February 1997 - 167 Cards

The story continues the struggle between the nations of Jamuraa against the evil Kaervek, only now Femeref has been destroyed and Suq'Ata and Zhalfir begin to have internal problems as well. There is hope, however, when Kaervek's ally Jolrael betrays him at the urging of the Teferi. Jamuraa's leaders, led by Jolrael's visions, free Mangara from the amber prison and begin to fight against Kaervek.

The Visions expansion originated as a split from "Menagerie" (the original name for Mirage), which had grown too large for a single set. Visions was the first set to have the same name as a Magic card printed earlier: Visions, the card, was first printed in Legends. Visions was the first set to have a wide dispersal of pre-releases.

At the time of its release, Visions was first in the release of quality cards at the common level. For instance, River Boa was considered "very good" compared to other green creatures, with two abilities (Islandwalk and Regeneration) and a 2/1 power/toughness at a casting cost of only two mana.

Visions was the start of the "speeding up" of red decks. Red decks began to get faster due to a card from Visions: Fireblast. In the late game players could now sacrifice two mountains to deal four damage to opponents. This proved to be essential as burn decks became all the rage. Decks were sporting "pure burn", essentially: four Lightning Bolt, four Incinerate, four Fireblast, which made it very easy for the red player to deal twenty damage to their opponents, or in today's colloquial, it increased the reach of the red player. .

Visions was the last set to contain a poison creature (one that creates poison counters) until Swamp Mosquito was reprinted in Timespiral. Suq'Ata Assassin was the last new poison creature created for 10 years, until Virulent Sliver appeared in Future Sight.

Visions included many creatures that had abilities that triggered upon entering play. This meant that some creatures could now do things normally reserved for instants, sorceries, or costly activated abilities. These comes-into-play creatures could also combo well with cards that returned creatures to a player's hand.

The Karoos were a cycle of 5 lands that came into play tapped, and required you to return a land to your hand to play them. They would set you back one turn, but reward you with an extra mana on the next. An improved version of the Karoo cycle later appeared in Ravnica.