Mercadian Masques

Mercadian Masques is the eighteenth Magic expansion and was released in October 1999 as the first set in the Masques block. It is notable for being the first set not protected by Wizards of the Coast's "Reprint Policy".

Set details

Mercadian Masques featured 350 cards (110 commons, 110 uncommons, 110 rares, and 20 basic lands). Mercadian Masques's expansion symbol is a stylized mask to evoke the intrigues, deceptions, and double dealings involved with the Mercadia storyline. This was the first large expansion to use the new 6th Edition rules.

Marketing

Mercadian Masques was sold in 75-card tournament decks, 15-card boosters and four preconstructed theme decks. For the first time ever, basic lands were among the randomly inserted foil-finished premium cards in the booster packs, enabling an all-premium deck. The packs featured artwork from Squee, Goblin Nabob, Cateran Slaver and Saprazzan Legate. This was the first set to have an accompanying fat pack, consisting of three boosters, a tournament pack, two premium cards, the Top Deck Magazine Mercadian Masques pullout section and the Mercadian Masques novel. For the first time since a long time, there was no Official Guide. The prerelease card was a foil Overtaker.

While the set was in design (at the time codenamed "Archimedes"), the book department named the book Mercadian Masques. Mark Rosewater mentioned at the time that it wasn’t particularly a good name, but as the name was for the book and not the expansion he felt it wasn’t really an issue. But then a number of months later, the Magic brand team decided that the expansion and the book should have the same name.

Storyline

The Weatherlight's troubles continue as it crash-lands on a strange new plane. The ship is attacked by the Cho-Arrim, who steal the ship. Finally, soldiers from Mercadia City arrive to arrest the crew. Meanwhile, Orim, who was captured with the ship, learns more about her captors. The Cho-Arrim are spiritual people who suffer greatly under the greedy Mercadians. Their leader Cho-Manno explains that he took the Weatherlight's arrival as a sign prophesying the return of the sky god Ramos and the end of Mercadian rule. Orim slowly becomes sympathetic to the Cho-Arrim's situation and attracted to their leader.

Mercadians are an evasive, aloof people: the nobles are hedonistic, apathetic, and lazy, while the commoners are selfish, grasping, and paranoid. Mercadian goblins are much larger and smarter than any the crew has encountered before, and they actually seem to be running the city despite their servile attitudes. Furthermore, a guild of professional assassins, thieves and horrors called Caterans roams the back alleys of the marketplace, ready to terrorize or murder anyone for the right price. The Mercadian magistrate unexpectedly offers Gerrard an unusual deal. A platoon of soldiers and Cateran mercenaries will be placed under his command to recover the Weatherlight. If the mission is successful, Gerrard may petition for both the return of his ship and safe passage out of Mercadia for himself and his crew. In the ensuing battle, the violent Caterans slaughter the Cho-Arrim indiscriminately.

Back in Mercadia City, Takara brokers a new deal with the magistrate: the crew will repair the damaged Weatherlight and restore its flying mechanisms for him in exchange for their freedom. Sisay, Hanna and Orim will travel to Saprazzo, a rival trade city inhabited by enlightened merfolk with the ability to switch between fish tails and human legs at will. There they will secure an artifact required to fix the ship, while Takara and the male members of the crew remain in captivity.

Eventually, Takara engineers the crew's escape. Gerrard's band discovers the ruins of an ancient Thran site, encounters a race of powerful dryads, and battles a huge, mechanical war engine.

Storyline sources

Tournament impact

Mercadian Masques is not considered to be as high caliber as compared to the powerful sets of the Urza's block. Reportedly, the designers were extremely gun-shy following the runaway power of the previous block and dialed back the power a tad too much; the same phenomenon would take place between the latter-day Mirrodin and Kamigawa blocks. However, the set did produce some tournament-quality cards. Gush; Rishadan Port; Squee, Goblin Nabob; Waterfront Bouncer; Hunted Wumpus; and Food Chain have all seen various degrees of tournament play.

