The original Innistrad was a massive success, often being lauded as one of the best Magic sets of all time. The whole of the block was received well also, with Avacyn Restored becoming a favorite among casual players, even if competitive players loathed it. Given this, it was a certainty we'd see a follow-up sooner or later, and we ended up getting it much sooner than expected with the 2016 release of Shadows Over Innistrad. This set sought to give us a bit less of a gothic horror experience and more of a lovecraftian one, all while still sticking to its classic roots.

There's a large host of mythic rares to cover this time around, with extras for the era being slipped in thanks to the double-faced cards. Are there going to be some serious winners, or are we getting some major duds? Let's get to ranking them and find out!

18. Geralf's Masterpiece

You know what most Blue decks like to do? Draw lots of cards. This ultimately feels fairly antithetical to what players want out of their decks and as a result it was pretty useless right out of the gate. Skaab Ruinator may have had players fooled the first time around, but they weren't going to fall for a similar setup this time around.

17. Mindwrack Demon

Mindwrack Demon was a great example of a delirium enabler that just felt like it was too difficult to reliably pull off to be good. A four mana flampling 4/5 is a great rate, but the risk of losing four life each turn to it proved too high of a risk, leaving this card quite firmly in the bulk bin.

16. Wolf of Devil's Breach

Admittedly, Wolf of Devil's Breach is just about as lackluster as the two cards above it. What sets it apart, though, is its lack of a clear drawback. In fact, if you saw this card in Limited, you'd absolutely want to take it because it was such a bomb. A big body that also kills creatures and provides a madness enabler as well? What's not to like about that? Maybe the fact that it's mediocre everywhere else, but in the right environment, it wasn't too terrible.

15. Behold the Beyond

Between the extremely high mana cost and the need to discard your hand to make it work, Behold the Beyond was seen as fairly useless during its in-print tenure. Even in a format like Commander, it was simply too much to pull it off effectively. The card would eventually see some competitive play in select builds of Pioneer Lotus Field Combo as part of a way to close the game, but for the majority of its time, it was utterly useless.

14. Olivia, Mobilized for War

Olivia is an excellent rate for a flying creature, and the fact that she can enable madness while making creatures bigger seemed rather interesting. Unfortunately, madness didn't take off quite as much as delirium would prove to, and that deck ended up in Golgari, not Rakdos. Combine this with the fact that she was useless in all other formats - including being mediocre in Commander - and you have a great card that proved to not have a home anywhere.

13. Goldnight Castigator

Goldnight Castigator read fairly interesting as a strong aggressive creature, but the drawback largely proved too great to be worth the powerful attack rate. The card managed to show up in a handful of Standard decks of the era that wanted to be aggressive, but was far from a major player in the format.

12. Descend upon the Sinful

Throughout much of this card's tenure in Standard, it was affectionately referred to as Descend Upon the Fishermen due to an issue with the translation for its French version. While a good meme, the card also saw a little bit of play in Standard control lists thanks to being another board wipe. Better options existed in the era with the likes of Languish, Radiant Flames, and Fumigate all existing during its tenure, but it still showed up in small doses all the same. These days it's far better remembered for the meme factor, though, and isn't great in most formats since it left Standard.

11. Ulvenwald Hydra

Ulvenwald Hydra was a bit of a mixed bag throughout much of its life. It started out as a fairly bulk mythic that no one really wanted outside of a few Commander and Cube enthusiasts but eventually saw some solid play in decks towards the end of its Standard tenure as new decks popped up that could take advantage of it. These days it's a fairly popular option for Commander, but isn't particularly used anywhere else.

10. Startled Awake // Persistent Nightmare

Some cards aren't all that playable but make up for it heavily in terms of novelty. Startled Awake is an excellent example of this, turning out to be a fun way for Mill players to deal a huge blow to their opponents. Not only that, but they then get to buy it back by turning it into a creature that returns to your hand when it deals damage and has solid evasion as well. In practice, this is pretty expensive and hard to pull off, but it felt very unique and flavorful that many players loved it despite the low playability.

