Magic the Gathering's head designer Mark Rosewater has released his teasers for the upcoming set, Innistrad: Crimson Vow.
As is tradition before the spoiler season of any set, Rosewater gave us a small sneak preview of what is to come in Crimson Vow, which is the second of two consecutive sets (following Midnight Hunt) taking place on the Gothic-inspired plane of Innistrad.
The teaser was posted on Rosewater's Blogatog, one of his key ways of interacting with the Magic community. First, he teased a variety of mechanics, story beats, and creatures:
- Cards that make "bloodline", "croak", "invitation", "judgment", "omen", "slime", and "suspect" counters.
- A new mechanic that "removes something never removed before". Many players are assuming this could be Emblems, but that hasn't been confirmed.
- A "popular and powerful" creature from a previous Innistrad-centric set is getting a reprint.
- A new artifact token to join Clue, Food, and Treasure. Maybe 'Phylactery' or something else blood-related to fit a Vampire-themed set?
- Something that makes a Dragon Illusion token with flying and haste.
- A returning mechanic that was previously seen as a faction mechanic (like the Orzhov Syndicate's Extort or the Dimir's Surveil).
- A new legendary creature card that combines two previous legendary characters. This could be a lot of different Innistrad legends, like Thalia and her bound spirit, the Geist of Saint Traft.
- A new card that can cast specific cards from the top of your library (think along the lines of Radha, Heart of Keld's ability to play lands).
- A new mechanic that is a "mirror" of a pre-existing mechanic. Anti-Menace? Anti-Lifelink?
- One that has gotten a lot of people talking: a previous Innistrad Legendary character gets a new card, but has since become a Vampire. Thalia's name has been mentioned a few times, as she wasn't seen in Midnight Hunt, but it could equally be Adeline's brother, who was kidnapped by vampires before the events of Shadows Over Innistrad. Rosewater said it was a "legendary character", not necessarily that it had a legendary creature card already.
Next, Rosewater quoted some out-of-context rules text of various cards coming in Crimson Vow:
- "Choose a number between 0 and 13". 13 is a running theme in Innistrad sets, with the most recent inclusions of this being Triskadekaphile, Jerren, Corrupted Bishop, and Olivia's Midnight Ambush from Midnight Hunt.
- "With mana value less than or equal to the numbers you control".
- "If it's red, you may cast it this turn".
- "Zombies you control have flying".
- "At the beginning of your upkeep, an opponent may sacrifice a creature".
- "Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent".
- "Twice that many tokens are created instead". Maybe this one is support for the new artifact token type being introduced?
- "Whenever a Human you control dies".
- "Equal to the number of permanents you control that are Spirits and/or enchantments".
- "Then if you control exactly thirteen permanents,"
Finally, Rosewater teased some of the creature types coming, as well as some of the Legendaries who could be the head of your next Commander deck:
- Creature – Human Ranger Werewolf. Daybound and Nightbound have already been confirmed for Crimson Vow, adding more support to the Werewolf tribe that was the focus of Midnight Hunt.
- Creature – Angel Soldier.
- Creature – Zombie Scorpion.
- Creature – Serpent Egg.
- Creature – Eye Horror.
- Legendary Creature – Human Peasant.
- Legendary Creature – Spirit Warlock. This one is exciting, as the Spirit Legendary of Midnight Hunt, Dennick, Apprentice and Dennick, Pious Apparition, was a bit underwhelming for the tribe.
- Legendary Creature – Slug Horror.
- Legendary Creature – Kraken Horror.
- Two new Legendary Creature – Vampire Nobles. Considering this set is all about a wedding between two powerful vampires, it's likely that this is going to be the bride (Olivia Voldaren) and the groom (Edgar Markov?).
Like usual with Rosewater's teasers, this is by no means everything in the set, and more of a cross-section of what we can expect to see. Innistrad: Crimson Vow's spoiler season starts with a preview stream later this week, where we'll actually see cards and new mechanics for the first time.