Innistrad Remastered’s official release is less than three weeks away, and spoiler season is finally upon us. Today, Wizards of the Coast revealed a boatload of cool reprints on a livestream. There are a bunch of iconic staples featured in this first glimpse of the set, which should make for an enjoyable experience.
As is the case for most Remastered sets, a lot of the hype surrounding Innistrad Remastered is focused on Limited play. Original Innistrad was well-known for having a wild draft environment with a lot of unique build-arounds.
Innistrad Remastered takes a lot of these classic archetypes and builds on them with a variety of elite support cards that didn’t appear in original Innistrad. There’s also plenty of thematic overlap between different color pairs, which should make drafting even more interesting. Let’s dive right in and talk about some of the premium draft strategies Innistrad Remastered has to offer.
Typal Decks
One compelling aspect of Innistrad is the abundance of menacing creature types. When I think Innistrad, creature types like Zombies and Vampires immediately come to mind. Luckily, both of these creature types get some potent support in Innistrad Remastered.
With regards to Zombies, the signpost uncommon for Dimir is actually a payoff for a Zombies deck: Bladestitched Skaab. Bladestitched Skaab is a very simple card but packs a big punch as long as you have enough Zombies in your deck.
Meanwhile, the signpost uncommon for Rakdos is Bloodtithe Harvester. Rakdos has a bit of a hybrid theme between Vampires and Madness, and Bloodtithe Harvester covers both bases perfectly.
Creatures like Captivating Vampire heavily reward you for sticking to a Vampires theme. The Blood tokens then ensure you have enough support for Fiery Temper.
Additionally, while no Azorius gold cards were revealed during the livestream, previous spoilers indicate there may be a Spirits theme for the color pair. Mausoleum Wanderer is a pretty powerful payoff, and cards like Lantern Bearer and Spell Queller help you build out a board of pesky fliers.
Go-Wide Strategies
Next up, we have a few color pairs that typically focus on going wide. Selesnya is at the top of the list, boasting incredible engines like Travel Preparations. If you can ever curve Join the Dance into Travel Preparations, your opponent will end up on the backfoot in no time.
Interestingly, Boros also follows a similar pattern, as the signpost uncommon Markov Waltzer clearly shows. During the livestream, Wizards of the Coast employee Melissa DeTora mentioned how well Markov Waltzer and Rally the Peasants pair together (technically, Rally the Peasants hasn’t been officially previewed yet, but it’s inclusion in the set seems quite likely.)
Even Orzhov and Golgari, which have more of a sacrifice theme with Fleshtaker and Grizzly Ghoul as the signpost uncommons, work well with many of these go-wide elements. Token producers like Lingering Souls only make Blood Artist better.
Card Type Matters
This brings us to some of the sweetest decks to build in my opinion: Izzet Spells and Simic mill. Both of these decks require you to put all your attention to one specific card type. Despite the associated risks, if you get the right payoffs, these can be some of the most powerful decks you ever draft.
For Izzet spells, cards like Thermo-Alchemist go a long way in pressuring the opponent. With enough Flashback support, Burning Vengeance has the potential to be a game-breaking all-star.
For Simic mill, you typically want your deck to be comprised of mostly creatures. This way, Vilespawn Spider and, of course, Spider Spawning, can serve as win conditions by themselves. The Simic mill deck also benefits heavily from Flashback as a mechanic. Any cards you mill over that have Flashback give you more to spend your mana on if you’re running low on cards.
Archetypal Overlap
What’s nice about Innistrad Remastered is that even though the set is quite synergistic, many cards fit well into multiple archetypes. This should make it easier to construct a cohesive deck during the draft.
For instance, while we stated that Rakdos is a primary color for Madness, that doesn’t mean that other color pairs can’t utilize Fiery Temper. Green, for instance, has access to Noose Constrictor, which is a fantastic discard outlet for Madness cards. Gruul almost certainly has a heavy Madness theme built in as a result.
A card like Lingering Souls is excellent in go-wide decks and Aristocrats shells, produces Spirit tokens for Azorius, and is a great card to mill over due to Flashback. Assuming mana fixing is good enough in this format, there should be plenty of room to splash cards like this to get full value.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t hyper-specific build-arounds in the set. Obviously, cards like Spider Spawning, Burning Vengeance, and Rise from the Tides require a lot of effort to maximize. But you aren’t forced to draft all-in decks like this if they aren’t open.
Innistrad Remastered looks like an absolute blast to draft. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for any other spoilers that come out of the woodworks in the coming days.
