Scars of Mirrodin

Scars of Mirrodin is the first set in the Scars of Mirrodin block. It is the 53rd Magic expansion and was released on October 1, 2010.

Set details
Scars of Mirrodin contains 249 cards (101 Common, 60 Uncommon, 53 Rare, 15 Mythic, 20 Basic Lands), including randomly inserted premium versions of all cards in the set. The expansion symbol of the set is a corroding hexplate from the Glimmervoid.

Scars of Mirrodin returns to the plane of Mirrodin, previously the setting of the block and the set of the same name. As Mirrodin is an artificial plane, the number of artifacts and cards relating to that permanent type is larger than in other sets and mechanically reflects the themes already explored in the previous sets.

The set describes the conflict between two major factions - one being Mirrodin, and the other being the invading forces of Phyrexia. Cards aligned with these two factions are watermarked, as previously seen with the guild aligned cards in Ravnica block. The two factions are also mechanically separated, with the Phyrexians dealing largely with poison counters, Infect and Proliferate, as well as sacrifice or leaves play effects, while the native Mirrans use mechanics already introduced or similar to those of the original Mirrodin set - Imprint, Indestructible, charge counters the new Metalcraft mechanic, as well as Mana Myr and Spellbombs. Only 40 cards of the set have the Phyrexian symbol on them. All other cards except for Basic lands and Planeswalker cards have a Mirran watermark.

Flavor and storyline
The corrosion begins The metal plane of Mirrodin shines under the light of five suns ... but it's now tarnished by the deadly scourge known as Phyrexia. Besides the Mirran-Phyrexian conflict, the story also revolves around several planeswalkers. Elspeth Tirel (as a new card of the same name, Elspeth Tirel) returns while a new planeswalker by the name of Koth is introduced, a Vulshok native to Mirrodin (appearing as Koth of the Hammer). Venser (appearing as Venser, the Sojourner) and Tezzeret are also involved in the storyline.

Being set on Mirrodin, the expansion features themes and settings already known from that plane, such as Leonin (Cats), Vampires, Loxodon (Elephants), Elves, and the Human tribes of Vulshok, Sylvok, Auriok, Moriok and Neurok. Artifact creatures such as Golems and Myr also return.

Marketing
Scars of Mirrodin' was sold in 16-card booster packs (the 16th card being a marketing card), 6-card boosters, 5 intro packs and a fat pack. The regular boosters featured art from Elspeth Tirel, Venser, the Sojourner, Koth of the Hammer, Etched Champion and Platinum Emperion. The 6-card booster featured Tainted Strike</c>. The Mirrodin block was accompanied by only one novel: Scars of Mirrodin: The Quest for Karn, written by Robert B. Wintermute.

The set was previewed by a scavenger hunt (Assault on Mirrodin) at PAX.

The prerelease was on September 25–26, 2010, the launch party on October 1–3, and the release on Magic online was October 18, 2010. The promotional card given to participants at the Prerelease tournaments was Wurmcoil Engine</c>, a powerful artifact creature. The Launch party event promotional card was Steel Hellkite</c>. The Buy-a-Box promo was Memoricide</c>. The Game Day promo was a full-art, the Top 8 Finish a full-art foil.

Regular boosters of Scars of Mirrodin come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a "tips & tricks card" or a creature token from Scars of Mirrodin or a poison counter token. One face of the Scars of Mirrodin bonus card has one of five different rules tips or is one of 9 different creature tokens or a poison counter token. The other face has one of [..] advertisements for organized play programs, community.wizards.com, Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Live and the PC, Magic Online, Magicthegathering.com, Scars of Mirrodin Intro Packs, www.wizards.com/Mirran and Wizards Play Network.

Tips & Tricks
The tips & tricks cards are
 * Rules Tip: Infect
 * Rules Tip: Metalcraft
 * Rules Tip: Proliferate
 * Rules Tip: Imprint
 * Rules Tip: Poison / Emblems

Tokens
The Scars of Mirrodin tokens in numerical order are:


 * 1)  2/2 Cat produced by Kemba, Kha Regent</c>
 * 2)  1/1 Soldier produced by Elspeth Tirel</c>
 * 3)  1/1 Goblin produced by Kuldotha Rebirth</c>
 * 4)  1/1 Insect with infect, produced by Trigon of Infestation</c> and Carrion Call</c>
 * 5)  2/2 Wolf produced by Sword of Body and Mind</c>
 * 6)  3/3 Golem Artifact produced by Golem Foundry</c> and Precursor Golem</c>
 * 7)  1/1 Myr Artifact produced by Myrsmith</c>, Myr Battlesphere</c>, and Origin Spellbomb</c>
 * 8)  3/3 Wurm with deathtouch, produced by Wurmcoil Engine</c>
 * 9)  3/3 Wurm with lifelink, produced by <c>Wurmcoil Engine</c>

Mechanics
As usual, Scars of Mirrodin features several new mechanics.

