Opening a Collector Booster of The Hobbit

As I did last time, today I explore The Hobbit set through opening packs. Today, one collector booster.

I will say it up front: collector boosters are not worth the money. I got one with a draft night box (contents: 12 play boosters + 1 collector booster + basic lands). While I love opening collector packs, there is no way they are worth the price tag associated with buying them 'in the wild' (where they are generally marked up well over MSRP). But even at MSRP ($38), your chance of 'breaking even' value-wise is slim. Anyway, on to the pack.

Simplistically, a collector booster contains 15 Magic cards + 1 art card or token. The Magic cards are 9 foil uncommon/commons, 1 foil basic land, 2 foil rare or mythic rares, and 2 non-foil "booster fun" cards, and 1 foil "booster fun" card. But there are nuances . . . from the official site, one collector booster pack contains:

• 15 Magic: The Gathering cards
• 5 Traditional foil common cards
• There are 60 common cards (89.6%) and 5 common dual lands (7.5%) from the main set that can be found in these slots.
• There are 2 scene cards that can be found in these slots (3%).
• 4 Foil uncommon cards
• There are 55 traditional foil uncommon cards from the main set that can be found in these slots (84.6%).
• There are 4 traditional foil scene cards that can be found in these slots (6.2%).
• There are 6 traditional foil Dragon hoard cards that can be found in these slots (9.2%).In 1 of 10 Collector Boosters, a surge foil Dragon hoard card appears in this slot.
• 1 Traditional foil Middle-earth journey basic land
• 2 Traditional foil rare or mythic rare cards
• There are 53 rare (87.6%) and 15 mythic rare (12.4%) cards from the main set that can be found in these slots.
• 2 Non-foil Booster Fun cards
• A rare HOB scene card (10.1%)
• A rare HOC scene card (14.2%)
• A rare (13.1%) or mythic rare (4.5%) Dragon hoard card
• A rare (4.2%) or mythic rare (3.3%) book cover card
• A Middle-earth classic artist card (11.9%)
• A Dwarvish language card (1.5%)
• A rare (30.9%) or mythic rare (1.2%) extended-art HOB card
• A mythic rare extended-art HOC card (5.3%)
• 1 Foil Booster Fun card
• A traditional foil rare HOB scene card (11.0%)
• A traditional foil rare (14.3%) or mythic rare (4.9%) Dragon hoard card
• A surge foil rare (6.5%) or mythic rare (2.4%) Dragon hoard card
• A traditional foil rare (4.6%) or mythic rare (3.6%) book cover card
• A surge foil rare (2.4%) or mythic rare (1.8%) book cover card
• A surge foil Middle-earth classic artist card (11.9%)
• A traditional foil Dwarvish language card (1.6%)
• A traditional foil rare (33.8%) or mythic rare (1.3%) extended-art HOB card
• A gleaming gold Smaug the Magnificent headliner card (approximately 500 copies available)
• 1 Art card (35%) or double-sided foil token (65%)

My last post broke out some of the above terms, so I won't repeat that here.

My pack is pictured below.

My rares/mythics were:

- Smaug the Impenetrable ($26.23)

- Getaway Barrel extended art foil ($0.64)

- Elven Passage dragon hoard frame ($1.91)

- Fateful Discovery foil ($6.87)

- Rhovanion Rampager foil ($0.30)

Those total $35.95; adding the common/uncommon foils, the pack would cost $40 to buy. For MSRP, that just breaks even. But right now, buying an individual pack has a median market price of $73 . . . insane. These are lottery tickets, folks.

If you like collector boosters, I recommend getting one through a draft night box. Those products are (generally) not marked up as much.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Opening a Booster Box of The Hobbit

This week, my boys and I opened the play booster box of The Hobbit set. This post explores the fun (and confusion) that comes with the experience.

A play booster box contains the following:

- 1 box topper card

- 30 packs (14 cards + 1 token in each)

For The Hobbit, the box topper is one of 40 "Middle-Earth classic artist cards." (See all 40 cards here.) I pulled a foil Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, currently selling for $20.

