Not quite 2 weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast released the second set in the Innistrad block, called Dark Ascension, for its card game Magic: The Gathering.  While endless sites and authors have provided full set reviews, broken down individually by card, I’m just going to give a general “how it feels” overview, and provide a little bit of feedback/insight into cards I feel will have made an impact, and what the set has meant so far to the Magic community.

Initial impressions of the set I feel were generally good. For anyone who has played sealed/draft format for any length of time, you will have most likely agreed that Innistrad was a fantastic set, with lots of great playables and cards that will retain some value even after they rotate out of Standard format. This meant that Dark Ascension had some big shoes to fill in the expectations of Magic players.  While being a much smaller set than Innistrad, I feel the set didn’t disappoint.  It introduced some new mechanics in Undying and Fateful Hour, and continued on where Innistrad left off with Morbid, Flashback, as well as the Double-Sided cards.

Although the set has only been out for not quite 2 weeks, it has already made quite the impact in the competitive tournament formats.  There has been 2 Starcitygames.com Open Events, as well as a Pro-Tour in Honolulu that featured the Standard format and players put together some interesting brews.  The inclusion of Dark Ascension cards was most apparent in the Wolf Run decks,  notably Red/Green finishing in the 1st and 2nd spot at Pro Tour:Honolulu.  Piloted by Magic legends, Brian Kibler and Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, both decklists were very similar, and featured a 4 of Huntmaster of the Fells fitted in amongst the still somewhat traditional wolf run list.  Dark Ascension also gave some great playables for archetypes that have been off the radar for some time, including Mono-Green, all styles of Birthing Pod decks, and Mage-Blade/U/B Blade.

Individual cards that I feel have made a big impact already and you should probably be playing if you aren’t already include but aren’t limited too: Faithless Looting, Huntmaster of the Fells, Lingering Souls, Strangleroot Geist, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and Gather The Townsfolk.  These cards all obviously don’t fit into the same deck but are all good in there own respective ways.  Lingering Souls can make you five 1/1 fliers at a cost of 5 mana, which is absolutely bonkers and this card will undoubtedly see play in every format.  Sorin, Lord of Innistrad does most of the things you want a planeswalker to do, makes a body, pumps up your existing guys, and his wrath effect is very useful in wiping out 3 creatures/planeswalkers on the opponents side, and then returning them to your own. Gather the Townsfolk might be just what U/W Humans needed to push it into Tier 1 territory in standard, providing you with 2 1/1′s and giving your Snapcaster Mage an excellent target as a flashback option.

With only 2 weeks under its belt, Dark Ascension is proving to be a great addition to a steadily evolving standard meta-game.  There is no single “best deck” by any stretch of the imagination which makes for a very fun, very healthy and very diverse field.  The set also continues in creating a brewers paradise for trying out new things at your local Friday Night Magic.  For anyone who has played Magic for any amount of time, I have no doubt they would all agree its a great time to play right now.

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