Mirage block

The Mirage block is the second block of sets, consisting of the large expansion Mirage followed by two small expansions, Visions  and Weatherlight. The block came out in 1996–1997. The Mirage block was the first intentionally designed as a block, in contrast to the retroactive 'blocking' of Ice Age-Homelands (later Coldsnap)-Alliances as the Ice Age block.

Mechanics
Keywords introduced in this block: Flanking, Phasing.

Keywords reused from the past: Cumulative upkeep, Rampage.

Most tournament-legal cards with Phasing were printed in this block and never appeared in a Core Set. (Oubliette from Arabian Nights, Old Fogey from Unhinged, Teferi's Protection from Commander 2017, both Teferi, Master of Time and Teferi, Timeless Voyager from Core Set 2021, and Out of Time from Modern Horizons 2 are the only cards printed outside of this block with Phasing.)

The Love Song of Night and Day
Flavor text of seventeen cards in Mirage and Visions feature parts of "The Love Song of Night and Day", a poem written by Jenny Scott, a long-time editor at Wizards of the Coast and frequent contributor to The Duelist magazine, who wrote it as part of the worldbuilding for Jamuraa. Much later the Song was referenced again in King of the Pride from Modern Horizons.

Theme decks
The Mirage block theme decks were designed for MTGO, as these expansion sets were printed before theme decks were first printed in the Tempest block.