So far so good. Now to the packs.

Simplistically, a pack contains 14 non-token cards: 7 commons, 3 uncommons, and 3 wildcards of any rarity, and 1 land card. But there are nuances in each category; the below table directly from the Wizards site explains more. Buckle in, folks. It is going to be complicated.

• 14 Magic: The Gathering cards
• 7 Common cards
• There are 60 common cards from the main set that can be found in these slots.
• There are 2 scene cards that can be found in these slots (7.8%).
• 3 Uncommon cards
• There are 55 uncommon cards from the main set that can be found in these slots.
• There are 4 scene cards that can be found in these slots (5.5%).
• There are 6 Dragon hoard cards that can be found in these slots (10.9%).
• 1 Wildcard of any rarity
• A common (74.17%), uncommon (3.9%), rare (17.3%), or mythic rare (2.3%) card from the main set
• A common (less than 1%), uncommon (less than 1%), or rare (less than 1%) HOB scene card
• An uncommon (less than 1%), rare (less than 1%), or mythic rare (less than 1%) Dragon hoard card
• A rare (less than 1%) or mythic rare (less than 1%) book cover card
• 1 Rare or mythic rare card
• A rare (82.9%) or mythic rare (11.1%) card from the main set
• A rare scene card (1.8%; does not include rare cards from Scene Boxes)
• A rare (2.3%) or mythic rare (less than 1%) Dragon hoard card
• A rare (less than 1%) or mythic rare (less than 1%) book cover card
• 1 Traditional foil card
• A common (59.8%), uncommon (29.3%), rare (7.1%), or mythic rare (1%) card from the main set
• A common (less than 1%), uncommon (less than 1%), or rare (less than 1%) HOB scene card
• An uncommon (less than 1%), rare (less than 1%), or mythic rare (less than 1%) Dragon hoard card
• A rare (less than 1%) or mythic rare (less than 1%) book cover card
• 1 Land card
• A non-foil (26.7%) or traditional foil (6.7%) default frame basic land
• A non-foil (13.3%) or traditional foil (3.3%) Middle-earth journey basic land
• A non-foil (40%) or traditional foil (10%) common dual land
• 1 Non-foil double-sided token

They use a few terms related to card treatments. Let me explain:

- main set: cards with 'normal' card frames. 

- dragon hoard: cards with the dragon hoard card frame unique to this set. There are 25; see them here.

- scene cards: there are two types of scene cards; "HOB" and "HOC." You can get only HOB scene cards in play boosters. There are 15; see them here. 

- book cover cards: cards with an old school fantasy book art frame. There are 10; see them here. 

- Middle-earth journey basic land: full-art basic lands with the company traveling through Middle-earth. There are 5; see them here.

For each of the above, the cards could be non-foil or traditional foil (surge foils are available only in collector boosters).

I don't know how the math works anymore (it has been too long since my statistics class). But at a high level, combing over the above and making some guesses, in a given pack:

- you get two rares (or one rare/one mythic) ~20% of the time

- you get a scene card ~15% of the time

- you get a dragon hoard frame ~12% of the time

- you get a book cover frame ~1% of the time

This largely tracks with my experience, though I beat the odds in a few categories. In 30 packs, here is what I pulled:

- two rares in at least six packs (I think seven . . . I don't remember)

- 7 scene cards

- 5 dragon frame cards

- 2 book cover cards

My overall haul is pictured below.

A final observation: two of my 'two-rare' packs had the same rare in them (one regular and one foil). I've seen this happen in other sets . . . I wonder what the odds are of that.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

The Hobbit Prerelease

Today my sons and I played in our Local Game Store's The Hobbit prerelease event. It was our first such event, and our first time playing at our LGS (Games & Stuff in Glen Burnie). This post recaps the experience. 

