recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Companions

## Summary

Companion is a keyword introduced in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.

A card with companion will have certain conditions listed about the state of the deck that you start the game with. If your deck successfully fulfills those conditions, you may pay three mana as a special action to put that card from outside of the game. In formats with sideboards, they come from your sideboard.

Companions tend to provide powerful effects, and the ability to fetch them from outside the game, every game can add a great deal of consistency to a deck or strategy as a whole, sometimes acting as a "commander" or "second commander". However, this comes at the cost of strict deckbuilding requirements, usually forcing you to give up something you otherwise would include, whether that be additional copies of a card, consistency in your starting deck or just a favorite removal spell.

## Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths was the first set to introduce the companion mechanic, as a set of 10 dual-colored legendary creatures.

## Apex Predator

Apex Predator, being a return to the plane of Ikoria, saw the return of companions, though they were split into two major sub-classes:

Traditional companions are three-color legendary creatures, paying homage to the original ten, though notably and intentionally with much, much more specific and stringent requirements to have them as a companion.

Elders are a cycle of five mono-color legendary Elder creatures, which each act as "Incremental" companions. These companions could be used normally, but also had "levels", where decks that were compliant to greater and greater restrictions would come with greater and greater bonuses.

Elders are a cycle of five mono-color legendary Elder creatures, which each act as "Incremental" companions. These companions could be used normally, but also had "levels", where decks that were compliant to greater and greater restrictions would come with greater and greater bonuses.

## Conspiracy: Year Seven

Conspiracy: Year Seven was the first set to introduce noncreature companions, presenting a cycle of five legendary instants and five legendary sorceries, based around the five legends of the set, their tactics, and their campaigns for the crown.

Each of the spell companions in this set have the Conspiracy subtype, which allows them to start the game face-down, and be cast directly from outside the game, without the 3 mana "hand fee" typically applied companions of any time.

They are a takeoff on the Conspiracy mechanics from past sets, which allowed certain draft cards to start in the command zone outside of the game, but were unplayable once unpacked.
Children of the Moon

## Summary

The Children of the Moon are a cult of vampires on Innistrad, and the secondary antagonist of Blood of the Angels.

They are represented in the card Children of the Moon.

## Lore

The Children of the Moon were formed out of four vampires, one from each of the Falkenrath, Markov, Stormkirk and Voldaren tribes, each once powerful and respected members of their respective families, each exiled from their families for attempting to strike deals with the Archangel Liesa, and their names removed from history.

For the first year of their exile, these four vampires, whose names were lost to history, lived under Liesa's protection, hidden away in a small, but ancient village named Charringfort. While initially they hid their nature, eventually they were exposed, and to their surprise, accepted by the village as fellow subjects of Liesa. They would continue to live alongside the townsfolk until the battle between Avacyn and Liesa, and the following Seven Days of Light.

During the Seven Days of Light, the vampires suffered greatly, their cut connections to their families or to Liesa leaving them incredibly vulnerable to the sun. They had managed to survive by hiding away in a stable for six days, but on the seventh day, one innocent mistake would cost the town their lives. A young jockey by the name of Mica would open the stable doors, exposing the vampires to the glaring sun, melting away their flesh and driving them into a frenzy. The vampires quickly consumed the boy, and in their frenzy, the entirety of the town followed. By the end, the frenzied groups of vampires had forgotten their promises to Liesa, their own names and even their own identities, and were left as one. A hive mind, The Children of the Moon.

## Competitive Success

Children of the Moon is the commander for the very popular Black Stax variant of the Spellslogger strategy, based around setting up steep costs and stax effects, then casting as few spells as possible to keep control over the board. This deck continues to be an incredibly popular choice in Commander, however following Commander: Last Tower, all competitive EDH events were banned, so it never saw truly "competitive" play.
Wolf

## Summary

Wolves are a creature type found throughout the universe, but are most populous and important on Innistrad.

While often grouped together with werewolves and wolfir, wolves themself are still formidable threats, trading the formal training of dogs for intense instincts and pack tactics.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Wolves, first and foremost, help their pack, with running themes of abilities to pump up allies, as well as using those buffs on themselves.

Wolves also often care about mana value, specifically the highest mana value among your creatures for bonuses.

## Notable Characters

Sarulf is a cosmos monster of Kaldheim who was compleated, and is destined to one day consume the world.

Ukkima is a whale wolf from Ikoria, bonded with the hunter Cazur.

## Notable Lords

Bloodmouth Omega can pump the stats of each of your wolves to crazy levels for big, explosive turns.

Immerwolf while designed for werewolves, buffs each of your wolves as well.

## Notable Antilords

Frontier Omega is a wolf that destroys other wolves.

## Notable Wolves

Watchwolf is a classic above-curve creature, even if it has since been left behind.

Wolfir Silverheart is an incredibly powerful Soulbonder.
Ritterator

## Summary

Ritterator is a deck archetype introduced in Rain of the Kami with the introduction of both Dried Well and Rock Hound.

