The situation with grey border cards is more complex. I'll try to explain a little here in simple broad strokes. Originally, all black border sets were limited edition, and all white border sets were unlimited. Unlimited, Revised, 4th, 5th, etc. are all unlimited sets, which simply means that WotC intends to keep printing these cards. The set you know as Unlimited, wasn't supposed to exist at all. It was only printed because Beta sold out, Revised wasn't ready to be printed yet, and WotC needed more cards to sell ASAP. The decision to discontinue the power 9 cards (and others) was made prior to Unlimited being printed. WotC didn't want to reprint those cards, but they needed product to sell ASAP, and the holiday sales season was approaching. In order to start printing ASAP, they couldn't make any card changes. Revised was supposed to be the first unlimited set. Yes, they originally wanted it to have grey borders. When you hear that Unlimited or Revised was going to have grey borders, both are talking about the same thing. It only happened once. The reason grey borders weren't used, is because WotC needed the emergency printing of the set you know as Unlimited. WotC did have the technical capability to create grey borders, it would have been done with a fine screen of black dots, similar to the way Unlimited card names look under magnification. Doing this would have delayed production, because it would have required new color separation films being created, and then shipping those from Seattle to Belgium. A delay is not what you want for an emergency printing. White borders were used because white is simply unprinted space. The existing color separation films which were already in Belgium could be modified to accomplish this and start printing immediately. From that point on, subsequent unlimited releases had white borders (until 10th Edition anyway). By the way, 6 other border colors were tested in late 1994 on Revised cards, but never put into production. Test prints only. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Purple, Red, and Green.
These videos are what I've been waiting for since 2015. Card Bazaar is awesome but the videos are brief and don't go into the kind of great varied detail. The hosts Gere have phenomenal energy and seem 100% genuine always. That's rare on youtube. The knowledge of the fella on the right is so valuable.
I've always considered Revised to be the most important set in the game's history. Smoothed out the power spikes from the first release, successfully introduced the concept of reprints, and a bunch of other significant historical precedents. It also served as the last printing for a bunch of iconic cards in the game's history. Which was really important, because otherwise dual lands, wheel of fortune, and dozens of other cards would have absolutely microscopic print copies in circulation. Also the last hurrah before a slug of absolutely atrocious core sets. If you compare this set to the 450 card monstrosity of liquid dog diarrhea which is 5th edition, you have to wonder how they fell so far.
The beginning of the pocket players guide has some excellent essays about the early history of the game and flavor behind the different colors of mana, great read for lore enjoyers.
Saying that you wouldn't be shocked if Lightning Bolt was printed into standard is really funny to me. Because it's true that a lot of people wouldn't be shocked, because no body would be playing Shock when Bolt is available. 😂
If you guys are interested, on Maro's podcast he has some episodes where he interviews designers on sets that worked and kinda does a deep dive on it. For instance he has an episode where he interviewed Richard Garfield about Arabian Nights where they talk about some of the questions they have here such as the thought process behind the different backs as well as some of the weirder designs like city in a bottle and shahrazad.
Love this, revised is my Alpha 💃🕺 Favorite card, Vesuvan Doppelgänger and Timmy of course. Also have a special fondness for clone, because I still remember opening a Clone out of my first booster ever and I was blown away by the card 🎉
I heard somewhere that the color hosers where designed for two main reasons; they were meant to be safety valves in case one color ended up being too good and became ubiquitous. and also to give players a strong reason to play as many colors as possible as to not get blown out by one of these. I think the intention was solid, but the designs themselves were a little heavy handed to say the least.
24:30 Dominia was the entire universe, what we now just call the Magic Multiverse. Dominaria was at its center, and was treated as essentially, its capital - its name literally means "Song of Dominia." This was very poorly communicated in early sources and the terminology has since been retired.
I started playing at 4th Ed., but this set was my first exposure to the game itself. Had two high school buddies who had gotten into the game at the tail end of Revised and had some Revised cards and decks. After trying the game with them, I promptly went out and bought my first starter deck. But, that was right when 4th Ed hit the store shelves. I missed out on Revised by THAT much! (I still love 4th Ed for being my first, though!)
