2008

The year 2008 was the sixteenth year of existence for Magic: The Gathering.

Card Statistics

1187 cards

7.5%

12%

13.9%

11.6%

14.3%

12%

28.6%

825 new cards

6.3%

11.4%

11.2%

10.9%

11.3%

11%

37.9%

16 new Commander cards

6.3%

12.5%

81.3%

383 reprinted cards

10.2%

13.1%

19.1%

13.1%

20.6%

13.8%

10.2%

1253 cards with unique art

7.2%

12.1%

14.3%

11.8%

14.8%

12%

27.9%

883 cards with new art

6.5%

11.4%

11.7%

11%

12%

11.6%

35.9%

1275 unique prints of cards

7.2%

12.2%

14.1%

11.8%

14.7%

12.2%

27.6%

250 digital cards

10.4%

16.8%

15.2%

16.4%

8%

58 promotional cards

10.3%

15.5%

13.8%

17.2%

22.4%

33 token cards

15.2%

9.1%

12.1%

21.2%

30.3%

Events

Date	Event
January	Announcement of the ending of the Magic Scholarship Series.
February 1	Release of Morningtide. "The Grand Creature Type Update Update".
February 15–17	Pro Tour Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Won by Jon Finkel.
April 1	Announcement of Duel Decks: Pirates vs. Ninjas. April Fools.
May 2	Release of Shadowmoor. Large set, mirror to Lorwyn. Start of the second mini-block of the Lorwyn–Shadowmoor block. Extended use of −1/−1 counters and hybrid mana. Introduction of the untap symbol.
May 23–25	Pro Tour Hollywood, USA. Won by Charles Gindy.
June 20	Release of the 15th Anniversary 2-Player Starter Game.
July 25	Release of Eventide. Mirror to Morningtide.
July 28	Announcement of the closing down of the Gleemax social network.
August 29	Release of From the Vault: Dragons. First set in the From the Vault series.
September 22	Release of Masters Edition II on Magic Online.
October	Creation of the Wizards Play Network.
October 3	Release of Shards of Alara. Setting the new standard size for large sets. Introduction of mythic rares. Multicolored set, focusing on three-color combinations (Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund and Naya) Introduction of colored artifacts. Introduction of the New World Order in design. Replacement of one of the commons in a booster pack with a basic land.
October 31 - November 2	Pro Tour Berlin, Germany. Won by Luis Scott-Vargas.
November 7	Release of Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra. First planeswalker vs. planeswalker Duel Decks.
December 11–14	2008 World Championships in Memphis, USA. Won by Antti Malin. Team champions: United States.
	Player of the Year: Shuhei Nakamura.
	Rookie of the Year: Aaron Nicastri.
	Hall of Fame inductees: Dirk Baberowski Mike Turian Jelger Wiegersma Olivier Ruel Ben Rubin