Mega cycle
A mega cycle is a cycle with its member cards distributed across separate sets. When these sets are spread across multiple blocks, this is sometimes referred to as a mega-mega cycle.
List of mega cycles
Three-card mega cycles
One card per set within one block.
| Cycle name | 1st Set | 2nd Set | 3rd Set |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land Kavus | Slimy Kavu (Invasion) | Kavu Recluse (Planeshift) | Tundra Kavu (Apocalypse) |
Each of these Kavu is a red 2/2 creature with a mana cost of   and an activated ability requiring to tap  to change a land's type into another. The first two change the land into the allies of red, while the last one changes it into the color's enemies.
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| Kaldra | Sword of Kaldra (Mirrodin) | Shield of Kaldra (Darksteel) | Helm of Kaldra (Fifth Dawn) |
| Each of these rare legendary Equipment are constituents required to put the legendary Kaldra creature token onto the battlefield. Each of these cards was its set's prerelease promotional card. | |||
| Ezrith destroy | Premature Burial (Time Spiral) | Cradle to Grave (Planar Chaos) | Grave Peril (Future Sight) |
Each of these black cards costs   and destroy a nonblack creature at different points in time. They feature a flavor text of Ezrith, Druid of the Dark Hours.
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Four-card mega cycles
| Cycle name |  
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold counterspells | Absorb (Invasion) (Healing Salve) |
Undermine (Invasion) (Bump in the Night) |
Suffocating Blast (Apocalypse) (Lightning Strike) |
Mystic Snake (Apocalypse) (Grizzly Bears) |
| Each of these multicolored spells has in its casting cost and includes a Counterspell attached to a color appropriate effect.
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| Cycle name |
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| Mutations | Aura Mutation (Invasion) (Enchantments) |
Aether Mutation (Apocalypse) (Creatures - bounce) |
Death Mutation (Apocalypse) (Creatures - destroy) |
Artifact Mutation (Invasion) (Artifacts) |
| Each of these multicolored spells has in its casting cost, destroys or disrupts resources, and creates a number of 1/1 Saproling creature tokens equal to the resource's converted mana cost.
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Five-card mega cycles
Guild mega cycles
Ravnica's design is based upon the use of all ten two-color combinations in the forms of guild, and its popularity has resulted in multiple set revisits. As such, mega cycles are prevalent, even after the shift to leave small sets and yearly blocks behind.
List of mega-mega cycles
A mega-mega cycle (a.k.a Supercycle)[2] is a cycle with its member cards distributed across separate sets; unlike a mega cycle, however, these sets are not all within a single block but are from multiple blocks.[3]
Two-card mega-mega cycles
| Mirrored pair | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Platinum Angel (Mirrodin) | Abyssal Persecutor (Worldwake) | An angel that makes impossible for you to lose the game and your opponents to win and a demon that do the opposite. |
| Chief Engineer (Magic 2015) | Inspiring Statuary (Aether Revolt) | A creature that grants Convoke to artifacts and an artifact that grants Improvise to nonartifacts . |
| Druid of the Anima (Shards of Alara) | Urborg Elf (Apocalypse) | Two 1/1 green Elf Druids with mana cost . One taps for or one of its ally colors and the other for or one of its enemy colors.
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| Noble Hierarch (Conflux) | Ignoble Hierarch (Modern Horizons 2) | Two 0/1 green creatures with mana cost and Exalted. One taps for or one of its adjacent clockwise colors (Bant) and the other for or one of its adjacent counterclockwise colors (Jund).
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| Rattleclaw Mystic (Khans of Tarkir) | Two 2/1 green creatures with mana cost and Morph. One taps for , or (Temur) and the other for , or (Abzan).
| |
Three-card mega-mega cycles
| Cycle name | Common | Uncommon | Rare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delver evolution | Delver of Secrets (Innistrad) | Aberrant Researcher (Shadows over Innistrad) | Docent of Perfection (Eldritch Moon) |
| Each of these double-faced cards depicts further descent into madness of a single unknown researcher. The type line, power, and toughness of each card's front face is identical to that of the previous card's back face. | |||
| Cycle name |
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| Mana/Draw rocks | Mind Stone (Weatherlight) | Hedron Archive (Battle for Zendikar) | Dreamstone Hedron (Rise of the Eldrazi) |
| Each of these Artifacts with 2X mana cost can be tapped for X colorless mana, or draw X cards by paying X mana and sacrificing them. | |||
Four-card mega-mega cycles
| Cycle name |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold counterspells | Absorb (Invasion) Render Silent (Dragon's Maze) |
Undermine (Invasion) | Double Negative (Alara Reborn) Counterflux (Return to Ravnica) |
Voidslime (Dissension) |
| Each of these rare instants costs plus one mana of another color. The cycle was originally "completed" with Alara Reborn, but Return to Ravnica block added two others. Each of these cards is a counterspell with an added bonus or increased flexibility.
