Prophecy

Prophecy

 

Theme decks

 

Prophecy
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	Three crystals
Design	William Jockusch (lead) With contributions from Bill Rose Mark Rosewater
Development	"Charlie Hasbrino" (lead), Mike Elliott, William Jockusch, Paul Peterson, Henry Stern, Teeuwynn Woodruff With contributions from Beth Moursund
Art direction	Dana Knutson & Ron Spears
Release date	June 5, 2000
Plane	Dominaria
Themes and mechanics	Alternate casting costs, Avatars, Land sacrifice, Mercenaries and Rebels, Rhystic magic, Spellshapers, Tapped or untapped lands
Set size	143 cards (55 commons, 44 uncommons, 44 rares)
Expansion code	PCY (formerly PR)
Development codename	Dionysius
Masques block
Mercadian Masques Nemesis Prophecy
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Starter 2000 Prophecy Beatdown

For other uses, see Prophecy (disambiguation).

Prophecy is the third set in the Masques block. It is the 20th Magic expansion and was released on June 5, 2000.

Set details

Prophecy featured 143 cards (55 commons, 44 uncommons and 44 rares); its expansion symbol is a cluster of three crystals (referencing the fragile rhystic magic of the set). Although Prophecy was the third expansion, and second small expansion, in the Masques block; its themes and mechanics were not a natural progression from those established in Mercadian Masques and Nemesis, leading to Magic Head Designer Mark Rosewater to state that, in his opinion, Prophecy felt disjointed from the rest of its block and that it is the second-worst designed set in Magic history, comparable to Homelands.

Prophecy is noted for introducing two of the first creature subtype hosers in Magic; Brutal Suppression and Root Cage, which deal with Rebels and Mercenaries, respectively. Prophecy is also notable for being the first booster set to feature the smaller shooting star design on premium foil cards.

Marketing

The cards were sold in 15-card boosters which had artwork from Avatar of Hope, in four preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack. The prerelease card was also Avatar of Hope, in a foil version. The set was accompanied by the novel of the same name. Like Visions, the set had the same name as an older card, which also did not appear in this set.

Flavor and storyline

Prophecy is set on the plane of Dominaria. Keld has declared war on Jamuraa. The city-states of Jamuraa form the Kipamu League and then repulse the invaders.

Tournament impact

Although contributing a few potent cards such as Avatar of Woe, Chimeric Idol, Foil, Mageta the Lion, and Spiketail Hatchling, Prophecy had an insubstantial impact on competitive Magic play and even had a paucity of playable cards in Limited. Mark Rosewater considers it the second worst designed set after Homelands, because it was too Spikey.

Themes and mechanics

Like Mercadian Masques, Prophecy had no new keywords. It did, however, introduce several new themes:

• Anti-rebel — cards like Brutal Suppression and Rebel Informer. (see notable cards)
• Rhystic magic — Discounted spells and abilities that are weakened if a specified player pays a set amount of mana.
• A land theme, with several permanents having abilities involving sacrificing lands, several cards that gained bonuses when all of their controller's lands were tapped, and various methods to use excess untapped lands without incurring mana burn. This was a counterbalance to Rhystic magic, as these cards encourage tapping out and leaving the controller unable to pay the Rhystic tax.

Creature types

No novel creature types were introduced in this expansion. The creature types Ghost and Ship were used in this expansion at the time of printing but were later changed to Spirit and Human, respectively.

Cycles

Prophecy features eleven cycles and six vertical cycles.

