Something I like doing whenever a new set is released is to just sit down for an hour or so with the full image gallery and piece together the architecture of the set. Really understanding the design intentions, the set’s themes, its mechanics, and its incentive structures, sets you up with the proper framework and context for evaluating cards on an individual level. It’s simple, but it works, and is almost like a “week one cheat code” while a lot of the competition is still evaluating cards in a vacuum.

Consider (thank you, I’m here all week) the cards above. These are just a few examples of cards that look unassuming but given what I’ve seen looking through the set, I’ve earmarked as “cards that are likely better than they look.” 

Following the mechanically tame Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, Innistrad: Midnight Hunt slaps us across the face with a set that’s chalk full of mechanics and subtly complex ones at that. I want to take today to look at the sets mechanics not just to clarify them and make sure we all get what’s going on with them (day/night is a bit of a doozy on the ol’ grokability scale ) but to dive a bit deeper into their drafting, deck building, and gameplay implications.