Dark Ascension Mechanics


With the archangel Avacyn still missing in action and the protective wards of the Avacynian church fading in power, the plane of Innistrad is starting to get a lot... darker. Dark Ascension brings new weapons for monsters and innocents alike and builds on the mechanics and themes of Innistrad.


Undying is a new keyword in Dark Ascension that lets creatures come back from the grave stronger than ever.

Strangleroot Geist

When your undying creature with no +1/+1 counters on it dies, you'll return it to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. An undying creature that has one or more +1/+1 counters on it when it dies stays in the graveyard as normal.



Fateful Hour

They say the night is darkest just before the dawn, and the new fateful hour ability word in Dark Ascension takes that philosophy to heart.

Thraben Doomsayer

Fateful hour abilities work as long as you have 5 life or less. As soon as your life total drops to 5 or less, they immediately kick in. So you could pay some life to an Immolating Souleater in the middle of combat to suddenly give your team a boost with Thraben Doomsayer. As soon as your life total becomes 6 or higher, fateful hour abilities stop working—so gaining life with Thraben Doomsayer on the table might cause your creatures to get smaller in the middle of a turn.

Other fateful hour abilities may be triggered abilities, static abilities, or abilities that change what an instant or sorcery spell does.

Double-Faced Cards

Like Innistrad, Dark Ascension features double-faced cards—cards with no Magic back and a face on each side. In Dark Ascension, however, not all of them are creatures.


Double-faced cards in general

A double-faced card has two faces. It has no regular Magic back. Its front face, which is marked with a sun symbol and has a mana cost, is the default. A double-faced card always enters the battlefield with its front face up unless an effect says otherwise. This is true whether it enters the battlefield from the stack as the result of being cast, or from anywhere else, such as your graveyard (due to a card like Beacon of Unrest, for example).

The back face of a double-faced card is marked with a moon symbol, lacks a mana cost, and usually has a color indicator—a dot on its type line—that tells you what color it is. (Unlike most double-faced cards, Chalice of Death does not have a color indicator, because its back face is colorless.) The two faces of a double-faced card are often the same color, but not always. The back face's characteristics matter only if the card is on the battlefield and its back face is showing. Otherwise, only the front face's characteristics count. (For example, the preview card above has a converted mana cost of 3—except when it's on the battlefield and Chalice of Death is face up, in which case its converted mana cost is zero.)


Putting double-faced cards in your deck

To put a double-faced card into your deck, you have two options: You can put your entire deck in opaque card sleeves, as many players already do, or you can use the checklist card provided in many Dark Ascension packs. If you're using checklist cards to represent any of the double-faced cards in your deck, you must use checklist cards to represent all of them.


The checklist card has a regular Magic back. The Dark Ascension checklist card looks like this:

Dark Ascension Checklist Card





Some double-faced cards can transform back and forth between their two sides; others, like Chalice of Life / Chalice of Death, transform in only one direction under normal circumstances. The word "transform" applies no matter which side is currently showing; cards never "un-transform."



The Innistrad ability word morbid makes its return in Dark Ascension.

Hunger of the Howlpack


Hunger of the Howlpack puts three +1/+1 counters on the target creature if a creature died at any point in the same turn prior to Hunger of the Howlpack resolving. If no creatures have died, it only puts one +1/+1 counter on. It doesn't matter if a creature dies later in the turn; the ability only checks as the spell resolves. If a creature dies after you cast Hunger of the Howlpack, but before it resolves, it will put three +1/+1 counters on the target creature.



The flashback mechanic returns in Dark Ascension. Flashback appears only on instants and sorceries.

Ray of Revelation

You can cast a spell with flashback from your hand as normal. When it's in your graveyard, regardless of how it got there, you can cast it by paying its flashback cost instead of its mana cost. You can do this only at a time you could normally cast the card. Even if you cast Ray of Revelation for its flashback cost, it's still a white spell, not a green one.



A Curse is an Aura that enchants a player and does something nasty to him or her.

Curse of Thirst

There aren't any special rules for Curses—they follow all the normal rules for Auras that enchant players—but there are some cards in Innistrad block, like Curse of Thirst, that refer to the Curse subtype. Note that Curses have enchant player, not enchant opponent, so you can enchant yourself with a Curse if you want to.

  • Planeswalker Points
  • Facebook Twitter
  • Gatherer: The Magic Card Database
  • Forums: Connect with the Magic Community
  • Magic Locator