The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: [[Djinn]], [[Ghoul]], [[Ogre]], [[Ship]] and [[Wolf]].
The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: [[Djinn]], [[Ghoul]], [[Ogre]], [[Ship]] and [[Wolf]].
==Points of interest==
==Trivia==
*'''Arabian Nights''' is the first set to use an [[expansion symbol]].
{{Main|Arabian Nights/Trivia}}
*Multiple cards in this set use accent marks, or diacritics, in their [[name|names]]. These accents are not printed in the [[card title]] but can be found in the [[text box]] because the respective fonts used to or do not support them.
*As the first [[Magic]] expansion, '''Arabian Nights''' was originally intended to be released as a stand-alone product. As a result, the set was nearly printed with a yellow-on-pink card back, instead of the blue-on-brown used in all cards known today, in order to distinguish it from "The Gathering", which was originally the name of [[Alpha]]. In addition, [[basic land|basic lands]] were to be included. In the first print run of the set, a leftover [[Mountain]] was included accidentally, and the commons were printed with a smaller, darker circle in the generic mana cost of the card. The corrected print run of the set did not inculde any basic lands and used the larger, lighter generic mana circle that is used for other sets. As a result of its inclusion in this set, <c>Mountain</c> is the most printed card in '''Magic'''.
*'''Arabian Nights''' is the first set to introduce [[land|lands]] that had [[ability|abilities]] that don't produce [[mana]]. Some of these lands also produce colorless mana (see <c>Desert</c>, <c>Elephant Graveyard</c>, and <c>Library of Alexandria</c>), while others do not (see <c>Bazaar of Baghdad</c>, <c>Diamond Valley</c>, <c>Island of Wak-Wak</c>, and <c>Oasis</c>).
*<c>Aladdin</c> and <c>Old Man of the Sea</c> are the first cards that allowed tapping to gain "unmarked [[control]]" of another [[permanent]].
*<c>Bottle of Suleiman</c>, <c>Mijae Djinn</c> and <c>Ydwen Efreet</c> are the first cards to use the coin flipping mechanic. "Mijae" and "Ydwen" are [[anagram]]s of Jamie and Wendy, respectively. Richard Garfield was the best man at the wedding of Jamie and Wendy around the time of the creation of this set.
*<c>Aladdin's Lamp</c> had the most expensive [[casting cost]] of any card at the time of its printing. When it was printed, the icon of 10 in a gray circle (representing a cost of 10 generic mana, or [[image:Mana10.gif]]) did not exist, so the casting cost was instead represented as [[Image:Mana5.gif]][[Image:Mana5.gif]].
*<c>Ali from Cairo</c> was the first creature card added to the [[Restricted List]]. It was added in January of 1994 and removed in April of 1996.
*<c>Brass Man</c> inspired the creation of <c>Goblin Dirigible</c> and <c> Goblin War Wagon</c>.
*<c>City in a Bottle</c> is the only card in this set to reference the <i>Sandman</i> comic that inspired the set. It is the first "expansion hosing" card, meaning that it has an overall negative effect on cards with the Arabian Nights expansion symbol. Also, this card is the first to give the expansion symbol game relevance. There are two other "expansion hosing" cards: <c>Golgothian Sylex</c> and <c>Apocalypse Chime</c>.
*<c>City of Brass</c> is the most reprinted non-basic land.
*<c>Cuombajj Witches</c>: "Cuombajj" is translated from Arabic to mean "corrupt."
*<c>Cyclone</c> is the first card printed to use [[Cumulative Upkeep]], although it did not use this [[keyword]]. (<c>Stasis</c> is considered the first card with Cumulative Upkeep by some, altough its [[upkeep]] cost is only similar to, and not descriptive of, Cumulative Upkeep, and the card's [[Oracle]] text does not use the keyword). The use of Cumulative Upkeep here is not too surprising, as the team that was working on the [[Ice Age]] expansion, which introduced the Cumulative Upkeep keyword, also participated in development of this set.
*<c>Dancing Scimitar</c> has the greatest combined [[power]] and [[toughness]] among artifact creatures in '''Arabian Nights'''. It inspired the creation of <c>Ensouled Scimitar</c>.
*<c>Dandan</c> is mentioned in the [[flavor text]] of <c>Dauthi Trapper</c>.
*<c>Desert</c> is the first common non-basic land.
*<c>Desert Nomads</c> is the first card to have a non-basic [[landwalk]] ability.
*<c>Ebony Horse</c> is the first card to have the ability to remove a creature from [[combat]].