The discussion about flight got me thinking that an award fo best artwork in the set could lead to some good discussions out of you two. Food for thought
Thank you so very much for this podcast. I came into mtg when khans of tarkir came out and is my favorite set to date. But being able to learn in depth about all the set’s before and just mtg history in general in such detail is a treasure. Best mtg podcast period. Hope you guys continue to find success in your endeavors.
Incredible content, but Patricks' audio is all over the place in this one. Check the mic positioning, Cedric's mic is much closer to his face and pointed right at his mouth. Compression may also help. Again, great work.
The discussions on the Satanic panic and pre-internet days is something I always find fascinating. I was born in the late 80s, and I got to experience both of those eras to some degree. I was raised and still am a Greek Orthodox Christian, but my neighborhood buddies were all Protestant to some degree. My dad picked up AD&D in the Marine Corps, and he introduced that to me, but some of my friends weren’t allowed to play it. Funnily enough, it took LoTR coming out that my dad had a talk with the other parents and just related D&D to that, then after that everyone could play. The other weird thing, was some of the kids that couldn’t play D&D were allowed to play MTG….which I felt was super weird lol but oh well it really shows how parenting goes sometime lol. Oh well, those were good times. The “surprise” of things really made it so much more interesting. You never knew when someone would pull out a new card they got from that $3 booster pack that their parent complained to high heaven about how expensive that was 😂😂😂.
Great episode as always. The first cards I ever bought were a Starter pack of Unlimited and two Arabian Nights boosters, but Revised was what I really consider my first set so this one's near and dear to my heart. I never got one of the pocket guides when they came out, but my grandmother bought me a copy from a library sale for $.25 about a year after it came out.
I feel like you guys made a concerted effort to put up more cards from the sat in this particular podcast than in previous ones. As a player since 1994, I appreciate the enhanced exposure with regard to old cards.
As a kid, my friends and I interpretation of the Serendib Effreet was not that it was a blue card with a green border, but that it was a green card with the wrong mana symbol.
Great episode, finally getting to the point right from when I started playing magic. This next run is going to be all my teen years, I can't believe you guys are really doing this. SO STOKED. Thank you endlessly!
A friend in seventh grade got one of those gift boxes, I saw Force of Nature and was like oh my God!, I have to have that!. That started the 30 year magic addiction.
I saw some of my friends playing Magic in the cafeteria in 7th grade too. I remember laughing at them. Then I sat down to see what was going on. 30 years later they’ve long since stopped and I’m still here 😂😂
Holy Molly, the Magic the Gathering pocket player's guide. Stumble upon it a couple of months ago alongside some of the very first novels, was pretty sure I'd lost it back in 1998 when I finished my studies. Hard to describe how nostalgia crushed me at that moment. Play note now, Magic, even before RPGs like Vampire or D&D- Boomer alert, it used to be AD&D at that time- was THE reason why I stopped buying/ playing with French versions of American games. Ask anyone who had to face a French Vesuvian Doppleganger or even a Clone in their LGS equivalent back in 94-95 and they'll tell you why it was a nightmare to tell a 12 years old kid that the translation was wrong and you should not interpreted the card this way but that way etc. Nightmares, and I don't speak about the horse. Goosebumps while waiting for Ice Age. Technically Revised/ FBB/FWB represent my first encounter with the game, same thing for my friends at that time, though Ice Age has such a unique place in my heart. You know, coming back from work during summer- for the very first time in my life- and buying some boosters or even a starter pack 'cause the snow-covered lands were dope, and playing with people you had never met before until the day after and so on and so forth. Great times. Freaking great chan. Cheers! Edit: but that zebra :D
I always loved the Tsunami and Flashfires cards. They helped decks feel fear because certain cards could absolutely destroy you even if the opponent probably didn't have it...they might.
I can confirm that Summer was indeed for sale in one high street shop in Cork, Ireland. Unfortunately I was 9/10 at the time and about 2 years before getting into Mtg at Ice Age.
I suspect they cut Dwarven Demolition Team due to its power level, which is pretty funny. They really wanted walls to be playable (they printed so many), and honestly I still kinda wish they were playable.
