Unhinged
Unhinged | |||||
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[[File:{{#setmainimage:Unhinged logo.png}}|250px]] | |||||
Set Information | |||||
Set symbol | |||||
Symbol description | Horseshoe | ||||
Design |
Mark Rosewater Brady Dommermuth Brandon Bozzi Randy Buehler | ||||
Development | same as design | ||||
Art direction | Brian Dumas | ||||
Release date | November 20, 2004 | ||||
Plane | Silver-Bordered Land | ||||
Themes and mechanics | Mini-Games, Fractions, Artist Matters | ||||
Keywords/ability words | Gotcha | ||||
Set size |
141 cards (55 commons, 40 uncommons, 40 rares, 5 basic lands, 1 special) | ||||
Expansion code | UNH[1] | ||||
Un-sets | |||||
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Magic: The Gathering Chronology | |||||
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Unhinged is a booster-only, tournament-prohibited Magic set, released in November 20, 2004. It was the follow-up to Unglued, and as such isn't to be considered an expansion of the official game.[2][3][4] Only the Unhinged basic lands are tournament legal.[5]
Set details
Unhinged included 136 silver-bordered cards and 5 black-bordered cards (the full-art basic lands), all of which had foil versions which occur in a similar rate to "normal" Magic Sets.[6] The set boasts many jokes, and has even set a precedent or two of its own for tournament-worthy Magic. Many cards are references to previous cards. The set is only available in English due to the difficulty of translating it. The expansion symbol for this set is a horseshoe.[7]
Foil cards from Unhinged had extra jokes thrown in on the foil layer. One special card, called Super Secret Tech, only exists as a foil rare card and technically, affects the foil card concept as a whole. Its rarity is supposedly ten times more common than that of other Unhinged foil rare cards.
Unhinged features a sixth color: pink. Water Gun Balloon Game can create a pink permanent and for abilities that let you produce mana of any color, you can choose {P} pink. However, there is no Unhinged Basic Land card that can produce pink mana. In addition, Avatar of Me can be whatever the color of your eyes is, allowing brown and hazel mana.
Marketing
Unhinged was announced on April 1, 2004, deliberately creating confusion if it was an April fool's joke.[8][9] It was jokingly advertised as "Set 1 in the Half-Assed block". Unhinged was the first set printed with the "13+" age rating as it was the first set to come out after the "age grading" policy was implemented on all of Wizards of the Coast games (not just Magic). The five black bordered basic lands have no text box; the art covers the entire card. The release card for Unhinged was Ass Whuppin'. The Unhinged Arena League featured five alternate art promo cards (the art that was used was originally commissioned for Unglued 2: The Obligatory Sequel).[10]
A booster contains 15 cards: 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 10 commons and 1 basic land. The boosters feature art from Richard Garfield, Ph.D., Mana Screw and Gleemax.
Design and layout
- Some of the foil versions instrumentalize the foil layer itself for additional visual effects.[11] For example, Goblin Mime is trapped in a foil box, and Richard Garfield, PhD has Richard's autograph in foil. Gleemax, is covered with letters. Letter Bomb says "sign here".
- Some foil versions of the cards have a special watermark in the text box, similar to the expansion symbol promo cards normally have there (e.g. Farewell to Arms, which shows a hand in the text box).[12]
- Like in Unglued, the pictures in the art box rise over the border.[13]
- Many Unhinged cards show familiar Legends or similar things on the Artwork, such as Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Visara the Dreadful, Phage the Untouchable, Kamahl, Pit Fighter, Erhnam Djinn or Vizzerdrix.
Hidden message
Much like Unglued before it, each card in the Unhinged set -including Super Secret Tech- has a single word printed on the bottom of the card after the artist's name and card number. When all cards are placed in the proper order with other cards in the series they spell out a "secret message" detailing cards that allegedly did not make it into the set. Placing all the Unhinged cards in reverse alphabetical order will cause the following message to appear:
"Here are some more cards that didn't make it: Moronic Tutor; Lint Golem; Wave of Incontinence; I'm Quitting Magic; Bob from Accounting; Castrate; Mishra's Bling Bling; Dead Bunny Isle; Circle of Protection: Pants; Time Fart; Sliver and Onions; Kobold Ass Master; Thanks, Barn; Mild Mongrel; Robo-Samurai; Obligatory Angel; Chump-Blocking Orphan; Wrath of Dog; Celery Stalker; Hugs-a-lot Demon; Assticore; Codpiece of the Chosen; Hurl; What the Cluck?!; Nachomancer; Scrubotomy; Arcbound Noah; Darksteel Spork; Look at Me, I'm Accounts Receivable; Hydro Djinn; Bad Stone Rain Variant; S.O.B.F.M.; Pinko Kami; Purple Nurple; Form of Uncle Istvan; Them's Fightin' Wards; Spleen of Ramos; Fifteenth Pick; Squizzle, Goblin Nabizzle; Zombie Cheerleading Squad; Two-Way Myr; Bone Flute 2: Electric Boogaloo; Magic Offline; Nutclamp; Bwahahahaaa!; Dragon Ass; Phyrexian Sno-Cone Machine; Chimney Pimp; R.T.F.C.; Greased Weasel; Flame War; We Don't Need No Stinkin' Merfolk; Ting!; and Disrobing Scepter (again!)."
Themes and mechanics
- Gotcha — If a card with this ability word is sitting in your graveyard and your opponent does the one thing the card says not to do (some are verbal, some are physical, some are mental, etc.), you may say “Gotcha!” and return the card to your hand.[14][15]
- "...." Matters — All sorts of things have a mechanical impact that has never ever mattered before. "Artist matters" gets the most attention.