9. Arlinn Kord // Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon

Arlinn was a card many players loved but couldn't find a great use for. She saw a respectable amount of play in Standard, but didn't really show up much anywhere else. At this time, though, many players were chomping at the bit for a good werewolf commander so that they could play a werewolves deck. Ulric would come out later, though he'd prove rather dull and unexciting, but that wouldn't stop all the werewolf fans from rocking Arlinn Kord in their deck, either in the 99 or rule zeroed in as the commander.

8. Sigarda, Heron's Grace

Players everywhere loved Sigarda the first time around, with her being arguably the most competitively viable of the three so-called Powerpuff Girls. The other two - Gisela and Bruna - were both fun Commander build-arounds, but Sigarda was less so and more aimed solely at the competitive side of things. Sigarda, Heron's Grace fixed that, providing players with a great build-around Commander that proved popular from day one. It certainly helped that she saw modest Standard play as well, making her a great card all around.

7. Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

At the time, most people were pretty cool on this iteration of Jace. It wasn't exactly Living Guildpact bad, but it seemed like the abilities were pretty underwhelming at five mana. To make matters worse, the format still gave players access to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy at the same time, which was simply better than this on just about every metric. Nevertheless this card managed to see a considerable amount of Standard play and proved to be a great control player all the same.

6. Seasons Past

During the set's preview season and for a lot of the early period of Standard this showed up in, Seasons Past was written off pretty cleanly. It was seen as costing too much mana for an effect that was too difficult to meaningfully set up. That all changed by the time Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad rolled around. As things tend to happen at such events, the pros found a way to make the card not only work, but work well, leading to a strong meta-defining deck until the next rotation. While the card no longer sees serious competitive play, it remains fairly popular in Commander.

5. Sorin, Grim Nemesis

This Sorin may be expensive, but boy are these abilities all a beating. If you ran into this card in Limited, good luck ever besting it. Sorin was an incredibly strong finisher for Standard decks as well, enabling you a constant source of card advantage while you picked away at your opponent's life total. It's even a rock solid Commander option thanks to the +1 ability impacting every opponent rather than just one.

4. Relentless Dead

There really was so much to love about this card when it was being revealed. The art was an incredible callback to the iconic art piece for Endless Ranks of the Dead, the card had decent stats, and it was nigh impossible to get rid of. While the card ended up a touch less playable than people expected in its era, it remained an ever-playable card and to this day remains a popular casual favorite.

3. The Gitrog Monster

ALL GLORY TO THE GITROG MONSTER!

Few creatures have become as iconic to a single format as The Gitrog Monster has become in Commander. It was an immediate hit for its lands-based build around strategy that provided a potent means to churn through your deck and grind out your opponents in the value department. To this day the card remains tremendously popular and over the past year or so has gotten multiple new iterations in the form of Thalia and The Gitrog Monster as well as The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride.

2. Nahiri, the Harbinger

Few role players end up anywhere near as good as Nahiri does. She's rarely ever the best thing you're able to do in your average game of Magic, but it's hard to beat her reach in the formats she's been played in. Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Commander, Cube, even a little Legacy - Nahiri has shown up just about everywhere! Getting to deal with lots of problematic permanents while sifting through your deck and even having the ability to Sneak Attack a big creature into play made her an awesome option over the years.

1. Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier

How do you beat out one iconic Avacyn from the first Innistrad block? You follow it up with another, of course. Archangel Avacyn was one of the frontrunners of the powerful Azorius Flash deck Even long after Flash ate a couple of bans thanks to the removal of both Smuggler's Copter and Reflector Mage, she continue to be an absolutely dominant force in Standard, making her one of the most iconic cards of the era. She hasn't had the staying power of the first card, but this version is still incredibly potent all the same.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: TheMaverickGal