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| Cycle name | vs
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vs
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vs
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vs
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| Paladins | Northern Paladin (Alpha) | Southern Paladin (Weatherlight) | Eastern Paladin (Urza's Saga) | Western Paladin (Urza's Saga) |
| Each of these paladins is a 3/3 black or white knight creature with a converted mana cost of 2MM. The black paladins can tap for to destroy a creature of one specific color; the white paladins can destroy any permanent of one specific color for and tapping instead. All of them were reprinted in Seventh Edition, in which there is a story of a war among the paladins narrated through the flavor text of cards from the set.
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Five-card mega-mega cycles
| Cycle name |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legendary lands | Kor Haven (Nemesis) | Teferi's Isle (Mirage) | Volrath's Stronghold (Stronghold) | Keldon Necropolis (Invasion) | Yavimaya Hollow (Urza's Destiny) |
| The "original" Mega-Mega cycle. Each of these rare legendary lands has at least two abilities, one of which is a mana ability. These lands represent notable locations from the Weatherlight Saga of the Magic storyline. | |||||
| Legendary lands II | Kor Haven (Nemesis) | Academy Ruins (Time Spiral) | Volrath's Stronghold (Stronghold) | Kher Keep (Time Spiral) | |
A revision of the "original" Mega-Mega cycle for aesthetic reasons.[2] Each of these rare legendary lands taps for  and has a 1M activated ability.
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| Topdeck lands | Hall of Heliod's Generosity (Modern Horizons) | Academy Ruins (Time Spiral) | Volrath's Stronghold (Stronghold) | ||
| Each of these legendary lands tap for colorless and feature a colored ability to place a certain type of card in your graveyard on top of your library. | |||||
| Atogs | Auratog (Tempest) | Chronatog (Visions) | Necratog (Weatherlight) | Atog (Antiquities) | Foratog (Mirage) |
| Each of these 1/2 Atog creatures, all but Atog itself being inspired by Atog, "ate" a resource to "grow"; each Atog has an activated ability costing a resource or commodity for an increase in its power and toughness until end of turn. Also includes the five colour Atogatog (Odyssey), which eats other Atogs. | |||||
| +1/+1 Lords | Soldiers | Merfolks | Zombies | Goblins | Elves |
| Field Marshal (Coldsnap) Captain of the Watch (Magic 2010) |
Lord of Atlantis (Alpha) Merfolk Sovereign (Magic 2010) |
Lord of the Undead (Planeshift) Death Baron (Shards of Alara) Cemetery Reaper (Magic 2010) |
Goblin King (Alpha) Goblin Chieftain (Magic 2010) |
Elvish Champion (Invasion) Elvish Archdruid (Magic 2010) | |
| Each of these rare confers other creatures of a characteristic creature subtype associated with that card's color and relevant to its name +1/+1 and, more often than not, an additional ability. The original three from Limited Edition Alpha, Lord of Atlantis, Zombie Master (not listed, gives no stat bonus), and Goblin King were printed with the Lord creature subtype, but this creature subtype was removed following the Grand Creature Type Update. Following a shift in focus on, and the success of, "creature subtypes matter", or "tribal", various iterations of Lords have been printed. | |||||
| Protection angels | Voice of Truth (Nemesis) | Voice of Reason (Urza's Destiny) | Voice of Grace (Urza's Saga) | Voice of Law (Urza's Saga) | Voice of Duty (Urza's Destiny) |
| Each of these uncommon 2/2 white Angel creatures costing with flying and protection from a specific color. The flavor text of each of these cards are from the "Song of All", a fictitious sacred text from the Serra religion. Voice of All, an uncommon Angel costing with flying and protection from a color chosen as it enters the battlefield, was released in Planeshift, as an homage to the mega-mega cycle.
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| Tutors | Enlightened Tutor (Mirage) | Mystical Tutor (Mirage) | Vampiric Tutor (Visions) | Gamble (Urza's Saga) | Worldly Tutor (Mirage) |
| Each of these rares allows its controller to search his or her library for a card, albeit with certain conditions. The joke card Goblin Tutor from Unglued pays homage to this mega-mega cycle. | |||||
| Towers[4] | Tower of Eons (Mirrodin) | Tower of Fortunes (Mirrodin) | Tower of Murmurs (Mirrodin) | Tower of Calamities (Scars of Mirrodin) | Tower of Champions (Mirrodin) |
Each of these rare noncreature artifacts costing  has an activated ability costing  and . Tower of Calamities was introduced in Scars of Mirrodin after Design and Development realized that players associated, or might associate, the released four Towers' effects with a color each, and its amount of damage was decided by extrapolating the established pattern of an effect increasing by two.[5]
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| Elementary forces | Celestial Force (Commander) | Tidal Force (Commander 2013) | Baleful Force (Commander 2013) | Magmatic Force (Commander) | Verdant Force (Tempest) |
| Each of these rare Elemental creatures has a mana cost of 5MMM, a power/toughness of 7/7 and an ability that triggers each upkeep. | |||||
| Oaths of the Gatewatch | Oath of Gideon (Oath of the Gatewatch) | Oath of Jace (Oath of the Gatewatch) | Oath of Liliana (Eldritch Moon) | Oath of Chandra (Oath of the Gatewatch) | Oath of Nissa (Oath of the Gatewatch) |
| Each of these rare legendary enchantments has an enter the battlefield effect and second effect with some kind of Planeswalker interaction. | |||||
| Morphlings[6] | Brightling (Battlebond) | Morphling (Urza's Saga) | Endling (Modern Horizons) | Torchling (Planar Chaos) | Thornling (Conflux) |
| Creatures that have three colored activated abilities as well as the ability ": ~ gets +1/-1 or -1/+1 until end of turn." Each one has mana cost of MM and some amount of generic mana. (Aetherling is not considered part of the cycle and only has 2 colored abilities.)
