Innistrad is the first set in the block and will be released September 30, 2011. It is the fifty-seventh expansion for Magic.
Innistrad Design Team – Mark Rosewater (lead)
Richard Garfield
Jenna Helland
Graeme Hopkins
Tom LaPille
Yeah, you read that right. Mr Richard Garfield himself is making a triumphant return to Magic the gathering. Here are the few of the spoilers that have come about already.
The second set will already be called Dark Ascension.
INNISTRAD:
- Innistrad consists of 264 cards, while the latest large sets (Shards of Alara, Zendikar and Scars of Mirrodin all had 249.
- This set has the most top-down design that has ever been.
- Classic horror is the theme, with a tribal component. There are many different horror tropes to be found.
- Innistrad features
and 
Vampires, and 
Zombies, 
and Werewolves, 
and Humans, and Ghosts (Spirits). - Werewolves are a key part of this set, and get their own subtype
- Black zombies are the normal kind that we usually see, blue zombies are Frankenstein-type creations of science.
- Humans will show up in all five colors but will be centered primarily in white, secondarily in green. Humans may be victims or slayers.
- Spirits will show up in all five colors but will be centered primarily in blue. Blue made a lot of sense as it played into many ghosts tropes: flying, unblockable, invisible (hexproof), etc.
- Other creature types include demons and birds, knights and shamans
- The set features graveyard and tribal mechanics
- Returning mechanic: Flashback
- There are two planeswalker cards in the set, one of which is a new Liliana, the other likely the new Garruk.
Skirsdag Cultist 2RR
Creature – Human Shaman (U)
, Sacrifice a creature: Skirsdag Cultist deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
2/2 “Within blood is life. Within life is fire. Within fire is the path to our master’s glory!”
Artist: Slawomir Maniak
Murder of Crows
3UUCreature – Bird (U)
Flying
Whenever another creature dies, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
4/4
Even more than carrion, they crave the last words of the dying.
Artist: Drew Baker
Spectral Rider WW
Creature – Spirit Knight (U)
Intimidate
2/2
Never a word. Never a warning. Only the sound of hoofbeats along the crossways, and the screams of the avenged.
Artist: Igor Kieryluk
Wreath of Geists G
Enchantment – Aura (U)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +X/+X, where X is the number of creature cards in your graveyard.
Before you travel the woods of Kessig, get permission from those who died trying.
Artist: Jason A. Engle
Moan of the Unhallowed 2BB
Sorcery (U)
Put two 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Flashback 5bb
For a ghoul, every village is a buffet and every disaster is a reunion.
Artist: Nils Hamm
Bloodgift Demon 2BB
Creature – Demon
Flying. At the beginning of your upkeep, target player draws a card and loses 1 life.
He relishes the devotion of his Skirsdag puppets and their belief that it will earn them immortality.Illus. Peter Mohrbacher 4/4
Innistrad. As all of us D&D fans know, in Ravenloft, and considered to be one of the greatest bad guys of all time is – Strahd. Coindence? Probably not. A tidied-up Liliana Vess and the threat that ”Horror Lurks Within” will definitely very a mixture of gothic horror and evil incarnate. Either way, we are sure to be submerged in some serious evil.
