2004

The year 2004 was the twelfth year of existence for Magic: The Gathering.

Events

Date	Event
January, 15	Third price increase for booster packs.
January, 16-18	Pro Tour Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Won by Nicolai Herzog.
February, 6	Release of Darksteel Introduction of Indestructable Continuation of the second Combo Winter. Rise of the Affinity deck, nicknamed "The Blob". Start of a large exodus of players, because of the degenerated playing environment.
February, 27-29	Pro Tour Kobe, Japan. Won by Masashiro Kuroda.
April 1	Announcement of name change to Magique: the Gathering due to a trademark challenge by the Orlando Magic ™. April Fools
May, 11-13	Magic Invitational in Los Angeles, California, USA. Won by Bob Maher. Hosted by Magic Online on the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
May, 14-16	Pro Tour San Diego. Won by Nicolai Herzog.
June	Banning of Skullclamp.
June, 4	Release of Fifth Dawn. Introduction of a darker card frame for artifact cards to help distinguish from white cards (a problem since Eighth Edition).
July, 9-11	Pro Tour Seattle, won by team Von Dutch (Kamiel Cornelissen, Jelger Wiegersma and Jeroen Remie).
July, 11	Founding of MTG Salvation.
September	Introduction of Gatherer, the official Magic: The Gathering card database, on magicthegathering.com.
September, 1-5	2004 World Championships in San Francisco, California, USA, won by Julien Nuijten. Team champions: Germany.
September, 1	Split of the banlists for the Vintage and Legacy formats.
October, 1	Release of the Japanese themed Champions of Kamigawa. Change of the "legend rule". Introduction of Defender, removing the rules baggage connected to the creature type Wall.
October, 29-31	Pro Tour Columbus, won by Pierre Canali.
November, 20	Release of Unhinged, the second Un-set. Introduction of a sixth color (pink), fractions and artist matters. Featuring the unannounced foil Super Secret Tech.
December	Release of the 2004 World Championship Decks. Last release in this series.
	Player of the Year: Gabriel Nassif.
	Rookie of the Year: Julien Nuijten.

Publications

• The Darksteel Eye (January)
• The Fifth Dawn (May)
• Outlaw: Champions of Kamigawa (September)

First involved

Wizards of the Coast

• Matt Cavotta (Creative)
• John Carter (Rules Developer and Technical Writer)

R&D

• Aaron Forsythe
• Devin Low
• Gregory Marques
• Matt Place

Artists

Darksteel

• Ittoku
• Jim Murray
• Nottsuo
• Vance Kovacs

Fifth Dawn

• Cyril van der Haegen
• Francis Tsai
• Tomas Giorello

Champions of Kamigawa

• Aleksi Briclot
• Chris Appelhans
• Dan Scott
• Dave Alssop
• Hideaki Takamura
• Hiro Izawa
• Jim Pavelec
• Joel Thomas
• Kensuke Okabayashi
• Khang Le
• Mitch Cotie
• Pat Lee
• Ralph Horsley
• Shishizaru
• Tsutomu Kawade
• Wayne Reynolds

Unhinged

• Eric Deschamps
• Thomas Manning