Double-faced cards are one of the most popular mechanics in Magic: the Gathering. A double-faced card (DFC) has a regular card frame on each side and no card back.
They made their debut in Innistrad way back in 2011, where they were used to indicate the dual nature of many of the denizens of the plane. On Innistrad, the moon has strange properties that cause many of the residents to change at night. If you’d like a deeper dive on the plane and its lore, I wrote an article about that a few weeks ago.
But for our purposes today, the important thing is that many of Innistrad’s humans and other beings are affected by the moon and transform at night.
While DFCs allow for great mechanical designs, my favorite thing about them is how flavorful they are. They tell very intuitive stories that don’t require you to have any knowledge at all about the plane’s lore. For example, it’s pretty obvious Huntmaster of the Fells is a human hunter during the day, and a frightening werewolf who stocks the fells at night.
With the release of Innistrad Remastered right around the corner, I’m going to give you my picks for the most flavorful DFC reprints in the set.
MAYOR OF AVABRUCK
Some of Innistrad’s werewolves tell tragic and somewhat ironic stories, and I think Mayor of Avabruck is at the top of the list in that respect. This guy is the mayor of one of Innistrad’s few human strongholds, where they are supposed to be safe from the plane’s many frightening monsters. This desire to help humans survive is reflected in his design. He buffs all of your humans to make it more likely they can make it through the night.
However, at some point the poor guy got turned into a werewolf, and when night falls he becomes Howlpack Alpha. Once he’s in werewolf form he no longer has any love of humans. Instead, he becomes a werewolf lord who spits out Wolf tokens to help him destroy the same city he once tried to protect.
WESTVALE ABBEY
While many of the DFCs from Innistrad sets are about the duality of many of the plane’s residents, there are also plenty of DFCs that tell a different sort of horror story.
Westvale Abbey starts out as a land that produces Human Cleric creature tokens. That sounds innocent enough, right? But this isn’t an abbey dedicated to the plane’s typical human religion, which worships the plane’s angels in return for their protection.
Instead, the worshipers at Westvale Abbey are members of the Skirsdag Cult who are hellbent on bringing a powerful demon into the world. They have to make a pretty significant sacrifice to make this happen. After all, you can only transform the Abbey by sacrificing five creatures.
But once you do, you get Ormendahl, Profane Prince. An insanely strong demon can usually end the game in only a couple of swings. I wonder if the Clerics who gave up their lives feel like it was worth the investment.
BLOODLINE KEEPER
While the werewolves of Innistrad are the most famous for their ability to transform, the vampires of the plane won’t be outdone. While they don’t undergo quite as radical of a transformation as werewolves do, they do become more powerful at night, and they also get stronger the longer they live.
Bloodline Keeper starts out as a fairly strong vampire who can make Vampire creature tokens. As in most media, the vampires of Innistrad can make more vampires. And, once Bloodline Keeper has sired enough of them, he can use them to transform into Lord of Lineage.
True to its name, Lord of Lineage buffs all of your vampires, while still retaining the ability to make more of them. This really effectively tells the classic vampire story of one who has managed to live a very long time and sire many vampires along the way.
THING IN THE ICE
It makes sense that Innistrad is a horror plane. After all, its residents sometimes do really, really stupid things and meet their demise because of it.
Thing in the Ice is a great example of that. It starts out as a completely frozen harmless 0/4 that can’t even attack, so some sailors thought it might be a good idea to take it with them. However, they seem to have forgotten that ice can melt. This is conveyed by the Thing’s ability to remove ice counters.
Once it’s entirely thawed out, it undergoes quite the transformation. It becomes a massive ⅞ Kraken that smashes the ship that was towing it. It’s huge size is reflected by the fact that it bounces all non-Horror creatures the moment it breaks free of the ice.
It’s also a really fun reference to the 1982 film The Thing, where the plot is pretty much the same. The monster in the ice looks different, but people in that story make the same mistake that they made with Awoken Horror – they decide to take a frozen monster home with them.
THE DELVER OF SECRETS MEGA CYCLE
So far, we’ve looked at cards that tell a story with only a single double-faced card, but Delver of Secrets goes way harder than the rest do. This is because the Delver is part of a “mega cycle.” In other words, cards spread across multiple sets are used to tell the story here. It’s hard for other cards to compete when it comes to flavor, since we get such an extended story as a result of this mega cycle.
Back in the original Innistrad, the Delver started out as an ordinary human – albeit one with an intense fascination with doing experiments on insects. His desire for knowledge is reflected by his triggered ability, which checks to see if you have an Instant or Sorcery on top of your library during your upkeep. Ultimately, he starts experimenting on himself too and he becomes an insectile aberration – a Human Insect hybrid.
So, the story starts out here as a reference to The Fly, where Jeff Goldblum’s character turns to experimenting on himself in a similar manner and ends up turning himself into a horrifying human insect hybrid.
But this is a mega cycle, so the story doesn’t end here. When we returned to Innistrad in Shadows Over Innistrad, we got another look at this character.
Now Aberrant Researcher, he starts out as a 3/2 Flyer – just like Insectile Aberration. But we see that he’s still not done with experiments. Now, this human insect is trying to achieve metamorphosis and become even more powerful. Ultimately he succeeds, becoming Perfected Form. No longer human at all, he has now become an Insect Horror.
We get the conclusion to the Delver’s story in Eldritch Moon. While he may have lost his humanity, he has maintained a fascination with experimentation. Now, instead of capturing insects in cages and experimenting on them, he’s capturing humans. This is reflected by his ability to generate 1/1 Human Wizard tokens.
Once he’s captured enough of those Humans, the Delver’s final form is revealed. The story of Eldritch Moon is about how Eldrazi influence on the plane is warping the plane’s already very frightening denizens, and Docent of Perfection isn’t immune to that. And ultimately, he becomes an Eldrazi himself – one using the humans he captured to continue his experiments.
END STEP
Innistrad sets are loaded up with lots of really well-designed DFCs, and they managed to include most of the greatest hits in Innistrad Remastered. What do you think is the most flavorful DFC in the set? Let me know over on X!
Jacob has been playing Magic for the better part of 24 years, and he especially loves playing Magic’s Limited formats. He also holds a PhD in history from the University of Oklahoma. In 2015, he started his YouTube channel, “Nizzahon Magic,” where he combines his interests with many videos covering Magic’s competitive history. When he’s not playing Magic or making Magic content, he can be found teaching college-level history courses or caring for a menagerie of pets with his wife.