Tempest

Tempest is the 12th Magic expansion and was released on 14th October, 1997 as standalone set, and the first part of the Tempest block. The set continues the Weatherlight Saga on the stormy plane of Rath.

Tempest was the last set that was marketed as a standalone set, and the first that was advertized as a expert-level set in the new rating system for the game sets. Wizards of the Coast had decided not to target the large expansions toward new players. Instead, the simplified Portal cards and those in the base set were for them. Tempest was sold not only in the traditional 60-card starter decks and 15-card boosters but also in new pre-constructed theme decks. Using only Tempest cards, the design team built four theme decks, marketed as a ready-to-play introduction to the set. The accompanying booklet explained the play strategy for each deck and suggested ways to strengthen them by swapping in cards from other sets. Another difference from the previous large expansions came in the rulebook. Anyone buying Tempest cards could safely be assumed to have either a Fifth Edition rulebook or a friend who could teach them the game. So instead of reprinting all the rules in the Tempest booklet, only a brief overview was printed, with a few pages describing the features that were new in the set.