Fallen Empires
Template:Expansion Nonblock Fallen Empires is the fifth Magic expansion and was released in 1994. One the most notable cards in the set was Hymn to Tourach, arguably the best discard spell ever printed. Also in this set were the two "pump knights", Order of the Ebon Hand and Order of Leitbur, each of which saw a good deal of play in their time.
Some of the most distinguishing features of this set where the introduction of alternate art, with cards like Hymn to Tourach featuring four different illustrations, its focus on tokens and counters and the numerous Tribal cards in it.
Design & Development
Cycles
Fallen Empires has three cycles:
Artifact Boon cycle: Balm of Restoration, Conch Horn, Implements of Sacrifice, Aeolipile, and Elven Lyre are rare artifacts with a mana cost of 2 and an activated ability that costs "1, T, sacrifice [this]." The effects of each of these artifacts is a weakened version of each of the cards in the Boon cycle from Alpha Edition.
Storage land cycle: Icatian Store, Sand Silos, Bottomless Vault, Dwarven Hold, and Hollow Trees are rare lands illustrated by Pat Morrissey that share the text "[This] comes into play tapped. You may choose not to untap [this] during your untap step. At the beginning of your upkeep, if [this] is tapped, put a storage counter on it. T, remove any number of storage counters from [this]: Add C to your mana pool for each storage counter removed this way."
Sac land cycle: Ruins of Trokair, Svyelunite Temple, Ebon Stronghold, Dwarven Ruins, and Havenwood Battleground are uncommon lands illustrated by Mark Poole that share the text "[This] comes into play tapped. T: Add C to your mana pool. T, sacrifice [this]: Add CC to your mana pool."
Creature Types
Fallen Empires is the first expansion to use a consolidated set of universalcreature types. This also plays into the creature type, or "tribal," theme in this expansion. Of the 14 creature types used in this expansion, only Orgg and Wall appear on just one card.
The following creature types are introduced in this expansion: Fungus, Homarid, Orgg, Soldier, Thrull, and Townsfolk.
The following creature types were used in this expansion but also appeared in previous sets: Avatar, Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Merfolk, Orc, and Wall.