recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Dack Fayden

## Summary

Dack Fayden is a human planeswalker, skilled in Psychometry, from Fiora. He was first introduced in the DW Comics, and as a card in Conspiracy, but returned in Commander: Last Tower.

He was most recently represented in the card Dack, Thief of Essence.

## Abilities

Dack Fayden is an incredibly skilled artifact thief, a man of great stealth, agility, charisma and trickery that allow him to escape even the tightest of situations against the most powerful of foes.

Aiding this is Dack's skill in Psychometry, a type of magic allowing him to absorb the memories of artifacts he touches, whether to find out their origins, more things like it, or the highest bidder...

## Lore

It was thought that Dack's many adventures had come to an end when, during the War of the Spark, one of Nicol Bolas's eternals tore Dack's spark from him, killing him. He had let his altruism get the best of him, and the greatest thief in the multiverse had ironically given up his life in sacrifice.

However, flawed as his own perception of himself may have been, his reputation was what it was for a reason, and Dack became the type of thief he never thought he would be: One of souls. With his last dying breath, with no spark, he was able to steal just enough lifeforce from the roots of the dying Vitu-Ghazi to keep himself alive. For years, he would roam the streets, a mysterious, murderous force in Ravnica's back alleys, taking soul after soul to live just another day, never fully coming to, until one of the planeswalkers he had given his life for returned.

Karn, the Silver Golem, the planeswalker who had lost his spark oh so many times before, would land on the plane of Ravnica, and Dack truly woke up after his "death" so long ago. Dack had sacrificed his spark for Karn. He was owed a spark, and so, he took what was rightfully his.

Dack quickly fled Ravnica, knowing well that he had incurred the wrath of the Gatewatch, ready to see what other trinkets, and magics, and lives he could steal.

## Competitive Success

Dack's deck in Commander: Last Tower, Forget About It!, was considered very powerful, surprising many with the inclusion of things like Mystic Remora and Rhystic Study, and Dack proved to be a great leader to the deck. Stacking together the aforementioned with Mind's Eye and Dack's first ability allowed the user to easily draw a new hand of cards every turn.

Adjacent to the Aikido and Theft strategies he represented, he also found a great deal of use as a Group Hug commander, "letting" opponents draw as many cards as possible only to steal their best pieces, or play their whole hand out.

As a card in the 99, he did see a great deal of play in Nekusar decks, as a way to profit off of extra draws.

In other formats, he was typically considered too mana and color intensive to see a lot of use, though decks like Sneak and Show and Hypergenesis would occasionally run him as an immediate way to neutralize threats.
Alpha Canine

## Summary

Alpha Canine is a creature card introduced in Dominaria Divided. It was designed as part of the block's effort to increase tribal support for every tribe, and acts as a lord for the dog tribe, as well as an antilord for the cat tribe.

It was also designed as a direct reference and counter to Feline Sovereign.

## Lore

Whereas Feline Sovreign smugly tried to show off its influence over humans, Alpha Canine showed its strength in a different way, in a fierce independence. Where Cats could more easily manipulate the humans around them, this canine and its pack could live without, or even against the human society around it, and lead with resilience.

## Competitive Success

Alpha Canine, while not the first dog lord, was enough to push dog tribal into the mainstream. While the protection from cats, a relatively common tribe was a nice bonus, and it came with the standard, always useful +1/+1 to the tribe, its triggered ability really made it shine. Its selective indestructibility could greatly punish chump blockers, making sure they were far less capable of stalling out until a kill spell was found. However, what truly broke the card was superfriends decks. Effectively, if even one dog its controller controlled was blocked, including itself, a planeswalker could gain indestructible until end of turn, making them almost impossible to kill via combat damage.
Roil Aurora

## Summary

Roil Aurora was a story set released following Apex Predator, and followed by (though not closely) Tombs of Tarkir.

The set takes place on a post-invasion Zendikar.

## Lore

The plane of Zendikar has been through a lot. Following the invasion of both the Eldrazi and the Phyrexians, any petty conflict that would have befell the civilizations that call the plane their home have fallen to the wayside after years, and the allies are stronger than ever. Even the once quarrelling tribes of humans, merfolk and vampires have come together in a tentative treaty to exchange medicine, trying to heal the scars of phyresis and eldrazi corruption. Drana and Linvala, growing close after their battles together against the phyrexians, have formalized their "partnership", and even the roil itself is thankful towards its protectors, with a growing mutual respect.

However, for all scars do fade, the memories of the corruption that was still stick in the mind of few, and when Kalitas, the traitor to all of Zendikar makes a return, the bonds formed will be tested between the people of Zendikar, and the allies of the vampires will have to ask themselves, what is the difference between forgiving and forgetting?

## Themes/Mechanics

Roil Aurora brings back the land-heavy theme of previous Zendikar sets, including the Landfall mechanic, as well as a few outliers with the Voyageur keyword.

The set, focusing around the allies of Zendikar, also has a large focus on the Ally creature type.

The partnerships formed quite literally come out in the form of a cycle of commanders with the "Partner With" mechanic, forming a cycle of each of the three color combinations.

