Planar Chaos
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Planar Chaos is an expansion set, codenamed "Crackle," from the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. The set was released on February 2, 2007. The pre-release events took place on January 20th and 21st, 2007. It is the second set in the Time Spiral block. The symbol for Planar Chaos is a Möbius strip.
| Planar Chaos | ||
|---|---|---|
| Expansion symbol |  tilted hourglass, merging planes, stylized letters "PC", or Möbius strip |
|
| Release date | February 2, 2007 | |
| Mechanics | Spellshapers, Rebels, Split Cards | |
| Keywords | Echo, Flanking, Flash, Kicker, Madness, Morph, Shadow, Split Second, Suspend, Vanishing | |
| Size | 165 cards (60 common, 55 uncommon, 50 rare) | |
| Expansion code | PLC | |
| Development codename | Crackle | |
| Designer | Bill Rose (lead) | |
| Developer | Devin Low (lead) | |
| Sets in Time Spiral Block | ||
| Time Spiral | Planar Chaos | Future Sight |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology |
||
| Time Spiral | Planar Chaos | Future Sight |
Contents |
[edit] Storyline
The temporal stresses being applied to Dominaria have expanded, causing multiple parallel universes (versions of Dominaria where history played out differently) to merge into the already colliding past-present-future of current events.
[edit] Set details
Designed by Bill Rose (lead designer), Matt Place, Mark Rosewater and Paul Sottosanti, and developed by Devin Low (lead developer), Zvi Mowshowitz, Brian Schneider, Henry Stern and Mike Turian, Planar Chaos was tasked with representing the present in a set focused on the cycle of time.[1]
The design team considered a number of ways to represent an alternate present, including the introduction of purple as a new color.[2]
Eventually, the team chose to represent alternate realities where elements of the color pie were shifted, placing spell types and abilities into unusual colors. These alternate realities were epitomized by the set's 45 "Timeshifted" cards. Unlike their predecessors in Time Spiral, these cards were direct reprints of previous cards, save for shifts in color, land or color references in card text, card name and creature type. Timeshifted cards in Planar Chaos appear in an altered version of the modern card frame with standard set symbols.
Timeshifted cards in Planar Chaos are also distributed differently. In each pack, three common cards are of the Timeshifted variety and an uncommon is replaced with either a timeshifted rare or uncommon. Foil cards, instead of replacing a card of the same rarity, replace a common card. As such, it is possible to receive a booster with up to three rare cards: one normal, one foil and one timeshifted.[3] The uncommon timeshifted cards show up in a 3:1 ratio to the rare timeshifted cards, so the average out of 4 boosters is 3 uncommon and 1 rare timeshifted card.[4]
[edit] Keyword and Mechanics
The only Planar Chaos specific keyword mechanic is Vanishing, an updated version of an older mechanic, Fading. Vanishing uses time counters to interact with Time Spiral cards and induces sacrifice at the removal of the final counter to make the mechanic more intuitive than its predecessor.
The Time Spiral keywords of Suspend, Flash and Split Second all returned in Planar Chaos, alongside the "timeshifted" mechanics of Echo, Flanking, Kicker, Madness, Morph and Shadow. Planar Chaos marked the first appearance of spells with Echo costs that did not match their casting costs, as well as the first appearance of single color split cards.
[edit] Notable cards
- Damnation: The first card to be officially previewed on magicthegathering.com (timeshifted from Wrath of God).[5]
- Enemy multicolor dragon cycle: A cycle of 5 multicolor dragons (Oros, the Avenger, Teneb, the Harvester, Intet, the Dreamer, Numot, the Devastator, and Vorosh, the Hunter) with damage-trigger abilities, such as destroying lands, returning a creature from a graveyard to play, and removing the top card of your deck from the game to be played at any time. As opposed to the friendly color Invasion dragons, these dragons feature the enemy colors of the triggered ability's cost. This cycle was original designed for Time Spiral, but was shifted when the number of dragons was deemed too high.[6] One card of this cycle, Oros, the Avenger, is the prerelease promotional card. It deals white direct damage, and is the only member of the cycle to feature a timeshift-style color ability.
- Land Magus cycle: A horizontal cycle of wizard creatures with the abilities of nonbasic lands from previous sets: Magus of the Arena (Arena), Magus of the Bazaar (Bazaar of Baghdad), Magus of the Coffers (Cabal Coffers), Magus of the Library (Library of Alexandria) and Magus of the Tabernacle (The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale).[7]
- Akroma, Angel of Fury: The art for this card was used in much of the promotional material, leaning on the popularity of Akroma, Angel of Wrath. This version is not considered "timeshifted" because it is not a direct copy of the original card.[8]
- Detritivore: The 7th Lhurgoyf made and the first one (original print) since the set Odyssey, nearly six years of absence without a new one in between. Also, this is the first Lhurgoyf whose strength is not affected by its controller's graveyard, instead relying on your opponents' graveyard; Past Lhurgoyfs grow stronger with appropriate types of cards in all graveyards.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Announcing Planar Chaos. magicthegathering.com (2006-05-08). Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
- ^ Sottosanti, Paul (2007-01-29). The Color Purple. magicthegathering.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-29.
- ^ Rosewater, Mark (2006-09-25). Purple Reign. magicthegathering.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
- ^ Rosewater, Mark (2007-01-07). Chaos Theory. magicthegathering.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
- ^ Rosewater, Mark (2007-01-08). Chaos Theory. magicthegathering.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
- ^ Forsythe, Aaron (2007-01-19). The Rebirth of Cool. magicthegathering.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
- ^ Forsythe, Aaron (2007-01-12). A Trip to the Library. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
- ^ Nakazawa, Rei (2007-01-08). Order and (Planar) Chaos. magicthegathering.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
- ^ The Lhurgoyf's (2007-01-20). Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
[edit] External links
- Official Planar Chaos Product Information
- Official Planar Chaos Spoiler List
- Official Planar Chaos Minisite