Infect is a new keyword that causes creatures to deal damage to other creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters, similar to Wither. However, in addition to this, cards with Infect deal damage to players in the form of poison counters. The poison mechanic was introduced in Legends but has never been strongly supported. The mechanic resurfaced in Time Spiral block with a reprint of <c>Swamp Mosquito</c> and the Poisonous keyword (which does not appear in Scars of Mirrodin). Poison counters would be a major theme of the entire block.

A new keyword action in Proliferate works in combination with Infect. When a player proliferates, he or she chooses any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, and puts another counter of a kind it has on it. E.g. a player proliferates and chooses an opponent with a poison counter, a creature with a -1/-1 counter, a Planeswalker with loyalty counters and an artifact with a charge counter. Everyone of these entities gets another of these respective counters.

The ability word Metalcraft gives a card a bonus if its controller controls three or more artifacts. Scars of Mirrodin features a new Mox named <c>Mox Opal</c> that has Metalcraft. The Indestructible mechanic returns with new "Darksteel"-themed cards, as does the Imprint mechanic from Mirrodin.

The only returning keyword from the original Mirrodin block was imprint, this keyword allows a player to "imprint" some card on the artifact (removing that card from the game). That artifact's effect depends on the card imprinted (for example you can imprint a creature on <c>Semblance Anvil</c> to reduce costs of spells that share a card type with that card).

Cycles
Scars of Mirrodin has 10 Cycles:

Reprinted cards
11 cards were reprinted from previous sets. Of these, eight had appeared previously in Mirrodin, including the cycle of Myrs. Bloodshot Trainee and Disperse were the only reprints that did not appear in the first Mirrodin block.
 * <c>Arrest</c> first printed in Mercadian Masques, last seen in Mirrodin
 * <c>Bloodshot Trainee</c>, first printed in Future Sight
 * <c>Disperse</c>, first printed in Morningtide
 * <c>Mindslaver</c>, first printed in Mirrodin as a rare, now a mythic rare.
 * <c>Shatter</c>, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Magic 2010
 * <c>Trinket Mage</c>, first printed as a common in Fifth Dawn, last seen in Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Tezzeret. Now an uncommon
 * <c>Copper Myr</c>, <c>Gold Myr</c>, <c>Iron Myr</c>, <c>Leaden Myr</c> and <c>Silver Myr</c>, first printed in Mirrodin, last seen in Planechase

Functional reprint

 * <c>Moriok Reaver</c>, functional Reprint of <c>Barony Vampire</c> (Magic 2011) and <c>Warpath Ghoul</c> (Magic 2012).

Colorshifted

 * <c>Turn Aside</c>, colorshifted version of <c>Rebuff the Wicked</c> (Planar Chaos).

Notable cards

 * <c>Golem's Heart</c> is functionally similar to the Darksteel Lucky charms but was strangely enough created/predicted in its entirety, including name, by MTGSalvation user luminum_can.
 * <c>Molten-Tail Masticore</c> is a near-functional reprint of the original <c>Masticore</c>, sharing casting cost, power/toughness, type and two of its abilities. However, since Masticore is on the Reserved List, it could not be reprinted and the damage ability was replaced by another damage ability.
 * <c>Mox Opal</c> - yet another installment of the famous Moxen (zero-mana artifacts producing all colors of mana).
 * <c>Prototype Portal</c> is functionally very similar to the Mirrodin card <c>Soul Foundry</c>, but replaces creatures with artifacts. This makes Prototype Portal the second card to specifically produce non-creature Tokens after <c>Imperial Mask</c> from Future Sight.
 * <c>Tower of Calamities</c> completes a cycle started in Mirrodin which had four cards with the word Tower in their name. All of them cost and have an activated ability for the cost of, undefined generating a usually color-aligned effect. The respective colors are also used heavily in the artwork. They are <c>Tower of Champions</c> (green), <c>Tower of Eons</c> (white), <c>Tower of Fortunes</c> (blue) and <c>Tower of Murmurs</c> (black). Tower of Calamities adds a red-aligned effect.
 * <c>Venser, the Sojourner</c> is the only multicolored card in the set. It also marks the return of Venser after his original appearance (pre-ascension), as <c>Venser, Shaper Savant</c> in Future Sight.
 * <c>Sword of Body and Mind</c> - A continuation of the "Sword of X and Y" Mega cycle first started in Darksteel.

Preconstructed decks
Scars of Mirrodin features five intro packs, four of which are bicolored and one monocolored.