Wizards of the Coast has announced the May 4th release of Magic the Gathering: Avacyn Restored, the third and final set of the Innistrad block--and it appears that WotC’s big spring release could turn out to be quite different in some important regards from its predecessors in the Innistrad block (Innistrad and Dark Ascension). Pre-release events for the 244-card Avacyn Restored set will take place on April 28th and 29th. At 244 cards Avacyn Restored qualifies as a large set and appears at first glance to be similar to the Zendikar block’s Rise of the Eldrazi. Some insiders feel that the Avacyn set could include some very different mechanics than seen in Innistrad and Dark Ascension in much the same way that the mechanics in Eldrazi differed from those in the other sets in the Zendikar block.
One clue that Avacyn Restored could be quite different was revealed in a tweet from Mark Rosewater, one of the set’s design team, who announced: “Let me set the record straight Dark Ascension will have cool ‘dual face’ cards, but Avacyn Restored will not have any ‘dual-faced’ cards.” Rosewater did indicate that “We are doing things to connect Avacyn Restored to Innistrad and Dark Ascension, but ‘dual face’ cards didn’t make sense with what happens in Avacyn Restored. I can’t explain why yet.”
