Magic: The Gathering Innistrad Remastered review ⏤ A bloody good time

What is a “Remastered” set? These are sets made of reprints themed around a specific plane within Magic: The Gathering. It feels like the Remastered sets fly under the radar for a lot of players. They come out in January and seem to vanish from memory just as quickly as they arrived. This is a shame because they are fascinating, though they serve a specific purpose. If you’re unaware, there have been four “Remastered” sets, with Innistrad being the latest. The designers take cards across every Innistrad set (and more) to create the ultimate Innistrad draft set. If you weren’t around when these sets came out, the hope is that the Remastered set will show you why it’s such a beloved plane. Perhaps you were around for, say, original Innistrad, and you’d like to recapture a bit of that…magic? Because the Remastered sets are not Standard legal, it is even more important that the draft environment be fun. Let’s take a look and see if Innistrad Remastered is the carefully crafted reprint set we want.

Overview - Delver of Secrets

Innistrad Remastered has a lot of complexity within it, from its card selection, set design, and mechanics. A whole host of card rarity changes have occurred; this is to accommodate the draft gameplay, but it does affect card legality (for example, Pauper legality). Innistrad Remastered brings back mechanics from across more than seven sets. The mechanics include:

• Transforming Double-Faced Cards - cards that can transform into a different card
• Disturb - Cards that can be cast from a graveyard that transform into a different card
• Meld - Combine two cards into one more powerful card
• Emerge - Sacrifice a creature to reduce the casting cost of the Emerge creature
• Madness - Cast the card for its Madness cost when the card is discarded
• Escalate - A modal spell where you can pay extra for each mode beyond the first
• Flashback - Cast the spell from your graveyard for its Flashback cost
• Investigate - Create Clue tokens to draw a card
• Blood tokens - Create Blood tokens to discard a card, then draw a card
• Undying - Return the creature to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter
• Miracle - Cast the card for its Miracle cost if it was the first card drawn this turn
• Soulbond - Pair two creatures together for additional abilities

That’s a lot, and on top of all those mechanics, there are multiple versions of the transforming double-faced cards. Wizards is always trying to iterate on card design, and here we can see at least three versions of transforming cards as set design changed over the years.

Despite the myriad of mechanics, Innistrad as a plane has always been consistent across its gothic horror themes. The prominent creature types are, once again, humans, spirits, vampires, werewolves, and zombies (Oh my). You will find other creature types, but these are the major ones that encompass half of the draft archetypes. If you’re not drafting for a creature type, you’re likely drafting around mechanics for powerful synergies. There are so many mechanics and so many versions of them that I’m not going to break down everything, but all of the cards within Innistrad Remastered work together to create complex and interesting decks.

Here are a few mechanical examples of why the gameplay is so good:

• Madness rewards you for discarding cards, and Blood tokens enable discarding cards. These cards are found on the vampires in red/black. So go mad with some vampires.
• Casting cards from your graveyard is in full effect as zombies climb back out with cards like Gisa and Geralf.
• Milling cards into your graveyard is rewarded across the set and further mitigated by Disturb and Flashback cards.
• Unique cards like Laboratory Maniac or Triskaidekaphobia can pop up. These cards are alternate win conditions that are rare in draft design.
• While not falling into a major draft archetype, Eldrazi horrors are found within Innistrad Remastered. These particularly powerful creatures can quickly swing the game in your favor. Someone has to end up with them, so why not you?

Classic cards like Spider Spawning, Travel Preparations, and Lingering Souls have returned, and if you know those cards, go stretch. Not every fondly remembered card has been brought back, but the vast majority of them have. There are even several cards pulled from non-Innistrad sets (like Captivating Vampire) that have been brought into Innistrad Remastered as they fit its gothic horror vibe. The card selection across Innistrad Remastered is exactly what these sets are meant to be: a masterclass of draft design.

Pros - Faith Unbroken

First and foremost, Innistrad Remastered is among the best draft sets I’ve ever come across. This is a set that shows off the best of what Magic can be. Innistrad Remastered captures the best parts of the plane thematically and mechanically. It’s not often that if you draft the right deck, you can cast more spells from your graveyard than your hand. The archetypes have different strengths and weaknesses that interact well with each other. Playing with the Red/Green werewolf deck is very different than the Blue/White Spirits deck, but both are equally satisfying. Aside from the “normal” draft lanes, there are weird inclusions. I mentioned Triskaidekaphobia, as alternate win conditions are not common in draft. The Meld cards are also unique, as combining cards into one in Magic is a rarely used mechanic.

Innistrad Remastered is a classic Magic: The Gathering world of Wizard’s of the Coast creation. The strange horrors of Innistrad are communicated through the “wonderful” artwork. If you’re new to Innistrad, you’ll quickly realize that the werewolves that stalk the Uvenwald forest are far from the worst things you could encounter. Most of the artwork is unchanged, but there are a few cards that received an update. Cards like Hermit Druid have found a much-needed reprint and slot Innstrad flawlessly. As the appeal to the Remastered sets lies in draft gameplay and the reprints, the reprints here are good cards that players will want.

Innistrad Remastered has five card frames, some of which can only be found in collector boosters. There are the normal, borderless, retro, showcase, and movie poster frames. I’ve been criticizing how Magic has had too many art variants lately. Here, though, I think this is just the right amount of variety. All of the frames fit Innistrad’s theme perfectly. The classic artwork was always great, and the new variants live up to their lineage. I particularly like the Innistrad cards in the retro frame.

Cons - Mass Hysteria

The biggest downside of Innistrad Remastered is the price. While there isn’t an MSRP for Play Booster Boxes, as of this writing, boxes of Innistrad Remastered are selling for about 25% higher than Aetherdrift. (I will note that Innistrad Remastered boxes have 36 packs compared to Aetherdrifts 30.) I guess the Remastered sets are printed on rarer paper? I do recognize that the Remastered sets are for drafters or reprint enthusiasts. The higher price has been long established, even back to older “Master” sets, so this isn’t like it’s a surprise. The price, combined with the limited appeal of the Remastered sets, is likely why they disappear from memory so fast. This is a shame, as Innistrad Remastered is some of the best draft design I’ve played with.

Innistrad Remastered is a more “advanced” draft set. I think newer players would do fine in it, but there’s a lot of nuance across these mechanics. Just looking at the bulleted list of mechanics above makes my head spin a bit. Innistrad Remastered might be too much to throw at someone new to the game. Though, if the aim was to hit the longtime players with some nostalgia, someone should take that arrow out of them, as it hit dead center.