Alpha
Alpha is the first release of Limited Edition, the first set of Magic. It includes 295 cards and was released at Origins in July 1993 with a small run of 2.6 million cards. It did not receive much exposure beyond the West Coast. Beta was released shortly after Alpha sold out.
Alpha contained a number of errors that were fixed in the second, or Beta release: Circle of Protection: Black and Volcanic Island were accidentally left out of the set entirely, Cyclopean Tomb was printed without a mana cost, Elvish Archers was printed with power/toughness 1/2 instead of 2/1, Orcish Artillery was printed with a mana cost of 1R instead of 1RR, and Orcish Oriflamme was printed with the mana cost 1R instead of 3R. Additionally, only two versions of each basic land with unique artwork were included. Limited Edition was advertised as having "more than 300 cards," so a third version of each basic land was added in the Beta release in order to validate this claim.
Alpha cards can easily be distinguished from Beta and all other cards by their more rounded corners. Early tournament rules required that all cards must appear unmarked without the use of protective sleeves, and the unique corners of Alpha cards originally made them marked cards in a deck not entirely coposed of Alpha cards. This initially made them less desirable and thus less valuable than Beta and even Unlimited cards.
Mechanics and Themes
As the first edition of Magic, Alpha introduced many mechanics and themes. Keyworded abilities introduced in this set include Banding, First Strike, Flying, Landwalk, Protection, Regeneration and Trample. The Defender, Fear, Haste and Vigilance mechanics were also introduced without keywords but later received them. Most other game mechanics were also introduced in this set but are too numerous to be listed here.
Notable Cards
Black Lotus is considered to be one of, if not the, most powerful card ever printed. It is definitely the most valuable.
Storyline
Alpha did not have a specific storyline, although the cards had a lot of flavor built into them based on the premise that players took on the role of a planeswalker who summoned creatures and cast spells in a duel against another planeswalker.
Design & Development
Ante was an optional part of the original game of Magic.
Cycles
'Alpha has many different relationships between its cards. These include typical cycles, vertical cycles and mirrored pairs.
Cycles:
- Boon cycle: Healing Salve, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt and Giant Growth are all instants (although Dark Ritual was originally an interrupt) with a mana cost of C and an effect of three.
- Allied color dual land cycle: Tundra, Underground Sea, Badlands, Taiga and Savannah are each rare lands with two basic land types that each produce mana of an allied pair of colors.
- Enemy color dual land cycle: Scrubland, Volcanic Island, Bayou, Plateau and Tropical Island are each rare lands with two basic land types that each produce mana of an enemy pair of colors.
- Top-down cycle: Island Sanctuary, Stasis, Word of Command, Sedge Troll and Birds of Paradise are each rare cards that were designed at the last minute before the release of Alpha. They were never playtested and were designed to fit pieces of unused artwork.
- Ward cycle: White Ward, Blue Ward, Black Ward, Red Ward and Green Ward are each uncommon white Auras with enchant creature that grant protection from a color.
- Circle of protection cycle: Circle of Protection: White, Circle of Protection: Blue, Circle of Protection: Black, Circle of Protection: Red and Circle of Protection: Green are each common white enchantments with the ability to prevent the next damage from a source of a color for 1 mana.
- Lace cycle: Purelace, Thoughtlace, Deathlace, Chaoslace and Lifelace are each rare instants (formerly interrupts) that permanently change the color of a permanent to a color.
- Lucky charm cycle: Ivory Cup, Crystal Rod, Throne of Bone, Iron Star and Wooden Sphere are each uncommon artifacts with a triggered ability that allows the controller pay 1 mana to gain 1 life when a spell of a color resolves.
- Mox cycle: Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby and Mox Emerald are each rare artifacts with a mana cost of 0 and an activated ability to tap for a color of mana.
Vertical Cycles:
- Cockatrice and Thicket Basilisk are both green creatures with the Venom ability, a mana cost of 3GG and power/toughness 2/4.
- Mons's Goblin Raiders, Goblin Balloon Brigade and Goblin King are each red Goblin-related cards of increasing power with rarity.
- Gray Ogre, Uthden Troll and Granite Gargoyle or Sedge Troll are each red creatures with a mana cost of 2R, a power/toughness of 2/2 and increasingly powerful abilities with rarity.
