Innistrad: three syllables which, for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering fans, never fail to send a shiver down the spine. It’s one of the game’s ﷽most iconic planes, bringing the horror that has always lurked in the corners of past Magic expansions front and centre, and letting it roam the night with wild abandon.
In turn humorous, macabre, and genuinely frightening, Magic’s various voyages to Innistrad have all been memorable in their own way, combining excellent artwork, strong top-down designs, and compelling narratives. 🗹Th🏅ere can only be one Lord of Darkness, however; today, we’ll be poring over Innistrad’s bloodstained history and determining which expansion deserves to wear that accursed crown.
8 Innis꧟trad: Double Feature
More of an honorary Innistrad set than a full entry on this list, Double Feature is a curious case. Combining every card seen in Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow, even duplicating cards that appeared in both sets, Double Feature also added a black-and-white art treatment across every single card, casting the Plane's horrors in a new light.
While this was an interesting concept, and leaned into the classic B-movie horror stylings that define a lot of what Innistrad is as a Plane, the set didn’t add any new cards. Nor did it remove any to create a curated draft experience like we saw with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Time Spiral Remastered. Combine this with lukewarm player reception and a lac🐼k of any additional narrative element,♏ and Double Feature clearly stands as the weakest of the Innistrad sets.
7 Innistrad: 🐷Midnight Hunt
Acting as a kind of back-to-basics return to the stylings of the original Innistrad, Midnight Hunt took a classic monster movie approach, spot🦂lighting Werewolves as the core threat. It also took some interesting steps into Folk Horror, featuring the Harvesttide Festival, a strange event th♛at will set anyone who’s seen the Wicker Man immediately on edge.
🌃This gave it a bit of unique flavour when compared to other Innistrad setಌs, but unfortunately, this narrative intrigue wasn’t matched with intriguing cards. Outside of the now-banned Meathook Massacre, Midnight Hunt brought a few powerful staples to the table, featuring a card lineup that’s largely forgettable and lacking in multi-format relevance.
6 Inn🌳istrad: Crimson Vow
A Vampire wedding was an inspired choice for the narrative focus of Crimson Vow, letting the designers flesh out the culture and 168澳洲🎃幸运5开奖网:social s𓂃tructures of Innistrad’s Vampires in a way that felt different to what had been shown before. Grand balls, blood foun♔tains, and lounging aristocrats all made for great set dressing▨, while the resurrection of Edgar Markov, and his marriage to fan favourite Olivia Voldaren, served as great story high points.
Cards-wise, Crimson Vow fares worse. There are a few standouts, like Necroduality and Cultivator Colossus for Commander, and a Thalia, Guardi🐻an of Thraben reprint for Standard and Modern, but other than that its vampiric vaults are surprisingly low on treasure.
5 🐲 📖 Dark Ascension
The awkward middle child of the original Innistrad block, Dark Ascension didn’t have a huge amount to play with in terms of cards or story. For ✤the latter, Dark Ascension serves mainly as setup for the block’s explosive finale in Avacyn Restored, establishing the dire situation on the Plane and the existence of Avacyn herself.
There are some standout cards from this set, though. Gravecrawler, Faithless Looting, Grafdiggers Cage, Thought Scour, and the original printing of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben represent a suite of multi-format playables that were also highly flavourful and useful in the Standard of th♛e time too.
4 Shadows Over In🌱nistrad
The f𓆏irst return to Innistrad after the original block, Shadows Over Innistrad took the base layer of gothic horror and painted over it several shades darker, introducing creeping mystery elements and sowing seeds of eldritch horror tha𝄹t would fully sprout in the next set.
The whole set had a feeling of unease about it, which was reflected in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:powerful transform cards like Thing In The Ice and Westvale Abbey. Other standouts like Thalia’s Lieuten🌜ant, Thraben Inspector and Brain In A Jar kept the quality at a consistent level throughout, making Shadows a very solid entry in the Innistrad lineage.
3 🌠 Eldritch🎉 Moon
Taking the delirium mechanic introduced in Shadows Over Innistrad to its horrific extreme, Eldritch Moon saw Innistrad’s myriad monsters take on new, somehow even more terrifying forms. Fused with the lurking Eldrazi, these new horrors were showcased with the set’s meld mechanic, a very cool but situation🐠al effect with🔯 more flavour than gameplay implications.
Aside from the brillian🍃t flavour, the set also contained a number of powerful cards: Emrakul herself was, of course, the chase caꦑrd, but others like Sigarda’s Aid, Liliana, the Last Hope and Thermo-Alchemist have all gone on to see success in eternal formats as well.
2 🗹 Avacyn Rꦺestored
A fitting end to an excellent block, Avacyn Restored marked the moment in Innistrad’s narrative where all hell, and heavꦉen, broke loose. As Avacyn and Griselbrand escaped from the Helvault, and all-out conflict ensued, there was no shortage of exciting story moments to enjoy here.
Even better than that were the cards, however. The previously-mentioned duo of Avacyn and Griselbrand were heavy hitters, Griselbrand in particular, but other power cards like Restoration Angel, Craterhoof Behemoth, Cavern of Souls and Blood Artist are still powerful and relevant to this day, drawing an Angel’s chorus from f🌞ans when they receive a reprint.
1 Innistrad
The set that started it all, what else but the original Innistrad could top this list? As the establishing set for the Plane as a whole, it had the unenviable task of building a convincing world from nothing, and it did so expertly. Every faction and region feels (literally, in many cases) fleshed out, and it immediately feels very different to past Planes, 🧸and very dangerous to b𝔉oot.
This comes paired with some of the most iconic Magic cards of all time, not just from Innistrad: Delver of Secrets, Snapcaster Mage, Liliana of the Veil; that’s a trio even newer players have heard of, and it came entirely from this set. Add in 🦩staples like Past in Flames, Stony Silence and Laboratory Maniac, and you have the undisputed king: the first, and finest, trip to Innistrad.