10 Best MTG Cards for Historic from Innistrad: Crimson Vow

Innistrad: Crimson Vow releases tomorrow (November 11th) on Magic Arena. We’ve gone through and rated the Mythics, Rares, and some Commons and Uncommons and rated them for their constructed viability and whether or not you should craft them. Today we’re going to focus in on Historic, and take a look at the 10 best cards for the format from Crimson Vow.

10. Mulch

Mulch Mulch Mulch Reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all land cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest into your graveyard. is a super sweet reprint coming from Stronghold and original Innistrad. This card could help bolster some great dredge or reanimator strategies that exist in Historic. This could also help fuel some Wrenn and Seven Wrenn and Seven +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.
0: Put any number of land cards from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
−3: Create a green Treefolk creature token with reach and "This token's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control."
−8: Return all permanent cards from your graveyard to your hand. You get an emblem with "You have no maximum hand size." or Cultivator Colossus Cultivator Colossus Trample
Cultivator Colossus's power and toughness are each equal to the number of lands you control.
When this creature enters, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, draw a card and repeat this process. style ramp decks as well.

9. Stormchaser Drake

Stormchaser Drake Stormchaser Drake Flying
Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell you control, draw a card. is a very cool card. It can go in a Jeskai Feather, the Redeemed Feather, the Redeemed Flying
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature you control, exile that card instead of putting it into your graveyard as it resolves. If you do, return it to your hand at the beginning of the next end step. deck. Even if we don’t want to play Feather, we can still buff this guy up a bunch with buff spells and try to snowball a game win

8. Savior of Ollenbock

Savior of Ollenbock Savior of Ollenbock Training (Whenever this creature attacks with another creature with greater power, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
Whenever this creature trains, exile up to one other target creature from the battlefield or creature card from a graveyard.
When this creature leaves the battlefield, put the exiled cards onto the battlefield under their owners' control. is a very interesting human, and could be worth testing in Humans. I think that there’s plenty of situations where the abilities on here could be useful. We can also hit it off Collected Company Collected Company Look at the top six cards of your library. Put up to two creature cards with mana value 3 or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. which is pretty awesome too.

7. Cemetery Prowler

In a similar fashion to Savior, Cemetery Prowler Cemetery Prowler Vigilance
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, exile a card from a graveyard.
Spells you cast cost {1} less to cast for each card type they share with cards exiled with this creature. is another creature that could fit into the Collected Company deck really nice. If we exile a creature, all of ours our cheaper to cast, which is awesome for that kind of deck. It’s also a solid creature on it’s own as well.

6. Alchemist’s Gambit

Alchemists-Gambit-VOW — *Wizards of the Coast*

Alchemist’s Gambit Alchemist’s Gambit Cleave {4}{U}{U}{R} (You may cast this spell for its cleave cost. If you do, remove the words in square brackets.)
Take an extra turn after this one. During that turn, damage can't be prevented. [At the beginning of that turn's end step, you lose the game.]
Exile Alchemist's Gambit. is a card that is expected to make a big splash in Standard, but Izzet Epiphany is also seemingly making it’s way into Historic too. I think that there’s also tons of 2 turn kill potential with this card due to the larger card pool.

5. Voice of the Blessed

Voice of the Blessed Voice of the Blessed Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
As long as this creature has four or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has flying and vigilance.
As long as this creature has ten or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has indestructible. is basically a better Ajani’s Pridemate Ajani’s Pridemate Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. and will be a replacement for it in the various Life Gain / Angel decks in the format. While those decks are tier 2, this is a solid power boost that will help it’s consistency and strength.

4. Cartographer’s Survey

Cartographer’s Survey Cartographer’s Survey Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put up to two land cards from among them onto the battlefield tapped. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. is a crazy card for ramp decks. Historic has a ton of great ramp cards like Explore Explore Explore You may play an additional land this turn.
Draw a card. and Growth Spiral Growth Spiral Draw a card. You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield. and this definitely another solid spell. This gets us up to 7 mana super quickly and there’s so many great things that we can do at 7+ mana.

3. Hamlet Vanguard

I think that Hamlet Vanguard Hamlet Vanguard Ward {2} (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays {2}.)
This creature enters with two +1/+1 counters on it for each other nontoken Human you control. is a fantastic creature that has a home in the CoCo Humans deck. Having Ward can make it much harder to kill, and it can come in with so many counters that it poses a real threat.

2. Lands

The Dual land cycle in this set are actually very nice inclusions in this format. While Historic has a fairly robust dual land set up, having more options is always a good thing, and these are pretty solid lands.

READ MORE: What is Innistrad: Double Feature?

1. Cemetery Gatekeeper

The card I think I might be the most excited for in Historic is Cemetery Gatekeeper Cemetery Gatekeeper First strike
When this creature enters, exile a card from a graveyard.
Whenever a player plays a land or casts a spell, if it shares a card type with the exiled card, this creature deals 2 damage to that player. . This is Historic’s near equivalent to Eidolon of the Great Revel Eidolon of the Great Revel Whenever a player casts a spell with mana value 3 or less, this creature deals 2 damage to that player. , and something that Mono Red / Burn has been dying for. Since those decks play a lower land count, we won’t be dealing too much damage to ourselves that often, and our opponents will have to consider how much damage they want to end up taking. Say that we exile a creature, we could heavily stymie an aggro deck, and we can finish out the game with a host of burn spells. I think there’s a lot of potential with this card, and I’m excited to build with it.