Torment
From MTG Salvation Wiki
- For other uses, see Torment (disambiguation).
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|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 
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| Design Team | Bill Rose (lead) Mike Elliott with Odyssey design concepts by Richard Garfield Mark Rosewater | |
| Development Team | Henry Stern (lead) Randy Buehler Mike Donais Bill “Quill” McQuillan Brian Schneider with contributions from Brady Dommermuth Paul Barclay | |
| Release Date | February 2002 | |
| Mechanics | Nightmares, Madness, Threshold | |
| Keywords/ Ability words | Flashback | |
| Size | 143 (55 Common 44 Uncommon 44 Rare) | |
| Expansion Code | TOR | |
| Development Codename | Boron | |
| Sets in Odyssey block | ||
| Odyssey | Torment | Judgment |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Odyssey | Torment | Judgment |
Torment is the twenty-sixth Magic expansion and was released in 2002 as the second set in the Odyssey block.
Contents |
[edit] Set details
The set is unusual in having an imbalance in distribution of the color of cards. In general, the set is themed as the Black set featuring more black cards (40) than any other color while black's allies on the Color Wheel, Blue and Red have more cards (28 each) than black's enemies White and Green (21 each). The black cards are also comparatively more powerful than cards of the other colors.
The set also features cycles and cards in other colors which relate to black by either referring to the color itself or being thematically related to black, e.g. a cycle of Enchantments named after psychological conditions. All four Theme decks released for this set also use black and one of the other four colors. The set also features no lands which do not have an ability adding 
to the players mana pool.
The imbalance in color was counter-weighed by Judgment which enlisted a heavy theme in this set's neglected colors of white and green. Overall, the number of cards in each color was balanced out in the Odyssey block.
[edit] Mechanics
It continued the Odyssey keyword mechanics of "flashback" and "threshold" and introduced the Madness keyword, which allowed players to play cards as they were being discarded. Non-keyword themes included Nightmare Horrors such as Faceless Butcher which "scared" a resource out of an opponent until the creature left play and various insanity-themed cycles of cards.
[edit] Cycles
Torment has ten cycles:
- CIP when Threshold: Five creatures that have comes-into-play abilities at threshold — Centaur Chieftain, Cephalid Sage, Gloomdrifter, Pardic Arsonist and Teroh's Vanguard.
- Insanity-themed enchantments: Five enchantments that allow you to either discard a card, gaining a bonus in exchange; or to sacrifice the enchantment for the same bonus. Each enchantment was named after a mental or personality disorder — Hypochondria, Compulsion, Mortiphobia, Pyromania and Narcissism.
- "Possessed" creatures: These four creatures formed a cycle, even though there was no black creature. When the creature's controller has Threshold the creature gained bonuses which included turning black and had "
, 
: Destroy target [color] creature" where the color was the original color of the "possessed" creature — Possessed Aven, Possessed Barbarian, Possessed Centaur and Possessed Nomad. These cards are related to Repentant Vampire who appeared in the previous Odyssey set and may be counted as a member of the cycle.
- Tainted lands: Four lands that tapped for either
; or, if the player controls a Swamp, for or one mana of another color. The tainted lands are Tainted Field, Tainted Isle, Tainted Peak, and Tainted Wood.
- Dreams: Four rare non-permanent cards that all cost two mana of their respective color and additionally require discarding X cards for a scalable effect. However, the red Devastating Dreams requires random discard. The other cards in the cycle are Vengeful Dreams, Turbulent Dreams and Nostalgic Dreams. Insidious Dreams may be counted into this cycle as well, but it differs in mana cost from the others.
- Common Madness cards: Five common cards using the keyword Madness. The cards are Frantic Purification, Obsessive Search, Psychotic Haze, Fiery Temper and Basking Rootwalla.
- Uncommon Madness cards: Five uncommon cards using the keyword Madness. The cards are Strength of Isolation, Circular Logic, Strength of Lunacy, Violent Eruption and Arrogant Wurm.
- Flashback - Pay 3 life cards: Five cards with "Flashback — C, Pay 3 Life". The Cards are Spirit Flare, Deep Analysis, Crippling Fatigue, Flash of Defiance and Acorn Harvest.
[edit] Vertical cycles
- Punisher spells: Continuing the theme from Odyssey, each of these spells gives an opponent a "choice of evils" — Longhorn Firebeast (common), Flaming Gambit (uncommon), Skullscorch (rare).
- Black Dreams: While the other colors each got one rare Dreams spell, black got three, one in each rarity. They differ in mana cost within themselves and from the other Dreams cards in the set, but like the other dreams cards also additionally require X cards to be discarded for a scalable effect. The cards are Restless Dreams (common), Sickening Dreams (uncommon) and Insidious Dreams (rare).
- Wormfangs: Each of these blue Nightmares require the loss of a particular resource, usually permanents, excluding the rare ones, which take a turn or your hand, but return them on leaving the field. There are two vertical cycles in this catagory. —Wormfang Drake and Wormfang Newt in common, Wormfang Turtle and Wormfang Crab in uncommon and Wormfang Behemoth and Wormfang Manta in rare.
[edit] Mega cycle
- The set also features the Mortal Combat, the black entry in the Odyssey block mega cycle of Enchantments which win the game if a certain condition is met.
[edit] Notable cards
Famous cards from the set include:
[edit] Reprinted cards
The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Torment.
- Sengir Vampire — was last seen in Beatdown.
[edit] Theme decks
As Torment is a black-heavy set it is appropriate that each theme deck is partially black. Also of note, the "tainted lands" cycle (mentioned above) is found throughout the theme decks as each deck has 2 copies of the appropriate "tainted land". The pre-constructed theme decks are:
| Theme deck name | |||||
| White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | |
| Sacrilege | □ | ■ | |||
| Grave Danger | ■ | ■ | |||
| Waking Nightmares | ■ | ■ | |||
| Insanity | ■ | ■ | |||
[edit] Misprints
- All non-premium english white cards in Torment have a reduced image resolution, making them look grainy and pixilated.[1]
[edit] References
- ↑ "Ask Wizards", MTG.com, February 26, 2002
[edit] External links
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