Cuh-reepy.

Scarecrows. I love scarecrows. I never really realized this until recently. There is something innately creepy and unsettling about Scarecrows, and frankly I love that. Now, sure, when most people think Scarecrow, they think of that overly-limber twit who accompanied Dorothy on her quest to kill a spellcaster in order to get away with theft and murder; however I think of Jonathan Crane over there in the sidebar. Creepy? Check. Unsettling? Check. Cool as hell? Double-check.

A while back, Mark Gottlieb (of Magic rules manager fame) announced that they were issuing errata to a bunch of Magic Cards to bring their creature types more in line with modern standards. Among particular interest during this mammoth-sized update, was that two (fairly obscure) creatures were getting the creature type Scarecrow. This sparked a raging torrent of speculation and interest in the idea of more creatures getting this type in the future. Of course, by raging torrent of speculation and interest, I mean an internet forum post or two. But raging torrent or no, the next Magic set, Shadowmoor, will contain a tribe of - wait for it - Scarecrows. I, much like the crayon, am tickled pink.

Shadowmoor’s scarecrows will also be much more of a Jonathan Crane scarecrow than a Wizard of Oz type scarecrow; very creepy and a little more than slightly unsettling. In fact the whole block is supposed to be that way, a deliberate flip-side to the storybook wonderment of the previous block. I’m fairly excited by the whole thing. They really seem to be pulling out all the stops on making this particular set a winner. For instance, they’re focusing a lot of the design-space around the Hybrid concept introduced in Ravnica. Hybrid is one of the better innovations to come out of Magic Design over the last five years. It’s very grokable, opens up a lot of design space, and is just plain fun to play with. They really seem to be getting a lot of mileage out of it this set, and I know for certain that they’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg for hybrid-related developments. Another really cool theme is the -1/-1 counters. They show up all over the set, some creatures trade them in for effects, some use them to decide whether or not to come back from the dead, and some deal damage as the counters instead of actual damage. They have a real ‘neat’ factor to them.

Shadowmoor is released May 3rd wherever Magic is sold. For those interested in getting your grubby mitts on product early, there will be prerelease events this weekend. Unfortunately for us in Champaign, there will be a bit of driving involved. We have the option of Indianapolis, Chicago, or St. Louis. I heartily recommend Indy. Not only is it the closest event, but it also has the coolest staff (read: me).