- Fractions Cards with Power/Toughness which doesn't use whole numbers (Little Girl, Fraction Jackson)
- Donkeys[16][17][18] and Monkeys
- Mini Games — This is a cycle of cards that allow you to get a good effect at a cheap price. All you got to do is win a little game (not Magic).[12]
Cycles
Unhinged has four cycles:
Cycle name | |||||
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Common Gotcha | Cardpecker | Number Crunch | Stop That | Touch and Go | Laughing Hyena |
Five commons with the Keyword Gotcha. | |||||
Uncommon Gotcha | Save Life | Spell Counter | Kill! Destroy! | Deal Damage | Creature Guy |
Five uncommons with the Keyword Gotcha (triggered upon saying a word in the card's title), whose flavor text combines to form a limerick. | |||||
Donkeys | Cheap Ass | Smart Ass | Bad Ass | Dumb Ass | Fat Ass |
Five common Donkey creatures | |||||
Mini Games | Head to Head (Seven Questions) | Mouth to Mouth (Breath-holding contest) | Eye to Eye (Staring contest) | Face to Face (Rock, Paper, Scissors) | Side to Side (Arm-wrestle) |
Five uncommons that put the players in a Mini-Game and have an Effect 'whenever you Win or Lose'. |
Pairs
Unhinged features one mirrored pair.
Mirrored Pairs | Description | |
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Blast from the Past (Unhinged)
() |
Old Fogey (Unhinged)
() |
Two rare cards illustrated by Douglas Shuler. Each feature the original frame introduced since the original set, clearly meant to invoke the old card designs like the graveyard symbol on Blast from the Past and Old Fogey's type line saying, "Summon Dinosaur." Each also features lots of keywords used in Magic's past. Also, both cards' artworks tell the story of a goblin riding a time machine to the past, only to crash in the prehistoric era where Old Fogey lives. |
Spoofs
Several Unhinged Cards are references to "real", tournament-legal, cards, to familiar card concepts or to the Wizards of the Coast.[19][20]
Creature types
Unhinged creature types were eliminated from the Comprehensive Rules list during the Grand Creature Type Update. They included:
- Child (Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil, Little Girl)
- Designer (Richard Garfield, Ph.D.)
- Dinosaur (Old Fogey) (reintroduced for Ixalan)
- Donkey (Bad Ass)
- Expansion-Symbol (Symbol Status)
- Gamer (Collector Protector, Johnny, Combo Player)
- Mime (Goblin Mime)
- Mummy (Working Stiff)
- Paratrooper (Orcish Paratroopers)
- Penguin (Curse of the Fire Penguin)
- Pig (Atinlay Igpay)
- Ship (Toy Boat)
- Teddy (Water Gun Balloon Game)
- Waiter (Mons's Goblin Waiters)
Mana symbols
A few cards in this set use mana symbols which only appear in Unhinged.
- Cheap Ass — Spells you play cost {½} less to play.
- Flaccify — Counter target spell unless its controller pays {½}.
- Gleemax — Costs .
- Little Girl — Costs {½W}.
- Mons's Goblin Waiters — Adds {½R}.
- Mox Lotus — Produces colorless mana, and can convert .
Trivia
- Land Aid '04 spoofs Band Aid 2004.
- The art of Ambiguity can be interpreted differently depending on the angle of looking at it.
- Monkey Monkey Monkey was Mark Rosewater's homage to the East Coast playtesters renaming the majority of their Alliances playtest cards to include the word "Gorilla" in protest over the continuity team's plans to include sentient gorillas in the set.[24]
Gatherer update
After the release of Unstable in December 2017, the other Un-sets received a Gatherer update.
- Question Elemental? 's Flying ability is now rephrased as a question.
- AWOL still removes the target creature from the game but now exiles it first.
- R&D's Secret Lair now says to add instead of and no longer says "to your mana pool." However, a reminder text is added (This mana is still added to your mana pool.) to comply with the first ability of the card that all errata should be ignored.
- For Ladies' Knight you can now define women's clothing as you see fit.
- The flavor text from Bloodletter that made fun of card names using the ligature Æ, now references the Kaladesh errata from Æ to A.
References
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (August 02, 2004). "Ask Wizards - August, 2004". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 15, 2004). "Un and Games". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 30, 2010). "Thank You Sir, May I Have Another". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 6, 2017). "The Un-Ending Saga, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (November 15, 2004). "Unhinged Basic Lands". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 8, 2004). "The Un Starts Now". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (August 24, 2004). "Unhinged logo and symbol". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (April 1, 2004). "Ach! Hans, run! It's Unhinged!". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (April 5, 2004). "Unhinged or No?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (December 08, 2005). "Unhinged Arena Promos". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 27, 2014). "do you have any trivia on foil cards?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Mark Rosewater (August 21, 2017). "Get It? Unhinged Edition, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Brian Dumas (November 29, 2004). "Behind the Scenes of Unhinged". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Unhinged FAQTIWDAWCC (Frequently Asked Questions That If We Didn't Answer Would Cause Chaos)
- ↑ Aaron Forsythe (November 19, 2004). "The Spoken Word". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (November 11, 2004). "Unhinged Logo Concepts". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (November 17, 2004). "Tijuana Nights". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (December 01, 2004). "Mark Rosewater Makes an Ass of Himself". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Mark Rosewater (November 22, 2004). "Having Un". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Mark Rosewater (November 29, 2004). "Mining the Past". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b c d e Mark Rosewater (August 14, 2017). "Get It? Unhinged Edition, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (November 28, 2006). "Blast from the Past". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b c d Mark Rosewater (July 20, 2009). "The Silver Lining". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 4, 2023). "How Trivial with Mark Rosewater (Video)". Magic: The Gathering. YouTube.
External links
- Mark Rosewater (March 14, 2023). "Lesson Learned, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.