The basis of the deck is to deal as much damage as possible to your own creatures, to trigger on-damage effects. This primarily operated through the land Dried Well, dealing damage to either Rock Hound for 0 damage, to trigger its effect for free, a creature you control with Enrage to repeatedly trigger it, or your Burning-Eye Zubera, to get its overkill damage trigger. It then doubled down on this by running a playset of Ember-Fist Zubera to rack up a ton of triggered burn effects every turn. It would also run Dictate of the Twin Gods to simultaneously double the damage to its controllers own creatures, then double the triggered damage back.

## Competitive Success

Ritterator was considered a very high-risk, high-reward deck, to the point of basically gambling. It saw very little tournament success, and was arguably an unhealthy deck for the game on account of its coin flip chance of winning.
Product List

## Randomized

Randomized products are likely the most common way to buy products, randomized products contain a number of random card(s) from their relevant set, though the frequency at which different rarities, specialty cards and basic lands appear is not random.

List of Randomized Products
 Draft Booster Packs
 Set Booster Packs
 Gambler Booster Packs

## Preconstructed

Preconstructed products are decks put together by Wizards that come with the same guaranteed set of cards every time, typically built around a theme and always ready to be played immediately out of the box.

## Vault/Lair

Vault and Lair products are a small, but highly priced collection of either a guaranteed set of cards, or randomized selection from a very small pool of cards, exclusively containing very rare cards.

List of Vault Products

## Gear

Gear is a term used for any item that isn't a card, but is meant to be used in conjunction with cards, such as protective sleeves, deck boxes and playmats.

List of Gear

## Merchandise

Merchandise can broadly refer to anything else sold, typically meaning products that don't use the cards themselves, but use the story, characters, logos and brand.

List of Merchandise
 Colossal Dreadmaw Action Figure | Dread of Ixalan | A super cool action figure depicting Colossal Dreadmaw.
Wraith

## Summary

Wraiths are a creature type that can be found anywhere in the multiverse, but are particularly prevalent in the Urborg region of Dominaria.

Wraiths are a type of spirit created from the vengeful spirit of decomposing matter, typically found in swamps or in cities with high amounts of trash buildup. Wraiths typically have no memory of their life, can emerge centuries after the death of their bodies, and oftentimes can be an amalgamation of multiple spirits as organic matter mixes together in the soil. They are dangerous and aggressive to anyone who passes by, seeking vengeance for a terrible death.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Literally being a part of a swamp, almost every Wraith has the Swampwalk ability, and many have swamp matters themes and abilities.

Having lost their memory entirely, Wraiths also commonly have cycling, or some ability that causes its controller or opponents to discard cards.

## Notable Characters

Inherently, Wraiths have no memory of who they are, so it's almost impossible to tell who certain wraiths were created from. So, no legendary wraiths are currently known.

## Notable Lords

While not a lord by some stricter definitions, Fungal Wraith is a wraith who can turn opponents creatures into swamps, allowing swampwalking Wraiths to easily walk through unblocked.

## Notable Antilords

Living Catharsis can turn Wraiths and Spirits into lands, turning Wraiths back into their swamp form.

## Notable Wraiths

Street Wraith allows its controller to cycle it simply by paying life, making it a powerful deck thinning piece.
Reaching Through the Night

## Summary

Reaching Through the Night is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander: Last Tower.

Led by Leshrac, Walker of Night, the deck largely focuses on discard effects, attempting a commander version of an 8-Rack deck. It also holds a large number of pox-like effects, and with the correct opening hand or just a few upgrades, can quickly become an oppressive stax deck.

It retailed for $80, and, as with every deck from its set, contained 15 newly printed cards, plus the commander.

## Trivia

Due to the banning of Liliana, Weaver of Death only two weeks after the release of Commander: Last Tower, the preconstructed deck was technically not legal to play right out of the box for most of its time on the market.
Archon

## Summary

Archons are a creature type of mysterious origin that pop up across the multiverse.

What an archon is can be unclear. While initially they seem to be pure and holy warriors of good, flying on mounts, they are never seen off of their mounts, and its likely they are but one creature together. They also seem to, while trying to act as literal archons of morality, follow a strange moral code, and come and go without a pattern known to mortals.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Archons are known for holding heavy stax effects, usually seeking to prevent damage entirely, prevent spells from being cast or stop attacks from occurring. Their effects can completely shake the game and can never be ignored.

Archons are also known for exiling opponent's permanents instead of merely destroying them, and for always having the flying ability.

## Notable Characters

Krond the Dawn-Clad, alongside his enemy Vela the Night-Clad, have been seen dueling across many planes, despite not being planeswalkers.

## Notable Lords

Archon of Constitution can copy one or multiple other archons you control, multiplying their stax effects.

## Notable Antilords

Sky-High Hedonist can directly prevent the stax effects of Archons.

## Notable Archons

Archon of Cruelty is a staple of reanimator or creature cheat decks for doing basically everything.

Archon of Emeria is a legendary hatebear.
Magic Types

## Summary

Magic, the manipulation of mana, takes an infinite number of forms. While terms such as "Wizard" or "Mage" have been produced to attempt to classify those studying it, truthfully, those words are meaningless in the expanse of magic.