Cycle name
Avatars	Avatar of Hope	Avatar of Will	Avatar of Woe	Avatar of Fury	Avatar of Might
	Each of these rare Avatar creatures cost MM and, at least, have a static ability that reduces its cost by if certain conditions are met and a static combat or evasion ability.
Legendary Spellshapers	Mageta the Lion	Alexi, Zephyr Mage	Greel, Mind Raker	Latulla, Keldon Overseer	Jolrael, Empress of Beasts
	Each of these rare 3/3 legendary Spellshaper creatures cost MM and have an activated ability costing two cards and an amount of mana for a potent effect.
Ability-losing Creatures	Glittering Lynx	Ribbon Snake	Plague Fiend	Zerapa Minotaur	Vintara Elephant
	Each of these common creatures has a positive ability and an activated ability that can be activated by any player that makes it lose that positive ability.
No-Untapped-Lands Creatures			Fen Stalker	Keldon Berserker	Vintara Snapper
	As long as you control no untapped lands, each of these creatures gets a color appropriate boost.
Sacrifice-2-Lands Creatures	Jeweled Spirit		Coffin Puppets	Keldon Arsonist	Squirrel Wrangler
	Each of these creatures has an activated ability that requires the sacrifice of two lands. Green stands out by having a creature with two abilities requiring the sacrifice of a single land each. Copper-Leaf Angel and its ability requiring the sacrifice of multiple lands is thematically tied to this cycle.
Field Auras	Flowering Field	Sunken Field	Noxious Field	Barbed Field	Verdant Field
	Each of these uncommon Auras enchants a land, conferring it with an activated ability involving .
Flash Auras	Mageta's Boon	Alexi's Cloak	Greel's Caress	Latulla's Orders	Jolrael's Favor
	Each of these common Auras costs M, has Flash, enchants a creature, and is named after the legendary Spellshaper of its color.
Rhystic Do-More-Unless Spells	Rhystic Shield	Withdraw	Flay	Rhystic Lightning	Wild Might
	Each of these spells create a small effect, and then a bigger effect unless a player pays a set amount of mana. Tied to the Rhystic mechanic, except instead of being 'full effect' or 'no effect', the spells scale.
Any-Player Enchantments	Samite Sanctuary	Excavation	Endbringer's Revel	Task Mage Assembly
	Each of these global enchantments has an activated ability that can be played by any player.
Pitch spells	Abolish	Foil	Outbreak	Flameshot	Snag
	Each of these uncommon instant or sorcery spells has an alternate cost that includes discarding a basic land card of the type associated with its color.
Winds	Blessed Wind	Denying Wind	Plague Wind	Searing Wind	Vitalizing Wind
	Each of these rare instant or sorcery spells has a converted mana cost of 9 and a potent effect.

Vertical cycles

Cycle name
Glittering Cats	Glittering Lynx	Glittering Lion
	Each of these white Cat creatures has a static ability that prevents all damage that would be dealt to the creature and an activated ability that can be activated by any player that removes, until end of turn, the above static ability.
Spiketail Drakes	Spiketail Hatchling	Spiketail Drake
	Each of these blue Drake creatures with flying have an activated ability costing the sacrifice of the creature to counter a targeted spell unless its controller pays an additional amount of mana. This vertical cycle is unusual in that there is no rare member, and the intermediate Spiketail Drakeling was revealed upon the release of Time Spiral.
Black Upkeep Creatures	Whipstitched Zombie	Pit Raptor	Bog Elemental
	Each of these black creatures as an upkeep cost that needs to be paid each turn if the creature isn't to be sacrificed.
Double-Size Creatures	Spur Grappler	Scoria Cat
	Each of these red creatures get a +X/+X bonus that double its size as long as you control no untapped lands.
Brawlers	Branded Brawlers		Veteran Brawlers
	Each of these red Soldier creatures has two static abilities, one of which prevents the creature from attacking if the defending player has an untapped land and another which prevents the creature from blocking if you control an untapped land.
Wells		Well of Life	Well of Discovery
	Each of these artifacts as triggered ability that say "at the end of your turn, if you control no untapped lands, EFFECT".

Pairs

Prophecy has two mirrored pairs.

Mirrored Pairs		Description
Mercenary Informer ()	Rebel Informer ()	Rare Human Mercenary Rebels/Human Rebel Mercenaries with a mana cost of M, a power/toughness combination summing to 3, a static ability preventing its being targeted by spells or abilities from sources of the other's color, and an activated ability costing or , respectively, to put a targeted nontoken Merecenary or Rebel on the bottom of its owner's library.
Soul Charmer ()	Death Charmer ()	Common 2/2 Rebel and Mercenary creatures, respectively, each with an ability that triggers upon its dealing combat damage to a creature and has an effect unless that creature's controller pays .

Preconstructed decks

Prophecy has four theme decks, of which three are bicolored and one is monocolored.

Theme deck name	Colors Included
Pummel					G
Turnaround	W	U
Slither				R	G
Distress	W		B

External links

• Prophecy product information page — Wizards of the Coast