Welcome to the next part of my coverage of Magic: The Gathering. This time, we're covering 'Alliances', which is the sequel set to the 'Ice Age' set. Alliances is the conclusion to the story that Ice Age has set up -- with the intervention of the mighty nature planeswalker Freyalise, the climate change is reversed and the ice age itself is starting to melt. However, the evil necromancer Lim-Dûl still has his designs on Dominaria, forcing the rest of the forces to band up in the titular 'alliances' to stand against him. And while all of this is going on, the rest of Dominaria have to adapt to these god-like planeswalkers casting World-level Enchantments, dealing with a global heating this time instead of cooling.
Mechanics-wise, Alliances would follow the theme of 'smaller' blocks expanding upon the major mechanics introduced in its bigger block, so we've got a bunch of tie-ins to Ice Age like snow lands and more cumulative upkeep. Alliances does introduce cards that have an alternate cost to casting it -- exiling cards instead of mana.
It's also worth noting that the structure of the three sets that make up the Ice Age block is a little inconsistent, with Homelands, the second set, being completely independent from Ice Age and Alliances. Much, much later, MTG would release a set called 'Coldsnap' to kind of 'replace' Homelands, which I've always thought wasa bit of a weird move. But we won't reach Coldsnap for a while.
- Click here for the previous part, Homelands
- Click here for the next part, Mirage.
- Click here for the index.
[Originally released as 'Homelands' in August 2019; rewritten in April 2025]
We'll start off with Lim-Dûl's High Guard. He could have been a generic skeleton, but I like how weird he is! In addition to his weird, asymmetrical helmet, he's got two arms sprouting out of his left shoulder, and a chain attached to his right shoulder. Very skinny bones, too! I can totally believe that the weirdness of his arm layout is what accounts for his 'First Strike' ability. And, of course, most older skeletons have regenerate to represent the ability of them putting themselves together after being scattered.
Balduvian Dead is, I think, meant to be undead versions of Balduvian Barbarians from Ice Age. That's a nice little story across the expansions, showing that Lim-Dûl's forces managed to reach Balduvian and turned those poor barbarians into zombies. The center guy even still has his beard! We've got a nice little nod to their origin as Red-mana cards with the Balduvian Dead requiring red mana to activate its ability, which transforms one of the dead creatures in the graveyard into a 'Graveborn' token.
Notably, thanks to the way the card is originally worded, this means that the token's creature type is 'Graveborn'. And since they apparently can't errata it because of... reasons I'm not sure about, Graveborn remains a token-exclusive creature type until today.
Insidious Bookworms has a pretty hilarious name... and it's actual worms! Real-life bookworms tend to be larvae of various insects, but it's just a 'worm' here. They're just scuttling around this pile of books. Having the bookworm eat cards from your opponent's hand is kind of flavourful, though I'm honestly not quite sure where the flavour is in having this effect happen when the Bookworm itself dies.
Krovikan Horror is another Horror, though, again, the flavour of 'Horror' versus something like 'spirit' or 'undead' or 'demon' really is blurred. Pretty cool artwork, of this strange, phallic monster wrapping its tentacles around its victim's neck and draining... something green from his eyes and mouth. It's also got two strange appendages that end in little candle-flames jutting out of its shoulders. Creepy face, too. Shame that we don't really get any flavour text about him, I kind of want to know what he's all about.
Krovikan Horror has an effect that's been since discontinued, where it cares about the order of cards (notice that it says a summon/creature card directly above it) in your graveyard, something that's a bit difficult to keep track of in a real game.
Phantasmal Fiend, an Illusion creature, is a pretty neat one that shows the same creature from different angles. The first one shows off the ghoul in his full glory, and I like how he's half-transparent and shows off the colour of the doorway behind him. Pretty simple 'demon man' design -- hooved feet, long insect-like feet, and a skull-face with huge tusks. Phantasmal Fiend has an ability that swaps around its power and toughness, because that does feel like something that an 'illusion' can do, can't it? It works off Blue mana, too, steadily building up the idea of cards benefiting from putting it in a deck that has access to its 'ally' colours.
Swamp Mosquito! Mosquitoes are assholes, and I think this is our first mosquito, right? Although it's just considered an 'Insect' creature, because MTG only ever really gets super-specific with real-life animals if they're mammals. Swamp Mosquito is a simple giant mosquito, but it deals damage with the 'poison counters' we've seen before -- gain ten and you lose the game immediately! Notably hard to do with the Swamp Mosquito having a 0/1 statline. I guess this represents a disease that the mosquito spreads to you?
Both artworks for Phyrexian Boon here are pretty great, showing just how utterly strange and abstract the fleshy body-horror not-demons are. Back in these earlier sets the Phyrexians don't quite have the identity of the flesh-cyborgs that they are now, and are a bit more nebulous. I like the art on the left showing = almost human-like hands granting a bright-blue boon from a tentacle; but the art on the right shows the arms writhing and wrapping around that man, seemingly consuming it.
It fits with the effect of the card as well, being an enchantment that can either buff or debuff a creature depending on its colour identity. Later on Phyrexians would have more colour identities than the simplistic "villain = Black Mana" we have here, but it does fit with the idea of Phyrexian power being a dangerous, forbidden Pandora's Box to those that aren't actually receptive to its ideologies and power.
Speaking of obscure creature types that's still supported... Spiny Starfish! Starfishes are still a supported type, but I don't think any is as weird as the Spiny Starfish here. It's standing on two of its legs, and appears to be lobbing regular starfishes as if they're shuriken. That's a hilarious mental image! The Spiny Starfish is able to 'regenerate', representing the real life starfishes' ability to regenerate lost limbs... but as it does so, it creates more starfish tokens! It's not exactly accurate becuase starfish limb regrowth isn't exactly mitosis, but it's cute.
Elementals tend to be a genie-like humanoid body in most fantasy settings, but we've blown through those in MTG's first expansion. Storm Elemental is pretty cool, yeah? It's got a weird bat-like body, a massive stinger tail that looks more organic than the rest of it, and its face is a bizarre combination of fish and cyclops. On its cheek are seemingly vestigial claws that just jut out from his body without any clear ability to actually function as hands... which would be weird on a regular creature, but on an 'elemental'? Sure!
We have a surprise new Homarid with Viscerid Drone. Remember we last saw the Homraids in Fallen Empires, but apparently after the Ice Age, these Homarids seemingly... mutated? The Viscerid Drone is still identified as a Homarid, but presumably it's evolved a somewhat centaur-like body that allows it to stomp out of the water into land? Its effect has it interact with Swamps. It's really hard to tell, though, since the Homarids from Fallen Empires never quite had a particularly consistent body shape. Judging by the flavour text, apparently these Viscerids are causing some unnatural flooding.
Viscerid Armor is an enchantment that shows a blue-gray Viscerid wearing orange armour lashed together with what looks like string. The fantasy isn't quite well-showcased in the mechanic as the Thrulls from Fallen Empires, though apparently the Viscerids run around doubling up on lobster armour.
Phantasmal Sphere is another Illusion creature, and a creepy one! I find it creepier than the Phantasmal Fiend. This thing is just a swirling vortex of blue energy, with its underside cracking open and extending... tentacles or tendrils of red energy around whatever that yellow orb is. Apparently, whenever the Phantasmal Sphere dies (which is inevitable due to its upkeep event) it makes a smaller 'Orb token' for your enemy. (Which, like Graveborn, is a creature type specific to the token generated by this card) So I guess it's betraying you? I find the art super-cool, but I'm not sure how the fantasy really works.
Storm Crow! I like Storm Crow. It's a bird trailing storm clouds, and this artwork has particularly long legs that make it look rather unnatural. I almost wished that the card had something more going on for it, because it's just a flying 1/2.
A bit of an infamous card, Force of Will is a very powerful instant spell that allows you to counter a spell at instant speed for zero mana. You essentially just lose 1 life and exile a Blue card from the game. Very powerful and quite an expensive card. Not my favourite flavour, though, mostly because the artwork shows a resilient-looking barbarian. Future printings of Force of Will tend to show off more 'Blue Mana' mages blocking spells with the force of their mind.
Speaking of cheap counters, Arcane Denial (which also has a very cool artwork of a mage blocking some kind of effect) is an instant that counters a spell and draws a card, which made it relatively cheap to slot into most decks, and made a rule that this kind of counter-plus-bonus effects needed at least two blue so that you can't just add Arcane Denial to any deck.
