MTG: Innistrad’s ‘Alchemy’ Previews Are Back In Black
The new digital-first Alchemy format launches this week. In its wake, Innistrad gets a new suite of special Alchemy-only cards.
Want to take a look at Alchemy ahead of the impending release on December 9th? Now’s your chance. Today we’re taking a look at nine newly revealed black cards for Innistrad: Alchemy. Each one showcases the digital-first nature of the new set, featuring some of the new ‘digital mecchanics’ we’ve seen previously in Jumpstart Historic Horizons 2.
It’s a historic new age for Magic: The Gathering. Check it out:
First up we have the perpetual cards. All of these have abilities that affect a card for the duration of the game, no matter what zone they’re in, be it graveyard, or exile, or shuffled back into your deck. Creatures like Gutmorn and Puppet Raiser will help fuel graveyard shenanigans.
Meanwhile Assemble from Parts lets you stitch together creatures out of your graveyard.
And Sap Vitality is removal/burn that comes with a perpetual buff for added value:
As you can see, there’s a lot of milage out of the digital mechanics. Puppet Raiser also features the ‘seek’ mechanic which lets you find the next instance of a given target without shuffling your deck afterwards.
Cards like Citystalker Conoisseur and Sanguine Brushstroke seem poised to set up some Blood token shenanigans.
Especially with the return of the conjure mechanic, which lets you add a card out of the ether, so to speak–meaning you don’t have to already have the card in your deck.
Veteran Ghoulcaller does the same thing, giving you a virtual duplicate of any card you recall from your graveyard to your hand, so you can cast them twice.
Finally Break Expectations and Cursebound Witch both lean into the spellbook mechanic.
Break Expectation has a spellbook–that is, a pre-determined list of cards that can be drafted from. When you trigger the mechanic, you add at random one of the spells in it’s spellbook, which for Break Expectations is the following:
- Colossal Plow
- Millstone
- Whirlermaker
- Magistrate’s Scepter
- Replicating Ring
- Raiders’ Karve
- Weapon Rack
- Relic Amulet
- Orazca Relic
- Fifty Feet of Rope
- Pyre of Heroes
- Treasure Chest
- Leather Armor
- Spiked Pit Trap
- Gingerbrute
Cursebound Witch, on the other hand has these spells:
- Witch’s Cauldron
- Witch’s Vengeance
- Witch’s Oven
- Witch’s Cottage
- Witch’s Familiar
- Curse of Leeches
- Cauldron Familiar
- Black Cat
- Sorcerer’s Broom
- Bloodhunter Bat
- Unwilling Ingredient
- Expanded Anatomy
- Cruel Reality
- Torment of Scarabs
- Trespasser’s Curse
What do you think of Magic’s new digital direction? Let us know in the comments!
