 | |
| Released | December 8, 2017 |
|---|---|
| Size | approximately 216 cards [1] |
| Keywords | Last strike, Squirrellink, Augment |
| Mechanics | Contraptions, high fives, Factions, die rolls |
| Development code | Quicksilver [2] |
| Expansion code | UST |
Unstable is an official parody expansion set to the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering that was released on December 8, 2017. It is the third set of its kind, featuring silver borders, following in the tradition of 1998's Unglued and 2004's Unhinged .
Unstable takes place on Bablovia, a steampunk-inspired plane. It features five main factions, one for each allied color pairing: The Order of the Widget (white-blue), the Agents of S.N.E.A.K. (blue-black), the League of Dastardly Doom (black-red), the Goblin Explosioneers (red-green) and the Crossbreed Labs (green-white). [3]
Unstable features interactions with "Host" creatures via the "Augment" mechanic. Certain creatures have the supertype "Host" and feature an effect that triggers when they enter the battlefield. Other creatures have the "Augment" ability and can only be played on top of a Host creature. When this is done, the Augment creature replaces the "when this creature enters the battlefield" trigger with a different trigger, making the Host's mechanic repeatable in some way. The art and card frames for Host and Augment creatures are designed such that the Augment creature can visually replace the front half of the Host creature, turning the composite creature into a hybrid. [4]
Another major Unstable mechanic involves Sprockets and Contraptions. These are the culmination of a card first printed in Future Sight , the future-shifted "Steamflogger Boss." At the time of its 2007 Future Sight printing, Steamflogger Boss referenced "Riggers" and Contraptions, which were not referred to by any other cards or rules in all of Magic. Unstable finally defined them. Contraptions are artifacts that reside in a special Contraption deck consisting of no more than 15 cards. "Assembling" one puts it on the battlefield. All Contraptions have a reverse face, instead of the standard Magic: the Gathering card back, depicting three sprockets. Any assembled Contraption must be assigned to one of these sprockets of its controller's choice at the time of assembly. At the beginning of a player's upkeep, that player may "crank" (activate) any Contraptions associated with one sprocket. The sprockets are selected in sequence (third, first, second, third, and so on), such that the player cannot choose which sprocket will activate at will. [4]
Silver-bordered cards had never been legal in any constructed play formats before Unstable. One week before its release, the EDH Rules Committee announced that all silver-bordered cards, except a short list of banned cards, would be officially legal for play in the Commander format for a limited time, until January 15, 2018. [5] [6]
Like Unglued and Unhinged, Unstable contains the five main basic lands of Magic with expanded, vertically oriented artwork. [7] All five basic lands in Unstable were illustrated by John Avon and feature artwork which stretches all the way to the edge of the cards, with no borders at all. [7] These lands command significantly higher prices on the secondary market than normal basic land cards from other expansions, although they perform the same function in the game.
Magic: The Gathering is a tabletop and digital collectible card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and had approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018, and over twenty billion Magic cards were produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.
Unhinged is a humor and parody themed expansion set to the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. Unhinged was released on November 19, 2004. Its tone is less serious than traditional Magic expansions. It is a follow-on to Unglued, an earlier humor themed expansion set. It was followed in turn by Unstable
Unglued is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set, the first satirical, non-tournament-legal expansion set released. It came out in August 1998. Its symbol is a cracked egg. Among the themes of the set were chicken, dice rolling and multiplayer Magic games.
Magic: The Gathering Limited Edition is the first Magic: The Gathering card set. It premiered in a limited release at Origins Game Fair in 1993, with a general release that August. The initial print run of 2.6 million cards sold out quickly, and a new printing run was released in October 1993. These two runs are known as Limited Edition Alpha and Limited Edition Beta, or just Alpha and Beta for short. Although Alpha and Beta are referred to as different sets by some, officially they are the same set; Wizards of the Coast had expected that people wouldn't necessarily be able to tell the two press runs apart. Beta fixed a number of misprints and errors on cards. The printer accidentally used different corner rounding dies for the second run, resulting in Alpha cards being noticeably distinct in shape and appearance from Beta cards and all subsequent cards. The Beta printing also included a revised rulebook with a number of clarifications, although creator Richard Garfield's short fiction "Worzel's Tale" was removed to make room. The print run of Beta is given as 7.3 million or 7.8 million depending on the source. Despite the set's print run being about three times as big as Alpha's, Beta sold out as quickly as its predecessor.
The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering published seven expansion sets from 1993–1995, and one compilation set. These sets contained new cards that "expanded" on the base sets of Magic with their own mechanical theme and setting; these new cards could be played on their own, or mixed in with decks created from cards in the base sets. With Magic's runaway success, many of the printings of these early sets were too small to satisfy the rapidly growing fanbase. Cards from them became rare, hard to find, and expensive. It was not until Fallen Empires and Homelands that Wizards of the Coast was able to print enough cards to meet demand; additionally, Wizards of the Coast published Chronicles, a reprint set that helped fix many of the scarcity issues with the earliest sets.
