Mirrodin is the name of Magic: The Gathering expansion set. It came out in October 2003 and contains 306 cards. It is also the name of the block containing Mirrodin, Darksteel and Fifth Dawn expansion sets. The set's and the block's main theme are artifacts. One particular defining aspect of this set is the percentage of artifact cards is much higher than in preceding Onslaught and Odyssey blocks. Mirrodin 's expansion symbol is a small image of Sword of Kaldra, a card from this set.

The world of Mirrodin

The place where the action occurs is also called Mirrodin. It is the world made by planeswalker Karn and it consists mostly of metal. It is mostly populated by metallic artifact creatures, but there are small tribes of organic lifeforms. Mirrodin is orbited by four suns (which are also called moons) of the four colours: red, black, white and blue (green notably absent). The major places of Mirrodin are:

• Oxidda Chain, populated by goblins and the Vulshok tribe.
• The Tangle - dense jungle, populated by elves, the human Sylvok tribe and horrible beasts.
• The Mephidross - a dreadful swamp, a home of Nim and the Moriok.
• Quicksilver Sea - as the name implies, it is the sea of quicksilver, and it is populated by Vedalken, and the Neurok tribe.
• The Razor Fields - the plains, overgrown with sharp metallic grass - this region is where Leonin, the Auriok tribe and Loxodon live.

The main character of the story is the elf Glissa Sunseeker, who visits all these places, guided by curiosity about the surrounding world. The story is captured in the novel Moons of Mirrodin by Will McDermott .

Set history

Mirrodin is notable for being the first expansion set to feature the new card front design (which debuted in 8th Edition ). Ironically, the high number of artifacts in Mirrodin highlighted the inherent flaw of the new design - white and artifact cards were very hard to distinguish from each other. The problem forced Wizards to change the color of artifact cards to dark grey in Fifth Dawn.

Mechanics

Below is the list of mechanics introduced by Mirrodin:

• Affinity for artifacts - this keyword reduces the total cost of the spell by the number of artifacts in play under your control. This mechanic was extremely powerful and "Affinity" decks quickly monopolised Magic: The Gathering tournaments (see below).
• Artifact lands - while artifact creatures were not a new story, Mirrodin introduced artifact lands. These were the great helpers to the previous mechanic, increasing the artifact count while still being considered lands.
• Imprint - the keyword allowed to "imprint" some card on the artifact (removing that card from the game). That artifact's effect depends on the card imprinted (for example you can imprint a creature on Soul Foundry and then activate it to reproduce copies of that creature).
• Entwine - An ability on modal spells that could do one or another effect, by paying the Entwine cost, that caster got both effects.
• Equipment - new artifact subtype denotes things that could be wielded or worn by creatures.

Notable Cards and Tournament Impact

The major deck based on Mirrodin cards is "Affinity". These are the key cards of Affinity:

• The aforementioned "artifact lands". Some deckbuilders went as far as replacing all the basic lands in the deck for affinity-friendly ones. They were banned from Standard tournaments on March 1, 2005.
• Creatures: Frogmite (2/2 for 4 mana), Myr Enforcer (4/4 for 7 mana) and Broodstar (flying with variable power and toughness for 8 colorless and 2 blue mana) all had affinity for artifacts, allowing to play them almost for free. With Darksteel coming out Broodstar fell out of favor, being replaced by Arcbound Ravager.
• Chrome Mox a tuned down remake of the old Alpha Moxes it was still very strong in this deck, being a cheap artifact and mana producer.
• Thirst For Knowledge - a card-drawing spell, providing more cards to be played - very important because Affinity decks play everything for cheap and run out of cards quickly.
• Shrapnel Blast, used in some versions of affinity, deals 5 damage to any target (that's 1/4 of the opponent's life total) for just 2 mana and a loss of artifact.
• Disciple of the Vault - a creature that caused its controller's opponent to lose life whenever an artifact was put into a graveyard. It was banned from Stnadard tournaments on March 1, 2005.

Other interesting cards include:

• Sword of Kaldra is one part of the equipment of the legendary warrior Kaldra (two other are released in the next two sets, Darksteel and Fifth Dawn). The small depiction of that sword is Mirrodin 's expansion symbol. That card was given out on the prerelease event of Mirrodin.
• Mindslaver is the only tournament-legal Magic card that allows you to control your opponent's actions during his turn. The card was initially considered so strange that it was intended on being made for an Unglued sequel. When the sequel was cancelled, the card ended up in this set.
• Solemn Simulacrum was designed by Magic Invitational winner Jens Thoren , who is also depicted on the artwork of the card as an iron golem.

External Links

• http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/expansion/mirrodin - Official Mirrodin Page