The bride pledges her heart to the groom and he, his undying affection to her. Blood and famine, violence and peace – in eternal life and through moment’s struggle, the two shall rule this land until it’s people are no more. The Heron’s blood makes it so.
Innistrad: Midnight Hunt was a great time. It was the most fun I’ve had drafting in a while. However, in continuing our Spooktober blogs, I want to talk about the upcoming set, Innistrad: Crimson Vow. It continues the story from Midnight Hunt.
Edgar Markov was one of my very first commander decks and I still love to play him on occasion. It always feels good to get that Bloodbond combo off, though your opponents will tend to moan and groan about it. So, without further ado, let’s talk speculation. What are some of the things that we might be getting in Innistrad: Crimson Vow.
Luckily for us, we already have two key pieces of information. One, Midnight Hunt has already come and gone. Two, this Innistrad block is a continuous story spanning across the two sets. So there are some clues from the story of Midnight Hunt that can lead us to a few conclusions about what we’ll get from Crimson Vow.
Planeswalkers
Innistrad is at war. Humans are fighting to keep the celestus and the day-night cycle active. Planeswalkers are going to play a part in this.
What’s the Story
Olivia Voldaren is working to deactivate the celestus and plunge the plane of Innistrad into eternal darkness, thus giving her and her legion of vampires the power to take over. Though it seems the werewolves are on Olivia’s side, Arlinn, a werewolf planeswalker, saw through her schemes. She went to Ravnica and recruited Teferi, Kaya, and Chandra.
What Does it Mean?
Teferi had a card printed in Midnight Hunt, Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset. It’s a pretty good planeswalker that adds some flavor to the story. We did not, however, get a Kaya or Chandra planeswalker in the set. They are part of the story, so it’s safe to assume that we will see both of them in Crimson Vow. It is hard to say what abilities these will have, but we should see them.
Arlinn is still around in the story, but she was printed in Midnight Hunt, so there’s maybe a 50-50 shot that we’ll get a new version in Crimson Vow. It’s also safe to assume that Teferi will continue trying to restore balance to Innistrad, so, while it’s unlikely, we may get another Teferi card in Crimson Vow.
Olivia is Making Moves
Okay, there’s a lot going on in this story. Werewolves have been trying to stop the Celestus. That’s not a huge surprise, right? Werewolves want perpetual night so that they can stay in their werewolf form.
What’s the Story?
The important part of the story here is all about Olivia. She is behind pretty much everything. She sent the werewolves to wear down those defending the Celestus before going herself to end the ritual.
I’ve been saying it a lot in this post, but the Celestus is an artifact that continues the day-night cycle on Innistrad. Olivia is looking to to halt the Celestus in order to create endless night on Innistrad, thus giving her a big power boost.
On top of this, Olivia is looking to cement her place as ruler of Innistrad by intertwining her bloodline with that of the Markov family (remember when I mentioned Edgar at the top of the article?). At some point in Midnight Hunt, we discover that Edgar Markov is missing. Dan, at Central Gaming Corps, has been speculating that Olivia is going to marry Edgar to combine their families.
We thought that a wedding might be coming, but many thought that it would be Sorin getting married, but if you look back at the history of MtG, you’ll find that Olivia and Sorin REALLY don’t like each other.
What Does it Mean?
For the trading card game, this all means some new mechanics and probably a lot of guaranteed cards. For one, we’re looking at the possibility of perpetual night. Now, whether that comes in the form of an artifact, enchantment, or creature, we don’t yet know. Hell, I could even see it coming in the form of a planeswalker emblem, but unless they make Olivia a planeswalker, I’m not sure who would create said emblem.
On top of that, Olivia is likely going to marry a Markov. We know that her relationship with Sorin is…. rocky at best, plus Sorin is in mourning over the death of Avacyn. That, along with the fact that Edgar is missing, is why we believe that it may be Edgar getting married. So here’s what to expect. We’ll get a decent bit of red and black, common and uncommon cards in the theme of a wedding and/or the vow.
What I’m most excited for is that we will likely get new Edgar and Olivia cards. Edgar has never seen a card outside of commander. Even then, we’ve only ever gotten the one Edgar card. I have a hard time believing that an Edgar made for the standard format could be better than the original, but I’m still eagerly awaiting nonetheless.
We will also be getting a new Olivia card. There’s a lot of potential for good commanders to come out of this set. In fact, there will most likely be an Olivia pre-constructed deck. I will probably be wrong, but I want to believe in my heart that combining the bloodlines could push Olivia to planeswalker status. It will definitely put her in charge of Innistrad.
Conclusion
Innistrad: Crimson Vow is going to bring some great stories to the lore of Magic: the Gathering. We also know that there are some great cards coming in the set. Vampires will be getting some great support. Rakdos and Mardu should be getting some good support as well.
Make sure you look out for the spoilers being released on magicspoiler.com this coming Thursday, October 28.
And be sure to be here at Central Gaming Corps on November 12th for our Innistrad: Crimson Vow prerelease!
Game on!
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