[Update #2]: MTG Arena's Innistrad: Crimson Vow expansion is set to launch on November 11th.

[Update]: Wizards of the Coast has added a Standard-focused and half-price Jumpstart event aimed at beginners.

I hope you're in the mood for a bit of a meta shakeup, because MTG Arena has just added the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt expansion. As you might expect given Innistrad's usual themes, Midnight Hunt has brought with it a whole host of zombies, vampires, spirits, and naturally, werewolves to play around with!

In terms of mechanics, however, Midnight Hunt features three important ones you'll need to watch out for: Flashback/Disturb, Coven, and the Day/Night Cycle. Here's a brief rundown of how they work:

Flashback and Disturb allow you to recast your spells and creatures from the graveyard respectively. In flashback's case this is usually just recasting the same spell for an alternate cost, after which the spell is exiled, while Disturb allows you to bring creatures back onto the battlefield transformed into spirits with different abilities and statlines.

Coven is a fairly simple go-wide mechanic that checks if you have three (or more) creatures with different power before granting you some sort of boon.

The Day/Night Cycle functions very similarly to the old Innistrad transform cards. If it's currently day and you've not played any cards during your turn, it will become night at the start of the next turn. Similarly, if it's currently night and you've played at least two cards during your turn, it will become day at the start of the next turn. A rather fun mechanic as both you and your opponent can influence the cycle, yet can't instantly benefit from the change as it'll only trigger during the next turn!

As for how all of this looks like on actual cards, that you can find over at the MTG website. Wizards of the Coast has ordered all of them neatly by color so it should be pretty easy to figure out just what each color's theme is all about.

The final thing worth mentioning is that Midnight Hunt's release also marks the start of this year's Standard rotation. In other words Throne of Eldraine, Theros Beyond Death, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and Core 2021 have rotated out of the format, leaving only Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, Strixhaven: School of Mages, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Innistrad: Midnight Hunt as the current Standard legal sets.

Have fun with the brand new Standard environment, and for now I'll leave you with the cinematic trailer for Midnight Hunt: