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Magic Singles » Core Sets

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Alpha

Premiered at Origins '93 in July of that year, Magic: The Gathering; was first released to the general public on August 5, 1993. The "Alpha" set consisted of 295 cards.

Beta

Limited Edition Beta or just Beta for short was the second part, after revisions, of the first print run of the first Magic: The Gathering set. It was released only a few months after Limited Edition Alpha's publication to correct some minor problems in the rules and to make up for the fact that the first run had completely sold out. Clarifications were made to the rulebook, and Richard Garfield's short fiction "Worzel's Tale" was removed to make room. Like Alpha it had no expansion symbol, and the text on the bottom left consisted of only the artist credit. Although many players speak of them as different sets, officially they are the same set.

Unlimited

Unlimited Edition was the second Magic: The Gathering set. It was released on December 1, 1993, after Beta had sold out as quickly as Alpha had; this time the run was 40 million cards, the largest yet. It contains exactly the same cards as Beta, though with white borders instead of black, setting the precedent for all successive printings of the basic set, until the 2007 release of Tenth Edition, which returned to black borders.

3rd Edition (Revised)

The Revised Edition of Magic: The Gathering (also simply known as Revised) was the sixth set and third core set released for the game. Like previous core sets, it had no expansion symbol. Revised Edition cards are white-bordered and generally known for their washed-out look. The set was released in April 1994 and contained 306 cards. It was the first base set to contain cards from black-bordered sets other than Alpha and Beta.

4th Edition

Released in April 1995, Fourth Edition was a new version of the Magic: The Gathering; basic set. In a continuing attempt to balance and add new flavor to the game, fifty-one cards were removed from the Revised Edition and 122 cards from previous expansions were added, bringing the total cards to 378.

5th Edition

Released in March of 1997, Fifth Edition was by far the largest version of the Magic: The Gathering; basic set. Fifth Edition contains a total of 429 cards, not including the basic lands.

6th Edition

6th Edition was the first base set to have its artist information centered on the card (a printing practice started in Exodus). It was also the first base set to have collectors' numbers (which also originated in Exodus). The rules text on basic lands was also replaced with just a mana symbol, as featured in the Portal starter sets of 1997 and 1998. Perhaps the biggest cosmetic change to the base set, however, was the expansion symbol. 6th Edition was the first core set to have an expansion symbol, which was necessary to show the cards' rarities (another practice that originated in Exodus). The set's expansion symbol was the Roman numeral VI, or 6. (Although Traditional Chinese Fifth Edition cards had a Roman Numeral 'V' for fifth edition, though that may have been because the Chinese version was printed later than the original English set.)

7th Edition

7th Edition Starter Despite being an advanced level set, 7th Edition contained a separate basic subset for new players similar to the products that were previously offered as Starter 2000. Cards that appeared in the 7th Edition Starter special pre-constructed theme decks did not appear in boosters. This would be the last starter level product released by Wizards of the Coast. [edit] Notable Facts 7th Edition was the last base set printed in the 'old' frame. 8th Edition introduced the modern card frame. It was the first base set to contain foil cards, which were printed with black borders. It was the last base set to be released prior to the final expansion of the then-current block (7th Edition was released before Apocalypse). Starting with 8th Edition, the base set editions (now known as Core Set editions) were released after the last expansion of the then-current block and before the first expansion of the subsequent block. It was the first and only set to feature a loose storyline that tied together most of the cards in a core set, a practice done nowadays exclusively in expert sets. The story involved a conflict between the North, South, East, and West Paladins.

8th Edition

Eighth Edition was set to be released to coincide with the 10th Anniversary of Magic's original release, so the creators took a different approach to the base set. Every previous expansion had at least one card reprinted in Eighth that had not been reprinted in the base set before, with a series of votes on the Wizards website deciding what got reprinted. Eighth was also the first base set with a pre-release card (though some claim it was a 10th Anniversary card, not a pre-release). Eighth features many cards from older base sets and expansions. While many of these cards were very powerful during their original print run, some are not quite as powerful in newer tournament settings. A new card face was introduced starting with Eighth Edition and initially received mixed views, as some players felt the new look interfered with the 'classical' fantasy feel of the game. The colored frames around the edges of the card were redesigned and narrowed, boxes were placed around card names and creatures' power and toughness, card names were printed in a more modern font (Matrix Bold, rather than Goudy Medieval) and mana symbols appearing in the text box were no longer colored. (This latter change did not last long, and colored mana symbols returned to text boxes a year later in the Kamigawa Block.)

9th Edition

Ninth Edition features many cards from older base sets and expansions. While many of these cards were very powerful during their original print run it remains to be seen if they are still powerful in Magic today. With Ninth Edition came a redesign of Fat Packs. The Fat Pack consisted of two boxes wrapped around by a card box wrapper featuring new art. The player's guide was also reduced in size but was now sturdier. Also added were 6 divider pieces with artwork for inside the boxes. In addition to the 350 cards available in booster packs, the Ninth Edition Core Game contained 9 "starter cards", labeled with the collector numbers S1 through S10 (there is no card labeled S6, however), which were not available in booster packs. These were simple "vanilla" creatures, such as Eager Cadet, which were designed to introduce new players to the game but which were regarded as bad cards and disliked by experienced players. As of 2011, Ninth Edition is the last Magic set to be printed with white borders. The set's premium foil cards were printed with black borders. Cards made available in Cyrillic when Ninth Edition was marketed in Russia also were black-bordered; this marked the first time a new language had been printed for the game since Simplified Chinese was added to Fifth Edition

10th Edition

Tenth Edition (10th Edition) is a "Core Set" for the collectible trading card game Magic: The Gathering. It was released on July 13, 2007, replacing Ninth Edition as the core set of cards for standard tournament play. The symbol for Tenth Edition is the Roman numeral "X."[1] As part of their "Selecting Tenth Edition" promotion, Wizards of the Coast gave fans the chance to manage a part of the set's brand.[1] The results gave the Roman numeral "X" over the number "10," along with many other card, art, and flavor text choices.[1] Tenth Edition was the first core set since Beta to be printed with black-bordered cards, rather than white-bordered ones.[2] Tenth Edition is also the first core set to include legendary creatures (two of each color), bringing back flavorful relics of Magic's past such as Squee, Goblin Nabob, and Kamahl, Pit Fighter.

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