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Revised or 3rd edition booster pack contains 15 cards per pack. Distribution is 1 rare, 3 uncommon, and 11 commons. Released in April of 1994, Revised or 3rd edition is a core set. The set contains 306 white-bordered cards (121 rare, 95 uncommon, 75 common, and 15 lands). There were usually two dual lands per box. There were no copyright dates on unlimited nor revised. As a result, for the novice, the two sets are difficult to differentiate. Unlimited was printed with a quasi 3d look so that there are two lines on the edge of the card. Revised only has one black line for the edge of the picture. Further the colors are much richer for unlimited.
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. It was the first base set to contain cards from black-bordered sets other than Alpha and Beta.
Printing of Revised began in early April 1994 and continued until April 1995, when 4th Edition was announced. It is estimated that about 500 million cards of the set were produced, which fully eliminated the distribution problems of earlier sets. The cards of Revised were still widely available even well into 1996.
The cards of Revised like the cards of the preceding Unlimited Edition all had white borders, no expansion symbol, and the artist credit at the bottom left. However, the cards were far paler than their Unlimited counterparts, and the three-dimensional beveling of the cards was cropped out. This gave the cards an appearance that was widely criticized as "washed out" and even unprofessional. The beveling was returned in 4th Edition, and the colors were much more vibrant in that set. The large print run meant that Revised basic lands were so numerous and common that it was uncommon to find any other lands in decks until several years later.
The collation of the cards made it possible for a basic land card to appear in the common and uncommon slots of a pack. This was intentional; the land cards were printed on the common and uncommon print sheets. Basic lands would get their own full print sheets in 4th Edition, making Revised the last tournament-legal set until 7th Edition in which basic lands could be found in booster packs. Basic lands returned as a card slot in the Shards of Alara block of 2008.
One card-printing error of note appeared on the card Serendib Efreet. This blue creature card was misprinted with a green border and a picture of another card, Ifh-Biff Efreet. The name, mana cost and rules text were all correct, though. The Revised version is now the most common due to the limited print run of the original, intended versions.
Revised was the first base edition of the game to be sold in multiple languages. Black bordered, limited editions were produced in French, German, and Italian. Unlimited, white bordered editions in the same languages were produced after the limited editions had sold out.
Twenty Revised cards were originally in the Arabian nights expansion, and another nineteen were originally in the Antiquities expansion. Thirty-five cards that were in Unlimited were not in Revised, including the Power Nine. A few of the cards that were removed from the base set reappeared in later sets. Most notably, Icy Manipulator would be reprinted in Ice Age, and a few others would be reprinted in 8th Edition to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary.
At this stage of development, cards were swapped out to alleviate problems. In later sets, cards were swapped in and out to change the feeling of the game, but the cards removed for the Revised edition were all cut for one of three reasons:
- Being too powerful (or perceived as such). In particular, the Power 9 were removed, but also such cards as Invisibility, Forcefield, and Berserk. Mystifiers. Cards that were too confusing by the contemporary ruleset. Mystifiers included Raging River, Word of Command, Camouflage, Blaze of Glory, and Twiddle. Note that the effects of many of these cards were used in later sets, and several of the cards were even reprinted later in their entirety.
- Too weak. Some very few cards were dropped for being too weak, in particular Copper Tablet, Ironclaw Orcs, and Dwarven Demolition Team.
Interestingly enough, many of the cards removed from the base set for the 4th Edition were removed for same reasons as many cards were cut from Unlimited (although some were brought back in later sets). Such cards included Clone, Vesuvan Doppelganger, and Fork, cards which were either overpowered or offered strange rules interactions not suited for a base set.
The printing of Revised cleared up a number of rules problems that the Limited Edition and Unlimited Edition rules had. Two changes had a large effect on game play. First, the rule that "multiple effects resolve simultaneously unless a conflict arises" was changed to "effects always resolve last in first out". The concept was later refined and then named "stack". Second, the rule for Protection from was changed from "the creature ignores all effects" to the more precise "the creature cannot be blocked or targeted by sources, reduces damage to zero, and cannot be enchanted by enchantments."
The most visually obvious of Revised's changes was the elimination of the Mono/Poly/Continuous qualifiers to artifacts. With the advent of the game's first tap symbol (a "T" turned forty-five degrees clockwise in a light gray circle), the qualifiers used to differentiate when and how often an artifact could be used were no longer needed. Artifacts that were previously classified as Mono artifacts were given the new tap symbol, while Poly and Continuous artifacts were simply re-templated without the tap symbol.
The Summer Magic (Also known as "Edgar" for a green "E" on the front of the boosters) print run of Revised Edition were printed in the summer of 1994. This print run intended to fix some of the errors with Revised, including the washed-out color. As it turned out, the Summer Magic run had problems of its own. The colors were considered too dark and the artist credited for Plateau stayed uncorrected as well as the artist credited for Serendib Efreet, although the Efreet had received its original color and art again. Also a famous new misprint occurred with the card Hurricane; the so-called "blue Hurricane" is one of the rarest and most sought-after cards in the entirety of Magic because of its misprint with a blue border. On the secondary market it sells for thousands of dollars. The print run was recalled and destroyed; however, about 40 booster boxes that were shipped to England and Tennessee survived. No more than 11 or 12 of each rare exists.
This print run is known primarily for its extremely scarce and valuable cards and packs. Cards are distinguished by dark coloring and a 1994 copyright date displayed at the bottom, along with the artist credit. Booster packs look identical to normal Revised Edition packs, and as such, telling them apart can often be troublesome. However, many of the Summer Magic booster packs have a large green "E" on the front for "Edgar". No starter decks were made. |
