Rail War

Cyberverse Releases

MSEM Releases

***Rail War*** is the second set in the Feraguo block (following Iron Horse). It was released on March 31, 2019 as part of the Cyberverse.

## Set Details

*Rail War* contains 180 cards ( 81 commons, 48 uncommons, 41 rares, 10 mythic rares).

*Rail War* introduced the following mechanic:

**Revelations** Revelations are sorceries with power and toughness, allowing them to be put onto the battlefield as creatures under certain circumstances. Revelations in Rail War are tied to the keyword coalesce (below).

**Coalesce [cost]** *(You may cast this from your graveyard for [cost]. If you do, put it onto the battlefield as a Horror creature after it resolves. Exile it if it would leave the battlefield or not resolve.)*

*Rail War* also returned the following mechanics:

**Projects** Project is an artifact and enchantment subtype, indicating permanents that gain abilities with progress counters in a way similar to the level up mechanic. It originally appeared in Iron Horse.

**Renown [N]** *(Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, if it isn't renowned, put [N] +1/+1 counter(s) on it and it becomes renowned.)* Originally appeared in Magic Origins.

## Storyline

While the tensions between Union Rail and Mountain-Western break out into open warfare, with their home governments powerless to maintain order in the frontier, a second, hidden war is being fought for Feraguo itself. As the planets align and the Midnight Order activates the Gatebreaker device, allowing their enigmatic masters to return and reclaim Feraguo, Anne Sullivan brings three powerful planeswalking allies to join her fight against them:

* The tea merchant Lady Mari, an angel-summoner and master of the use of white mana in combat, both to heal and to annihilate; a pre-Mending planeswalker who followed Anne into the future via The Spindle after Anne's description of the Midnight Order's horrors reminded her of her home plane's Eldrazi.
* The psychic vampire planeswalker Mei Liva, a versatile expert capable of mind-reading, information-gathering, getting into and out of dangerous situations, and protecting her allies' minds from the horrors' madness.
* The red panda Xiong Mao; cunning, determined, and resilient, he is a leader in battle, a cold-weather specialist, and a protector of the meek.

Alongside an assortment of local heroes and scoundrels, they form the Sullivan Gang, dedicated to protecting Feraguo from the horrors that menace it. The Gang soon finds that sufficient weaponry and skill is capable of slaying the horrors, which as Lady Mari notes is quite different from the similar creatures that once attacked her home. Eventually, however, they realize that they need to strike at the source of the problem rather than merely cleaning up horrors, and split up into multiple groups.

Anne Sullivan and Lady Mari lead a team west to Izumito, the seat of General Ito Tsubasa's military government, following Mei Liva's investigations that pinned General Ito as a Midnight Order pawn. Battling eldritch horrors in the heart of the city, they eventually confront Tsubasa himself, but little do they know their actions are advancing the plans of a third party. The figurehead Empress has been plotting to overthrow General Ito's regime and reclaim the sweeping imperial power her ancestors wielded, and Anne's strike provides the perfect window of opportunity. While Anne Sullivan kills General Ito, the Empress' loyalists eliminate his key supporters, leaving her in control of the city by the time the outlaws make their escape.

Meanwhile, Xiong Mao leads a group of rangers north to the Midnight Order's observatory at Dellan. Though the winter snows make the passage almost impossible, Xiong's persistence and skill bring his team through to Dellan, chilled but alive. Once there, they wreak havoc throughout the observatory, eventually finding the Gatebreaker device the Order used to release their masters from their prison. The mad deviser Riga van Tarren, demolitionist Sammel Wyldjack, and pilot Caylin Whirlwind are able to reverse the device, sealing the prison, and without either control of a government or a steady flow of new horrors influencing the world, the Sullivan Gang is able to clean up the rest of the Midnighters and their monsters with little difficulty.

The Gang disperses: Mei Liva and Xiong Mao planeswalk away; Lady Mari returns to the past; most of the locals go back to their old lives as outlaws or martial arts instructors or whatever they did before. Anne Sullivan is left without a home to go back to, however; the Sullivan ranch is a train station, there's a bounty on her head, and the world doesn't need any more saving. She looks around at her home one last time, then planeswalks away. There's nothing left for her on Feraguo, but there's a whole multiverse out there, and perhaps it's time she sees some more of it.

## Limited Archetypes

Feraguo Block was originally intended to be drafted with two packs of Rail War followed by one pack of Iron Horse; however, it's more commonly drafted as three packs of Rail War. When drafted alone, Rail War supports the following limited archetypes:

* Enchantress (Projects)
* Control (Projects/Coalesce)
* Disruptive Aggro
* Midrange (Renown)
* Scouts (Renown)
* Projects
* Artifact Aggro
* Graveyard Value (Coalesce)
* Aggro (Renown)
* Self-Mill (Coalesce)

When drafted with Iron Horse, the limited archetypes are:

* Enchantress (Projects)
* Control (Projects/Coalesce)
* Disruptive Aggro (Raid)
* Midrange (Raid/Renown)
* Scouts (Renown)
* Projects
* Cheerios
* Graveyard Value (Coalesce/Raid)
* Samurai Aggro (Renown)
* Self-Mill (Coalesce)

## Featured Planeswalkers

* Lady Mari
* Mei Liva
* Xiong Mao

## Notable Cards

* Hellbent Speed (MSEM Banlist).
* Caylin Whirlwind, Recall Forgotten Eons, Union Rail Strikebreaker (MSEM Champion Cards)