In Magic (as in all card games), designers strive for a balance in power level. In other words, they try to make cards good enough to warrant inclusion in a deck, but not so good that they need to be included in any deck to have a chance of winning. It makes sense that the first Magic set, Alpha, had a handful of 'broken' cards (cards that are too powerful, causing game imbalance). It's hard to get power level just right all the time, especially so when the game was new. Nine cards in particular were so ridiculously overpowered that they became known as "The Power Nine." Here they are:
Though banned in most formats and restricted (only one copy allowed) in others, these cards are tremendously expensive to obtain today. The Black Lotus is the most valuable- it fetched $166,000 in an auction last year. (As an aside, I owned 2-3 "Moxes" from the Unlimited set . . . I think I threw them away. Today they're worth thousands each. Ouch.) Today's post reflects on these cards.
Notice the big thing about the Power Nine: none of them are creatures.
This reality sheds light on an important concept in Magic that I never understood as a child: it's about the resources. Yes, you need creatures (most of the time), as they're the most common mechanism to reduce your opponent's life to 0 and thus win the game. But the resources- the cards, the turns, and the mana generators- are the engine that enables it all. So cards that accelerate the resources- that give you more cards, more mana, or more turns- can be devastating to opponents.
Most of us will never see a Power Nine card in play, but the concept exists today in reduced form. Some non-basic lands are quite expensive because they can grant access to different colors of mana in an accelerated fashion (more on this in a later post). Again, it's a resource thing. The greater and more flexible your resources, the more chance you have. It's also why card advantage (another future post) is so important.
As you build a deck, remember your resources. They are not an afterthought. Does your deck have a way to draw extra cards? To generate different types of mana (if you're playing multiple colors) efficiently? You certainly need other things (like removal), but if you ignore your resources, you'll put yourself at a serious disadvantage.
Though banned in most formats and restricted (only one copy allowed) in others, these cards are tremendously expensive to obtain today. The Black Lotus is the most valuable- it fetched $166,000 in an auction last year. (As an aside, I owned 2-3 "Moxes" from the Unlimited set . . . I think I threw them away. Today they're worth thousands each. Ouch.) Today's post reflects on these cards.
Notice the big thing about the Power Nine: none of them are creatures.
- Six of them (the artifacts) give you mana. These are powerful because they're free to play (cost 0), and initially (before restriction), you could have and play 4 copies of each of these in your deck (and more than one per turn, if your hand had them).
- So imagine this scenario: your opening hand has one land and four Black Lotus. You could generate 13 mana on turn one for an undeniable (and likely insurmountable) advantage.
- The other three (the blue cards) involve card draw or and extra turn. Either way, these give you access to resources at an impressive clip.
This reality sheds light on an important concept in Magic that I never understood as a child: it's about the resources. Yes, you need creatures (most of the time), as they're the most common mechanism to reduce your opponent's life to 0 and thus win the game. But the resources- the cards, the turns, and the mana generators- are the engine that enables it all. So cards that accelerate the resources- that give you more cards, more mana, or more turns- can be devastating to opponents.
Most of us will never see a Power Nine card in play, but the concept exists today in reduced form. Some non-basic lands are quite expensive because they can grant access to different colors of mana in an accelerated fashion (more on this in a later post). Again, it's a resource thing. The greater and more flexible your resources, the more chance you have. It's also why card advantage (another future post) is so important.
As you build a deck, remember your resources. They are not an afterthought. Does your deck have a way to draw extra cards? To generate different types of mana (if you're playing multiple colors) efficiently? You certainly need other things (like removal), but if you ignore your resources, you'll put yourself at a serious disadvantage.
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