Just as the dark nights close in to herald the end of another year, Wizards has decided to give us its own dose of darkness to wallow in. Innistrad Remastered previews officially kicked off today on the WeeklyMTG stream, and there is a lot of exciting stuff to talk about. One of the most surprising revelations, however, came in the form of Mass Hysteria. This may look like an innocuous reprint to the untrained eye, but it actually breaks one of the core rules of Remastered products. Mass Hysteria, in other words, is a very exciting omen for future Innistrad Remastered spoilers.
Mass Hysteria In Innistrad Remastered
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment
- Card Text: All creatures have Haste.
If you’re an avid Commander player, you’ve probably seen Mass Hysteria around. It grants every creature in play Haste for just one red mana. This makes it a great finisher in aggro or combo decks. As reprints go it’s solid, if not especially exciting. Copies go for around $5 at present, which makes it a decent hit for now. The card is getting both a regular printing and a Retro Frame one in Innistrad Remastered, however. Based on that, you can expect that figure to come down a bit soon.
What really makes Mass Hysteria interesting is what it means for Innistrad Remastered on a broader level. Typically, cards are included in Remastered sets for one of two reasons. Either because they were originally printed in a set focused on the plane in question, or because they’re tied to the plane by their art/flavor. Mass Hysteria, you’ll notice, fulfills neither of those requirements.
This card was originally printed back in Mirrodin, before Innistrad even existed in Magic. It hasn’t been reprinted since, either, other than on The List and in a Secret Lair. This means the card has no link to Innistrad whatsoever and yet, here it is in Innistrad Remastered. So what gives?
Well, it turns out Mass Hysteria is the first in a series of boundary-pushing cards we’ll be seeing in this set. During the Preview Stream, Athena Froehlich, the set’s product architect, described them as follows:
“There’s a bucket of cards that weren’t originally Innistrad-themed, don’t appear in original Innistrad sets, but we felt had a lot of Innistrad theme and flavor. When you update the artwork, clearly this is an Innistrad card!”
Athena Froehlich
So not only does Mass Hysteria break a fundamental rule of Remastered sets, but we’ll be seeing more cards like it as previews continue. Hysteria may not be the most exciting card in a vacuum, but the implications of this more than make up for that.
Anything Goes
Ultimately, this blows the doors of possibility wide open for Innistrad Remastered. If cards can be reprinted here based purely on vibes and not any actual Innistrad connection, then there’s no telling what Wizards will do.
Now before we all get ahead of ourselves, it’s worth noting that this pool of cards will be small. During the stream, Froehlich noted that “There’s not a ton of these but there are a few, including some notable exceptions.” Clearly, Wizards didn’t want to flaunt its own rules too much. The “notable exceptions” part is very interesting, however. Some of the reprints under this new Mass Hysteria logic are probably pretty spicy, going by that.
From a player’s perspective, this whole idea is quite exciting. Remastered sets in the past have been generally well-received, but they’ve also been quite predictable in terms of their content. The staples from most sets/blocks are pretty obvious in retrospect, after all. Including some wildcards based on vibes should give Innistrad Remastered preview season a bit more bite. As Froehlich put it on the stream, “It’s something to keep players on their toes.”
It’s impossible to speculate on what other cards will be joining Mass Hysteria in this Innistrad Remastered sub-set right now. “Innistrad vibes” are broad enough to encapsulate plenty of classic Magic cards. Given how unique the idea is, however, and what Froehlich said on the stream, I’d expect most if not all of these to be juicy reprints.
The idea that a Remastered set can go beyond the sets it draws from and celebrate a given plane in different ways is a great one. Hopefully, the other reprints in this rule-breaking set are good enough to see the concept return next time around.
