Obscure Card Reprint in Innistrad Remastered Sparks Debate

Innistrad Remastered has hit the shelves and it’s fair to say it has stirred a certain amount of Mass Hysteria with the MTG community, especially with some of the reprints. But firstly, let’s give an overview of what Innistrad Remastered actually is.

As the name suggests, Innistrad Remastered is the latest in a line of remastered sets which combine former multi-set blocks into a single ‘greatest hits’ set. It began with Timespiral Remastered, combining all of the Time Spiral block, and since then we’ve had Dominaria Remastered (with cards from all the sets on the eponymous plane) and Ravnica Remastered (which brought together all of the most notable guild cards).

Innistrad Remastered features cards from all the Innistrad sets, namely:

• Innistrad
• Dark Ascension
• Avacyn Restored
• Shadows Over Innistrad
• Eldritch Moon
• Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
• Innistrad: Crimson Vow

These sets, all taking place on the gothic horror plane of Innistrad, are among some of the best loved of all time, with iconic (or infamous) limited play, and contributing to some of the best Standard environments we’ve ever known, with decks like Delver, Jund, and The Aristocrats.

Players will not only love getting their hands on classic cards, some of which desperately needed a reprint, but also many are appearing as old border variants for the first time, while others have alternate art, including a few with a ‘monster poster’ treatment.  

What’s notable about Innistrad Remastered, however, is it also contains cards from other sets which either have a direct link to Innistrad in terms of setting, or just feel flavourly fitting in the world of gothic horror. Invasion of Innistrad (originally from March of the Machine) is an obvious no brainer, but others have raised eyebrows – namely, Mass Hysteria.

What’s the Mass Hysteria all about?

Simply put, Mass Hysteria is a reprint from a set that has no connection to Innistrad. In fact, it is from the now-corrupted artifact plane of Mirrordin. While the flavour (and new werewolf art) is certainly fitting for the horror plane, it raises an interesting point regarding other reprints in the set, and ‘remastered’ sets going forward: they don’t need to be confined by previous card lists, so long as there’s a reason to include cards.

Athena Froehlich, the set’s product architect, described them as follows: “There’s a bucket of cards that weren’t originally Innistrad-themed, don’t appear in original Innistrad sets, but we felt had a lot of Innistrad theme and flavor. When you update the artwork, clearly this is an Innistrad card!”

She also confirmed we won’t be seeing loads of these – they appear, pardon the pun, to be ‘silver bullets’ if needed, or fun, reprints.

This means Wizards of the Coast can be more shrewd in the reprints they decide to include in remastered sets, either making for a better limited environment, getting much needed reprints of popular cards out into the wild or, most likely, juicing the set with valuable cards to help sell packs – especially given the slightly higher MSRP of the remastered sets.

As a card, Mass Hysteria is fun inclusion – it’s a popular commander card with an interesting, and abusable effect, and now comes in the increasingly common retro border treatment too. Providing all creatures with haste means that they are no longer ‘summoning sick’ and can both attack and tap as soon as they come into play, breaking one of the game's central rules.

As you’d expect, it’s most widely used in decks that get an unfair advantage by giving their commander haste, such as:

• Krenko, Mob Boss – get your army of goblins going right away by giving Krenko haste, and then all your new tokens have haste too to attack right away  
• Kaalia of the Vast – a commander favourite that’s just so powerful with haste, letting her attack right away and drop the powerful angel, demon or dragon into play
• Narset, Enlightened Master – already known for being hugely powerful (and unfun?!) commander, giving haste to Narset means she can get up to mischief right away with whatever powerful cards are waiting on top of the library, such as extra turn spells
• Voja, Jaws of the Conclave – many think the wolf legend is already too good, the addition of haste to enable the attack trigger to go off right away is downright disgusting!

Remember, however, that Mass Hysteria affects all creatures – including those of your opponent too. In a game of Commander, this could get messy fast, with the other three players, one-by-one, dropping threats to attack you with, before you get a turn again. This means you need to ensure you’re ready to deal with whatever threats they may have, whether it be removal spells, bigger creatures to block with, or the hope that they want to keep you (and therefore Mass Hysteria) around!

Mass Hysteria won’t be a particular focus for collectors, however there are some reasons beyond its game-breaking effect that will interest players. Firstly, it’s the first time the card appears in the old bolder (as a variant in the set), and second the new art will be especially appealing to some, most notably werewolf fans with wolf-focused decks.

Players have a lot to be excited about with Innistrad Remastered – a fresh take on a classic fan-favourite, with Mass Hysteria emblematic of the new twist. If you’re feeling hysterical reading this, head over to the Innistrad Remastered page to see what other spicy reprints have made it in! Whether you're buying sealed products or singles, Magic Madhouse has everything you need!