Fifth Dawn

Infobox mtgset
Background = DarkSeaGreen
Expansion Name = "Fifth Dawn"
Expansion
Expansion Symbol =
Symbol Description = helm of Kaldra
Release Date = June 4, 2004
Mechanics = 5 Colors, Cogs
Keywords = Sunburst, Scry
Cycles = Beacons, Bringers
Size = 165 cards
Expansion Code = 5DN
Development Code = Tomato
Block Name = Mirrodin Block
First Set = "Mirrodin"
Second Set = "Darksteel"
Third Set = "Fifth Dawn"
Previous Set = "Darksteel"
This Set = "Fifth Dawn"
Next Set = "Champions of Kamigawa"

Fifth Dawn is a ' that came out in May 2004. It is the third and final set of the "Mirrodin" block. There are 165 cards overall, a high number of them are artifacts. However, "Fifth Dawn" adds a new twist to artifact theme of "Mirrodin" and "Darksteel": it encourages using colored mana for playing artifact spells (see Sunburst mechanic below). "Fifth Dawn" 's expansion symbol is small image of Helm of Kaldra"', a card from this set. "Fifth Dawn" was also noted to be a set based almost entirely on combo cards. Fans have called it a "second "Urza's Saga".

"Fifth Dawn" was the first set to introduce a new card front design of artifacts: inner border color became more dark, so the artifacts would be less likely confused with white cards. On a side note, it is possible to collect a few cards with the new type set from older editions as well. These cards can only be bought as reprints appearing in the Fifth Dawn theme decks. These Darksteel and Mirrodin reprints are visibly different from their original printings when placed side-by-side.

Mechanics

*Sunburst - the artifact card with Sunburst gets +1/+1 counter (if it's creature) or a charge counter (if it's a noncreature artifact) for each color of mana used to pay for it.
*Scry - "Scry X" means "Look at the top X cards of your library. Put any number of them on the bottom of your library and the rest on top in any order." In Fifth Dawn scry was always 2, later in Future Sight this mechanic was reprinted with different scry values.
*The set also focuses on "cogs" (the artifacts that cost 1 or 0 mana, although they're not referred to as "cogs" in rules text) and on combo pieces. For example, it contains a cycle of four artifacts called stations that, when used together, formed an "infinite combo", or a combination of cards that allows a player an infinite amount of some resource. They do not mention each other by name (and in fact are the first R&D designed combo not to do so), and so combinations of only two or three and some other card (such as [http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?name=march_of_the_machines March of the Machines] from "Mirrodin" or [http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?name=mycosynth_lattice Mycosynth Lattice] from "Darksteel") are also useful. This combo is also the first R&D-designed infinite combo; previous ones had effects that put a normally expensive creature into play or only worked if another specific card was in play.

External links

* [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/expansion/5dn Official Fifth Dawn Page]