Invasion

For other uses, see Invasion (disambiguation).

Invasion
Set Information
Set symbol
Themes and mechanics	Split cards, Domain, Divvy
Keywords/​ability words	Kicker
Set size	350 (110 Common 110 Uncommon 110 Rare 20 Land)
Expansion code	INV
Development codename	Beijing

Invasion is the twenty-first Magic expansion and was released in October 2000 as the first set in the Invasion block.

Set details

Invasion contains 350 black-bordered cards (110 rare, 110 uncommon, 110 common, and 20 basic lands). Invasion's expansion symbol is the symbol of the coalition, a cooperative effort of Dominarian forces from all five colors banded together to oppose Yawgmoth and the Phyrexians. The designers used parts of the unpublished Spectral Chaos set, that was designed by Barry Reich. The set introduced split cards and saw the return of multicolored "gold" cards, absent since the Stronghold expansion. In fact, its major themes revolved around multicolor decks and strategies. The popularity and appeal of gold cards along with high but balanced power level culminated into making Invasion one of the most popular Magic sets in the game's history. The set featured some legendary cards of the Weatherlight's crew: Captain Sisay and Hanna, Ship's Navigator. It also introduced the kavu. The set was accompanied by the novel of the same name.

In keeping with the focus on multicolored cards, Invasion also introduced the gradient dual-colored land text boxes for lands producing mana of two different colors, such as Coastal Tower and Elfhame Palace, which would be used in all subsequent expansions and editions of Magic.

Storyline

As the hordes of Phyrexia begin pouring into Dominaria, the world looks to Urza, planeswalker and master artificer, for defense against the onslaught. As entire cultures fall under the Phyrexian hell, Urza gathers heroes, renegades, common folk, and powerful artifacts to fight the invasion.

Marketing

Invasion was sold in 75-card tournament decks, 15-card boosters, four preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack. The booster packs featured artwork from Captain Sisay, Dromar, the Banisher and Kavu Titan. At Invasion prerelease events on September 23, 2000, a foil Kavu Furens was handed out as a novelty. This was a Raging Kavu printed with Latin text. The set was accompanied by the novel of the same name.

Tokens

Several tokens for Invasion cards were offered as Magic Player Rewards.

• 1/1 Saproling (for Verdeloth, the Ancient, Rith, the Awakener, Aura Mutation, Artifact Mutation, Saproling Symbiosis, Saproling Infestation)
• 3/3 Elephant(for Battery (Assault/Battery))
• 1/1 Bird with Flying (for Ordered Migration)

Mechanics

Invasion introduced the following mechanics:

• Domain — cards which increase in power depending on the number of different basic lands you have in play.
• Divvy — Phyrexian Portal from Alliances was the inspiration for this mechanic which a player separates a number of cards into two piles and the other player chooses what to do with them.
• Kicker — pay an extra cost for a bonus effect. Invasion's five-colored Coalition Symbol, or at least part of it, is buried in the art of most cards with the kicker ability.

Creature types

The following creature types are introduced in this expansion: Kavu, Plant.

The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: Angel, Assassin, Barbarian, Bird, Cat, Cleric, Crab, Djinn, Dragon, Drake, Dryad, Elemental, Elephant, Elf, Faerie, Giant, Goblin, Golem, Guardian (later changed to Soldier), Griffin, Horror, Knight, Leech, Lord (later changed to Elf), Merfolk, Minion, Mongoose, Rat, Serpent, Shade, Ship (later changed to Metathran), Skeleton, Soldier, Specter, Spider, Treefolk, Troll, Unicorn, Wall, Wizard, Wurm, Zombie.

Cycles

Invasion has 22 cycles:

• Allied-color gold enchantments: Each of these uncommon enchantments has a static or triggered ability and an activated sacrifice effect — Angelic Shield, Seer's Vision, Smoldering Tar, Fires of Yavimaya and Sterling Grove.
• Allied-color split cards: Each of these split cards is made up of two spells, each of which is an allied color to the other — Stand/Deliver, Spite/Malice, Pain/Suffering, Assault/Battery, and Wax/Wane.
• Auras with a return clause: Each of these common enchant creatures includes the following activated ability: "one colored-mana: Return [cardname] to its owner's hand" — Shackles, Shimmering Wings, Mourning, Crown of Flames, Whip Silk.
• Djinn: Each of these uncommon djinn get weaker if their color is the most common or tied for the most common color among all permanents — Ruham Djinn, Zanam Djinn, Goham Djinn, Halam Djinn and Sulam Djinn.
• Emissaries: Representing one of Dominaria's signature locations, each of these uncommon human wizards has a converted mana cost of and an allied-color kicker ability that either destroys one of an opponent's permanents or returns it to its owner's hand — Benalish Emissary, Tolarian Emissary, Urborg Emissary, Shivan Emissary and Verduran Emissary.
• Leeches: Each of these rare leech creatures is aggressively costed but with the drawback that all colored spells of its color that you play cost an additional mana of that color — Alabaster Leech, Sapphire Leech, Andradite Leech, Ruby Leech and Jade Leech.
• Allied-color two-mana 2/2 creatures: Each of these 2/2 common multicolor creatures has two allied colors with converted mana cost and protection from their enemy color — Galina's Knight, Vodalian Zombie, Shivan Zombie, Yavimaya Barbarian and Llanowar Knight. This cycle is sometimes nicknamed the "Invasion bears" after Grizzly Bears, the archetypal 2/2 2-drop.
• Allied-color activated ability creatures: Each of this super cycle of ten common creatures, 2 for each color, has an activated ability of one of the color's allied colors — Rampant Elephant, Glimmering Angel, Tower Drake, Metathran Zombie, Urborg Phantom, Firescreamer, Hooded Kavu, Viashino Grappler, Serpentine Kavu, and Llanowar Cavalry.
• Allied-color plus tapping activated ability creatures: Each of this cycle of uncommon creatures has an activated ability that requires a colored-mana from the next color in the color wheel (White requires , Blue requires , etc.) plus — Benalish Heralds, Vodalian Hypnotist, Trench Wurm, Firebrand Ranger, and Treefolk Healer.
• Instant sorceries: Each of these rare sorceries could be played any time you could play an instant for an extra cost of — Rout, Breaking Wave, Twilight's Call, Ghitu Fire and Saproling Symbiosis.
• Allied kicker costs: Each of these common spells (either instants or sorceries) had a kicker cost requiring a colored-mana from the next color in the color wheel (White requires , Blue requires , etc.) — Dismantling Blow, Probe, Agonizing Demise, Savage Offensive and Vigorous Charge.
• Kicked Creatures: Each of these common creatures had one ability plus it could come into play with extra +1/+1 counters if you paid its colorless kicker cost — Ardent Soldier, Vodalian Serpent, Urborg Skeleton, Kavu Aggressor and Pincer Spider (or Llanowar Elite).
• Color-Kicked Creatures: Each of these (mostly) common creatures could come into play with extra +1/+1 counters plus and color-appropriate ability if you paid its same-color kicker cost — Benalish Lancer (or Prison Barricade), Faerie Squadron, Duskwalker, Pouncing Kavu and the rare Kavu Titan.
• Kicked Spells: Each of these common spells (instants or sorceries) did something traditionally associated with its color and did more of it if you paid its colorless kicker cost — Orim's Touch, Prohibit, Hypnotic Cloud, Overload and Explosive Growth.
• Legendary dragons: Each of these rare 6/6 legendary dragons has converted mana cost that include 3 allied colors, flying, and a triggered ability with a cost of M (M being the middle color of the casting cost) that triggers on dealing combat damage to a player — Treva, the Renewer; Dromar, the Banisher; Crosis, the Purger; Darigaaz, the Igniter and Rith, the Awakener.
• Attendants: Each of these uncommon 3/3 Golem artifact creatures costs and has ", Sacrifice this creature: Add MNO to your mana pool", where M, N, and O are mana of colors that help to cast one of the legendary dragons — Treva's Attendant, Dromar's Attendant, Crosis's Attendant, Darigaaz's Attendant and Rith's Attendant.
• Masters: Each of these rare 2/2 wizard creatures has two powerful activated abilities with allied-color costs — Sunscape Master, Stormscape Master, Nightscape Master, Thunderscape Master and Thornscape Master.
• Apprentices: Each of these common 1/1 wizards has two minor activated abilities with allied-color costs — Sunscape Apprentice, Stormscape Apprentice, Nightscape Apprentice, Thunderscape Apprentice and Thornscape Apprentice.
• Weavers: Each of these uncommon 2/1 wizards creatures has an activated ability that helps creatures of its allied colors — Hate Weaver, Might Weaver, Rage Weaver, Sky Weaver and Spirit Weaver. This cycle was reprinted in 10th Edition.
• Cameos: Each of these uncommon artifacts costs and can be tapped for one mana of any two allied colors — Seashell Cameo, Drake-Skull Cameo, Bloodstone Cameo, Troll-Horn Cameo and Tigereye Cameo.
• Sac lands: Each of these common triple lands comes into play tapped, can be tapped for one mana of a given color, or tapped and sacrificed for one of each of that color's allied colors — Irrigation Ditch, Ancient Spring, Sulfur Vent, Geothermal Crevice and Tinder Farm.
• Taplands: Each of these dual lands comes into play tapped and can be tapped for one mana of any two allied colors — Coastal Tower, Salt Marsh, Elfhame Palace, Urborg Volcano and Shivan Oasis.

