Beta
Limited Edition Beta, or more commonly Beta, is the second printing of the first edition of Magic, includes 302 black-bordered cards, and was released shortly after Alpha, the first printing of the first edition, sold out.
Set details
Beta included a few changes from Alpha:
- Its cards use a less rounded corner than Alpha cards, which has been used on all cards, a new 4MM corner diecut was purchased due to the increase in demand of millions of cards and also made distinction from a standard 1/2" corner found on playing cards. This allowed future sets to have 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, Elvish Archers, Orcish Artillery, Orcish Oriflamme and Demonic Hordes were fixed,
- and a third version of each basic land with new artwork was added to bring the set's card count above 300, as the Limited Edition had been advertised (mistakenly for Alpha) as having "more than 300 cards."
Among Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, cards from Beta are considered to be the most valuable because of the black border and the use of the 4MM rounded corner (Alpha cards were originally shunned as marked cards in early tournament decks, which had to appear unmarked without sleeves under early tournament rules).
Due to the printing process, it is possible to get land cards in a rare (Islands, 4 are on the rare print sheet), uncommon, or common card slot. The chance is approximately 3.31% for rares, 21.5% for uncommons and 38.02% for commons. This is because they put lands on all three printed sheets.
The starter deck rulebook had Bog Wraith on the cover and "Worzel's Story" was dropped to include a summary of play.
UPC codes were included on the bottom of each starter deck, Alpha starter decks do not have it.
The print run was announced by Wizards to be 7.3 million cards.
Cycles
Beta has nine cycles and 3 vertical cycles.
- Basic lands: The five basic lands were introduced in Limited Edition — Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest.
- Boons: Each of these common instants has a mana cost of C and an effect involving the number 3 — Healing Salve, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, and Giant Growth.
- Circles of protection: Each of these 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: Each of these ten rare lands has two basic land types and can produce mana of two colors: Tundra, Scrubland, Plateau, Savannah, Underground Sea, Volcanic Island, Tropical Island, Badlands, Bayou, and Taiga.
- Laces: Each of these rare instants permanently changes the color of a permanent — Purelace, Thoughtlace, Deathlace, Chaoslace, and Lifelace.
- Lucky charms: Each of these uncommon artifacts has a triggered ability that allows the controller pay to gain 1 life when a spell of a given color resolves — Ivory Cup, Crystal Rod, Throne of Bone, Iron Star, and Wooden Sphere.
- Moxen: Each of these rare artifacts has a mana cost of
and "
: Add C to your mana pool" — Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, and Mox Emerald. - Top-down cycle: Each of these rare cards was designed at the last minute before the release of Alpha. They were never playtested and were designed to fit pieces of unused artwork — Island Sanctuary, Stasis, Word of Command, Sedge Troll, and Birds of ParadiseTemplate:Unref
- Wards: Each of these uncommon white Auras with enchant creature grants protection from a given color — White Ward, Blue Ward, Black Ward, Red Ward, and Green Ward.
Vertical cycles
- Goblins: Each of these red Goblin creatures exists at a different level of rarity — Mons's Goblin Raiders, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Goblin King.
- Red three-drop humanoids: Each of these 2/2 red creatures has a mana cost of
and increasingly powerful abilities — Gray Ogre, Uthden Troll, and Sedge Troll. Granite Gargoyle might also be considered part of this group, though it doesn't fit the theme of monstrous human-like creatures. - Pingers — Each of these permanents has ": [This] deals 1 damage to target creature or player" — Prodigal Sorcerer, Rod of Ruin, and Pirate Ship.
Cards added to Beta
The following cards from Beta were not printed in Alpha.