Shadowmoor is a Magic: The Gathering block consisting of the expansion sets Shadowmoor (released May 2, 2008) and Eventide (released July 25, 2008). The block was originally conceived as a single set that was to be released as the third in the Lorwyn block, but it was ultimately released as a semi-independent two-set block. Shadowmoor was linked thematically to Lorwyn, and the four sets comprising the two blocks rotated through official tournament formats together. Shadowmoor Set details Shadowmoor is the first set of the Shadowmoor block, which started May 2008. Shadowmoor is the first large expansion to be released in a month other than October since Ice Age’s June 1995 release. The designers of the set are Mark Rosewater (lead), Sean Fletcher, Mark Gottlieb, Devin Low, and Ken Troop; the developers of the set are Aaron Forsythe (lead), Devin Low, Alexis Janson (the winner of The Great Designer Search Contest), Matt Place, Jake Theis, Steve Warner, and Doug Beyer. The Shadowmoor symbol might suggest a bat wing or dead leaf, but is a Jack-o'-lantern lid taken from the art of the card , the King of the scarecrows, a prominent creature type in the set. The set's theme is color, utilizing hybrid (introduced and last seen in the Ravnica block) across the allied color pairs, along with innovations in hybrid mana. A new action is introduced in this set, called "Q", representing the untap symbol; according to Rosewater, this has "never [been] done before." Rosewater also stated that "the set plays into the duality theme between Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks, both in the art and the mechanics." For example, the same creature types from Lorwyn returned. The set plays on the same plane as Lorwyn, but due to an event called the Aurora, the plane and its inhabitants are twisted and changed. The art of Shadowmoor's booster packs depicts familiar Lorwyn creatures either during or after a dark change. As such, there are a number of mirrors between the Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks (For example, Lorwyn focuses on tapping and +1/+1 counters, while Shadowmoor focuses on untapping and −1/−1 counters) More than 25 cycles have been identified in this set, including a number of "mega-cycles" that include five allied-colored cards from Shadowmoor and five enemy-colored cards from Eventide. Rosewater has noted that the set is a "little cycle heavy". Five theme decks were released as part of the set. The