Planeshift
From MTG Salvation Wiki
- For other uses, see Planeshift (disambiguation).
| ||
|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 
| |
| Design Team | Mike Elliott (lead) Mark Rosewater Henry Stern | |
| Development Team | William Jockusch (lead) Randy Buehler Henry Stern Brian Tinsman Teeuwynn Woodruff with contributions from Brady Dommermuth Beth Moursund | |
| Release Date | February 2001 | |
| Mechanics | Battlemages, Domain, Dragon lairs, Familiars, Gating, Planeswalker enchantments | |
| Keywords/ Ability words | Kicker | |
| Size | 143 (55 Common 44 Uncommon 44 Rare) | |
| Expansion Code | PLS | |
| Development Codename | Hong Kong | |
| Sets in Invasion Block | ||
| Invasion | Planeshift | Apocalypse |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Invasion | Planeshift | 7th Edition |
Planeshift is the twenty-third Magic expansion and was released in 2001 as the second set in the Invasion Block.
Contents |
[edit] Set details
The three rare cards Ertai, the Corrupted, Tahngarth, Talruum Hero, and Skyship Weatherlight have alternate foil versions, so that each appears with its normal art as a foil and also appears with special art on the foil card. The special art versions have a star next to the collector's number.[1]
[edit] Mechanics
Planeshift introduces the Gating mechanic. It is generally attached to an undercosted creature, when that creature comes into play, gating requires the player to return a creature they control to their hand.
Planeshift expands upon the Kicker keyword introduced in Invasion by having other costs besides mana.
[edit] Cycles
Planeshift has ten cycles:
- Allied color spells: Each of these common spells has a mana cost that includes one mana each of two allied colors — Daring Leap, Malicious Advice, Terminate, Hull Breach, Gerrard's Command.
- Battlemages: Each of these uncommon wizard creatures has a mana cost of
C and has one kicker cost for each of its allied colors — Sunscape Battlemage, Stormscape Battlemage, Nightscape Battlemage, Thunderscape Battlemage, Thornscape Battlemage.
- Common Gating Creatures: Each of these common allied-colored creatures has the Gating mechanic — Silver Drake, Cavern Harpy, Lava Zombie, Horned Kavu, and Steel Leaf Paladin.
- Dragon charms: Each of these uncommon modal instants requires three colors of mana to play and has a converted mana cost of 3, its colors corresponding to one of the legendary dragons from Invasion — Treva's Charm, Dromar's Charm, Crosis's Charm, Darigaaz's Charm, and Rith's Charm.
- Dragon lairs: Each of these uncommon lands must be sacrificed when it comes into play unless you to return a non-Lair land to your hand and can be tapped for one mana of any of three colors, corresponding to one of the legendary dragons from Invasion — Treva's Ruins, Dromar's Cavern, Crosis's Catacombs, Darigaaz's Caldera, and Rith's Grove.
- Familiars: Each of these common creatures has a mana cost of
C and reduces the casting costs of allied-color spells you play by — Sunscape Familiar, Stormscape Familiar, Nightscape Familiar, Thunderscape Familiar, and Thornscape Familiar.
- Land-sacrifice kicker spells: Each of these common spells has the kicker mechanic with the sacrifice of one or two lands as a cost — Pollen Remedy, Rushing River, Bog Down, Magma Burst, Falling Timber.
- Planeswalker enchantments: Each of these rare enchantments has a mana cost of C, has an activated ability that forces your opponent to reveal a card at random from his or her hand and creates an effect based on that card's converted mana cost, and depicts one of the planeswalkers gathered by Urza to aid him in the Invasion storyline — Planeswalker's Mirth (Commodore Guff), Planeswalker's Mischief (Bo Levar), Planeswalker's Scorn (Tevesh Szat), Planeswalker's Fury (Lord Windgrace), and Planeswalker's Favor (Freyalise).
- Tricolor rares: Each of these rare spells requires three colors of mana to cast — Questing Phelddagrif, Ertai, the Corrupted, Phyrexian Tyranny, Destructive Flow, and Radiant Kavu.
- Uncommon Gating Creatures: Each of these uncommon allied-colored creatures has the Gating mechanic — Sawtooth Loon, Marsh Crocodile, Razing Snidd, Sparkcaster, and Fleetfoot Panther.
[edit] Notable cards
- Draco — With a converted mana cost of 16, Draco is the most costly creature card in the game. For this very reason, as seen at tournament-level Magic, it was used in combination with Erratic Explosion or Kaboom! to deal 16 damage.
- Flametongue Kavu — Flametongue Kavu is 4/2 and deals 4 damage to any creature when it comes into play for the cost of
.
- Meddling Mage — Meddling Mage, designed in the image of Chris Pikula, has seen much play for its ability to deny the playing of a specific spell, the name of which is chosen as the Mage comes into play.
- Orim's Chant — Much like Meddling Mage, Orim's Chant prevent the playing of cards, in this case it prevents a target player from playing spells, and, if the kicker is paid, attack. With the advent of Mirrodin, Orim's Chant saw a considerable amount in decks that also host Isochron Scepter; these cards were used together to create an often hard-lock.
- Shivan Wurm — An aggressive 7/7 gating creature with Trample for
that could easily come out turn 3 or 4.
[edit] Theme decks
The pre-constructed theme decks are:
| Theme deck name | |||||
| White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | |
| Barrage | ■ | ■ | |||
| Comeback | □ | ■ | ■ | ||
| Domain | □ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ |
| Scout | □ | ■ | ■ | ||
[edit] References
- ↑ "Planeshift's Legends", by "Magic Arcana", MTG.com, Tuesday, February 11, 2003.
