Rise of the Eldrazi

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Rise of the Eldrazi
hedron opened
Released	April 23, 2010
Size	248 cards (228 cards plus 20 lands) (15 mythic rares, 53 rares, 60 uncommons, 100 commons) [1]
Keywords	Annihilator[2], Totem Armor, Rebound
Mechanics	Colourless Creatures, Annihilator, Totem Armor, Rebound, Level Up
Designers	Brian Tinsman (lead), Aaron Forsythe, Graeme Hopkins, Gregory Marques, Bill McQuillian, Devin Low[3]
Developers	Matt Place (lead), Mark Globus, Erik Lauer, Gregory Marques, Mark Rosewater[3]
Dev. code	Prosper[3]
Exp. code	ROE
	v t e
Third set in the Zendikar block
Zendikar Worldwake Rise of the Eldrazi

Rise of the Eldrazi is a Magic: The Gathering expansion released on April 23, 2010. It is the third set of the Zendikar block. It is a large set consisting of 228 cards plus 20 basic lands.^[1] Its tagline is "And Carnage Shall Follow."^[3] The set, while part of the Zendikar block creatively and for the sake of constructed tournament rules, is unique mechanically and is designed to be drafted on its own.^[1] Drafts in the Zendikar block are either ZEN-ZEN-WWK or ROE-ROE-ROE.^[3]

On 13 April, 2010 all the 248 cards were revealed to the public, unusually early.^[4]

Storyline

The set's storyline revolves around the awakening of the eponymous Eldrazi: ancient, powerful beings who travel the multiverse and gain sustenance by consuming entire planes for mana. Their home realm is the "Blind Eternities," a space between planes where they transcended the colors of mana as known to the planeswalkers of the Multiverse. Many ages ago they were trapped in Zendikar, but the events of the Worldwake set accidentally released them. Now altruistic planeswalkers must team up with the denizens of Zendikar to stop them. According to Mark Rosewater, the concept of the Eldrazi is inspired by both the Cthulhu mythos and the Marvel Comics character Galactus.^[5] After following Chandra to Zendikar, Gideon Jura found the plane besieged by the awakened Eldrazi. Abandoning his mission to find Chandra, Gideon fights the powerful Eldrazi to protect the inhabitants of Zendikar.

Theme

Rise of the Eldrazi is themed around "battlecruiser magic": slow games in which players gradually accumulate resources until they can win with enormous creatures.^[6] The most prominent of these "battlecruisers" are the Eldrazi, all of whom are colorless because they (in game-universe terms) have transcended the colors of mana.^[7] The smallest Eldrazi creature is Hand of Emrakul, a common 7/7 for 9 mana; the largest is Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, a mythic rare 15/15 for 15 mana. To help get these enormous creatures into play quickly, the set features many alternate sources of mana (particularly the "Eldrazi spawn," which can be sacrificed for colorless mana) and a dearth of cheap creature removal. The set features new cards called levelers which gain new abilities when you level them up by paying mana.

Mechanics

Below is the list of mechanics introduced by Rise of the Eldrazi:

• Level Up - Creatures with the new level up keyword can become larger or acquire new abilities for a small investment of mana. The number of level counters on a creature tells you its current level, and its current level tells you its power, toughness, and extra abilities. Leveling a creature up can only be played as a sorcery.
• Rebound - Spells with Rebound are exiled after being cast, and can be cast again during your next upkeep for free. After the rebound has triggered, the spell enters the graveyard as normal.
• Totem Armor - Totem Armor is a mechanic only for Aura Enchantments. If the enchanted creature were to be destroyed (by lethal damage or effects saying Destroy), the enchantment would go to the graveyard instead of the creature. Only White, Green and Blue Auras utilize the Totem Armor mechanic.
• Annihilator - Annihilator is a mechanic only for the Eldrazi. When a creature with Annihilator attacks, defending player sacrifices that many permanents as written after the Annihilator-keyword. (For example, a creature with Annihilator 3 forces the defending player to sacrifice three permanents.)

Furthermore, Rise of the Eldrazi utilizes the Defender subtheme far more than seen previously.

References

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