Apocalypse

Apocalypse is the twenty-third Magic: The Gathering expansion and was released in June 2001 as the third set and second small expansion in the Invasion block.

Set details
Apocalypse featured 143 black-bordered cards (55 commons, 44 uncommons and 44 rares). Its expansion symbol is Yawgmoth's mask. Like Invasion and Planeshift, Apocalypse prominently features multicolored cards. Unlike its predecessors, Apocalypse focused on cards with "enemy" color pairings. Examples of the enemy color theme include pain lands, split cards, cards with enemy color kicker costs (e.g. Orim's Thunder), cards with two enemy color kicker costs (the Volver cycle), cards with abilities requiring an enemy color (e.g. Angelfire Crusader, enchantments which gave bonuses if you controlled permanents of an enemy color (the Sanctuary cycle) and cards with enemy color casting costs. Apocalypse also expanded on the kicker block mechanic and introduced enemy-color gradient text boxes on lands to match the friendly-color ones added in Invasion.

Storyline
The Coalition forces hurled their might at the Stronghold, now overlaid onto the swamps of Urborg. Urza led a powerful group of planeswalkers to Phyrexia itself, hoping to destroy the invaders in their home. Gerrard and Urza are forced to fight each other in an arena, and when one kills the other, the loser is returned to life by Yawgmoth's power and the two must fight again. Eventually, Urza is decapitated and Gerrard escapes with the head, only to find himself in the Stronghold throne room, with a crazed Crovax standing over the broken form of Squee. Sisay, Karn, Tahngarth and the rest of the Weatherlight crew desperately search the Thran Tome, attempting to figure out how the Legacy and the Weatherlight are supposed to save Dominaria. The remaining coalition forces, lead by Grizzlegom, Eladamri and Lin Sivvi fight their way to the Stronghold, where they battle Crovax's Phyrexian soldiers. When Yawgmoth himself arrives from Phyrexia, the final battle begins in earnest. Gerrard and his allies try to channel the mana from the Null Moon into a destructive beam to eradicate Yawgmoth, but fail to kill him. Without any further options, Urza, who is still alive since decapitation isn't lethal to planeswalkers, asks Gerrard to take out his powerstone eyes and place them in two sockets in Karn's chest. This completes the Legacy, forming that which legend refers to as the Legacy Weapon. Light spreads all over the world, eradicating Yawgmoth's essence. Gerrard and Urza do not survive the Weapon's activation, and the Weatherlight crashes into the ocean, its planeswalking powers permanently burned out and transferred to Karn, who has become a planeswalker in his own right.

Marketing
The cards were sold in 15-card boosters which had artwork from Anavolver, in four preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack, which is notable for being the first to include the modern set symbol spindown life counters. At Apocalypse prerelease events on May 26, 2001, a foil Fungal Shambler (Fungal Shambler printed in Sanskrit text) was handed out. The set was accompanied by the novel of the same name.

Token
A 1/1 Goblin Soldier Token for Goblin Trenches was released as a Magic Player Reward.

Mechanics
Apocalypse saw the continued use of kicker and split cards.

Each color contains a few creatures that have a new kind of ability, sometimes forming a vertical cycle. For example, blue gets Whirlpool creatures, red gets Bloodfire creatures, etc.
 * Bloodfire The ability to pay, sacrifice the card then deal damage to creatures and players. A vertical cycle of creatures were printed with the ability plus an aura that granted a creature the ability. (see cycles)
 * Flagbearer As long as you have one in play, any spell or ability your opponent plays that can target a Flagbearer must target a Flagbearer. If a spell has multiple targets, only one of the targets needs to be a Flagbearer. There were 2 White Flagbearer creatures (Standard Bearer and Coalition Honor Guard) and an aura (Coalition Flag) that granted a creature the Flagbearer subtype as well as the inherent ability.
 * Penumbra Which brings a black token creature of the same power/toughness into play whenever the original green creature is put into a graveyard. (see cycles)
 * Syphon Phyrexian abominations that take some life from their controller in exchange for an equal number of cards (e.g. When Phyrexian Rager</c> comes into play you drew a card and lose 1 life). Phyrexian Gargantua</c> and the enchantment Phyrexian Arena</c> are also considered part of the "syphon" mechanic.
 * Whirlpool Drake and Merfolk that allow the owner to shuffle cards in their hand into their library, and then draw that many cards. (see cycles)

Creature types
The following creature types are introduced in this expansion: Flagbearer, Volver.

The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: Angel, Ape, Beast, Cat, Drake, Dwarf, Elf, Giant, Goblin, Golem, Horror, Kavu, Merfolk, Minotaur, Ship (later changed to Metathran), Snake, Soldier, Treefolk, Wall, Wizard, Zombie.

Cycles
Apocalypse has ten cycles and 4 vertical cycles.

Pairs
Apocalypse has one mirrored pair:

Reprints
Apocalypse has no reprints.

Notable cards

 * Vindicate</c> Destruction of a permanent for the low cost of.
 * Pernicious Deed</c> An enchantment that sweeps the entire board.
 * Mystic Snake</c> A Counterspell</c> and a 2/2 creature in one card.
 * Spiritmonger</c> An aggressive 6/6 creature for  that has regeneration.
 * Shield of Duty and Reason</c> Its name and abilities are a reference to Voice of Duty</c> and Voice of Reason</c> from Urza's Destiny. It forms a matched pair with Mask of Law and Grace</c> from the same set.

Preconstructed decks
Apocalypse has four theme decks.