“Magic: The Gathering” has revealed its 30th Anniversary Edition product, which will include a modern take on some of the game’s most powerful and rarest cards ever released – The Power Nine.
The Power Nine are nine rare cards, widely considered to be the most powerful cards ever printed in “Magic: The Gathering”. They are only legal in the game’s Vintage format, in which they are restricted, meaning a deck can’t contain more than one copy of the cards. The Power Nine are: Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Timetwister, and Time Walk. A copy of Black Lotus, the most expensive of the set (and ever printers), was sold for $800000 this year, the buyer being none other than rapper Post Malone.
Wizards of the Coast have put the price on this commemorative product at $999, most probably due to the inclusion of The Power Nine. It’s far from $800000, but it’s still a hefty price to pay for cards that are not even tournament legal and available only in select formats.
A Modern Take On Nostalgia
What’s more exciting is that some of the “Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition” cards will feature an updated frame style, which will make them look more up-to-date with modern cards. Note that the original card art will not be changed, in order to keep the nostalgic roots alive.
Each “Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition” product will contain four 30th Anniversary Edition Packs. Each of those will contain 15 cards, 13 cards in the modern frame – 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 7 commons, and 2 basic lands, plus one basic land in the retro frame, one additional retro frame card, and a token. The retro frame will be the same frame art that Wizards of the Coast used in Time Spiral Remastered. There will also be a few more nostalgic touches, such as the original white mana symbol, the original basic land template, and of course – the classic art.
“Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition” also aims to have a “modern approach” to card releases. Due to this, Wizards of the Coast has announced the removal of six cards from the Anniversary Edition set. The cards removed are: Contract from Below, Darkpact, Demonic Attorney, Earthbind, Weakness, and Crusade, possibly due to the use of the outdated “ante” mechanic, which has been criticized as being too close to gambling, and due to card art that some people consider to be “offensive” and racially unjust.
It is clear that “Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition” is a nostalgia-inspired product, which aims to mimic the success of “Limited Edition Alpha” and “Limited Edition Beta”, and will seemingly rely on the nostalgic feeling of opening packs and hoping to receive the most powerful or valuable card. We are all familiar with this feeling, it’s been proven to work, so we can only expect similar products in the future.