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| Sorcery magi | Magus of the Balance (Commander 2018) | Magus of the Mind (Commander 2017) | Magus of the Will (Commander 2016) | Magus of the Wheel (Commander 2015) | Magus of the Order (Commander Legends) |
| Each of these rare wizards have a converted mana cost and activated ability reminiscent of a powerful and iconic sorcery from Magic's past.[7] | |||||
| "Cones" | Incremental Blight (Shadowmoor) Gruesome Menagerie (Guilds of Ravnica) |
Cone of Flame (Weatherlight) | Incremental Growth (Lorwyn) Bestial Menace (Worldwake) | ||
| Each of these sorceries have a converted mana cost of 3MM and a repeated effect that does one, two, and three of an action.[8] | |||||
| Innistrad angels | Avacyn, Angel of Hope (Avacyn Restored) | Bruna, Light of Alabaster (Avacyn Restored) | Liesa, Shroud of Dusk (Commander Legends) | Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (Avacyn Restored) | Sigarda, Host of Herons (Avacyn Restored) |
| Innistrad Legendary Angels, each of them has plus one mana of another color in their mana cost.
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| Young spellcasters | Young Necromancer (Modern Horizons 2) | Young Pyromancer (Magic 2014) | |||
| Each of these uncommon young Spellcasters is imitating a famous planeswalker of same race and same class. | |||||
| Cycle name | East | North | Center | South | West |
| Kodamas | Kodama of the East Tree (Commander Legends) | Kodama of the North Tree (Champions of Kamigawa) | Kodama of the Center Tree (Betrayers of Kamigawa) | Kodama of the South Tree (Champions of Kamigawa) | |
| The Kodamas are a group of 5 legendary Spirits from Kamigawa. This cycle will be completed in future sets.[2]
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| Omnath | Omnath, Locus of Mana (Worldwake) | Omnath, Locus of Rage (Battle for Zendikar) | Omnath, Locus of the Roil (Core Set 2020) | Omnath, Locus of Creation (Zendikar Rising) | |
| Omnath's Evolution. This cycle will be completed in future sets and there is a possibility of a version to be included.[2]
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Six-card mega-mega cycles
| Cycle name | or less
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 or greater
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| Mages[2] | Trinket Mage (Fifth Dawn) | Tribute Mage (Modern Horizons) | Trophy Mage (Aether Revolt) | Treasure Mage (Mirrodin Besieged) | |||||
| Each of these mages is a 2/2 blue Human wizard and has as casting cost. When any of them enters the battlefield, its controller can search in their library for an artifact card with specific converted mana cost. This cycle will be completed in future sets.[2][9]
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| Spellshaped | Goldmeadow Harrier (Lorwyn) | Cloud Sprite (Mercadian Masques) | Festering Goblin (Onslaught) | Spark Elemental (Fifth Dawn) | Llanowar Elves (Alpha) | Metallic Sliver (Tempest) | |||
| Sliversmith | |||||||||
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| Elder dragons | Arcades Sabboth | Chromium | Nicol Bolas | Vaevictis Asmadi | Palladia-Mors | Piru, the Volatile | |||
| Six rare three colored Elder Dragons. Each of these legendary Dragons has a mana cost of MMNNOO, flying, an upkeep cost of MNO, and power/toughness of 7/7. This cycle started with the shard colors in legends and introduced sixth with release of Modern Horizons 2.
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Double mega-mega cycles
Many land cycles are double mega-mega cycles which started in one set and were completed in another.
See also
References
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (May, 2002). "Ask Wizards - May 2002". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b c d e f g The Secret Supercycles of Magic (Video). Good Morning Magic. YouTube (June 18, 2021).
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (March 1, 2002). "Mega-Mega Cycle". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Monty Ashley (September 22, 2010). "The Fifth Tower". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 3, 2011). "That's Going to Leave Scars, Part 3". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Gavin Verhey (May 28, 2019). "Magic's Past, Present, and Future". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Gavin Verhey (August 17, 2017). "Tales from Designing Commander (2017 Edition)". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 8, 2018). "Even More Stories from the City". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (July 27, 2020). "On the Double". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (August 13, 2007). "Spellshaped into Tenth". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 10, 2020). "Back to the Future Sight, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Monty Ashley (January 24, 2011). "A History of Swords". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.