Invasion block

The Invasion block was the sixth block, consisting of the large expansion Invasion (File:Invasion symbol.gif) and the two small expansions Planeshift (File:Planeshift symbol.gif) and Apocalypse (File:Apocalypse.gif).

This block was centered around the idea of multiple colors working in synergy, with an inordinately large amount of gold cards. Many mono-colored cards in the block also played to the multicolor theme, either in bonuses granted by other colors or off-color activation costs. In this way, Invasion was a precursor of the later Ravnica block.

The block introduced the Kicker mechanic.

Themes present throughout the block included multicolor strategy, tribal themes, Domain cards, Gating cards, and Kavu creatures.

Famous cards

• Draco — The tournament-legal artifact with the highest casting cost, this card was powerful in Domain decks but became even more popular when Kaboom! came out.
• Flametongue Kavu — An undercosted 4/2 for that also did 4 damage to target creature when it came into play, this creature quickly became popular in red decks.
• Meddling Mage — A card designed by Chris Pikula, who won the Invitational in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with the purpose of shutting down abusive combo decks.
• Mystic Snake — A popular 2/2 creature with flash that counters a spell when it comes into play.
• Shivan Wurm — An aggressive 7/7 gating creature with Trample for that could easily come out turn 3 or 4.
• Spiritmonger — Another aggressive 6/6 creature for that has Regeneration.

Development codes

On the development codenames for the Invasion block, MTG.com columnist Mark Rosewater writes:

“

Invasion block codenames were cities with Chinese names. I believe this theme was picked by Mike Elliott because it fit our recent hard-to-spell kick. The original choices were actually so complicated that we had to change them.

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