Scourge (Magic: The Gathering)

Scourge is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set. It is the third set of the Onslaught block. There are 143 cards overall. The expansion symbol is a dragon's skull.

Mechanics

• Storm - Allows you to copy a spell multiple times equal to the number of other spells that have been played on the turn. This mechanic was reused in Time Spiral. Storm is considered to be one of the more degenerate mechanics in the game as the effects generated by Storm spells can get out of hand, when a player finds a way to play a high number of spells in a single turn.^[1]
• Landcycling - A variant on cycling, this allows you to cycle a card to search your library for a land of the cycling type rather than drawing a card. For example, a card with Plainscycling 2 could be cycled for 2 mana to find a Plains.
• 'Converted mana cost' matters - There were many cards in the set that encouraged you to play high mana costed spells (six mana or more).
• Though not a mechanic, Scourge boasts a small but significant dragon theme, with more than ten cards that revolved around dragons. It had five 'dragon boons', one for each color, which would bounce back from the graveyard to enchant an expensive creature you control that comes into play.

Set History

The release of Scourge made a large impact on tournament play. The additions of Goblin Warchief and Siege-Gang Commander greatly strengthened decks using Goblins in multiple formats. Eternal Dragon gave white control decks both a robust card advantage engine and finisher all in one. Vintage quickly adopted both Mind's Desire and Tendrils of Agony due to their extreme synergy with fast artifact mana and Yawgmoth's Will plus their relative immunity to disruption like Force of Will and Chalice of the Void. Almost in protest, the Scourge card Stifle also allowed decks to counter things that were previously immune, including the Scourge Storm cards.

Storyline

The war between Phage and Akroma is over, but with no true winner, and one loser, Otaria. The clash of such sheer power merged the two into a new creature, Karona the False God, an immensely powerful being forged from all five colors of Magic (Phage was originally Jeska, a red aligned barbarian corrupted by black mana; Akroma was a white angel created by Ixidor, a blue wizard; both of which were simultaneously struck down by the green aligned Kamahl). Karona is seen as a god by all who look upon her, and these followers would march to their death just to walk in her footsteps. War begins to mount between these factions, that each want to claim Karona for themselves.

Meanwhile, the Mirari poisoning is further polluting the inhabitants of Otaria, the elves are becoming taller and stronger, more like the very trees they protect. The soldiers are merging with their weapons and armor into living juggernauts. Zombies are sprouting new, more powerful arms...and heads. Also, the same explosion that created Karona, created a new master for the slivers, the Sliver Overlord.

Kamahl eventually frees Jeska. Karn returns and takes Jeska to his created plane, Argentum. He tells Jeska that she is a planeswalker, and asks her to travel the multiverse with him. She is hesitant to leave Argentum, until Karn shows her its guardian (Memnarch) forged from the Mirari. This event sets up the next block: Mirrodin.

Notable Cards

• Forgotten Ancient - notable for being the result of the first You Make The Card feature of magicthegathering.com which had the card developed through the online magic community.^[2]
• Mind's Desire was a very powerful card that featured the Storm mechanic. The card is currently banned in the Legacy format as the card can easily allow a player to play every card in their deck in one turn, whilst also being difficult to counter.^[3]
• Stifle Infamous for destroying Storm-based decks, the effect of which makes "comes into play" effects useless.^[4]
• Tendrils of Agony was often a finisher in combo decks based around the Storm mechanic.

References

External links

• Wizards' Official for Scourge