Timesifter: 2008

Helix Pinnacle | Illustrated by Dan Scott

Quick - where were you in 2008?

That's 14 years ago, if you're more of an ideas person, not a numbers person. The year 2008, or MMVIII for our Roman readers, is largely remembered as an solid entry in the "not so great" category in terms of years overall; not quite as bad as, say, 1348, but certainly worse than other more mildly crappy years. October of 2008 saw what is (hopefully) the worst financial crisis in any of our times (to date), and as someone who was graduating college around that time, it made for a less-than-inviting labor market to jump into. There were also explosions, earthquakes, cyclones, war, and the Summer Olympics.

But we're not here to talk about what was going on in the real world. We're here for another edition of Timesifter, in which we discuss the world of Magic: the Gathering and all its intricacies, faults, and highlights over its 30-year history. We've already covered one year, 2002, and today, we're jumping ahead 2,190 days to 2008.

It was an interesting year for Magic that saw four major set releases in those 12 months: Morningtide, Shadowmoor, Eventide, and Shards of Alara, or in other words, expansions number 44 to 47 in the greater Magic canon. The year added 825 new cards overall to the ever-growing card pool of Magic (compared to the not-yet-completed current year's 1,388 new cards so far). So today on Timesifter, let's take a look at the year that was: 2008.

Morningtide

We'd be remiss in discussing the second and last set of the Lorwyn block, Morningtide, without first talking about the Grand Creature Type Update that rolled out along with Morningtide's release on Feb. 1, 2008. As the name implies, it was a wide-sweeping reconfiguration of creature types that "rightsized" nearly 1,200 cards, adding one or more creature types to what was already printed onto the card itself. It was, and still is, one of the biggest changes to the "Oracle," or the current wording of every card ever printed. It also removed a bunch of creature types, most notably the "Legend" type as seen on pre-2008 legendary creatures, but also removed some more, uh, idiosyncratic creature types, like "Paratrooper" or "Aladdin."

But anyway, back to Morningtide. As mentioned, it was the back half of the two-set Lorwyn cycle, continuing the tribulations of Rhys (famous for first being Rhys the Exiled before Rhys the Redeemed, if you were unclear on how his story arc went). In Morningtide, Rhys's horns were all busted up, which made him hideous. In all, it was a tough time for our Elf friend.

And speaking of Elves, Morningtide, continuing what Lorwyn started, is a tribal and class-matters set. Along with Elves, the set featured all manner of tribes, from merfolk to Faeries, Goblins to Treefolk, giants, Kithkin and Elementals. In addition, there was plenty of support for "classes", like Soldiers, Wizards and Rogues. It also brought us the Prowl, Kinship, and Reinforce mechanics, as seen on cards like Auntie's Snitch, Ink Dissolver, or Rustic Clachan, which haven't exactly established themselves as fan favorites in the time since 2008.

That's not to say the set isn't impactful today; quite the opposite, in fact. Several cards from Morningtide still see plenty of play in Commander, and thus a ton of reprintings since 2008, like Reveillark, Idyllic Tutor, Distant Melody, Door of Destinies, Shared Animosity, and Bitterblossom. That last one, everyone's favorite Faerie printing press, is also still quite a few bucks despite seeing about a half-dozen printings since Morningtide. Similarly, Maralen of the Mornsong, Scapeshift, and Thornbite Staff have all crept up in price since 2008. There's also Mutavault, the best creature-land ever printed (don't argue).

Shadowmoor

The way the Lorwyn block and the Shadowmoor block interacted is unique in Magic. Despite being two distinct blocks each consisting of two sets, they were essentially mirrors of each other and were treated as a full, four-set mega-block when it came to constructed formats of the time. Shadowmoor the set launched in May of 2008, culminating a few months later in Eventide, which we'll talk about in a bit.

Thematically, that mirror image carried over into the plot: every three hundred years, the plane of Lorwyn transformed into a grimdark version of itself called Shadowmoor. Think Batman & Robin compared to The Batman. This time, thanks to the Great Aurora, everything's all Tim Burton-y, evidenced by the fact that many of the tribes from the previous two sets have been color-shifted to add a little spice (see: Sygg, River Guide into Sygg, River Cutthroat).

There's also a greater emphasis on hybrid cards, like Murderous Redcap, as well as the introduction of three new keywords in Conspire, Persist, and Wither. Like the preceding set, Shadowmoor has given a lot to we Commander players: Reflecting Pool, the completion of the hybrid cycle that started with Graven Cairns in Future Sight, the impossible-to-combo-with Devoted Druid, and Vexing Shusher all hail from Shadowmoor. Perhaps none are more infamous (and expensive), however, as Painter's Servant, which saw a lengthy banning that ended only three years ago. Joining Painter's Servant at the top of the Shadowmoor price charts are Greater Auramancy, Polluted Bonds, and Prismatic Omen. You may notice when hovering over those card names that the most expensive cards in each set are the ones that still appear as their original printing, which means they haven't had a more recent showing. That's not a coincidence.

Eventide

Rounding out the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor mega-block is Eventide, a 180-card set completes the story of Rhys, Maralen, Ashling, and the Vendilion Clique's battle with Oona, Queen of the Fae. Also Brigid was there. We're now into July of 2008, notably only four months before the first Twilight movie was released in theaters and the world changed forever. Much like Lorwyn-Shadowmoor changed forever thanks to the events of Eventide. See how it all comes together?

Mechanically, Eventide continues what Shadowmoor established with the liberal use of -1/-1 counters and the wacky uptap symbol as seen on Gilder Bairn and similar cards. (Side note -- that adorable little goofball on Gilder Bairn's art just made a comeback.) We also received the new mechanic, Retrace, which is probably most seen in games of Commander on Spitting Image, as well as Chroma, a mechanic so maligned that it was completely reworked into Devotion five years later with the release of Theros. 

Like its fellow 2008 releases, Eventide still has a considerable impact on Commander today. Bloom Tender, Glen Elendra Archmage, Flickerwisp, Necroskitter, and the "liege" cycle (Murkfiend Liege and friends) all see heavy rotation in Commander games of 2022, not to mention the completion of the hybrid land cycle began in Shadowmoor. There's also one of my personal favorite cards of all time -- Helix Pinnacle -- that saw its debut with Eventide. 

When it comes to fitting your modern-day Commander deck with Eventide cards, the prices aren't quite as daunting as some of the other sets released in 2008, but there are still some notables. The aforementioned Bloom Tender tops the list, followed by Waves of Aggression, Ashling, the Extinguisher, Ward of Bones, and the endlessly weird Endless Horizons.

Shards of Alara

It's time to move on from the plane of Lorwyn, or Shadowmoor, or whatever state we left it in, and head another popular spots that hasn't seen a return in Alara. With Shards of Alara, we return to the traditional (at the time) three-set block structure, but we also gain a brand-new thing never before seen in Magic: mythic rarity.

Shards of Alara has had an indelible impact on the game as it exists today. Mythic rarity, as was explained at the time, was created to be more in line with other, similar games that had a fourth tier of rarity as well as allow for more leeway in creating cards they didn't want to have a presence in a Limited format. Ajani Vengeant (RIP in Phyrexian) will absolutely ruin a draft, but if it's a mythic rare, at least it won't be seen quite as frequently.

When October rolled around, Shards of Alara dropped, and now players had real names for certain three-color combinations that are still in use today, whether the designers of Streets of New Capenna like it or not. I've yet to hear someone say "Riveteers" instead of "Jund," regardless of if they were around as a player in 2008 or not. Also, not to be forgotten, Shards was the first set that included a basic land in a regular booster pack, and if you thought you've seen the player base lose its collective mind at minor changes that occur now, boy, do I have stories for you.

Shards continues to have an enormous impact on today's Commander, even beyond the names of tri-color combos. Knight of the White Orchid, Death Baron, Tezzeret the Seeker, Crucible of Fire, Master of Etherium, Relic of Progenitus -- these are just some of the cards that make regular appearances even today. Oh, and there's also that one card, Ad Nauseam. I hear that's pretty good in certain circumstances as well.

Oona, Swagger of a Champion

When it comes to 2008, there were 16 legendary creatures available for our deck, ranging from a few mono-colored options, like Maralen of the Mornsong and Ashling, the Extinguisher in black to Vendilion Clique in blue, and...well, that's it. I've long been an advocate of mono-colored decks, but I think we ought to go bigger here, if for no other reason than to not run out of playable cards.

We could go a lot bigger and play Reaper King, but I'm not a maniac. Instead, we're going with Oona, Queen of the Fae, because I like making tokens and I like eating opponents' libraries a chunk at a time.

Say it, Play it

In terms of Magic, 2008 was a memorable year full of great cards, interesting sets and lore, and gave us plenty of Commander staples we still use today. In terms of just general world affairs, 2008 was a dumpster fire unmatched until 2016 (then 2019, then 2020, then 2021 -- and the jury's still out on 2022, but it doesn't look good), but let's put a quietus spike into that for now and just clap ourselves on the backs for doing a great job here today.

What year will be next? You tell me.