Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. We're back to talk about all things Innistrad, starting off with the first of two upcoming sets, Midnight Hunt. We're going to be talking about some of the cards that were previewed a few weeks back, and where they could find a home in future Standard. With four sets leaving and Midnight Hunt entering the fray, it leaves a much smaller pool of cards to choose from. This will make some existing cards more playable and makes some of the new cards from Midnight Hunt even more powerful.
To start off, I want to talk about three uncommons that'll no doubt see a lot of play. Here are Consider, Infernal Grasp, and Play with Fire.
Infernal Grasp - Consider - Play with Fire
Consider is an Opt upgrade for Standard that plays well into graveyard synergies and the return of Flashback in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. It'll be great card selection and can build extra value with instant spell synergies. I expect it to see some steady play in Standard. Infernal Grasp is the next in a long line of two-mana Black uncommon removal spells with drawbacks. The only drawback is losing two life, though some players forget that your life total is a resource. Having blanket creature removal for only two mana in Standard is going to significantly power up any Black decks. Speaking of cheap removal, Play with Fire is this set’s one-mana Red removal for creatures with a little bonus if needed. This strictly better Shock even gives you the caveat of scrying if it hits an opponent.
Next up is a throwback reversal card from the original Innistrad set, Champion of the Perished.
Champion of the Perished
Champion of the Parish is no more and it’s time for this one-drop Zombie to take over Standard. This is the perfect one-drop for your Zombie deck as it can grow with each Zombie that enters the battlefield. The question will be whether there are enough Zombies to make it work. Let’s see what Zombies will be left in Standard after rotation.
Dungeon Crawler and Shambling Ghast are great additional one-drop options for Zombies and will help in an aggressive deck. For a two-drop, the only playable one is Wight, but it fits perfectly in the curve for a Zombie aggro deck. The three-drop creature slot is covered with Acererak the Archlich. Being able to cast it multiple times will help grow Champion of the Perished at a quicker rate. After that, at four-mana or higher, your best options are the uncommon lord Death-Priest of Myrkul and the mythic Dragon Ebondeath, Dracolich. Outside of creatures, the two best cards to help Zombie decks are The Book of Vile Darkness which can produce multiple Zombies with its trigger, and Rise of the Dread Marn which can allow you trade in combat and be left with multiple Zombies.
With Champion of the Perished in the rare slot, it’s most likely there will be more Zombies printed throughout the set.
Finally, we have the second iteration of a Modern Allstar planeswalker, Wrenn and Seven.
Wrenn and Seven
To start off you get four abilities and five starting loyalty for this five-mana planeswalker. With four powerful abilities, Wrenn and Seven could become a powerhouse if used in the right deck. Let’s break down the four abilities for this planeswalker.
[+1]: Reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all land cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest into your graveyard. – This is a major card advantage engine, even though you're only getting lands. Having the remaining cards enter your graveyard means you can get value from possible Flashback cards or other graveyard synergies.
[0]: Put any number of land cards from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. – This ability will only be used if you’ve used its first ability to draw a bunch of lands into your hand, or just happen to have a bunch of lands naturally.
[-3]: Create a green Treefolk creature token with reach and "This creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control." – This ability allows you to put up some defense to help protect Wrenn and Seven if needed. Later in the game, it can also be used as a big attacker thanks to all the lands you’ve put on the battlefield.
[-8]: Return all permanent cards from your graveyard to your hand. You get an emblem with "You have no maximum hand size." – If you have other ways to protect Wrenn and Seven over the course of four turns, this ability refills your hand without the need to discard any of them. That’ll help you start to take over the game.
I think that Wrenn and Seven will be an interesting planeswalker to build a deck around. I can see decks using cards that can take advantage of its ability to ramp or get to its ultimate ability quicker with cards like Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider.
Preview season is officially underway and I’m excited to see what’s coming next for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. Thanks for reading the Daily Dose and join me in the coming weeks as I delve into everything Midnight Hunt.
