INCREDIBLE Board Wipe Gets Much Needed Reprint In Innistrad Remastered

Last updated on December 4, 2024

The Meathook Massacre | Illustration by James Bousema

Forget about lackluster sequels: WeeklyMTG's Twitch stream announced Tuesday that Innistrad Remastered will bring back one of the scariest, bloodiest originals: The Meathook Massacre!

One of Magic's best black enchantments, The Meathook Massacre is also something of a Magic icon, to the point that WotC recently issued a literal sequel: Duskmourn‘s Meathook Massacre II.

Following Hollywood's long-standing tradition, second parts are rarely as good as the original. However, The Meathook Massacre is, to this day, a powerhouse, and a favorite among Draftsim writers.

A Legendary Enchantment

“The Meathook Massacre excels as a board wipe that gains a bunch of life when it hits the table,” notes Andy Walser, who ranks it highly among the best enchantments for Commander. “I hesitate to call it the best board wipe in EDH, but its role as a catch-up tool and win condition lands it in the top 5 at least.”

“Blood Artist and Damnation is a hell of a combination,” notes Tim Zaccagnino, our Managing Editor, who considers it the second-best X spell in the game. “Like combining chocolate and peanut butter, but with more severed hands!”

The Meathook Massacre certainly has the competitive chops across multiple Magic formats to back up such praise. Banned during its Standard tenure, it's strong enough to see cEDH play (often with The Master of Keys at the helm) and is frequently found in sideboards of top-tier Modern and Pioneer MTG decks. It even made it to the top 64 at the MKM Pro Tour in decks like Gabriel Nassif's Dimir Control.

The problem, though, has always been the cost – not the X, but the dollars. The Meathook Massacre’s consistently high prices have kept it from being accessible to a wider range of players.

Originally printed in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, the legendary enchantment is by far the most expensive card from that set. At the time of writing, a regular copy costs just about $40 while the borderless version costs over $60. Runner-up Midnight Hunt staples like Haunted Ridge, Lier, Disciple of the Drowned, or Adeline, Resplendent Cathar barely scratch the $5-7 range.

Will tickets for this rerun be any cheaper? Almost certainly so, but we may not see the majority of it until the set actually releases in January of 2025.

Basic, Retro, and Movie Poster

For starters, the The Meathook Massacre will be part of the main set – that's to say, this won't be a hard-to-find bonus sheet card, but a regular mythic rare, so you'll be able to find the regular and the retro frame versions in Innistrad Remastered Play Boosters .

And, in Collector Boosters, you'll also find the Movie Poster version, which has thus far been warmly received by players.

“Now that's one card that fits the ‘Movie Poster’ design well,” commented redditor u/trifas, echoing the praise that this alternate version has received thus far.

“They did a good job with the rules text,” agreed u/Responsible_Oil3859. “Very legible despite the frame”

According to WotC's Collecting Innistrad Remastered article (and if my math is right… I'm an aggro player, just saying!), the drop rate for The Meathook Massacre‘s movie poster version should be about 2.5% of all cracked Collector Boosters. This makes it fairly hard to find, but common enough to give collectors something to chase while giving the Play Booster's regular version some room to drop down in price.

Last but not least, it looks like Innistrad Remastered will have a lot of desirable collectibles, including of course what will be the slam-dunk chase card in the set (and maybe all of 2025): Edgar Markov, Magic's first-ever headliner card.

All in all, it looks like one of black's best board wipes will become at least a bit more affordable next January.

Aggro decks beware!