Morningtide
From MTG Salvation Wiki
- For other uses, see Morningtide (disambiguation).
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|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 
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| Design Team | Paul Sottosanti (lead), Aaron Forsythe, Erik Lauer, Mark Rosewater, Kenneth Nagle | |
| Development Team | ||
| Release Date | February 1, 2008 | |
| Mechanics | Tribal by class | |
| Keywords/ Ability words | Prowl, Clash, Reinforce, Kinship | |
| Size | 150 (60 Common 40 Uncommon 50 Rare) | |
| Expansion Code | MOR | |
| Development Codename | Butter | |
| Sets in Lorwyn block | ||
| Lorwyn | Morningtide | |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Elves vs. Goblins | Morningtide | Shadowmoor |
Morningtide is the forty-fifth Magic expansion and was released on February 1, 2008, as the second set in the Lorwyn block. Prerelease Events were held January 19-20, 2008.[1] Release Events were held February 1-3, 2008.
Contents |
[edit] Set details
Morningtide is the second and final set of Lorwyn block. The following set, Shadowmoor, is not part of Lorwyn block, as originally announced, but the first set of a new block, codenamed "Jelly" and "Doughnut". However, these two blocks will rotate into and out of official tournament formats as though they were a single block.[2]
| “ | Soldiers, Shamans, Wizards, Warriors, and Rogues.
Conflict continues in the fantasy world of Lorwyn as mighty races find common ground — and power — by forming new tribes based on their classes. As the second set in the new block, Morningtide offers gamers of all skill levels the chance to play with the highly popular tribal theme, along with all-new mechanics — Prowl, Reinforce, and Kinship.[3] | ” |
[edit] Promotion cards
The promotional pre-release card for Morningtide is Door of Destinies with alternate art, a card that helps emphasize creature types, the theme of Morningtide. The promotional release card is Earwig Squad which shows the Prowl mechanic.
[edit] Themes
Morningtide expands upon Lorwyn's flavor and theme by shifting the tribal focus away from the eight races of Lorwyn (kithkin, merfolk, faeries, elementals (flamekin and greater), goblins, giants, treefolk, and elves) to the five classes of Morningtide (soldiers, shamans, wizards, warriors, and rogues).
[edit] Clashback spells
Morningtide has a number of spells with clash that you return to your hand if you win the clash.
[edit] Counter boosters
A few Morningtide cards have abilities that say that certain other creatures you control come into play with additional +1/+1 counters on them.
[edit] Choose a creature type
A number of Morningtide cards tell you to choose a creature type, then base their effect on how many permanents of the chosen type you control.
[edit] Mechanics
The new mechanics introduced in Morningtide are Prowl, Kinship, and Reinforce. Prowl and Kinship are class-specific keywords for Rogues and Shamans, respectively, and Reinforce appears on multiple non class-related cards.
- Prowl is an alternate cost to play a spell, which may be used if you have dealt combat damage with a creature that shares a creature type with the card that has Prowl. For example, Latchkey Faerie costs
normally, but if you have dealt combat damage with a Faerie or a Rogue this turn, you may play it for its Prowl cost, 
. Additionally, some cards with Prowl have abilities that only occur if they have been played for their Prowl cost.
- Kinship is an ability word which means, "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may look at the top card of your library. If it shares a creature type with ~, you may reveal it. If you do, [effect]."
- Reinforce is an activated ability which reads, "Reinforce N—[mana]". You may pay a card's Reinforce cost and discard it from your hand whenever you can play an instant. If you do, put N +1/+1 counters on target creature. Reinforce works well with the tribal counter creatures from Morningtide, allowing creatures that do not have the required class to receive +1/+1 counters and trigger these creatures' effects.
[edit] Marketing cards
Like Lorwyn boosters before them, boosters of Morningtide come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a rules card or a creature token from Lorwyn or Morningtide. One face of the Morningtide bonus card has one of five different rules tips or is one of fourteen different creature tokens, meaning either one the eleven tokens printed in Lorwyn or one of the three printed in Morningtide. The other face has one of six advertisements for organized play programs, magicthegathering.com, and Shadowmoor.
[edit] Tips & Tricks
The tips & tricks cards are "Creature Types", "Kinship", "Prowl", "Clash", and "Equipment".
[edit] Tokens
The Morningtide are:
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"1/1 Faerie Rogue with flying" produced by Bitterblossom, Notorious Throng and Violet Pall.
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"5/5 Giant Warrior" produced by Feudkiller's Verdict.
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"2/5 Treefolk Shaman" produced by Reach of Branches.
[edit] Cycles
Morningtide has nine cycles:
- Bannerets: Each of these common creatures has a converted mana cost of
C and reduce the casting cost of two creature types by — Ballyrush Banneret (kithkin and soldiers), Stonybrook Banneret (merfolk and wizards), Frogtosser Banneret (goblins and rogues), Brighthearth Banneret (elementals and warriors), and Bosk Banneret (treefolk and shamans).
- Chosen creature type: Each of these common spells does something based on the number of creatures of the chosen creature type — Coordinated Barrage, Distant Melody, Luminescent Rain, Pack's Disdain, Roar of the Crowd.
