"Katilda and her coven were doing another one of their rituals. They had started simple enough, with plenty of food and beer and bright candles. There was dancing and singing that sounded more like howls, but the townsfolk did not seem to mind. Many of them, including Leinore, felt like howling themselves. But after the first couple of days, their rituals became stranger and stranger. Beastly shapes seemed to dance inside the bonfires along with the witches. When the women opened their mouths to utter invocations, Leinore could see clumps of black dirt clinging to their teeth and staining their tongues."
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The doomed human populace on Innistrad faces opposition on all sides: creatures of the night, grotesque horrors, the vengeful undead, and even their own kind. Desperate to forget their imperiled existence, come autumn they all put their troubles aside and welcome the coming harvest. All along the countryside and local parishes, villagers and families from all walks of life forget the dangers of their world and celebrate. However, this is more than a simple evening of ale and pumpkin carving: it’s a ritual to bring hope of surviving the coming nights.
Far beyond the Dickensian dread of their walled cities and quiet farmsteads, a dalliance between desperate townsfolk and witches ensures this will be a harvest festival like no other. The paranormal terrors of the deep woods are no mere superstition, and the scheming witches' ancient incantations could pose unforeseen dangers. Led in occult prayer by Leinore, Autumn Sovereign, the assembled humans join hands despite the uncertainty of survival. After all, the greatest force they have isn’t their faith or their weapons: it’s each other.
Join Us:
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A ritual is only as strong as its participants, so construct your cult carefully to take advantage of the unique "Coven" mechanic (Sungold Sentinel, Dawnhart Mentor, etc.). While it's possible to assemble your coven simply by casting your creatures strategically, Cards like Homestead Courage and Intrepid Provisioner can make this easier by reinforcing creatures already on the field. Similarly, you can arm your creatures with cheap equipment like Silver-Inlaid Dagger to strengthen them also.
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Send cards directly from your deck to the graveyard (Vessel of Nascency, Crawling Infestation, etc.) to gain myriad advantages and power up the horrors lurking in your deck. The more nourished your graveyard, the stronger cards like Splinterfright, Wreath of Geists, and Kessig Dire Swine become. Lands lost to the grave can be recovered with Scaretiller and Stoic Builder, and some cards like Join the Dance can be cast directly from the graveyard.
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In addition to strengthening your creatures, Leinore, Autumn Sovereign provides the useful service of drawing extra cards. Cloaked Cadet will draw you an additional card each time Leinore's effect targets a human, and Soul of the Harvest will draw you cards simply for casting creatures. Burlfist Oak becomes a deadly threat with any combination of these cards on the field, and the constant drawing can help maintain the deck's strategic consistency.
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Your humans and other creatures can get involved in the festivities in a variety of ways beyond attacking and blocking. Katilda, Dawnhart Prime and Cryptolith Rite allow you to use your creatures to help cast your spells, and Gallows at Willow Hill becomes a reliable and repeatable source of killing problematic creatures. Cards that can easily create tokens like Sigarda, Heron's Grace and Thraben Doomsayer will help keep your field filled with willing participants.
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With a field full of creatures, it's finally time to take the fight to your opponents. When you attack with your strongest creatures (likely the ones that Leinore has been empowering throughout the game), cards like Dawnhart Wardens, Sigardian Zealot, and Ulvenwald Behemoth
can give them an edge in combat and maximize damage. In addition to being an evasive heavy hitter in its own right, Dearly Departed can strengthen the human contingent of your deck even further should it make its way into the graveyard.
Sub-Commander Option
Torens, Fist of the Angels: Although an outcast from Innistrad's holy order and unaffiliated with the conclave of witches working to save the world through old magic, Torens' troubled past doesn't stop him from trying to defend his brethren; monsters don't care about his past mistakes and humankind cannot afford to either.
With Torens as your commander, the deck still focuses on strengthening creatures using +1/+1 counters, but this is now achieved through attacking instead of using Leinore. What the deck loses in flexibility it makes up for in offensive prowess and being able to rapidly create self-strengthening creature tokens. Without Leinore’s draw power the deck loses some consistency and the self-mill strategies are less likely to come together, but Torens synergizes exceedingly well with abilities that allow you to tap creatures for additional uses.
Part of a 5-way Innistrad Pentagram/ Commander series:
1) Leinore’s Witching Hour- Humans assemble to outlive opponents, escalating in formability and bolstering their ranks.
2) Saint Traft's Lost Army- Spirits and Angels attack effortlessly from above to slowly grind opponents to the bone.
3) Wilhelt's Graveyard Smash- Zombies rise from the grave to overwhelm opponents, entirely overrunning the field.
4) Florian's Sanguine Soiree- Vampires strengthen themselves and swarm the field to strike opponents when they're vulnerable.
5) Tovolar's Full Moon Slaughter- Werewolves transform to butcher opponents and curse them to manipulate the state of the game.
