Innistrad Midnight Hunt Set Review

It's been a long five years since we were last here, but it's finally time to return to Innistrad! The night is dark and full of terrors, as the world is infested with ghosts, ghouls, mad scientists and, of course, werewolves. It's these lycanthropes we're focusing on in our first of two visits to Innistrad, with a spooky set perfect for Halloween – Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.

Midnight Hunt Mechanics 

Mechanically, Midnight Hunt looks set to be surprisingly complex, with lots of new mechanics to play with interesting adjustments to older favourites.

First up, we're getting a comeback from Innistrad's defining feature, Transforming double-faced cards! Unlike the double-faced cards we saw up to Strixhaven, transforming cards can swap faces when certain things happen. For instance, Ludevic, Necrogenius can flip over and transform into Olag, Ludevic's Hubris if you pay the cost and exile any number of creatures from your graveyard, while Enduring Angel transforms if your life total would be reduced to zero.

With Transform come two new mechanics: Daybound/Nightbound and Disturb. Daybound/Nightbound are states the whole game can be in, kind of like Monarch or having the City's Blessing. When someone makes it either day or night, all creatures (on anyone's battlefield) with day and nightbound transform into their corresponding sides. For example, Tovolar, Dire Overlord turns into Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge at night, and back again in the day.

From there, day and night – and all the transforming creatures affected by it – can be changed depending on how many spells a player has played that turn. If someone plays nothing, it becomes night, while if someone plays at least two spells, it becomes day again! This seems like a really n neat mechanic, especially in Commander where four players could all be constantly flipping between day and night!

Disturb, on the other hand, is more ethereal in nature. If a creature with Disturb is in your graveyard, you can cast its transformed side by paying the disturb cost. Beloved Beggar may just be a 0/4 in life, but in death he becomes the Generous Soul, a 4/4 with flying and vigilance. The catch is, disturbed creatures can't return to the graveyard – if your spell is countered, or it dies, it'll go straight to exile instead.

The other two big mechanics of Midnight Hunt are all about combat: Coven and Decayed.

Coven represents the allied human forces of Innistrad, standing up against the terrors that threaten their lives. If you control at least three creatures with differing power, the Coven ability will trigger. So, if you control a Candlelit Cavalry (a 5/5), a Briarbridge Tracker (a 2/3) and a Gavony Dawnguard (a 3/3), Candlelit Cavalry's Coven ability will trigger, and it will get trample until the end of the turn! I can see this working very well in both +1/+1 counter and human tribal decks!

Decayed represents the polar opposite of Coven, representing putting the dead to use for your own selfish purposes. Decayed is a keyword, like Trample or Reach, that means the creature can't block. When it attacks, they are then sacrificed at the end of combat. While that is a major drawback, it does allow for cheaper ways of making tokens for other uses (such as sacrificing) – Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia can potentially make a lot of Zombie tokens with decayed, and he only costs one generic and one black mana!

Cards to chase down 

Outside of the new mechanics, there are a lot of cool cards to keep an eye out for in Midnight Hunt. In particular, we’re getting a new cycle of allied-colour lands that enter tapped unless you have two or more other lands! Even the basic lands in this set are incredible, with a range of full-art, monochromatic lands showcasing the cursed night that's fallen over Innistrad.

There's lots in Midnight Hunt for all kinds of playstyles, but there are a few standout cards I just can't wait to get my hands on. In particular, I want to put Fleshtaker in a black/white sacrifice-heavy deck, curse other players with Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor, and slot Triskaidekaphile into my draw-focused Kwain, Itinerant Meddler Commander deck. I'm also excited to see which unexpected cards rise up in Standard, like Consider, Unruly Mob or Suspicious Stowaway.

Boosters, Boosters, Boosters

Midnight Hunt is also marking a small shakeup in the product lineup. While we're getting the usual draft, set and collector's boosters (all available individually or in booster boxes), set boosters are being made a bit more enticing. For the first time, these will include new and exclusive made-for-Commander cards in its super rare "The List" cards!

They're also replacing the draft boosters found in Bundles, with the Midnight Hunt bundle including eight set boosters rather than the previous ten draft – that may sounds like a downgrade, but set boosters have a chance for more rares and fancy cards, making them great for those who just like cracking packs, like me.

We're also getting two new Commander pre-constructed decks with Midnight Hunt: the white/green Coven Counters, which focuses on the human cultists of Innistrad, and the black/blue Undead Unleashed, for those who'd rather control armies of Zombies! These pre-constructed decks have been one of the highlights of this year, with almost all of them being incredible and bringing lots of new, awesome cards to the Commander format!

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt launches on September 24, 2021. So pre-order your singles and sealed products today, because who knows what's lurking out there in the night?