This week in Dig Through Time: Alara Reborn! This set ties up the preceding Shards of Alara and Conflux sets in the Alara block. In order to represent the reunification of the five shards of the shattered plane, Alara Reborn is comprised entirely of multicolor cards. This is the first and only set to do this ever. The set […]

In this week's Dig Through Time, let's examine a block from very early on in Magic's history, Tempest block. Tempest came out from 1997-1998, and is comprised of Tempest, Stronghold, and Exodus. For all of you Vorthos out there, this block is set on the plane of Rath, which has since become fused with Dominaria. Magic's early blocks […]

Welcome back to another installment of Dig Through Time. Today we're going back to my college days when Shadowmoor and Eventide were first released. These two sets are a little bit quirky, a little bit creepy, super unusual, and are among my absolute favorites. This block is unique for a number of reasons. First, it […]

This week in Dig Through Time, we're going to take a trip back to the year I graduated high school, 2006. That's right, today we'll be reviewing WotC's lost design file: Coldsnap. Coldsnap replaced Homelands as the third installment of the Ice Age block. The set hit many of the themes and mechanics of Ice Age, giving us cumulative upkeep, […]

Today's article travels back to the first set from everyone's favorite Shinto-inspired block that we're almost certainly never going to visit ever again: Champions of Kamigawa. This set introduced some much-beloved creature types like monk, samurai, and advisor. The set also introduced some legendarily bad mechanics: Arcane and Splice onto Arcane, Spirits and Soulshift. While those […]

For today's Dig Through Time, let's delve back to 2001-2002 for Odyssey block. This block was composed of Odyssey, Torment, and Judgment, and gave us the mechanics flashback, threshold and madness. In case you hadn't noticed, I love using the graveyard as a resource, and this block introduced lots of really fun graveyard interactions. Flashback […]

This installment of Dig Through Time digs all the way back to 2006 and one of my favorite blocks of all time: Ravnica! As you may know, Ravnica is the block that introduced us to guilds, and the guild names that we all still use today. The block includes Ravnica: City of Guilds, Dissension, and […]

Today's Dig Through Time brings you some of my top card picks from 1999's Mercadian Masques. This set is unique because it didn't introduce new mechanics but new creature types: Mercenary, Rebel, and Spellshaper. I won't talk about Mercenaries or Rebels, because they're a touch too parasitic; however, Spellshapers, I believe, don't get the credit they deserve. While […]

Hello there, I'm Dean Gootee and welcome to the Dig Through Time series! Like so many readers I started playing Magic: The Gathering at a friend’s kitchen table. I had dabbled a bit in school, but it wasn't until Scars of Mirrodin block that I was hooked. I quickly discovered that my favorite part of the game was pouring through […]