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The first previews for M:TG Innistrad: Crimson Vow are here, and players are cordially invited to explore the plane’s darkest chapter yet.
Magic: The Gathering has had a busy year, and the return of the popular plane Innistrad is a chilling but exciting way to conclude 2021. Earlier this year, the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt set invited players to a post-Emrakul Innistrad where ferocious werewolves ran free. Now, in Innistrad: Crimson Vow, the vampire tribe takes its turn.
The monsters are on the rise, and the early spoilers for Innistrad: Crimson Vow make that fact horrifyingly clear. These first previews also prove that, while Crimson Vow takes many cues from Midnight Hunt‘s gameplay design, it has a fresh innovations of its own that are sure to delight all players invited to the vampire nuptials.
Returning Innistrad Tribes & Archetypes In Crimson Vow
Early Crimson Vow spoilers make it clear that Midnight Hunt‘s 10 draft archetypes and numerous creature tribes are back for more, meaning Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow form an unofficial two-set block. One returning archetype is white-blue departed fliers, with Dorothea arriving as a cheap and powerful addition to the tribe. It will soon die, but can transform into an enchantment Aura that allows the enchanted creature to make temporary 4/4 Angel creature tokens. This will remind experienced players of Geist of Saint Traft.
Meanwhile, the black-red Vampire tribe gets a new multicolored legend of its own — Olivia, Crimson Bride. This 3/4 hasty flier can return creatures from the graveyard tapped and attacking, emphasizing the recklessly aggressive nature of the Vampire deck in the Limited format.
In blue, Overcharged Amalgam is an exciting addition to the blue-black Zombie tribe, complete with a counterspell effect. Weary Prisoner is a basic but flavorful addition to the Werewolf tribe, transforming into a deadly 6/6 when day becomes night.
New Effects, Counters & Tokens In Crimson Vow
Even with the similarities between the M:TG sets,, Crimson Vow is setting itself apart from Midnight Hunt, and the all-new cleave effect is an exciting ability that can modify a card’s entire function. Dig Up is a rare sorcery that, if cast for G, will fetch a basic land from the library, but it can do more. At the cost of {1}BBG, it will search for any card and put it into the hand — and that card doesn’t even have to be revealed to the opponent. It’s likely that cleave will appear in other colors too, and may appear on instants as well as sorceries.
Grolnok, the Omnivore introduces croak counters, and it can mill the player’s deck and exile card with croak counters on them. Then, the player can cast spells and play lands this way, which should generate substantial card advantage over time. Grolnok is a hint at a future Frog tribal deck, given the wording of its first triggered ability.
Gluttonous Guest is one of several Crimson Vow cards that can make a new artifact token type: Blood tokens. These are in a similar vein as Treasure, Food and Clue tokens, being noncreature artifacts that can be cheaply sacrificed for an effect. These Blood tokens can rummage, or discard a card to draw a card, which is a reckless version of looting. These Blood tokens can help players throw away unwanted cards to draw new ones, and the discarded cards can be used from the graveyard later, such as creatures with Disturb or reanimation effects.
Savior of Ollenbock is a mythic rare Human Soldier with the new training ability, meaning it gets a +1/+1 counter if it attacks with a creature that has greater power. This is the inverse of the mentor effect the Boros Legion faction used in Ravnica Allegiance, and it reinforces the +1/+1 counter theme of the green-white archetype in draft. The Savior can also exile creatures from the battlefield or a graveyard when it attacks, acting a repeated removal or graveyard hate if it can survive multiple attacks.
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