Mirrored Pairs:
- Ankh of Mishra and Dingus Egg are both rare artifacts that deal damage when a land enters or leaves play.
- Air Elemental and Earth Elemental are both uncommon Elementals with a mana cost of 3CC and a power of 4.
- Crusade and Bad Moon are both rare enchantments with a converted mana cost of 2 and an effect to give all creatures of its color +1/+1.
- White Knight and Black Knight are both uncommon Knights with a mana cost of CC, power/toughness of 2/2, first strike and protection from the other's color.
- Blue Elemental Blast and Red Elemental Blast are both common instants (formerly interrupts) with a mana cost of C and with a modal ability to either destroy a permanent of the other's color or counter a spell of the other's color.
- Braingeyser and Mind Twist are both rare sorceries that cause target player to draw or discard cards.
Gaea's Liege and Cyclopean Tomb are both rare cards with an activated ability that can permanently change a land's type.
Deathgrip and Lifeforce are each uncommon enchantments with an activated ability to counter a spell of the other's color for CC.
- Disintegrate and Fireball are both common red sorceries that have a mana cost of XR and deal X damage to target creature or player.
- Earthquake and Hurricane are both sorceries that have a mana cost of XC and deal X damage to all non-flying or flying creatures and each player.
- Fear and Invisibility are both common Auras that make the enchanted creature more difficult to block.
- Feedback and Wanderlust are both uncommon Auras that deal 1 damage to the controller of the enchanted permanent during each of their upkeeps.
- Water Elemental and Fire Elemental are both uncommon Elementals with a mana cost of 3CC and a power/toughness of 5/4.
- Holy Strength and Unholy Strength are both common Auras with enchant creature that give a mirrored bonus to the enchanted creature's power/toughness.
- Living Lands and Kormus Bell are both rare cards that turned lands of a particular type into 1/1 creatures.
- Lord of Atlantis and Goblin King are both rare Lords that give +1/+1 and landwalk of its color to its creature type.
- Magical Hack and Sleight of Mind are both rare blue instants (formerly interrupts) that permanently change the text of a spell or permanent.
- Mana Flare and Mana Short are both rare cards that have an effect on the amount of mana a player can produce.
- Manabarbs and Power Surge are both rare red enchantments that deal damage to a player based on the number of lands he or she does or does not tap.
- Mons's Goblin Raiders and Merfolk of the Pearl Trident are both 1/1 common creatures with creature types that are affected by Lord of Atlantis and Goblin King.
Creature Types
Creature types were originally intended only to express flavor on creature cards, like flavor text. Thus, the intentional use of creature types to classify different races was not considered until around the design of the Fallen Empires expansion, despite cards like Lord of Atlantis that cared about a creature's race in this set.
The creature types introduced in this set are: Angel, Assassin (later changed to Human Assassin), Avatar, Basilisk, Bear, Bodyguard, Cleric, Clone (later changed to Shapeshifter), Cockatrice, Demon, Djinn, Doppelganger, Dragon, Dwarf, Elemental, Elf, Enchantress (later changed to Human Druid), Faerie, Force (later changed to Elemental), Fungusaur, Gaea's Liege (later changed to Avatar), Gargoyle, Ghoul, Giant, Goblin, Goblin King (later changed to Goblin Lord), Hero, Hydra, Imp, Knight, Lion (later changed to Cat), Lord, Lord of Atlantis (later changed to Merfolk Lord), Mammoth, Mana Bird (later changed to Bird), Merfolk, Minotaur, Nightmare, Nymph (later changed to Dryad), Ogre, Orc, Paladin (later changed to Knight), Pegasus, Phantasm, Rat, Roc, Serpent, Shade, Shadow (later changed to Spirit), Ship (later changed to Human Pirate), Skeleton, Specter, Spider, Treefolk, Troll, Unicorn, Vampire, Wall, Will-O'-the-Wisp (later changed to Spirit), Wizard (later changed to Human Wizard), Wolf, Wraith, Wurm and Zombie.
Points of Interest
Each color had one spell that destroys one or more lands: Armageddon, Volcanic Eruption, Sinkhole, Stone Rain and Ice Storm.