4th Edition (Magic: The Gathering)
Encyclopedia
The Fourth Edition of Magic: The Gathering
was the tenth set released for the game, and the fourth base set (or "core set"). The set was released in April 1995 and contained 378 cards. It was the first set to reprint cards from the expansions Legends
and The Dark
. Fourth Edition cards have white borders. The set has no expansion symbol.
Fourth Edition was the first Magic set to be printed in Asian languages. It was published in English
, French
, German
, Italian
, and as a first for a Magic set in Japanese
, traditional Chinese
, Korean
, Spanish
, and Portuguese
, which was printed primarily for the Brazil
ian market. Korean and Chinese Fourth Edition cards have been made only with black borders while Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish cards exist with white and black borders.
. The colors were also much brighter and crisper than Revised's wash-out appearance. This set was also the first core set to include a Wizards of the Coast
copyright
notice at the bottom of the card, in addition to the standard illustration credit.
Booster pack
s, for the first time in a core set, came in packs with cropped card art on the packaging. Up to this point, Alpha
, Beta
, Unlimited
, and Revised all had a common-looking booster pack packaging. The cards Brass Man, Hurloon Minotaur, Mana Vault, Mesa Pegasus, and Spirit Link were shown on the booster packs. Starter packs were also improved, with mana symbols replacing the simple pentagram pattern present on the card back. Finally, an overall red theme was given to the packaging, which would persist for Fifth Edition
before changing to green in 6th Edition
.
Starter decks in this set included an additional rare, bringing the total to three. However, the starter decks contained fewer uncommons, going down to nine from the previous thirteen. Booster Packs included one rare, three uncommons, and eleven commons. Fourth Edition was the first set to offload its land printings to a dedicated land sheet. This freed up room on the other card sheets to include more spells. As a result, booster packs could now be produced without any lands, which Wizards decided to do. Fourth Edition lands were only available in starter decks. The change was mostly seen as a positive, since by this time lands were ubiquitous and players were unhappy to find a land in place of a "real" card.
Fourth Edition introduced the modern turned arrow tapped symbol, replacing the rotated "T" that had been introduced in Revised. This symbol was first used in an expansion with Ice Age
, which was released in the summer. Current cards still use the turned arrow, albeit with a slightly different illustration.
Among those cards removed were those that had attracted controversy from those outside the game. Most of the cards whose art depicted nude or near-nude humanoid forms (including Earthbind and Guardian Angel) were excised, as were many that had overtly religious themes (including Resurrection and Demonic Hordes), though one demon, Lord of the Pit, remained. One card, Unholy Strength had its artwork altered to remove a flaming inverted pentagram
in the background (as compared to this).
Also removed were the original ten "dual lands" (one for each pair of Magic's five colors). With the ability to tap for one mana of either of two colors, they were deemed too powerful. Other cards pruned from the set for being too potent included Fork, Regrowth, and Sol Ring, while a few, such as Vesuvan Doppelganger or Kudzu, were considered too complicated to warrant their inclusion. One card dropped for being too complex, Clone, would return to Magic several times after the rules dealing with cards of its kind had been streamlined. Clone has been part of the four most recent core sets as of Magic 2011
.
as their card printer since Alpha
. For some undocumented reason, during the production of 4th Edition, the company experimented with using other vendors. Some cards were printed by the United States Playing Card Corporation, and had a thicker stock along with a glossy overcoat on the back. While these cards were not intended to be released, some starter packs were leaked out into public circulation. The cards do not glow under blacklight, unlike normal cards, and did not have the normal dot design on the back.
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
was the tenth set released for the game, and the fourth base set (or "core set"). The set was released in April 1995 and contained 378 cards. It was the first set to reprint cards from the expansions Legends
Legends (Magic: The Gathering)
Legends was the seventh Magic: The Gathering set and the third expansion set, released in June 1994. It was the first expansion set to be sold in packs of 15 . The set was designed by Wizards of the Coast co-founder Steve Conard and friend Robin Herbert in Canada before the game was initially...
and The Dark
The Dark (Magic: The Gathering)
The Dark was the eighth Magic: The Gathering set and the fourth expansion to the game, released in August 1994. The set continued the story begun in Antiquities and recounted the aftermath of the events of that set. The 119-card set had a dark, sacrificial theme, though unlike its predecessor...
. Fourth Edition cards have white borders. The set has no expansion symbol.
Fourth Edition was the first Magic set to be printed in Asian languages. It was published in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, and as a first for a Magic set in Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, traditional Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, which was printed primarily for the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian market. Korean and Chinese Fourth Edition cards have been made only with black borders while Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish cards exist with white and black borders.
Physical attributes
Fourth Edition included the beveled border missing from the previous core set, RevisedRevised (Magic: The Gathering)
The Revised Edition of Magic: The Gathering 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...
. The colors were also much brighter and crisper than Revised's wash-out appearance. This set was also the first core set to include a Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
notice at the bottom of the card, in addition to the standard illustration credit.
Booster pack
Booster pack
In collectible card games and collectible miniature wargames, a booster pack is a sealed package of cards or figurines, designed to add to a player's collection....
s, for the first time in a core set, came in packs with cropped card art on the packaging. Up to this point, Alpha
Alpha (Magic: The Gathering)
The name Alpha refers to the first print run of the original Magic: The Gathering Limited Edition, the first Magic: The Gathering card set. It premiered in a limited release at Origins Game Fair in 1993, with a general release that August. Its print run of 2.6 million cards sold out very quickly...
