Magic The Gathering Needs To Put Innistrad To Rest For A While
We’ve seen way too much of Magic’s most popular setting recently.
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Ask a Magic The Gathering fan what their favourite setting is, and there’s a very high chance they’re going to say Innistrad. Thanks to its gritty atmosphere and striking aesthetic, the gothic horror world has regularly been seen as one of Magic’s most iconic. It certainly helps that the original Innistrad block is also considered one of the game’s very best from a mechanical standpoint.
For years, Innistrad has been sitting on the backburner, basking in its own glory. Before 2021, the last we’d seen it was in 2016’s Eldritch Moon set, which saw it invaded by the eldritch Eldrazi in a cosmic horror set bursting with brutal art and major story events. But in the space of six months we’ve suddenly had more Innistrad than anyone can cope with, and I’m starting to feel a bit sick of it.
In 2018, Wizards of the Coast abandoned the block development model it had been following for decades. Blocks were a series of sets that shared a setting or mechanical focus, such as how our first trip to Theros was split between Theros, Born of the Gods, and Journey into Nyx. Since blocks were abandoned in favour of individual sets, fans have complained about how rushed each new story is, as it has to resolve itself in just one set instead of the two or three it had in the past.
With players clamouring for a return to blocks, and it having been five years since we last saw the world, the release of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Crimson Vow in late 2021 was an exciting event. Two sets telling the same story and similar design philosophies is exactly what players wanted and it worked for the most part. Midnight Hunt was deliciously folk-horror-y, gave werewolves an overhaul with the Daybound/Nightbound mechanic, and introduced the excellent Disturb, while Crimson Vow took us to the decadent wedding of the two most powerful vampires on Innistrad.
Had Wizards moved on to greener pastures afterwards, Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow would’ve been excellent additions to the Innistrad canon. The problem is it just kept going, adding more and more stuff that was vastly less impressive than the two sets themselves.
First we had the Secret Lairs, with one based on Midnight Hunt’s black-and-white lands, and two more on the Dracula-themed cards printed in Crimson Vow. They were fine, but easily the least interesting of their respective superdrops. They were also when Innistrad was still the current setting for the game, so it didn’t feel too egregious.
Then we had Double Feature, which immediately went down as one of the worst releases ever for Magic. A set that just rammed Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow together a mere two months later, it was expensive, the monochromatic art style every single card was printed in didn’t look good, and it showed how the two sets weren’t designed to be a single limited environment. Almost nobody liked it, and it’s by far the most prominent stain on the Innistrad name so far.
After Double Feature slopped out, it felt like Wizards was ready to move on to new settings. We had the incredible Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty transport us to the glowing Japanese cyberpunk world of Kamigawa, and people adored it. With Innistrad firmly behind us, a new year of new worlds to explore was just getting started… until it suddenly appeared again in Streets of New Capenna.
Street of New Capenna is an art-deco setting of five demonic crime families, unlike anything we’ve seen in Magic before. Like Neon Dynasty, New Capenna is an attempt by Wizards to look forward and push the limits of what Magic’s take on fantasy can be, and it looks incredible. It’s the set I’ve been most excited for ever since it was announced – you’re telling me I could be murdered by a hot demon in a sharp suit? Yes please.
But then it was announced that New Capenna would also be including the in-Magic-universe reprints of the Stranger Things cards released last year. These non-Stranger Things cards aren’t part of the full New Capenna set, but they are included in ‘The List’ of reprints offered as special extras in Set boosters.
With that in mind, why are they all Innistrad themed? Eleven, the Mage has become Cecily, Haunted Mage; Max, the Daredevil is now Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant, and so on. The List allows cards to be pulled from right across Magic’s history, so any setting could’ve been given to any card and it would’ve worked great. We could’ve had a new look at Kaladesh, Amonkhet, Ikoria or Eldraine. They even could’ve used it as an excellent chance to build more on New Capenna itself, with its stunning art direction and world we can’t wait to see more of, but nope. Back to Innistrad we go.
It’s almost like Wizards is that obscure family member who knows you liked Innistrad five years ago, and so it’s the only thing it’ll ever give you for Christmas and birthdays. I liked Innistrad, and still have a fondness for it, but we need time away from it to explore the other weird and wonderful places in the multiverse.
Maybe in another five years I’ll feel ready to go back to Innistrad, but Magic is a game that thrives on its constant evolution – it can be any genre, it can have any mechanics, and it can reinvent itself whenever it feels like it. But it can’t do that if it’s digging up Innistrad’s zombified corpse every other set.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/magic-the-gathering-needs-to-put-innistrad-to-rest-for-a-while/