Fallen Empires

I made a trip to Chatham last Wednesday, nothing special about that really. But I went into their “indoor market”, just to have a look.. Inside I found that all the shops I remembered being in there had all gone. All but one. I can’t remember the name of it but it’s a shop the size of my cupboard under the stairs. I’d never been in there myself but I remember wanting to go in when I was 11 because I saw in the window a packet of first edition Pokémon cards; at the time no one in school had any of them so I begged my mother but on that day she had no money. Anyway I went in on this day to see if he had MTG cards; being that this was a very small shop I thought it would be an easy find. NO! There was so much in there; I had to ask in the end.
There was one very small shelf. On this shelf was booster packs of Morningtide, Jugment and Fallen Empires. Fallen Empires you ask? Well as I was standing in the cupboard of all things Geek I didn’t know the set all that well. This means it’s an old set. For £1 I bought a pack.

Upon getting home I opened this booster pack. First thing I noticed for starters is that it only has 8 Cards instead of today’s standard of 15. The creature cards are still called ‘Summon’.  I did some research because for one thing I’m surprised to find a set so old still sealed in its packaging. I went to the place everyone does when they want information... Wikipedia.

Fallen Empires was the eighth Magic: The Gathering set and the fifth expansion set, released in November 1994. Out of the set of 187 cards, 102 were functionally unique, with the remainder being variant illustrations of other cards in the set. The mechanics of Fallen Empires include a tribal subtheme and heavy use of counters and tokens. Thematically the set experiments with conflict within the colors. The expansion symbol for the set is a crown.                                                                                                                                                                

Storyline

Fallen Empires takes place on the continent of Sarpadia after the Brothers' War in Antiquities. Each of the major cultures on Sarpadia is confronted with internal threats caused by the cooling weather: the dwarves are attacked by orcs and goblins; the Vodalian merfolk face the homarid menace; the elves of the forest struggle to contain the fungus-like thallids; the proud soldiers of Icatia confront opposition from religious zealots; and the dark Order of the Ebon Hand fights a thrull revolt. The storyline of Fallen Empires is continued in the Ice Age set.

Set history

Fallen Empires is widely regarded as one of the weakest sets in the game's history. Wizards of the Coast even points out on the product page of Fallen Empires that the set "with mixed reviews from players, and controversy over the set's effectiveness still rages on." This along with the massive overprinting of the set makes its cards next to worthless on the secondary market. Each card including the rare cards can usually be acquired for less than £2. After the set was released, Richard Garfield stated.

“It is easily the most complicated and best-looking of the expansions. The play value is high for the complexity, and the cards are very valuable for play. The flavour is probably the most cohesive since Arabian Nights. This expansion is easily my favourite”.

—Richard Garfield, The Expanding Worlds of Magic.

Cards I got:

Even though it is thought of as the least liked set, I’m inclined to buy the rest of the stock in that shop when I next go there.