







Our mind mage, Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, has planeswalked to the Plane of Innistrad. A place that we thought had reached peace and prosperity after its last debacle. However, something is amiss. The people seem wary, and the dark corners of the plane have reversed their recession. What is happening?













If you are not familiar with the first Innistrad you will be unacquainted with double-faced cards. Innistrad makes use of both the front and back side of the magic card and allows certain creatures to undergo transformation into another creature. This is great for the flavor of certain creatures like a werewolf that is at first glance an ordinary human and then transforms into a ferocious beast.





Each double-faced card enters the battlefield with its front face up and has its own set of characteristics. All of the front facing cards feature an ability that will transform the card and turn it over onto its other face once triggered. It is important to note that when a card is transformed it does not leave the battlefield and will retain any auras, enchantments, and/or counters that may be attached to it. This also means that the transformed creature is unaffected by summoning sickness and can attack the same turn it transforms. As a downside, the new Planeswalker Arlinn Kord transforms, but this transformation is different from the Planeswalkers of Magic Origins. She never leaves the battlefield and therefore cannot be activated a second time on the same turn.





Some of these double-faced cards can transform back to their original form. A unique feature that allows you to adapt your creature to the state of the battlefield.





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Checklist Cards





So you want to play a double-faced card in your new deck and you do not have a sleeve to hide the backside, how does one play with this card without revealing it to his or her opponent? Checklist Cards! These cards are found in some of the Shadows over Innistrad booster packs and can be used to play in an un-sleeved deck to hide the double-faced card from your enemies as they feature the regular Magic the Gathering backside that we all know and love. However, I recommend using sleeves in all or your Magic the Gathering experiences and could therefore bypass the need for a checklist card simply by sleeving your transforming card. The Shadows over Innistrad set features a lot of double-faced cards and therefore has two of these checklist cards. The first checklist featuring all of the commons and uncommons and the second with all of the rares and mythics.









noun

an acutely disturbed state of mind that occurs in fever, intoxication, and other disorders and is characterized by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence of thought and speech.









"Arlinn Kord awoke from a state of delirium alone in a field far from the town she called home. Her clothes were in tatters, and she had many faint wounds across her body. Where had she been and what had she done?"





Innistrad is like the Halloween of Magic the Gathering and features some eerie mechanics. Delirium is new to Innistrad and offers the player a good way to interact with their graveyards. Delirium activates when there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard. These card types that can be represented in your graveyard are: artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker and tribal. Remember, the number of cards does not matter, as long as there are four or more different types among cards in your graveyard. There are many different kinds of delirium abilities and the ability can trigger when a spell is cast or can be an activated ability like the one featured on Reaper of Flight Moonsliver. The power increase provided by these cards is real and worth the trouble to fill your graveyard before casting.

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verb

carry out a systematic or formal inquiry to discover the facts of an incident to discover the truth.









"Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, felt his time was best spent on Innistrad trying to investigate the weird happenings there through the examination of all of the conspicuous clues."





The new mechanic investigate is a new keyword that places Clue artifact tokens onto the battlefield. A player may pay two generic mana and sacrifice a clue to draw a card. This new mechanic is relatively straightforward, but I recommend looking into the benefits of having additional artifacts on the field and using it to your advantage. Also, if the Eldrazi are on Innistrad, these clues hold the answer and the cards featuring investigate seem to hold the most prominent flavor ‘clues’ supporting this theory.





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noun

the state of being mentally ill, especially severely.









"Archangel Avacyn has drifted into madness due to the toxicity of human behavior and now all of Innistrad is at stake!"





Madness plays well into the dark and horrific scenery of Innistrad. The keyword ability triggers when you discard a card that features the madness ability. Instead of the discarded card entering your graveyard it is exiled instead and then may be cast for its madness cost. This is intriguing in a variety of ways. First, the madness cost is often less than the casting cost and can allow for you to play cards sooner. Second, madness can be used during an opponent’s turn and will allow for creatures with madness to enter the battlefield as if they had flash. Third, if an opponent is forcing you to discard, these madness cards are a perfect choice if you have the mana available to play them.





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verb

keep out of sight, typically with a sinister or cowardly motive.









"The Elusive Tormentor chose to skulk as a mysterious mist before transforming into a terrible vampire"





Skulk is a passive keyword ability featured on creatures that prevents them from being blocked by creatures with greater power. It is a great way to get some damage in if an opponent has some strong creatures on the defensive. This joins the ranks of fear and shadow as a way to avoid defenders.





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