Eldritch Moon

Eldritch Moon
Set Information
Set symbol
Themes and mechanics	Double-faced cards, Graveyard Matters
Keywords/​ability words	Delirium, Emerge, Escalate, Madness, Meld, Protection, Transform
Set size	205
Expansion code	EMN
Development codename	Fears

Eldritch Moon is the 71st Magic expansion, and the second in the Shadows over Innistrad block. It was released on July 22, 2016, and is a small expansion.

Set details

“

Take On the Darkness

”

Eldritch Moon continues where Shadows over Innistrad left off. It expands its horror theme into Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror. The expansion symbol of the set is a stylized silhouette of Emrakul, but also resembles Liliana's headdress. The set contains 205 cards (74 commons, 70 uncommons, 47 rares, 14 mythic rares), including 15 double-faced cards, 6 meld cards (3 pairs), and randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. A checklist card replaces the basic land in some boosters.

The set is peculiar in its distribution of colors. Counting cards by their casting cost gives a wildly varying number of cards per color, with white having the most cards (36) followed by Red (35), Black (34), Blue (32) and Green (31). When adding in multicolor cards, Eldrazi using the Emerge mechanic with a colored cost as well as the land Hanweir Battlements which has multiple abilities requiring red mana, the totals even out more: White, Blue and Black have 39 cards each that can be cast using those colors, while Red and Green have 38 each (note that these totals count multicolor cards for each of their colors).

Storyline

With the death of Avacyn, the last protections over Innistrad have faded. Nahiri has summoned Emrakul to the plane, to take revenge on Sorin Markov. The Titan of Corruption and Warper of Biology twists all things living, be it plants, animals, or sentient beings, into Eldrazi Horrors. Mutations frequently gain Emrakul's fibrous lattice motif, often including tentacles, extra eyes and limbs and her bizarre colorations. The mutations include five increasing levels of corruption: distorted, disfigured, deformed, misshapen and monstrous. Some of the affected creatures meld together into new organisms. The few unaffected survivors, humans and native monsters alike, fight a losing battle against their mentally and physically twisted former peers. Now Innistrad's fate rests in the hands of unlikely allies: Jace Beleren brings the Gatewatch, and Liliana Vess brings hordes of undead immune to Emrakul's influence.

The cards that represent the pivotal moments in the storyline are: Coax from the Blind Eternities, Campaign of Vengeance, Nahiri's Wrath, Emrakul's Influence, Dark Salvation and Imprisoned in the Moon.

Marketing

Checklist card

Eldritch Moon is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), five intro packs, and a fat pack. It is the last to feature intro packs, which will be replaced by Planeswalker decks in the next expansion. The fat pack is the last to be marketed as such (to be replaced by bundle). The boosters feature artwork from the cards Lunar Force and Smoldering Werewolf, and non-card artwork of Liliana.

Prerelease

Prerelease Events took place on July 16-17, 2016.

Promotional cards

• Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set and a foil double-sided Zombie token.
• Launch promo: Identity Thief
• Game Day: full-art Unsubstantiate
• Game Day (Top 8): Heron's Grace Champion
• Buy-a-Box: Thalia, Heretic Cathar

Tokens and emblems

Eldritch Moon features 8 tokens and 2 emblems.

1. 3/2 Eldrazi Horror for Desperate Sentry, Extricator of Flesh, Extricator of Sin, Enlightened Maniac, Emrakul's Evangel, Foul Emissary, Hanweir, the Writhing Township, Howling Chorus, Otherworldly Outburst and Wharf Infiltrator
2. 1/1 Human Wizard for Docent of Perfection and Final Iteration
3. 2/2 Zombie for Cryptbreaker, Dark Salvation, Graf Harvest, Liliana, the Last Hope, Noosegraf Mob, and Oath of Liliana
4. 2/2 Zombie
5. 2/2 Zombie
6. */* Zombie for Soul Separator
7. 1/1 Human for Hanweir Garrison
8. 1/2 Spider with reach for Ishkanah, Grafwidow
9. Emblem for Liliana, the Last Hope
10. Emblem for Tamiyo, Field Researcher

Tokens from Shadows over Innistrad, named on Eldritch Moon cards:

1. 1/1 Human Soldier for Thraben Standard Bearer
2. 1/1 Spirit with flying for Sanctifier of Souls and Spectral Reserves
3. 1/1 Devil with “When this creature dies, it deals 1 damage to target creature or player.” for Make Mischief
4. 1/1 Insect for It of the Horrid Swarm
5. 2/2 Wolf for Wolfkin Bond

Themes and mechanics

Two cards melded into Hanweir, the Writhing Township

Madness, Transform, Skulk, and Delirium are carried over from the previous set. Creatures that transform into colorless Eldrazi have an Template:Transformation indicator for the front side and an Template:Transformation indicator for the back side, showing this creature has joined Emrakul's brood. This symbolizes one transformation step further from that shown in Innistrad, Dark Ascension, and Shadows over Innistrad, where cards transformed from Template:Transformation on their front sides to Template:Transformation on their back sides.

There are three new named mechanics:

• Meld, a keyword action that changes the card with meld and a specific other card into one oversized card. That single card only exists on the backs of the two other cards. Whenever the melded card leaves the battlefield, both cards go, and they each turn front face up again.
• Emerge [cost] (You may cast this spell by sacrificing a creature and paying the emerge cost reduced by that creature's converted mana cost).
• Escalate, a keyword ability appearing on modal instants and sorceries. By paying the escalate cost, additional modes may be chosen.

Card types

• Reflection is featured for the first time as a non-token creature type.

