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Onslaught

Facts
Placement
Plane
Dominaria ( Otaria )
Other
Symbol description
A four-legged (in-game face-down) morphed creature
Design
Mike Elliott (lead), ; Mike Donais
Development
Randy Buehler (lead), ; Elaine Chase , ; Mike Donais, ; Brian Schneider , ; Henry Stern , ; Worth Wollpert
Themes and mechanics
" Cost matters ", " Creature type matters", Cycling triggers, Gustcloak, Mistform
Keywords/​ability words
Cycling , Fear , Morph
Onslaught
Onslaught Legions Scourge
Judgment
Judgment Onslaught Legions

Onslaught is the first set (and the only large expansion) in the Onslaught block. It is the 27th Magic: The Gathering expansion and was released on October 7, 2002. The prerelease was September 28–29, 2002.

Set details

Onslaught, like its following expansions in the Onslaught block, Legions and Scourge, featured a theme that focused heavily on "Typal" cards, or cards that are concerned with creature types.

The set contains 350 black-bordered cards (110 rare, 110 uncommon, 110 common, and 20 basic lands). Onslaught's expansion symbol is a stylized morphed creature.

Design and Development

Onslaught was initially designed similarly to older sets like Mirage and Tempest, having two unconnected mechanics and no overarching mechanical theme. Magic lead designer Bill Rose felt that it needed more of an identity, so he asked designer Mark Rosewater to take a look and offer feedback. Rosewater noticed a group of creatures that could change their creature types in the file and suggested making typal synergies the theme of the set. Rosewater and designers Mike Elliott and Mike Donais then reworked the set to amplify the typal theme.

Rosewater also pushed to add the morph mechanic to the set. Morph had been created by Magic’s Rules Team, inspired by a fix they had made to the Alpha cards Illusionary Mask and Camouflage. Both cards allowed their controller to play creatures face down but did not define the properties of a face-down card, which caused rules issues. The fix was to define the mana cost, color, power, and toughness.

After adding morph, the team decided the set still needed one more mechanic and started looking for something similar to cycling. They tested several different mechanics until a team member eventually asked: “Why not just cycling?” There was initially some skepticism about bringing an old mechanic back. However, several new test cards, particularly an early version of Lightning Rift, proved new design space for cycling still existed.

Marketing

Onslaught was sold in 75-card tournament decks, 15-card boosters, four preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack. The packs featured artwork from Jareth, Leonine Titan, Arcanis the Omnipotent, Grinning Demon, Blistering Firecat and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. The prerelease card was a foil Silent Specter. The set was accompanied by the novel of the same name.

Flavor and storyline

A continuation of the storyline developed in the Odyssey Cycle, Onslaught and the Onslaught Cycle are set on the continent of Otaria on the devastated plane of Dominaria, approximately a century after the events of Apocalypse of the Invasion block. Kamahl has relocated to the Krosan Forest with the Mirari and becomes a druid of Krosa. The power of the Mirari begins to work on the forest, mutating its residents and growing some of them to gigantic proportions. Meanwhile, Kamahl's sister Jeska is transformed by foul Cabal healing magic, into Phage, a pit fighter whose touch brings death. The illusionist Ixidor discovers his new powers of reality sculpting. Ixidor uses his new power to create the angel Akroma.

Storyline sources

Tokens

Several tokens for Onslaught cards were offered as Magic Player Rewards.

Because Magic Online needs to represent all the tokens in the game, art needs to be created for even the most insignificant tokens. For those, Magic Online is the only place it appears.

Themes and mechanics

Themes

Tribal and creature types were a prominent theme in the Onslaught block. Some creature types bled into colors other than their normal colors (e.g., Festering Goblin, a black, non-red Goblin), for more design space and variety.

Numerous cards with creature classes, as opposed to species or race ones, such as the Cleric, Soldier, and Wizards creature types, were retroactively given additional (species or race) creature types during the Grand Creature Type Update to be more consistent with the "race-class model". In most of these cases, the additional creature type was Human. This, by and large, did not cause significant changes to this expansion or block. In 2002, a poll conducted on MTG.com showed that a majority of respondents were opposed to the idea of Human as a creature type.

Dragons have a small presence in Onslaught, with the only Dragon creature cards being Quicksilver Dragon and Rorix Bladewing (and an additional one enchantment dragon-creature-token-creating card in Dragon Roost). Dragons would go on to form a theme in Scourge, the third Onslaught block expansion.

In addition to the tribal theme, Onslaught features several cards, such as Erratic Explosion, that foreshadow the "cost matters" theme that is more fully explored in Scourge.

Mechanics

Onslaught reintroduced the static keyword ability cycling and featured several mechanics, some of which were novel, including:

  • Fear: a keyword static ability of an established ability, fear, named after Fear, the Limited Edition aura card, and first card, that conferred or featured this ability, means "This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.".
  • Gustcloak: a non-keyword triggered ability that allows the controller of a blocked creature with the ability to remove the creature from combat, thereby preventing all combat damage that would be dealt to and by it, similar to the effect of Maze of Ith.
  • Lords: any card with an activated ability whose cost includes the tapping of a creature that shares a creature type with the lord (i.e., Ancestor's Prophet, Aphetto Grifter, Birchlore Rangers, Catapult Master, Catapult Squad, Crookclaw Elder, Gravespawn Sovereign, Shieldmage Elder, Skirk Fire Marshal, Spurred Wolverine, Supreme Inquisitor, Voice of the Woods, and Legions' Keeper of the Nine Gales). Cards somewhat similar to lords are Cryptic Gateway and Gangrenous Goliath, which, although they forward the tribal theme, do not tap creatures that share a creature subtype with the card itself.
  • Morph: a static ability that allows the controller of a card with the morph ability to cast the card face-down as a 2/2 creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, no expansion symbol, and no mana cost. The ability was pitched by the rules team and inspired by rules fix they had made to a pair of cards from Alpha: Illusionary Mask and Camouflage.
  • Saboteurs: any creature card with a "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player" triggered ability.
  • Self-recruiters: any card with an enters-the-battlefield triggered ability that allows its controller to search for a similarly named card, reveal it, and put it into their hand.
  • Cycling: originally conceived during Tempest design as "sliding" and first featured in Urza's Saga, was brought back from abeyance for reasons including "nostalgia", "exposing new[er] players [to older mechanics]", "[exploring] new twists [to the old mechanic]", "interaction with other mechanics", and "conservation of design space". To expand on cycling, several cards with cycling triggers, such as Astral Slide and Lightning Rift, and several cards with cycling and abilities that trigger when they are cycled, such as Death Pulse and Krosan Tusker, were featured in Onslaught.

Creature types

The creature types Pangolin (retroactively) and Mutant were introduced in Onslaught. The creature type Lord was used in this expansion at the time of printing but was later removed.

Cycles

Onslaught features 13 cycles.

Vertical cycles

Pairs

Onslaught has one mirrored pair.

Reprinted cards

Functional reprints

Color shifted

Strictly better

Notable cards

Preconstructed decks

Onslaught has four bicolored theme decks.

Notes

References