Dark Ascension

Dark Ascension

 

Event decks

 

Intro packs

 

Dark Ascension
[[File:{{#setmainimage:DKA logo.jpg}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	Innistrad symbol turned inward
Design	Mark Rosewater (lead), Jenna Helland, Zac Hill, Graeme Hopkins, Matt Tabak
Development	Tom LaPille (lead), Mark L. Gottlieb, Zac Hill, David Humpherys, Ken Troop
Art direction	Jeremy Jarvis
Release date	February 3, 2012
Plane	Innistrad
Themes and mechanics	Double-faced cards, Cursed, Graveyard matters, Tribal, Human sacrifice
Keywords/​ability words	Fateful hour, Flashback, Morbid, Transform, Undying
Set size	158 (64 commons, 44 uncommons, 38 rares, 12 mythic rares)
Expansion code	DKA
Development codename	Rattle
Innistrad block
Innistrad Dark Ascension Avacyn Restored
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Premium Deck Series: Graveborn Dark Ascension Duel Decks: Venser vs. Koth

Dark Ascension is the second set in the Innistrad block. It is the 57th Magic expansion and was released on February 3, 2012.

Set details

Dark Ascension, like its predecessor, is top-down designed with a horror theme. The set contains 158 cards (64 Common, 44 Uncommon, 38 Rare, 12 Mythic) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards in the set. The set puts a stronger emphasis on tribal creature types, such as providing a lord for each of the main types (vampires, ghosts, werewolves, zombies and humans). All the major mechanics of the previous set, including double-faced cards, return. New mechanics are Fateful Hour and Undying. The expansion symbol of the set is the Innistrad symbol "turned inward", which represents humanity hunkering down.

Flavor and storyline

“

Command the Night

”

Innistrad has been overrun by creatures of the night. While the forces of good struggle to hold back the threat, villagers cower behind walls and pray for the morning light. The humans are on the verge of extinction and have to take desperate measures to stem the tide. It is revealed that Avacyn, the guardian angel created by Sorin is locked in the Helvault.

Magic Story

Title	Author	Release Date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed	Jenna Helland	2011-10-26	Innistrad	Mikaeus Cecani, Geralf Cecani, Gisa Cecani, Grimgrin, Alwin, Traken, Avacyn, Lothar, Thalia, "Lili"

Savor the Flavor

Title	Author	Release Date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
A Backstory Update for Dark Ascension	Doug Beyer	2012-01-04	Innistrad	Avacyn, Liliana, Griselbrand, Garruk
Sorin's Homecoming	Doug Beyer	2012-01-11	Innistrad	Sorin, Edgar Markov, Shilgengar, Avacyn
The Prison of Silver	Doug Beyer	2012-01-18	Innistrad	Edgar Markov, Shilgengar, Sorin, Avacyn, Griselbrand, Mikaeus Cecani, Liliana
The State of the Faith	Doug Beyer	2012-01-25	Innistrad	Avacyn, Griselbrand, Mikaeus Cecani, Volpaig

Marketing

Dark Ascension 6-card booster

Dark Ascension was sold in 16-card boosters, 6-card boosters, five intro packs, two event decks and a fat pack. The 16-card boosters featured artwork from Havengul Lich, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Werewolf Ransacker. The small booster featured artwork from Beguiler of Wills.

The prerelease was January 28–29, 2012, the launch party on February 3–6, 2012, the Magic Online release on February 20, 2012. The Game Day was held on February 25–26, 2012.

At each prerelease, some number of people were designated by some flashy stickers as a vampire, werewolf, zombie, or spirit at the start of the event. Any time a monster defeated a human in a match, the monster would convert the human to their cause. At the end of each Prerelease, the remaining humans and the largest tribe or tribes of monsters would be declared winners, but the rewards were up to the organizers. The prerelease cards was the double faced Ravenous Demon / Archdemon of Greed. The Release card was Mondronen Shaman / Tovolar's Magehunter. The promotional card at the Game Day event was a full-art Strangleroot Geist, while a full-art foil Zombie Apocalypse was given to the top-8 participants. The Buy-a-Box was Gravecrawler.