Weeks/Days Before the Event

- You must sign up and pay in advance (they generally sell out). Make sure you choose your preferred time slot!

- We watched Tolarian Community College's guide to The Hobbit prerelease (it's a good video)

Arriving at the Event

I had never done a prerelease, so I didn't know what to expect. Observations:

- the event capped at 40 people

- most people were in their twenties to forties, with a few outliers on each end. My children (aged 10 and 14) and their friend were the youngest there.

- you can (but needn't) bring in bags, dice, card sleeves, playmats, tokens, lands, food and drink. We brought playmats and decided to buy deck sleeves there. We did not bring lands or drink . . . I wish I had brought a bag and some bottled waters; carrying things around was fine but could have been easier.

- we did the noon event (they also had 8am and 4pm slots). We didn't get started until 1230 at the earliest, though, since the first event ran over

- you scan a QR code to sign in. That prompted me to download a Magic companion app on my phone, and sign in to that using my Wizards of the Coast account (which I had, but didn't remember the password . . . had to reset that). That took time, but we arrived 30 minutes early, so no worries.

- I had paid for three people, so they asked me (since my app has only my name) who my "+2s" were. I gave them the names, and since my boys didn't have phones or Wizards accounts, the event organizer manually entered them in the system (without issue).

Building your Deck

We settled down to wait. Once everything was ready, we were assigned tables (via a common screen and our apps, if you had it). The organizers passed out prerelease decks and we were given 50 minutes to build a deck. You didn't have to stay at your table to build; some people moved around to be with friends.

A prerelease deck contains 6 The Hobbit play boosters (14 cards + a token in each), 1 foil rare or mythic card, four foil full-art plains, and a 20-sided spindown die. Using only these cards (plus basic lands, provided by you or the store if needed), you build a 40-card deck. Wizards has an official prerelease guide page that give you recommendations, including the mana curve. (Give that page a glance; there are some good things on it.) The general guidance is to have 24 non-land cards.

I built my deck, adhering closely to recommended practices. I settled on blue-green; a mixture of elves and big green creatures. Blue-green is one of the archetypes in this set (see the official page link above, or the graphic below, for the others).

Here is a picture of my deck:

And in decklist form:

Blue cards:

Elvenking's Harper

Enchanted River's Grasp

Gandalf, Wandering Wizard

Mirkwood Mediator

Plunder the Trollshaws

Riddles in the Dark

Sound the Trumpets

Green cards:

Bejeweled Warg

Beorn, Reluctant Host

Gigantic Big Bear

Mirkwood Pathmaker

Old Fat Spider

Ordinary Bear

Quarrel

Radagast of Rhosgobel

Warg Tactics (x2)

Wargling

Wood Elves

Multicolored:

Mirkwood Nurturer

Silvan Reveler

Thranduil, Sindarin Liege

Artifacts:

Giant's Boulder

Thror's Map

Lands:

Elvenking's Halls

Island (x6)

Forest (x9)

15 creatures, 16 lands, 9 other (a mixture of ramp, card draw, and removal). I felt reasonably good about this. Then the games began.

Playing the Matches

Prerelease events are three rounds. Each is a best-of-three match (so you will play three opponents and 6-9 games). You get 50 minutes for each round, but they will let you go over (once the clock hits zero, players are instreucted to play five more turns in the game before concluding). My record in a nutshell:

- Match 1: lost, 1-2 (against a black/red deck)

- Match 2: won, 2-1 (against a black/red deck)

- Match 3: won, 2-1 (against a black/green deck)

I finished 18th out of 40 with a win percentage of 55.6% and opponent win percentage of 40.2%. Anyone who won two matches got two Hobbit booster packs (yay!). If you won three, you got four packs. If you went 2-0-1 (tying instead of losing), you got three packs.

My sons finished 9th and 22nd, respectively. Their match records were 2-1 and 1-2, respectively, but the one was ranked much higher than I because of the strength of his opponents (their overall record was better than the ones I beat). In fact, he was the top-ranked 2-1 player, and I was the bottom-ranked.