*<c>El-Hajjaj</c> was the first creature with its abilty, and also the only mono-black creature to have it. It inspired the creation of <c>Spirit Link</c>, which in turn inspired many other cards.
*<c>Erg Raiders</c>: "Erg" is translated from Arabic to mean "desert."
*<c>Erhnam Djinn</c> has the greatest combined [[power]] and [[toughness]] among [[green]] creatures in '''Arabian Nights'''. "Erhnam" is an anagram of "Herman," Richard Garfield's brother-in-law.
*<c>Flying Carpet</c> was functionally changed when it was reprinted in [[Sixth Edition]] so that it no longer requires the [[sacrifice]] of the creature it targets when it is [[destroyed]].
*<c>Ghazban Ogre</c> was the first card that changed control based on the state of the game. "Ghazban" is translated from Arabic to mean "treacherous."
*<c>Guardian Beast</c> is the only black [[Guardian]] and is the first card to grant [[indestructible|indestructibility]], although this [[mechanic]] was not yet created.
*<c>Hasran Ogress</c> is one of a few cards that refers to the gender of the creature in its name. Modern cards tend to have gender-neutral names. "Hasran" is translated from Arabic to mean "hideous."
*<c>Hurr Jackal</c>: "Hurr" is translated form Arabic to mean "gulch."
*<c>Ifh-Biff Efreet</c> is the first card to allow players other than its controller to use its [[activated ability]]. This [[mechanic]] was later expanded upon in the [[Mercadian Masques]] expansion. The art from this card was mistakenly used for <c>Serendib Efreet</c> when it was reprinted in [[Revised Edition]]. "Ifh-Biff" is a childhood nickname for Richard Garfield's sister, Elizabeth, and was originally questioned by editor [[Beverly Marshall Sailing]] for not having an Arabian feel.
*<c>Island Fish Jasconius</c> has the greatest combined [[power]] and [[toughness]] among all creatures in '''Arabian Nights'''.
*<c>Jeweled Bird</c> is considered by some to be the first [[cantrip]], as its activated ability has multiple effects, one of which is "[[Draw]] a [[card]]."
*<c>Junun Efreet</c>: "Junun" is translated from Arabic to mean "nasty."
*<c>Juzam Djinn</c> has the greatest combined [[power]] and [[toughness]] among [[black]] creatures in '''Arabian Nights'''. It was initially reguarded as a bad card, as players did not immediately understand why one would want to play a card that damages its controller. "Juzam" is translated from Arabic to mean "evil." It has since inspired the creation of multiple cost-effective cards, including <c>Balduvian Hordes</c>, <c>Yukora the Prisoner</c> and <c>Plague Sliver</c>.
*<c>Khabal Ghoul</c>: "Khabal" is translated from Arabic to mean "night."
*<c>Kird Ape</c> was banned in the [[Extended]] format when it was first created. "Kird" is translated from Arabic to mean "jungle."
*<c>Library of Alexandria</c> was supposedly made less powerful in development. It inspired the creation of <c>Scroll of Origins</c>.
*<c>Magnetic Mountain</c> has the five common vowel letters (A, E, I, O, and U), in order, in its name.
*<c>Mijae Djinn</c> shares the greatest combined [[power]] and [[toughness]] among [[red]] creatures in '''Arabian Nights''' with <c>Ydwen Efreet</c>. "Mijae" is an anagram of "Jamie," a friend of Richard Garfield's for whom he was the best man at his wedding to Wendy.
*<c>Moorish Cavalry</c> has the greatest combined [[power]] and [[toughness]] among [[white]] creatures in '''Arabian Nights'''.
*<c>Nafs Asp</c>: "Nafs" is translated from Arabic to mean "hidden."
*<c>Oubliette</c> is the first card with [[Phasing]], although it originally used the [[removed from the game]] [[zone]]. After the creation of the Phasing mechanic in the [[Mirage]] expansion, it was realized that Oubliette is actually using Phasing, since the affected [[creature]] retains all counters, [[Aura]]s, and later [[Equipment]] on it. An oubliette is a dungeon with an entrance only from above. Richard Garfield designed this card in part because of the movie <i>Labyrinth</i>, which used the term and stuck with him when he later found the term in "1001 Nights."
*<c>Old Man of the Sea</c>'s creature type is [[Marid]], which is an Arabic word meaning "rebel" and is related to the fact that in some versions of the "1001 Nights," this character is a djinn. It has inspired the creation of many creatures with a similar tap to gain control ability, including <c>Coffin Queen</c>.