Perhaps foolishly, the "mages" of the multiverse have slowly began to put names to different variations of magic.

Magic Types
 Necromancy
 Psychometry
 Sangromacy
Operation Swiftspear Wiki

**Welcome to the Operation Swiftspear Wiki!**
Have you ever played Magic: the Gathering?

Did you think to yourself, wow, this game is too simple?

Are you offended that Wizards thought a couple hundred creature types, ??? keywords, 30,000 cards, point .5 font and stopping their cards at two faces would be enough to develop a whole game?

Me neither, but, here we are anyways...

Welcome to Operation Swiftspear.

## Important articles

PlaceholderBlood of the AngelsPlaceholderLiesaPlaceholderThe First EpisodePlaceholderAn Important LocationPlaceholderA Key EventPlaceholderA Crucial Item
Unaccountable

## Summary

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

Led by Dovin, Afterlife Bureaucrat, the deck was notoriously toxic for its heavy control elements. The commander was considered one of the most annoying and oppressive stax commander of all time, and the entire deck revolved around preventing any game from going on until a proliferation combo finished the game off.

It retailed for $150, and, as with every deck from its set, contained 15 newly printed cards, plus the commander.
Underhoof Deals

## Summary

Underhoof Deals is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander: Last Tower.

The deck is led by Domri, King Stomp, who is notably not a very good commander, or even a very good planeswalker. Regardless, the deck is fast, aggressive and powerful, composed of all of the strongest mono-green goodstuff, self sufficient cards and ramp to play them out quickly and efficiently. Notably, almost every card in the deck is meant to be a great topdeck, and able to thrive and fulfill multiple roles on its own. As such, with a simple swap of commander, it would become a very powerful mono-green deck.

It retailed for $55, and, as with every deck from its set, contained 15 newly printed cards, plus the commander.
The Book of Antiquities

## Summary

The Book of Antiquities is a legendary artifact card introduced in Urza's Prophecy, and one of the key pieces of the story of the set.

## Lore

The Book of Antiquities was Tawnos's false record of the Brother's War. Taking advantage of the destruction caused by the sylex, and the evidence lost to history, Tawnos would retreat to his Legacy Tower and write the book as a false tome, falsely portraying Mishra as a power hungry, torture happy tyrant, and Urza as the valiant protector of the plane.

However, as the timeline of Dominaria mended together once again during the events of Urza's Prophecy, time itself found the lies of the book to be an afront to history, and would tempt Teferi Akosa to take it, hoping The Gatewatch could help destroy it and its legacy.

## Competitive Success

The Book of Antiquities was a fairly niche card, becoming almost useless in most decks, but an auto-include in Saga decks for its greatly increased control over your sagas. It was especially backbreaking when paired with Sagas with powerful chapter 2 abilities such as Kiora Bests the Sea God, allowing you to repeatedly tap opponents down, any of the five praetor Sagas, or the Phasing of Zhalfir, which created a combo that allowed for the near permanent phasing out of a permanent every single turn.

Ironically, it was powerful enough to bring Saga decks to the forefront of the meta for a while, and thus became a sideboard tech against itself, being able to prevent sagas from reaching level three, or pushing them to level three prematurely to prevent keeping them around.

## Trivia

Due to the rulings on how sagas work, removing a lore counter would not immediately cause the ability of the level below to trigger, though it would allow a higher level to be repeated.

Due to sacrificing a saga not using the stack, it was also not possible to reduce a saga from its final level down to a lower one.

In reference to its incredibly ancient status, the Book of Antiquities, similarly to the Brother's War commander precons, used an old-art frame.
Dominaria Divided

## Summary

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

The set directly follows the story of Set XI as part of the Aftermath block, on a post-apocalyptic Dominaria.

## Lore

While the banding of tribes to survive the brutal post-apocalyptic world began as mere survival, it has devolved into a power struggle, and what was built to bring Dominaria together begins to rip it further apart, and society begins to destroy at the same rate that it progresses.

However, the consolidation of power among a certain ancient evil will force all of Dominaria to learn to work together... or die trying.

## Themes/Mechanics

Dominaria Divided was really the introduction of the idea of Antitribal, and mirroring its previous set's affinity for creature types and lords, it introduced over fifty new antilords for various tribes.

Capitalizing on these divides, Dominaria Divided sees a return of the devotion mechanic, as well as a large amount of color hate and color protection.

The impeding progress is very literally represented in the high number of, and variance in, counterspells introduced in this set.

## Popular Cards and Decks

The Grand Avatar cycle both became staples in control decks for being such effective multitools.

A number of the antilords introduced in the set became rotating staple sideboard cards, depending on the meta, across all formats.

Ravidel himself was also an incredibly powerful planeswalker, who saw massive use in any deck that could cheat him out.

## Associated Products

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

## Promo Cards

Ravidel was released in four different card forms, and the first 20 players who traded all four into Wizards would receive a special fifth version.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of Dominaria Divided came with the Dominaria Divided Grand Tour, a rather unique event in that it could only use cards from one block.