Reflections

- I was nervous for my kids, not knowing if they would encounter aggressive, creepy, or strange opponents. I was needlessly worried; everyone had a great attitude. If you forgot something in the game, your opponent would generally point it out, even if it was to their detriment (nobody was cutthroat or annoying). 

- I felt safe leaving my stuff to go to the bathroom.

- I was surprised how varied the match length could be—some people could kick out three games against a given opponent in 20 minutes; others took the whole time. If you finished early, you were welcome to wander around and watch other games.

- It was tiring. Arriving early, we were there 5 hours. 

- It was a great time and a fun way to experience the new set.

This is a serious enough time commitment that I won't be doing this for each release, but I look forward to attending select events in the future. 

Happy Birthday, Magic

Black Lotus; the most famous and expensive Magic card

Today is Magic's birthday. On 5 August 1993, Alpha was released and the collectible card genre was born. This post focuses on the gifts Magic has given to me over the years. In no particular order:

- Fun. This game is a blast. I've played thousands of games over the years, and it never gets old. The ever-increasing and -shifting cardpool makes this a continually new (yet always familiar) experience, and can result in hilarious card interactions or game situations. I love that.

- Facilitating friendship. Games are a great way to meet and pass the time with others, leading to new or deeper friendships. As I mention on the reflections page, this game has stayed with me and led to new relationships over decades and continents.

- Creativity and exploration. As of today, there are over 32,000 unique Magic cards. This leads to functionally infinite permutations (and hence decks). Exploring the possibilities in this game gets the creative juices going. There's always something new to check out, and there are always new approaches to investigate.

- Education. This is an odd one, perhaps, but Magic has encouraged my children (and others') to develop their reading, math, and analytical skills. It can increase your vocabulary and appreciation/understanding of grammar (precise wording matters greatly for tight rules). Certain sets can even expose you to other cultures (through fantasy eyes).

- Beauty. The art, card frames, and even mechanics in the game can be a thing of wonder, well worth enjoying in and of themselves.

- Challenge. With so many card options, Magic offers challenge in two arenas: building your deck and executing its strategy. Competing is a great way to grow and spur each other on to improvement.

- Surprise. I'm still a sucker for opening packs. The 'blind buy' aspect of this game is amazing (and addicting). And with so many deck options, you never know what you might encounter in a given game, leading to constant surprises (not always pleasant) there, too.

Happy birthday, Magic.  

A Framework of Deck Themes

Hurloon Minotaur card art

"I've made this deck before." The thought ran through my mind recently as I was brewing. I've created hundreds (thousands?) of Magic decks in my life. And while designing a new deck is one delightful aspect of this game (as much fun as playing for some people), you can get a sense of déjà vu. There are over 31K cards, leading to nearly infinite deck options, but only so many deck themes. This post explores that and offers a framework.

I have explored deck types before. The basic types are aggressive (or aggro), control, midrange, or combo. But there are different ways (or themes) to implement each of these types, and I think the framework below covers most of them. I include some examples (of concepts or keywords), but they are not exhaustive. And deckbuilding constraints (like rarity restrictions in pauper) are not considered.

Deck Themes Framework

1. Spell color(s) matter 
• Mono-color
• Adamant, converge, sunburst, devotion
2. Spell cost matters (mana value, even/odd, X)
3. Spell types, casting, or quantities matter
• Specific type: creatures, instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers
• Broader categories (non-creature spells)
• Supertypes (legendary, snow) or subtypes (sagas, desert)
• Casting triggers
• Quantities of a given type on the battlefield
4. Lands matter
• Landfall
• Domain
5. Creature attributes matter
• Creature types (Kindred decks)
• Creature power/toughness 
• Keyword/ability word (flying, defender, deathtouch)
• Card state
• Face-down: Disguise, cloak, manifest, morph
• Double-sided: Transform
• Tapped
6. Combat matters
• Attacking, blocking, or damage triggers
7. Zone matters
• Hand (card draw, hand size)
• Graveyard (delirium)
• Exile
• Library (mill, cascade)
8. Transitions between zones matter
• Entering the battlefield, discard, dying/sacrifice, exile triggers
9. Life matters (gaining or losing)
10. Counters matter
• Proliferate
11. Tokens matter
• Creating
• Type/Quantity
• Populate
12. Win condition matters
• Poison counters
• Mill
• Specific card-based conditions: see this post on ways to win

