Mirage

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An early block expansion for Magic. Set in Jamuura (Dominarian Africa). It brought many fun things such as 15 card booster packs, reminder text, and flanking. It also introduced phasing, a.k.a. "that mechanic where your cards don't exist half the time".

In terms of story, the only important part of the block was the third set, Weatherlight, which began the storyline that would be the focus of the entirety of Magic for the next four years.

Notable cards:

The Diamonds - one of many attempts to make "the Moxes, but not utterly broken". Unlike their overpowered ancestors, each Diamond cost two mana and came into play tapped. That you can buy one for less than a quarter while the Moxes still require you to sell a kidney to afford them should tell you how well they did.

Fetch Lands - uncommon nonbasic lands that came into play tapped and could be tapped-and-sacced to pull one of two land types from your deck directly into play. The original dual lands and pain lands were still in common usage when these came out, so nobody cared.

Atogs - everyone's favorite overly-toothy card-eater is back, and he brought his family. Of the five, the most notable are the black Necratog (an early experiment in "graveyard-as-resource") and the blue Chronatog (who ate your turns to power itself up, making it one of the few monsters to see use in Stasis decks).

Mystical Tutor - more proof that tutors are good by default, this is one of the cards with staying power from Mirage, able to search anything that's not a creature for one blue mana.

Lion's Eye Diamond - While the other Diamonds were an attempt to fix the Moxes, Lion's Eye Diamond was an attempt to fix the most famous of all broken Magic cards, Black Lotus. It's still free, and still gives three mana of any one color in exchange for sacrificing it, but you have to discard your hand in the process. The problem is that the game just keeps giving players new ways to turn that "cost" into a feature (hint: Madness). If you don't see a deck playing Lion's Eye Diamond in Legacy, it's because that player could actually afford Black Lotus.

Settings of Magic: The Gathering
Pre-revisionist:	First Magic Sets - First Urza Block - Arabian Nights Legends - Homelands - Ice Age - Mirage
Weatherlight Saga:	Portal Starter Sets - Second Urza Block Tempest Block - Masques Block - Invasion Block
Post-Weatherlight:	Otaria Block - Mirrodin - Kamigawa - Ravnica - Time Spiral
After the Mending:	Lorwyn - Alara - Zendikar - New Phyrexia Innistrad - Return to Ravnica - Theros - Tarkir - Eldraine - Ikoria
Two-Block Paradigm:	Kaladesh - Amonkhet - Ixalan
Post Two-Block Paradigm:	Eldraine - Ikoria - Kaldheim - Strixhaven
Never in a standard set:	Fiora (Where the Conspiracy sets take place) - Kylem (Battlebond)