## Popular Cards and Decks

While a flop of a set as a whole, the new partner cycle introduced a number of very popular commander options, most notably Drana and Linvala.

## Associated Products

Being a story set, Roil Aurora was sold in booster packs and boxes of the Collector, Draft, Gambler and Set varieties.

## Promo Cards

Roil Aurora did bring back Expeditions, very rare, non-standard legal versions of famous and powerful lands, though in this set they were even rarer, bringing back some lands that had only received one printing decades ago.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of this set came with the Roil Aurora Grand Tour. However, much like the Apex Predator Grand Tour, the previous Urza's Prophecy set and its Burnwillows deck were simply far too powerful, and few to no Roil Aurora cards were actually played at the event.

## Critical Reception

Much like Apex Predator, Roil Aurora came in the shadow of the absolutely disastrous Urza's Prophecy, and was unfairly hated upon as a result of that backlash.

Years later, the set would actually be quite well liked for its powerful and creative partners.
Foo

## Summary

Foo is an arcane instant card released in Rain of the Kami, as a return to the Arcane mechanic. It is very much a spiritual successor to the card Evermind, being an uncastable Splice spell that augments Arcane spells you cast.

## Lore

Foo, in computer programming, is a meaningless placeholder word. As Kamigawa's technology evolves, such would appear in their computers as well, forming something seemingly useless...

## Competitive Success

While the Spirit/Arcane archetype had once been deemed one of the greatest failures in Magic R&D, Foo led to the creation of Hoover Dam, a powerful Modern deck which dropped the spirit side completely, using Foo to protect spells, Evermind to draw spells on each cast, Psychic Puppetry to gain mana on each cast by untapping lands, and Dampen Thought as a wincon, acting almost like a version of Storm. It would then implement Arcane Ninjutsu cards to switch pieces of the strategy, making it much stronger and less predictable to play around and against.
Burning of the Willows

## Summary

Burning of the Willows is a saga enchantment card introduced in Urza's Prophecy. It's effectively a Saga equivalent to the card Grove of the Burnwillows, though paced slightly differently.

## Lore

The Burning of the Willows represents first lighting of the flame that began the Burnwillows, on the edge of the grove that it would eventually overtake and define.

## Competitive Success

Burning of the Willows was a commonly used card in the most powerful deck of all time, Burnwillows. While not quite as integral to the strategy, it was a strong play for board development, guaranteeing a spike in mana and later life gain.

For as few decks there were that were viable in the Burnwillows era, Burning of the Willows also saw some play as a ritual-type card in things like Storm or generally Gruul Ramp, with an opponent gaining two life being a small price to pay for a two-mana spike on the next turn, and saw some use as a turn-two win enabler in Legacy.
Sigarda

## Summary

Sigarda is an archangel from the plane of Innistrad, who was first introduced in Avacyn Restored, but returned in Blood of the Angels.

She was most recently represented in the card Archangel Sigarda.

## Competitive Success

While not as famous as Archangel Liesa on the commander scene, Archangel Sigarda still became a commander staple, almost single-handedly creating the Selesnya control archetype in commander, as well as being a go-to for lifegain, toughness matters and walls decks, and even gimmick decks based around targeted boardwipes or discard and wheels decks, designed to dump cards that are far too large to reasonably play, in almost a lifegain version of reanimator.

Outside of Commander, she would become a very niche sideboard option against stompy and reanimator decks, but never saw significant competitive play.
Niamedian Summer

## Summary

Niamedian Summer was a story set released following \_\_\_, and followed by Niamedian Winter.

The set takes place during the summer on the plane of Niamedia.

## Lore

The plane of Niamedia is in full summer bloom, a sharp, sharp contrast of its winter freeze just a few months ago, par for the course on a plane with such a heavy seasonal cycle.

## Themes/Mechanics

The Exhaustion mechanic was introduced in this set, as a much more powerful version of stun counters, representing the exhaustion of dealing with the beating summer heat for months on end.

The hot summer led to running themes of high amounts of support for Desert lands, and hate towards Snow.

The set featured a running theme of dual-tribal cards and decks, with a number of dual-tribal lords and bonuses for using two tribes that support one another.

It also featured a large number of very different modal dual-sided cards, which were typically weak, but incredibly diverse between their sides, often acting like a charm effect.

## Associated Products

Being a story set, Niamedian Summer was sold in booster packs and boxes of the Collector, Draft, Gambler and Set varieties.

## Promo Cards

Niamedian Summer packs had a relatively high chance of full-art basic land cards representing locations around the plane being scorched by the summer heat. In Niamedian Winter, these same lands would be reprinted, showing the exact same locations frozen over in the winter.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of Niamedian Summer came with the Niamedian Summer Grand Tour.

## Critical Reception

The set was very well liked, especially among casual players, budget players and particularly crafty deckbuilders, for opening up a whole new world of deckbuilding opportunities through the introduction of dual-tribal support.
Dread of Ixalan

## Summary

Dread of Ixalan was a story set released following Blood of the Angels, and followed by Rain of the Kami.

The set takes place physically on Ixalan, but features characters from both Dominaria and Kaladesh.

