Worldwake

Template:Expansion Worldwake is the second set in the Zendikar block and is the fifty-first Magic expansion. Prerelease events were held January 30-31, 2010. Launch parties were held February 5-7, 2010. Worldwake Game Day was held March 6, 2010.

Set details

Worldwake contains 145 black-bordered cards (10 mythic rares, 35 rare, 40 uncommon, and 60 commons), including randomly inserted premium versions of all cards in the set. The set, like its predecessor Zendikar, is centered around lands. Thematically it emphasizes Manlands and cards that turn lands into creatures. The expansion symbol for the set is an hedron, opening up.

Flavor

“

A World Enraged

”

Ancient forces begin to awaken, causing the world of Zendikar to wreak havoc upon its inhabitants. This exotic and dangerous world is made even more perilous and yet more attractive to adventurers and Planeswalkers wishing to plunder its treasures.

Marketing

Worldwake 6-card booster

Worldwake was sold in 16-card boosters, 6-card boosters, five intro packs and a fat pack . The 16-card boosters featured artwork from Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Kalastria Highborn and Admonition Angel. The small booster featured artwork from Harabaz Druid.

The promotional cards given to participants at the Prerelease tournaments, Comet Storm, and the Release event, Joraga Warcaller, both highlight the new mechanic for the set, multikicker. The promotional card at the Game Day event was a full-art Hada Freeblade, while a full-art Kalastria Highborn was given to the top-8 participants. The Buy-a-Box card was Celestial Colonnade.

Regular boosters of Worldwake come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a "tips & tricks card" or a creature token from Worldwake. One face of the Worldwake bonus card has one of five different rules tips or is one of six different creature tokens. The other face has one of 13 advertisements for organized play programs, Rise of the Eldrazi, Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Live, Magic Online, fat packs, A Planeswalker's Guide to Alara and Ultra Pro products for Magic.

For the introduction of the new Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Wizards of the Coast organised a worldwide treasure hunt: the Worldwake Planeswalker Chase.

Tips & Tricks

The tips & tricks cards are

• Rules Tip: Landfall
• Rules Tip: Multikicker
• Rules Tip: Lands Alive!
• Rules Tip: Allies
• Rules Tip: Traps

Tokens

The Worldwake tokens in numerical order are:

• 1/1 Soldier Ally produced by Join the Ranks
• 5/5 Dragon with flying produced by Dragonmaster Outcast
• 3/3 Ogre produced by Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 3/3 Elephant produced by Bestial Menace and Terastodon
• 0/1 Plant produced by Avenger of Zendikar and Khalni Garden
• 6/12 Construct artifact creature with Trample produced by Stone Idol Trap

Misprints

• Walking Atlas - The word Artifact is missing from the type line. The card has received errata that it is an Artifact creature.

Mechanics

Wordlwake introduced Multikicker, a variant of Kicker. This variation allowed for the kicker cost to be paid multiple times, with the effect repeated for each time it was paid. Landfall also returned but did not solely mark triggered abilities anymore. Some cards now did additional static effects if a land came into play this turn. Allies, Vampires with their bloodied mechanic, and the equipment theme to the Kor also return, as do Quests and Traps. New traps have new alternative costs; some decrease their costs depending on the magnitude of a certain event.

The set has a cycle of dual man-lands: Lands that can produce one mana of either of two allied colors and can be activated (for one mana of each of those colors and an amount of unspecified mana) to become an Elemental creature until end of turn. These lands come into play tapped.

The set also contains a new Planeswalker card representing Jace Beleren, called Jace, the Mind Sculptor. This is the first planeswalker to have four abilities, rather than the usual three, and also the first Planeswalker to have an ability that requires no loyalty counters to be added or removed to activate it.

The set also contains Eye of Ugin which referred to Eldrazi, the theme of Rise of the Eldrazi the expansion following this set. At the time of the release the function of or what Eldrazi even are was completely unknown and left up to the speculation of the players.

