Mass of Mysteries is the backup commander from Dance of the Elements, one of the two new commander decks from the Magic: the Gathering set Lorwyn Eclipsed. It costs one mana of each color, has first strike, vigilance, and trample alongside a 5/5 stat line. It also grants an elemental you control myriad (an effect that enables a creature to clone itself when it attacks) during each of your combat phases. While at first this mysterious mass might just seem like the latest in a recent trend of boilerplate 5 color typal commanders, it actually serves as a reference to a far older card.
Horde of Notions was printed in 2007 in the original Lorwyn. It's a legendary five color elemental with five power and five toughness, vigilance, trample, and haste. It also has an activated ability allowing its controller to recast dead elementals from their graveyard.
If this is all starting to sound familiar, that's because Horde of Notions and Mass of Mysteries are remarkably similar cards. They have the same casting cost, the same stats, an almost identical collection of keywords (with the newer card swapping out haste for first strike), and they both have abilities that reward you for filling your deck with massive elementals.
Horde of Notions was even reprinted in Dance of the Elements, so the two cards show up there side by side.
While Mass of Mysteries serves is an effective reimagining of Horde of Notions, its ability is a lot stronger, since it can be activated at no cost. This just goes to show how much the power level of MTG has changed since 2007.
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For more information on the Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander decks, check out our value breakdown that analyzes both of them from a financial perspective.