## Lore

Following the March of the Machines, and the invasion of Dominaria, a corner of the plane collapsed across the Blind Eternities, causing it, and a piece of Kaladesh to crash into the plane of Ixalan, and an intersection of the planes. Specifically, the oceans of Dominaria were swallowed, as well as the atmosphere of Kaladesh, causing pirates of both planes to rush in. Meanwhile, following the deaths of the seven elder dinosaurs, powerful shakes and many a prophecy point towards the release of an ancient treasure now revealed, the perfect plunder for the bands of pirates, new and old. But, are the pirates fools to believe such a "treasure" coming to light out of such circumstances would be anything less than ruinous?

## Themes/Mechanics

The intersecting of so many legendary ships means, of course, a number of legendary captains, giving the set a powerful legendary matters theme, and their clashes come forth in many fight cards.

The constant petty, and occasionally not-so-petty theft such pirates love to engage in takes form of a theft and donation theme, specifically stealing and donating lands, emphasized by the new Voyageur keyword and archetype, which rewards players for controlling no lands.

## Popular Cards and Decks

By far the most powerful and popular card in the set is Ragavan, Last Mate, the leading card in the extremely dominant Rag Tag legendary matters strategy.

The key story point of the set, The Dreadmaw is effectively a one-card archetype, with many cards pointing directly at it, and Dreadmaw decks became a very popular green aggro/ramp option in every format.

## Associated Products

Being a story set, Dread of Ixalan was sold in booster packs and boxes of the Collector, Draft, Gambler and Set varieties.

The set also came with the release of the Colossal Dreadmaw Action Figure, which sold significantly more units and made far more money than any card sales.

## Promo Cards

In one Dread of Ixalan booster pack there was a unique 1/1 copy of Colossal Dreadmaw. The pack was opened by Antonio Vanpui, who destroyed the card in protest towards his recent tournament ban after the Fight Night event. Had the card not been destroyed, it was expected to fetch a value of $875,500. This would go down in history as the Dread of Value.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of this set came with the Dread of Ixalan Grand Tour.

## Critical Reception

With the exception of the release of Ragavan, Last Mate, one of the most controversial cards in the game's history, the set was generally loved, with heavy merchandising and fun gameplay for casual and competitive players. Except for Ragavan.
Sorin Markov

## Summary

Sorin is a vampire planeswalker from Innistrad who was first introduced in Zendikar, but returned in Blood of the Angels.

He was most recently represented in the card Sorin the Mirthful.

## Abilities

Sorin was the first Sangromancer on the plane of Innistrad, and by far its most talented one. While many vampires share his ability to directly drain the life force of his adversaries, and some can even take control of the blood within bodies, Sorin is one of the only known Sangromancers to be able to create new living beings out of blood.

Perhaps the greatest testament to his abilities is when he created the powerful archangel Avacyn, the protector of Innistrad who singlehandedly held the balance of light and darkness on Innistrad, caused the Seven Days of Light, and, when enraged, easily overpowered Jace and Tamiyo.

Over his long existence, Sorin has also become a very powerful swordsman, being able to fare well in his duels with Nahiri, though ultimately his physical strength is limited.

## Lore

For millennia, Sorin was the guardian, and defacto ruler of Innistrad. However, after facing setback after setback, from the death of Avacyn to the phyrexian invasion of Innistrad corrupting his plane further and further, paired with his already less than stellar reputation around the multiverse, he surrendered himself to a life of villainy and hedonism. So, shortly after the invasion, he "disappeared" from the plane once again, and didn't come back.

Sorin would hide out in a secret dungeon under what was once Markov Manor, striking a deal with his uncle Edgar to keep him secret, in exchange for his promise of aid should his quarrels with the other vampire families ever escalate into war. Sorin took a seat on his throne, and would watch in sadistic glee as the horrors of Innistrad ran their course.

## Competitive Success

Sorin's ability to potentially draw massive amounts of cards with his -X ability quickly made him a staple card in any mono-black sealed or standard deck, seeing heavy usage as a goodstuff piece throughout the Blood of the Angels Grand Tour, but wouldn't become a dominant force until the release of the next set, Dread of Ixalan, where he became a key piece of the incredibly dominant Rag Tag deck. At the time of Rain of the Kami, a standard ban was heavily considered, but ultimately did not go through due to the creation of the Strong archetype, which provided a much needed answer to the Rag Tag deck.
Break the Banker

## Summary

Break the Banker is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander Blasters.

Led by \_\_\_, the focus of the deck is producing as many tokens of as many different types as possible, planning to flood out the board with tokens of every keyword and utility. To capitalize, it also uses cards that reward using a high variety of different card subtypes, as well as cards that make tokens when a creature of another type dies, often looping into infinite combos.

It retailed for $120, and contained X new cards?
The Drunken Scarab

## Summary

The Drunken Scarab is a deck archetype first developed shortly after the release of Commander: Last Tower, with the introduction of Alcohol tokens, specifically Mead.

