Alara block

The Alara block is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level expansion block, consisting of the expansion sets Shards of Alara (October 3, 2008),Conflux (February 6, 2009) and Alara Reborn (April 30, 2009). The Alara block focuses on multicolored cards, in particular cards with three or more colors.

Shards of Alara

Set details (Shards of Alara)

Bill Rose was its lead designer for Shards of Alara, and Devin Low was its lead developer. Shards is a multicolor set which revolves around three-color combinations. Its tagline is, "Five worlds share one fate." The set consists of 249 cards, 20 basic lands, 101 common, 60 uncommon, 53 rare, and 15 mythic rare. It was the first set to contain mythic rares.

The design of Shards of Alara focuses on five different "shards" which together formed a single world once. Mechanically, each shard consists of one of the five magic colors and its two allied colors. Each shard has its own key worded mechanic or strong overarching theme, and its own creature types. The five shards were designed separately by three person design teams.