Magic: The Gathering Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Shadowmoor was released on May 2, 2008. This is the first expansion of the Shadowmoor block and the third installment of the four-part Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Superblock that began with Lorwyn and will be completed by Eventide. It contains 301 cards 80 rare, 80 uncommon, 121 common, and 20 basic lands.

Shadowmoor returns to the dual-colored card mechanics that were made popular by Ravnica: City of Guilds. It also features the introduction of Scarecrow-type Artifact Creature cards.


Keywords[]

  • Conspire - As you play this spell, you may tap two untapped creatures you control that share a color with it. When you do, copy it and you may choose a new target for the copy.
  • Wither - Damage dealt to a creature with Wither causes that many -1/-1 counters to be put on that creature rather than behaving like normal damage. Everything else about that damage is the same - it can be prevented, and it can trigger abilities like Lifelink.
  • Persist - When a creature with persist is put into a graveyard from play, it is had no -1/-1 counters on it, it's returned to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.
  • Untap symbol - A new feature of this block, the Untap symbol allows the player to Untap an already tapped creature to play its activated ability.

Story[]

Shadowmoor is a plane of perpetual dusk where the sun never rises, and where strange light seems to come from unseen sources. This plane is Lorwyn's opposite. Lorwyn is an idyllic midsummer, but Shadowmoor is trapped in a state of crepuscular gloom. Lorwyn's races skirmish over territory and property, but Shadowmoor's races are locked in a perpetual, life-and-death struggle for survival.

Like Lorwyn, Shadowmoor is devoid of humans. Lorwyn's many other races, however, persist in Shadowmoor...but like the plane itself, they too are transformed into darker versions of themselves.

The kithkin, once communal and cooperative, are isolated and xenophobic in Shadowmoor. They live within walled towns, shunning outsiders and attacking those who get too close. The once silver-tongued merrows are assassins and saboteurs in Shadowmoor. They use the waterways to move quickly from victim to victim, always ready to drown and loot land-dwellers. Likewise the boggarts, once mischievous and hedonistic, are in Shadowmoor vicious and warlike. Their interests have turned from curiosity to pillage, and from stealing pies to stealing babies.

The larger denizens of the world, the giants and treefolk, find themselves changed as well. The treefolk of Shadowmoor are blackened, blighted, murderous creatures. And when awakened from the long hibernations, the giants are terrible, wrathful beings that carry huge pieces of the land itself on their bodies.

The transformation of the flamekin is perhaps the most dramatic—and tragic. Once their fires burned bright, but now they are extinguished, reduced to skeletal, smoking husks called the cinders. In Lorwyn they sought emotional transcendence, but in Shadowmoor they seek only to satisfy their malevolence and need for revenge.

The imperious and vain elves of Lorwyn find themselves humbled but heroic in Shadowmoor. Whereas Lorwyn's elves sought to judge and subjugate others, Shadowmoor's elves are the world's last hope—seekers and protectors of beauty and light in a dark, ugly place.

Only one race and one place remain unchanged when the Great Aurora turns Lorwyn into Shadowmoor: the faeries and their home of Glen Elendra. The fae are the fulcrum of this transforming plane, for it was their queen, Oona, who created the Aurora.

There was a time when Lorwyn had annual seasons and was "in balance." It was Oona who sought more influence and control over the world. From her secret glen, she wove countless powerful spells into a web of magic that would grant her more power over Lorwyn. But as Oona's enchantments on the plane grew more complex, the world was thrown out of balance. The very nature of the plane's denizens, objects, and places began to split; they developed "Jekyll and Hyde" existences.

Rather than risk losing her control of Lorwyn, Oona created ever more powerful glamers to stabilize the plane. Eventually she accomplished her goal. Lorwyn's fluctuating states fell into a regular interval of long, bright, warm summers, and long, dim, creepy autumns. The costs to the plane were substantial, however. First, each interval lasted for almost three centuries. Second, on each change from the Lorwyn to Shadowmoor state, the plane's denizens lost all awareness of their previous existence.

Advertisement