Comments/Examples

Within the above framework, it is possible to have aggro, control, mid-range, or combo decks in nearly any category (though some lend themselves towards a specific type). And of course it is possible to have a given deck combine several themes. Let's look at some example cards and map them to themes.

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

Goreclaw is an example of theme 5 above—creature attributes matter. He makes creatures with power 4 or greater cheaper to cast and boosts them when he attacks. This theme could align well with an aggro deck.

All That Glitters  

All That Glitters aligns with theme 3 above—spell type matters. This card wants to be surrounded with artifacts and enchantments. That it relies on other cards in this way suggests is it could work in a combo deck.

Lord of the Nazgul

Lord of the Nazgul has two themes—5 (creature attributes matter) and 3 (casting instants or sorceries). That could lend itself to combo or aggro decks.

Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep

Kiora also has two themes—2 (spell cost, or mana value, matters) and 5 (creature attributes matter). She can work in several deck types.

Linden, Steadfast Queen

Linden has two themes—1 (spell color matters) and 6 (combat matters). She could slot into a life matters deck (theme 9), too. 

Pashalik Mons

Pashalik has three themes—5 (creature attributes matter), 8 (transition between zones matters), and 11 (tokens matter). That flexibility could encourage a wide number of deck types (aggro, midrange, combo).

----

We could do this all day. I have already revised this framework once and will continue to do so as I find and address omissions.

I find this framework useful as I think about exploring the game. Having a representative deck of each theme is a nice way to enjoy the varied strategies of the game. And analyzing the decks you have made may indicate that you tend towards only a few of the above, giving you insight into your own playstyle, preferences, or areas you may want to focus on in the future.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 28

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

Crimson Acolyte—a common creature from Invasion.

Crimson Acolyte has Protection from red (and can grant this to other creatures). "Protection from _____" can be a tricky concept. From the official rules, section 702.16:

702.16b A permanent or player with protection can’t be targeted by spells with the stated quality and can’t be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.

702.16c A permanent or player with protection can’t be enchanted by Auras that have the stated quality. Such Auras attached to the permanent or player with protection will be put into their owners’ graveyards as a state-based action. (See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”)

702.16d A permanent with protection can’t be equipped by Equipment that have the stated quality or fortified by Fortifications that have the stated quality. Such Equipment or Fortifications

become unattached from that permanent as a state-based action, but remain on the battlefield. (See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”)

702.16e Any damage that would be dealt by sources that have the stated quality to a permanent or player with protection is prevented.

702.16f Attacking creatures with protection can’t be blocked by creatures that have the stated quality.

That is wordy . . . some cards summarize, like the text on Apostle of Purifying Light below.

Genericizing: Protection from [color] means "This creature can’t be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, enchanted, or equipped by anything [color]." A helpful mnemonic: if you rearrange the words you get DEBT (Damaged, Enchanted/Equipped, Blocked, Targeted); this website has more.

Protection is often from a color, but sometimes from other things (which is why the 702.16 sections quoted above talks about "stated quality"). Some cards even have Protection from a player or Protection from everything. 

Invasion was an expansion released in 2000; it is headliner set of the block of the same name. One of its themes was 'color matters,' which is why Protection from [color] showed up on several cards in this set.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 27

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

Rampant Growth—a common sorcery from 7th Edition. In a foil treatment!