Okay, wow, look at that artwork for Thought Lash. That poor lady is babbling some nonsense, but her head has mutated into an upside-down beast-skull with a fleshy tongue that seems to start off with the disturbing consistency of her brain. What the hell! That's quite creepy, and it's just kind of a shame that the effect is quite incongruous with the card art -- Thought Lash allows you to remove the top card of your library to prevent one measly damage.
"I shape my weapons from the fears of my enemies". Okay, Awesome Presence, that is a very intimidating mass of yellow thorns, claws and tentacles that's being summoned there! Awesome Presence makes it so that a creature enchanted with this is so fearsome and terrifying that creatures need to be buffed with 3 extra mana to block this thing. The fact that it doesn't actually change any of the stats means that this is fully an illusion!
Browse features a very primitive version of the mechanic later on known to be 'scry'. It's overcosted for its effect here, sure, but it allows you to essentially fix your next draw. That blue-skinned orc (?) looks particularly cute, too, as he shows off why you end up exiling the other cards -- he's literally ripping up pages and tossing them as he looks for the information he wants. As good ol' Jaya Ballard notes, "once great literature - now great litter".
Deadly Insect is a very weird bug! It's just a 6/1 with the ability we'd later know as 'Shroud' -- which just means that it can't be targeted by spells of any players. The flavour text, however, talks about how deadly it is, which leads me to wonder if it was initially supposed to have an effect more similar to Deathtouch or even poison counters. This close-up artwork shows a rather whimsical-looking design, with a wacky, angular neck and a triangular head; a pair of mantis claws, and an abdomen that's connected to its thorax with a way too thin piece of flesh. At first, I thought that flower was part of its anatomy, like a anglerfish lure, but it doesn't seem to be connected to the Deadly Insect's body. It looks ready to kill that bird regardless, though.
Splintering Wind creates a 'Splinter' token. Again, just like 'Orb' and 'Graveborn', since the card text specifies the token as a 'Splinter', this also means that Splinter is somehow still a creature type nowadays. Are these fairies flying around with their leafy wings and engorged stomachs, and explode into splintery wooden shards? That's... that's surprisingly graphic and uncomfortable looking, moreso than the outright gore in some of these cards.
Yavimaya Ancients is another take on the Treefolks, but this one is probably one of my favourite in that it's 'tree' first and 'humanoid' second. The roots look like both scuttling legs and roots, and while there's a screaming face scaring that rider and her horse, the treefolk's face really looks like it's part of the natural grooves in the bark.
Oh, hey, Elvish Bard! I think this is the first 'bard' creature, after the D&D crossover set introduced Bard (which is one of their most iconic classes) into MTG. The effect is quite similar to a reversal of what would become the 'goad' mechanic, with the bard forcing creatures that don't want to block it to do so. I'm not sure what that giant head in the background is, is that suppoesd to be a giant looming as the bard plays to his animal friends?
Not our first gorillas (or 'apes', now) but we've got a couple of them. Gorilla Berserkers are a pair of really angry gorillas decked with some armour. Very Planet of the Apes. It's got Trample, and a variation of Menace -- it needs to be blocked by at least 3 creatures. It also gets Rampage, which allows it to become stronger if it's blocked by more than one creature. Cute combination of keywords!
Gargantuan Gorilla is obviously a King Kong reference, though he's not actually climbing a tree or a tower or a mountain. He's an angry gorilla, though, demanding you to sacrifice a forest or the Gargantuan Gorilla dies and deals damage to you. He also gains Trample if you sacrifice a snow-covered forest. Its tapped ability is a version of the 'Fight' mechanic later on, where you can force combat between two creatures. Not particularly sold on the flavour of this card, to be honest, but I like the ambition of the card-makers.
Yavimaya Ants is a horde of ants, identified initially as a 'Swarm' though later retconned into just being 'Insect'. It's that trope of an unending wave of of army ants marching through a jungle. The ant we get a close-up of has a pretty spiky-looking carapace that doesn't look like any real-life ant I've seen -- those ridges almost look leaf-like. It's got Trample and Haste, and the devouring horde is flavoured as it literally consuming your forests as a cumulative upkeep. One of the cuter flavourings of that keyword I've seen!
