Unglued

Unglued
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Unglued logo.png}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	Broken Egg
Design	Mark Rosewater
Development	Mark Rosewater
Art direction	Jesper Myrfors
Release date	August 11, 1998
Plane	Silver-Bordered Land
Themes and mechanics	Dice rolling, Chickens
Set size	94 cards (33 commons, 22 uncommons, 28 rares, 5 basic lands, 6 tokens)
Expansion code	UGL
Development codename	The Wacky Expansion
Un-sets
Unglued Unhinged Unstable
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Portal Second Age Unglued Urza's Saga

Unglued was the first Magic: The Gathering supplemental set to be used outside of normal Magic expansions. It was released on August 11, 1998 as a standalone, fun set.

Set details

The set included 83 silver-bordered cards, five black-bordered cards (basic lands) and six tokens. The lands are special full-art lands which have extended artwork inside an oval frame stretching from the top to bottom of the card. On top of that oval frame is a round gem of the appropriate color with the (at the time current) tap symbol. At the bottom is a slightly larger gem featuring the appropriate mana symbol. The top left corner has the name of the basic land while the bottom left corner simply reads "Land" with Artist and copyright information as well as collector number running along the bottom. Unlike other sets that feature up to four distinct arts per basic land, Unglued only has one art per basic land.

The rest of Unglued are silver-bordered joke cards which are still functional. Names, flavor texts, types and mechanics as well as the art featured on the card parody the game, individual cards, concepts, the history or players of the game. Unglued and its followup Unhinged are also the only sets in which the artwork of non-Planeswalker cards extend outside the art frame. The card B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster) even extends over two cards. Some cards have specialized frames allowing for other jokes. Unglued also makes special mention of Chickens and Clamfolks as creature types. Chickens were a minor theme.

Mechanics

While Unglued dabbles in all sorts of mechanics including physical actions by the players, specifically noted should be the usage of six-sided die on cards for random effects.

Many graphic design elements that first appeared in this "joke set" have crossed over into tournament-legal Magic releases. These include full-art basic lands, art extending beyond the frame (as seen later on many planeswalker cards), watermarks in the text box, and sideways printing (first seen in Burning Cinder Fury of Crimson Chaos Fire and later on split cards).

Cycles

Cycle name
Chickens	Mesa Chicken	Fowl Play	Poultrygeist	Chicken Egg	Free-Range Chicken
	Five common cards that deal with chickens in some sort of fashion by either being chickens, producing chicken Tokens or turning creatures into chickens. These cards are supplemented by the rare chicken Lord, Chicken à la King.
Double spells	Double Dip	Double Take	Double Cross	Double Deal	Double Play
	Five common spells (two instants and three sorceries), each with a converted mana cost of 5. Each spell takes effect twice: once when cast and once at the beginning of the next game played with a given player. The flavor text on those five cards can be rearranged to form a limerick.
Teammates	Get a Life	Checks and Balances	Organ Harvest	Ricochet	Team Spirit
	Five cards that acknowledged gameplay with more than two players.

Rock-Paper-Scissors

Rock-Paper-Scissors Cycle
Rock Lobster	Paper Tiger	Scissors Lizard
Three 4/3 common artifact creatures costing and illustrated by Heather Hudson, each corresponding to the game Rock, Paper, Scissors; when any was in play, it prevented the other appropriate creature from attacking or blocking. For instance, as long as Rock Lobster is in play, cards named Scissors Lizard cannot attack or block.

Creature types

B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)

Unglued creature types were eliminated from the Comprehensive Rules list during the Grand Creature Type Update. They included:

• Chicken (Mesa Chicken) (later errata'd to Bird).
• Clamfolk (Clambassadors)
• Cow (Hungry Hungry Heifer)
• Elemental? (Question Elemental)
• Elves (Elvish Impersonators)
• Gus (Gus)
• Lady of Proper Etiquette (Miss Demeanor)
• Lobster (Rock Lobster) (originally printed without the creature type, but added in Oracle, and later versions of the card).
• The Biggest, Baddest, Nastiest, Scariest Creature You'll Ever See (B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster))

