
There are also slight thematic differences between the tribes depending on the color, such as blue zombies being abominations of science in the vein of Frankenstein's Monster, while black Zombies are shambling corpses reanimated by magical spells. In each of these pairs, the second color is considered the primary. Spirits primarily in white and blue, Zombies in blue and black, Vampires in black and red, Werewolves in red and green, and Humans primarily in green and white. The set features graveyard and tribal mechanics, with the five main tribes each being split over an allied color pair.


It is the first set to thematically take place on the plane of Innistrad. Innistrad has a gothic horror theme and makes use of horror tropes. The expansion symbol of the set is a depiction of two outward-facing, overlapping, stylized herons. Innistrad is a top-down-designed Magic set, meaning that it was designed and developed with flavor in mind first, "molding mechanics to fit the concept".
