https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-09-02

First chapter.

Pretty good at establishing the warlocks, though I hoped it would be a Midsommar kind of horror. Oh well.

Can't wait for Emrakul to come back as a biblicaly accurate angel with tentacles for wings

Well, since Innistrad is one of my favourite planes and the involvement of Teferi is probably going to lead to something important, this actually drew me back into reading the stories. I'd say this was a pretty decent start for the new set. The timing is good, too, releasing this when we've barely seen any cards from the set keeps it spoiler free and leaves the mysteries intact for now.

My only major criticism of this particular story would be the weird present tense style it's written in.

On the plus side, it was cool to see a Falkenrath vampire portrayed exactly as the original worldguide describes them and their attitude to hunting. I always love recognising little details that make for consistent worldbuilding. The nod to the wolfir was also appreciated, seeing more of Arlinn is great, and I really like how organic the witchy Harvesttide stuff feels to the setting. We've been told that all sorts of pre-Avacynian nature cults and folk religions used to exist on Innistrad and still have some lingering remnants here and there, and it's only logical that they would resurface after Avacyn's death. This new aesthetic with candles everywhere is actually pretty reminiscent of Providence IMO. It's just cool to see the kind of plane again that has enough depth to explore new directions and keep itself fresh without the creative folks at WotC having to pull stuff entirely out of their butts.

It's not quite clear from that scene what's going on, but did anyone else get the impression that Klaus the vampire was about to transform into a werewolf? That would be new, but it would make sense for the werewolf curse to become stronger and more virulent, considering the premise of the set. I wouldn't say no to a Vampire Werewolf in this set, sounds like it would be one hell of a beast... And if the Day/Night mechanic is anything to go by, werewolves might transform every night now rather than just at full moon? Which is even worse for the folks on Innistrad because the nights keep lengthening...

Curious to see what the deal with the Celestus is and why Teferi is going to be involved with it. I guess Innistrad just needs someone to cast Equinox. No, wait, wrong story...

Innistrad always feels like a warm vorthosy bath for me...the setting makes itself feel like Magic almost efortlessly and has so much potential for new story hooks. It never has a 'depleted' feeling to me in the same way that for example Zendikar does.

What i found patricular ingenious in this story is the Tovolar hook: they would need to have a legendary werewolf character in this set for sure (i need to be at least somewhat able to compete with my werewolf commander deck!), so putting Tovolar up front is just a stroke of brilliance, as Arlinn had been established as having been called to the Mondronen for the first time as a teenager. Her recollection in this story of it being Tovolar is just icing on the cake.
It also makes sence that we didn't hear from him in Shadows-block as the Mondronen pack was wiped out following the cursemute, so Tovolar was probably in hiding, while Ulrich could take centre stage in that block because the Krallenhorde survived the cursemute intact.

Very solid continuïty on the worldbuilding front.

On the "werewolf Falkenrath", I was under the impression he was turning into some kind of horror, given how he's described as "elongated" and having a weird mouth. Maybe Emrakul's influence is just enough to allow eldritch transformations?

Wrenn's first story: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-09-03

Good to see them hiring excellent writers.
Been a big fan of Seanan for years.

I dont understand why Arlinn was disagreeing with the witch

Love how Wrenn was characterized.
Teferi is just being Teferi and I love him for it. He has always been one of the most relatable characters in magic and I love that he's always positive and great-hearted.
Nice story!

Well said.

The new story was pretty cool. Maybe a bit rushed, but it did everything it needed to do. I really like Wrenn as a character, and they really doubled down on the fact that she's a dryad and not just another boring human. I'm curious to learn what that monster in the forest was... And yeah, I agree about Teferi just being Teferi, their interaction was fun to read. Now we only need a good explanation for why he isn't on Dominaria working on those ruins in the Tivan Desert or whatever.

That was the one thing.....he's here just....because? Vacation? Literally, as a matter of fact:



That was so lazy. They obviously just need him on Innistrad because of the time stuff in the story. I love him being here, but it feels forced.

The standard set by these two stories is leaps and bounds better than in previous sets. They feel less rushed. Let's hope that the quality remains this high....i can't bare another Strixhaven or Ikoria storyline. Those were horrible.

LIESA IS BACK

HOW? Or, more importantly, WHY?

Because nature abhors a vacuum and design believes players cannot cope with an incomplete cycle.

This better not be something Moon-rakul made.

I hope she's of the sane mind and is able to reunite with Sigarda.

I'll be pissed if she's evil since her defining characteristic is compassion and pragmatism and trying to make compromises instead of purging everything.

Meanwhile, warlocks got spoiled!

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-09-08

Second story.

Some of the flashbacks make it hard to follow, but overall pretty good. Both the heroes and the villains are family people, it just means different things for a werewolf and normal people.

Nice...Tovolar is the 'insane mentor' archetype of villain. I like that for a change. Liked the story....does it contradict with Arlinn's origin story from Shadows?

I wonder where those dire werwolves come from....

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-09-10

We get just a little bit of the Midsommar horror people speculated about the cult, though of course it's not actually the witches.

I liked the Sisters story, but it had an annoying number of ambiguous pronouns. This case was probably the worst:

I had to reread that paragraph several times to figure out that the first "she" is Sinnia, and the second "she" is Leinore.