Keywords and mechanics

Unusually, Masques introduced no new keyword abilities to the game, although it did have several themes that were continued throughout its block. These included:

• Rebels and Mercenaries: creatures able to search through their controller's library and "recruit" creatures of a specific type into play.
• Spellshapers: creatures that had repeatable activated abilities that mimicked various classic spells, potentially turning otherwise useless cards into powerful effects. All of Masques's spellshapers required paying mana, tapping the creature and discarding a card to use their ability.
• Masques also reintroduced instants and sorceries with alternative casting costs, such as Invigorate. This mechanic had not been used since Visions.
• Creatures with abilities usable by any player, such as Squallmonger and Flailing Manticore.

Cycles

Mercadian Masques has fifteen cycles and 4 vertical cycles:

Vertical cycles

Reprinted cards

The following 21 cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Mercadian Masques:

• Afterlife — was last seen in Mirage.
• Brainstorm — was last seen in 5th Edition.
• Counterspell — was last seen in 6th Edition. This would be the last expansion to print the staple card Counterspell.
• Dark Ritual — was last seen in Urza's Saga. This would be the last expansion to print the staple card Dark Ritual, though it would be reprinted with its Ice Age art and expansion symbol in one of Coldsnap 's theme decks.
• Deadly Insect — was last seen in Alliances.
• Desert Twister — was last seen in 5th Edition.
• Disenchant — was last seen in 6th Edition. This wouldn't be seen in another expansion until Time Spiral (Eight years later).
• Energy Flux — was last seen in 5th Edition.
• False Demise — was last seen in Alliances.
• Giant Caterpillar — was last seen in Visions.
• Lure — was last seen in 6th Edition.
• Ogre Taskmaster — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
• Rain of Tears — was last seen in Tempest.
• Righteous Aura — was last seen in Visions.
• Squall — was last seen in Starter 1999.
• Stone Rain — was last seen in Portal Three Kingdoms.
• Timid Drake — was last seen in Weatherlight.
• Tranquility — was last seen in 6th Edition.
• Tremor — was last seen in 6th Edition.
• Venomous Breath — was last seen in Ice Age.
• Word of Blasting — was last seen in 5th Edition.

Functional reprints

Mercadian Masques has 18 functional reprints:

• Cloud Sprite is a functional reprint of Cloud Pirates from Portal, save for creature type.
• Deathgazer is a functional reprint of Dread Specter from Mirage, save for creature type.
• Drake Hatchling is a functional reprint of Azimaet Drake from Mirage.
• Fresh Volunteers is a functional reprint of Knight Errant from Starter 1999, save for creature type.
• Henge Guardian is a functional reprint of Igneous Golem from Mirage.
• Henge of Ramos is a functional reprint of School of the Unseen from Alliances.
• Highway Robber is a functional reprint of Dakmor Ghoul from Starter 1999, save for creature type.
• Iron Lance is a functional reprint of Fyndhorn Bow from Ice Age.
• Jhovall Rider is a functional reprint of Iron Tusk Elephant from Mirage, save for creature type.
• Kyren Glider is a functional reprint of Goblin Glider from Portal Second Age.
• Misshapen Fiend is a functional reprint of Dakmor Bat from Portal Second Age and Bog Imp from Starter 1999, save for creature type.
• Rampart Crawler is a functional reprint of Bog Rats from 6th Edition, save for creature type.
• Rishadan Airship is a functional reprint of Cloud Spirit from Stronghold, save for creature type.
• Rushwood Dryad is a functional reprint of Lynx from Starter 1999 and Zodiac Monkey from Portal Three Kingdoms, save for creature type.
• Skulking Fugitive is a functional reprint of Tar Pit Warrior from Visions, save for creature type.
• Snorting Gahr is a functional reprint of Slashing Tiger from Portal Three Kingdoms and Razorclaw Bear from Portal Second Age, save for creature type.
• Steadfast Guard is a functional reprint of Veteran Cavalier from Starter 1999 and Alaborn Grenadier from Portal Second Age.
• Wild Jhovall is a functional reprint of Hill Giant from Portal, Tor Giant from Ice Age, Ogre Warrior from Starter 1999 and Barbarian Horde from Portal Three Kingdoms, save for creature type.

