The Dark

Template:Expansion Nonblock The Dark is the fourth Magic expansion and was released in 1994. It was sold in eight-card packs. It includes a goblin tribal theme and powerful abilities with intense colored mana and upkeep costs.

Cycles

The Dark has no cycles.

Creature Types

The Dark is the first expansion to explore a "tribe," or a specific creature type. It contains six goblins, a card named "Goblin Rock Sled," two creatures with abilities that reference goblins, two Auras that can give a bonus to goblins, and a sorcery to destroy all goblins. Despite this creature-type theme, most of the rest of the set used unusual, creature-specific creature types like other early expansions.

The following creature types were introduced in this expansion: Ball Lightning, Bandit, Banshee, Brother, Cave People, Eater, Eel, Exorcist, Fallen, General, Hunter, Leech, Lurker, Miracle Worker, Mob, Murk Dwellers, Nameless Race, Niall Silvain, People of the Woods, Pikemen, Preacher, Rag Man (later changed to Minion), Robber, Rock Sled, Scavenger Folk (later changed to just Scavenger), Shark, Sister, Squire, Tracker, Uncle Istvan, Viper, and Whippoorwill.

The following creature types were used in this expansion but also appeared in previous sets: Drake, Elf, Goblin, Hag, Imp, Knight, Leviathan, Merfolk, Monster, Rat, Ship, Slug, Treefolk, Wall, Wizard, Wurm and Zombie.

Points of Interest

Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust not only have linked names, they also have similar costs and effects.

Ball Lightning inspired many hasty disposable creatures, including Blistering Firecat, Spark Elemental and Lightning Serpent. Before receiving errata, Ball Lightning only had to be sacrificed "at the end of the turn during which it was summoned" instead of at the end of any turn, allowing some loopholes around its intended impermanence. The Ball Lightning art can also be found in the art of Dwarven Shrine.

City of Shadows inspired the creation of Altar of Shadows.

Coal Golem has an ability that allows any deck to cast Ball Lightning. It inspired the creation of the Attendant cycle in the Invasion expansion, each of which has a similar ability that aallows any deck to cast one of the corresponding Legendary Dragons from the Legendary Dragon cycle in the same set.

Dark Heart of the Wood is the first multicolor non-creature card.

Frankenstein's Monster is one of only a few cards named after a literary source. It is also the only card that stipulates three different types of counters that can be put on it, something that is avoided today.