Conflux

For the Draconic albums, see Conflux (album). For the Conflux Festival, see Psy-Geo-Conflux.

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Conflux
five-shard shield
Released	February 6, 2009
Size	145 cards[1] (10 Mythic Rare, 35 Rare, 40 Uncommon, 60 Common)
Keywords	Domain
Mechanics	5 color cards / abilities
Designers	Bill Rose (lead), Mark Globus, Mark Gottlieb, Kenneth Nagle[1]
Developers	Mike Turian (lead), Graeme Hopkins, Erik Lauer, Devin Low[1]
Dev. code	Paper[1]
Exp. code	CON
	v · d · e
Second set in the Shards of Alara block
Shards of Alara Conflux Alara Reborn

Conflux is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set, released on February 6, 2009. It is the 48th limited-edition expansion set for Magic and includes 145 cards.^[1]

Set Details

Conflux follows the publishing standards set by Wizards of the Coast in Shards of Alara. That is, mythic rares are included in one out of every eight packs. Intro packs contain 41 cards and one booster pack, and replace pre-constructed theme decks.^[1]

Nicol Bolas, originally printed as a dragon creature in the Legends set, returned in Conflux via the card Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Like the original creature, the planeswalker card is red, blue and black, representing Nicol Bolas's existence on the Grixis shard. In advance of the set's release, Wizards of the Coast published artwork featuring the new planeswalker, including a mural which appeared on the set's booster boxes.

Storyline

Nicol Bolas, the antagonist of the Shards block makes his first appearance as a Planeswalker here previously appearing as an elder dragon legend

The storyline focuses on the chaos which results from the Shards being forced together in a ring, constantly raking against one another. Esper finds itself clashing with Grixis and Bant, Bant is wedged between Esper and Naya, Naya finds its way between Bant and Jund, Jund conflicts with Grixis and Naya, and Grixis is pressed between Esper and Jund.

Mechanics

This set continues the Shards of Alara set's multicolor theme, expanding on it by introducing five-colored cards to the Alara block. Actually Conflux is the set with the highest number of five-colored cards of all Magic sets. Aside from the multicolor theme the set makes use of the mechanics introduced in Shards of Alara, Exalted, Unearth, and Devour. Finally Conflux introduces two mechanics on its own.

Domain — A mechanic first introduced in Invasion this is an ability word which refers to an effect involving the number of basic land types among lands the player controls (Anywhere from 0-5). One such example is Matca Rioters, whose power and toughness are defined by the number of different basic land types you control.

Basic Landcycling — Domain is accompanied by Basic Landcycling, an ability allowing the player to discard the card with basic land cycling to search his library for any kind of basic land.

Protection from Everything — In addition to the above mechanics, Conflux released a creature with the mechanic "Protection from everything" which is a form of the "Protection" mechanic. The creature, named Progenitus, is a five-color creature with power and toughness both equal to 10. Currently, Progenitus is the only creature in Magic: The Gathering that has "protection from everything" as an actual card effect. Additionally, Progenitus has a second ability, which allows him to be revealed to its owner's opponent(s) if it were to be sent to the graveyard from anywhere, and then shuffled back into its owner's library.

External links

• Official Conflux product page
• Conflux Spoiler list

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Magic Arcana — Announcing Conflux". Wizards of the Coast. 30 July 2008. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/1644. Retrieved 28 January 2010.