Mirrodin Besieged

Mirrodin Besieged
Set symbol
Symbol description	An overlap of Mirran and Phyrexian symbols
Design team	Mark Gottlieb (lead), Gregory Marques, Ken Nagle, Mark Rosewater, Mike Turian
Development team	Erik Lauer (lead), Ryan Dhuse, Tom LaPille, Mike Turian
Release date	February 4, 2011
Themes and mechanics	Infect, Proliferate, Imprint, Metalcraft
Keywords and/or ability words	Battle Cry, Living weapon, Metalcraft, Imprint, Infect, Proliferate
Set size	155 (10 basic lands, 60 commons, 40 uncommons, 35 rares, 10 mythic rares)
Expansion code	MBS
Development code name	Camera
Scars of Mirrodin block sets
Scars of Mirrodin	Mirrodin Besieged	New Phyrexia
Magic: The Gathering chronology
Masters Edition IV	Mirrodin Besieged	Deck Builder's Toolkit 2011

Mirrodin Besieged is the second set in the Scars of Mirrodin block. It is the 54^th Magic expansion and was released on February 4, 2011.

Set details

Mirrodin Besieged continues the story of Scars of Mirrodin as the Phyrexian Invasion lays waste to the Mirran countryside and its people. The set itself is split strongly between the two camps. For example, the prerelease and release parties featured a special type of booster that contained only cards from one faction or the other, requiring the players to choose between them for their deck-building. Intro packs were also separated between the factions.

The expansion made a change to the draft format. In all previous draft formats the group of players started with the first set in a block, but starting with Mirrodin Besieged, the first pack to be opened is of the most recently released set. The number of packs does not change however, so the the draft format for Mirrodin Besieged was one booster of Mirrodin Besieged followed by two packs of Scars of Mirrodin.

The set also introduced a new sort of Theme deck called an event deck. These decks feature a 60 card main deck and 15 card sideboard, including 7 rares but no mythic rares. Mirrodin Besieged features two event decks: a Mono-red event deck for the Mirran side of the conflict, and a blue-black deck for the Phyrexians. These decks were released three weeks after the release of the set.

Mirrodin Besieged has a theme of Mirrored Pairs, with cards from the Phyrexian and Mirran factions mirroring each other. Such a mirror is showcased with cards such as Peace Strider and Pierce Strider or Mirran Crusader and Phyrexian Crusader. There are also cards that mimic cards from the previous Mirrodin block, but with Phyrexian influence, e.g. Viridian Corrupter mimics Viridian Shaman, Blightsteel Colossus mimics Darksteel Colossus and Inkmoth Nexus mimics Blinkmoth Nexus, thus representing Phyrexia spreading its influence over the plane and co-opting its inhabitants.

Further, although in Scars of Mirrodin the Phyrexian faction was limited to the colors blue, black and green, the faction also has red and white cards in this set. The number of cards per faction is evenly distributed, with 72 cards each.

Marketing

• Buy-a-Box: Mirran Crusader.

Boosters of Mirrodin Besieged come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a "tips & tricks card", a creature token from Mirrodin Besieged, or a poison counter. These bonus cards display on their reverse side one of 14 advertisements for organized play programs, other Magic products such as fat packs and intro packs, the Magic books library, Magic Online, UltraPro products, or various Wizards-run, Magic-related websites (such as http://community.wizards.com).

Tips & Tricks

The tips & tricks cards are

• Rules Tip: Battle Cry
• Rules Tip: Metalcraft / Imprint
• Rules Tip: Living weapon
• Rules Tip: Infect
• Rules Tip: Proliferate

Tokens

The Mirrodin Besieged tokens in numerical order are:

• 0/0 Germ brought into play with any Equipment that is also a Living Weapon.
• 1/1 Myr Artifact produced by Master's Call, Myr Sire and Myr Turbine.
• 1/1 Soldier produced by Hero of Bladehold.
• 1/1 Thopter Artifact with flying produced by Thopter Assembly.
• 2/2 Zombie produced by Nested Ghoul.