Ice Age is a block of three expansion sets in Magic: The Gathering, consisting of the Ice Age, Alliances and Coldsnap sets. It is also the titular first set in the block. The Ice Age set is the eleventh set and the sixth expansion set, previewed at the Canadian Card and Comics Spectacular in early June 1995, and released later that month. Set in the years from 450 to 2934 AR, the set describes a world set in perpetual winter due to the events in Antiquities. Ice Age was followed up June 1996 with Alliances, the fourteenth Magic: The Gathering set and eighth expansion set.; and on July 21, 2006 with Coldsnap. The time period between Alliances and Coldsnap was the longest period of time between the beginning and the completion of a full block in Magic. Originally, the set Homelands, released in October 1995, was the second set in the Ice Age block, but following the release of Coldsnap, Homelands was removed from the block in favor of Coldsnap.
The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering published nine base sets from 1993–2007, also referred to as core sets. The base sets were considered descendants of the original Limited Edition, and shaped the default setting and feel of Magic. These sets consisted entirely of reprinted cards. These cards were generally simpler than cards in expansion sets, omitting multicolored cards, and used only the original abilities and keywords of Magic such as Flying and Trample. This simplicity led to many cards from these sets being considered "staples" of deck design. All cards were given a white border to mark them as reprints, with a few exceptions. From Fourth Edition in 1995 onward, a new base set would come out once per two years in the spring or early summer; for tournament play, that set would be legal for two years in the Standard format until the next core set replaced it.
Time Spiral is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level block consisting of the expansion sets Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Sight. It is set on the plane of Dominaria, the first time that that plane had been visited since 8th Edition.
The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering has released compilation sets, reprint sets, and box sets over its history. These are distinct from core sets and expansion sets, the most heavily marketed sources of new cards. With the exception of Chronicles, reprint sets generally do not affect tournament legality in supported formats; for example, cards reprinted in the Modern Masters reprint set, while legal for tournament play, did not necessarily cause the card to be included in the "Standard" environment.
Magic: The Gathering formats are various ways in which the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game can be played. Each format provides rules for deck construction and gameplay, with many confining the pool of permitted cards to those released in a specified group of Magic card sets. The Wizards Play Network, the governing body that oversees official Magic competitive play, categorizes its tournament formats into Constructed and Limited. Additionally, there are many casual formats with the Commander format being one of the most popular formats of the game.
The Zendikar block is a Magic: The Gathering block consisting of the sets Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi. The eponymous setting is a vast, untamed wilderness, whose few bastions of civilization exist primarily for outfitting treasure-seeking expeditions to distant locales. Colossal ancient octahedral stones called "hedrons" float in the sky. A phenomenon known as "the Roil" causes frequent geological upheaval as it sweeps across the land. Unlike the previous two blocks, there is no multicolored theme. Instead, the themes Zendikar and Worldwake revolve around lands, and a theme of an adventure or quest. Rise of the Eldrazi, while part of the Zendikar block creatively and for the sake of constructed tournament rules, is unique mechanically and is designed to be drafted on its own. Drafts in the Zendikar block are either ZEN-ZEN-WWK or ROE-ROE-ROE.
The rules of Magic: The Gathering were originally developed by the game's creator, Richard Garfield, and accompanied the first version of the game in 1993. The rules of Magic have been changed frequently over the years by the manufacturer, Wizards of the Coast, mostly in minor ways. However, major rules overhauls have also been done a few times.
Return to Ravnica is a Magic: The Gathering block, consisting of Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, and Dragon's Maze. It is the second block set on the plane of Ravnica, after the Ravnica block, and again focuses on the multicolor cards and ten guilds of Ravnica. Return to Ravnica focuses on five guilds: the Izzet League, Cult of Rakdos, Golgari Swarm, Azorius Senate, and Selesnya Conclave. Gatecrash focuses on the other five guilds: the Boros Legion, House Dimir, The Orzhov Syndicate, The Gruul Clans, and The Simic Combine. All ten guilds appear in Dragon's Maze.
Theros is a set of three expansions to the Magic: The Gathering game, consisting of the sets Theros, Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx. The setting was later used for a Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook, Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020). The lore and aesthetics of the game setting was based on Greek mythology.
Seven Magic: The Gathering core sets have been released since 2009: Magic 2010, Magic 2011, Magic 2012, Magic 2013, Magic 2014, Magic 2015, and Magic Origins. Unlike 10th Edition and previous core sets, roughly half of each core set was entirely new cards. Beginning with Magic 2010, Wizards decided to introduce new cards into the Core Set so that they could be relevant for both new players as well as veterans. Starting with Magic 2011, core sets have included "returning mechanics", or non-evergreen keywords with cards printed in just one core set. All of these core sets were released in the summer of the year prior to the year in the title - for example, Magic 2010 was released in 2009.
Battle for Zendikar is a Magic: The Gathering expansion block consisting of the sets Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. It sees the return of full-art basic lands, last seen in the Zendikar block. It is also the first block in Magic to use the new Two-Block Paradigm, wherein each block has two sets instead of the three that were previously used.
Ixalan is a Magic: The Gathering expansion block consisting of the sets Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan. The first set of the block was released on September 29, 2017 and Rivals of Ixalan was released on January 19, 2018.
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set. It is not part of block. The sets development codename is "Cricket", and its expansion code is IKO. The set was released on April 17, 2020 in Asia and on May 15, 2020 in the rest of the world. The release date of the set was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zendikar Rising is the 85th Magic: The Gathering expansion and is not part of a block. It is set on the plane of Zendikar. It was released on September 25, 2020. The sets development codename is "Diving", and its expansion code is ZNR.