The deck is based off using the aforementioned Mead tokens alongside the namesake card of the deck, Nest of Scarabs, and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. The idea is, with two high-toughness creatures, you can "bounce" counters back and forth, each time you sacrifice a mead token, by alternating which creature gets the -1/-1 counters, and "healing" counters by putting +1/+1 counters on creatures every second turn, until too many counters would be put on at once, risking death. By technically placing so many counters, but suffering from so few. These triggers allow both Hapatra and Nest of Scarabs to produce massive amounts of tokens every turn. After only a single repetition, this becomes significantly harder to stop, as even after taking out the high-toughness creatures, the tokens can now be used as fodder to place counters onto, instantly dying but getting more creatures back. The deck also runs Blowfly Infestation as a powerful removal piece, and obviously runs a playset of both Bar and of Unprepared Dungeoneer to generate Mead tokens.

The deck is usually run in Jund colors, though some decks that can creatively substitute out of using Unprepared Dungeoneer opt to use Golgari colors instead. Some variations even ran in Glint-Eye or Sultai to take advantage of powerful blue walls.

## Competitive Success

Originally, the deck saw very little success, due to using too many pieces of a precon and being stuck in the powerful Legacy format. However, as pieces were printed into Standard, Pioneer and Modern, it became a powerful choice. However, it consistently had trouble overcoming the pace of aggro and burn decks.
Ping Pong

## Summary

Ping Pong is a deck archetype first created shortly after the release of Commander: Last Tower, with the introduction of Alcohol tokens, specifically Mead.

Ping Pong is based off a relatively simple concept. Using both persist and undying creatures, and using mead tokens to take their counters off. By putting the +1/+1 counter onto a persist creature, and the -1/-1 counter onto the undying creature, creatures effectively became immortal. This manifested into Ping Pong being an incredibly powerful black control and aristocrats deck, using things like Viscera Seer to quickly sift through your library for the perfect card every time, and board wipes like Damnation that were easily recovered from. A playset of both Poison Drop and Bar were both run to produce sufficient Mead tokens to keep the deck going.

The deck is run in mono-black, though some variations ran it in Orzhov to get access to Kitchen Finks and Damn.

## Competitive Success

Versions of Ping Pong, once they fully broke into each format, saw great success in every format, as an oppressive, but also fast creature-based control deck.
Strip City

## Summary

Strip City is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander Blasters.

Led by \_\_\_, the deck revolves around restarting the game, starting subgames and "minigames", above curve spells that give an opponent a degree of choice.

It retailed for $120, and contained X new cards?

## Trivia

The deck is run in Glint-Eye colors specifically as a reference to the card Shahrazad, by far the most game breaking card ever released.

Wizards of the Coast had a class-action lawsuit launched against them for the name of the deck allegedly being inappropriate.
Niamedian Winter

## Summary

Niamedian Winter was a story set released following Niamedian Summer, and followed by \_\_\_.

The set takes place during the winter on the plane of Niamedia.

## Lore

The season cycle has finally flipped on Niamedia, and the scorching heat of weeks past has turned to a bitter, deadly cold. While many of the summer's creatures are in a deep hibernation, their influence on the land during their time remains clear, and those living through the winter live partially under a twisted influence, with warped, but heavily influential of what the plane is like during the summer.

## Themes/Mechanics

The Exhaustion mechanic was heavily featured in this set, representing the struggles of dealing with bitter cold for months on end.

The freezing winter led to running themes of high amounts of support for Snow lands, and hate towards Deserts.

The set featured a running theme of dual-tribal cards and decks, with a number of dual-tribal lords and bonuses for using two tribes that support one another.

It also featured a large number of very different modal dual-sided cards, which were typically weak, but incredibly diverse between their sides, often acting like a charm effect.

## Popular Cards and Decks

The set featured a cycle of powerful boardwipes representing the season's changing.

## Associated Products

Being a story set, Niamedian Winter was sold in booster packs and boxes of the Collector, Draft, Gambler and Set varieties.

## Promo Cards

Niamedian Summer packs had a relatively high chance of full-art basic land cards representing locations around the plane being scorched by the summer heat. In Niamedian Winter, these same lands would be reprinted, showing the exact same locations frozen over in the winter.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of Niamedian Winter came with the Niamedian Winter Grand Tour.

## Critical Reception

While generally well-liked, the fanbase was a tad disappointed in the set after the flavorful extra-long six month wait between the release of Niamedian Summer and this set.
Urza's Prophecy

## Summary

Urza's Prophecy was a story set released following Rain of the Kami, and followed by Apex Predator.

The set takes place on Dominaria, and its many unnamed sub-planes.

## Lore

With the Glistening Oil neutralized, most of the Phyrexians dead, and Ravidel exiled to Shandalar, the plane of Dominaria finally begins to truly heal, and many of the phased areas and time bubbles begin to "pop" back into the timestream. These corrections to the timeline reach farther back than anyone may have thought, back to the time of the Brother's War, and, as history corrects itself, the truth of the war comes to light.

Urza was a power hungry tyrant, seeping from the leylines of Dominaria, and stealing its very worldsoul to create his spark, and Mishra was the valiant protector. Knowing of the Sylex, Mishra prepared a contingency, a plan to keep the world safe. He took an oath to himself, the Oath of the Gatewatch. As his body died, and Mishra's spark ignited, it was flung into Zendikar, where The Gatewatch would find it.

