Games - Mirrodin

	Games - Mirrodin

Mirrodin is the name of Magic: The Gathering expansion set. It came out in October 2003 and contains 306 cards. It is also the name of the block containing the Mirrodin, Darksteel
and Fifth Dawn
expansion sets. This expansion, as well as the rest of the block, is centered around artifacts and is only the second set to do so (from a card frequency point of view) since antiquities. One particular defining aspect of this set is the percentage of artifact cards is much higher than in any preceding set. Mirrodin 's expansion symbol is a small image of Sword of Kaldra, a card from this set.

Mirrodin block proved to be a very fast paced block, easily overwhelming the later Kamigawa block by sheer speed and effectivness. This block's domination in tournaments lead to the banning of several cards in order to keep it on par with many other decks in Standard play, and even to a lesser extent Extended. Skullclamp was banned shortly after the release of Fifth Dawn, the third and final set in the block, as it proved to be too undercosted as a powerful card drawing engine. The Wizards design team has admitted that this card's cost to play and equip were modified shortly before the sets release and ample time to play test the change was not given due to the strict time schedule on production.

The world of Mirrodin

The place where the action occurs is also called Mirrodin. It is the world made by planeswalker Karn and it consists mostly of metal. It is mostly populated by metallic artifact creatures.All organic life forms on Mirroden are born with metal incorporated in their bodies. Mirrodin is orbited by four suns (which are also called moons) of the four colours: red, black, white and blue (green notably absent). The major places of Mirrodin are:

Oxidda Chain, Mountains, populated by goblins and the Vulshok tribe.
The Tangle - dense jungle, populated by elves, the human Sylvok tribe and horrible beasts.
The Mephidross - a dreadful swamp, a home of Nim and the Moriok.
Quicksilver Sea - as the name implies, it is the sea of quicksilver, and it is populated by Vedalken, and the Neurok tribe.
The Razor Fields - the plains, overgrown with sharp metallic grass - this region is where Leonin
, the Auriok tribe and Loxodon
live.

The main character of the story is the elf Glissa Sunseeker, who visits all these places, guided by curiosity about the surrounding world. The story is captured in the novel Moons of Mirrodin by Will McDermott.

Set history

Mirrodin is notable for being the first expansion set to feature the new card front design (which debuted in 8th Edition
). Ironically, the high number of artifacts in Mirrodin highlighted the inherent flaw of the new design - white and artifact cards were very hard to distinguish from each other. The problem forced Wizards to change the color of artifact cards to dark grey in Fifth Dawn.

Mechanics

Below is the list of mechanics introduced by Mirrodin:

Affinity for artifacts - this keyword reduces the total cost of the spell by the number of artifacts in play under your control. This mechanic was extremely powerful and "Affinity" decks quickly monopolised Magic: The Gathering tournaments (see below), eventually resulting in sweeping bannings of the most powerful Affinity-related cards in an effort to revive the tournament scene.
Artifact lands - while artifact creatures were not a new story, Mirrodin introduced artifact lands. These were the great helpers to the previous mechanic, increasing the artifact count while still being considered lands.
Imprint - this keyword allows a player to "imprint" some card on the artifact (removing that card from the game). That artifact's effect depends on the card imprinted (for example you can imprint a creature on Soul Foundry and then activate it to reproduce copies of that creature).
Entwine - An ability on modal spells, which normally require a player to choose only one of multiple effects. By paying the Entwine cost, all of the effects occur.
Equipment - new artifact subtype that denotes things which could be wielded or worn by creatures.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mirrodin ]

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Games - Mirrodin

The world of Mirrodin

Set history

Mechanics

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