Worldwake

Worldwake

 

Intro packs

 

Worldwake
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Worldwake logo.jpg}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	a Hedron opening-up
Design	Ken Nagle (lead) Kelly Digges Mark Globus Matt Place Mark Rosewater
Development	Mike Turian (lead) Mark Globus Tom LaPille Erik Lauer Scott Johns Mons Johnson
Art direction	Jeremy Jarvis
Release date	February 5, 2010
Plane	Zendikar
Themes and mechanics	Manlands, Quests, Traps
Keywords/​ability words	Landfall, Multikicker
Set size	145 (60 commons, 40 uncommons, 35 rares, 10 mythic rares)
Expansion code	WWK
Development codename	Long
Zendikar block
Zendikar Worldwake Rise of the Eldrazi
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Premium Deck Series: Slivers Worldwake Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. The Coalition

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 on March 6, 2010.

Set details

Worldwake contains 145 black-bordered cards (10 mythic rares, 35 rares, 40 uncommons, 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 a hedron, opening up.

Storyline

“

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.

Story Comic

Title	Author	Release Date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Awakenings, Part 1	Brady Dommermuth	2010-04-08	Zendikar	Jace Beleren, Anowon
Awakenings, Part 2	Brady Dommermuth	2010-04-15	Zendikar	Chandra Nalaar, Jace Beleren, Sarkhan Vol, Anowon
Awakenings, Part 3	Brady Dommermuth	2010-04-22	Zendikar	Chandra Nalaar, Jace Beleren, Sarkhan Vol, Anowon

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 creature Ally produced by Join the Ranks
• 5/5 Dragon creature with flying produced by Dragonmaster Outcast
• 3/3 Ogre creature produced by Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 3/3 Elephant creature produced by Bestial Menace and Terastodon
• 0/1 Plant creature 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 an errata that it is an Artifact creature.

Mechanics

"When Lands Attack" was a major theme of Worldwake. The set has a cycle of dual manlands: 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 contained a cycle of Zendikons, auras that turn lands into creatures.

Worldwake 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 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 the Eldrazi even are was completely unknown and left up to the speculation of the players.

Cycles

Worldwake has seven cycles:

Cycle name
Common Landfall instants	Rest for the Weary	Mysteries of the Deep	Tomb Hex	Searing Blaze	Groundswell
	Each of these common instant spells has an increased effect if landfall is achieved.
Common Multikicker creatures	Apex Hawks	Enclave Elite	Quag Vampires	Skitter of Lizards	Gnarlid Pack
	Each of these common creatures comes with the ability "Multikicker M: This card enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter for each time it was kicked".
Common Spell lands	Sejiri Steppe	Halimar Depths	Bojuka Bog	Smoldering Spires	Khalni Garden
	Each of these common lands enters the battlefield tapped, taps for color, and has an appropriate enter-the-battlefield ability.
Zendikon Cycle	Guardian Zendikon	Wind Zendikon	Corrupted Zendikon	Crusher Zendikon	Vastwood Zendikon
	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 (to not cause card disadvantage).
Allied Beneficiaries	Loam Lion (Forest)	Sejiri Merfolk (Plains)	Shoreline Salvager (Island)	Slavering Nulls (Swamp)	Summit Apes (Mountain)
	Five creatures that get better if their controller also controls a land of an allied color.
Cycle name
Tapland Manlands	Celestial Colonnade	Creeping Tar Pit	Lavaclaw Reaches	Raging Ravine	Stirring Wildwood
	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.
Cycle name
Enemy color-activated traps	Nemesis Trap	Ricochet Trap	Slingbow Trap	Refraction Trap	Permafrost Trap
	Each of these uncommon Trap spells has alternative costs triggering on an action that an enemy color usually performs, but the color of the card might dabble into on occasion.

Mega Cycles

Cycle name
Planeswalkers	Gideon Jura (Rise of the Eldrazi)	Jace, the Mind Sculptor (Worldwake)	Sorin Markov (Zendikar)	Chandra Ablaze (Zendikar)	Nissa Revane (Zendikar)
	Five monocolored planeswalkers, each with their part of the Zendikar storyline. Worldwake added the fourth card of the cycle Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Pairs

Worldwake has one mega matched pair with previous set Zendikar.

Matched Pairs		Description
Marsh Threader (Worldwake) ()	Cliff Threader (Zendikar) ()	2/1 Kor Scouts with Landwalk.

