Fourth Edition

Fourth Edition

 

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Changes

 

Rules changes

 

Pocket Players' Guide

 

Fourth Edition
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	Roman numeral IV
Design	Richard Garfield with contributions from Charlie Cateeno Skaff Elias Don Felice Tom Fontaine Jim Lin Joel Mick Chris Page Dave Pettey Barry "Bit" Reich Bill Rose Elliott Segal
Development	Same as design
Art direction	None
Release date	April 1995
Plane	Multiverse
Themes and mechanics	None new
Keywords/​ability words	None new
Set size	378 cards (121 commons, 121 uncommons, 121 rares, 15 basic lands)
Expansion code	4ED
Development codename	Francesca
Core sets
Revised Edition Fourth Edition Fifth Edition
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Fallen Empires Fourth Edition Ice Age

Fourth Edition booster

Fourth Edition (4th Edition) is a Magic core set that was released in April 1995. This set contained no new cards.

Set details

51 cards were removed from the Revised Edition and 122 cards from previous expansions (Legends and The Dark) were added. Fourth Edition was the first set to have its basic lands printed on a separate print sheet. This freed up room on the other card sheets to include more spells. Fourth Edition cards have white borders in the American printing while foreign printings have black borders when no prior edition was released on that market. The set has no expansion symbol.

The second tap symbol.

• A copyright notice now appeared on the bottom of the cards (dated 1995). The copyright was now attributed to Wizards of the Coast, and not to the artist anymore.
• The beveled border missing from Revised was restored. The colors were also much more saturated.
• A new white mana symbol () was introduced.
  • The other mana symbols were redesigned as well, but less noticeably. Black's skull became more elongated, blue's water drop became slimmer and more symmetrical, red's fireball lost the flame licks coming off of it, and green's tree received different branches and a less thick base.
• The tap symbol changed to a curved arrow symbol, with a black rectangle representing the tapping card behind it.
• An Alternate Fourth Edition run was printed by the United States Playing Card Corporation in Cincinnati. Due to a dispute between the two companies, the cards were never officially published.

Marketing

Fourth Edition Gift Box

Cards were available from May 3, 1995 well past the end of the run in April 1997. The print run is estimated at 500 million cards. The cards were sold in 60-card starter decks and 15-card boosters. Fourth Edition was the first set with booster packs made of foil wrappers and the first with artwork on the wrappers (Brass Man, Hurloon Minotaur, Mana Vault, Mesa Pegasus, and Spirit Link). The boosters didn't contain basic lands anymore. Starters included an extra rare card, up from 2 to 3 from previous releases and uncommons were reduced to 9 from the previous 13. The package of the starter decks now displayed the five mana symbols, instead of the five colored stones. The set was supplemented with a special Gift Box. The Fourth Edition Gift Box included two starter decks, 30 glass counters, a flannel bag for storing the counters, an illustrated rulebook and a card collectors' checklist.

Fourth Edition was published in English, French, German, Italian, and as a first for a Magic set in Japanese, traditional Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese (primarily for the Brazilian market).

Rules changes

• The rules concerning fast effects and the batch were solidified, as well as those for phases, activation costs, targets, and damage prevention.

Cycles

Fourth Edition has 6 cycles, one of which is a 4 card cycle, and 15 mirrored pairs.

Cycle name
Circles of protection	Circle of Protection: White	Circle of Protection: Blue	Circle of Protection: Black	Circle of Protection: Red	Circle of Protection: Green
	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 .
Laces	Purelace	Thoughtlace	Deathlace	Chaoslace	Lifelace
	Each of these rare instants permanently changes the color of a permanent.
Lucky charms	Ivory Cup	Crystal Rod	Throne of Bone	Iron Star	Wooden Sphere
	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.
Mana batteries	White Mana Battery	Blue Mana Battery	Black Mana Battery	Red Mana Battery	Green Mana Battery
	Uncommon artifacts with a casting cost of and the two activated abilities ", : Put a charge counter on [this]" and ", Remove any number of charge counters from [this]: Add M, then add an additional M for each charge counter removed this way," where M is a specific color of mana.
Wards	White Ward	Blue Ward	Black Ward	Red Ward	Green Ward
	Uncommon white Auras with enchant creature that grant protection from a color.

Four-card cycles

Cycle name
Classic Elementals	Air Elemental	Water Elemental	Fire Elemental	Earth Elemental
	These four uncommon Elemental creature are based on the traditional four Elements.

Pairs

Mirrored Pairs		Description
Crusade ()	Bad Moon ()	Rare enchantments with a converted mana cost of 2 and an effect to give all creatures of its color +1/+1.
White Knight ()	Black Knight ()	Uncommon knights with a mana cost of MM, power/toughness of 2/2, first strike and protection from the other's color.
Blue Elemental Blast ()	Red Elemental Blast ()	Common instants (formerly interrupts) with a mana cost of M and with a modal ability to either destroy a permanent of the other's color or counter a spell of the other's color.
Deathgrip ()	Lifeforce ()	Uncommon enchantments with an activated ability to counter a spell of the other's color for MM.
Holy Strength ()	Unholy Strength ()	Common auras with enchant creature that give a mirrored bonus to the enchanted creature's power/toughness.
Lord of Atlantis ()	Goblin King ()	Rare lords that give +1/+1 and landwalk of its color to its creature type.
Mons's Goblin Raiders ()	Merfolk of the Pearl Trident ()	1/1 common creatures with creature types that are affected by their respective lords (e.g., Goblin King and Lord of Atlantis).
Serra Angel ()	Sengir Vampire ()	Uncommon 4/4 flying creatures with a mana cost of MM and a combat-related ability.
Wall of Water ()	Wall of Fire ()	0/5 walls illustrated by Richard Thomas with a silhouetted figure behind a wall and the activated ability "M: [this] gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
Benalish Hero ()	Timber Wolves ()	1/1 creatures with banding and a mana cost of M.
Castle ()	Orcish Oriflamme ()	Uncommon enchantments with a cost of 3M. Oriflame give +1/0 for attacking creatures and Castle gives +0/2 for defending (untapped) creatures.
Earthquake ()	Hurricane ()	Sorceries that have a mana cost of M and deal damage to all non-flying or flying creatures and each player.
Feedback ()	Wanderlust ()	Uncommon Auras that deal 1 damage to the controller of the enchanted permanent during each of their upkeeps.
Tsunami ()	Flashfires ()	Uncommon sorceries that have a mana cost of M and destroy lands of a particular enemy type.
Wall of Bone ()	Wall of Brambles ()	Walls with regeneration and a mana cost of M and a combined power/toughness of 5.

Core set changes

Advertisement for Fourth Edition.

Notable changes

• The dual lands were removed from the core sets.

Misprints

• Gaea's Liege — The card name is misspelled as "Gaea's Leige" once in the text box.
• Segovian Leviathan — The quotation in the flavor text is from Job 41:1, not Job 40:25 (although it is Job 40:25 in the original Hebrew text). This error was corrected in Fifth Edition.

External links

• Fourth Edition Official Page (old)
• Fourth Edition Product Information (new)