Unusually,
Masques introduced no new keyword abilities to the game. However it was advertised as introducing new creature types, which were continued throughout the cycle: Two of these types were rebels and mercenaries, creatures able to search through their controller's library and "recruit" creatures of a specific type directly into play. Another type was spellshapers, creatures that had repeatable activated abilities that mimicked various classic spells, potentially turning otherwise useless cards into powerful effects. All of ''Masques's
spellshapers required paying mana, tapping the creature and discarding a card to use their ability. Masques
also reintroduced spells with alternative casting costs. This mechanic had not been used since Weatherlight''. In
Nemesis, new Rebels, Mercenaries, and Spellshapers were added to the
Mercadian Masques repertoire. The Flowstone creatures, originally introduced in
Stronghold had another showing.
Nemesis introduced the
Fading mechanic, which had creatures enter the battlefield with X counters on it, but be placed into the graveyard after X turns. It again experiments with spells with a non-mana costs. The main theme and mechanic of
Prophecy was lands; specifically, whether lands were untapped or not. Many of its cards required sacrificing lands. Similarly, the Rhystic cards gave the player an advantage if no other players paid a certain amount of mana. Prophecy introduced no keyword mechanics. ==Reception==