Shards of Alara

October 3, 2009 - 249 cards

Its tagline is, "five worlds share one fate." Shards of Alara is a multicolor set which revolves around three-color combinations.

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 over-arching theme. Each shard also has its own creature types. Each shard was designed by a three person design team.

Shards of Alara is the first set to feature several changes in WOTC's design and publishing approach. Sets from Shards forward will have a smaller number of cards, to reduce the size of the constructed cardpool for Block and Standard tournament formats, but will add the new "Mythic Rare" level of rarity, which appear in place of the pack's rare in 1 out of every 8 packs. Also, as part of their move to make products more beginner friendly, booster packs include a basic land in place of one of the commons, and pre-constructed decks will be rebranded as "Intro Packs" and include a 41-card preconstructed deck and one Booster Pack.

The Magic: The Gathering website has also announced new design changes to the Alara fat pack, which includes 5 distinct box arts and the replacement of the usual set novel with A Planeswalker's Guide to Alara. 

Shards of Alara also brings new multicolored Planeswalker cards into the game. The first such to be introduced publicly was the red and green Sarkhan Vol, followed shortly by the white and red Ajani Vengeant. Ajani Vengeant being a new form of Ajani Goldmane from Lorwyn, and was the promotional card at Alara's prerelease event in September.