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The five shards collide
What this set is
Conflux is the second set of the Shards of Alara block. Alara was a plane split into five shards, each holding three allied colors and missing the other two, and Conflux is the point in the story where those shards begin crashing back together. The design follows the story: it is the block's five-color set.
Domain is the mechanic that carries that idea. It counts the basic land types among lands you control, so a deck with Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain and Forest gets the full effect. It is a returning mechanic from Invasion, and it gives a five-color deck a reason to exist beyond splashing for gold cards.
The set is small, 145 cards, and was drafted alongside Shards of Alara. Commander players know it mostly for a handful of lands and staples it introduced: Exotic Orchard, Reliquary Tower and Path to Exile all first appeared here.
Themes
Every mechanic in Conflux
Domain
Counts the basic land types among lands you control, from zero to five. Back from Invasion, and the clearest signal that Conflux wanted you playing all five colors.
Basic landcycling
Pay the cost and discard the card to search for a basic land. A common five-card cycle of these is what made five-color draft decks reliable in this block.
Unearth
Return the creature from your graveyard with haste for its unearth cost, then exile it at end of turn or if it would leave. From Shards of Alara, where it lived in the black, red and blue shard of Grixis.
Exalted
Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, it gets +1/+1 for each exalted instance you control. The Bant mechanic from Shards of Alara, back on cards like Noble Hierarch.
Devour
As the creature enters, you may sacrifice any number of other creatures, and it gets counters for each one. The Jund mechanic, carried over from the first set.
Where You Can Play It
Format legality
Conflux shipped under a single code. It predates Pioneer, so its cards are legal in Modern and the eternal formats.
Not Standard-legal. Standard only ever holds the last few years of sets, so everything this old has long since left it. These cards are still playable in Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander. Commons from any set are Pauper-legal; that isn't listed per set here.
Limited
The draft format
Drafted as Shards of Alara, Shards of Alara and Conflux, so the format kept the first set's five three-color shards and added a real five-color option on top.
Shard decks
Three-color
Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund and Naya, each an allied color with its two neighbors. The returning mechanics (exalted, unearth, devour) each point at one shard, which is how the set tells you where to go.
Domain five-color
Ramp and fixing
Basic landcyclers and the shards' tri-lands find all five basic types, and domain cards scale with them. Slower than a shard deck, and better the longer the game goes.
Commanders
The most played commanders from Conflux
The legends this set is best known for. Tap one for its printings and what it costs.
Boosters, precons and singles from Conflux are on TCGplayer.
FAQ
Common questions
Is Conflux legal in Modern?
Yes. Conflux released in 2009, after Eighth Edition, so its cards are Modern-legal. It predates Return to Ravnica, so none of its cards are Pioneer-legal from this printing.
What does domain mean in Magic?
Domain counts the basic land types among lands you control: Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain and Forest. The number runs from zero to five, and a domain card gets stronger with each type. Nonbasic lands with basic land types, such as shock lands, count too.
Was Path to Exile first printed in Conflux?
Yes. Path to Exile debuted in Conflux as a one-mana white instant that exiles a creature and lets its controller search for a basic land. It has been reprinted many times since.
What block is Conflux in?
The Shards of Alara block: Shards of Alara (October 2008), Conflux (February 2009) and Alara Reborn (April 2009).
All card names, art, and mechanics belong to Wizards of the Coast. Conflux released on Feb 6, 2009; details reflect the set as published. Sources: Wizards of the Coast set pages and release notes, Draftsim, Untapped.gg.
Playing Conflux in Commander?
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