## Critical Reception

While perhaps not as loved as Set XI, the introduction of antilords for common tribes, and the fact that ones for uncommon tribes were rarely worth playing, made for an environment that continued to push and support gimmicky, for fun decks, and the set was very successful.
Basilisk

## Summary

Basilisks are a creature type found primarily on Zendikar, though they have also been found on Dominaria and Mirrodin.

Basilisks are reptilian creatures which vary in shape from lizards to snakes to something in between. However, they all share an innate magical ability: Any creature who looks in the eyes of the Basilisk instantly dies.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Instant death is the game here. The vast majority of Basilisks either have deathtouch, or an end-of-combat version of deathtouch before it was keyworded.

To capitalize on their deadliness, they often have forced blocking mechanics, either forcing a specific creature to block them (and therefore die to deathtouch), or all creatures who are able to block it (Allowing for boardwipes, and to let other creatures by without chance of being blocked.)

## Notable Characters

There are currently no legendary Basilisks.

## Notable Lords

Slithering Deadeye specifically gets around the one weakness of Basilisks: Indestructible creatures, by forcing a sacrifice and gaining extra little deathtouchers off of it.

## Notable Antilords

The card Mirror Shield acts as a counter to most deathtouch strategies, including much of what makes Basilisks work.

## Notable Basilisks

Stone-Tongue Basilisk is a dangerous threat often capable of wiping entire boards with ease.

While much smaller, Turntimber Basilisk effectively acts as a green kill spell in many cases.
Zubera

## Summary

Zubera are a creature type found exclusively on the plane of Kamigawa.

A subtype of the Spirit creature type, they are the result of a spirit cut off from its Honden, and often take the form of grotesque humanoid abominations made of the materials of their home environment.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Zubera, as a tribe, are utterly useless in life, but have powerful death triggers.

The primary ability of Zubera is feeding off of each other's death triggers, often having the ability "When this creature dies, do X effect for each Zubera that died this turn." When built as a tribal deck, these death triggers can gain momentum quickly, and make them a liability when faced down with a boardwipe.

The other ability held by Zubera are powerful death triggers that only activate if the Zubera was killed by excess damage. This comes in the form of "When this creature dies, if (the creatures toughness plus one) damage was dealt to it this turn, do X effect."

## Notable Lords

Almost every Zubera with the "Zuberas that died this turn" death trigger can be considered a Zubera lord.

## Notable Antilords

Hunters, in their ability to shut down opposing death triggers, tend to counter Zubera strategies.

## Notable Zubera

Rushing-Tide Zubera is a powerful card in Standstill based strategies, offering the same threat that Standstill does to spells to attacks.

Burning-Eye Zubera and Ember-Fist Zubera, due to their desire to take and deal damage, were became staples in Ritterator decks.
Worm

## Summary

Worms are a creature type found throughout the multiverse, but in their enlarged form, they are found on Phyrexia, Argentum and Ravnica.

Worms are, in their simplest form, tiny wurms. Small serpent-like creatures who tend to live underground in the soil. However, they are notorious for being mutated far beyond their natural size, via phyresis or ill-advised scientific tampering.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Worms are able to regenerate from significant amounts of damage, even bisection, and show this flavorfully through, well, regeneration.

Worms, being processors, also tend to have a lot of death trigger interaction. This means both their own death triggers, and triggers or added bonuses if they enter the battlefield on a turn where creatures have died.

## Notable Lords

Worm King can sacrifice worms you control to give itself counters and trigger their death triggers, then remove those counters later to regenerate your worms and keep them alive.

## Notable Antilords

Slithering Oppressor is a Wurm that can consume Worms to increase its own stats.

## Notable Worms

Reef Worm has one of the best death triggers for a mono-blue creature in the game.
Liesa

## Summary

Liesa is an archangel from the plane of Innistrad, who was first introduced in Commander Legends, but returned in Blood of the Angels.

She was most recently represented in the card Archangel Liesa.

## Competitive Success

Archangel Liesa would become a very popular commander in lifegain, reanimator, aikido and even a couple of niche mill and voltron decks, being a powerful, flexible, and most of all overwhelmingly consistent board presence.

She also became a niche pick in some reanimator decks with a lifegain splash, being able to "chain" reanimations by bringing her back early to bring back other massive creatures.
Aetherborn

## Summary

Aetherborn are a creature type found exclusively on the plane of Kaladesh.

Creatures made of the very aether itself, Aetherborn are known as an incredibly hedonistic species. Their weakly composed bodies are liable to simply fall apart at any time, and they consistently don't live long, and as such, must live fast before they die young.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Aetherborn are almost exclusively black.

Much in the spirit of "live fast, die young", Aetherborn encourage their controller to do the same, often coming with heavy life tolls and encouraging a Suicide Black strategy.

However, Aetherborn in particular have become a strong proprietor of a new variant of Suicide Black known as IRS, a mixture of Suicide Black and White Lifegain, meant to spend well over 20 life over the course of a game for benefit, but gaining it back with powerful lifegain effects.

