Magic: The Gathering

Magical Thinking: Invasion

Welcome back to Magical Thinking, a look at the cards and art of Magic: the Gathering, set by set, from the beginning, from the view of a casual fan. This week is the beginning of the end! That is, the end of the Weatherlight saga, Magic’s first big metaplot, with the Invasion block.

Released in October of 2000, Invasion finds Dominaria under attack by Phyrexia. As more and more lands fall under Phyrexia’s influence, Urza begins to assemble forces to fight them back. But will he be successful? Lets find out.

Yeah. Dominaria is hosed.

I mean, did we learn nothing from the previous block? Who is asking for a cycle of bad creatures which make your own spells more expensive? Next.

Invasion had a strong multicolored theme. Here we see an example of this with a White card with a Blue activated ability. This is also the set that marks the return of multicolored cards (and other things, but more on that later). As for the art, um, what’s up with the middle guy? Does he need some ointment for his eyes? Looks painful. *Looks closer* Okay, apparently just his forehead is really big, but it did look like it’s almost overtaking his eyes for a second.

Another new mechanic introduced here that became popular is kicker. If you pay a little extra, your creature or spell becomes a little better. Like instead of a 2/2 for 3 mana, you can get a 4/4 with first strike for 6. Not a bad trade off.

Everyone has a plan until a 1/2 drops them down a hole. Also, I love the flavor of weaker creatures continually flummoxing and bamboozling bigger creatures.

Friendship is magic. You know what else is Magic? Smashing your opponent’s artifact with a rampaging unicorn.

I notice they don’t say they have to be equal piles. So you could conceivable put all your trash creatures in one pile and the single good creature that will win you the game in the other. A risky gambit, but it could pay off.

I used to play Hearthstone, and one of the PVE event bosses had a hero power that did this. He was really annoying too because he was a smug Elf Paladin with gaudy magical armor, so it was real satisfying to kick the crap out of him. Now you can live that life yourself. Be the smug elf paladin your friends would want to smack in the face.

Okay, everyone has to stop fighting, it’s Urza’s Birthday.

First off, I’m pretty sure this is our first White Djinn. Secondly, it once again shows off this set’s thing for multicolor. And not just multicolor, but color splashing (When you just put a little of a color into a deck). Like you don’t want this in an all White deck or even a Half White deck, just a little bit of White. Just a smidgen.

Spoiler: This is just Urza in a disguise. First of all, killer disguise there, chief. You’re wearing a hat. Secondly, I guess this was as close to a planeswalker card as we were gonna get pre-Lorwynn, and the best Urza can do is a 3/3? I mean, I get you’re doing the Gandalf thing here but come on, you can do better.

So Phyrexia is invading, and the best we got to throw at them are birds. Oh but wait, a bird that can turn a swamp into an island. Yeah, that’ll scare them.

This is really a meta that encouraged multi-colored decks. Use this and punish all those mono-color commander lovers. Only one spell a turn for you.

How did that whole “create a master race to fight the Phyrexians” work out for you, Urza? Not well I imagine. See, this is what Mary Shelly was talking about when she was writing Frankenstein and dragging Lord Byron.

Behold! Probably one of the most iconic cards for Blue ever. A card that had scry before scry was even a keyword, and would prove such an enduring card that it remains in standard to this day, and will probably always be in standard. Need a quick card draw? Why not Opt? My hat off to you, Opt.

Was Kavu even a creature type? I thought all Kavu were classified as Beasts. *Checks* Nope, Kavu were their own creature type.

Also, how badass is this guy wrestling a Kavu. He needs to be more than just a 2/2. Wizards always under-stats these guys. I hate it.

No one likes a know-it-all, Urza.

Well, no, it’s still an angel. If it were an abomination it would probably have horror as a creature type.

I bet combo decks just love this card. Desperate research, when you only need that one card to win and the hell with the rest of your deck.

Coming soon as an overpowered Golgari mechanic to a Green/Black deck near you. Of course, this Dredge has nothing to do with that other dredge. Easy to see why Opt made it and this did not.

The real exotic curse are all the diseases you would get from kissing that bird. Also, is that standard issue for Phyrexian soldiers? Cause that is one goofy getup.