Cycles

Eldritch Moon has two cycles:

• Allied colored Rares and Mythics: Five creatures with casting cost including an allied color pair. Spell Queller , Gisa and Geralf , Bloodhall Priest , Ulrich of the Krallenhorde , Heron's Grace Champion
• Enemy colored uncommons: Five uncommon cards that can be cast using mana of an enemy pair. Campaign of Vengeance , Mercurial Geists , Mournwillow , Ride Down , Lashweed Lurker

Mirrored pair

Eldritch Moon has one mirrored pair:

• Knights: These two knights have both a converted mana cost of 5 and lifelink and mirrored power and toughness: Faithbearer Paladin and Markov Crusader. The pictures are similar as well, however the black card is uncommon whereas the white card is common, because of a bonus ability with vampires.

Escalation cycles

The Escalate keyword exists on Mardu colored modal spells, resulting in three partial cycles, two triplets and a pair:

• Alliance Instants: These two uncommon instants use "Alliance" as part of their title: Blessed Alliance , Savage Alliance
• Borrowed Instants: These three common instants use "Borrowed" as part of their title: Borrowed Grace , Borrowed Malevolence , Borrowed Hostility
• Collective Sorceries: These three rare sorceries use "Collective" as part of their title: Collective Effort , Collective Brutality , Collective Defiance

Mega cycles

Eldritch Moon completes three mega-mega cycles:

• Delver Iterations: The rare double-faced card Docent of Perfection/Final Iteration completes a vertical mega-mega cycle starting with the common Delver of Secrets/Insectile Aberration from Innistrad and the uncommon Aberrant Researcher/Perfected Form from Shadows over Innistrad.
• Oaths: Oath of Liliana completes the mega-mega cycle of single colored Oaths started in Oath of the Gatewatch and signalizes that she joined the Gatewatch.
• Eldrazi Titans: Emrakul, the Promised End completes the Eldrazi Titan triplet started in Battle for Zendikar.

Meld pairs

There are three meld pairs in Eldritch Moon. Each pair depicts their transformation into an Eldrazi with an additional subtype:

• Brisela, Voice of Nightmare: Two angelic protectors corrupted — Bruna, the Fading Light and Gisela, the Broken Blade
• Chittering Host: Humans and rats become a new horrific creature — Graf Rats and Midnight Scavengers
• Hanweir, the Writhing Township: Citizens oozing into their beloved town — Hanweir Battlements and Hanweir Garrison

Reprinted cards

• Convolute, first printed in Ravnica: City of Guilds.
• Hamlet Captain, first printed in Innistrad.
• Peace of Mind, first printed in Exodus, last seen in Ninth Edition.
• Prey Upon, first printed in Innistrad, last seen in Magic 2013.
• Ride Down, first printed in Khans of Tarkir.
• Rise from the Grave, first printed in Magic 2010, last seen in Commander 2015, and for the first time in an expert-level expansion..
• Terrarion, first printed in Ravnica: City of Guilds.
• Turn Aside, first printed in Scars of Mirrodin.

Common to Uncommon

• Murder, first printed in Magic 2013.

Functional reprints

• Cathar’s Shield is a functional reprint of Accorder's Shield.
• Contingency Plan is a functional reprint of Taigam's Scheming.
• Bold Impaler is a functional reprint of Lavastep Raider (save for creature types)..
• Dawn Gryff is a functional reprint of Avian Changeling, Shadow Glider, and Wild Griffin (save for creature types).
• Drag Under is a functional reprint of Symbol of Unsummoning.
• Field Creeper is a functional reprint of Bronze Sable and Alpha Myr (save for creature types).
• Guardian of Pilgrims is a functional reprint of Kinsbaile Skirmisher (save for creature types).
• Long Road Home is a functional reprint of Otherworldly Journey (save for Arcane).
• Sigardian Priest is a functional reprint of Avacynian Priest.
• Tattered Haunter is a functional reprint of Vaporkin and Welkin Tern (save for creature types).

Colorshifted

• Harmless Offering is a colorshifted version of Donate (blue to red), which targets opponents instead of players.

Notable cards

• Ulrich of the Krallenhorde/Ulrich, Uncontested Alpha is the only card in the set using the Template:Transformation and Template:Transformation symbols to indicate transformation.
• Docent of Perfection has the same stats, abilities, and creature subtypes as Perfected Form (the back side of Aberrant Researcher). He creates Delver of Secrets tokens, then transforms them into Insectile Aberrations.
• Grapple with the Past is a throwback in art and mechanic to Make a Wish.
• Emrakul, the Promised End was a super powerful card that became easily castable as quickly as turn 4-5 in standard Aether Marvel and BG Delirium decks. It's mindslaver effect warped standard tournament play forcing Wizard to ban the card alongside Smuggler's Copter (from Kaladesh) and Reflection Mage. This was the first standard ban since June 2011 where Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic were banned.

Preconstructed decks

Eldritch Moon has five intro packs:

Intro pack name	Colors Included					Foil rare
Unlikely Alliances	W		B			Sanctifier of Souls
Dangerous Knowledge		U		R		Niblis of Frost
Shallow Graves		U	B			Noosegraf Mob
Untamed Wild				R	G	Assembled Alphas
Weapons and Wards	W				G	Ulvenwald Observer

External links

• Eldritch Moon trailer
• Access Magic: Eldritch Moon, Episode 1
• Access Magic: Eldritch Moon, Episode 2
• Access Magic: Eldritch Moon, Episode 3
• Template:NewRef
• Template:NewRef
• Template:NewRef
• Template:NewRef