, Beta
Beta (Magic: The Gathering)
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...
, Unlimited
Unlimited (Magic: The Gathering)
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...
, and Revised all had a common-looking booster pack packaging. The cards Brass Man, Hurloon Minotaur, Mana Vault, Mesa Pegasus, and Spirit Link were shown on the booster packs. Starter packs were also improved, with mana symbols replacing the simple pentagram pattern present on the card back. Finally, an overall red theme was given to the packaging, which would persist for Fifth Edition
5th Edition (Magic: The Gathering)
The Fifth Edition was the seventeenth Magic: The Gathering set and fifth core set, a revision of the base set released in March 1997. It contained 449 cards, counting multiple illustrations of basic lands, making it the largest card set in the game's history...
before changing to green in 6th Edition
6th Edition (Magic: The Gathering)
The Sixth Edition core set of Magic: The Gathering, also known as Classic, was released on April 27, 1999. It contains 350 cards, with reprints of cards from previous core sets, as well as some new reprints from expansion sets through the Weatherlight expansion.-Rule changes:The release of Sixth...
.
Starter decks in this set included an additional rare, bringing the total to three. However, the starter decks contained fewer uncommons, going down to nine from the previous thirteen. Booster Packs included one rare, three uncommons, and eleven commons. Fourth Edition was the first set to offload its land printings to a dedicated land sheet. This freed up room on the other card sheets to include more spells. As a result, booster packs could now be produced without any lands, which Wizards decided to do. Fourth Edition lands were only available in starter decks. The change was mostly seen as a positive, since by this time lands were ubiquitous and players were unhappy to find a land in place of a "real" card.
Fourth Edition introduced the modern turned arrow tapped symbol, replacing the rotated "T" that had been introduced in Revised. This symbol was first used in an expansion with Ice Age
Ice Age (Magic: The Gathering)
Ice Age is the eleventh Magic: The Gathering set and the sixth expansion set, released in June 1995. Set in the years from 450 to 2934 AR, the set describes a world set in perpetual winter due to the events in Antiquities...
, which was released in the summer. Current cards still use the turned arrow, albeit with a slightly different illustration.
Cards removed
Like the previous core set and all core sets since, several cards were removed and new ones were added from Fourth Edition.Among those cards removed were those that had attracted controversy from those outside the game. Most of the cards whose art depicted nude or near-nude humanoid forms (including Earthbind and Guardian Angel) were excised, as were many that had overtly religious themes (including Resurrection and Demonic Hordes), though one demon, Lord of the Pit, remained. One card, Unholy Strength had its artwork altered to remove a flaming inverted pentagram
Pentagram
A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes...
in the background (as compared to this).
Also removed were the original ten "dual lands" (one for each pair of Magic's five colors). With the ability to tap for one mana of either of two colors, they were deemed too powerful. Other cards pruned from the set for being too potent included Fork, Regrowth, and Sol Ring, while a few, such as Vesuvan Doppelganger or Kudzu, were considered too complicated to warrant their inclusion. One card dropped for being too complex, Clone, would return to Magic several times after the rules dealing with cards of its kind had been streamlined. Clone has been part of the four most recent core sets as of Magic 2011
Magic 2011
Magic 2011 is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set that was released on July 16, 2010. It was the twelfth core set for Magic: the Gathering. As its predecessor, Magic 2010, the set has new cards in it, but to a lesser extent.-Set Details:...
.
Alternate Fourth Edition
Wizards has used CartamundiCartamundi
Cartamundi, also called Carta Mundi, is a Belgian company, based in Turnhout, that produces and sells board games, card games, collectible card games, packages and playing cards through its manufacturing and sales subsidiaries...
as their card printer since Alpha
Alpha (Magic: The Gathering)
The name Alpha refers to the first print run of the original Magic: The Gathering Limited Edition, the first Magic: The Gathering card set. It premiered in a limited release at Origins Game Fair in 1993, with a general release that August. Its print run of 2.6 million cards sold out very quickly...
. For some undocumented reason, during the production of 4th Edition, the company experimented with using other vendors. Some cards were printed by the United States Playing Card Corporation, and had a thicker stock along with a glossy overcoat on the back. While these cards were not intended to be released, some starter packs were leaked out into public circulation. The cards do not glow under blacklight, unlike normal cards, and did not have the normal dot design on the back.
Notable cards
- Balance — This card can act as a Wrath of God, Armageddon, and Mind Twist all at once if played at the right time. It was one of the few extremely powerful cards left in the 4th Edition. Even after its restriction, it was still able to warp tournament formats.
- Strip Mine — While most of the cards deemed too powerful were removed from 4th Edition, this one was actually added in. Strip Mine was originally from AntiquitiesAntiquities (Magic: The Gathering)Antiquities was the fifth Magic: The Gathering set and the second expansion set. It was the first set to have an original backstory that explores the mythos of the Magic universe . The story is primarily about the brothers Urza and Mishra who are inseparable at first, but become sworn enemies over...
but had not been included in Revised. Tournament play quickly showed that Strip Mine was too powerful and it was eventually restricted to one per deck in Standard and Vintage. Today it is banned in Legacy. Over time, Wizards of the Coast has come to downplay land destruction as an element of the game and Strip Mine has not been reprinted since in a regular set in part due to this policy.