Mercadian Masques is the eighteenth Magic expansion and was released in October 1999 as the first set in the Masques block
Storyline
The Weatherlight's troubles continue as it crash-lands on a strange new plane. The ship is attacked by the Cho-Arrim, who steal the ship. Finally, soldiers from Mercadia City arrive to arrest the crew. Meanwhile, Orim, who was captured with the ship, learns more about her captors. The Cho-Arrim are spiritual people who suffer greatly under the greedy Mercadians. Their leader Cho-Manno explains that he took the Weatherlight's arrival as a sign prophesying the return of the sky god Ramos and the end of Mercadian rule. Orim slowly becomes sympathetic to the Cho-Arrim's situation and attracted to their leader.
Mercadians are an evasive, aloof people: the nobles are hedonistic, apathetic, and lazy, while the commoners are selfish, grasping, and paranoid. Mercadian goblins are much larger and smarter than any the crew has encountered before, and they actually seem to be running the city despite their servile attitudes. Furthermore, a guild of professional assassins, thieves and horrors called Caterans roams the back alleys of the marketplace, ready to terrorize or murder anyone for the right price. The Mercadian magistrate unexpectedly offers Gerrard an unusual deal. A platoon of soldiers and Cateran mercenaries will be placed under his command to recover the Weatherlight. If the mission is successful, Gerrard may petition for both the return of his ship and safe passage out of Mercadia for himself and his crew. In the ensuing battle, the violent Caterans slaughter the Cho-Arrim indiscriminately.
Back in Mercadia City, Takara brokers a new deal with the magistrate: the crew will repair the damaged Weatherlight and restore its flying mechanisms for him in exchange for their freedom. Sisay, Hanna and Orim will travel to Saprazzo, a rival trade city inhabited by enlightened merfolk with the ability to switch between fish tails and human legs at will. There they will secure an artifact required to fix the ship, while Takara and the male members of the crew remain in captivity.
Eventually, Takara engineers the crew's escape. Gerrard's band discovers the ruins of an ancient Thran site, encounters a race of powerful dryads, and battles a huge, mechanical war engine.
Keywords and mechanics
Unusually, Masques introduced no new keyword abilities to the game, although it did have several themes that were continued throughout its block. These included:
Rebels and Mercenaries: creatures able to search through their controller's library and "recruit" creatures of a specific type into play.
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 instants and sorceries with alternative casting costs, such as Invigorate. This mechanic had not been used since Visions.
Creatures with abilities usable by any player, such as Squallmonger and Flailing Manticore.
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