Darksteel
Darksteel is the second set in the Mirrodin block. It is the 31st Magic: The Gathering expansion and was released on February 6, 2004. The prerelease was January 24–25, 2004.
Set details
Darksteel was the first small expansion to have 165 cards (11 extra rares and 11 extra uncommons compared to previous small expansions). The expansion symbol for the set is a miniature version of the Shield of Kaldra. The set continues the heavy artifact theme of its predecessor Mirrodin. Thematically the main components are darksteel artifacts, all of which are indestructible. The set also features an update of the lucky charms.
Marketing
Darksteel was sold in 15-card boosters, four preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack. The booster packs featured artwork from Shield of Kaldra, Arcbound Ravager, and Eater of Days. The prerelease card was a foil alternate art Shield of Kaldra. This card was the first to mention a card in its text box that hadn't been printed yet. The three Kaldra artifacts form a mega-cycle. The set was accompanied by a novel by Jess Lebow. A 3/3 Beast Token for Pulse of the Tangle was offered as a Magic Player Reward.
Storyline
"The world . . . is . . . hollow." This is the secret that Chunth, the Tel-Jilad troll elder, entrusts to Glissa Sunseeker before his death at the hands of a traitor. Armed with that knowledge, Glissa fights her way through the great vedalken capital of Lumengrid, down into the Pool of Knowledge. The Synod's sacred chamber contains a lacuna—a tunnel, saturated with blue mana—that leads to Mirrodin's secret interior. There, huge, bizarre towers of fungus-like metal called mycosynth reach up toward an immense inner sun of pure mana. As Glissa flees from her vedalken pursuers, she discovers another secret inside this plane. Memnarch is real, and he patiently waits for the elvish champion to find him. In the meantime, he studies the blinkmoths and has begun to build a monument to his greatness as an artificer: the Darksteel Eye, a device that will make his omniscience over Mirrodin complete.
Storyline sources
Tournament impact
Darksteel is notorious as a very powerful tournament set. At one point it was responsible for two of four cards that were banned in Extended: Aether Vial and Skullclamp. Skullclamp was also very notorious in Standard as well for over-powering creature decks, making them very resilient even to mass destruction and providing a lot of card advantage at a very small cost. It became the first card to be banned in Standard in five years. Later other cards featured in the meta-game warping Affinity deck, especially Arcbound Ravager. Trinisphere was restricted in Vintage due to the format's capacity for one player producing large quantities of mana on the first turn and then dropping Trinisphere, preventing opponents from doing the same.
Mechanics
Modular has artifact creatures enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters on them equal to the Modular number. If the artifact creature is put into the graveyard from play, these counters are moved to another artifact creature.
Indestructible is also introduced. As the name suggests, indestructible permanents simply can not be destroyed through any means, e.g. direct destruction effects such as Wrath of God or damage. The mechanic would be reused occasionally in later sets, though not exclusively bound to artifacts.
The set also reprises Affinity for artifacts but also introduces Affinity for basic land types in a cycle of Golems.
Creature types
The creature types Artificer and Blinkmoth were introduced in this expansion.
The following creature types that are not new to Magic are used in this expansion:
Cycles
Darksteel has four cycles:
Mega cycle
Pairs
Darksteel has one mirrored pair.
Reprinted cards
In contrast to Mirrodin reprinting a sizable number of artifact-related staples, only three cards were reprinted for Darksteel.
- Fireball — first printed in Alpha, last seen in 5th Edition
- Inflame — first printed in Prophecy
- Juggernaut — first printed in Alpha, last seen in Revised
Functional reprints
- Hoverguard Observer — functional reprint of Stronghold Zeppelin (Nemesis), save for creature type
- Ur-Golem's Eye — functional reprint of Sisay's Ring (Visions)
Card comparisons
Notable cards
- Serum Powder is the only non-supplemental card to mention mulligans (the other is the Conspiracy Backup Plan), by giving a player an effective extra mulligan. It sees regular Vintage Dredge play to find Bazaar of Baghdad.
- Neurok Transmuter has the unique ability to remove a type without changing it into something else, resulting in the novelty combo with March of the Machines to create a typeless permanent, which is mentioned in its Gatherer rulings.
- Blinkmoth Nexus is a creature land that follows the design of Mishra's Factory and approaches on same rate of power. It inspired Inkmoth Nexus and gave longevity and evasion to the Arcbound Ravager decks.
- Death Cloud is a Pox reference that formed an Extended archetype in the vein of Wildfire.
Banned and restricted cards
- Aether Vial is a way for creature decks to cheat on mana and avoid countermagic, making it powerful for such decks in early Modern until the Modern Horizons era. It was banned in Mirrodin block tournaments.
- Arcbound Ravager has the combined ability to turn all one's artifacts into power at instant speed, which is often magnified with counter synergies like Hardened Scales. It remains a power player in Vintage, was once dominant in Modern, and was banned in Standard and Mirrodin Block tournaments.
- Mycosynth Lattice makes everything an artifact, both through cost and color. Largely a novelty, it became an unexpected lock piece due to its combination with Karn, the Great Creator, resulting in a ten-mana permanent lock for Urzatron decks. It was banned from Modern in January 2020.
- Skullclamp was notorious for being the poster card for poor late-stage development changes, as the change from +1 toughness to -1 toughness made it a powerful draw engine alongside the "fair" anti-removal usage. It was banned in Standard, Block Constructed, Legacy and Extended formats in 2004, and was on the initial ban list for Modern and has since remained there.
- Trinisphere is the only card that applies a variable cost tax, by way of forcing the mana cost of all spells to be a minimum flat number. A popular lock piece in Vintage despite its restriction in 2005 and sees some Modern play.
Preconstructed decks
Darksteel has three monocolored and one bicolored theme decks.