Now, as history comes to light, and the lies of Tawnos's Book of Antiquities are revealed, the power of the oath may just bring back Dominaria's first defender.

## Themes/Mechanics

Being a "setting right of history" a major theme of the set is finishing incomplete cycles through the game's history.

The key character of the story being the artificer Mishra, artifacts play a massive role in the set as well.

## Rules Changes

Upon the release of Urza's Prophecy, the card Punishing Fire was unbanned from the Modern format.

## Popular Cards and Decks

The introduction of so many Burnwillows cards, the unbanning of Punishing Fire and the convenient printing of lifegain reversal led to the creation of the Burnwillows strategy, which would go on to become by far the most powerful and most dominant deck in constructed history.

As the only viable protection against Burnwillows, Mishra's Armor, and it's deck Zhur-Tarmor both became popular as well.

## Associated Products

Being a story set, Urza's Prophecy was sold in booster packs and boxes of the Collector, Draft, Gambler and Set varieties.

The set also coincided with the release of an EDH duel decks product; Duel Decks: Ashnod vs Tawnos.

## Promo Cards

As the set was rotating out of standard, the last 100 customers to purchase an Urza's Prophecy booster box before they were permanently taken off of store shelves each received a rare alt-art Oath of Mishra.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of this set came with the Urza's Prophecy Grand Tour.

As well, due to the game-breaking power level of the Burnwillows deck, the top decks at the Apex Predator Grand Tour contained exclusively cards from Urza's Prophecy.

## Critical Reception

The incredible, game breaking power creep of the Burnwillows deck caused many casual and pro players to quit the game of magic, dealing a serious blow to the entirety of the game over the next couple of years, and the set would go down as being by far the single worst in history.
Rain of the Kami

## Summary

Rain of the Kami was a story set released following Dread of Ixalan, and followed by Urza's Prophecy.

The set takes place on modern-day Kamigawa.

## Lore

Following the phyrexian invasion of Kamigawa and the death of the six spirit dragons, the already shaky balance of power along Kamigawa was disturbed, and Kamigawa fell into war. With little to no power or influence over Kamigawa, and their treaty with the Emperor shattered, the Kami broke a millennia of peace, and unleashed an ancient evil, a kami imprisoned long, long ago, and many a prophecy came forth.

The "Reign of the Kami" that was told by many a scroll would come to fruition, as the Rain of the Kami. The skies would grow dark, and over just a day, water poured from the skies, rendering the city of Towashi uninhabitable. Despite their differences, this would force the Imperials and Uprisers to flee skywards to Otawara, the home of the Futurists, in a shaky and volatile alliance to escape the waters below.

## Themes/Mechanics

Rain of the Kami came with the returns of mechanics from the first sets on Kamigawa such as Spirit/Arcane matters, Legendary matters, Ninjutsu and Channel.

Capitalizing on the legendary matters themes, the Grandeur mechanic from Future Sight made a return/debut for the first time.

Doubling down on the Ninjutsu theme, the Arcane Ninjutsu mechanic was introduced, as well as a high emphasis on block triggers throughout the set.

## Rules Changes

Rain of the Kami did not contain any specific new rules changes, but did introduce the card Mirror Knife, which would lead to major changes to the legendary rule later on.

## Popular Cards and Decks

This set introduced the card Iwamori of the Closed Fist, a green card that led to the creation of the very powerful Strong deck.

The creation of Foo and the Arcane Ninjutsu mechanic gave new life to arcane cards as a whole, creating the Hoover Dam strategy.

## Associated Products

Being a story set, Rain of the Kami was sold in booster packs and boxes of the Collector, Draft, Gambler and Set varieties.

The deck also came with a duel deck featuring two of the sets prominent planeswalkers, Duel Decks: Tamiyo vs The Wanderer.

## Promo Cards

In a rather self-aware reference to the myriad of weak legendary creatures from the original Kamigawa blocks, very rare alternate foil versions of Eager Cadet, Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, Mon's Goblin Raiders, Muck Rats and Willow Elf could be found in some booster packs.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of this set came with the Rain of the Kami Grand Tour.

## Critical Reception

Rain of the Kami was well received upon release, but shot up in popularity after the release of Urza's Prophecy, being regarded as "the last good set", before the introduction incredible power creep in the form of Burnwillows. This would continue until the release of Tombs of Tarkir, but its positive reputation never fell.

## Trivia

Rain of the Kami, at the time, was the single largest set ever released.
Slayer of Prophecy

## Summary

Slayer of Prophecy is a creature card introduced in Tombs of Tarkir. It is not part of a cycle, but was part of a push by R&D to increase the number of non-legendary three and four color creatures, especially in the wedge colors.

In the case of Slayer of Prophecy, this design came across quite literally, as a three color creature who specifically counters legendaries.

## Lore

For many years, it appeared as though the humans of Tarkir had no control over their own fate, and were destined to serve under the dragonlords for eternity. The warriors of the Mardu, in their warrior spirit, would revolt, and resist having their fate determined by a select few.

## Competitive Success

Slayer of Prophecy was a good limited pick, often being able to counter powerful legendaries that might otherwise sweep limited format games.