Trivia

• Look at Me, I'm the DCI was drawn by Mark Rosewater after a picture of Richard Garfield.
  • Rosewater received $1 for his artwork.
• Rosewater dressed up like a chicken for Unglued's prerelease.
• Giant Fan is blowing Randy Gallegos' signature off the card.
• Phil Foglio used the pseudonym Claymore J. Flapdoodle.
• B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster) is wearing the former two largest creatures in Magic (Phyrexian Dreadnought and Polar Kraken) as jewelry. Its flavor text also references Polar Kraken's flavor text.
• The text box on Prismatic Wardrobe is pieces of all six nonland text boxes stitched together.
• The maze pictured on the desk in Bureaucracy has no solution.
  • Richard Garfield is referenced in the card text.
• Rock Lobster walks on broken metal pieces. Scissors Lizard walks on scraps of paper and Paper Tiger walks on rocks.
• The Goblin Bowling Team is sponsored by Pashalik Mons.
• Jack-in-the-Mox sports all five moxes.
• On Volrath's Motion Sensor, Greven il-Vec has Volrath's emblem printed on his pyjama's.
• A rejected image for Keeper of the Mind, which was considered to be sexually inappropiate, was used for Unglued 's Censorship
• The model for the wizard in Mine, Mine, Mine! was Daniel Gelon.
• The model for Jalum Grifter was brand manager Joel L. Mick (J.L.M.).
• Chaos Confetti was designed by Jeff Donais, Pro Tour head judge.
• The creatures on Fowl Play were meant to be clamfolk, but nobody told this to Mark Poole.
• Gerrymandering was based on a spell called Ecoshift that Richard Garfield cut from Alpha.
• Gus used the unused art for a card called Bogeyman that was considered for Portal.
• Temp of the Damned used the unused art for a card called Gypt the Gnarled that was considered for Visions.
• The full-art lands were thought up by Christopher Rush, several years earlier.
• I'm Rubber, You're Glue had to be recommissioned. The original art was just an extension of Free-for-All. But the leprechaun was meant to be knocked into a total other card.
• The art of Infernal Spawn of Evil was created by Ron Spencer as a joke for a card in Tempest block.
  • The revision from Demon to Beast in the type line was done in the hand of the set's editor, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes.
• All 94 cards in the Unglued set each had a single word printed on the bottom of the card. When combined in proper numerical order with other cards in the series spell out the following secret message:

"Here are some cards that didn't make it to print: Socks of Garfield, Hot Monkey Love, Colonel's Secret Recipe, Squee's Play, Banned in France, Spoon, Disrobing Scepter, Butt Wolf, Lotus Roach, Sesame Efreet, Needless Reminder Text, Chicken Choker, Clockwork Doppelganger, Henway, HELP I'M TRAPPED IN CARTA MUNDI, Mad Cow, Poke, Lord of Wombats, Gratuitous Babe Art, Brothers' War Bonds, Dwarven Kickboxer, Mickey's Drunk, Pact with the Wastes, CoP:BO, Urza's Chia Pet, Thallid Shooter, Shoelace, When Chihuahuas Attack, Wall of Cookies, Kobold Ninja, Mucusaur, Kjeldoran Outhouse, Bear in the Woods, Dental Thrull, Flavatog, Cereal Killer."

• The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service has in interesting mana cost. It is one of the few who used a (before it got removed from the game) and the only card who ever used a . Unhinged would expand on the idea of weird mana symbols.
• Bronze Calendar makes fun of early Magic artists who would occasionally misunderstand what they are being asked to illustrate. It depicts a Bronze Colander.
• Spark Fiend encourages you to play craps. Spark is kraps backwards.
• Krazy Kow was supposed to be "Mad Cow" but this was changed due to the outbreak of mad cow disease in England at the time.
• The covered flavor text for Once More With Feeling is something close to: If you could see this it isn't what you expected.
• Ghazbán Ogress is a misogynistic in-joke about a female player dating multiple pros. Cathy Nicoloff revealed on Reddit that an unflattering nickname given to her by some pro players had inspired the card. Her story was confirmed by Gary Wise.
• Unglued was the first set to contain tokens, randomly inserted in packs replacing an uncommon.
• Unglued was the first set in Magic to to refer to teammates.

Inspirations

The following list is every Unglued card that inspired a black-bordered card or mechanic.

• B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster) - split cards (two cards on one instead of one card on two)
• Common Courtesy - the seals from Nemesis (Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Removal, Seal of Doom, Seal of Fire, and Seal of Strength)
• Fowl Play - Lignify into Kasmina's Transmutation
• Giant Fan - Power Conduit, The Ozolith
• Goblin Bookie - Krark's Thumb
• Hungry Hungry Heifer - Chisei, Heart of Oceans
• Infernal Spawn of Evil - forecast mechanic
• Look at Me, I'm the DCI - Cranial Extraction
• Organ Harvest, Team Spirit - Battlebond's team cards
• Ricochet - Grip of Chaos
• The Cheese Stands Alone - Barren Glory
• The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service - Comet Storm
• Timmy, Power Gamer - Elvish Piper

Unglued 2

A follow up set, tentatively called Wacky II: This Time it's Personal or Unglued 2: The Obligatory Sequel, was announced for Summer 1999 but never got made. This was an entirely different set from Unhinged and featured animated vegetables, punny Djinni, Santawar Elves, and an alternate take on Serra Angel.

Gatherer update

After the release of Unstable in December 2017, the other Un-sets received a Gatherer update.

• "Summon" was replaced with "Creature —" on the type line of each creature.
• All artifact creatures received a subtype.
• Denied! became an instant instead of an interrupt. Similarly, Goblin Tutor no longer references interrupts.
• Goblin Bookie's ability is now activated only any time it makes sense.
• Knight of the Hokey Pokey reminder text was rephrased.

External links

• Mark Rosewater (March 14, 2023). "Lesson Learned, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.