With the full set list finally available for Magic: The Gathering's Innistrad Remastered set finally revealed, I can confidently say that Werewolves got the shaft.

While werewolves aren't exclusive to Innistrad, only four of the seventy-six currently in print are from sets outside of the popular gothic horror setting. And while Wizards of the Coast toyed with were-creatures transforming back in Odyssey block with Treacherous Werewolf, Dirty Wererat, and Werebear, which each receiving a buff representing their animal form once you had seven cards in your graveyard, it wasn't until Innistrad that they really went all-in on the concept, creating double-sided cards that flipped when certain conditions were met.

In the original Innistrad block, the trigger to transform Werewolves was for no players to cast any spells the previous turn, and any player casting two or more spells would turn them back. It was clever flavor: no spells meant that everyone must be asleep, so men and women could turn into monsters at night, and back into Humans during the day, when there was more activity.

But players quickly found a flaw: to transform your Werewolves, you needed to skip playing any spells for a whole turn, but your opponent could easily stop the effect by casting a single low-cost instant like Gitaxian Probe, or reverse it with two cheap spells on their own turn, ensuring that you skipped building up your board for nothing.

It wasn't until nearly a decade later that werewolves got an upgrade in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. The Day/Night cycle limited the triggers to the current active player, so when Timmy draws a card and passes his turn, it becomes Night and all his Werewolves transform, no matter how many cards Spike plays. Timmy can then cast as many spells as he wants on his opponent's turn without losing his advantage. It also meant that all Daybound creatures would transform at the same time, instead of occasionally getting a mix of Humans and Werewolves.

Why Is The Day/Night Mechanic Missing?

The Day/Night cycle was a huge upgrade for Werewolves, especially with Tovolar, Dire Overlord // Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge tying both old and new Werewolves together. Unfortunately, it was miserable for every other player.

Once any player started the Day/Night cycle, everyone at the table was forced to track it for the rest of the game. Even in Commander, including one Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton added an extra burden of tracking cycles to the game. After all, even if it died, someone might Reanimate it later or cast a Curse of Leeches, and they'll need to know whether it's Day or Night.

Mark Rosewater, head designer for Magic: The Gathering, has voiced his support for updating the Innistrad-block Werewolves to use the Day/Night cycle, but has also stated that R&D considers Day/Night to be a mistake.

Innistrad Remastered dodges the issue of forcing players to track the Day/Night cycle by ignoring all Werewolves from Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow, reprinting only Werewolves from the original Innistrad block and the non-Human ones from Eldritch Moon. While this avoids forcing players in limited environments to deal with a part of the game that isn't any fun, it also makes Gruul (Red/Green) Werewolves one of the weakest draft archetypes in the set.

Gruul is an aggressive color combo that relies heavily on playing creatures and overwhelming your opponent with creatures. The older style of Werewolves reprinted in Innistrad Remastered force players to choose between playing and attacking, and doesn't even get support like Kessig Wolf Run to make attacking a viable option with Human Werewolves before they flip.

The few Eldrazi Werewolves that can be permanently transformed prop up the archetype a bit, but I find myself wishing that they'd just reprinted the whole set, rather than making the daybound Werewolves the only group without representation. Or that the Eldrazi Werewolves had been skipped entirely, so that Immerwolf could have been included.

The Case For Daybound

Outside of Limited environments, the Day/Night cycle is far more popular, especially for Werewolves. Tovolar, Dire Overlord has over ten-times the number of Commander decks as Ulrich of the Krallenhorde // Ulrich, Uncontested Alpha on EDHrec at the time of writing. Yet players looking to finish their full-moon fever decks will find few options in Innistrad Remastered.

Rosewater recently rated day/night as a nine on the Storm Scale, meaning it would take a minor miracle to show up in another Standard-legal set. But remastered sets aren't part of the Standard rotation, so this would have been the perfect opportunity to reprint some of the more desirable cards.

In light of Werewolves missing one of their key mechanics, it seems especially odd that Vampires received some valuable reprints. Edgar Markov, for example, is one of the most popular commanders of all time, and Innistrad Remastered features more treatments than all other legal printings combined. With Wizards of the Coast clearly aligned with Team Edward, werewolf fans will have to wait until they get a dedicated Commander precon before they get any new toys.