Kamigawa block

The Kamigawa block is the tenth block, consisting of the large expansion Champions of Kamigawa and the two small expansions Betrayers of Kamigawa  and Saviors of Kamigawa. The block came out in 2004–2005.

Description
The theme of this block is based on Japanese mythology. According to Brady Dommermuth "[t]he overarching premise of the Kamigawa block is 'Shinto gone wrong.' In Shinto, a belief system indigenous to Japan, everything has a kami. Kami are gods of a sort; they’re the eternal essences of things, people, places, ideas, and so on. To give Kamigawa its own distinct look, as well as to reflect the fact that the plane was in turmoil, we concepted the kami as bizarre creatures that look out of place in the natural world, as though they couldn’t even realistically exist within it."

Keywords introduced in this block: Bushido, Channel, Epic, Ninjutsu, Offering, Soulshift, Splice, Sweep. Flip cards, arcane (the first sorcery and instant subtype), and shrine (the new enchantment subtype) also appeared in this block. All rares in this block had the Legendary supertype.

Nowadays, Mark Rosewater considers it a low point in block design.

Development codes
The development codenames for the sets of Kamigawa block were Earth, Wind and Fire. According to Mark Rosewater it was Blood, Sweat, and Tears, but R&D decided that they didn't want back-to-back large expansions with codenames both starting with "B". Blood, Sweat and Tears later would be used for the Battle for Zendikar block and part of the Shadows over Innistrad block.