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| Tempest | |||||
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| Released | October 1997 8 December 2008 (MTGO) |
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| Size | 350 cards (110 commons, 110 uncommons, 110 rares, 20 basic lands) | ||||
| Keywords | Buyback, Shadow | ||||
| Mechanics | Slivers, Licids | ||||
| Designers | Mark Rosewater (lead), Richard Garfield, Charlie Catino, Mike Elliott[1] | ||||
| Dev. code | Bogavhati | ||||
| Exp. code | TMP | ||||
| First set in the Rath Cycle block | |||||
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Tempest was the 20th Magic: The Gathering set and twelfth expert level set, and the first set in the Rath Block, released in October 1997. The release of Tempest represented a large jump in the power level of the card set, compared to the previous Mirage block. Many cards from Tempest instantly became (and still are) tournament staples. Its expansion symbol is a cloud, with a lightning bolt erupting out. On 8 December 2008 Tempest was released for Magic: The Gathering Online.
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Tempest was the second set and the first standalone in the Weatherlight Saga, a continuous storyline for over four years' worth of Magic expansions.
Originally Tempest was intended to have a major "poison" theme, but in the end all poison cards were pulled from the set.[2]
Tempest introduced two new keyworded mechanics to Magic: Buyback and Shadow.
Buyback appeared on instants and sorceries. Spells with buyback had an optional buyback cost which, if paid, caused the spell to return to its owner's hand after being cast instead of being placed in the graveyard.
Shadow appeared on creatures. Creatures with shadow could not block or be blocked, except by creatures with shadow. The shadow ability only appeared on certain blue, black or white creatures (with the exception of the red/white Soltari Guerrillas), and creatures with Shadow were all relatively small.
Several non-keyworded mechanics were also introduced. Licids were a creature type that had the ability to become creature enchantments. This caused numerous rules complications.
Slivers were also introduced in Tempest. These were creatures that shared their abilities with other Slivers in play. Slivers continued into Stronghold, and later made appearances in Legions, Scourge, Time Spiral, Planar Chaos and Future Sight.
The Medallions were a very popular cycle of artifacts, one for each color, that reduced the cost of spells of the appropriate color. Slower monocolor decks (mainly blue) saw them as first pick.
The "stuck" or "slow" lands were a cycle of 5 uncommon lands that add mana of two allied colors, but when used, did not untap on your next turn. This "slowness" made them less popular than the Ice Age "pain lands." Additionally, there was a cycle of 5 rare lands which could generate enemy colors. These lands came into play tapped and could provide colorless mana without penalty, but would deal a point of damage to their controller when tapped for colored mana. They were later replaced with the enemy-color "pain lands" in Apocalypse, which used a format similar to the aforementioned Ice Age pain lands. Reflecting Pool was a powerful land used in many multi-colored decks, only reprinted once in Shadowmoor.
As was done in Ice Age and Mirage, Tempest continued to import staple cards from earlier sets into the current environment. Such staples in Tempest included: The 5 classic Circles of Protection (Black, Blue, Green, Red and White), Dark Ritual, Disenchant, Counterspell, Power Sink, Shatter, Spell Blast, Stone Rain, and Tranquility among others. In addition, a couple of newer staples such as Pacifism & Enfeeblement from Mirage and Coercion from Visions were reprinted.
As would become a tradition, Tempest began the process of essentially tweaking older cards to use the keywords of the current set. Examples of this in include Anoint (Healing Salve, with Buyback), Capsize (Boomerang, with Buyback), and Elvish Fury (Giant Growth, with Buyback).
In addition to its reprints, keywording, and fixing of classic cards, Tempest laid the foundations for some effects that have shown up a couple of times since.