It also saw a considerable amount of use as a sideboard piece against increasingly popular legendary matters decks, though it failed to break into mainboards, with decks such as Cliff Bears going down as one of the most promising and disappointing decks in Standard history.
Burnwillows

## Summary

Burnwillows is a deck archetype, largely considered to be the most powerful archetype in the history of 60-card constructed play.

Lesser, but still powerful versions of the deck existed long ago, using the combo of Grove of the Burnwillows and Punishing Fire to effectively ban creatures with two or less toughness, which resulted in the ban of Punishing Fire. However, the deck made a resurgence, and came into form as the truly monstrous Burnwillows deck with the release of Urza's Prophecy, with the unbanning of Punishing Fire in Modern, the release of powerful new cards in Willow Tender, Willow Torch, Magus of the Burnwillows and Burning of the Willows, and, perhaps most shockingly, the standard legality of all parts of the deck.

The deck operates on a simple premise: Use Grove of the Burnwillows, and its mana dork, saga, equipment and token copies to cause your opponent to gain life many times a turn. Then, using Tainted Remedy and Rain of Gore to reverse this life gain, quickly draining away an opponent's entire life total, and/or using it to cycle Punishing Fire, allowing the 2 damage burn spell to be shot off consistently 3-5 times a turn, absolutely decimating all but the largest creatures and acting as extremely efficient burn.

In its non-standard formats, it would also run Vesuva to quickly and easily copy Grove of the Burnwillows, either the real version or the Willow Tender token.

The deck is run in Jund colors to allow access to all of its essential pieces.

## Competitive Success

"Success" is a tricky word here. On its own, Burnwillows was by far the most powerful deck in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy and Vintage, and even saw some commander variants. It absolutely crushed both the Urza's Prophecy Grand Tour and the Apex Predator Grand Tour. This led to massive outrage in the community, after the Apex Predator Grand Tour was easily swept by a deck that didn't use a single card from the premiering set, Apex Predator. As such, this caused by far the biggest fall in number of players, especially pro players, the game had ever seen, and fractured the competitive scene for years.
Blistering Creator

## Summary

Blistering Creator is a creature card introduced in Runners of Ravnica, in an effort to give a tribe lord and some legitimacy to the enigmatic Weird tribe.

## Lore

An experiment on an experiment gone wrong, Blistering Creator is... whatever a weird is, but seemingly with the ability to split apart into multiples of itself, individual energy-ghost like creatures that are, by some magical force, attracted back to each other at rapid speeds.

## Competitive Success

While still a rather limited tribe, Blistering Creator was an incredibly powerful card that gave a great degree of legitimacy to Weird tribal decks. Even outside of Weird tribal decks, it became a staple of spellslinger decks of all sorts, especially in its ability to actually give things like Blistercoil Weird an advantage over just any given creature with Prowess. As well split color identity, and the low cost of exiling the card from your graveyard made it very flexible and a bonafide auto-include in more and more decks as more and more powerful weirds came out.
Fist of Eternal Glory

## Summary

Fist of Eternal Glory is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander: Last Tower.

Led by Gideon, Underworld Brawler, the deck delves into many different Voltron strategies, from equipment to auras to counter doubling to support creatures to rendering opponent's creatures unblockable.

It retailed for $25, and, as with every deck from its set, contained 15 newly printed cards, plus the commander.
Val

## Appearances

* Quest for the Portal Stone
* Zombie Story

## Characters

* **Val** (Quest for the Portal Stone) - While she doesn't directly appear in the story her name is mentioned. She is the best friend of Anna Silivus, who was killed for harboring a magic user. Her death fuels Anna's hatred for the royal family.
* **Ruth Valerie** (Pirate Au) - Val is a Master gunner on the ship Neptune's Void. She is also the adoptive sister of both Eliza and Skye Frazier.

## Roles

### Quest for the Portal Stone

Val doesn't show up physically in the story, but her name is mentioned a few times. Anna explains to Maya that Val was her best friend who let her hide in her home when the anti-magic ban was enacted. Because of both of their parents the two were found. Somehow Val helped Anna escape but was caught and executed for harboring someone with magic. After that Anna hated the royal family and wanted revenge. A mention of her is implied later in the story when Anna is talking to Nate. When asked why King Kevin specifically remembered Anna, she responds that it was likely because she burned down a house and killed two people- Val's mother and the executioner. She notes however, that she regrets neither.
Dani

## Characters

* **Captain Skye** (Pirate AU) - Skye is the Captain of the ship Neptune's Void. She rules fairly and keeps them all strong. She is prominently featured in Time Sinks Ships, allowing a time traveler on her ship.
* **Cassidy James** (PJAU) - A demigod placed in the Athena cabin
* **Skye** (WoFAU) - Skye is a Skywing Dragon
Deadly Divination

## Summary

Deadly Divination is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander: Last Tower.

Led by Venser, Space Lord, it's a combo/control deck based around effects that care about the top card of each player's library. Even at worst, it's an effective control deck, allowing great draws and hand advantage every turn, and at best it becomes a commander version of the incredibly oppressive Lantern Control strategy.

