
Shards Of Alara Magic The Gathering Cards
Shards of Alara is an expansion set from the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. It was released on October 3, 2008.
Shards of Alara is the first set of the Alara block. Bill Rose was
its Design lead, and Devin Low was its development lead. Its tagline
is, "five worlds share one fate." Shards of Alara is a multicolour set
which revolves around three-color combinations.
The design of Shards of Alara focuses on five different "shards"
which together formed a single world once. Mechanically, each shard
consists of one of the five magic colors and its two allied colors.
Each shard has its own key worded mechanic or strong over-arching
theme. Each shard also has its own creature types. Each shard was
designed by a three person design team.
Shards of Alara is the first set to feature several changes in
WOTC's design and publishing approach. Sets from Shards forward will
have a smaller number of cards, to reduce the size of the constructed
cardpool for Block and Standard tournament formats, but will add the
new "Mythic Rare" level of rarity, which appear in place of the pack's
rare in 1 out of every 8 packs. Also, as part of their move to make
products more beginner friendly, booster packs include a basic land in
place of one of the commons, and pre-constructed decks will be
rebranded as "Intro Packs" and include a 41-card preconstructed deck
and one Booster Pack. The Magic: The Gathering website has also
announced new design changes to the Alara fat pack, which includes 5
distinct box arts and the replacement of the usual set novel with A
Planeswalker's Guide to Alara.
Shards of Alara also brings new multicolored Planeswalker cards
into the game. The first such to be introduced publicly was the red and
white Ajani Vengeant, followed shortly by the green and red Sarkhan
Vol. Ajani Vengeant being a new form of Ajani Goldmane from the Lorwyn
set, and was the promotional card at Alara's prerelease event in
September.