Avacyn Restored

Avacyn Restored
Set symbol
Symbol description	Avacyn's Collar
Design team	Brian Tinsman (lead), Mark Gottlieb, Dave Guskin, Kenneth Nagle, Bill Rose, Mark Rosewater
Development team	David Humpherys (lead), Mark Globus, Dave Guskin, Erik Lauer, Billy Moreno, Matt Sernett
Release date	May 4, 2012
Themes and mechanics	Angels vs. demons, "Loners", "Flickering"
Keywords and/or ability words	Miracle, Soulbond, Undying
Set size	244 (101 commons, 60 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares)
Expansion code	AVR
Development code name	Roll
Innistrad block sets
Innistrad	Dark Ascension	Avacyn Restored
Magic: The Gathering chronology
Duel Decks: Venser vs. Koth	Avacyn Restored	Planechase (2012)

Avacyn Restored is the third set in the Innistrad block. It is the 58^th Magic expansion and was released on May 4, 2012.

Peculiarly, Avacyn Restored is a large expansion, making it the second one, after Innistrad in the Innistrad block.

Set details

Set in Innistrad, Avacyn Restored continues the storyline arc of the Innistrad block; but, mechanically and thematically, the expansion is a "reboot" of Innistrad block's previous two sets, Innistrad and Dark Ascension, but with the setting retained. Avacyn Restored's focus is shifted from the graveyard, and does not feature cards with flashback or double-faced cards.

Unusual for the third set in a block, Avacyn Restored contains more cards than usual, at 244 cards, and is a large expansion, like Rise of the Eldrazi, also a third-set large expansion and a "reboot" of the Zendikar block. This set contains 15 basic lands, each of which being illustrated by an artist who worked upon the artworks of Innistrad's basic lands; notably, the Avacyn Restored basic lands depict the same, or a similar, landscape but with a brighter tone, reflecting the change of plane, following the return of the angel Avacyn, from a place of despair and gloom to a place of hope.

Avacyn Restored introduces a novel card frame for the Miracle ability, so as to provide a visual cue to facilitate players identifying cards with Miracle more readily, so as to cast such cards in a timely manner. Cards with Miracle are identifiable by the outwardly radiant lines on the card frame, from around the art and name box; furthermore, the name box features an arrow-like outcropping on the top. The set also features two new planeswalkers; Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, a Moonfolk originally from Kamigawa, and Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, a human–devil planeswalker (and the first planeswalker with a converted casting cost of 2 mana).

Flavor and storyline

“

Ignite the Dawn

”

Avacyn, the angelic protector of the plane of Innistrad has been released from her prisoning, the Helvault. Griselbrand and numerous of his kind, demons, have also been released as well. Avacyn Restored plays out Avacyn's campaign to rally her troops to contain the demonic threat and, ultimately, to cleans Innistrad of all these infernal creatures.

Marketing

• Buy-a-Box: Silverblade Paladin.

In the prelude to Avacyn Restored, Wizards of the Coast created two animated trailers, one in English and another in Japanese, and uploaded them onto YouTube.

In addition to this, Wizards of the Coast showcased a number of card artworks as well as developed and designed a minisite with information about the background and storyline of the set itself and the Innistrad block in general.

"Tips & Tricks" cards

1. Tip: Booster Draft
2. Tip: Avacyn 1
3. Tip: Planeswalker 1
4. Tip: Planeswalker 2
5. Tip: Gatherer
6. Tip: Decks
7. Tip: Miracle
8. Tip: Soulbound
9. Tip: Limited
10. Tip: Avacyn 2
11. Tip: Undying

Tokens and emblems

The Avacyn Restored tokens and emblems, in the order in which they are listed, are:

1. 4/4 Angel with flying produced by Entreat the Angels and Moonsilver Spear
2. 1/1 Human produced by Commander's Authority and Voice of the Provinces
3. 1/1 Spirit with flying produced by Gallows at Willow Hill
4. 1/1 Spirit with flying produced by Geist Snatch
5. 5/5 Demon with flying produced by Demonic Rising
6. 2/2 Zombie produced by Maalfeld Twins
7. 1/1 Human produced by Thatcher Revolt
8. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage emblem with "You have no maximum hand size. Whenever a card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you may return it to your hand"

Themes and mechanics

With the opening of the Helvault, release of Avacyn, and restoration of her to the plane of Innistrad, fittingly Avacyn Restored cards represented the turning of the tide between the struggle of humanity and the monsters of Innistrad. Whereas Dark Ascension featured a greater concentration of monsters, marked by a reduction in the number of humans, Avacyn Restored emphasized the humans and angels as well as their mortal enemies, demons. Black was defined as the primary color of the monsters and evil; and, the other colors were the human colors. White remained the the most human-dense and -centered color; but, human tribal effects and humans were made primary and secondary themes in red and blue, respectively.

Avacyn Restored introduced the Miracle mechanic, a keyword ability featured on cards that, if and when drawn as the first card drawn that turn, may be cast for the reduced Miracle cost. In addition to this, Soulbond was also introduced. This ability allows a player to "pair [up]" with a creature with Soulbond with another creature, with or without Soulbond, to confer benefits to both creatures as long as they remained paired. Both Miracle and Soulbond are featured across all colors except black.

