Dissension rare. Psychic Possession is the first card ever printed with the phrase “enchant opponent”. Once it’s in play getting it to stay in place may be tough with some opponents, but we suggest using tape rather than a stapler.
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Dissension uncommon. The technique behind this cycle from Dissension can change how you look at a card’s relationship between color and abilities. For example, since it requires blue mana to cast it for good, Azorius Herald can be the first white creature to ever be printed with the unblockable ability. (For more on Dissension’s enhanced creature cycle, see Aaron Forsythe’s article Dissension’s Enhancements.)
Dissension common. Dissension is a set of many firsts for Magic. Over the years a number of twists on protection have been printed, but this is the first time “protection from monocolored” has ever appeared on a card.
Dissension uncommon. Let the word go out across the land that, starting right now, this card shall never count for Card of the Day-related trivia of any kind unless we say otherwise. It simply doesn’t exist. (We’re looking at you too, Mistform Ultimus - getting complex trivia down to three sentences or less is hard enough as it is!)
Fifth Edition version it becomes clear that it probably works by whacking people on the head with it.
Legends rare. During the color pie shift some players complained that temporary creature stealing didn’t feel like a Red ability, but even as far back as Legends Red has had some variations on that ability.
Mirrodin common. A common design method for coming up with new cards is looking for effects that can be mirrored in other colors. While designing Mirrodin the team wanted an effect like Soul Warden but for artifacts, and so Leonin Elder was born. After that, Disciple of the Vault was an obvious next step as a mirror, but this pair of cards shows just how different life gain and life loss are in terms of power.
Urza’s Destiny uncommon. The idea behind this one was to have something a little more versatile in that it could either save one of your own creatures, or slow down an opposing creature. Used on defense, this is essentially a Capsize with buyback for one less mana (but it only hits creatures). This card went on to inspire the Ravnica card Mark of Eviction.
Mirage common. Called “reverse-trips” by some, the idea behind this Mirage cycle was that you got a small effect, but then your opponent basically got one less card draw (since you put the new card on top of what they would have drawn) rather than you getting an extra card draw. The other cards in this four-card cycle would have been Fallow Earth, Memory Lapse, and Painful Memories, but Memory Lapse got moved to fill a slot in Homelands, so Ether Well was created to replace it in Mirage.
Mercadian Masques rare. This was inspired by the Legends classic Land Equilibrium. Though popular, the problem with Land Equilibrium was that it had no safety valve for when opponents can just lock that resource up (such as Armageddon). In modern design, cancelling a basic resource in the game often means you have to use that resource to keep the cancellation going, which automatically provides a safety valve. This practice actually hails back to Stasis, which stops players from untapping, but requires tapping a card each turn to keep it around.
