Beta

Limited Edition Beta
[[File:{{#setmainimage:MTG.jpg}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	The letter “B” against a black box
Design	(See Alpha)
Development	(See Alpha)
Art direction	(See Alpha)
Release date	October 4, 1993
Plane	Multiversal
Themes and mechanics	(See Alpha)
Keywords/​ability words	(See Alpha)
Set size	302 cards (75 commons, 95 uncommons, 117 rares, 15 basic lands)
Expansion code	LEB
Core sets
Limited Edition Alpha Limited Edition Beta Unlimited Edition
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Limited Edition Alpha Limited Edition Beta Unlimited Edition

Limited Edition Beta, commonly known as Beta, is the second print run of Limited Edition, which was the first core set of Magic: The Gathering. It contains 302 black-bordered cards. It was released shortly after Alpha, the first printing of the Limited Edition, sold out.

Beta is actually a nickname, but widely accepted as the name for this print run.

Set details

Comparison between Alpha and Beta card corners.

Beta included a few changes from Alpha:

• Its cards use a less rounded corner than Alpha cards. A new 4mm corner diecut was purchased by Carta Mundi to facilitate the increase in demand for millions of cards. Due to this, there is a difference from the standard 1/2" corner found on playing cards. This change also allowed future cards to be printed with larger artwork and smaller borders.
• Circle of Protection: Black and Volcanic Island, which were accidentally left out of Alpha, were added.
• The misprinted Cyclopean Tomb, Force of Nature, Birds of Paradise, Demonic Hordes, Elvish Archers, Orcish Artillery, Orcish Oriflamme, Phantasmal Forces, Red Elemental Blast, Rock Hydra, Sedge Troll, Unsummon, and Tropical Island were fixed.
• A third version of each basic land with new artwork was added.

Between Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, cards from Beta were initially the most desirable due to the combination of black borders and the use of the 4mm rounded corner. Due to the different corner radius, Alpha cards were considered marked unless a deck comprised only Alpha cards, but the advent of expansion sets with the smaller corners made the use of all-Alpha decks suboptimal.

Beta cards were printed using three different print sheets - one for rares, one for uncommons, and one for commons. As part of Richard Garfield's plan to keep players from guessing rarities, basic lands were included on all three sheets. The chance is approximately 3.31% for rares, 21.5% for uncommons, and 38.02% for commons. The only lands on the rare sheets were four copies of Island.

Marketing

Beta was released on October 4, 1993. Limited Edition was advertised as having “more than 300 cards,” so a third version of each basic land was added in the Beta release in order to validate this claim. The print run was announced by Wizards to be 7.83 million cards. Cards were available from mid-October 1993 until mid-December 1993. The cards were evenly divided over 60-card starter decks and 15-card boosters. UPC codes were now printed on the bottom of each starter deck (Alpha had none).

The 40-page Beta rulebook had Bog Wraith on the cover and “Worzel's Story” was dropped to include a summary of play, an FAQ and an Index.

Collectors' Editions

An International Edition card is distinguished by its square corners and its gold card border as seen on the backside of a card.

The Collectors' Edition was a special commemorative edition of Beta cards released on December 10, 1993. Wizards of the Coast produced about 13,500 copies of this set. These cards have square corners and a gold border on the back, and thus are not legal in DCI-sanctioned tournaments.

Out of those, 5000 were printed as the International Collectors' Edition, some of which were sold in the US and Canada to make up a shortfall in the regular print run, and the remainder sold overseas. The difference between the international and domestic versions is that the international edition says “International Edition” on the back of the card.

In November 2022, the 30th Anniversary Edition was released, which is a commemorative, collectible, non-tournament-legal product celebrating 30 years of Magic, inspired by Beta.

Cards and cycles added to Beta

Uncut Beta print sheet

The following cards from Beta were not printed in Alpha:

• Third versions of the basic lands
• Circle of Protection: Black
• Volcanic Island

Beta therefore adds the following cycles to those present in Alpha:

• Circles of protection: Five common white enchantments has a mana cost of and the ability to prevent the all damage from a source of a given color for — Circle of Protection: White, Circle of Protection: Blue, Circle of Protection: Black, Circle of Protection: Red, and Circle of Protection: Green.
• Dual lands: Ten rare lands with two basic land types.
  • Allied colors — Tundra, Underground Sea, Badlands, Taiga, and Savannah.
  • Enemy colors — Scrubland, Volcanic Island, Bayou, Plateau, and Tropical Island.

Misprints

• Almost every instance of the artist Douglas Shuler's name was misspelled as “Schuler”. (These include: Animate Artifact, Benalish Hero, Circle of Protection: White, Contract from Below, Demonic Tutor, Drain Life, Drain Power, Dwarven Warriors, Force of Nature, Frozen Shade, Glasses of Urza, Hypnotic Specter, Mountain (#298) Mountain (#299), Northern Paladin, Power Surge, Prodigal Sorcerer, Psionic Blast, Righteousness, Serra Angel, Tranquility, Unholy Strength, Unsummon, Uthden Troll, Veteran Bodyguard, Volcanic Explosion, and Weakness.) The only two cards in Beta that have Douglas Shuler's name spelled correctly are Icy Manipulator and the third (new) version of Mountain (#297).
• Goblin Balloon Brigade — the wording for the activated ability could be interpreted to give all Goblins Flying instead of only itself, which was the original intent. The wording was changed to reflect the original intent beginning with Revised Edition.
• Goblin King — the wording gave all Goblins +1/+1 and mountainwalk, but the original intent was that this would not apply to the Goblin King itself. Beginning with Revised Edition this problem was solved by listing the Goblin King's type as “Lord”; beginning with Ninth Edition the word “Goblin” returned to the type and the wording for the ability was changed to “Other Goblins get +1/+1 and have mountainwalk.”

External links

• Official product page (old)
• Limited Edition Beta product information page (new)