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 their opponent(s) can't lose.
• Arbor Elf is a unique mana dork that has to untap a land. While often worse than directly tapping for mana, it can be combined with nonbasic lands with the forest type such as Shock lands to provide mana fixing and can produce a substantial amount of mana very early in the game when combined with enchantments like Utopia Sprawl
• Avenger of Zendikar was a key finished in Standard ramp decks and is now one of the most iconic creatures in the Commander format
• Amulet of Vigor is the crux of decks featuring Primeval Titan and Bounce lands, the deck that got Summer Bloom banned. While powerful and still legal as a deck, it has a reputation for high piloting difficulty.
• 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.
• Bojuka Bog sees play in Modern, Legacy, and Pauper as effective graveyard hate for decks that can easily tutor for lands
• Death's Shadow is the creature with the largest P/T printed on it for CMC 1, pushing Phyrexian Dreadnought off that throne. The creature became a strong threat in Modern, but strangely it took until 2017 for this to be known, despite all the necessary pieces having been printed for years.
• Dispel is a cheap but restrictive counterspell that sees heavy play in sideboards in nearly every format to combat opposing countermagic and removal.
• Explore is a powerful ramp card that saw play in Standard ramp decks and continues to see play in ramp decks like Amulet Titan in modern
• Horizon Drake has the ability "Protection from lands", thus giving Magic a creature with protection for every type of classic permanent. Beloved Chaplain has protection from creatures, several creatures have protection from artifacts (Angelic Curator and Yavimaya Scion being the first), Azorius First-Wing having protection from enchantments, and finally Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer from the Dominaria United Commander set has protection from Planeswalkers. "Protection from sorceries" is the only card type missing, though Devoted Caretaker has the closest thing to granting protection from instants and sorceries.
• Kor Firewalker has been a heavily played sideboard card against aggressive red decks for most of Modern's history.
• Nature's Claim is one of the most heavily played sideboard answers to artifacts and enchantments in nearly every format where it is legal, as it costs only a single mana and has a minor downside.
• Searing Blaze serves as an efficient spell for Burn decks in Modern and Pauper that can both deal direct damage and remove opposing creatures.
• 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. However, the empowering of Tron as a deck rendered Tectonic Edge ineffectual.
• Treasure Hunt is a card with a unique design that can easily draw a player their entire deck or close to it for only two mana if they choose to play few nonland cards
• 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.

Banned and restricted cards

• Jace, the Mind Sculptor was once 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 in August 2011, and then in Extended in September 2011 as well). In 2018 he was unbanned to a much faster Modern, where he still sees minor play. His reputation as the best planeswalker has since been challenged by Oko, Thief of Crowns and Wrenn and Six, and completes with Teferi, Hero of Dominaria as a control closer.
• Stoneforge Mystic saw large tournament acceptance in multiple formats due to serving as a cheap tutor and the capability of being a two-for-one. Due to its power level, this card was eventually banned in Standard, Extended, and Modern in 2011. It was later unbanned in August 2019 to not much fanfare, but the printing of Urza's Saga made it a key card in Colossus Hammer decks.
• Eye of Ugin was a foreshadowing story piece that mentioned Eldrazi, a type yet released until the next set. While it had fringe play rates in Tron decks as a mana sink, not tapping for mana otherwise was a liability. After the next Zendikar block, Eldrazi were no longer merely seven-mana-and-over haymakers and had multiple low-curve, high-impact creatures, and with Eldrazi Temple it had eight double-mana lands. It hence was banned in April 2016, shortly after its breakout performance in Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch.
• Lodestone Golem is a taxing artifact creature that joins the various taxing effects that make up the Mishra's Workshop deck in Vintage; being an impactful creature castable off Workshop made it one of the stronger lock pieces and was restricted in April 2016.
• Hada Freeblade is among a few cards that were technically banned in Pauper on Magic Online due to being available in the format on a technicality, having been only printed at common as a promotional card.

Intro packs

The intro packs are:

Intro pack name	Colors Included					Foil rare
Fangs of the Bloodchief			B			Butcher of Malakir
Flyover	W	U				Archon of Redemption
Brute Force				R	G	Wolfbriar Elemental
Rapid Fire	W			R		Mordant Dragon
Mysterious Realms		U			G	Goliath Sphinx

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.