Themes and mechanics

Two new keyword mechanics are featured, one for each faction. The Mirran keyword is Battle Cry, which gives every other creature that attacks when the creature with Battle Cry attacks a +1/+0 bonus. The Phyrexian mechanic is Living Weapon, a new keyword for Equipment. All equipment with Living Weapon give a power/toughness bonus, but upon entering play they put a 0/0 black Germ creature token into play and attaches the equipment to it.

A new rules term is "poisoned". A player is poisoned if they have any poison counters.

The mechanics Metalcraft, Imprint, Proliferate and Infect also return.

Cycles

Mirrodin Besieged has 3 cycles:

• Zeniths: A cycle of rare spells with X in their costs named for the colored suns of Mirrodin. They shuffle themselves back into the library after being used and thus strongly resemble the cycle of Beacons from Fifth Dawn. The cycle spans both factions. — White Sun's Zenith, Blue Sun's Zenith, Black Sun's Zenith, Red Sun's Zenith and Green Sun's Zenith.
• Color-aligned Artifact creatures: Like Scars of Mirrodin before it, Mirrodin Besieged contains a cycle of common artifact creatures with an activated ability including a colored cost. The activation cost varies, unlike the previous cycle. — Bladed Sentinel, Gust-Skimmer, Dross Ripper, Spin Engine, and Tangle Hulk.
• The set also contains a set of Basic lands, two of each color, which is uncharacteristic for a small set in a block. Their purpose lays in flavor, showing the growing Phyrexian corruption of the Mirran landscape.

Pairs

Mirrored pairs

Mirrodin Besieged has 4 mirrored pairs:

• Mirran Heroes: Both of these mythic rare human knights cost CC, and have Battle cry and an ability that triggers when they attack — Hero of Bladehold and Hero of Oxid Ridge.
• Crusaders: Both of these rare knights cost CC, have protection from the primary colours of the opposing faction, and have a variant of first strike — Mirran Crusader and Phyrexian Crusader.
• Couriers: Both of these common creatures cost CC, and are 2/3s with an opposing landwalk ability — Koth's Courier and Glissa's Courier.
• Striders: Both of these uncommon artifact creatures cost , and are 3/3s with an enters the battlefield ability that deals damage or gains life — Peace Strider and Pierce Strider.

Reprinted cards

Card	Introduced in	Featured in	Notes
Divine Offering	Legends	Mirage, 5th Edition
Leonin Skyhunter	Mirrodin	9th Edition	First printed as an uncommon; later reprinted as a common
Phyrexian Rager	Apocalypse
Ogre Resister			Functional reprint of Lowland Giant (Tempest) and Shatterskull Giant (Zendikar)

Preconstructed decks

Mirrodin Besieged preconstructed theme decks
Intro packs: Path of Blight () | Doom Inevitable () | Mirromancy () | Battle Cries ()
Event decks: Into the Breach () | Infect and Defile ()
Related pages: Scars of Mirrodin block/Preconstructed theme decks • Scars of Mirrodin block preconstructed decks

Intro packs

New Phyrexia has five bicolored intro packs.

Intro pack name	Colors included					Foil rare
	White	Blue	Black	Red	Green
Path of Blight	□				■	Phyrexian Hydra
Doom Inevitable		■	■			Psychosis Crawler
Mirromancy		■		■		Galvanoth
Battle Cries	□			■		Victory's Herald

Event decks

Event decks were introduced in Mirrodin Besieged; Mirrodin Besieged has two event decks.

Event deck name	Colors included
	White	Blue	Black	Red	Green
Infect and Defile		■	■
Into the Breach				■

External links

• Mirrodin Besieged product information page — Wizards of the Coast

Contributors

Aurora Illumina, Chaosof99, Circeus, Coreydragon, Darknight, Gamma-Mage, GeoMike, Hunter61, Kokusho, Magic Mage, Rugos, Sloth, SpencerDub, Spike, TheGodOfWar91, Unistardust