Unhinged

Unhinged
[[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
Un-sets
Unglued Unhinged Unstable
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Champions of Kamigawa Unhinged Betrayers of Kamigawa

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. Only the Unhinged basic lands are tournament legal.

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. 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.

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 booster

Unhinged was announced on April 1, 2004, deliberately creating confusion if it was an April fool's joke. 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).

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. 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).
• Like in Unglued, the pictures in the art box rise over the border.
• 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.
• "...." 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 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).

Cycles

Unhinged has four cycles:

Cycle name
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
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.

Real Version	Unhinged Card Spoof	Reference to
Cards with short names	_____	name
Lhurgoyf	“Ach! Hans, Run!”	flavor text
Demonic Consultation	Aesthetic Consultation	name and ability
The double meaning of the words "play" and "counters"	Ambiguity	rules text and art
Merfolk Looter and "looting"	Artful Looter	name, art, and ability
Vindicate	Ass Whuppin'	mana cost and ability
Avatar of Fury Avatar of Hope Avatar of Might Avatar of Will Avatar of Woe	Avatar of Me	name and creature type
Personal Incarnation	Avatar of Me	concept
Exile	AWOL	mana cost and ability
Graveyard cards	Blast from the Past	mechanics, tombstone icon, artist, credits
Tutors (such as Diabolic Tutor)	Booster Tutor	name
Bouncing Beebles Bubbling Beebles	Bursting Beebles	name
Circle of Protection: White Circle of Protection: Blue Circle of Protection: Black Circle of Protection: Red Circle of Protection: Green Circle of Protection: Artifacts Circle of Protection: Shadow	Circle of Protection: Art	probably also other Circles of Protection.
City of Brass	City of Ass	art, name and ability
Takklemaggot and flip cards	Curse of the Fire Penguin	mechanic and lay out
Shahrazad	Enter the Dungeon	ability (the subgame)
Erase Lightning Rift	Erase (Not the Urza's Legacy One)	Erase: name; Lightning Rift: artwork
Denied!	Flaccify	Unglued card, showing the flavor text of "Denied" taped on "Flaccify".
Soft Counterspells (such as Mana Leak)	Flaccify	Ability
Form of the Dragon	Form of the Squirrel	name
R&D	Gleemax	Gleemax makes fun of R&D, claiming to be controlled by an alien brain-in-a-jar.
"Goblins with a mana cost of 1R, Power and Toughness 2/2", e.g. Goblin Brigand	Goblin Mime	drawback effect of all those creatures
Goblin Digging Team	Goblin S.W.A.T. Team	name
Wild Mongrel	Staying Power	art
Morphling	Greater Morphling	name and abilities
Infernal Spawn of Evil	Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil	Unglued card name and abilities
Moat	Look at Me, I'm R&D	frame. The handwriting on the card is by Randy Buehler.
Mana Flare	Mana Flair	name
Meddling Mage	Meddling Kids	name, art and ability
Ancestral Recall	Mise	ability; also references Lexivore in the flavor text; depicts Vizzerdrix in the normal art and Chicken à la King from in the special promo art
Magical Hack	Magical Hacker	name and ability
Mons's Goblin Raiders	Mons's Goblin Waiters	name
Mother of Runes	Mother of Goons	art, name and ability
Mox Diamond Black Lotus	Mox Lotus	name and ability
Card-drawing "Tomes" (such as Jayemdae Tome)	My First Tome	name and ability
Verdeloth the Ancient	Name Dropping	art
Necropotence (Ice Age)	Necro-Impotence	name, art and ability
Obsolete mechanics	Old Fogey	mechanics, artist, credits
Chaos Orb, Falling Star	Orcish Paratroopers	flip mechanic
The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service	Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made This Card to Have the Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental	name
Persecute	Persecute Artist	name and ability
Chaos Orb	Pointy Finger of Doom	random destruction . Flavor text references the fact that very few Magic players are "cool" enough to go to parties and play related games, such as spin the bottle.
"Phyrexian Horrors", e.g. Phyrexian Negator	Phyrexian Librarian	name
Stone Giant Bloodshot Cyclops	Pygmy Giant	Stone Giant: name and picture*; Bloodshot Cyclops: ability
Rod of Ruin	Rod of Spanking	name and ability
Healing Salve	Save Life	ability
Granite Gargoyle Lightning Axe	Sauté	flavor text
Masticore	Remodel	picture
Plague Rats	S.N.O.T.	mechanic
Counterspell	Spell Counter	name and ability
Standing Troops	Standing Army	name and ability
Stone-Tongue Basilisk Enter the Dungeon	Stone-Cold Basilisk	name and ability. Art
The Fallen	The Fallen Apart	name
Uktabi Orangutan Gorilla Titan	Uktabi Kong	Orangutan name, ability, and picture; Gorilla flavor text
Survival of the Fittest	Urza's Hot Tub	mechanic
"Urza's" Cards, e.g. Urza's Chalice	Urza's Hot Tub	name
Sneak Attack	When Fluffy Bunnies Attack	name and picture
"Split cards", e.g. Life // Death	Who/What/When/Where/Why	mechanic
Cyclopean Mummy	Working Stiff	creature type and picture
City in a Bottle and other expansion hosers	World-Bottling Kit	name and ability
Drop of Honey	Zzzyxas's Abyss	ability
The Abyss	Zzzyxas's Abyss	name

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.

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.

External links

• Mark Rosewater (March 14, 2023). "Lesson Learned, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.