Legends (Magic: The Gathering)
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| Legends | ||
|---|---|---|
| Expansion symbol |  |
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| Release date | June 1994 | |
| Mechanics | Legendary permanents, Enchant Worlds, Multicolor cards |
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| Keywords | Bands with other, Rampage |
|
| Size | 310 cards
|
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| Magic: The Gathering Chronology |
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| Revised | Legends | The Dark |
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 (previous expansions had been sold in packs of 8). The set, like Antiquities, was created by the group of students at the University of Pennsylvania that had helped Richard Garfield design the original game. The expansion symbol for Legends was the capital of a column.
There was one notable printing error with Legends: Each booster box contained only half of the uncommon cards in the set. This along with the limited number of cards available made collecting the entire 310-card set very difficult.
Contents |
[edit] Secondary market
Legends was the last mainstream set printed to have any card in it sell for over $100 USD on the secondary market. Many cards prior to Legends in Alpha and Beta retail for over $100 due to their extreme rarity. Obviously all the Power Nine as printed in Unlimited fall under this category, however the Unlimited dual lands drop in price considerably as compared to their black bordered originals. Arabian Nights had power cards like Library of Alexandria, Bazaar of Bagdad, and Juzaam Djinn. Antiquities had Mishra's Workshop, a staple of certain types of Vintage decks. The next two expansions, The Dark and Fallen Empires, are significantly underpowered and underpriced compared to Legends. Few cards since the printing of Legends sell for over $25 USD on the open market when the set is released to print except for the occasional foil rare.
Recently with the Limited printing of Starter Level sets Starter and Portal Three Kingdoms some cards go for over $100.00 due to the limited printing and promotion of these sets.
[edit] Storyline
The story line of the Legends set was not revealed until the 3 Legends Cycle books were released many years after the set.
In the book Hazeon the 3rd in the cycle. The story follows the adventures of Hazezon Tamar who teams up with many other legends from the set such as Jedit Ojanen. The book takes place in the southern regions, including Scarwood on Jamuraa.
The story itself takes place chronologically well after the Ice Age, and sometime before Weatherlight as the first Airships are built by Johan who tried to conquer the entire continent. Many other legends of the set end up fighting Johans' army at the battle for Efrava.
[edit] Mechanics
Legends introduce several important mechanics to the game and each pack of cards contained a rules card explaining the new mechanics and keywords.
- Legendary - The Legendary play mechanic was introduced in this set. Legends are powerful creatures that only one copy of which can be in play at a time. Legends provided both Legendary Creatures and Legendary Lands, while Legendary Enchantments would not arise until Champions of Kamigawa.
- Enchant World - Enchantments that enchanted the enitre "world." This enchantments would have an effect that affected all players at the same time and were limited to only one in play at a time.
- Multicolor - Legends was the first set to feature cards that required more than one color of mana to play. These cards were distinguished by a gold background and have become much more commonplace.
- Rampage - An ability that took effect whenever said creature became blocked by more than one creature. Creatures with Rampage would get a bonus to their power toughness for each creature blocking it beyond the first.
- Banding - A very complex game mechanic that was eventually dropped from the game after Weatherlight, Legends further complicated matters by creating creatures that banded with other creature types. In essence, banding allowed multiple creatures to attack as a single unit, allowing the attacker to decide how damage was distributed if the defending player blocked. Legends is the only set to feature the "bands with other" mechanic, with the exception of the Unhinged card Old Fogey.
[edit] Notable cards
Legends is known for its wildly erratic card design and as a rule, most of its cards are either wildly under- or overpowered. Upon a close inspection of Legends, it is much easier to kill creatures in this set than it is to cast them. Cards limiting creatures such as The Abyss, broken counterspells like Mana Drain, and the overcosted nature of all of the Legends printed in this set made it very hard to play in what we would now call Constructed formats.
- Mana Drain: A powerful blue card that allowed a player to counter a spell and add that spell's mana to their mana pool on their turn, for the same price as a regular Counterspell. Mana Drain is currently a format-defining card in Vintage and is banned in Legacy.
- Chains of Mephistopheles: A cheap enchantment that severely punishes players who cast draw spells. A powerful defensive measure in Type One prison decks. Noteworthy also for being very confusing rules interactions. Thematically reprinted in Uba Mask from Champions of Kamigawa.
- The Abyss: One of the most powerful forms of global creature removal ever printed. It was once so popular players would put extra Enchant Worlds or play creatureless decks to thwart it. It was parodied in Unhinged as the card Zzzyxas's Abyss, and led to the printing of Call to the Grave.
- Divine Intervention: The only card that forces the game to end in a draw.
- Elder Dragon Legends: This cycle of five powerful three-color Dragons proved to be popular enough that they were reprinted in Chronicles, which ended up permanently reducing the value of the originals. The five cards are Arcades Sabboth, Chromium, Nicol Bolas, Palladia-Mors, and Vaevictis Asmadi. Nicol Bolas was also reprinted as a Time Spiral "Timeshifted Special."
- Falling Star: A flip card that was similar to Alpha's Chaos Orb. The two cards shared the fate of being universally banned in tournaments due to the complexities involved in dealing with manual dexterity in card games.
- Mirror Universe: Another powerful artifact that allowed a player to switch life totals with an opponent. Under Revised rules, falling to 0 life or below was not instant death, so many players built degenerate decks designed to dump all of their life during their upkeep, then activate the Mirror Universe (of course, under the current rules, this does not work anymore). This proved powerful enough that the card needed restriction, which has since been revoked. In fact, a card with the same effect with a bonus of switching any number of players' life totals, Reverse the Sands, was printed in Champions of Kamigawa expansion, and the homage Magus of the Mirror was printed in Time Spiral.
- Land Tax: A powerful white card that allowed players to strip their decks of land and make their card draws better. Though it was reprinted in 4th Edition, its power became such that it was eventually restricted. It is currently banned in Legacy.
- Underworld Dreams: A popular black card that dealt damage whenever a player drew a card. Combined with card-drawing effects like Wheel of Fortune, the card was powerful enough to be restricted. However, it would eventually be unrestricted and reprinted in 8th and 9th Edition.
- Wood Elemental: Generally considered the worst creature card ever printed, Wood Elemental is a good example of the wildly underpowered portion of the set.
[edit] Card Count
| Colour/Type of Card | Number |
|---|---|
| Artifact | 29 |
| Black | 43 |
| Blue | 43 |
| Green | 43 |
| Land | 11 |
| Multi-color | 55 |
| Red | 43 |
| White | 43 |
| Status | Number in Set |
|---|---|
| Common | 75 |
| Rare | 121 |
| Uncommon | 114 |
[edit] References
- ^ Magic the Gathering: Official Encyclopedia, Project Editor, Roland Hall, Carlton Books Ltd., London, England, ISBN 1-85868-240-1