*<c>Repentant Blacksmith</c> is the first creature printed with [[protection]] from red, which was considered a powerful enough ability that the card was made uncommon.
*<c>Ring of Ma'ruf</c> is the first card to allow interaction with the removed from the game zone. Its ability to retrieve a card from outside the game was unique until it inspired the creation of the cycle of Wishes in the [[Judgment]] expansion.
*<c>Rukh Egg</c> was reprinted in [[8th Edition]], nearly ten years after its original printing, but was almost not included in the set because of its complexity for beginners. It received errata early on to put a Rukh token into play only when it goes to the graveyard from play, not from anywhere as printed. The egg in the '''Arabian Nights''' art appears in the artwork of <c>Dwarven Shrine</c>. A "rukh" is also called a "roc."
*<c>Sandals of Abdallah</c> inspired the creation of <c>Lightning Greaves</c>, as footwear was discovered to be a class of armor and weapons that had not been explored much in '''Magic''' when equipment was first being created.
*<c>Serendib Djinn</c> and <c>Serendib Efreet</c>: Serendib is another name for the island Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), which has significance in both the <i>Bible</i> and "The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad." The English word "serendipity" was derived from the name Serendib.
*<c>Stone-Throwing Devils</c> upset some people, as "stone-throwing devils" is sometimes used as a derogatory term for Palestinian protesters in Israel.
*<c>Unstable Mutation</c> is the first card to use -1/-1 [[counter|counters]].
*<c>Wyluli Wolf</c>: "Wyluli" is an anagram of "Lily Wu," the maiden name of Richard Garfield's wife.
*<c>Ydwen Efreet</c> shares the greatest combined [[power]] and [[toughness]] among [[red]] creatures in '''Arabian Nights''' with <c>Mijae Djinn</c>. "Ydwen" is an anagram of "Wendy," the wife of Richard Garfield's friend Jamie for whom he was best man at his wedding.
Arabian Nights is the first Magic expansion and was released in 1993. It was sold in booster packs of eight cards which included six commons and two uncommons.
The set's rarity breakdown is: 25 Commons (9@C5, 16@C4), 52 Uncommons (19@U3, 32@U2, 1@C1), 1 Common Land (1@C6). Due to printing errors, 14 common cards had variants which caused the mana symbol to be discolored. This makes it so collectors view this as as 92 card set.
Cards were available from late December 1993 until late January 1994.
The print run was announced by Wizards to be 5 million cards.
Setting and storylines
The storyline of Arabian Nights was unique in Magic (up to the release of Portal: Three Kingdoms) in being the only set to be based on a real-world setting instead of one of the planes in the Magic multiverse. Inspired by the comic Sandman #50, titled Ramadan, and based on The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, Richard Garfield created the set with not only a Arabian setting, but also added many characters, locations and events that came directly from the novel.
As a result of the real-world references and stark difference from the world of Dominaria, Arabian Nights was retconned to take place in the plane of Rabiah, which once had been ruled by Djinni. After the Djinni had weakened themselves in the Spirit War known as The Jihad, humans became the main race of Rabiah. Characters like Aladdin, Ali Baba and King Suleiman had lived long ago. After that the plane was reproduced a thousand times in the Thousand-fold Refraction of Rabiah to keep the 1001 Nights parallel going.
Ali from Cairo was once considered powerful enough to be on the Restricted List, but has since been removed because there are many ways to deal with it.
Bazaar of Baghdad is amongst the most powerful lands ever to be printed and one of the defining cards of the Vintage format.
Erhnam Djinn was once a powerful green creature and was central to the "Erhnamgeddon" decks that used Armageddon to negate the drawback of the "Ernie" and leave an opponent helpless to its attack.
Juzam Djinn was once considered the most powerful creature in the game.
Kird Ape is a favorite card of many and is found in the tournament deck "The Zoo" that uses cheap but powerful creatures to win the game. Kird Ape was reprinted in Ninth Edition.
Library of Alexandria is arguably one of the most powerful card drawing cards in the game.
Serendib Efreet is the best purely aggressive monoblue creature ever printed.
Arabian Nights has no true five-color cycles. There are four Efreet and four Djinn cards, however, with one for each color except White. According to Richard Garfield, efreet and djinni "did not seem to belong in White — while not always evil, they were never good." (White, however, is never a "good" color.)
Creature Types
Most of the creature types used in Arabian Nights were new, and many are unique. Early expansions had creature types only for flavor reasons, resulting in many unusual types.