7th Edition was a core set released in 2001. Its normal cards are white-bordered . . . but this was the first core set to have foils, and they chose to give those black borders. Wizards used to denote the foils with a shooting star in addition to the foil treatment itself . . . that lasted from 1999-2003. They also used to print foils a lot more sparingly . . . back then, it was one foil per 6-7 packs. (Now, it is one per pack.)

Rampant Growth is a staple card; it first appeared in the 1996 Mirage set and has been reprinted 53 times. The ability to get any basic land from your library and put it onto the battlefield tapped is a 'ramp' effect that is invaluable in most games, granting access to more (or different) mana in future turns.

Speaking of reprints, Rampant Growth is one of these most reprinted cards in the game. In 2020 (the date of my reprint post linked in the preceding sentence), it had been reprinted 24 times. Since then, its reprints have doubled, largely due to Commander deck printings.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 26

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

You Find the Villains' Lair—a common instant from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

The first thing I notice here is grammar (the apostrophe in Villains' Lair). In modern times we've gotten sloppy grammatically, but Wizards does a good job with the grammar on Magic cards (and sometimes, such precision aids in rules clarity).

This card has a modal ability. From the official rules, 

700.2. A spell or ability is modal if it has two or more options in a bulleted list preceded by instructions for a player to choose a number of those options, such as “Choose one —.” Each of those options is a mode. Modal cards printed prior to the Khans of Tarkir™ set didn’t use bulleted lists for the modes; these cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference so the modes do appear in a bulleted list. 

Modal cards are powerful because they give options. Here, you can either counter target spell or draw two cards, then discard two cards. Most games will have situations where one (or both) is desired, making this a useful spell indeed. Sometimes, such flexibility results in a higher mana value, but here, three mana is perfectly reasonable for either mode.

This card also has flavor words (Foil Their Scheme and Learn Their Secrets).

207.2d Similar to ability words, flavor words appear in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Flavor words provide a flavorful description of abilities, but they have no special rules meaning and are not listed in the Comprehensive Rules. While an ability word ties together several abilities with similar functionality, each flavor word is tailored to the specific ability it appears with. 

Flavor words featured heavily on cards in this set. Speaking of . . . Adventures in the Forgotten Realms was released in July 2021 and a foray into the Dungeons & Dragons world, making it one of Wizards' earlier Universes Beyond sets. I really enjoyed both the flavor and mechanics of this release, and I missed it when it rotated out of Standard.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 25

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

Island Sanctuary—a rare enchantment from Fourth Edition Foreign Black-Bordered.

Intriguingly, scryfall didn't have the image of the foreign card (hence the banner in the image above). The actual card is in Spanish; below is the Fourth Edition English equivalent

The first thing I notice about Island Sanctuary is the wording. Oracle is the official Magic database for the most recent wording (Wizards regularly tweaks official card wording for clarity and simplicity; the Oracle wording takes precedence over what is written on the card). If this card was released today, it would read:

If you would draw a card during your draw step, instead you may skip that draw. If you do, until your next turn, you can’t be attacked except by creatures with flying and/or islandwalk.

This is an unusual ability; they don't make many cards with an optional/ongoing cost of skipping your draw. Card advantage is important in this game, so anything that minimizes that needs to be really powerful. I'm not sure Island Sanctuary hits the mark; it would be great against certain decks, but any deck featuring flyers would render this card useless.

I love the art here; the game's early years featured generally softer painting styles that evoked a feeling of escape, fun, and fantasy. The modern style is more realistic and often darker.

On the set: Fourth Edition Foreign Black-Bordered speaks to the game's increasingly worldwide appeal from the onset. Magic came out in 1993 but in English only; they started producing sets in other languages in 1994. Revised (AKA Third Edition) was released then in French, German, and Italian. From here, "The original release of a Core Set in a new language was usually black bordered, and is thus easily identifiable." So those cards had black borders though the English equivalents had white. Wizards expanded again for Fourth Edition, adding Chinese (traditional), Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish and following the same approach (black-bordered for those languages, white-bordered for everything else).

