From the Vault

The From the Vault series for Magic: the Gathering - created by Senior Brand Director Mark Purvis - was released on an annual basis, usually in late August. It was aimed at collectors.

Description

Each box set contained 15 tournament-legal, black-bordered, holographic foil cards with a common theme, aside from From the Vault: Twenty, which contained twenty cards. Some of these cards featured new alternate art.

While the MSRP for these sets was US$39.95, these sets frequently demanded a higher price due to low availability and high demand.

The From the Vault series was discontinued in 2018, being replaced by the Signature Spellbook-series.

List of From the Vault sets

Name	Code	Theme	Release date	Logo
From the Vault: Dragons	DRB	Dragons	August 29, 2008
From the Vault: Exiled	V09	Banned cards	August 28, 2009
From the Vault: Relics	V10	Artifacts	August 27, 2010
From the Vault: Legends	V11	Legendary creatures	August 26, 2011
From the Vault: Realms	V12	Lands	August 31, 2012
From the Vault: Twenty	V13	Cards from the past 20 years of winning decks	August 23, 2013
From the Vault: Annihilation	V14	Board sweepers	August 22, 2014
From the Vault: Angels	V15	Angels	August 21, 2015
From the Vault: Lore	V16	Cards renowned for their stories	August 19, 2016
From the Vault: Transform	V17	Double-faced cards with the transform or meld mechanic	November 24, 2017

April Fool's Joke

Wizards 'announced' a fake From the Vault set on April 1, 2009 as part of April Fool's Day: From the Vault: Vaults.

Foiling process

From the Vault sets were printed using a special foiling process that was unique to the series. They were printed on a foil stock that is twice as reflective, and treated with a varnish. This resulted in a shinier and stiffer card that had an almost holographic look to them. They feel much slicker to the touch and weigh a notable amount more than a regular foil. From the Vault cards are also exceedingly hard to write on (e.g. an autograph). However, these cards were also notable for having many production issues, like one-pixel vertical lines going down the cardface. They were also more prone to curling, regardless of moisture (but moisture makes it worse).