonger
Thing in the Ice
Hanweir Militia Captain
Diregraf Colossus
Rattlechains
Silverfur Partisan
Seasons Past
Autumnal Gloom

 

[RavebornMuse]

I'll provide my adds/maybes list here soon, but, I just want to say (and idk where else to say this but I'm sure the right person could find it), I feel like we'd really benefit from a forum tag for "set reviews" or something similar. I think it'd make the topic tagging a lot more functional, so we can sort out this kind of set review/spoiler season discussion apart from more general topics like "blue creatures" and stuff. It'd really help both old and new forum users to better use the wealth of data on these forums, I think! (please move this post if it belongs somewhere better.)

 

[Kirblinx]

So, I am unsure as to where to put this, but I just had my prerelease and it feels like a pretty deep limited format. It also feels fairly aggressive. I don't think I've ever had this many two drops in a sealed deck before. Although, I probably should have played some amount of 5CC removal instead of splashing for two-drops. Ah, well, it is what I like to do.

A Pack of Fleas

I ended up going 2-1 (had time issues and had to finish early). Lost in the first round to WB with a pile of flyers and removal. Guys deck was nuts. Then I just out-junded two other jund decks to victory.

The card that impressed me the most was Stensia Masquerade. Being able to swing recklessly was what I wanted to do and this helped immensely. Also, is the sickest combo with Ravenous Bloodseeker.

Rabit Bite is easily the best green common. Come on wizards. You are so close to giving green Fall of the Hammer. Give me that instant speed shenanigans.

Warped Landscape is terrible. I miss Evolving Wilds so much. Was still pretty nice with Stoic Builder.

Very happy with the limited environment. Me and my crew are really looking forward to the release draft. Expecting people to force draft tribal synergies, so I can pick up the gas in between and durdle around a bit.

 

[shamizy]

My pool ended up being pretty trash and I got dunked on by the stupid +4/+2 equipment. Like once you hit 4-5 toughness, it's really hard for anything to die. I got got in my 3rd round by a guy starting off with T1 Village Messenger hit for 1, T2 Flip Messenger and hit for 2 + play Gibbering Fiend ping 1, T3 swing for 4 + play dumb equipment, T4 destroy my hopes and dreams. It was ridiculous b/c I won Game 1 pretty easily, but I just can't beat that equipment. It's ridiculously good and I also got destroyed by it the previous round.

Finished 1-3 after scooping to dude in last round so we each could get a pack from prize pool, ended up opening up Relentless Dead in that pack along with the Diregraf Colossus and Promo Westvale Abbey so it was still a pretty value evening despite sucking.

 

[sigh]

Made it up to the finals facing my former college roommate, walking away with some decent prize support. This was a terrible pool with Grade A++ bombs. But even with all that, it wasn't the bombs that won the matches. This crazy poile of a deck ended up having a really interesting synergy plan: trade off and chump on the ground while slowly chipping away with fliers and some of the bigger creatures. For this reason howlpack wolf was actually one of the worst cards in this deck... couldn't block! I'd say that all my theory crafting was spot on for gryff's boon. It was one of the MVP's of the deck, pulling dual duty of both increasing blockers power to get a trade, and then coming back to form the airforce I needed to finish. I won at least two games on the back of a Boon'd devilthorn fox or insolent neonate. Other MVP's were definitely the 3/5 madness, the dauntless cathar's, and the crows. These pieces all contributed excellently to blocking and trading up, and providing late game punch/airforce.

Mardu Grindfest Creatures

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

How did dance with Devils play out for you?

 

[sigh]

How did dance with Devils play out for you?

Very solid card. Played solidly into part A of the plan. It was excellent at double blocking/killing one attacker while adding lethal damage to one or more other creatures. Traded up a LOT.