Alpha
Limited Edition Alpha, or more commonly Alpha, is the first release of Limited Edition, the first Core Set of Magic: The Gathering. 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.
For information on the notable cards, cycles, creature types, points of interest and outside links in this set, please see the Beta set.
Set details
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that all cards must appear unmarked without the use of protective sleeves, and the unique corners of Alpha cards originally made them marked cards in a deck not entirely comprised of Alpha cards. This initially made them less desirable and thus less valuable than Beta and even Unlimited cards.
Due to the printing process, it is possible to get land cards in a rare, 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.
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 [1] [2]. 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.
Design & development
Magic: The Gathering received its "The Gathering" subtitle for two reasons. First, "Magic" was thought to be too generic a name to copyright. Second, it left open the possibility for future expansions to have other subtitles, such as "Magic: Arabian Nights."
The names of many cards were initially very generic, such as "Angel" instead of Serra Angel and "Skeletons" instead of Drudge Skeletons. Adding these descriptors created more flavor on the cards and allowed other types of angels, skeletons, and everything else to appear in future expansions.
The rarity of many cards was based on the idea that players would have a limited set of cards in a particular area, such that there would only be a few copies of Mox Sapphire or Black Lotus in a particular area, thus naturally restricting the power of these cards. The rapid popularity of the game created a much larger community of players than initially considered, allowing players to amass large collections of these powerful cards.
The rule limiting only four copies of all cards except basic lands in decks did not exist in the earliest rules but was rapidly adopted from tournament play.
Under the original rules, players with life less than 1 were not considered to have lost until the end of the current phase, giving that player a chance to find a solution.
Ante was an optional part of the original game of Magic that remained a part of the game until after the Homelands expansion.
There were originally three types of artifacts: mono artifacts, poly artifacts, and continuous artifacts. Mono artifacts have activated abilities that can only be used once and tap the artifact with its use. These now have errata adding "T" to the activation cost. Poly artifacts have activated abilities that do not have "T" as part of the activation cost and can be used multiple times. Continuous artifacts have a continuous effect that does not require activation. Continuous artifacts were also understood to be "turned off" when tapped, and newer versions of some of these original artifacts now have this restriction printed on them. These three types were removed following the Antiquities expansion and before the Revised Edition.
Interrupts were similar to instants, only "faster." This meant that when an interrupt was played, only other interrupts could be played in response. The timing rules of interrupts caused some other cards (such as Red Elemental Blast) to be interrupts for them to work properly under these rules.
Wall was the only creature type with a rule associated with it: Walls have defender. This rule remained a part of the game until the Champions of Kamigawa expansion.
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.
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.
Misprints
- Contract From Below — The artist's name, Shuler, was misspelled.
- Cyclopean Tomb — printed without a mana cost.[3]
- Demonic Hordes — printed with an upkeep cost of literally "BBB" instead of three black mana symbols.
- Elvish Archers — printed with power/toughness 1/2 instead of 2/1.[4]
- Force of Nature — printed with an upkeep cost of literally "GGGG" instead of four green mana symbols also the artist's name, Shuler, was misspelled.[5]
- Orcish Artillery — printed with a mana cost of
instead of .[6] - Orcish Oriflamme — printed with the mana cost instead of
.[6] - Phantasmal Forces — printed with an upkeep cost of literally "U" instead of a blue mana symbol.[5]
- Red Elemental Blast — printed as an instant instead of an interrupt.[7] [8]
- Unsummon — The card reads "Return creature to owner's hand; enchantments on creature are CARD ed. Unsummon cannot Template:... "
References
External links
- Alpha Product Page (old)
- Alpha product information page — Wizards of the Coast (new)
- Template:MTGref (transcription)