Alliances (Magic: The Gathering)
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| Alliances | ||
|---|---|---|
| Release date | June 1996 | |
| Mechanics | Allied color, cantrips, pitch spells, snow lands | |
| Keywords | Cumulative Upkeep | |
| Size | 199 cards (144 different) |
|
| Expansion code | ALL | |
| Development codename | Quack
|
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| Sets in Ice Age Block | ||
| Ice Age | Alliances | Coldsnap |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology |
||
| Homelands | Alliances | Mirage |
Alliances was the fourteenth Magic: The Gathering set and eighth expert level set, released in June 1996. It was released 8 months after Homelands, which is the longest gap between expansion sets in the history of the game. It is now the middle set in the Ice Age block since the July 2006 release of Coldsnap. Prior to the Coldsnap release it was the third and final set in the Ice Age block.
Contents |
[edit] Storyline
The story follows the events of Ice Age, after the so-called goddess (actually a planeswalker) Freyalise had used her magic to end the Ice Age. As the lands grew warmer, conflicts began to erupt. The Balduvian Barbarians were under constant attacks from a vigilante group headed by a former Kjeldoran knight, General Varchild, and needed to turn to their former foes for help. The Soldevi alliance was breaking down amid fears that their unearthing of artifacts of the Brothers' War (as described in Antiquities) could restart that destructive conflict. And all the while, a wicked necromancer known as Lim-Dûl gathered forces to conquer the entire world.
[edit] Mechanics
Although Alliances did not feature new keywords, it did introduce the alternate casting cost mechanic. This mechanic, printed in each of the five colors, allowed the player to cast spells without paying a mana cost. Alliances alternately allowed a player to remove a card of the same color as the spell from the game; thus, the first batch of alternate casting cost spells were also known as "pitch" spells — a player could "pitch" a card from hand to play the spell. Force of Will, for example, allowed a player to remove a blue card in hand from the game and pay 1 life instead of paying its 3UU casting cost. This pitch spell went on to become a popular tournament staple.
[edit] Notable Cards
- Force of Will A must-have card for blue mages. It is a zero mana counterspell. You just need to remove a blue card from your hand and pay one life without paying it's casting cost. Almost every deck in vintage and legacy format that plays blue plays four copies of this card. [1]
- Kjeldoran Outpost A land card that became popular in White Weenie decks, as well as in Control decks in which it could be used as an alternative win condition for its token production ability.
[edit] Other features
Alliances experimented with different levels of rarities of cards. It was also the only set besides Chronicles to be printed in 12 card packs, making it difficult to utilize in drafts with standard 15 card packs.
Alliances was the last set to feature multiple non-basic-land cards with more than one artistic conception, a feature begun in Fallen Empires as a way to add variety to the multiple copies of common cards that a typical player would collect. Many players complained that they were unable to identify certain cards by a single distinctive artwork. Wizards of the Coast rethought their policy and have since limited cards within a set to a single artist's representation, with four exceptions: The cards Skyship Weatherlight, Tahngarth, Talruum Hero and Ertai, The Corrupted, all from Planeshift expansion, as well as Brothers Yamazaki, from the Champions of Kamigawa expansion.
