A New Werewolf Planeswalker!

Today begins the official countdown for Shadows Over Innistrad and their official marketing push. At the bottom of the page there is a simple introduction for one Arlinn Kord, and here's a tidbit about her --

 "Arlinn Kord is a tormented werewolf, originally from Avabruck, who has a gift unique among her kind: she is a Planeswalker." 

Not only is the lore introducing a new Planewswalker, but we are simultaneously being given gentle spoilers for a new Planeswalker card.  Not only will this be a new Planeswalker card, but most likely will be a flip-style, werewolf card!  It remains to be seen whether Arlinn will enter the story immediately and be playable for us on April 2nd, or if she will be join the Superfriend's ranks in the second set in the block, The Eldritch Moon.

What colors will Arlinn inhabit? Her obvious predecessor, Garruk Relentless (not technically or officially a werewolf, but we always wondered), was heavy into Black and Green. Both of these colors would be a safe bet. However, her wistful smile and reminiscence to Amy Poehler tell us Arlinn, while "tormented", is far from a ravenous, murderous lunatic. We are hoping a certain blue-aligned Planeswalker will show up and help her toward her light side. We predict Arlinn will be a Black/White card -- meaning it is unlikely for other black/white Planeswalkers to arrive in the upcoming Block (Still don't know where Sorin is...)

What abilities will Arlinn have? While our preceding comparable Planeswalker card used such words as "has deathtouch", "summon beast", and "destroy target Planeswalker," we have a feeling Arlinn will be a little less edgy at first. Summoning beast tokens is a pretty sure bet for a middle ability. Taking from Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, we also predict her first ability will be a self-morphing one, where Arlinn herself will take to the field, gaining perhaps indestructibility and/or deathtouch as a 4/4 creature. As for her ultimate ability, we are predicting a board-changing affect, something that would read, "Target Player receives an emblem that says 'during combat, each creature this player controls becomes a black 3/3 beast with deathtouch and loses all other abilities."

Here is a quick mock up of what Arlinn might look like.

Shadows Over Innistrad will feature 297 cards, a boost from Battle For Zendikar's 274. Pre-Release begins April 2nd.

Stay in touch with InstantSpeedMTG and Wizards for all the new info!