Chaos Harlequin is just a human clown, and a rather chaotic one! He's not gotten errata'd to get the relatively newer 'Clown' creature type at the time of me writing this, but he should be. I like that he's surrounded by little fiery sprites, and his hair is also on fire. The Harlequin's effect is quite bad, exiling a card from your deck for essentially a coin's flip on buffing or de-buffing the card for a turn. The essence of randomness is cute, but the effect is minimal and the cost and risk are both so huge.
Most of the gorillas are in green, but Red gets a couple of gorillas like Gorilla Shaman. This particular gorilla has a nicely manic look on his face as he glares at a collection of skulls presumably harvested from his enemies. The effect is rather overcosted for the destruction of an artifact. Also, we've got the return of Jaya Ballard in the flavour text of red cards!
The gorillas really hate artifacts, as the gorilla-themed sorcery Primitive Justice also has an artifact-destroying effect, though I'm not sure what the artwork is depicting. It looks more like the gorilla is skinning some kind of giant corpse? They do want you to build a Red/Green deck with the gorillas, with Primitive Justice synergizing with Green mana.
I genuinely don't have much to say about Red the most this time around. A significant portion of the Red cards are just Balduvian berserkers Rogue Skycaptain has a cool artwork of a knight riding a giant hawk, and the idea that he's a 'mercenary' is reflected by you needing to pay mana for 'wage counters', otherwise the Rogue Skycaptain switches sides. That does make the card rather terrible, but I really like the flavour.
I do want to highlight Death Spark's artwork because I'm not sure what the context is. The card effect fits with the name of 'death spark', allowing the caster to return Death Spark to his hand if a creature card enters the graveyard above it, but the artwork seems to show a chain-lightning-style effect piercing three heads in a row... and these screaming victims are submerged in what seems to be water? But the guy at the most back has a skeletal face, as if the three heads are progressively turning more decayed as we go to the back of the row? Very strange!
WHO'S A GOOD BOY, WHO'S A GOOD BOY? Clearly those mounts of the Kjeldoran Scout. I know nothing about the kingdom of Kjeldor, but clearly they are in the right here. Look at their knights! They ride huge horse-sized dogs with barding! And these knights aren't bothering anybody, they're just guarding trade routes between Karplusan and Balduvia and being proud at forming one of the titular alliances. And that dog in the second picture looks delightfully happy, too, with the tongue lolling to the side.
Gargoyles hasn't been the most popular creature type, but the very first gargoyle in MTG appeared in Red. I think the combination of the more sinister gargoyles from Dungeons & Dragons and Warcraft have tainted the idea of gargoyles in my head. They're sinister-looking, too, which is intentional... but gargoyles are, in real life, associated with churches and guarding it, right? And it actually makes sense that MTG would turn gargoyles into a primarily-white creature type, with Ivory Gargoyle here being the first. Pretty nice design, too, a devil-man with a head that's a mixture of human, bat and lion features with Quinton Hoover's fancy backgrounds. This gargoyle keeps coming back from the graveyard at the cost of denying you a card draw.
The Carrier Pigeon is quite cute! I like that this art showcases the human attaching a package on a cute adorable little reverse-backpack on the bird. Kjeldor has previously been established to be a kingdom with a lot of knights mounted on giant birds, so it's actually a cute little flavour that they've got regular-sized birds as well. The message given to you by the Carrier Pigeon is represented by exactly one (1) card draw.
A lot of these double-artwork cards really do tell a nice story, and I think White having a lot of 'group together against powerful beasts' cards makes absolute sense. Reprisal shows small groups of what appears to be regular townfolk just fighting against these giant, monstrous beasts. "The meek shall fight as one", as one of the flavour text notes, and I like that the card effect specifically targets large, powerful creatures with power 4 or greater.
The first artwork showcases a dinosaur-dog creature with red scales, almost resembling a monstrous version of the Chinese lion dances. The second artwork has my favourite creature, thought, with a four-legged creature that has a flattened hammerhead shark head.
