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. | ” |