The Definitive Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Limited Guide

Now with the tabletop release of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, players will be battling in limited with the brand new cards. Original Innistrad is regarded as one of the most loved limited environments of all time, and this third return is shaping up to be great as well. Here’s everything you’ll need to know heading into your first Draft or Sealed.

Mechanics

There are a few different mechanics that you’ll be seeing in your packs:

Daybound / Nightbound

Daybound / Nightbound is the upgraded Keyword version of the Werewolf Transform ability. Primarily working with Werewolf cards, other cards will interact with the Day and Night cycle. This mechanic involves either casting no spells on your turn, or casting 2 or more spells to change the Day / Night phase.

Coven

Coven is a new mechanic to Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. This involves having 3 creatures on the battlefield with different power values. This ability primarily shows up on Humans, but there’s also instants and sorceries that have this ability as well.

Decayed

Jadar-Ghoulcaller-of-Nephalia-MID — *Wizards of the Coast*

Decayed is also new to Midnight Hunt. Decayed primarily goes on Zombie Tokens, but there’s some cards the give other creatures Decayed. Decayed Creatures cannot block and after you attack with them they get sacrificed at the end of combat.

Disturb

Beloved-Beggar-MID — *Wizards of the Coast*

Generous-Soul-MID — *Wizards of the Coast*

Disturb is a mechanic that interacts with non-Daybound / Nightbound dual-faced creatures. When a creature with Disturb is in your graveyard, you can cast the creature from there for it’s Disturb cost. It enters the battlefield transformed, and when that creature would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, it get exiled instead.

Flashback

join the dance promo — *Wizards of the Coast*

Flashback is a returning mechanic to the set. Flashback is like Disturb but for instants and sorceries. There’s many different color of spells that have flashback, so this could be a pretty flexible mechanic to squeeze in.

Archetypes

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is a heavily tribal creature themed set, so naturally we want to build around these tribes. Here’s the color combinations for these tribes

Blue Black Zombies

mic-344-champion-of-the-perished — Wizards of the Coast

Blue and Black both have a fair amount of Zombie creatures, and some really awesome tempo oriented spells. Many of the zombie are commons, so they should be easy to come by. You’ll ultimately want to find Bladstitched Skaab or Champion of the Perished Champion of the Perished Whenever another Zombie you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. to really give the deck some extra fight, but the common zombies aren’t too bad.

Green Red Werewolves

mid-157-reckless-stormseeker — Wizards of the Coast

mid-157-storm-charged-slasher — Wizards of the Coast

Green and Red are the Werewolf colors. With this set being heavily themed around Werewolves, there are plenty of great options in the common and uncommon slots for these decks. The Rares and Mythics are incredible and this is, I think, the strongest deck option as they curve out nicely and many of their creatures are rather pushed.

Black Red Vampires

mid-351-bloodthirsty-adversary — Wizards of the Coast

Red and Black is the Vampire colors. This deck seems that it wants to be a bit more aggressive, and has a bunch of cheap spells that interact with Vampires that help pump in some damage. This one is a bit tricky because some of the tribes best creatures are Rares or mythics, but if you find Vampire Socialite, that’s a really good early game lord that puts in a good place.

Green White Humans / Coven

Contortionist-Troupe-MID — *Wizards of the Coast*

Dawnhart Mentor — *Wizards of the Coast*

Green and White are the Humans / Coven colors. The Coven deck is another aggressive slanted deck, but likes to play with the Coven ability. There are a lot of great rares for the tribe, but a lot of the commons and uncommons are quite good. Really if you can build a deck with Coven as a focal point, it should bring the deck up in power.

Blue White Spirits

Blue and White are the Spirits colors. Many of the cards in this deck are going to be Disturb cards. There are some single sided spirits in Blue as well. This deck does have access to a great card in Faithful Mending, allowing it to play from the graveyard a bit easier as well.

Blue Red Spellslinger / Flashback

mid-164-thermo-alchemist — Wizards of the Coast

Delver of Secrets Innistrad Midnight Hunt — Wizards of the Coast

The next archetype is Blue and Red Spellslinger. There are a lot of cards that align themselves with casting instants and sorceries. Thermo-Alchemist Thermo-Alchemist Defender
{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to each opponent.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, untap this creature. and Delver of Secrets Delver of Secrets At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top card of your library. You may reveal that card. If an instant or sorcery card is revealed this way, transform this creature. come to mind and are going to be high caliber picks for this deck. There’s also plenty of solid cheap removal, card draw and counter magic in the set.

Multicolor / Green based Ramp

This one is a bit tricky to build, but it revolves around getting a bunch of [tootltips]Dawnhart Rejuvenator[/tooltips]s, some Path to the Festival Path to the Festival Search your library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. Then if there are three or more basic land types among lands you control, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
Flashback {4}{G} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) and Rootcoil Creepers. Since 2 of these are commons, they should be pretty easy to pick up. From here you can be a bit more flexible with picking up the vast amount of multicolor cards in the set. You may not be 5 colors, but you can play a more than 2 colors pretty comfortably.

