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.

Keywords introduced in this block: Kicker.

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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