Stronghold was the 21st Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...

set and thirteenth expert level set, and the second set in the Rath Block, released in March 1998. The block includes Tempest

Tempest (Magic: The Gathering)

Tempest was the 20th Magic: The Gathering set and twelfth expert level set, and the first set in the Rath Block, released in October 1997. The release of Tempest represented a large jump in the power level of the card set, compared to the previous Mirage block. Many cards from Tempest instantly...

and Exodus

Exodus (Magic: The Gathering)

Exodus was the 22nd Magic: The Gathering set, fourteenth expert level set, and the third and final set in the Rath Block, released on 15 June 1998. Its expansion symbol is a bridge...

. Stronghold contains 143 cards. Its expansion symbol is the closed portcullis

Portcullis

A portcullis is a latticed grille made of wood, metal, fibreglass or a combination of the three. Portcullises fortified the entrances to many medieval castles, acting as a last line of defence during time of attack or siege...

 of Volrath

Volrath

Volrath is a character from the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, featured in the sets Tempest, Stronghold, Exodus, Mercadian Masques, Nemesis, and Prophecy...

's stronghold.

Storyline

The crew of Weatherlight approaches Volrath's Stronghold in search for Sisay and the missing pieces of the Legacy. Deep in the Dream Halls, Gerrard learns that Volrath was his former blood brother Vuel and the one who stole the Legacy. What appears to be a final conflict between Gerrard and Volrath ends instead with the death of an imposter shapeshifter

ShapeShifter

ShapeShifter is an Application Enhancer plugin for Mac OS X developed by Unsanity that allows the user to make system-wide modifications to the appearance of the operating system's graphical interface by applying GUI skins through “injection” into running code and without modifying system files,...

.

Set History

Stronghold was the last set in which multi-colored cards appeared until the 2000 expansion Invasion

Invasion (Magic: The Gathering)

Invasion is the 21st expert level set, and the first set in the Invasion block of cards of Magic: The Gathering. The rest of the block is Planeshift and Apocalypse. It contains 350 cards.-Set History:...

.

On 13 April 2009 Stronghold was released on Magic Online. It went off sale on 27 April 2009, but was available again for the release of Exodus

Exodus (Magic: The Gathering)

Exodus was the 22nd Magic: The Gathering set, fourteenth expert level set, and the third and final set in the Rath Block, released on 15 June 1998. Its expansion symbol is a bridge...

on 7 December 2009. Stronghold is currently not available for purchase in Magic Online.

Mechanics

A prominent creature type in Stronghold is the Spikes. While first introduced in Tempest, Stronghold greatly expanded on this creature type that can make other creatures larger.

The En-Kor are creatures that can redirect damage they suffer to other creatures, thus making them almost invulnerable to damage. These cards enabled a combination that led to infinite life, and were mainly used for this unpredicted feature.

Stronghold used many of the same mechanics as Tempest, including buyback, licids, and shadow.

External links

• Wizard's official page for Stronghold
• Visual card list at gatherer.wizards.com