Cycles

Worldwake has seven cycles:

• Allied Beneficiaries: Five creatures that get better if their controller also controls a land of an allied color. — Loam Lion, Sejiri Merfolk, Shoreline Salvager, Slavering Nulls, Summit Apes.
• Enemy color-activated traps: Each of these uncommon Trap spells have alternative costs triggering on an action that an enemy color usually performs, but the color of the card might dabble into on occasion. — Refraction Trap, Permafrost Trap, Nemesis Trap, Ricochet Trap, Slingbow Trap.
• Common Landfall instants: Each of these common instant spells have an increased effect if landfall is achieved. — Rest for the Weary, Mysteries of the Deep, Tomb Hex, Searing Blaze, Groundswell.
• Common Multikicker creatures: Each of these common creatures come with the ability "Multikicker M: This card enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter for each time it was kicked". — Apex Hawks, Enclave Elite, Quag Vampires, Skitter of Lizards, Gnarlid Pack.
• Common Spell lands: Each of these common lands enter the battlefield tapped, taps for a color and has an appropriate enter-the-battlefield ability. — Sejiri Steppe, Halimar Depths, Bojuka Bog, Smoldering Spires, Khalni Garden.
• Tapland Manlands: Five lands that can turn into creatures until end of turn. One rare for each allied color pair, able to produce either color and enters the Battlefield tapped. There is also one outlying uncommon land that turns into an artifact creature and produces colorless mana, Dread Statuary. — Celestial Colonnade, Creeping Tar Pit, Lavaclaw Reaches, Raging Ravine, Stirring Wildwood.
• Zendikon Cycle: A cycle of common Auras that turn lands into creatures and return the land to its owner's hand if it is put into a graveyard (as to not cause card disadvantage). — Guardian Zendikon, Wind Zendikon, Corrupted Zendikon Crusher Zendikon, Vastwood Zendikon.

Matched pair

The set also contains Marsh Threader, who forms a matched pair with Cliff Threader from Zendikar.

Reprinted cards

The following cards were reprinted from previous sets:

• Quicksand, first printed in Visions, was last seen in 10th Edition. It changed rarity from an uncommon to a common.
• Smother was last seen in Onslaught.
• Twitch, first printed in Tempest, was last seen in 10th Edition.

Functional reprints

• Goblin Roughrider is a functional reprint of Goblin Cavaliers from Starter, save for creature type.

Colorshifted

• Loam Lion is a colorshifted version of Kird Ape from Arabian Nights.
• Jagwasp Swarm is a colorshifted version of Snapping Drake from Magic 2010 and Talas Air Ship from Portal Second Age, save for creature type.

Notable cards

• Abyssal Persecutor, notable for being an undercosted creature with an unusual drawback, a reverse of Platinum Angel's ability. While the Persecutor is in play, its controller is unable to win the game, and his or her opponent(s) can't lose.
• Basilisk Collar and Cunning Sparkmage became a Standard-defining combo of two somewhat inconspicuous cards, capable of handling almost any creature.
• Bestial Menace was proposed a couple of times for various sets under the name "Cone of Creatures", referencing Cone of Flame. The idea was scrapped due to confusion of the tokens. The card finally seeing print can be attributed to the advent of creature token cards available in boosters.
• Death's Shadow is the creature with the largest P/T printed on it for CMC 1, pushing Phyrexian Dreadnought off that throne.
• Horizon Drake has the ability "Protection from lands", thus giving Magic a creature with protection for every classic type of permanent. Beloved Chaplain has protection from creatures, a number of creatures with protection from artifacts (Angelic Curator and Yavimaya Scion being the first) and Azorius First-Wing having protection from enchantments. "Protection from Planeswalkers" is yet missing, as is "Protection from sorceries" to complete it for all card types, though Petrified Wood-Kin has protection from instants.
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor, the most powerful planeswalker card ever printed, widely played in various control and aggro-control decks across all formats. He and Stoneforge Mystic were the first cards to be banned in Standard in nearly six years (a few months later he was also banned in Modern, and then in Extended as well).
• Stoneforge Mystic saw large tournament acceptance in multiple formats due to serving as a cheap tutor and capability of being a two-for-one. Due to its power level, this card was eventually banned in Standard, Extended and Modern.
• Tectonic Edge is a card reminiscent of older lands such as Strip Mine and Wasteland which was included in the set as a tournament viable answer to Manlands. It fulfilled that role and then some.
• Wrexial, the Risen Deep was designed by Ken Nagle as a Commander he wanted to play and use to punish people who take extra turns with cards like Time Warp or Time Stretch.

Intro packs

The intro packs are: Template:Intro packs

External links

• Worldwake product information page — Wizards of the Coast
• Ken Nagle (February 26, 2010). "Worldwake: A Video Tour". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.