The Return of Innistrad
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Jan. 18, 2016, 2:51 a.m. by AxfordArmories
I know theres already a thread or two about the coming block, but I wanted to talk with you guys about it myself, to me this is no ordinary block. I've been playing magic off and on for about 5 years and I started with Innistrad, which is in my opinion one of the best blocks ive ever seen, with dark artwork and awesome abilities and just a overall feel cozy feel to it. I relate it to liking my favorite band breaking Benjamin, you know where theres not one song that wasn't good in some way, that's how I felt about the innistrad block. After innistrad I kind of left the scene which I am glad I did, looking in every once in awhile the past blocks have been terrible (with the esception of zendikar which ive also missed out on), especially theros. sorry if you guys loved it, I absolutely hated it, but im also not a greek mythology person. I just came back into the fold when my friend introduced me to EDH, transforming a old angel deck that never really worked out into raw destruction (go ahead and check it out on my page, I tried linking it but someone else has the name Divine Retribution and I'm a little new so I cant figure out how to tag mine) At the same time I saw the trailer for Shadows over Innistrad and squealed with joy. Innistrad gave me a lot of fond memories and I was always hoping to see its return. Which brings me to our discussion...what are your thoughts? I know people haven't been too excited with two returning blocks in a row but I would think everyone would be excited about this. What do you guys think we will see from this? returning abilities such as undying and miracle perhaps. I am just hoping for more good angels and maybe some awesome mill zombies to give me a reason to turn my champion zombie mill deck edh, undead alchemist was amazing!
EpicFreddi says... #3
Gidgetimer they tuned down the powerlevel in zendikar because the powerlevel in Khans was so high. I think it will rise again now, given that khans rotates out.
January 18, 2016 8:09 a.m.
AndWelcomeToTheJam says... #4
My best idea is that we'll get to see what Sorin was up to during the events of BFZ. I have theorized that we could get two blocks that occur at the same time lore-wise, one being Sorin's doings, one being Nahiri's (both of these walkers are crucial to Zendikar's story and missing). What's more likely to happen is Sorin and Nahiri in the same block, thought I would hate to see a 
walker and a 
walker in the same set.
Further speculation, what exactly is casting the "Shadows" over Innistrad? Is it angels? In the trailer we did see a falling angel feather turning blood red. Have the angels been corrupted by some force, like say, Tibalt? He never really got a proper send-off to my knowledge; will we see a new printing, possibly a good one? Or, could it be Emrakul? We never saw her on Zendikar again; where is she now? Is Sorin fending Emrakul off the Innistrad plane while the other two titans ravage Zendikar?
Going back to past Standard blocks, I personally liked the Theros block, lore-wise. But I enjoy Greek mythos. When it came to deck building, it seemed very weak. Mono-black was a thing for a bit, then mono-green started to dominate. When Khans was released I just bought Flooded Strands and built U/W Heroic, and I dominated most matches I played during its Standard lifespan. I felt Heroic was a great mechanic, but devotion seemed so uninteresting. Put stuff down, then gets tons of mana because you put stuff down, then put bigger stuff down. There really weren't any other mechanics to compensate for this. A majority of the Gods were weak and situational at best, and exile spells were common enough to deal with them effectively before they made any sort of impact. All in all, Theros gave us Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and a Thoughtseize reprint, not much more.
January 18, 2016 8:13 a.m.
I hope that the "Shadows" are another Gris-like character or Emrakul.
January 18, 2016 8:53 a.m.
I can't help feeling like it might be Emrakul. We know the eldrazi will span multiple blocks, and if the accompanying story with the Zendikar art book is true, we know Emrakul isn't on zendikar, but they're looking for her. Which is why Jace brings us back to Innistrad in search of Sorin. I see Emrakul either being on Innistrad, or Sorin taking us to her in the following block
January 18, 2016 10:16 a.m.
Honestly I'm not excited for Shadows over Innistrad. As a commander only guy, I hate bullshit Angels. And you know what was in the last Innistrad block? Bullshit Angels.
