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Tempest
Welcome to the Rath cycle that begins with Tempest. After the mirage block, where quality started to get warmer, this time the power level raised seriously. Tempest brings in a new powerful mechanic called buyback, which lets you get back the spell as part of the casting cost, if the requirement, mana or else, is fulfilled. Tempest also brings many powerful artifacts on the game, like the five Medallions named after the Moxes, each one lowering the casting cost of the specific colour of one colourless mana.
Sapphire Medallion, the blue one, is known for being part of some degenerated combo afterwards. Outside of cheap mana enablers, there's Scroll Rack, a huge card manipulator, or Cursed Scroll, a damage dealer that helped decks to beat everyone for a while. Other kind of permanents, particularly enchantments have some good shot, with Earthcraft that lets you untap a land by untapping a creature, screaming for combo everywhere, and Humility, a white enchantment that makes every creature a 1/1 with no abilities, nightmare for the rules of the game for many players.
The creatures got stronger, particularly the Shadow ability, which lets the creature block or be blocked only by another with the same keyword. Soltari Monk and Soltari Priest, the two 2/1 white beater protected from red and black are a nice example of getting the job done. The rest of the pack, a good amount of instant and sorceries like Time Warp, a five mana Time Walk, Intuition, a three card instant searcher that gets you one in hand, then Living End, the single black sorcery that generates most decks in history. With five mana exchanges all the creatures in play with all the one in the graveyard, making huge hordes of threats in a short period of time.
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