Card comparisons

Notable Cards

• Bribery has been a popular choice in Cube Draft and Commander decks against high impact creatures in opponent's decks.
• Cateran Overlord and Ramosian Sky Marshal have the strongest "recruit" abilities and form a mirrored pair. Each card searches for a creature of converted mana cost 6 or less of its "class" creature type, but the Marshal costs 5 because Rebels search upwards while the Overlord costs 7 and searches downwards. While both Mercenaries and Rebels have had future printings, Oxidda Finisher is the first of either type to be above the searchable threshold.
• Fountain Watch was the first card to give its controller's permanents shroud asymmetrically. Other similar designs are symmetrical or only shroud one at a time.
• Ivory Mask was the first card to give players the ability to grant themselves shroud. As the shroud ability was not keyworded until May 2007 with the release of Future Sight the original printing of Ivory Mask says "You can't be the target of spells or abilities."
• Magistrate's Scepter was one of the original infinite turn combo pieces after Time Vault, which was too easy to combo with. The release of Proliferate made it much easier to accumulate than spending multiple times with untap effects.
• Misdirection has seen use in Legacy, Vintage, and Elder Dragon Highlander for being a free spell in the vein of Force of Will but having a chance of being card neutral by being a redirection effect.
• Rishadan Port was the most powerful card in this notably weak set. The ability to stifle an opponent's mana development made it powerful in many contexts. It was powerful enough to warrant a Masques Block Constructed ban.
• Security Detail is one of the weakest cards in the game due to the mana-dense and restricted ability. It compares poorly to Kjeldoran Outpost, released several years earlier.
• Soothsaying is first card in the game that has the ability of "shuffle your library" and no other context. It also allowed a player to do so repeatedly in a turn.
• Squee, Goblin Nabob has a still-rare ability to consistently return from the graveyard for no cost. Once a sacrifice outlet, it is more practical nowadays as discard or mill fodder.
• Story Circle is the evolution of Circles of Protections and has been included in many decks by players who desire versatility in their ability to protect themselves from damage from colored sources.
• Waterfront Bouncer was contentiously retyped in the Grand Creature Type Update to be a Merfolk despite being a legged humanoid.
• Food Chain became a combo piece when cards like Misthollow Griffin and Eternal Scourge were printed.
• Conspiracy was a popular way to create typal combos, with recurring multiple design variants in the 2020s.
• Four of the common "free" spells still have modern applications, incidentally more than some of the higher rarity free spells.
  • Gush is one of few free draw spells and is active by turn 2, and inspired an entire book by Stephen Menendian on how to use it. It was banned in Legacy in 2003 and remains so. It joined and left the restricted list in Vintage multiple times, being legal from 1999-2003, 2007-2008 and 2010-2017.
  • Invigorate powered Legacy Infect decks though newer anti-creature free spells pushed them from the top tiers. It was banned in Pauper in 2013 for similar usage and remains so.
  • Snuff Out sees sideboard play as a free kill spell, though the nonblack clause has made it much weaker recently.
  • Land Grant was used to cheat land counts for decks that used Goblin Charbelcher and similar until the MDFC lands of Zendikar Rising, which were more reliable.

Creature types

The following creature types are introduced in this expansion: Monger, Rebel, Spellshaper.

The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: Beast, Cat, Cleric, Djinn, Dragon, Drake, Druid, Dryad, Elemental, Faerie, Fish, Giant, Goblin, Griffin, Horror, Hound, Illusion, Insect, Lord (later changed to Human), Lizard, Manticore, Merfolk, Minion, Monster, Ogre, Pirate, Shade, Ship (later changed to Goblin and Merfolk), Snake, Soldier, Spirit, Townsfolk (later changed to Human), Troll, Wall, Wolf, Wolverine, Zombie.

Theme decks

Each of the Mercadian Masques theme decks has at least one spellshaper, a theme of the set. The pre-constructed theme decks are: