Contents:

1. At the End of the Rainbow
2. The Shards Reborn

At the End of the Rainbow

The Alara Reborn™ set, the third set in the Shards of Alara™ block, is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before . . . because it’s unlike anything that’s been made before!

When Magic™ players think of their favorite cards—the ones that are the most exciting, most powerful, or most bizarre—they often conjure up memories of multicolored cards. When players think o their favorite sets, those that contain a hefty chunk of multicolored cards often rise to the top. Multicolored cards (commonly called “gold cards” due to the color of their frames) just have a little more pizzazz. Well, you may need to reset your pizzazz-o-meter because— for the first time ever—you’re about to witness a Magic set that is made entirely of multicolored cards!

Many Shades of Gold

That’s right—every card in the Alara Reborn set is multicolored! There are no exceptions. Open a booster and you’ll see gold border after gold border after gold border. But that doesn’t mean there’s no variety. You’ll find two-colored cards, three-colored cards, and even one mythic rare five-colored card. You’ll find allied-colored cards and enemy-colored cards. You’ll find cards that continue the Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund, and Naya themes introduced in the Shards of Alara set, and you’ll find stand-alone cards that are just there to be awesome.

Most interesting, perhaps, is the brand-new kind of hybrid card you’ll find. Grixis Grimblade, for example, has a mana cost of U/RB! You can play it by spending UB or by spending RB thus doubling the number of decks it can find a home in. Even better, Grixis Grimblade (like many Alara Reborn cards) rewards you for playing multicolored cards!

Cascade of Riches

Another exciting aspect of the Alara Reborn set is its new keyword ability: cascade. Each time you play a spell with cascade, you’ll get a free bonus spell from you deck . . . but you don’t know what it’ll be! You’ll flip cards from the top of your library until you hit a nonland card with a lower converted mana cost. Jackpot! You can play it without paying its mana cost—and if that spell has cascade too, you get to your library or another spin.

Cycling Around

Even standard abilities like cycling get a glitzy makeover in this set. When it comes to cycling, it’s all about options: Is the card you’re holding useful to you right now, or would you be better off cashing it in for something else? Now there are three more ways to increase your choices:

• Cards with hybrid cycling costs. Glassdust Hulk has cycling W/U. You can cycle it by paying W or by paying U.
• Cards with two landcycling abilities. Sanctum Plowbeast has plainscycling 2 and islandcycling 2. You can cycle it to search your deck for a Plains or to search your deck for an Island.
• The Sojourners. Each of the five creatures with Sojourner in its name has a bonus ability that you get when you cycle it or when it’s put into a graveyard from play!

Treasure Trove

And that’s not all . . . not by a long shot. The Alara Reborn set contains the first ever colored Equipment—and there are six of them! It also has a cycle of Borderposts, a quintet of mana-producing artifacts that you can play by spending just 1 and returning a basic land you control to its owner’s hand. Check out the rest of the set, and you’re sure to find some goodies that’ll make your jaw drop. Sometimes all that glitters is gold after all!

Nicol Bolas has suffered since the mending of the time rifts on Dominaria. His voluminous memory and knowledge is fading, his scales are ravaged by age, and his mastery of magic is slipping away. He came to Alara to feed on its rich mana in one massive ritual, to restore that lost power once again.

At the center of the five shards, a mystic storm known as the Maelstrom has formed, fed by the waves of rich mana from the shards. Nicol Bolas plans to harvest the energy of this Maelstrom to bring back his terrible power. The ritual could lay waste to the entire reborn plane, destroying all its extant life, but that is far from a concern to the power-hungry dragon. All he cares about is the Maelstrom—and it needs to grow far bigger to satisfy the ritual.

Foreseeing the need for massive use of mana, Bolas seeded the shards years ago with minions who spread paranoia throughout the worlds. His scheme has succeeded; as magic from every shard clashes in the global war, the Maelstrom grows, like a clock ticking toward Bolas’s moment of triumph. Only another Planeswalker would be able to discover the ancient dragon’s multiplanar plan, and even a Planeswalker would likely perish trying to stop him. Alara has just become a single plane once more—but it may die before it has a chance to be reborn.

The Shards Reborn

Alara’s convergence is complete. All five shards overlap with the others, creating a chaotic melting pot of cultures and magics that surges with the power of a mana-storm known as the Maelstrom. Each shard, formerly a world unto itself, is now but a part of the massive world of Alara. As Alara’s new life commences, so does an all-out war between the former shards, thanks to the machinations of elder dragon Planeswalker Nicol Bolas. The influx of mana and discord from the Maelstrom changes the once independent shards, forcing internal evolution even as the armies assault one another.

