Dark Ascension

Dark Ascension is the second set in the Innistrad block. It is the 57th Magic expansion and was released on February 3, 2012.

Set details
Dark Ascension, like its predecessor, is top-down designed with a horror theme. The set contains 158 cards (64 Common, 44 Uncommon, 38 Rare, 12 Mythic) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards in the set. The set puts a stronger emphasis on tribal creature types, such as providing a lord for each of the main types (vampires, ghosts, werewolves, zombies and humans). All the major mechanics of the previous set, including double-faced cards, return. New mechanics are Fateful Hour and Undying.The expansion symbol of the set is the Innistrad symbol "turned inward", which represents humanity hunkering down.

Flavor and storyline
Command the Night Innistrad has been overrun by creatures of the night. While the forces of good struggle to hold back the threat, villagers cower behind walls and pray for the morning light. The humans are on the verge of extinction and have to take desperate measures to stem the tide. It is revealed that Avacyn, the guardian angel created by Sorin is locked in the Helvault.

Marketing
Dark Ascension was sold in 16-card boosters, 6-card boosters, five intro packs, two event decks and a fat pack. The 16-card boosters featured artwork from Havengul Lich, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Werewolf Ransacker. The small booster featured artwork from Beguiler of Wills.

The prerelease was January 28–29, 2012, the launch party on February 3–6, 2012, the Magic Online release on February 20, 2012. The Game Day was held on February 25–26, 2012.

At each prerelease, some number of people were designated by some flashy stickers as a vampire, werewolf, zombie, or spirit at the start of the event. Any time a monster defeated a human in a match, the monster would convert the human to their cause. At the end of each Prerelease, the remaining humans and the largest tribe or tribles of monsters would be declared winners, but the rewards were up to the organizers. The prerelease cards was the double faced Ravenous Demon / Archdemon of Greed. The Release card was Mondronen Shaman / Tovolar's Magehunter. The promotional card at the Game Day event was a full-art Strangleroot Geist</c>, while a full-art foil Zombie Apocalypse</c> was given to the top-8 participants. The Buy-a-Box was Gravecrawler</c>.

Regular boosters of Dark Ascension come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a Dark Ascension checklist card, a creature token, an emblem or a rules card with an advertisement on the reverse side.

Tokens and emblem
The new Dark Ascension tokens and emblem are:
 * 1)  1/1 Human produced by Gather the Townsfolk</c>, Increasing Devotion</c>, and Thraben Doomsayer</c>
 * 2)  1/1 Vampire with lifelink produced by Sorin, Lord of Innistrad</c>

Themes and mechanics
The set introduces a new keyword mechanic in Undying. It functions very similar to Persist, but instead of a -1/-1 counter, it adds a +1/+1 counter to the creature when it returns from the grave.

Fateful hour is a new ability word, which creates an ability that functions if the controller of the effect is at 5 life or less.

Double-faced cards return with this set, further showcasing the transformation mechanic. As for Innistrad a special Checklist card is provided to facilitate play with the double-face cards. Flashback, Morbid, and Curses also return.

Creature types
No novel creature types were introduced in this expansion.

Cycles
Dark Ascension breaks the mold for cycles to a certain extent, as some of the cycles only contain four cards. In cycles which emphasize an allied color-pair, the green-white part of the cycle is missing. This is likely due to the higher emphasis on monster tribes, as the white/green pair is tied to humans.

Three flashback cycles:

Two monster tribal cycles:

Reprinted cards

 * Divination</c>, first printed in Magic 2010, last seen in Magic 2012
 * Evolving Wilds</c>, first printed in Rise of the Eldrazi
 * Fling</c>, first printed in Stronghold, last seen in Magic 2012
 * Ray of Revelation</c>, first printed in Judgment

Functional reprints

 * Gravepurge</c>, functional reprint of Footbottom Feast</c> (Lorwyn)
 * Griptide</c>, functional reprint of Repel</c> (Odyssey)
 * Hollowhenge Beast</c>, functional reprint of <c>Silverback Ape</c> (Starter 1999), save for creature type
 * <c>Nephalia Seakite</c>, functional reprint of <c>Sentinels of Glen Elendra</c> (Lorwyn), save for creature type
 * <c>Russet Wolves</c>, functional reprint of <c>Lagac Lizard</c> (Rise of the Eldrazi), <c>Canyon Minotaur</c> (Conflux), <c>Hill Giant</c> (Limited Edition), <c>Wild Jhovall</c> (Mercadian Masques), <c>Tor Giant</c> (Ice Age), <c>Ogre Warrior</c> (Portal Second Age), and <c>Barbarian Horde</c> (Portal Three Kingdoms) save for creature type
 * <c>Sanctuary Cat</c>, functional reprint of <c>Devoted Hero</c> (Portal) and <c>Volunteer Militia</c> (Portal Three Kingdoms) save for creature type

Strictly better

 * <c>Hunger of the Howlpack</c>, upgrade from <c>Battlegrowth</c> (Mirrodin)
 * <c>Midnight Guard</c>, upgrade from <c>Shu Foot Soldiers</c> (Portal Three Kingdoms) and <c>Alaborn Trooper</c> (Portal Second Age)
 * <c>Somberwald Dryad</c>, upgrade from <c>Rushwood Dryad</c> (Mercadian Masques) and <c>Grizzly Bears</c> (Alpha)
 * <c>Thought Scour</c>, upgrade from <c>Ray of Erasure</c> (Ice Age) and <c>Mental Note</c> (Judgment)

Notable cards

 * <c>Gravecrawler</c> and <c>Geralf's Messenger</c> formed the backbone of Zombie decks in Standard, as both are hard to kill and can push a lot of damage through in early turns. Geralf's Messenger, in particular, is a conceptual mirrored version of <c>Kitchen Finks</c> which was a popular aggro card during Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block; providing life loss against life gain, getting stronger upon death as opposed to weaker and being extremely inflexible in casting as opposed to being fairly easy to cast.
 * <c>Grafdigger's Cage</c> A powerful hoser card against strategies that attempt to cheat cards into play. This card incited widespread skepticism and anger but turned out to not be as threatening as expected. It nevertheless became a staple in the eternal formats, especially out of the sideboard.
 * <c>Lingering Souls</c> saw widespread application in nearly all formats and was banned in Block Constructed due to providing a large number of creatures with the cost spread over multiple turns.
 * <c>Huntmaster of the Fells</c> Providing two bodies in one card, as well as lifegain and potential damage output, this card saw much tournament attention.
 * <c>Elbrus, the Binding Blade</c> is a very flavorful artifact, depicting an expensive but weak dagger, which transforms into the gigantic and nigh-unstoppable Demon <c title="Withengar">Withengar Unbound</c> who feasts on the souls of defeated opponents.
 * <c>Tragic Slip</c> is considered by many to be one of the best spot creature removal cards in the game, due to its ability to destroy almost any creature for one mana, provided that another creature already died that turn.
 * <c>Faithless Looting</c> showed the shift toward "looting" (a la <c>Merfolk Looter</c>) abilities in Red, but with the distinction that would be demonstrated in later sets that discarding would occur as a cost to differentiate it to the Blue version of looting. Its position as a Red mechanic would later be solidified in Magic 2013.
 * <c>Thalia, Guardian of Thraben</c> is a staple in Death and Taxes in both Legacy and Modern.

Intro packs
Dark Ascension features five intro packs.

Event decks
Dark Ascension features two event decks.