This self-sacrifice also manifests in a more selfish way, with a strong subtheme of creature sacrifice, and much more prominently, artifact sacrifice, usually to draw cards or drain life.

Being made of pure aether, naturally they also have a great number of synergies with energy counters.

## Notable Characters

Gonti is an Aetherborn crime lord, the overboss of the Night Market on Kaladesh. Using his immense influence in the criminal underworld, he was able to obtain a specially made mechanical aether heart from Saheeli Rai, which stabilizes his body and allows him to live much longer than the average Aetherborn, though with all the same hedonism.

Yahenni was an Aetherborn renegade and a vampire, capable of absorbing the life essence of others to extend their own life. However, they would eventually run out in a freed Kaladesh, becoming philanthropic and passing away after the revolution.

## Notable Lords

Midnight Entourage was the original Aetherborn tribe lord, buffing your Aetherborn creatures, and forcing a card draw for 1 life whenever an Aetherborn dies.

Gonti, Night Market Overboss became the go-to commander for Aetherborn tribal decks, allowing you to use your Aetherborn as chips of sorts to gamble for powerful effects.

## Notable Antilords

Vacuum Gauntlet is an equipment that can make almost any creature in the game a hard counter against Aetherborn, Spirit, and Weird tribal decks.

## Notable Aetherborn

Gifted Aetherborn was known as a powerful limited pick for its combination of above curve stats, life recursion and deathtouch.
Legacy Tower

## Summary

Legacy Tower is a land card introduced in Legacy of the Masters, designed as a dual land that is specifically useful in the legacy format.

## Lore

The Legacy Tower was the home of Tawnos as he wrote The Book of Antiquities, the false history of the brother's war of Mishra and Urza. It was stated to be the home of many great myths, though, this was largely due to its placement on a crossroads of many scroll-collectors pilgrimages.

## Competitive Success

Nobody used this card. It's not good in legacy.
Strong

## Summary

Strong is a deck archetype first seen shortly after the release of Rain of the Kami.

The core strategy of the deck is using Iwamori of the Closed Fist in conjunction with Iwamori of the Open Fist to bait your opponent into cheating out a legendary creature, then using that trigger to cheat out your own, much larger creature, allowing creatures that could typically never enter the battlefield on curve to come out next to two strong tramplers.

The deck is typically run in Golgari colors to allow access to Grand Nightmare and cheap early game removal, though some decks prefer to run it in Simic to add Show and Tell as backup to Iwamori of the Open Fist, and for the obligatory Force of Will.

## Competitive Success

Upon the deck's first showing at the Rain of the Kami Grand Tour, the deck showed an undefeated run, primarily due to the fact that it was a direct counter to the otherwise completely dominant Rag Tag deck.

However, this success was short lived as the next set to come out directly afterwards, Urza's Prophecy, introduced the dominant Burnwillows strategy, which Strong, as with most decks of the time, was utterly uncompetitive against.
Ixalan

Ixalan is a plane that was first introduced in Ixalan, and returned most recently in Dread of Ixalan.

A plane of wide seas, behemoth dinosaurs, and ancient suppressed forces, the people of Ixalan are keen on adventure, and most of all, the treasures that lie at the deepest reaches of the plane.

Ixalan was originally the home of the Immortal Sun, an artifact capable of trapping planeswalkers on a plane. Later, the plane would collide with Kaladesh and Dominaria, taking much of their pirate population, increasing the thrill of treasure seeking.

## Planeswalkers

Angrath is a minotaur planeswalker who was enraged at being trapped on the plane for oh so many years, becoming obsessed with chaos and revenge.

Hualti, the Warrior Poet, splits her time between her arts and battle atop the plane's vicious dinosaurs.

While not originally from the plane, Azor would become trapped here by the Immortal Sun before losing his spark, and calling it a home as a non-planeswalking Sphinx.

Vraska also sent some time trapped on the plane, using the unique otherworldly power of her stone gaze to rule much of the seas.

## Species/Races

The Dinosaurs rule over much of terrestrial Ixalan, threatening to crush anything else underfoot.

The Vampires of Ixalan were originally the guardians of Orazca and the Immortal Sun, holding a special relationship with the sun.

## Notable Groups

Many pirate gangs would claim rule over the seas, but none were as dominant as Ragavan's crew, following Kaladesh's falling into Ixalan.

## Sets

Ixalan was introduced in Ixalan, followed up by Rivals of Ixalan. It then showed up in the Explorers of Ixalan product.

Most recently, Ixalan was the main stage for Dread of Ixalan.
Wurm

## Summary

Wurms are a creature type found throughout the multiverse, but are most dominant in the Yavimaya region of Dominaria.

Wurms are, in short, giant worms. Massive serpent-like creatures that live in the forest, acting in theory as their guardians, but in practice, their large forms often knock down large swaths of trees, and consume them as a food source.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Wurms are always massive creatures, and their tokens are similarly massive. Oftentimes they are massively above curve for their mana value, at the cost of one of two drawbacks;

While Wurms generally have a lands matter theme, this often manifests in land sacrifice, requiring you to feed your lands to the wurm to keep them around.

