2003

The year 2003 was the eleventh year of existence for Magic: The Gathering.

Events

Date	Event
January, 17-19	Pro Tour Chicago, last win by Kai Budde. Only time Kai Budde played against Jon Finkel in a Top Eight.
January, 16	Launch of the second You Make the Card.
February, 3	Release of Legions The first and only set to consist entirely of Creature cards.
February, 4	Rancored_Elf on MTGNews incorrectly reports that Rebecca Guay is fired from WotC due her feminine style. Art director Jeremy Cranford and WotC feel forced to release a statement clarifying their position.
March, 21-23	Pro Tour Venice. Won by Osyp Lebedowicz.
May, 9-11	Pro Tour Yokohama. Won by Mattias Jorstedt.
May, 26	Release of Scourge. Marketed as the "Dragon Set".
July, 28	Release of Eighth Edition Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Magic: the Gathering Every previous expansion (34 sets in all) had at least one card reprinted that had not been reprinted before. Base sets now marketed as Core Set. Introduction of a new card frame that allowed for larger art and more card text. Final redesign of the tap symbol Introduction of the basic supertype for lands.
August, 6-10	2003 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, won by Daniel Zink. Team champions: United States of America.
September, 12-14	Pro Tour Boston, won by team The Brockefellers (Brock Parker, Matt Linde and William Jensen).
October, 2	Release of Mirrodin, featuring a heavy artifact theme. Reduction in size for large expansions. Introduction of Equipment. Introduction of the Race/class model. Adding of the human creature type.
October, 30 - November, 2	Pro Tour New Orleans, won by Rickard Österberg. Start of the second Combo Winter
November	Last issue of the Sideboard magazine.
November, 18	Release of Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds, a real-time strategy video game for Xbox and Windows.
Early December	Mark Rosewater becomes head designer.
December	Release of the 2003 World Championship Decks.
December, 28	Announcement of the closing of the Wizards of the Coast game stores and the affiliated The Game Keeper stores.
	Player of the Year: Kai Budde
	Rookie of the Year: Masashi Oiso

Publications

• Legions (January)
• Emperor's Fist (March)
• Scourge (May)
• The Monsters of Magic (August)
• The Moons of Mirrodin (September)
• Champion's Trial (November)

First involved

R&D

• Brandon Bozzi
• Kierin Chase
• Tyler Bielman
• Devin Low
• Paul Sottosanti

Artists

Legions

• Lars Grant-West

Scourge

• Marcelo Vignali
• Richard Sardinha

Eighth Edition

• Jeremy Jarvis
• Puddnhead

Mirrodin

• Hugh Jamieson
• Jon Foster
• Kevin Dobler
• Martina Pilcerova
• Stephen Tappin