Masques block

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Mercadian Masques
a Mask
Released4 October 1999
Size350 (110 Common 110 Uncommon 110 Rare 20 Land)
KeywordsNone
MechanicsMercenaries, Rebels, Spellshapers, alternate casting costs, depletion lands, storage lands
DesignersMike Elliott (lead), Bill Rose, Mark Rosewater
DevelopersHenry Stern (lead), Mike Elliott, Robert Gutschera, William Jockusch, Mark Rosewater with contributions from Charlie Tin Canno, and Beth Moursund
Development codeArchimedes
Expansion codeMMQ
First set in the Masques block
Mercadian Masques Nemesis Prophecy
←
Urza's Destiny
Battle Royale
 →
←
Urza Block
 Invasion Block →
Nemesis
Released14 February 2000
Size143 cards (55 commons, 44 uncommons, 44 rares)
KeywordsFading
MechanicsSpellshapers, Rebels & Mercenaries
DesignersMike Elliot (lead), Bill Rose, Mark Rosewater
DevelopersMike Elliot (lead), Charlie Catena, Paul Peterson, Teeuwyn Woodruff
Development codeEuripides
Expansion codeNEM
Second set in the Masques block
Mercadian Masques Nemesis Prophecy
←
Battle Royale
Starter 2000
 →
←
Urza Block
 Invasion Block →
Prophecy
Released5 June 2000
Size143 cards (55 commons, 44 uncommons, 44 rares)
MechanicsRhystic spells
Development codeDionysus
Expansion codePCY
Third set in the Masques block
Mercadian Masques Nemesis Prophecy
←
Starter 2000
 		Invasion →
←
Urza Block
 Invasion Block →

The Masquerade Cycle, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Masques block", is a

plane of Dominaria.[1] It consists of the expansion sets Mercadian Masques (4 October 1999, mask), Nemesis (14 February 2000, axe), and Prophecy (5 June 2000, crystals). Mercadian Masques was the first set that is not subject to the Wizards of the Coast Reprint Policy, meaning that none of its cards appear on its Reserved List.[2][3][4]

Storyline

Mercadian Masques

The crew of the Weatherlight, having just escaped from Rath, is now stranded on the plane/city of Mercadia.[5] While they find a way to return to their home plane of Dominaria, it is revealed that one of their passengers - allegedly Takara - was actually Volrath in disguise.

Nemesis

Former Weatherlight crew members Ertai and Crovax have been left behind on Rath, where Volrath's absence leads to chaos and a power vacuum. Greven Il-Vec is next in the chain of command, but doesn't want a promotion, saying he'd "rather be the sword than the hand that wields it". The Phyrexians create an emissary, Belbe, from the remains of a fallen elf princess, and she is tasked with choosing Rath's next Evincar. She begins a sexual relationship with Ertai, who is slowly being corrupted by his abuse of a healing machine powered by black mana. Crovax, meanwhile, begs the Phyrexians to take his humanity and conscience away, and they are more than happy to assist. It seems that Crovax will be the next Evincar, until Volrath returns from Mercadia, and Belbe declares that the two must fight to the death for the position.

Prophecy

Keld has declared war on

Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League.[citation needed
]

Set details

Mercadian Masques

Mercadian Masques consists of 350 cards: 110 each of commons, uncommons, and rares plus 20 basic lands. It was the first large expansion to use the

6th Edition rules. This was the first set to have an accompanying fat pack. It reprinted a number of cards from previous sets, many of which have not been reprinted since. It was also the first set to have foil basic lands included in booster packs.[5] The set was introduced in pre-release tournaments in September 1999 and released in early October.[5]