The other common theme among them is giving your opponents some choice in dealing with them. This often means they can sacrifice lands or some resource to subdue them and save themselves, or alternatively, it gives them opportunities and helps your opponents, giving a chance to play something to deal with them.

## Notable Characters

Grothama is a terrifying competitor in the Stadium of Valor's Reach of Kylem.

While not a Wurm himself, Baru is known for leading legions of wurms.

## Notable Lords

Woodfall Gorger allows you to ramp up your wurms, sacrificing even more lands to get more wurms out of each.

Baru, Wurmspeaker is the go-to commander for Wurm tribal commander decks, despite being a human.

## Notable Antilords

Slithering Ambitious is a Worm that can consume Wurms to increase its own stats.

## Notable Wurms

Tempting Wurm is a group hug staple in commander, offering opponents a free permanent in exchange for a massively above curve wurm.
Grand Nightmare

## Summary

Grand Nightmare is a sorcery card introduced in Rain of the Kami. It's the latest version in a long history of one-mana selective discard spells, tailored specifically for the legendary matters theme of Rain of the Kami.

## Lore

Grand Nightmare depicts The Wanderer's nightmares of the phyrexian invasion of the multiverse, specifically Tamiyo's compleation, Tezzeret's metal body, and visions of herself being compleated in the same way.

## Competitive Success

Grand Nightmare was an incredibly powerful card in every format (save for Commander) in which it was played.

In most editions of limited play, it was effectively the most powerful selective discard spell of all time, basically being Thoughtseize without any life loss.

However, the card really shines in constructed, specifically as part of the Strong deck. The Strong deck specifically wanted your opponents to play as many legendary creatures as possible, even offering to help them cheat them out, so they weren't a good discard target anyways. This made Grand Nightmare a perfect selective discard spell, only hitting things you wanted to hit anyways, and more importantly forcing your opponents to only play their legendary spells, allowing for more Iwamori of the Closed Fist triggers.
Slippers

## Summary

Slippers is a deck archetype that was first technically seen in Argentum, but truly came to life with the release of Strixhaven: Ezza.

The original combo of the deck is using the card Karn's Beacon, a card built to cheat out planeswalkers from your library, but leave them with only one loyalty, with Chandra, Fire Artisan. As soon as Chandra entered the battlefield, she would lose all of her counters, triggering her ability to burn an opponent or planeswalker for 4 damage, then pop back up to one to start gaining card advantage, and deal at least 1 more damage. For this reason, Slippers was less of a deck in and of itself, and more a niche tech that could be used for mono-red burn decks, exchanging some speed and slightly increasing the chance of dead drops in the early game for a lot more late game stability and closing ability.

The deck truly came into it's own identity with the release of Strixhaven: Ezza, and with it, Narset, Cunning Perfectionist. Her ability mirrored Chandra in how it triggered, allowing its controller to distribute a whopping seven prowess counters among creatures they control by removing each of her counters, before popping back to one. The choice between seven prowess counters and four damage to the face made the deck versatile and aggressive, with the rest of the deck being built as classic Izzet spellslinger control. A turn 5 Karn's Beacon would almost always win the game that turn or the next due to the extreme potential damage output.

## Competitive Success

In its first form, Slippers was a decent sidegrade to classic burn decks, fluctuating heavily in power with the meta, but always being in the back of a deckbuilders mind.

Upon the release of Narset, and the move to Izzet, the deck became incredibly powerful, giving a very aggressive and defined wincon to decks that at the time often felt like they traded stomping power for control. At its peak, it was considered among the ranks of things like Murktide and Delver decks, though ultimately fell a bit behind due to being easy to board against, especially given the devastation to the deck should Karn's Beacon be countered.
Five-Leaf Clover

## Summary

Five-Leaf Clover is a preconstructed commander deck featured in Commander: Last Tower.

Led by The Unluckiest, the deck is built all around enchantments, specifically curses, powerful enchantments that target a single player. The deck is sometimes compared to a group hug or even Kingbreaker deck, with the inherent political element of targeting one player at a time, and the boons that can provide to each other player.

It retailed for $50, and, as with every deck from its set, contained 15 newly printed cards, plus the commander.
Set List

## Summary

A set is any new release of cards, outside of specialty products. There are a lot of them.

Typically a set falls into one of five categories:

Story: A set released in the order of the Lore. Comes with a high density of new cards, and some reprints. Typically released as part of a "Block", which are two or more sets released in a row on the same plane with the same subthemes to tell a longer story that won't fit in one set.

Core: A set consisting largely of reprints, but with a large number of its own cards. They tend to be very thematically balanced, and span across multiple planes, occasionally with a loose story across those planes.

Compilation: A set of entirely reprints, often very memorable, iconic, old or expensive cards throughout MTG history.

Format Revolving: A set based around one format, often with a high reprint density, with all cards legal in and designed specifically for that format. This includes sets designed specifically for draft.

