Welcome back to Prerelease Week here at the Rules Tips Blog! Today we’re going over one of the new mechanics of Shadows over Innistrad: Delirium. Delirium works somewhat similarly to an old ‘graveyard matters’ ability called Threshold; cards with Threshold got better somehow once you had at least 7 cards in your graveyard. Some were creatures that got stronger, or spells with bigger impact, and some cards had abilities that they couldn’t access until you hit that Threshold! Delirium is similar- it’s an Ability Word, just like Landfall or Formidable; it doesn’t have any rules meaning, it just groups similar things together.

In this case, that ‘similar thing’ is having 4 or more card types in your graveyard. Now, this is just types, not Supertypes or Subtypes; “Legendary” won’t count, just like “Aura” or “Elf”. The Types that Delirium will count are Artifact, Creature, Enchantment, Instant, Land, Planeswalker, Sorcery, and Tribal; so long as you have 4 or more of those types present, you’re good. Some cards (like Hangarback Walker) have more than one type, and those are both counted. So, if you had Hangarback Walker, Evolving Wilds, and Fiery Temper in your graveyard, you’d have Delirium enabled. Same as Threshold, each card with Delirium works a little differently; some are creatures that get stronger, some are spells that have an additional effect, and some are spells where the entire effect is changed if you’re Delirium-enabled. Remember to read your cards carefully! Finally, an instant or sorcery with Delirium isn’t going to count itself- if I cast Might Beyond Reason while there’s only Sorceries, Creatures, and Lands in my graveyard, Delirium isn’t active until my spell FULLY resolves and goes to the graveyard, meaning I only get two counters instead of three.

Tune in tomorrow when we go over Investigate and Clues, and then again on Friday when we cover Madness!

Today’s Prerelease Tip was written by Trevor Nunez