It retailed for $120, and, as with every deck from its set, contained 15 newly printed cards, plus the commander.
Brambleclaw

## Summary

Brambleclaw is a senior warrior of ThunderClan and former deputy. He is the former mate of Squirrelflight and father of Alderheart and Sparkfire / adoptive father to Jayfeather and Lionblaze.

Brambleclaw was born as Bramblekit to Goldenflower and Tigerclaw in ThunderClan. His father was exiled not long after his birth, leading to a world of discrimination against him for being Tigerclaw's kit. He became an apprentice known as Bramblepaw and was mentored by Fireheart, who told him the truth about what his father did. His sister, Tawnypaw left ThunderClan because of the large amount of discrimination both faced. He became a warrior with the name Brambleclaw, in which Firestar explains it's to give a new way for Tigerclaw's name. He later became deputy under Brightstar once Firestar passed, but stepped down after Ashfur' s reign due to how unstable he was.

## Family Tree

Brambleclaw is the former mate of Squirrelflight and father of Alderheart and Sparkfire. His parents are Goldenflower and Tigerstar and his littermate is Tawnypelt. He is the grandfather of Nightheart, Finchlight, and Flickerkit. He is also kin to Swiftpaw, Ravenpaw, Dustpelt, Hawkfrost, Mothwing, Tadpole, Spiderleg, Shrewfoot, Birchfall, Larchkit, Hollykit, Foxleap, Icecloud, Rosepetal, Toadstep, Dovewing, Ivytooth, Shadowsight, Lightleap, Pouncestep, Rowankit, Birchkit, Bristlefrost, Thriftear, and Flipclaw.
Ape

## Summary

Apes are a creature type found on many different planes, but are especially prevalent on Dominaria Ikoria, and Tarkir.

Very similar to the Monkey tribe, Apes lack tails, tend to be significantly larger, and usually more civilized, more commonly wearing armor or using advanced tools. They often live in their own societies, separated from human civilization, though with respectable social structures of their own.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Apes, typically living counter to human civilization, have a great dislike for human machines, or even worse, magical trickery, and as such often have the ability to destroy artifacts and enchantments.

They are also famous, particularly through Kird Ape, for having strong cross-color identity synergy.

While not as prevalent, despite their hate of artifacts they do have quite an affinity for Bananas.

## Notable Characters

Grunn, the Ape King of Yavimaya controlled a large portion of the land even before the March of the Machine, and became a dominant force, taking over most of the region during Set XI and Dominaria Divided.

Kogla is the much-misunderstood guardian of the plane of Ikoria.

## Notable Lords

Kibo, Uktabi Prince, despite technically being a monkey, provides massive bonuses to ape creatures.

Old Drumchest is a high-risk, high-reward Ape tribal commander.

## Notable Apes

Kird Ape is a famous card, being the progenitor of the Zoo strategy and a cheap above-curve creature.

Simian Spirit Guide is an ill-advised and incredibly overpowered ape.

Gorilla Shaman and Silverback Elder are both famous for their ability to shut down artifact based strategies.

Uktabi Orangutan has some of the most questionable art in the game's history.
Theo Meade

A demigod in the Hephaestus cabin

## Biography

### Early Life

Theo was born and lives in London, England. However he still attends Camp Halfblood in the summers, using the money he makes from selling his inventions to buy the plane tickets there.

## Appearance

Theo has short black brown hair that sticks out all over the place. He is very tall for his age. He has fair skin and wide dark brown eyes. He is often covered in dirt and oil and other residue from the workshops. Camp clothes aside, he has a very grunge and biker aesthetic. He likes dark clothes and leather boots and jackets. He also likes wearing shirts with the logos of bands he likes. He has a pair of overalls he often wears when working and he likes them a lot.

## Personality and Traits

Theo is more of a wild child then his siblings and has a very outgoing personality. He can often be a bit of a trouble maker. He likes drinking and will often try to sneak in alcohol to camp with the aid of Leo and Michae. Dionysus knows about it and just doesn’t care enough to stop it, sometimes he’ll try to join but becomes frustrated when the liquor disappears. Theo can be quite the troublemaker, playing pranks on his friends. He is a boy of many hobbies too.

## Abilities and Other Skills

* They are all expert builders. They are all mechanics. Technokinesis - As children of Hephaestus, they can control and manipulate machines. They can sense machines, mechanics, or metal, can identify machinery type and use by touch, can sense faults in metal ore, and can find and sense traps in the ground.

## Relationships

### Hephaestus (father)

Theo would like to think his dads watching him, and cares. Hephaestus admires Theo’s personality and skill

### Penny Meade (mother)

Theo is pretty close with his mother and makes sure she’s taken care of when he’s away at camp. He protects her when he’s there and she encourages him with his gifts.

### Michael Dermot (paternal halfbrother)

Most of the time Theo doesn’t like Michael because of his attitude and the way he treated Dawn. Their personalities clash often. However there are moments when the two share their love of vehicles and getting drunk. Often they will sit down and talk about life in England, as Theo lives there and Michael still visits his family there frequently.

### Dawn McBride (close friend)

Theo and Dawn hang out quite often when he’s at camp and the two have a very sibling-like relationship. Dawn and some of the other Apollo kids will often let Theo play music with them, as he is quite talented at the drums. He constantly tries to get her to drink with him, which she refuses. Theo is very protective of her and gives his (sometimes shabby) advice whenever it’s needed.
A Thorny Crown

## Summary

A Thorny Crown is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander Blasters.