- Class lords: Each of these uncommon creatures from the five major classes grant an ability to a creature that has a +1/+1 counter on it — Bramblewood Paragon, Cenn's Tactician, Oona's Blackguard, Rage Forger, and Sage of Fables.
- Common changelings: Each of these common creatures has the shapeshifter creature type and the changeling ability — Changeling Sentinel, Game-Trail Changeling, Moonglove Changeling, Mothdust Changeling, and War-Spike Changeling.
- Common elementals: Each of these common Elemental creatures comes into play with +1/+1 counters on them. As part of an activated ability, the +1/+1 counters can be removed — Fertilid, Festercreep, Floodchaser, Shinewend, and Stingmoggie.
- Common creatures with kinship: Each of these common creatures has the kinship ability — Ink Dissolver, Kithkin Zephyrnaut, Mudbutton Clanger, Squeaking Pie Grubfellows,and Winnower Patrol.
- Lesser tribal lords: Each of these rare creatures grants a bonus to or otherwise interacts with creatures of a specific class subtype, all of which are otherwise not strongly supported by the set — Battletide Alchemist (clerics), Gilt-Leaf Archdruid (druids), Greatbow Doyen (archers), Kinsbaile Cavalier (knights), and Scarblade Elite (assassins).
- Re-clash spells — Each of these uncommon spells comes back to your hand if you win the clash — Redeem the Lost, Research the Deep, Revive the Fallen, Release the Ants, and Recross the Paths.
- Tribal counter lords: Each of these uncommon creatures, one for each color, uses +1/+1 counters in a way that benefits creatures of its type — Cenn's Tactician (soldiers), Sage of Fables (wizards), Oona's Blackguard (rogues), Rage Forger (shamans), and Bramblewood Paragon (warriors).
- Tribal equipment: Each of these uncommon equipment artifacts support one of the five races of Morningtide and when an appropriate creature of that race comes into play, you may attach the equipment without paying its equip cost — Cloak and Dagger (rogues), Diviner's Wand (wizards), Obsidian Battle-Axe (warriors), Thornbite Staff (shamans), and Veteran's Armaments (soldiers).
- Uncommon Elementals with evoke: Each of these uncommon Elemental creatures has the evoke ability — Meadowboon, Nevermaker, Offalsnout, Spitebellows, and Walker of the Grove.
- Uncommon creatures with kinship: Each of these uncommon creatures has the kinship ability — Nightshade Schemers, Pyroclast Consul, Wandering Graybeard, Waterspout Weavers, and Wolf-Skull Shaman.
[edit] Notable cards
- Bitterblossom — one of the main reasons faeries dominated Lorwyn/Shadowmoor-block constructed tournaments.
- Mutavault — praised as the best manland since Mishra's Factory.
- Spitebellows — a 6/1 creature for
which deals 6 damage to target creature when it leaves play; or, if the evoke cost is paid, deals 6 damage to target creature for the very low cost of .
- Reveillark — became the backbone of the Standard "Boat Brew" deck, as well as having a potent combo deck with Mirror Entity and Body Double from Time Spiral/Lorwyn Standard.
The following common cards feel like functional reprints but are not:
- Disperse returns a nonland permanent to its owner hand for . Echoing Truth with the same casting cost, returned target nonland permanent and all other permanents with the same name as that permanent to their owners' hands. Hoodwink with the same casting cost, could only target artifacts, enchantments or lands, but no planeswalkers. Venser's Diffusion returned a nonland permanent or a suspended card for .
- Negate feels like a reprinted card; "counter target noncreature spell" is one half of the split card Spite // Malice. Spite's casting cost is , while Negate is simply . It is, more often than not, better than Flash Counter and Extinguish. The spellshaper Stronghold Machinist countered noncreature spells at a cost of , tapping and discarding a card.
- Prickly Boggart is a 1/1 creature with fear for , surprisingly this simple card has never been printed at such a low cost. Squirming Mass, a 1/1 creature with fear in Urza's Destiny cost .
[edit] Reprinted cards
The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Morningtide:
- Boldwyr Intimidator — was last seen in Future Sight as a futureshifted card. It was included in Morningtide for its class-changing abilities on other creatures.
- Elvish Warrior — was last seen in 9th Edition and was first printed in Onslaught. It was included in Morningtide as it is one of the five classes (warrior) featured in Morningtide.
[edit] Functional reprints
Morningtide has one functional reprint:
- Fencer Clique is a functional reprint of Wayward Soul from Exodus, save for creature type.
[edit] Theme decks
The preconstructed theme decks are:
| Theme deck name | |||||
| White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | |
| Battalion | □ | ■ | |||
| Going Rogue | ■ | ■ | |||
| Shamanism | □ | ■ | ■ | ||
| Warrior's Code | ■ | ■ | |||
[edit] References
- ↑ "Announcing Morningtide", by "Magic Arcana", MTG.com, Thursday, March 29, 2007.
- ↑ "Two Plus Two", by Mark Rosewater, MTG.com, Monday, July 16, 2007.
- ↑ [MOR] Focus on Classes; Keywords
[edit] External links
- Official Morningtide Information Product Page — Magic: The Gathering
- "Announcing Morningtide", by "Magic Arcana", MTG.com, Thursday, March 29, 2007.
- Morningtide Minisite
- Morningtide Visual Spoiler — Magic: The Gathering
