A newMagic: The Gatheringset is just a few short weeks away and spoiler season is in full swing. As fans of the collectible card game get a first peek at many of thenew cards appearing in Innistrad Midnight Hunt, they’re also getting a first look at some exciting new mechanics being introduced with this set.
As expected, transforming double-faced cards are making a comeback whenMagic: The Gatheringreturns to the spooky werewolf-filled plane. These cards work differently from the modal double-faced cards that players have experienced in recent sets, so it will be very important to review the rules before the pre-release tournaments start firing off later this month.
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In addition to transforming cards,Magicplayers have a handful of other interesting new mechanics to manage, as well. Unlike Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (which mostly just added theRoll a D20 and the Explore a Dungeon mechanics), Innistrad Midnight Hunt is adding a nice list of new mechanics. Players can check out a summary of the new stuff here and get a high level explanation of the rules to help prepare for the set’s upcoming launch…
Day and Night
Day and Night are a brand new mechanic inMtG, even thoughsomething somewhat similar existed in the first trip to Innistrad. When the game starts, it’s neither day nor night. In most games, it will become day first. The most common way that will happen is if a permanent with daybound appears on the battlefield.
In some uncommon cases, it may become night first because a permanent with nightbound appears first. The important thing is that once it’s day or night, the game will be exactly one of those designations, day or night, going back and forth until the game ends. It can never return to being neither. And the whole game is either day or night. It’s not a per player thing.
If it’s day, each double-faced card with daybound and nightbound will enter the battlefield with its daybound face up. If it’s night, each of them will enter nightbound face up. Note that this doesn’t affect spells on the stack. Even during night, if you cast Tavern Ruffian, it will be Tavern Ruffian on the stack. As the spell resolves, it will simply enter the battlefield as Tavern Smasher.
Transforming Double-Faced Cards
Take note of how these transformation work - it isnot the same as modal double-faced cards like other recent sets. As it becomes day, all double-faced cards with nightbound transform to their daybound faces. As it becomes night, all double-faced cards with daybound transform to their nightbound faces. In other words, these double-faced cards should always be in sync, no matter who controls them. What’s more, permanents with daybound and nightbound can’t transform any other way.
Disturb
Disturb allows you to cast these cards transformed from your graveyard. This is a pretty simple one actually. Players just need to keep in mind the second part of rules that apply to the back faces of cards with Disturb…
The back faces of cards with disturb have an ability that exiles them instead if they would be put into a graveyard from anywhere. Effectively, this means from the stack or the battlefield, the two zones where they can be back face up. So, if Hook-Haunt Drifter is countered, to exile it goes. If it would die once on the battlefield, it’s exiled instead.
Coven
Coven is an ability word that’s used to highlight abilities that get better if you control three or more creatures with different powers. This is where you may have a moment where you think that “powers” means “abilities,” but no, “powers” is just the number before the slash opposite toughness. It’s cool. We did it, too. For example, a 1/1 creature, a 3/1 creature, and a 4/6 creature have three different powers (specifically, 1, 3, and 4).
Compared tothe Dungeons and Dragons tie-in set, which felt a lot more like a simple Core Set, there is definitely a bit of complexity here for players to wrap their heads around. The mechanics aren’t too difficult, but players should definitely take their time, read cards carefully, and review the rules ahead of time if they want to have a smooth experience when the cards are available.
Magic: The Gatheringis available now and the Innistrad Midnight Hunt set releases on June 15, 2025.
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