Magic is a game riddled with intricacies ranging from the creation of the game, to development, to the rules themselves. I’d like to take this time to share some of the most interesting anecdotes per set that Magic has to offer!
Alpha (1993)
Birds of Paradise was only printed because of the artwork. The artwork that is on the original BoP was originally commissioned to be Tropical Island but it was found that the birds were too distracting.
Beta (1993)
Circle of Protection: Black and Volcanic Island were first printed in Beta. They were omitted in Alpha.
Unlimited Edition (1993)
The artist Douglas Shuler has his name misspelled on over twenty of his cards.
Arabian Nights (1993)
Many of the card names are derivatives from Arabic words. For instance, the word Kird translates to jungle as seen in Kird Ape.
Antiquities (1994)
This set was the first to feature non-basic land cards with alternate art: the Urzatron lands.
Revised Edition (1994)
The Summer 1994 printing errors have become infamous and include misprints such as the Hurricane have the border of a blue card.
Legends (1994)
Steve Conard was the Design Lead on Legends, and drew inspiration for the characters from his own Dungeons & Dragons adventures.
The Dark (1994)
The Dark featured the first non-legendary multicolored creatures.
Fallen Empires (1994)
Due to the high number of cards that produced several types of tokens and counters, issue 4 of the Duelist Magazine included a sheet of these tokens.
This isn’t the Duelist; we weren’t able to include them – Editor
4th Edition (1995)
Fourth Edition was the first set to feature 15 card booster packs with foil packaging. The previous packaging could be manipulated with light and seen through and the foil interior which we still see today prevents this.
Image intentionally blocked by Wizards – Editor
Ice Age (1995)
The white mana symbol was changed for the release of this set so it did not conflict with the look of the snow mana symbol.
Chronicles (1995)
The reprints found in Chronicles retain their original set symbol. The easiest way to tell the difference between an original card and its Chronicles printing is Chronicles was all white bordered.
Renaissance (1995)
This set was only released in German, French, and Italian. This was done to bring reprints of cards that were only ever released in English into those respective markets.
He literally just said they weren’t released in English. I’m not sure what you want me to do here – Editor
Homelands (1995)
Timmerian Fiends, the last card to feature ante, was printed in Homelands.
Did I miss one that you like? Comments or questions? Drop us a line, and thanks for reading!
While not a mix of sugar, spice, and everything nice, Loren wishes to share his love of Magic with everyone. Loren plays Modern (not well) and EDH (not well). He lives in northern Arizona with his girlfriend and vault of artist-signed cards.