Preconstructed: Basically a specialty product, but set apart by the presence of a significant number of new cards. A preconstructed set is made entirely of pre-made decks, ready to play out of the box.
Archon of Constitution

## Summary

Archon of Constitution is a creature card introduced in Set XI. It was designed as part of Set XI's effort to give tribal lords to every tribe, and acts as a lord for the Archon tribe.

## Lore

While the Archons are a mysterious tribe, with motives, patterns and even their very existence hard to decipher, the Archon of Constitution gives some form to the myths, and is a subject of great study. Seemingly, it roams the skies directly following great tragedies and the flight of other archons, appearing at sights where they were seen. Some have tried to track it, thinking that finding where its flying towards could give a preemptive edge at preventing calamities, but time after time seem to lose it in the clouds.

## Competitive Success

While Archon tribal is a hard tribe to build around, outside of commander, their decks can be brutally oppressive when they work, especially with the presence of Archon of Constitution. The ability to double, or even sometimes triple other stax and exile effects can quickly lock players out of the game.

The deck is also aided by the fact that Archon of Constitution doesn't want more than two other archons on the battlefield, making their scarcity and high mana value a boon, rather than a liability.

It was also a very popular choice in reanimator decks, with the ability to reanimate something like Archon of Cruelty on turn 4, then copy it turn 5 being incredibly powerful and game ending.
Kaladesh

## Summary

Kaladesh is a plane that was first introduced in Kaladesh, and recently returned in Dread of Ixalan.

A plane where artifice is valued above all, the artificial and natural worlds of Kaladesh are inseparable, and run exclusively through an energy source known as Aether. However, the control of this vital resource has become a point of contention on the plane time and time again.

Kaladesh was the original creation place of the Planar Bridge. In Dread of Ixalan, much of Kaladesh literally fell into the plane of Ixalan, changing the structure and culture of both planes immensely.

## Planeswalkers

Saheeli Rai is a multiversally-renowned artificer.

Dovin Baan is a vedalken wizard, artificer, and later pawn of Nicol Bolas, and of his pawn Tezzeret.

## Species/Races

Constructs, the moving products of artificers, can be found in pretty much every shape, form, and function across Kaladesh.

Elves live among the humans and often hold roles as artificers, though their artifice is much more naturally inclined, working with the earth around them and basing constructs off of organic shapes.

Aetherborn are creatures made of the Aether of the plane, with weakly composed bodies that quickly fall apart.

## Notable Groups

The Consulate are the core government of the plane, in control of the aether supply. They are incredibly oppressive and paranoid, often hunting down wizards in fear of their power surpassing that of their machines.

The Renegades are the citizens of Kaladesh who revolt against the Consulate, wanting to free control of the aether and break their tyrannical ways.

## Sets

Kaladesh was first introduced in Kaladesh, and returned immediately after in Aether Revolt.

It was then featured, though not at the center, in Dread of Ixalan.
Four-Color Lords Cycle

## Summary

The Four-Color Lords cycle is a five-card cycle of four-color creatures from Ravnica: Second City.

Each card in the cycle is an 8 mana 10/10 creatures, with a mana cost of two of each of their four colors. Each of the cards is incredibly powerful, but requires a great deal of color fixing to cast.

They are each specifically designed with the excluded color in mind, having protection from that color's preferred card types, and an ability that runs counter to the favored strategy of that color.

## Lord of Progress

Lord of Progress is an anti-green, anti-creature card that encourages the use of, and winning by, using noncreature cards.

The ability to tutor four cards simultaneously often made this card a kill-on-sight for the creature and the player, as, used properly, it can lead to incredibly consistent wins by tutoring four combo pieces. Especially in combo-heavy artifact decks such as Breya, Etherium Shaper, Lord of Progress was an auto-include for any deck with the mana rocks to make it work.

Alternatively, protection from creatures and prowess made the card popular in cantrip-heavy decks, whether those cantrips be instants, sorceries, or artifacts.

## Lord of the Temporary

Lord of the Temporary is an anti-white, anti-enchantment card that discourages slow, solid play that typically comes with board enchantments, and encourages a high-octane strategy, including archetypes of chaos, filled with death triggers and not really expecting anything to stay on the board for long.

It's also a powerful combo enabler for many aristocrat based decks, simultaneously fulfilling multiple parts of combos like Gravecrawler.

## Lord of the Present

Lord of the Present is an anti-black, anti-artifact card based around not only discouraging or cutting off graveyard-based strategies, but actively punishing them and rewarding their failure, being specifically designed to hard counter artifact/aristocrat based decks.

It's also completely nuts in board-wipe heavy or mill decks, being able to quickly rack up hundreds of life with little repercussion.

## Lord of Tradition

Lord of Tradition is an anti-red, anti-instant card based around limiting interaction against you, while allowing you to play heavy control. Notably, the effect also does apply to opponent's lands, generally barring them from casting non-pact spells, and makes for an incredibly oppressive control and combo piece. It also continues to protect itself even on opponents turns, by being immune to instants even when cast at sorcery speed.

This card has been banned in Commander for being universally hated.

