Card Talk 19

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

Haunted Dead—an uncommon creature from Innistrad Remastered.

This version of Haunted Dead (HD) has a retro card frame. This hearkens back to the original look Magic cards had for the first ten years (1993-2003). They shifted to a modern card frame in 2003, then made more tweaks in 2014 (see here for more information). Though the original frames had some problems (readability among them), they are popular enough to have featured a revival of sorts; many recent releases offer retro frame variants of a subset of cards.

HD originally appeared in Eldritch Moon, the 2016 release that was a return to the Innistrad plane that proved so popular in its initial block (2011-12). Eldritch Moon mixed the Innistrad gothic horror trope with Lovecraftian-inspired beasts known as Eldrazi (featured in 2010's Rise of the Eldrazi set). Since Innistrad Remastered included cards from across all Innistrad-themed sets, HD got a reprint.

HD is an interesting card. Upon entering, you get two creatures: a black 2/2 zombie and white 1/1 spirit with flying. And death is not the end . . . for its card text shows it can come back into play from the graveyard if you pay two mana and discard two cards. This sort of ability can work nicely in 'sacrifice' decks, where you get powerful effects if you're willing to kill your own creatures. It can also pair well with the 'madness' mechanic, where you want to discard cards so you can cast them cheaply.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.