Avacyn is finally Restored!

Even though the dark hasn't ascended yet....

Hello Everybody! Today on the Mothership, the 3rd set of the Innistrad block was announced, which you can find here. As awesome as it is to learn about the third set, I almost feel it's coming out a little too early, but maybe I'm just spoiled by last year's Mirran vs Phyrexian drama (which ironically enough people felt thy slow-rolled too much). I have only been playing magic for 2 years, so the only other time I have seen the announcement of a final set was for Rise of the Eldrazi, for which I literally jumped out of my chair in euphoria over. I guess my little inner naive chile has forgone me, and now I'm a grumpy old man.

Regardless, let's talk about this set and what it means for the rest of time and space. Avacyn Restored (AVR) is going to be a Large set, so that means it's going to follow the Large-Small-Large structure that Zendikar block followed. In Zendikar block, Rise of the Eldrazi has a completely unique mechanical identity vs Zendikar and Worldwake, and I expect AVR to work the same way. Also, just like ROE, AVR is going to be drafted by itself. So our next 2 draft formats are going to be DKA-INN-INN after Dark Ascension comes out and AVR-AVR-AVR after Avacyn Restored is released.

Now I have to point out, that this is a glorious job of terrible set naming. What do all of these have in common:

Alara Reborn
Rise of the Eldrazi
New Phyrexia
Avacyn Restored

These are the 3rd set from our current block and the past 3 years. All 4 follow a very basic naming structure that is a very blatantly obvious tell as to how the flavor of the block progresses. The only other time that this sort of giveaway set name happened is Saviors of Kamigawa, so it's clearly the cool new thing. I understand how it's good for your story to have a beginning, middle, and end, but you don't need to spell it out with the set names...

Annoying observation aside, because the 3rd set of Innistrad block is going to be a large stand-alone set, we can gain some financial insight. Just like in Zendikar block, the second set it going to be opened relatively little compared to the first and third because of how drafting works. Let's say you draft 100 times a year, 25 times between each set's release. From Scars block - M12 you would have opened:

150 Scars of Mirrodin packs
50 Mirrodin Beseiged packs
25 New Phyrexia packs
75 Magic 2012 packs

Now let's compare this to how this block will shape up (assuming the core set is called Magic 2013):

125 Innistrad packs
25 Dark Ascension packs
75 Avacyn Restored packs
75 Magic 2013 packs

So you can say at first, "Dark Ascension will be opened as frequently as New Phyrexia!" and that is absolutely true. The 3rd set in a traditional block is known for having breakout cards because of this (Tarmogoyf), unless of course you're Saviors of Kamigawa. But one other interesting thing to point out is how Scars block has the numbers all over the place, but Innistrad block has 3 sets at similar levels, but one set dramatically lower. Because of this, the financials of Dark Ascension are going to be very unique. I can't quite say it's going to be similar to Worldwake though, because Jace, the Mind Sculptor did a good job turning the finance world on its head. I think there will be many opportunities for breakout cards from this set, so be prepared to trade accordingly. One last note - Innistrad won't be affected too much by this change as it only loses 17% of it's packs vs 50%.


A couple random thoughts regarding AVR:
-If it has new mechanical identity, then flashback won't return, which makes Burning Vengeance suck. If there isn't enough to warrent a deck after DKA comes out, then don't invest in it
-I don't know if this is new or if I'm oblivious, but it seems they are naming the Pro Tours after the sets now... Pro Tour Avacyn Restored will be block constructed in Spain
-That angel looks really dark compared to other angels with the same lighting (Deathless Angel), maybe it's Avacyn herself, but she has been tainted by demons?
-Does Liliana's quest to kill the demons she is indebted to have any correlation to this?
-What role will Sorin and Garruk play?

Anyways, that's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack

**UPDATE** It was announced on twitter today that there will be no Double Faced Cards in AVR