## Lord of Battle

Lord of Battle is an anti-blue, anti-sorcery, pro-aggro and beating faces in card. There isn't much to say, other than it's usually an instant win when it hits the battlefield.
Emperor Frederick I

His Imperial Majesty The Late Emperor Frederick I was the first Emperor of The United Empire of Heart and the 97th King of the former kingdom of Heart. When he died he was dubbed "the Great" by the people of Empire, for his dedication to the crown and the people he represents through his record breaking 89 years he ruled for.

With his wife Empress Harmony by his side, Emperor Frederick ushered in a new era of peace and stability. Together they welcomed four children, Emperor Philip, Princess Adelaide (now Queen of Valefort, Princess Cora (now Empress of Guang Boa), and Prince Michael. Each of his children were in arranged marriages with nobles throughout the empire and other foreign monarchies. To broker in the newly established peace, after the Wars of Nations and after the formation of the Golden Crown Alliance.

Frederick was able to live to see the birth of his 14 grandchildren and 15 Great grandchildren, many of which are the heirs of the kingdoms his children married into.
Weird

## Summary

Weirds are a creature type that, as of yet, have only been seen on Ravnica.

It's still not entirely clear what weirds actually are, but they seem to be a living form of mana, a type of artificial elemental created as a byproduct of mana-fueled Izzet machinery.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Weirds as a tribe revolve entirely around instants and sorceries, supporting them and being supported by them. They often have abilities to reduce the cost of or copy instants and sorceries, as well as having their stats buffed when instants or sorceries are cast.

They also have a strong theme of switching their own power and toughness, either through +1/-1 or -1/+1 effects, or actually trading power and toughness for the turn.

## Notable Characters

Melek was the maze runner for the Izzet League, but was supposedly killed by Ral Zarek during the events of Dragon's Maze. Adding much to the mystery of what exactly weirds are, Melek was reincarnated during Runners of Ravnica, seeking to take leadership of the league and take revenge on his slayer.

## Notable Lords

Blistering Creator doubles any instant or sorcery cast triggers on each of your weirds.

## Notable Antilords

Vacuum Gauntlet is an equipment that can make almost any creature in the game a hard counter against Aetherborn, Spirit, and Weird tribal decks.

## Notable Weirds

Especially in longer commander games, Gelectrode can be a powerful burn or even removal engine.

Blistercoil Weird was arguably the original Prowess card, capable of getting massive and triggering tap-based auras or equipment many times a turn.
Wolverine

## Summary

Wolverines are a creature type that were common during Ice-Age era Dominaria, but have since reduced greatly in population. Now they are common on Tarkir and Ikoria, and can sometimes be found in the forests of Eldraine.

Wolverines, while not massive, are incredibly dangerous carnivores, known particularly for easily killing prey several times their size and consuming other predators.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Wolverines are incredibly vicious creatures, tearing opponents to shreds quickly with their claws, and as such often hold the Triple Strike ability.

As a running theme, Wolverines also often have abilities that trigger whenever they become blocked, often holding the Rampage ability. They then compliment this with abilities that force opposing creatures to block.

## Notable Characters

There are currently no legendary wolverines, but this is likely as a result of poor documentation, given how hard it is to get close to them.

## Notable Lords

Tri-Claw Terror emphasizes on the forced blocking theme of wolverines by giving each wolverine its controller controls Rampage 3, then it has a forced blocking ability, making opposing creatures block a specific wolverine you control.

## Notable Antilords

Foothill Coward is able to individually block wolverines and shuts down their triple strike ability.

## Notable Wolverines

Deepwood Wolverine is a classic above-curve green creature, as a 1/1 for one green that wreaks havoc when blocked.
Ally

## Summary

Allies are a creature type found on the plane of Zendikar.

Intentionally broad, Allies are the different tribes and races of Zendikar who came together to resist the threat of the Eldrazi. From humans to merfolk to vampires, even those who had been fighting for generations came together in defense of their home world.

## Gameplay Characteristics

Allies are among the most synergistic card types in the game, likely only beat out by Slivers. Most allies have an ability along the lines of "Whenever this creature or another ally enters the battlefield under your control, do X."

Barring that, allies generally have effects that trigger for every single creature you control, or use mechanics like Support, designed to spread counters among all of your creatures.

Outside of those traits, the ally class is intentionally and incredibly broad in species, aesthetic, color, keywords or even what their triggered effect does.

## Notable Characters

Gideon, despite not having a home on Zendikar, defended it as one of its allies.

General Tazri was considered the leader of the allies during the Eldrazi invasion of Zendikar.

Drana, despite her varied past, led the vampires as an ally. This is also true for Zada, who led the goblins.

## Notable Lords

...Pretty much every Ally is an Ally lord.

## Notable Antilords

Emeria's Derevolutionist has the ability to blend in and steal allied triggered abilities and boosts for itself, technically being an ally.

## Notable Allies

Akiri and Bruse Tarl are both very popular partner commanders from the first batch.

Zulaport Cutthroat is likely the single most influential ally card, being a very powerful aristocrat piece.