Alara Reborn
Alara Reborn is the third set in the Alara block and is the forty-ninth Magic expansion. Prerelease events took place on April 25–26, 2009, launch parties on April 30-May 3, 2009. The set went on sale on April 30, 2009, which was a day earlier than anticipated due to the May Day (May 1) holiday.
Set details
Alara Reborn contains 145 black-bordered cards (60 commons, 40 uncommons, 35 rares, 10 mythic rares). It is the first and so far only set in the history of Magic that consists entirely of multicolored cards (much like Legions consisting entirely of creatures). As such the numbering of the cards is vastly different. Usually, a set has all single-colored cards alphabetically sorted and grouped together and in 
order followed by multicolored cards in alphabetical order followed by colorless artifacts, followed by non-basic lands, followed by basic lands.
There are no lands or colorless artifacts in the set. The all-multicolor gimmick was revealed when Wizards of the Coast showed off a textless Ardent Plea with collector number #1. So far this is the latest Standard-legal expansion release which doesn't include any planeswalker cards, with Iconic Masters being the latest overall. The expansion symbol of the set is a representation of the five converged shards.
In Alara Reborn instead, cards are ordered alphabetically and grouped by their multicolored mana cost as such:
Flavor
The violent plans orchestrated by Nicol Bolas have reached their cataclysmic zenith, as the five shards of Alara are now merged, with untold power and unspeakable chaos at every turn. In this unpredictable environment, where mythic beings can greatly affect the outcome, mere survival isn't enough. To live another day, one must battle with unflinching intensity to rise above the madness and master this now grotesquely unified plane. Amidst this overwhelming carnage, can Alara truly said to be reborn?
Storyline sources
Story Comics
Honor Bound is a webcomic about Elspeth on Bant and how the effects of the Conflux can be seen as the evil from Grixis leaks in. It was published in three parts in April and May 2009.
Savor the Flavor
Marketing
Alara Reborn was sold in 16-card boosters, 6-card boosters, five intro packs, and a fat pack. The promotional card for the prerelease was Dragon Broodmother, which makes multicolored tokens; whilst the launch party card was Knight of New Alara, which makes multicolored creatures more powerful.
The 16-card boosters featured artwork from Slave of Bolas, Vedalken Heretic, and Knotvine Paladin, the small booster featured artwork from the fat pack packaging. An all-foil booster pack containing cards from Alara Reborn and the other two sets of the block was released on January 8, 2010. This featured artwork from Slave of Bolas.
Regular boosters of Alara Reborn come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a "tips & tricks card" or a creature token from Alara Reborn. One face of the Alara Reborn bonus card has one of three different rules tips or is one of four different creature tokens. The other face has one of 13 advertisements for organized play programs, Alara Reborn, Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Live, Magic Online, fat packs, A Planeswalker's Guide to Alara and Ultra Pro products for Magic.
Tips & Tricks
The tips & tricks cards are
- "Rules Tip: Hybrid mana Symbols"
- "Rules Tip: Cascade"
- "Theme: The Gold Standard".
Tokens
The Alara Reborn tokens are:
1/1 Bird Soldier with flying produced by Flurry of Wings- 1/1 Dragon with flying and devour 2 produced by Dragon Broodmother
- 2/2 Lizard produced by Predatory Advantage
- 1/1 Zombie Wizard produced by Lich Lord of Unx
From Shards of Alara:
- 1/1 Thopter with flying produced by Thopter Foundry
Mechanics
Alara Reborn is the first set in which Hybrid mana appears alongside conventional mana symbols in costs, in this case, cards that have one centered color with a hybrid mana symbol of its two allied colors. Though only two colors are required to play these cards, they are always of three colors.
The Cascade mechanic is introduced. When a spell with Cascade is cast, its controller reveals cards from the top of their library until they find a nonland card that costs less than the card with Cascade. They may then play it without paying its mana cost. If that card also has cascade, this process repeats itself. This mechanic has been regarded as highly powerful and very popular.
Cycling also returned with a twist in the Sojourner cycle: Five creatures that do the same when put into a graveyard from play or when cycled. Some other cards have a cycling cost consisting of a Hybrid mana. Landcycling, Exalted, Devour, Unearth, all used previously within the block, return as well.
Cycles
Most of Alara Reborn's cycles have cards of two or even three different types - sorceries, enchantments, and creatures, for example.
Alara Reborn has 14 cycles:
Reprinted cards
- Meddling Mage — last seen in Planeshift.
- Terminate — last seen in Planeshift.
Notable cards
- Qasali Pridemage as a walking Naturalize on a 2/2 body was a popular mainboard and sideboard card in various Extended and Legacy decks.
- Thopter Foundry turns spare artifacts into 1/1 thopters. It formed half of the popular Extended, Legacy, and Modern combo with Sword of the Meek.
- Uril, the Miststalker, one of the first Hexproof legends, is a very popular EDH general.
- Mayael's Aria is an alternate-win card.
- Sphinx of the Steel Wind has a list of abilities in the image of Akroma, Angel of Wrath. A target for Reanimator decks, it is obsoleted by more efficient cards like Iona, Shield of Emeria and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and later Archon of Cruelty.
- Time Sieve is a repeatable extra turn spell that forms many infinite combos.
- Architects of Will, alongside some of its one-mana cycling cycle, is a heavily played card in Living End decks, as it can be cycled for a cheap and flexible cost and provides a disruptive effect when it returns to the battlefield.
Banned and restricted cards
- Bloodbraid Elf was the pillar of a Jund deck as a reasonable sized creature plus the cascade into an interactive piece. It was also used in various other decks (such as RG Elves, Cascade Swans, or Naya) and sometimes in Extended Zoo or even in Legacy. It was banned for five years between 2013 and 2018, between which the format sped up enough that the card's four mana cost was on par with other deck archetypes in the format.
- Violent Outburst is the cascade spell of choice for the cascade-based combo decks that have existed in Modern and Legacy. With a mana value of three, the cost to building a deck with no one- or two-mana spells could be minimised and then used to cast 0-mana Suspend spells like Living End and Crashing Footfalls at instant speed. Notably, this gameplay made it too strong for Modern in 2024 and it was banned in March of that year.
Trivia
- Both reprints in Alara Reborn were originally printed in Planeshift, another set featuring planes being joined together due to the actions of an antagonistic force.
Intro packs
The intro packs are: