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.
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. | ” |