Led by \_\_\_, the deck uses the very controversial Kingbreaker strategy, a type of "bad" group hug where you give group hug bonuses exclusively to one other player, helping them take out the other two players, then finishing them off with a wincon designed to beat just one player. It also takes great effect of cooperative drawback cards such as Armistice and Secret Rendevous, which usually have group hug elements as a downside, turning them into two upside cards by helping your "King" player.

It is fairly called the opposite of the Play to Odds deck, of the same set.

It retailed for $120, and contained X new cards?
Memory Glass

## Summary

Memory Glass is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander: Last Tower.

Led by Tamiyo, Redemption's Pilgrim, the deck focuses on heavy card draw and flicker effects, and ultimately developing powerful value engines, drawing as many cards and playing as many lands per turn. It became notorious for "solitaire" play, and setting off combos that let to 10-15 minute turns.

It retailed for $100, and, as with every deck from its set, contained 15 newly printed cards, plus the commander.
Blood of the Angels

## Summary

Blood of the Angels was a story set released following Dominaria Divided, and followed by Dread of Ixalan.

The set takes place on Innistrad, following the disappearance of its protector Sorin Markov.

## Lore

In the wake of Sorin's seeming disappearance from Innistrad, Sigarda has become the Archangel protector of Innistrad, and many of the Church of Avacyn reform as the Church of Sigarda. While Innistrad seemingly enters an era of relative stability, it's soon revealed that the return of Liesa, and her negotiations are truly what is responsible for the peace on Innistrad. Faced with the zeal of the church and a new title, Sigarda reluctantly confronts Liesa, and in her desire for revenge, their parley quickly devolves into war. But it may be asked, is the unity of all of Innistrad's evil against a common threat not better for the safety of the common citizen?

## Themes/Mechanics

A major theme of the set being the dark side of the angels leads to the breaking of the color pie, cards operating outside the typical bounds of their colors to be a major theme in this set.

Being on the plane of Innistrad, transform cards are also a prominent feature of the set, and increased broad support for transforming cards.

The set also introduced Wolfir as a unique creature type, separated from wolves or werewolves, and gave them their own lord in the form of Noon's Thespian.

Perhaps most notably, the set contained a number of new cards that rewarded slow gameplay and not casting spells, leading to the creation of Spellslogger strategies.

## Popular Cards and Decks

Children of the Moon and Unchained Narcissist were both incredibly important cards, creating the basis for the two variants of Spellslogger decks, based around spending as many turns as possible not casting any spells.

The two central cards, Archangel Liesa and Archangel Sigarda would both go on to become incredibly popular commanders.

Sorin the Mirthful became a dominant force for its rapid card draw ability, becoming a mono-black staple and a key piece of the Rag Tag deck after the release of Dread of Ixalan.

## Associated Products

Being a story set, Blood of the Angels was sold in booster packs and boxes of the Collector, Draft, Gambler and Set varieties.

The release of the set also coincided with the release of From the Vault: Terror, a collection of the cards with the most disturbing card art in the game's history.

The set story was also released as the Blood of the Angels novel.

## Promo Cards

Customers who bought 13 or more booster boxes in a single order at a licensed LGS would receive a textless alternate art foil version of both Triskaidekaphile and Triskaidekaphobia.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of this set came with the Blood of the Angels Grand Tour.

The release also came shortly before, and was centered around the Halloween event LGS Fright Night.

## Critical Reception

The set was very well received, by players, but the true success was in the story's novel, performing incredibly well even outside of the player community.
Wizard

## Summary

Wizards are a creature type found on just about any plane where magic exists. That being every plane.

They are one of the most populous tribes of all time, being one of the default "classes".

The type can be used to classify just about any user of magic, and most often is the "default" for magic users, before they split off into a type such as Druid, Shaman, Spellshaper or Warlock. It's not uncommon for legendary students of magic to be wizards in their first iteration, before branching out in later versions of their character.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Wizards tend to play well in control and spell based strategies, very rarely attempting to win the game alone, but rather by supporting and being supported by many spells throughout the game. Most commonly, this takes the form of supporting instant and sorcery spells, often reducing their cost, helping search for them, or gaining a bonus when they're cast.

Due to their spell synergies, Wizards are often powerful creatures for control decks, and therefore have useful control abilities. It's common for wizards to scry, draw cards, bounce creatures or even counter spells themselves.

## Notable Lords

Inalla, Archmage Ritualist is the quintessential wizard commander, copying your wizards, even from the command zone, and letting them clean up the game with massive direct life loss late game.

Azami, Lady of Scrolls can turn any of your wizards into card draw engines.

Naban, Dean of Iteration can copy powerful triggered abilities on all of your wizards.

Manaflow Tyrant allows you to untap lands and wizards whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, letting you repeat activated abilities in wizard tribal decks, as well as gain mana per spell cast in spellslinger decks by untapping a bounce land.

## Notable Antilords

Bloody Exclusionist is a warrior tribal lord who specifically shuts down wizards.