Alliances

Alliances is the eighth Magic expansion and was released in 1996 as the second set in the Ice Age block. This set contains no new keywords, but it introduces the popular Alternate Casting Cost mechanic, popularly referred to as "Pitch cards", that allowed you to discard cards of specific colors (sometimes with an additional life payment) to play spells instead of paying mana. The most notable of these cards was Force of Will, and the mechanic has reappeared in the Masques block, the Betrayers of Kamigawa expansion and the Coldsnap expansion. Only Alliances and the Chronicles) set were sold in packs of 12 cards. It was also the last expansion to feature regular multiple artworks on cards, a practice that was discontinued to ease identification of cards by their artwork. This was particularly important, as Magic was beginning to see print in languages other than English.