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.
Mirrored pairs
Beta has 26 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
CC and a power of 4.
- Benalish Hero and Timber Wolves are both 1/1 creatures with banding and a mana cost of C.
- Castle and Orcish Oriflamme are both uncommon enchantments that conditionally affect a creature's power or toughness.
- 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.
- Earthquake and Hurricane are both sorceries that have a mana cost of
C 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 CC 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.
- 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.
- Phantom Monster and Roc of Kher Ridges are both 3/3 creatures with flying.
- Serra Angel and Sengir Vampire are both uncommon 4/4 flying creatures with a mana cost of CC and a combat-related ability.
- Smoke and Winter Orb both allow players to only untap one of a type of permanent each turn.
- Timetwister and Wheel of Fortune are both rare sorceries that cause all players to draw a new hand of 7 cards.
- Tsunami and Flashfires are both uncommon sorceries that have a mana cost of 3C and destroy lands of a particular enemy type.
- Wall of Bone and Wall of Brambles are both Walls with regeneration and a mana cost of C.
- Wall of Water and Wall of Fire are both 0/5 Walls illustrated by Richard Thomas with a silouetted figure behind a wall and the activated ability "C: [this] gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
Hosers
Hosers were introduced, which are cards that affect one (or sometimes two) specific color(s): Karma, Blue Elemental Blast, Deathgrip, Flashfires, Tsunami, Conversion, Lifetap, Gloom, Red Elemental Blast, and Lifeforce.
Notable cards
- The Power Nine are some of the most valuable and powerful cards ever printed.
- The original ten Dual Lands are some of the most powerful and valuable lands ever printed.
- Armageddon forms the basis of the Erhnamgeddon control deck.
- Balance was initially understood, as were many symmetrical effects, but quickly proved to be a very powerful card and is now on the Restricted List.
- Berserk was once considered powerful enough to be added to the Restricted List.
- Birds of Paradise has proven itself to be one of the best mana fixers ever printed.
- Black Vise was far too powerful, especially when played on the first turn, and is also found on the Restricted List.
- Braingeyser was also once considered powerful enough to be added to the Restricted List.
- Channel was a key component of the fabled Channel-Fireball first-turn win in combination with Black Lotus and a source of red mana.
- Chaos Orb is the first of a class of "dexterity" cards that required some physical skill to achieve maximum effect, and like all dexterity cards and ante cards, is now on the Banned List.
- Contract from Below is an insanely powerful card that allows its caster to draw 7 cards at the price of adding to the ante, but the effect is powerful enough to make the added risk very acceptable. Some even consider this the most powerful card ever printed.
- Dark Ritual enabled many black decks to accelerate powerful cards into play quickly, especially Hypnotic Specter.
- Demonic Tutor is another powerful effect with a small mana cost that has found its way onto the Restricted List.
- Fastbond, like many other cards on the Restricted List, allows a player to quickly access more mana.
- Hypnotic Specter was originally thought to be too powerful, and indeed it is powerful, but the real problem was eventually revealed to be its combination with Dark Ritual.
- Icy Manipulator was used in many control decks to slow the opponent down.
- Illusionary Mask later gained fame for its ability to get Phyrexian Dreadnought into play quickly and cheaply.
- Lightning Bolt is a very powerful (and common) direct damage spell that still sees play.
- Mind Twist proved to be very powerful, especially with all the mana acceleration available in Alpha. Like Black Vise, it quickly put an opponent at a great disadvantage and was added to the Restricted List.
- Nevinyrral's Disk was especially useful in monocolored black decks with no access to artifact and enchantment destruction.
- Red Elemental Blast is a common anti-blue card that still sees play today.
- Regrowth, like Demonic Tutor, is a powerful effect with a small mana cost, especially when combined with any number of other powerful cards and is now found on the Restricted List.
- Savannah Lions is considered one of the best White Weenie cards.
- Serra Angel was used to finish many games in control decks and is one of the iconic creatures of the game. It was once considered too powerful and left the Core Set for a time.
- Sinkhole, with a converted mana cost of 2, is considered to be far too cheap for the damaging effect of land destruction, especially as a common card.
- Sol Ring is yet another card great at accelerating mana and is also found on the Restricted List.
- Swords to Plowshares is the iconic white creature removal card.
- Time Vault has had numerous changes to its function in order to make it work as intended. In 2006 the function at the time led to an infinite damage combo with Flame Fusillade.
- Wheel of Fortune is on the Restricted List for the power of drawing 7 cards.
- Wrath of God has been a tournament staple since players learned that powerful symmetrical effects can be good.
Cards added to Beta
The following cards from Beta were not printed in Alpha.