Prophecy

For other uses, see Prophecy (disambiguation).

Template:Expansion Prophecy is the twenty-first Magic expansion and was released in June 2000 as the third set and second small expansion in the Masques block. It continued the block themes of Rebels and Mercenaries, alternative casting costs and Spellshapers, but not the Nemesis keyword fading.

Themes and mechanics

Like Mercadian Masques, Prophecy had no new keywords. It did, however, introduce several new themes:

• Anti-rebel — cards like Brutal Suppression and Rebel Informer. (see notable cards)
• Rhystic magic — Discounted spells and abilities that work properly unless a specified player pays a set amount of mana.
• A land theme, with several permanents having abilities involving sacrificing lands and several cards that gained bonuses when all of their controller's lands were tapped.

Cycles

Prophecy has six cycles.

• Avatars: Each of these rare Avatar creatures has an evasion ability and a mana cost of CC, which can be reduced by if certain conditions are met. All of them are illustrated by rk post — Avatar of Fury, (which was reprinted in Commander), Avatar of Hope (which was reprinted in 8th Edition), Avatar of Might (which was reprinted in 10th Edition), Avatar of Will and Avatar of Woe (which was reprinted in Time Spiral as a timeshifted card and in Premium Deck Series: Graveborn, as well).
• Field Auras: Each of these uncommon auras enchants a land giving it a new tap ability — Barbed Field, Flowering Field, Noxious Field, Sunken Field and Verdant Field.
• Flash Auras: Each of these common auras costs C, has flash, targets a creature and is named after a legendary spellshaper — Alexi's Cloak, Greel's Caress, Jolrael's Favor, Latulla's Orders and Mageta's Boon.
• Pitch spells: Each of these uncommon spells has an alternate cost that includes discarding a basic land card of the appropriate type — Abolish, Foil, Outbreak, Flameshot and Snag.
• Spellshapers: Each of these legendary rare creatures costs CC and require a discard of two cards (instead of the one card requirement of other spellshapers) for their powerful abilities — Alexi, Zephyr Mage, Greel, Mind Raker, Jolrael, Empress of Beasts (which was reprinted in Time Spiral as a timeshifted card), Latulla, Keldon Overseer and Mageta the Lion.
• Winds: Each of these rare spells has a converted mana cost of 9 and a powerful effect. — Blessed Wind (target life's total becomes 20), Denying Wind (remove 7 cards from target player's library), Plague Wind (destroy target opponent's creatures) which was reprinted in 8th, 9th and 10th Edition, Searing Wind (deal 10 damage to target creature or player) which was reprinted in 8th Edition and Vitalizing Wind (creatures you control get +7/+7 until end of turn).

• A partial vertical cycle which was not completed until Time Spiral also exists: Spiketail Hatchling (Prophecy), Spiketail Drakeling (Time Spiral), Spiketail Drake (Prophecy).

Tournament impact

Prophecy made little impression on the tournament scene. Some cards that were used to varying degrees include Avatar of Woe, Mageta the Lion, Chimeric Idol, Spiketail hatchling and Foil. Prophecy is regarded as one of the worst expansions in the history of the game, often being compared to Homelands.

Notable cards

Two of the first creature type hoser enchantments ever printed in Magic were designed specifically for this block: Brutal Suppression (anti-rebel) and Root Cage (anti-mercenary).

Creature types

No new creature types are introduced in this expansion.

The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: Angel, Avatar, Beast, Bird, Boar, Cat, Cleric, Drake, Druid, Efreet, Elemental, Elephant, Ghost (later changed to Spirit), Golem, Griffin, Illusion, Insect, Mercenary, Minotaur, Nightstalker, Rebel, Serpent, Shade, Ship (later changed to Human), Snake, Soldier, Spellshaper, Spider, Turtle, Wall, Wurm, Zombie.

Theme decks

The pre-constructed theme decks are: Template:Theme decks

External links

• Prophecy product information page — Wizards of the Coast