…Okay maybe we will need those birds after all. Good thinking there, Urza.

Hey, it’s the OG Llanawor Elves. I remember them, and apparently this Mantis guy was able to teleport in to replace one of them. Again, that guy seems a little big to just be a 2/2.

I was gonna make a joke about their weapon looking like a guitar, but looking more closely at it it’s clearly a giant dentist drill. Phyrexians do not mess around with dental health. You get a cavity on Phyrexia, it’s on.

Aw, they’re so cute. I’d totally hug one if I wasn’t sure I’d catch something horrible from doing so.

Of course you know that Urborg would get in on the act, and of course they were one of the first places to fall to Phyrexia. Would have been nice to have some Black Mana good guys for a change, but that will come later I suppose.

Grandpa Kavu here survived the sylex blast, the Ice Age, and Homelands. He’ll be damned if some Phyrexians are gonna drive him off his land.

Oh Goblins, you guys are always so wacky. Never change.

Apparently Kavu are these giant green and red beasts that were hibernating under Dominaria until the Invasion awoke them, and were engineered by Yavimaya. Kind of puts Urza and his metathran to shame considering the Kavu are superior in every way, shape, and form (and in fact are still around on Dominaria).

I’ve said this before, but sometimes you just see a creature card that screams “that’s basically me.” I mean, if I dressed up for Halloween I would dress as this bad boy.

This is unique at least. Usually in fiction you hear about sacrificing people to help restore the land or ensure a good harvest. This is the first time I’ve seen a living sacrifice to destroy land. Viashino don’t mess around.

Man, this is a stinker in every sense of the word: Overpriced, under powered, even the name is pathetic. A “Zap” has never been intimidating ever. It’s just an inherently unintimidating sound.

“He slimed me.”

Also I love the random opossum in the background like “Ha ha! Serves you right.”

Your plan was awful, Urza. I think we established that. Any plan is instantly improved by the addition of giant monsters. Especially when that plan is “fight off evil zombie cyborgs.”

I still love they are using the OG Llanowar Elf design for these cards. It’s an amazing callback.

One thing I’ve always loved about Green are these huge “Power and toughness equal to your lands” cards. One of my favorite Green cards right now is Beanstalk giant, so this guy brings a smile to my face.

Giving Tree 2: This time, the Giving tree is giving more than just its limbs.

You Phyrexians invaded the wrong forest.

Also: Phyrexians have flying saucers? What?

Yeah, a Doomsday clock would be nice, but how about a mess of saprolings instead? ….have we ever established just what saprolings are anyway?

I think this is the first Sisay card we ever got. And I like her flavor of assembling her crew for the Weatherlight. Any deck with her is gonna be the legendary all stars for Green and White.

This card is banned in Commander, and the reason why should be pretty obvious.

Hey, Kangee is gonna be getting a card in the upcoming Commander Legends, so it’s pretty fitting to be covering them now.

Of course we got our fair share of three-color cards in this set as well, including a few very powerful (for the time at least) dragons.

And here we have Tsabo Tsavoc, the general spearheading the Phyrexian invasion. Suddenly all those badass legendaries on the Dominaria side don’t seem so good. Also weirdly cute for a giant spider lady.

This is not a misprint. This is the set that introduced split spell cards. That is one card, two different spells, perfect for multi-color decks. This would eventually be brought back for Ravnica and used on and off from here on out in Magic.

This is me waiting for the election results right now. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA IT’S NOT FUNNY PLEASE LET BIDEN WIN OH GOD.

Alloy Golem, when you are playing a mono-colored deck and you need something around those cards that punish mono-colored decks.

And of course each of those legendary dragons gets a little helper whose job it is to get them out faster. Case in point for our little Saprloing spreader up above.

Speaking of, here’s a neat little trick: Every type of land makes him progressively stronger. Pretty neat card.

Here is one of the land cycles from this set: Tap for one color, or sacrifice for two of another color. It’s okay I guess.

And that brings us to the end of Invasion. Sorry if I got a little distracted near the end but it’s election night and I’m freaked out a little. In any case, I’ll see you next week for the next set in the Invasion block: Planeshift. Until then, stay Magical.