Regular boosters of Dark Ascension come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a Dark Ascension checklist card, a creature token, an emblem, or a rules card with an advertisement on the reverse side.

Tokens and emblem

Dark Ascension checklist card

The new Dark Ascension tokens and emblem are:

1. 1/1 Human produced by Gather the Townsfolk, Increasing Devotion, and Thraben Doomsayer
2. 1/1 Vampire with lifelink produced by Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3. Emblem for Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Themes and mechanics

The set introduces a new keyword mechanic in Undying. It functions very similar to Persist, but instead of a -1/-1 counter, it adds a +1/+1 counter to the creature when it returns from the grave.

Fateful hour is a new ability word, which creates an ability that functions if the controller of the effect is at 5 life or less.

Double-faced cards return with this set, further showcasing the transformation mechanic. As for Innistrad a special Checklist card is provided to facilitate play with the double-face cards. Flashback, Morbid, and Curses also return.

Creature types

No novel creature types were introduced in this expansion.

Cycles

Dark Ascension breaks the mold for cycles to a certain extent, as some of the cycles only contain four cards. In cycles that emphasize an allied color pair, the green-white part of the cycle is missing. This is likely due to the higher emphasis on monster tribes, as the white/green pair is tied to humans.

Three flashback cycles:

Cycle name
Increasing flashback cards	Increasing Devotion	Increasing Confusion	Increasing Ambition	Increasing Vengeance	Increasing Savagery
	Five rare spells with Flashback, which double their effect if they are flashed back
Allied flashback cards	Ray of Revelation	Saving Grasp	Reap the Seagraf	Fires of Undeath	Wild Hunger
	Each of these common spells has a flashback cost involving its counter-clockwise ally on the color wheel. This cycle mirrors the ally cycle from Innistrad, which had flashback costs in the color's clockwise ally on the color wheel.
Enemy flashback cards	Lingering Souls	Mystic Retrieval	Deadly Allure	Burning Oil	Tracker's Instincts
	Each of these uncommon spells has a flashback cost involving the enemy color two slots later on the color wheel. They are the reverse of a cycle from Innistrad, as the colors of the flashback cost and the regular casting cost are flipped.

Two monster tribal cycles:

Cycle name	Spirit	Zombie	Vampire	Werewolf
Mythic Rare	Drogskol Reaver	Havengul Lich	Falkenrath Aristocrat	Huntmaster of the Fells // Ravager of the Fells
	Four mythic rare creatures that are of an allied pair associated with one of four monster tribes associated with Innistrad.
Lords	Drogskol Captain	Diregraf Captain	Stromkirk Captain	Immerwolf
	A cycle of uncommon cards that are allied-colored lords tied to one of the monster tribes on Innistrad. They all provide some form of benefit in addition to the standard lord effect. Immerwolf is the only one who is not named Captain.

Vertical cycle

Cycle name
Red Riding Hood Werewolves	Huntmaster of the Fells // Ravager of the Fells	Lambholt Elder // Silverpelt Werewolf	Scorned Villager // Moonscarred Werewolf
	A cycle taking inspiration from the classic fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood", but where all the characters are also the Big Bad Wolf - the little girl, the grandmother, and the hunter that saved them.

Reprinted cards

• Divination, first printed in Magic 2010, last seen in Magic 2012
• Evolving Wilds, first printed in Rise of the Eldrazi
• Fling, first printed in Stronghold, last seen in Magic 2012
• Ray of Revelation, first printed in Judgment

Functional reprints

• Gravepurge, functional reprint of Footbottom Feast (Lorwyn)
• Griptide, functional reprint of Repel (Odyssey)
• Hollowhenge Beast, functional reprint of Silverback Ape (Starter 1999), save for creature type
• Nephalia Seakite, functional reprint of Sentinels of Glen Elendra (Lorwyn), save for creature type
• Russet Wolves, functional reprint of Lagac Lizard (Rise of the Eldrazi), Canyon Minotaur (Conflux), Hill Giant (Limited Edition), Wild Jhovall (Mercadian Masques), Tor Giant (Ice Age), Ogre Warrior (Portal Second Age), and Barbarian Horde (Portal Three Kingdoms) save for creature type
• Sanctuary Cat, functional reprint of Devoted Hero (Portal) and Volunteer Militia (Portal Three Kingdoms) save for creature type