I think whether you heard "3rd edition" depends on when you were active and how active you were. If you were going to events and meeting/trading with people a lot when 4th edition came out, you would have heard it called 3rd edition a good amount to distinguish it from 4th. 4th edition's release was a couple months from when type 1 and type 2 came out, and the idea of different formats with different legal card lists first entered everyone's minds, with minimal to no internet guidance. So you would ask and be asked if a card was reprinted in 4th or if it was just in 3rd, like, totally as a daily question because your tournament life depended on not getting DQed over a Sedge Troll or something (literally saw a guy DQed for a Sedge Troll once).
For powerful cards, what about Fastbond? Surely it has a similar power level to Dark Ritual and that ilk. It is more powerful today than yesterday, but I think a lot of its power is inherent.
hey! no dissing of my beloved pocket players guide.. I got one in 1994/95 as well (I started playing a few months before Patrick) and I read that book several times in the following years. it wasn't as useless as they think . I still have it somewhere in my game room, and i am sure i will reread it again some day when I find it.
I still have some of those old counters! I don't remember if it was the first thing we got, but it was definitely early. Sadly I don't remember my DCI number anymore though lol
Oh man, that gift box was everything to 11-year-old me (though I had the 4th Edition gift box, not Revised - they actually just ran the same product back the following core set). Everyone knew those beads were how you tracked life - dark blue beads were 5 life, light blue beads were 1 life.
2:51 As it pertains to revised, aka 3rd edition, I always considered Alpha as 1st edition (missing two cards), Beta as 2nd edition, with unlimited being a second printing of Beta (adding the two missing cards and a third version of each basic land), thus making revised 3rd edition
Shout out to The Gamekeeper. I also probably got my first MTG cards from The Gamekeeper at the Commons lol. Years later I got my first full booster box when my father and sister went to the mall to try and find Christmas gifts for me, luckily my sister had the faintest idea what magic was and bought a Tempest box from some store there for me.
Can't wait to see Patrick's reaction to Dragon Engine being a rare in 4th, 5th AND 6th edition. Also the bit about 5e Flight made me laugh so hard it physically hurt my ribs.
Atleast if you pulled Dragon Engine in 3rd, 4th, or 5th, they hide the rarity, so you might think another card is rare and still be happy with your pack. But in 6th, that gold symbol is staring you in the face, and sadness closes in all around you 😢
When I was in jr high and tired of collecting x-men cards I started buying packs of revised and the various expansions that were out at the time. I wish I still had those old cards, Im pretty sure I had a Juzam Djinn from arabian nights too
Middle Earth unlimited had blue boarders, Battle Tech I think did a dark grey/blue for unlimited, Pokémon grabbed yellow, but most early games used black for 1st edition white for unlimited. (Star Wars and Star Trek from Decipher for examples from 94/95)
Great pod! Look forward to every two weeks :) I wanna push back on the 5e Flight is hilariously bad art. It looks exactly like what a zebra would do if some wizard enchanted it randomly with flying. It would be flailing around with its hooves awkwardly trying to make sense of what is happening to it.
38:00 the idea of hosers at the time was as an emergency valve. They were there and kept in as a goto solution should mistakes in balance crop up and a single color become too powerful as to become gamebreaking. It was felt that, as long as there was a reasonably easy way to hose a single color, it would prevent the possibility of a single color dominating every game should they mistakenly print a too powerful card. Right or wrong, the intention came from a good place.
Great show loving it so far, kind of strange that you would just glaze over the plateau thing though. Just said wrong artist credit. I think part of the facts or misprints etc. That it's just a worth noting how they lost the ability to print the original plateau art.
I started playing around this time too, and I had to make a deal with my mom that I would trade all the black cards away since they were satanic but the other ones were fine lol.
1:09:20 They're also moving a lot of specifically artifacts up to rare because, well, there's a lot of holes to fill at rare artifact after you take out the Moxen and Black Lotus. That's right, Onulet and Dragon Engine were the cards you were pulling in Revised packs instead of Power Nine.
