Masques Block (Magic: The Gathering)

Mercadian Masques

Released	4 October 1999
Size	350 (110 Common 110 Uncommon 110 Rare 20 Land)
Keywords	None
Mechanics	Mercenaries, Rebels, Spellshapers, alternate casting costs, depletion lands, storage lands
Designers	Mike Elliott (lead), Bill Rose, Mark Rosewater
Developers	Henry Stern (lead), Mike Elliott, Robert Gutschera, William Jockusch, Mark Rosewater with contributions from Charlie Tin Canno, and Beth Moursund
Development code	Archimedes
Expansion code	MMQ
First set in the Masques block
Mercadian Masques Nemesis Prophecy
← Urza's Destiny Battle Royale →
← Urza Block Invasion Block →

Nemesis

Released	14 February 2000
Size	143 cards (55 commons, 44 uncommons, 44 rares)
Keywords	Fading
Mechanics	Spellshapers, Rebels & Mercenaries
Designers	Mike Elliot (lead), Bill Rose, Mark Rosewater
Developers	Mike Elliot (lead), Charlie Catena, Paul Peterson, Teeuwyn Woodruff
Development code	Euripides
Expansion code	NEM
Second set in the Masques block
Mercadian Masques Nemesis Prophecy
← Battle Royale Starter 2000 →
← Urza Block Invasion Block →

Prophecy

Released	5 June 2000
Size	143 cards (55 commons, 44 uncommons, 44 rares)
Mechanics	Rhystic spells
Development code	Dionysus
Expansion code	PCY
Third set in the Masques block
Mercadian Masques Nemesis Prophecy
← Starter 2000 Invasion →
← Urza Block Invasion Block →

The Masquerade Cycle,, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Masques block", is a Magic: The Gathering cycle (trilogy of expansions) that is set on the planes of Mercadia, Rath, and plane of Dominaria. It consists of the expansion sets Mercadian Masques (4 October 1999, mask), Nemesis (14 February 2000, axe), and Prophecy (5 June 2000, crystals). Mercadian Masques was the first set that is not subject to the Wizards of the Coast Reprint Policy, meaning that none of its cards appear on its Reserved List.

Storyline

Mercadian Masques

The crew of the Weatherlight, having just escaped from Rath, is now stranded on the plane/city of Mercadia. While they find a way to return to their home plane of Dominaria, it is revealed that one of their passengers - allegedly Takara - was actually Volrath in disguise.

Nemesis

The Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria is nearing; the Dark Lord's plans are almost complete. Only the Planeswalker Urza stands in his way. At the same time, Yawgmoth's Inner Circle decides on the election of the evincar to replace Volrath. The Phyrexian emissary Belbe has to choose between Greven Il-Vec, Ertai, Crovax, and the newly returned Volrath.

Prophecy

Keld has declared war on Jamuraa in order to reclaim 'hero's blood', known also as tufa, which is a type of fossil fuel to run great machines. The city-states of Jamuraa form the Kipamu League and then repulse the invaders. The war bears a striking similarity to the Peloponnesian War between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League.

Set details

Mercadian Masques

Mercadian Masques consists of 350 cards: 110 each of commons, uncommons, and rares plus 20 basic lands. It was the first large expansion to use the 6th Edition rules. This was the first set to have an accompanying fat pack. It reprinted a number of cards from previous sets, many of which have not been reprinted since.

Nemesis

Nemesis prerelease events were held on February 5, 2000. At these events the prerelease card, a foil Rathi Assassin, was handed out. The set was officially released on 14 February 2000. The 143 Nemesis cards come in three rarities, common, uncommon, and rare. 55 cards are common, 44 are uncommon, and 44 are rare. Nemesis booster packs include 15 cards, one rare, three uncommon, and eleven common. About every 100th card is a randomly inserted premium foil card. Nemesis had a fair share of cards appear in well-placing tournament decks. Many of the cards with Fading were quite powerful; the cards Parallax Wave, Parallax Tide, Blastoderm, Saproling Burst, and Tangle Wire all appeared in decks in various formats. Of the 143 in Nemesis none is a reprint. 22 cards from Nemesis have been reprinted afterwards, 16 in Core Sets.

Prophecy

The Prophecy expansion consists of 143 cards. When released, it was one of the least popular sets among tournament players. Though many casual players liked it because of the enormous Avatar and Winds cycle, both of which had a big effect at a big cost, it had relatively little impact on Standard tournaments. Magic head designer Mark Rosewater has also voiced his opinion, that Prophecy is the second-worst designed Magic set (behind Homelands) As of February 2012 only 21 cards from the Prophecy expansion have been reprinted.

Keywords and mechanics

Unusually, Masques introduced no new keyword abilities to the game. However it was advertised as introducing new creature types, which were continued throughout the cycle: Two of these types were rebels and mercenaries, creatures able to search through their controller's library and "recruit" creatures of a specific type directly into play. Another type was spellshapers, creatures that had repeatable activated abilities that mimicked various classic spells, potentially turning otherwise useless cards into powerful effects. All of Masques's spellshapers required paying mana, tapping the creature and discarding a card to use their ability. Masques also reintroduced spells with alternative casting costs. This mechanic had not been used since Weatherlight.

In Nemesis, new Rebels, Mercenaries, and Spellshapers were added to the Mercadian Masques repertoire. The Flowstone creatures, originally introduced in Stronghold had another showing. Nemesis introduced the Fading mechanic, which had creatures enter the battlefield with X counters on it, but be placed into the graveyard after X turns. It again experiments with spells with a non-mana costs.

The main theme and mechanic of Prophecy was lands; specifically, whether lands were untapped or not. Many of its cards required sacrificing lands. Similarly, the Rhystic cards gave the player an advantage if no other players paid a certain amount of mana. Prophecy introduced no keyword mechanics.

Reception

For years after its release, Mercadian Masques was considered to be an underpowered set. Reportedly, the designers were extremely gun-shy following the runaway power of the Artifacts Cycle, which had led to many banned cards. In response to the experience with the Artifacts Cycle, the developers of Mercadian Masques reduced the power of the set, resulting in a set that in its time was considered to be weak; the same phenomenon would take place between the latter-day Mirrodin block and Kamigawa blocks.

However, the set did produce a number of tournament-quality cards. Gush is restricted in Vintage and banned in Legacy. Food Chain combined with Goblin Recruiter from Visions to form a powerful combo deck that eventually led to Goblin Recruiter's banning from Legacy. In its time, Rishadan Port was a dominant mana-denial card in Standard, and is still used for this purpose in Legacy. Other cards that still have impact on Legacy include primarily cards that can be cast without paying their mana cost such as Land Grant, Misdirection, and Unmask.

Theme decks

Each of the Mercadian Masques theme decks has at least one spellshaper, a theme of the set. The pre-constructed theme decks are Deepwood Menace (green-red), Disrupter (black-red), Rebel's Call (white), and Tidal Mastery (blue-white).

External links

• Mercadian Masques official product page
• Mercadian Masques card list
• Card lists of Mercadian Masques theme decks
• Wizard's official page for Nemesis
• Wizard's official page for Prophecy