Best Filler Cards in Each Color

Now because these we have these tribes that should steer the direction of your deck, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t great cards to flush out the rest of the deck. Here’s the best cards from each color that you should be looking for.

White

Fateful-Absence-MID — *Wizards of the Coast*

Sunset-Revelry-MID — *Wizards of the Coast*

First off Fateful Absence Fateful Absence Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Its controller investigates. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.") is a powerful removal spell. It’s very cheap, and while it is a rare, if you’re in white, this is a really solid pick up. Sunset Revelry Sunset Revelry If an opponent has more life than you, you gain 4 life.
If an opponent controls more creatures than you, create two 1/1 white Human creature tokens.
If an opponent has more cards in hand than you, draw a card. is a mini Timely Reinforcements Timely Reinforcements If you have less life than an opponent, you gain 6 life. If you control fewer creatures than an opponent, create three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens. and can be really helpful in a pinch. Sungold Barrage Sungold Barrage Destroy target creature with toughness 4 or greater. is great to take down big blockers that get in the way of your smaller creature army, and Blessed Defiance Blessed Defiance Target creature you control gets +2/+0 and gains lifelink until end of turn. When that creature dies this turn, create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying. is a great combat trick to help gain some life and possibly keep a board presence.

Blue

For the Blue decks, there’s quite a few good cards to pick up. Otherworldly Gaze Otherworldly Gaze Surveil 3. (Look at the top three cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
Flashback {1}{U} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) lets you set up your draws by purposefully putting cards into your graveyard that you don’t want to draw, and stacking the rest in any order. It also has flashback which can be great in the late game. Consider Consider Surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put it into your graveyard.)
Draw a card. does something similar, but this draws you a card. Vivsection is a great draw spell, especially since there’s a few decks that utilize tokens.

Fading Hope Fading Hope Return target creature to its owner's hand. If its mana value was 3 or less, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.) is an excellent tempo spell that can let you set up your next draw, and Dissipate Dissipate Counter target spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. is an awesome counter spell. Exiling the card that’s countered is very relevant in this format.

Black

For Black, there are two really choice removal spells in Infernal Grasp Infernal Grasp Destroy target creature. You lose 2 life. and Foul Play Foul Play Destroy target creature with power 2 or less. Investigate. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.") . Black also gets to play a bit at instant speed with Blood Pact Blood Pact Target player draws two cards and loses 2 life. . Necrosynthesis Necrosynthesis Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has "Whenever another creature dies, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature."
When enchanted creature dies, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is its power. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. is a very interesting card, but one that can offer some solid card selection and can beef up a creature to great heights.

Red

mid-144-immolation(1) — *Wizards of the Coast*

For our Red cards, Cathartic Pyre Cathartic Pyre Choose one —
• Cathartic Pyre deals 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker.
• Discard up to two cards, then draw that many cards. is a great card. Having the Flexibility of removal or draw is very important. Immolation Immolation Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/-2. can fill a similar role as removal, but if you have to push through a few more points, this can get the job done.

Lunar Frenzy is a bad Temur Battle Rage Temur Battle Rage Target creature gains double strike until end of turn.
Ferocious — That creature also gains trample until end of turn if you control a creature with power 4 or greater. , but that’s a high bar to meet. It’s a very solid combat trick that can scale very well in the late game. Stolen Vitality is also a great combat trick. This lets your creature block favorably in combat, or push through some surprise damage and clear up blockers. When you combine this with a deathtoucher, you’ve got a beefy machine gun.

Green

mid-182-defend-the-celestus — *Wizards of the Coast*

In Green, Timberland Guide is a nice early creature that can make your 1 drop plays a bit stronger. Defend the Celestus is an incredible combat trick. Your opponents will have to consider that your team will get larger when you’re attacking

Clear Shot is a 1 sided fight spell, which is always a great effect. Giving your creature +1/+1 as well is a nice bonus. Bounding Wolf is a great surprise blocker. Having flash and reach gives it the versatility to block anything basically and probably trade efficiently too.

Multicolor

Sacred-Fire-MID — *Wizards of the Coast*

Rite of Oblivion — *Wizards of the Coast*

Last up for our Multicolored cards, Sacred Fire is a baby Lightning Helix Lightning Helix Lightning Helix deals 3 damage to any target and you gain 3 life. that has flashback, which is quite nice. It often will trade in the early game and can make combat a bit tricky in the mid and late game. Rite of Oblivion Rite of Oblivion As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a nonland permanent.
Exile target nonland permanent.
Flashback {2}{W}{B} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost and any additional costs. Then exile it.) is great in the control deck that wants to exile any nonland permanent.

Diregraf Rebirth acts as a Unburial Rites Unburial Rites Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Flashback {3}{W} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) , and depending on the situation can be rather cheap. Croaking Counterpart is a fun copy effect that could let you make copies of some powerful attack trigger or death trigger creatures. Plus it has flashback, which is a nice touch.

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is shaping up to be a really awesome limited environment. With this guide, you should now be equipped to head to prerelease this weekend, and play some of your Magic Arena drafts with more knowledge and confidence.