You probably don’t need explanation about how this horror plane has influenced far too much of MTG, for better and for worse.
For better, because it put Liliana on the map of everyone’s favorite character, it gave just enough power that isn’t deemed broken through things like Snapcaster and it gave furries a whole deck to express themselves with.
For worse, because this thing called “tropetification”, after Innistrad there’s a big push from (partly) MaRo the comedian before he came to WotC to “put more resonance into MTG cards”, which gets more and more obvious with each passing attempt, culminating in whatever we have now, detectives, cowboys or straight up IPs that don’t get good reviews on Fully Ramblomatic.
Overall, on the same Rabiah score of 1 along with Dominaria and Ravnica? I don’t quite feel it, and from this article maybe you’ll understand why.
Have a dose of designer lore here
TL;DR of that designer lore: The Eldrazi came to be because they didn’t want to make a new plane for the third set that adventure land Zendikar didn’t want to fill in. Which is a problem that resurfaced 2 years later, where they frankly had an even dumber solution of two sets in “a plane inspired by puzzle games… match-three games” and then Innistrad in the spring. Then they shifted Innistrad to the two sets, so maybe the thing in the spring could have been about reintroducing the Ravnican guilds. Eventually they decided to just do another Rise of the Eldrazi, maybe not as radical this time.
Honestly I definitely feel that not-as-polished-as-today feel in Innistrad, like structurally the colors definitely weren’t balanced, adding to the fact of the DFC sheets and I may be spending an hour arguing whether a white cards that transforms to a red card just for flavor has to count as Boros or not. And that sheet probably is the second root (after the change to foils always replacing a common) of how we got to the rarity chaotic mess of Play Boosters today.
My favorite cards from the sets are not those two good cards, but an entire cycle of 5 choose 2 * 2 ways of dual colored flashback cards across the two scary sets. Forgotten dual lands goes to the five enemy checklands, which you probably know more nowadays for their Dominarian art. And a whole set of 10 utility lands that have the colorless frame, the 5 allied was in the same set as those checklands, the 2 black enemy lands was in DKA and the last 3 don’t have black so they’re in AVR.
My favorite character introduced here is Tamiyo no question, that art held up with time, unlike the Thalia in the set prior, that thing is damn washed out for such who would become such a celebrated artist.
TL;DR of that designer lore: BFZ originally was a three set block where they could just have one Eldrazi titan in each set. But of course that time they started trying two set blocks, which mean one of the Eldrazi maybe should go somewhere else. Turned out it was Emrakul going to Innistrad. However allegedly I read somewhere that was always the plan, which meant a two year arc of Eldrazis. I don’t know what could possibly fill in the gaps, but well it was a decision not to make a new plane back in 2010 that lead to all of this. And hey, horror sets finally came in the spring, and summer.
A lot of jank structure somehow still persist, like how SOI’s draft signposts were off color activateds, something Ravnican players probably would just read as lame ass cards. But now also a layer of having to design new complicated things because you can’t just reuse the old reliables. And also a layer of Gatewatch era MTG where cards just isn’t as good, power wise and art wise, as they used to be. Eldritch Moon also had the Eldrazi with colored costs in the top of the set list and have its escalate cycles and the meld pairs forgo Simic.
Dual lands wise, they had a cycle of enemy taplands at uncommon, which is a design mistake, Tarkir had better and at commons! And a cycle of allied reveal lands, which Eldrich Moon didn’t finish for some reasons so Strixhaven puts their own naming structure on it and eventually the allied ones got on Arena… as uncommons, same rarity as the enemy taplands.
Favorite characters, Tamiyo in the dark? No, the artist turned out to be redacted so what happened with my cycle of BFZ full art basics? Thalia and Lili also got better arts IMO (hot take hah), despite their cards being obviously not as good. Arlinn has the best drip out of the werewolves, but well the rest don’t stand up to that so I ain’t a furry. And the gitrog just isn’t that funny, sorry.
They could have proven two set blocks do work with literally any other idea. But then they chose this. Because they thought this was safer than to brave in a new plane. Turns out, they deeply forgot how much importance execution plays into things, not just once.
Now you’re seeing a lot more polish, the signposts are actually gold, each color pair actually gets a commander, the dual land cycle is actually complete, the DFCs are actually color balanced, mechanics actually do get to return, they didn’t need a Lili or Tamiyo (what they actually went with is frankly worse) this time. But then some other aspects doesn’t feel as thought out.
I haven’t mentioned how Innistrad kindredly is focused on five allied color pairs, WU Spirits, UB Zombies, BR Vampires, RG Werewolves and GW Humans. First off, obviously that isn’t as interesting as the enemy pairs. Second off, obviously there are Humans in other colors too, so the Selesnyan bond feels much fuzzier than the rest. Last off, five is an odd number, which means it doesn’t divide evenly with two. So that’s the root cause of why Werewolves didn’t get a precon. Also the root cause of why only Werewolves and Vampires get a showcase frame and then you could appendix in that Warlocks do use the same frame as the furries because on the front side both are humans! MOM argued that frame could even be put on Thalia, who is a soldier, and a zombie, and an angel. And those two frames’ use are also jank, because VOW Werewolves and MID Vampires don’t get anything. What are you keeping surprises in that fang frame? Anyhow, this frame rant will be elaborated on much later.