Kidding. Actually it looks like it could be an interesting set, although I don't believe it'll be Emrakul attacking Innistrad. It'd be boring from a lore standpoint to have the Eldrazi Titans be the villain 4 sets in a row. Honestly the tentacles remind me of the Skaabs. Although with the whole Lovecraftian theme of the Eldrazi would fit in Innistrad.
January 18, 2016 10:25 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #8
dbpunk the bullshit angle statement is so true though.
I'm hyped for emrakul and vampires.
January 18, 2016 10:46 a.m.
AxfordArmories says... #9
I never did get into the lore, I might although right now I have a lot on my plate. The only thing that bums me out is the block looks like it's only getting two sets. I mean I could be wrong, I don't know where I saw it but it only said two sets.
January 18, 2016 10:55 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #10
AxfordArmories Much like Zendikar, all new block will "only" have two sets.
January 18, 2016 10:56 a.m.
AndWelcomeToTheJam says... #11
All blocks are two sets each now, starting with BFZ block.
January 18, 2016 10:56 a.m.
I also began my main magic experience during Innistrad block which is why I am so excited to return to the plane. While I didn't hate some of the recent blocks, nothing has quite captured that powerful lore element that Innistrad brought.
Personally, I would love to see the return of werewolves and finally get a proper legendary werewolf for EDH. I think we definitely need to see some better zombies come in this set because I hate the delve zombies from Khans block. Vampires are already a potent thing in BFZ block so seeing them further supported would be awesome!
I do believe we will see Emrakul arrive on Innistrad but she will look far more terrifying since she's manifesting on a new plane. I would be blown away if we saw an Eldrazi-corrupted Avacyn (similar to the new Kalitas)! I would love to see a Ghoulcaller Gisa and Stitcher Geralf in standard. I think if they take a page from the BFZ block, then we may also see characters that were referenced in flavor text of the original Innistrad block but were not printed yet.
I am just hoping they won't drop the ball with this set!
January 18, 2016 11:35 a.m.
AxfordArmories says... #13
wait they are only doing two sets a block now? what the hell? that's so lazy.
January 18, 2016 11:44 a.m.
Anybody that is expecting the power level of Shadows over Innistrad to be near the old Innistrad block is in for a rude awakening.
Lets pretend old innistrad didn't have these cards:
Snapcaster Mage
Liliana of the Veil
Birthing Pod
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Balefire Dragon
Blasphemous Act
Cavern of Souls
Deadeye Navigator
Divine Reckoning
Gravecrawler
Judging by how our return to zendikar went you can expect an Innistrad more like how it would have been without all of those iconic cards I put above.
Now we do have two reasons to keep some hope.
Leaked Geist of Saint Traft from an unreleased duel deck. This is a powerful card and may herald the return to stronger things.
With Splinter Twin gone they can print better cards in
and 
without fear of them all ending up in just 1 deck. I have a feeling this time around if they do flashback again the majority of the good cards will be directed more at 
.
January 18, 2016 12:03 p.m.
kengiczar Innistrad wasn't the set Birthing Pod came out of...
January 18, 2016 1:48 p.m.
AxfordArmories says... #16
I'm so happy I still have my Liliana, she's still worth like 100$ and I'm even going to put her in my angel deck when I splash black, along with vess.
January 18, 2016 2:11 p.m.
We have yet to see the rise of white eldrazi, lore wise, how could they appear specifically in Innistrad?
There must be a reason only 1 (in terms of lore) appeared in OotG.
January 19, 2016 3:12 a.m.
Oops my mistake! The others hold true though. WotC considers Snapcasater Mage a mistake and Maro has more than once spoke of his disdain for Blasphemous Act. Also I don't know what they were thinking with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy but I doubt they intended for it to see so much play across formats.
We'll probably get 1-2 Jaces because Innistrad is such an open block mechanically but I dont' think they'll be intentional.
January 19, 2016 3:16 a.m.
AndWelcomeToTheJam says... #19
But what about Garruk? I would love to see a Garruk vs. Sorin or a Garruk vs. Eldrazi matchup.
January 19, 2016 7:50 a.m.
Garruk's power level wouldn't be an issue even if he was a reprint of Innistrad Garruk. I look forward to seeing him myself.
Personally I want to see another Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded that doesn't suck. Really I wish it was the exact same mana cost, , and same loyalty. His +1 should have been just Merfolk Looter's ability.
