Crimson Vow Set Review

An endless night may have fallen over Innistrad in Midnight Hunt, but there's still reason to celebrate! The two biggest vampire families of the entire plane are coming together, with the decadent wedding of Olivia Voldaren and Edgar Markov, and Magic the Gathering's latest set, Innistrad: Crimson Vow, has a lot to sink your teeth into.

This set includes three returning mechanics, two of them from Midnight Hunt. The first is Disturb, which allows you to transform a creature into a spirit and cast a card from your graveyard. In Crimson Vow, things are working slightly differently, with the spirits themselves transforming into really useful enchantments. Cards like Kindly Ancestor can be Disturbed to become Ancestor's Embrace to enchant another creature and give it lifelink!

The second returning mechanic from Midnight Hunt is Daybound and Nightbound. Because the eternal night has come to Innistrad it isn't quite as common, being only found on the werewolves of the set, but it works the exact same way. If something makes it day or night, everything with daybound and nightbound transforms to the relevant face. Then, if somebody casts no spells on their turn, it becomes night, and if someone casts more than two, it becomes day.

The last returning mechanic is Exploit. You sacrifice a creature as another enters the battlefield to give you big benefits, like how Mindleech Ghoul can exile a card from an opponent's hand. This is an Innistrad set, so putting stuff into your graveyard will always be useful!

We're not just digging up the past, though. There are two brand new mechanics arriving for the set. Cleave is an alternate casting cost that allows you to flat-out ignore some [bracketed] words on a card. For example, Dig Up usually searches for a basic land, reveals it, and puts it into your hand, but it can be Cleaved to search for any card.

Next is Training. The Humans are still trying to survive on Innistrad, and they're getting stronger and learning how to fight back. Imagine it as the opposite of Mentor: if a creature with Training attacks alongside a creature with higher power, put a +1/+1 counter on it. Whether you're playing a counters deck or just need to buff up your forces in Limited, Training could be a really tricky ability for opponents to deal with.

Mechanics are always cool, but this is a vampire wedding! Where's the style, the pizazz, the luxury? Well, Crimson Vow is giving us three different alternate card art styles to collect. Returning from Midnight Hunt is the eternal night style that renders creatures in a harsh, high-contrast black and white style. This one's also appearing on the basic lands of the set, making a return from Midnight Hunt.

The Fang frame is the delicate, yet brutal 'Showcase' frame of Crimson Vow. Found mostly on the set's Vampires. There are lots of curves, lots of golden filigree, and enough sharp points to remind you just how monstrous these wedding guests really are.

The final style is the most exciting, and is only found in Collector's Boosters or as box toppers for booster boxes. Dracula himself is arriving in Magic with a series of cards with new art based on Bram Stoker's original novel. Voldaren Bloodcast becomes Dracula, Lord of Blood, Olivia, Crimson Bride becomes the Sisters of the Undead, and Sorin the Mirthless Count Dracula himself. There are more of them to find spread throughout the set, working in a similar way to how Ikoria's Godzilla cards did: they're treated as the same card as what they're based on, but just have fancy crossover art that makes collecting them more exciting!

You'll be able to buy Crimson Vow in a few ways. The usual Draft, Set, and Collector's Boosters are available, with Set boosters including new, made-for-Commander cards, and Collector's being one of the only ways to get the Dracula cards. Don't forget Theme Boosters too, which come in each colour and can either build up your collection or work as the basis for a limited, mono-coloured deck to play with.

You'll also be able to pick up a Bundle, which comes with eight Set boosters, a really nice spindown counter, a pack of lands, and an alt-art Sigarda's Summons. The change from Set boosters in Midnight Hunt from the normal Drafts in Bundles made these excellent for cracking open for fun, or even working as prizes for your limited events!

There are also two Commander preconstructed decks: the blue/white Spirit Squadron, and the black/red Vampiric Bloodline. Commander precons have been an absolute smash hit this year, with every single one of them having interesting new cards and a surprisingly high power level. Great for newcomers or those wanting to tinker and upgrade, precons are a fantastic choice.

Innistrad: Crimson Vow launched on November 19. Don't forget to preorder your packs, boxes and singles through Magic Madhouse!