MTG March Madness: Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon

Let's take a look at the set preceding the Kaladesh block by opening a Shadows Over Innistrad pack and two packs from Eldritch Moon!

Shadows over Innistrad is a sequel to the Innistrad block from 2011/2012, and it brings back a gothic horror atmosphere and flip cards from the original release. More on that second part later. First, the pack contents:

Each pack contained nine common cards, three uncommon cards, and one rare. As usual, there was also a land card in each pack, but I decided not to include those in the photo. The gimmick for this block was double-faced cards that were designed to be flipped when certain conditions were met. They often represented things like humans transforming into werewolves, creatures transforming into monsters, or even lands becoming something Lovecraftian. Each pack included one, and it wa spossible to get a rare card and a rare flip card. I only got two uncommons and a common.

Each pack also includes a token card to use for various card effects that create them, or a checklist card with a standard card back designed to be marked and included in the deck so you could replace it with the double-faced card when it was played.

The set was fun, but not as fun as the original Innistrad block. It included some fun mechanics that encouraged building new deck archetypes that did unexpected things like milling your own library into the graveyard to trigger special abilities.

These cards are no longer legal in Standard for Friday Night Magic, so they're only useful to people playing Commander, Frontier, Modern, or just having fun with friends. If you find a Fat Pack or booster box for sale somewhere online at a reasonable price, it might be fun to try if you haven't played with the set yet. The collector value isn't too high, but the fun quotient might be.