Unlikely Alliance here is interesting. The artwork here is originally titled "Marriage of Convenience", with the card effect representing something similar to the famous White-mana removal Swords to Plowshares. Where Swords to Plowshares represented the exiled creature going off to be a farmer, Marriage of Convenience would've represented the exiled creature getting married off. And look at this card! A fancy noble with a 17th-century-style wig, getting married to a green-skinned cyclops with... interesting clothing. The parents in the background seem quite pleased, too. Ultimately, the effect they wanted to give to 'Marriage of Convenience' was deemed too powerful for a 'silly' artwork like this*, and some shuffling of effects was done until Unlikely Alliance was turned into an Enchantment that buffs a creature temporarily.
*Ironic, considering modern day MTG explicitly has some jokey sets printed to be extremely powerful...
The original effect that Unlikely Alliance/Marriage of Convenience was supposed to have was given to Exile, which implies that the creature removed from the game is exiled to that remote castle. Exile would lend its name to this effect specifically, being removed entirely from game in a way that's not death, hence bypassing the graveyard. And it is interesting to find out that it was originally flavoured to be exiled away! Modern-day exile effects tend to be flavoured more like being removed from this plane of existence with a magical portal or something.
Multi-coloured creatures now, and I think we need to start off with Phelddagrif. It's a cartoon purple hippo with two angelic wings that look ridiculously thin to support the girth of the hippo. Maybe that's why you need to pump the Phelddagrif with White mana and to give your opponent some health for the hippo to fly. In fact, the Phelddagrif's three abilities all give your opponent some benefit in some way. The Phelddagrif is a creature type original to MTG and have only shown up on this card and in joke sets.
That's because Phelddagrif is an anagram of (Richard) Garfield, PhD, the most famous creator of the Magic game. And they decide to immortalize him in his game as a hippo! A cute hippo, too. That explains why he's legendary!
Lord of Tresserhorn is a legendary zombie with a rather impressive 10/4 statline with the ability to regenerate... but has such a huge cost to bring into play -- even if you sacrifice tokens, your opponent getting to draw 2 cards is quite heavy. Pretty cool artrwork, though! The Lord of Tresserhorn is one of Lim-Dûl's lieutenants, and I like the gothic outfit and the huge battleaxe he's holding.
Lim-Dûl's Paladin has a really fancy armour, and I like how his blue cape is also attached to his biceps and not just his back. Paladins in Dungeons & Dragons -- and therefore most fantasy settings -- tend to be typecast as holy warriors who serve justice and the light, but in real history 'paladin' is just a term for a trusted military leader. It is quite surprising that with the many new creature types introduced after the crossover D&D that Paladins have not made it into MTG, and that Lim-Dûl's Paladin is just a Human Knight.
Lim-Dûl's Paladin is a really weird creature that temporarily becomes a 6/6 if it's blocked, and the Trample keyword allows it to deal damage over the enemy. But if it's not blocked, it'll always just deal 4 damage. But its base stats is 0/3! Kinda weird.
The Red/Black/Green sorcery Misfortune has a fun artwork. That pink-haired adventurer trips on a skull, drops what appears to be her torch and scroll, smashes onto a mirror behind her, and her magical wizard staff snaps upon impact to the mirror. Oof! Misfortune also is quite interesting, where it's your opponent that makes the choice between two effects. The effect is always beneficial to the caster, but the opponent needs to pick whichever one benefits his game state better. I think there's not as much mind games to this decision than they originally thought, but respect for trying.
Aesthirs are giant eagles seen in this block with the Kjeldoran Skyknights in Ice Age. This set also has a couple of 'Wild Aesthir' giant bird cards below... and it makes absolute sense that the magicians and artificers in Alliances would create their magical robots in inspiration of the majestic creatures in their world. Or rather, out of the majestic creatures in the world. The Aesthir Glider isn't just a cool metallic robot eagle, but actually made out of the corpse of an actual Aesthir... much to the disgust of the Sky-Captain quoted in the flavour text!
We have some more Phyrexian cards! Phyrexian cards would be a bit of a rarity until we move on to the climax of 'classic' Magic, but what few we get really do show off the 'monstrous mechanized assimilator demons from another world' vibe -- an unholy mixture of Borg and Diablo demons. Phyrexian Devourer is a strange artifact creature, looking like a twisted, alien version of a blacksmith's furnace -- shaped like a grotesque, strange conical snail of sorts. Very nicely alien texturing by artist Mark Tedin, with the Phyrexian's body looking almost like bone or chitin but also not quite, somewhat looking like concrete or something not quite natural.