The languages Magic cards are printed in is evolving. There were 11 at its height (the above plus Russian and Chinese (simplified)), but have since contracted to six: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. And even then, not every product gets printed in every language; these sites are good references to show what is available for releases from 1993-2010 and 2011-present, respectively.

Fourth Edition (in English) is one of my fondest early Magic memories, as I discuss more here. 

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Remembering Fourth Edition

Today I reflect on Fourth Edition.

Fourth Edition was released in April 1995. It was the tenth set released for the game and the fifth core set.

The first three core sets (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited) were released in 1993, were extremely similar, and featured about 300 cards. Revised (1994) also had about 300 cards, but started to look a little different (89% were from prior core sets but it also reprinted cards from two expansions). Then came Fourth Edition.

Fourth Edition had 378 cards. The focus was still cards from prior core sets, but now only about 66% were from those; it drew more cards from more expansions:

- 258 were reprints from prior core sets (note: this counts the multiple printings of basic lands)

- 10 from Arabian Nights 

- 23 from Antiquities 

- 55 from Legends

- 32 from The Dark

Fifth Edition would be released two years later (1997). It was huge (460 cards) and had notable rules, wording, and artwork changes. I thus view Fourth Edition as the last "original" core set in the game—a turning point that signified changes on the horizon but still had the essence of the original release. (I analyze those early core sets in more detail here.)

The set hasn't maintained a lot of value . . . only eight cards clock in at over $10 today:

- Mana Vault ($89)

- Sylvan Library ($30)

- Land Tax ($26)

- Strip Mine ($21)

- Armageddon ($19)

- Birds of Paradise ($15)

- Winter Orb ($15)

- Stasis ($12)

My main memories of this set was . . . the game itself. The art, the rules, the world . . . this set was my entry into Magic. Below are a few cards that hold a special place in my heart, whether or not they are good (then or now).

Until next time, keep exploring.

Remembering Ice Age

Today I reflect on Ice Age.

Ice Age was released in June 1995—right around the time I started playing Magic. It was the eleventh set released for the game, but the first non-core set to have its own basic lands (and thus be "stand-alone playable"). 

There was a plan to give this set unique card backs (indeed, the plan was to do so every so often for certain Magic releases), but thankfully that idea was scrapped—in an era before players sleeved cards, taking that step would have minimized the ability to mix cards from different sets when constructing decks.

Ice Age was the first non-core set to have reprints. Of the set's 383 cards, 27 (22 non-basic-land) were reprints (26 of which appeared in the immediately-preceding core set, 4th Edition), giving people an idea that some cards were so basic to the game that they would be featured for years to come. (They got new art, though, in keeping with Ice Age's theme.)

Swords to Plowshares, a reprint with new art

Ice Age introduced basic snow lands. These were functionally identical to basic lands; their value came in being referenced/leveraged by other cards.

Ice Age's mechanics were underwhelming. Cumulative upkeep (making it increasingly expensive to keep such cards on the board), banding (which was never fun or intuitive), and abilities like "draw a card at the beginning of next turn's upkeep" were clunky and could be complicated. Other cards were overly wordy. 

Today, most cards are still affordable. The top in value (as of this writing):

- Necropotence ($49)

- Unique lands (Underground River, Karplusan Forest, Glacial Chasm, Adarkar Wastes, Sulfuous Springs, Brushland) ($18-33)

- Dance of the Dead ($17)

- Illusions of Grandeur ($16)

- Jester's Cap ($14)

My main memories of this set:

- The theme. I enjoyed the concept of a land experiencing an ice age; the theme and story helped lure me in to the game.

- The art. Tied to theme, the packaging and artwork were excellent and evoked a soft fantasy style I found (and find) highly appealing.

- Select cards. Some shown below. They may or may not have been powerful, but they were fun. Some still feature in my casual or Commander decks.

Today, Ice Age is still underwhelming . . . but nostalgic.

Until next time, keep exploring.