Countless ante cards were lost to card sharks with Channel decks, and countless people had their joy of the game wrecked by the mistake uncommon. But by the time 4th rolled around, Channel had been restricted for over a year, and was possibly the single most hated and feared card in the game. I dare you to read the unlimited version.Īs such, Revised - which was released in April 1994 - could be excused for not removing it as a "spoiler card" and stop the already running presses. Unlimited and 4th Edition Channel, image is in no way doctored. It is after all impossible to understand the wording on an Alpha Channel, and impossible to read the text on a Beta or Unlimited version. My theory is that this was due to no one knowing what the card did. Channel wasn't restricted in the first B&R, but rather added a little over a month later in March 1994 (alongside cards like Demonic Tutor and Wheel of Fortune). The ridiculous power level of Channel somehow wasn't obvious from the start. Considering this was their first time revising The Gathering, it is hard to be a hater. Yeah, sure, Jalum Tome would have been a better option than Jandor's Ring, but those kinda nitpicks are few and far between. Revised had a purpose for each card being cut, and even though WotC only had little over 160 possible cards to replace them with, most choices still appear solid today. I love the Birdman as much as the next guy, but Titania's Song is a more interesting card. Most notably the four rare Islands, but also kinda unexciting stuff like Blaze of Glory and Natural Selection. In addition, a bunch of the worst "feel-bad" rares were cut. Only Braingeyser, Dingus Egg and Sol Ring were left. Like, when WotC realized that players were buying more than just one starter and two boosters - and that in turn the broken cards would be far more abundant than originally assumed - they cut 13 out of the 16 ABU cards on the first restricted list from the core set. In Revised, most all updates have a sense to them. The weird thing is that so many of the reprints are either too good or too bad. 4th tells most all of my early Magic stories and I have an undeniable affinity for 4th. On the other hand, while the first cards for me were Revised, the set I really cut my teeth on was 4th Edition. So I never bought a single booster of either set. Now, I barely played during 6th (as I was a teenager trying to get invited to parties rather than getting punched in the hallways), and by 11th my relationship with Magic was mostly steeped in casual oddities and foogey formats. As The Gathering updates goes, those were the greats. Wanna know what a good core set revision looks like? Sixth edition (Classic) and Eleventh edition (Magic 2010). Though odd times beget an odd topic, so let's take a peek at a set we've never talked about here before. Easy trade.īut let's leave the world on the sidelines for a few moments. So maybe this will be the first Easter since 2008 without a 93/94 tournament in Gothenburg, and maybe doing so could make one less person sick. Giving up a small part of one's personal freedom to try and support society at large, even if just a little. The restrictions put in place in Norway somehow reminds me a little of my time in the military. That said, after two weeks of new rules and intense social distancing, I do not feel that bothered. I'd really like a spoiler season of sorts right now, having a small peek of what things will look like in a month. Whenever I get the urge to write something profound or entertaining about the situation, my thoughts wander off to my friends in Italy and dejection overtakes any wit. There's really nothing sensible to write about it here.