The effects of the Phyrexian Devourer is quite true to its name, where you control, to a degree, what the Phyrexian Devourer consumes. You feed the Devourer the top card in your deck -- which is exiled and turned into +X/+X counters based on the casting cost. The fantasy represents the Devourer eating whatever creature or spell you exiled! But like many of these doomsday machines in sci-fantasy settings, feed the Devourer too much (above 7 power, that is), and it explodes.
The Phyrexian War Beasts are super-weird. We get two art pieces by Bill Sienkiewicz, and it looks almost like the same artifact creature, but mirrored. I'm not sure which part is supposed to be the 'head' -- it looks less of a war beast but more like a strange chariot of sorts. But is the huge, chunky piece closer to the ground like the front end of a vehicle? Or is it in fact the rear end, with the strange propeller/dragonfly-like piece of anatomy at the top end pulling the Phyrexian War Beast along like a strange draft animal?
I can see this thing quasi-hovering a few inches off the ground, terrorizing the countryside as this utterly incomprehensible mass of metals that belches smoke all around it. It has a fun Star Wars hover-vehicle quality to it... at least the one on the right. The one on the left seem to be supporting itself with mechanical legs. What a weirdo! I like him.
But wait, we're not done! The Phyrexian War Beasts, despite causing havoc, ended up inspiring the Soldevi Steam Beasts created by Arcum Dagsson of the city of Soldev. Very cool looking! The Steam Beasts didn't quite master the hover-vehicle or land-destruction technique of the Phyrexian War Beast, but I like the design here. The main body almost looks like some strange deep-sea fish with two super-long legs and two tiny manipulator arms attached to it. And, of course, you've got chimneys belching out smoke. The second Steam Beast art that's stalking through a swampy area seems to even have a human-esque face! The first artwork also show that despite the 4/2 statline, these things are massive, towering over buildings and spires.
I like the idea that the Steam Beasts were originally intended as guards in a city, hence the tiny arms. But as the flavour text notes... well, in any setting where a mad scientist experiments with otherworldly technology to create machines... things don't end well and the Steam Beasts end up going rogue and destroyed Soldev.
I like the idea of this Shield Sphere. It's not enough that it's a strange sphere that creates transparent magical arrows in multiple directions, but it's also an artifact creature. This thing is a Wall creature as well, and I like the idea of these soldiers running around with both hands focused on offense while the little Shield Sphere hovers next to them, expanding as needed to block attacks like a little auto-defense drone. The Shield Sphere gets more and more damaged and loses points off of its toughness as you use it as a blocker, though, which is a nice mechanic as it grows ever smaller.
Phyrexian Portal shows off a very nice showcase of the robo-demon aesthetics of Phyrexia. The actual portal on the left side is clean metal with lots of Gigeresque flowing shapes and lots of wires... which really does fit the idea of 'alien technology'. But the portal it opens has lots of demonic arms and hellfire reaching out and tearing apart that human who's probably trying to make contact with the Phyrexians. The effect fits the 'power at sacrificing a cost', with you exiling half of your deck for a chance to choose a card from the remaining half-deck. The tutor effect is powerful, but you also have to pay 3 mana to activate the portal, and you lose half your deck and there's the risk that the card you want got exiled due to the Portal's effect.
I really like the artwork for Lake of the Dead. For the most part, in these early expansions I won't be talking about land cards a lot, but the Lake of the Dead has such a haunting art as we take the point of view from the bottom of the lake, looking at the terrifying drowned corpse... whose stomach and arms seem to be torn apart by something even before decay. Lake of the Dead has quite an expensive effect, forcing you to sacrifice a Swamp just to get it onto the field (the idea, I think, is for a Swamp to flow over and turn into the Lake) and then you can sacrifice another Swamp for four times of the mana. Interesting effect, but it's mostly here because of the art!
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And with that, that's the end of the huge Ice Age block. With a lot of growing pains as MTG goes through and sees what work and what doesn't, we'll have a couple more years of stability and world-building as we head off to Mirage next expansion!
