Where my vampire fans at?

Forget team werewolf, as Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is already old news. It's time to turn the page to night permanently and really sink our teeth into some previews.

No more beating my wings, let's get right to it!

Let's start with a whopper of a reprint in Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.

To be blunt, Thalia is one of the most powerful White cards of all time. She sees play in every format she is legal, and is often even better the more powerful the format gets. Making a three-mana spell cost four is a big deal, but doubling the cost of all one-mana spells is a magnitude better. We've seen Thalia in everything from Legacy Death & Taxes to Modern Humans, but now we get to see her take on a Standard format that already contains a creature heavy White deck as well as a ton of spell based decks built around Alrund's Epiphany.

Thalia isn't free and there's a reason she isn't in all White decks. The restriction of needing to play mostly creatures is a very real one, but alongside spell-like effects such as Skyclave Apparition and Elite Spellbinder this shouldn't be hard to pull off in Standard. The current White weenie decks in Standard are extremely creature dense and Thalia will fit in perfectly.

Furthermore, could you imagine a better card against the most dedicated Alrund's Epiphany decks? May of the current lists are almost entirely spell based, which makes Thalia an immediate must answer threat. Spikefield Hazard // Spikefield Cave's stock was already rising and it's about to go up even more.

This is an exciting one!

After a total post-War of the Spark dry spell, we're starting to see some playable planeswalkers again!

Sorin the Mirthless is Black's newest addition to the planeswalker lineup and he's honestly quite impressive. At four mana and four loyalty he's about what you'd expect, with a +1 ability that takes him right to five and immediately puts you up a card, Dark Confidant-style. Having the ability to peek the card first and decline if it's too damaging is awesome, as is drawing lands for zero life. This is an excellent plus ability.

The -2 ability makes a pesudo-Vampire Nighthawk token, alas, without deathtouch. Deathtouch on the token would have really put things over the top, giving you a top notch blocker to defend Sorin that also plays reasonable offense, but the 2/3 flying body is still an adequate defending force to allow you to untap with Sorin and start drawing cards. Stabilizing with a Sorin in play will be excellent, but will also mean you will need to be aware of the average mana value of your cards.

The ultimate is pretty good and will often be a game winner, but likely won't come up too often as making a flier or two is so appealing.

Sorin joins Lolth, the Spider Queen to form quite the midrange one-two planeswalker punch, but will still need to find a way to deal with the Alrund's Epiphany menace.

Say what now?

Exploit's first run as a mechanic was mostly uneventful. There were a few cards like Sidisi's Faithful and Minister of Pain that saw some fringe play, but it was mostly a limited mechanic. Well, it's pretty safe to say it's been overcharged here in Crimson Vow.

Overcharged Amalgam is awesome.

At its base level, a 3/3 flash flyer for four is unexciting but a very solid rate. It can ambush attackers or come down after leaving mana up, which are both very nice utility aspects to have. If that was the entire card we wouldn't be talking about Standard play except in extreme circumstances, but oh boy is there more. Can I interest you in a fancy Mystic Snake?

Being able to counter any spell for four mana with a good spell attached is amazing, but Blue isn't exactly known for having good fodder creatures to sacrifice. This essentially makes Overcharged Amalgam a Dimir (or maybe Azorius) card, but with all the great fodder style cards in Black this is a great fit. Furthermore, Grafted Identity also providing another awesome payoff for being Blue and wanting fodder creatures. These cards are made for decayed tokens, but don't underestimate Black creatures like Eyetwitch, Shambling Ghast, and Skyclave Shade.

It's definitely a build around, but this is a very exciting and powerful card.

Talk about a low floor and a high ceiling!

Savior of Ollenbock is an interesting take on the traditional Banisher Priest effect we currently already have two of in Standard (Skyclave Apparition and Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute). Rather than triggering on entering the battlefield, it triggers on attacks if you are able to train. What is train? If this creature attacks with someone bigger than it, you get to give it a +1/+1 counter and exile a creature until it leaves the battlefield. As such, it's much flimsier than your typical Banisher Priest, but can trigger multiple times with help.

Furthermore, you can also exile a creature card from your graveyard, and then when Savior of Ollenbock leaves the battlefield you get to return those cards directly to play. While in theory you could use this in some sort of reanimator strategy that would require a whole host of different conditions you would need to meet, this is honestly just great as a way to utilize your Banisher Priest against non-creature decks. You can store away your dead creatures, and then if they kill your Savior you get them back directly to play.

I'm less excited about this one because of the number of hoops you need to jump through, but the raw power is certainly there if you can get it to work.

If you've been watching my Bronze to Mythic Draft series, you should know that I LOVE one-mana tricks in Limited. You should also know that I cut my teeth way back in the day playing Predator's Strike in original Mirrodin block drafts.

What an intersection of past and future!

I am super excited for this card in Limited as it's a phenomenal pump spell for aggressive decks, but I could also see this card making the possible jump to Constructed alongside the Green and White Magecraft cards like Clever Luminmancer and Dragonguard Elite where trample would be huge.

Either way, it's simple but exciting; not every card needs to be a flashy mythic.

Just The First Drops

As someone who really misses the old school structure of blocks (multiple sets in the same flavor and mechanical setting) I am pumped for Crimson Vow to expand upon all the things that Midnight Hunt laid out for us. Getting to see mechanics like Disturb see new design space as well as how returning mechanics like exploit mesh with decayed zombie tokens is going to be a ton of fun.

And so far, we're off to a great start!