Nemesis

Nemesis prerelease events were held on February 5, 2000. At these events the prerelease card, a foil Rathi Assassin, was handed out. The set was officially released on 14 February 2000.[6] The 143 Nemesis cards come in three rarities, common, uncommon, and rare. 55 cards are common, 44 are uncommon, and 44 are rare. Nemesis booster packs include 15 cards, one rare, three uncommon, and eleven common.[7] About every 100th card is a randomly inserted premium foil card.[8] The company also sold four pre-constructed theme decks: Breakdown, Eruption, Mercenaries, and Replicator.[6]Nemesis had a fair share of cards appear in well-placing tournament decks. Many of the cards with fading were quite powerful; the cards Parallax Wave, Parallax Tide, Blastoderm, Saproling Burst, and Tangle Wire all appeared in decks in various formats. Of the 143 in Nemesis none is a reprint. 22 cards from Nemesis have been reprinted afterwards, 16 in Core Sets.

Prophecy

The Prophecy expansion consists of 143 cards. When released, it was one of the least popular sets among tournament players. Though many casual players liked it because of the enormous Avatar and Winds cycle, both of which had a big effect at a big cost, it had relatively little impact on

Homelands)[9]
As of February 2012 only 21 cards from the Prophecy expansion have been reprinted.

Keywords and mechanics

Unusually, Masques introduced no new keyword abilities to the game. However it was advertised as introducing new creature types, which were continued throughout the cycle:

Weatherlight
.

In Nemesis, new Rebels, Mercenaries, and Spellshapers were added to the

Stronghold had another showing. Nemesis introduced the Fading
mechanic, which had creatures enter the battlefield with X counters on it, but be placed into the graveyard after X turns. It again experiments with spells with a non-mana costs.

The main theme and mechanic of Prophecy was lands; specifically, whether lands were untapped or not. Many of its cards required sacrificing lands. Similarly, the Rhystic cards gave the player an advantage if no other players paid a certain amount of mana. Prophecy introduced no keyword mechanics.

Reception

For years after its release, Mercadian Masques was considered to be an underpowered set. Reportedly,

Kamigawa
blocks.

However, the set did produce a number of tournament-quality cards. Gush is restricted in Vintage and banned in Legacy. Food Chain combined with Goblin Recruiter from

Visions to form a powerful combo deck that eventually led to Goblin Recruiter's banning from Legacy. In its time, Rishadan Port was a dominant mana-denial card in Standard, and is still used for this purpose in Legacy. Other cards that still have impact on Legacy include primarily cards that can be cast without paying their mana cost such as Land Grant, Misdirection, and Unmask
.

Theme decks

Each of the Mercadian Masques theme decks has at least one spellshaper, a theme of the set. The pre-constructed theme decks are Deepwood Menace (green-red), Disrupter (black-red), Rebel's Call (white), and Tidal Mastery (blue-white).

References

  1. ^ Forsythe, Aaron (17 November 2010). "Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #38, 11/17/11". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  2. ^ "Official Reprint Policy". Wizards of the Coast. March 2010. Archived from the original on 3 October 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  3. ^ Miller, John Jackson (2001), Scrye Collectible Card Game Checklist & Price Guide, p. 520.
  4. ^ Moursund, Beth (2002), The Complete Encyclopedia of Magic The Gathering, p. 720.
  5. ^ a b c Jackson, Collin (August 1999). "Magic Renaissance". InQuest Gamer. No. 52. Wizard Entertainment. p. 24.
  6. ^ a b Jackson, Collin (February 2000). "Nemesis up next". InQuest Gamer. No. 58. Wizard Entertainment. p. 24.
  7. ^ "Nemesis Checklist". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 3 March 2000. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  8. ^ Nemesis Booster Pack Wrapper. Wizards of the Coast. 2000. Premium card odds approx. 1 : 100
  9. ^ Rosewater, Mark (29 April 2013). "Third Time's the Charm". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 29 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  10. ^ "Mercardian Masques". Wizards of the Coast. 1999. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  11. ^ Rosewater, Mark (16 October 2012). "What was it like getting yelled at for Urza's Block?". Blogatog. Retrieved 28 February 2021.

External links

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