Can I just pop in to say that this set is awesome and I love it? Because this set is awesome and I love it. Innistrad becomes more awesome with every set because the new cards tend to play well with the old cards, and it's great that they included a handful of cards with random old keywords like Investigate. And it's good to see that they still come up with new horror references for individual cards while still feeling very much like Innistrad. The Them! reference stood out to me the most (I even watched that movie!). Oh, and Delver of Secrets now turns into the Mothman instead of The Fly, that's pretty funny.

I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen a reference to The Castle of Otranto on Innistrad so far, though (unless I missed something), considering it's the first gothic novel. I'm still waiting for that removal spell that kills a creature by dropping a giant helmet on it. Or at least a gigantic Spirit Knight in a suit of armour tearing down a castle.

I'm assuming they're saving that for Crimson Vow, which deals with castles and mansions since that's where vampires live.

As a horror buff I'm loving the more modern/non-gothic horror references through gothic horror lens. The slasher horror, b-horror creature flick and left over/returning cosmic horror and supernatural mystery stuff along with the folk horror has been really fun. I love the gothic horror stuff but Innistrad defiantly can't just use that over and over. Plus what nice is a lot of stuff we see in retunes (both the lovecraft cults and pagan witches) where elements in past Innistrad sets the retunes built off so having more themes to draw from will mean Innistrad won't feel too tired out for future return sets.

Also makes me hope we might see the lands outside of the main lands maybe have some non-European horror tropes and monsters to deal with.

I debated the best place to post this.
Didn't feel like it would warrant a new thread, quite frankly, but the neutral thread isn't right because this is actually magic related.
So, in true Innistrad fashion, I thought a little necromancy would be appropriate.

https://youtu.be/12X5wgYikqk?si=d2CGAqgvpy18KAOS

Personally, I think there's a decent and very different point here.

Pre-Shadows, an old pitch I had was introducing Moonfolk (distinct from the soratami) as inhuman abductors, blending faefolk stories with alien abductions and tying them to the weird moon.

In general I do wish they'd do more with the moonfolk type, divergent from the soratami.
I was also very fond of the idea there were elves in the deep woods doing very Sidhe things, but that there were practically extinct because they were delicious.

Excellent video

If you were to ask me to make up a theme for GU in Innistrad, it would be the "horror" of finding out the laws of "science" you grew up with were inaccurate, and GU are spots where, not only is it obvious, but society at large pretends doesn't exist because it believes in faulty "science." Similar to Eldrazi horror, but more like the X files. Pirate Wizard school actually fits well with that with the exploration theme and mage schools separate from the rest of the world.

I actually just watched that earlier this week. Cool video, and I like his interpretation of Innistrad. Sorcerers fit into gothic horror, but it's also a weird fit for MTG. Magic player's don't think of magic as a spooky evil thing like the old Gothic horror writers did.

Unironically, my favorite card from the set it can't out on was novice occultist