Strictly better

• Hunger of the Howlpack, upgrade from Battlegrowth (Mirrodin)
• Midnight Guard, upgrade from Shu Foot Soldiers (Portal Three Kingdoms) and Alaborn Trooper (Portal Second Age)
• Somberwald Dryad, upgrade from Rushwood Dryad (Mercadian Masques) and Grizzly Bears (Alpha)
• Thought Scour, upgrade from Ray of Erasure (Ice Age) and Mental Note (Judgment)

Notable cards

• Archangel's Light is a notoriously weak card, particularly for a mythic rare.
• Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger formed the backbone of Zombie decks in Standard, as both are hard to kill and can push a lot of damage through in early turns. Geralf's Messenger, in particular, is a conceptual mirrored version of Kitchen Finks which was a popular aggro card during Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block; providing life loss against life gain, getting stronger upon death as opposed to weaker and being extremely inflexible in casting as opposed to being fairly easy to cast.
• Grafdigger's Cage is a powerful hoser card against strategies that attempt to cheat cards into play. This card incited widespread skepticism and anger but turned out to not be as threatening as expected. It nevertheless became a staple in the eternal formats, especially out of the sideboard.
• Huntmaster of the Fells provided two bodies in one card, as well as lifegain and potential damage output, resulting in seeing heavy play in Standard.
• Elbrus, the Binding Blade is a very flavorful artifact, depicting an expensive but weak dagger, which transforms into the gigantic and nigh-unstoppable Demon Withengar who feasts on the souls of defeated opponents.
• Tragic Slip was once one of the best spot creature removal cards in the game, due to its ability to destroy almost any creature for one mana, provided that another creature already died that turn.
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a staple in Death and Taxes in both Legacy and Modern and has seen play on both of its times through Standard.
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is well known in casual Commander for having an infinite combo loop with numerous creatures, most commonly Triskelion.
• Though Scour has seen substantial play in both Modern and Pauper decks that combine control style spells with aggressive finishers that benefit from a filled graveyard, as well as Modern decks focused on aggressively milling the opponent.
• Young Wolf did not see much success in Standard but has proven powerful in both Pauper, where it is a key part of multiple aggro decks, and Bogles style decks, and in Modern, where it is one of the main combo pieces in decks built around Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.
• Strangleroot Geist was a key part of standard aggro decks with an efficient and hasty body and resilience to removal, and continues to see play in decks similar to Young Wolf in Modern such as Yawgmoth and Chord Toolbox.

Banned and restricted cards

• Faithless Looting showed the shift toward "looting" (a la Merfolk Looter) abilities in Red, although later sets shifted towards having the discard happen before drawing. Regardless, the card proved to be exceptionally powerful for any deck that cares about the graveyard, providing both great card selection and cheap access to repeatable discard. It even works great in multiples, which could also be discarded but still provide value through flashback. After many years of enabling graveyard strategies, it was banned in Modern in the wake of Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis decks plaguing the format for months.
• Lingering Souls saw widespread application in nearly all formats and was banned in Block Constructed due to providing a large number of creatures with the cost spread over multiple turns. It remained a powerhouse in Modern for many years, although it has fallen out of favor as more powerful creatures have been printed.

Trivia

• The art of Undying Evil references a famous scene from Sam Raimi's 1981 film The Evil Dead.

Preconstructed decks

Intro packs

Dark Ascension features five intro packs.

Intro pack name	Colors Included					Foil rare
Relentless Dead		U	B			Havengul Runebinder
Monstrous Surprise				R	G	Flayer of the Hatebound
Dark Sacrifice	W		B			Fiend of the Shadows
Swift Justice	W			R		Requiem Angel
Grave Power		U			G	Ghoultree

Event decks

Dark Ascension features two event decks.

Event deck name	Colors Included
Gleeful Flames				R
Spiraling Doom			B		G

External links

• Dark Ascension product information page — Wizards of the Coast
• Monty Ashley (December 08, 2011). "Dark Ascension on UltraPro". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Monty Ashley (January 11, 2012). "Dark Ascension Trailer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (May 22, 2023). "Lessons Learned, Part 3". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.