Naya: Paradise Lost

The shard of Naya, once a lush, untainted jungle paradise, has been burned by the touch of war. The massive behemoths worshipped by the elves and humans of the shard run rampant, indiscriminately tearing through foreign lands. Prides of nacatl leonin have been scattered, torn by confusion and infighting, their leadership swayed by dark powers.

Drawn by Naya’s natural beauty—and thirsting for its living energy—the undead of Grixis have infiltrated the jungle on a campaign of domination. And the mages of Esper see Naya as a wild animal in need of etherium refinement—or a snug harness.

Naya adapts to the new world day by day. Some nacatl, calling themselves simply “leonin,” take up arms in the armies of Bant. Some elves have chosen to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with clans of Jund warriors. And Naya’s jungles serve as welcome shelter for vedalken hermits who have shrugged off the dogma of the Ethersworn.

Bant: Kingdoms in Strife

The enlightened kingdoms of Bant have suffered assaults on all fronts: their enemies now wage war not only on their physical borders, but on their orderly ideals as well. Bant’s smaller nations have united into one might army to defend its people and values, and to march on the shards that threaten them, Angels go forth to rid the skies of demonic forces and to shield the plane from dragonfire. Knights ride onward to fend off hordes of zombies, goblins, and viashino.

But they’re finding the fight to be stacked against them. Accustom to orderly ritual combat, the all-out planar brawl catches them almost defenseless. The same virtue that formed the foundation of their society has become their downfall in war.

Bant adapts by recruiting all the allies it can into its legions. It enlists wurms and hydras to besiege Grixis necropolises. It welcomes troops from Naya and Esper who seek the glorious embrace of the angels. Little by little, the war erodes Bant’s strict caste system, transform its society in the crucible of war.

Esper: The Etherium Crisis

The mages and sphinxes of Esper sought to control every aspect of their environment—the flora, the fauna, and even the sky—through the power of the magical alloy etherium. They believes that flesh is flawed, and that etherium brings perfection. But their etherium stores were running out, and the formula for its creation involves a red stone called carmot, which is nowhere to be found on Esper.

Now that the shard have merged, Esperites seek to plunder the other shards for carmot, but they must fight off the chaotic forces of the other planes at the same time. Prophecy-driven elves and blood-crazed barbarians seem to think Esper is some kind of sporting ground. Meanwhile, castes of Bant knights and power-greedy Grixis necromancers have glimpsed the potential of etherium and covet its advantages for themselves. Puppeteered by Bolas, the mage sect known as the Seeker of Carmot drives Esper into the very kind of anarchic conflict its society scorns.

Grixis: March of the Necromancers

Grixis was a closed coffin, a world locked out of the mana of light and life. It festered for centuries, becoming a hellscape of demons and the undead. Now that the planes have converged, the lid to the coffin has been thrown wide open, and its hordes of blood-hungry fiends swarm outward, led by liches and necromancer barons.

As Grixis advances on the other shards, its forces grow. Every death at the claws of the Grixis hordes becomes a lesson in zombie arithmetic: one soldier lost, one undead minion gained. The Grixis necromancers draw upon specialized powers from every shard—undead thoctars for heavy cavalry, undead mages for missile support, undead generals to lead the charge, and undead dragons for raw destructive potential.

The only bright spot in Grixis may be the exodus of the living. Vithian survivors who have eked out a desperate existence in the hermitages and tunnels of the plane now have an escape route and are welcomes back to the rest of their living race.

Jund: Global Predation

On Jund, a primeval, seething cauldron-world of volcanoes and reptilian predators, the strong have always survived—because weakness meant instant death. Goblins scurried from mountaintop to mountaintop, seeking the honor of being devoured by swooping dragons. Viashino tribes battled for survival in steaming jungles. And clans of battle-hardened human warriors called “life hunts” on the mightiest prey in the lands.

As the shards merged, Jund’s fierce inhabitants saw new frontiers of prey, beings that were soft and weak compared to Jund’s predatory way of life. The warrior clans see more blood-trophies to braid into their hair, and the goblins and viashino see an opportunity for easy meals. And of course, the dragons see a world-sized banquet laid out before them.

But some Jund natives have chosen a new life on the other shards. Some join rhox monasteries or take up elegant etherium weaponry. Some call wurms into service with Bant armies or explore the far realms on lizardback, learning new forms of magic into which to pour their passion.