In order to compensate for the lack of new mechanics, Undying keyword ability was carried over from the preceding expansion, Dark Ascension, and featured primarily on black cards; "loners", or creatures or other permanents that improve if their controllers control only one creature, which represented the thematic opposite of Soulbond; and a sacrifice subtheme.

In addition to the "loner" non-keyworded subtheme, another subtheme of Avacyn Restored was "flickering". "Flickering", alluding to the effect of its namesake, the Urza's Destiny card Flicker, involves temporarily exiling a creature for a duration before returning it to the battlefield. "Flickering" was noted to interact with creatures with enters-the-battlefield and/or leaves-the-battlefield abilities, including those with Soulbond.

Creature types

No novel creature types were introduced in this expansion.

The following creature types that are not new to Magic are used in this expansion:

• Angel
• Archer
• Assassin
• Bat
• Bear
• Beast
• Berserker
• Bird
• Boar
• Cleric
• Construct
• Demon
• Devil
• Dragon
• Drake
• Druid
• Elemental
• Griffin
• Horror
• Hound
• Human
• Knight
• Rogue
• Scout
• Shade
• Shaman
• Skeleton
• Soldier
• Spider
• Spirit
• Treefolk
• Vampire
• Wall
• Warrior
• Wizard
• Wolf
• Wurm
• Zombie

Cycles

Avacyn Restored features three four-card cycles, with no black card, as a reflection of the absence of white cards in the cycles of Dark Ascension. It also features one vertical cycle.

Four-card cycles

Cycle name	Description and notes	White card(s)	Blue card(s)	Red card(s)	Green card(s)
Legendary Angels	Each of these mythic rare legendary Angel creatures has a mana costs in the format of NC.	Avacyn, Angel of Hope	Bruna, Light of Alabaster	Gisela, Blade of Goldnight	Sigarda, Host of Herons
Miracles (uncommon)	Each of these uncommon instant spells has miracle.	Banishing Stroke	Vanishment	Thunderous Wrath	Blessings of Nature
Miracles (rare)	Each of these rare sorcery spells has miracle.	Terminus	Devastation Tide	Reforge the Soul	Revenge of the Hunted

Vertical cycles

• Soulbond power/toughness buffers: each of these green creatures with Soulbond are initially "below curve", or have power/toughness stats below what is usually expected for their costs; but, when paired with another creature, they grant a sizable power/toughness boon to themselves and paired creatures — Trusted Forcemage, Druid's Familiar, and Wolfir Silverheart.

Mega cycles

• Enemy-colored utility lands: Avacyn Restored continues the Innistrad block utility lands mega cycle and the enemy-colored utility lands started in Dark Ascension. Each of these lands may tap for or, with other costs, for a non-mana effect — Alchemist's Refuge, Desolate Lighthouse, and Slayers' Stronghold.

Pairs

Matched pairs

Avacyn Restored has one matched pair.

• Appetite for Brains is one of the two cards in the matched pair of it and Rise of the Eldrazi's Inquisition of Kozilek. Both cards are uncommon cards that cause an opponent to discard a card; one, a card with converted mana cost 3 or less; the other, a card with converted mana cost 4 or more.

Mirrored pairs

Avacyn Restored has four mirrored pairs.

• Harvester of Souls (black) and Soul of the Harvest (green) are both rare creatures creating card advantage; one, when a creature enters the battlefield; the other, when a creature dies.
• Moonlight Geist (white) and Searchlight Geist (black) are both common flying 2/1 Spirit creatures for C. Both have a four-mana combat-relevant activated ability; Moonlight Geist prevents combat damage, whereas Searchlight Geist gains deathtouch.
• Scroll of Avacyn (white-aligned) and Scroll of Griselbrand (black-aligned) are both common artifacts that may be sacrificed to cause you to draw a card (and gain life if you control an Angel) or to cause an opponent to discard a card (and lose life if you control a Demon), respectively.
• Triumph of Cruelty (black) and Triumph of Ferocity (green) are both uncommon enchantments creating card advantage if their controller has the most-powerful creature on the battlefield. The cards are artistically linked, with both featuring Liliana Vess and Garruk Wildspeaker locked in combat.

Preconstructed decks

Avacyn Restored preconstructed theme decks
Intro packs: Angelic Might () | Solitary Fiends () | Slaughterhouse () | Fiery Dawn () | Bound by Strength ()
Event decks: Humanity's Vengeance () | Death's Encroach ()
Related pages: Innistrad block/Preconstructed theme decks • Innistrad block preconstructed decks

Intro packs

Intro pack name	Colors included					Foil rare
	White	Blue	Black	Red	Green
Angelic Might	□				■	Herald of War
Solitary Fiends		■	■			Lone Revenant
Slaughterhouse			■	■		Harvester of Souls
Fiery Dawn	□			■		Zealous Conscripts
Bound by Strength		■			■	Wolfir Silverheart

Event decks

Event deck name	Colors included
	White	Blue	Black	Red	Green
Death's Encroach			■
Humanity's Vengeance	□	■

External links

• Avacyn Restored — Wizards of the Coast

Contributors

Baeda735, Barinellos, Chaosof99, Drlightx, Gamma-Mage, GeoMike, Hunter61, JaceWeCan, Magic Mage, Paolino, Skorchdnite, Sloth, Spike, SyntheticDreamer, Unistardust, Yami Michael