January 19, 2016 8:08 a.m.
AndWelcomeToTheJam says... #21
Maybe we'll get to see a mono-black, fully veil-cursed out Garruk that isn't a freakin 7-drop.
January 19, 2016 8:30 a.m.
While I would love to continue to see some white Eldrazi, I think the majority of them (if they are in Innistrad) will be black.
Wasn't Tybalt killed by Sorin in the lore? If so I could see them printing a R/B version of the character and upgrade him that way. Could you imagine a full on Demon version of him?!
I would also be very open to a fully cursed Garruk! Maybe it could have some synergy with wolves and werewolves?
January 19, 2016 9:53 a.m.
beakedbard says... #23
I really hope we get another cycle of Alchemist's Refuge, Kessig Wolf Run etc. Those were some of my favourite lands ever printed.
January 19, 2016 10:09 a.m.
AndWelcomeToTheJam says... #24
I didn't think Tibalt got killed, I thought he just planeswalked away or something. I may be mistaken though. And even that doesn't mean he's totally gone. I would like to see a Rakdos walker; the only one we have is Sarkhan the Mad.
January 19, 2016 10:09 a.m.
Well Tibalt was already a devil. We don't know a lot about Devils/Demons relationships but if it were to become canon that devils turn into demons then I would support that.
I kind of like how him being a Devil makes him unique.
January 19, 2016 10:09 a.m.
OP: RTR block was quite good. KTK block was great. What are you talking about the blocks in the past 5 years have sucked? Theros was baaaaadddddd, and BFZ was a huge let down, but otherwise the blocks have been pretty stellar.
The standard environment in RTR was one of the best ever... Almost every card was good. The best mythics were only 20$ because there were sooo many good usable cards. KTK block is pretty close to the same (except for the DTK cards because idk). Not to mention the additions both of these blocks added to modern...
You're nuts.
January 19, 2016 11:55 a.m.
RTR did have a lot of good cards but at the same time certain guilds were just terrible. Like the Rakdos one. Others like the Sylesnya were amazing. Simic and Dimir were to slow. For all the awesome cards in the set that's most of everything I remember lol.
January 19, 2016 11:58 a.m.
By that logic every set ever sucked because all of the cards were not great...
January 19, 2016 12:04 p.m.
Bro I'm just telling you what I remembered. There is no logic in memories.
January 19, 2016 12:16 p.m.
AxfordArmories - The 2-set per block structure was announced right before Khans of Tarkir came out and addressed the problem that 3rd sets were having. It also has resulted in Standard rotating twice per year in stead of annually. So instead of thinking of it as "lazy" you should think of it as "more goodness" packed into each set. Because instead of having to drag out each block to 3 sets, we now get more stuff in each of the sets.
Also, as kengiczar is right to point out, there is no way in hell SOI will be at the same powerlevel as the original Innistrad will be. The powerlevel of Standard has been slowly declining since its peak during the days of the original Zendikar block, and that isn't a bad thing.
January 19, 2016 12:26 p.m.
As a big fan of Tribal and Zombies being my favorite, I am excited. I am hoping for a Zombie Legendary. Currently Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is the best Sultai Zombie Tribal Commander. A Rainbow Zombie Commander would be fantastic too but highly doubtful imo.
We just got Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in Oath so new Vampires in SoI could be interesting.
Perhaps we will get more Werewolves and a decent Werewolf Commander.
The new Zendikar block was Devoid of Black Planeswalkers so I expect we should get a few of them in SoI. Will we be getting multiple Oaths for Black which are also missing in OotG? Maybe Oath of Liliana, Oath of Sorin, Oath of Garruk even?
Innistrad is at least one of my favorite blocks if not my top favorite. I am excited for this new block.
January 24, 2016 3:10 p.m.
bennybubbles says... #33
Doesn't Ob Nixilis count as a black planeswalker? But that aside, more werewolf tribal and a werewolf general are my wants.
Gidgetimer says... #2
BFZ block was a huge disappointment to me as an older format player. There were very few interesting and frankly only one maindeckable card. I am prepared to be disappointed by SOI too.
January 18, 2016 6:26 a.m.