Pairs

Invasion has two mirrored pairs.

• Crusading Knight (white) and Marauding Knight (black): Each of these rare 2/2 knight creatures costs MM, has protection from the other's color, and gets +1/+1 for each land of a certain type (Swamps or Plains respectively) your opponents control.
• Absorb (blue/white) and Undermine (blue/black): Each of these rare counterspells costs UUM and has the additional effect of causing a change in 3 life.

Invasion has four parallel pairs.

• Crimson Acolyte and Obsidian Acolyte: Each of these common 1/1 cleric creatures costs , has protection from one of white's enemy colors (Red or Black, respectively), and has an activated ability for that allows it to grant any target creature protection from the same enemy color. Even the flavor text is parallel.
• Phyrexian Slayer and Phyrexian Reaper: Each of these common black creatures has an ability that says whenever this creature is blocked by a creature of one of black's enemy colors (White or Green, respectively), that creature is destroyed and can't be regenerated.
• Artifact Mutation and Aura Mutation: Each of these rare instants sharing a cost destroy an artifact or enchantment (respectively) and then put X Saproling tokens into play equal to the converted mana cost of the destroyed artifact or enchantment. Their flavor texts are by the two maro-sorcerers (Molimo and Multani).
• Canopy Surge and Breath of Darigaaz: These two mana sorceries deal 1 damage to each creature (either with or without flying) and player, or 4 damage if the kicker cost of was paid.

Coalition Victory from Invasion is an example of an alternate-win card.

Reprinted cards

The following 19 cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Invasion.

• Angel of Mercy — was last seen in Starter 1999.
• Blinding Light — was last seen in Starter 1999.
• Crown of Flames — was last seen in Tempest.
• Cursed Flesh — was last seen in Exodus.
• Disrupt — was last seen in Weatherlight.
• Fertile Ground — was last seen in Battle Royale.
• Harrow — was last seen in Tempest.
• Holy Day — was last seen in Legends.
• Lobotomy — was last seen in Tempest.
• Maniacal Rage — was last seen in Battle Royale.
• Phantasmal Terrain — was last seen in 6th Edition.
• Quirion Elves — was last seen in Mirage.
• Ravenous Rats — was last seen in Starter 1999.
• Reckless Spite — was last seen in Tempest.
• Shackles — was last seen in Exodus.
• Simoon — was last seen in Visions.
• Soul Burn — was last seen in Ice Age.
• Stun — was last seen in Tempest.
• Tranquility — was last seen in Battle Royale.

Functional reprints

Invasion has eleven functional reprints:

• Ancient Kavu is a functional reprint of Raging Spirit from Mirage, save for creature type.
• Benalish Trapper is a functional reprint of Master Decoy from Tempest.
• Horned Cheetah is a functional reprint of Zebra Unicorn from Mirage, save for creature type.
• Hunting Kavu is a functional reprint of Giant Trap Door Spider from Ice Age, save for creature type.
• Metathran Transport is a functional reprint of Fylamarid from Tempest, save for creature type.
• Metathran Zombie is a functional reprint of Drowned from The Dark.
• Phyrexian Battleflies is a functional reprint of Pit Imp from Tempest and Vampire Bats from Legends, save for creature type.
• Razorfoot Griffin is a functional reprint of Ekundu Griffin from Mirage.
• Teferi's Care is a functional reprint of Arenson's Aura from Ice Age.
• Urborg Shambler is a functional reprint of Stronghold Taskmaster from Stronghold, save for creature type.
• Vodalian Merchant is a functional reprint of Merfolk Traders from Weatherlight.

Misprint

• The prerelease version of Raging Kavu shows a copyright line of 1993-1999, and is the only Invasion card to have these dates; Invasion was released in late 2000.

Preconstructed decks

Invasion has four theme decks.

Theme deck name	Colors Included
Blowout			B	R
Dismissal		U	B
Heavy Duty	W				G
Spectrum	W	U	B	R	G

External links

• Invasion product information page — Wizards of the Coast