The 5 Biggest Sleeper Hits of #MTG94BOX
It’s no secret that the Mythic Markets team love Magic: The Gathering. So when we talk about our goal to help people invest in the things they love, you know that the OG collectible card game is at the front of our mind.
Just a few days ago we revealed our latest MTG offering: a full collection of mint booster boxes from 1994! Together, they provide a perfect cross-section of the 5 distinct sets which were released during that year - the busiest and most explosive in Magic history.
Wizards of the Coast started out that year racing to capitalize on the instant buzz attracted by their first few Magic print runs in 1993. Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited had all flown off the game store shelves, as had the first expansion set Arabian Nights, released just in time for Christmas.
Unsure how long the buzz would last, Wizards started cranking out Magic expansions at double pace! The result was five sets which were utterly different in presentation, power level, setting and theme - from the gothic grimness of The Dark to the fanciful Legends. In the end, it was the variety of Magic’s offerings in 1994 which helped the game explode worldwide, as much as the novelty of the then-new collectible card game genre. Tripling the size of the available card pool allowed players to really appreciate the freedom and creativity possible in this sort of game, and millions were hooked.
But with 1994 players getting so many new cards in such a short time, it was inevitable that some of them would fall through the cracks. Back then there were no internet forums or Twitter for master magicians to discuss which spells and summons were worth casting! It might surprise you to find out which modern powerhouses were overlooked by traders and collectors at the time...
#5 - MANA CLASH (THE DARK)
Trivia time: did you know that “Mana Clash” was originally going to be the name for the game of Magic itself? The elegant one-word title that playtesters at Wizards had used was deemed too generic to trademark by their lawyers, and Mana Clash was the most preferred alternative.
While they eventually won approval to call the game Magic (by adding “The Gathering”) it seems like someone wanted to ensure that other cool name didn’t go to waste. At the time The Dark was published, it seemed like that designer had failed - the card was given minimal price and power ratings by the collectors magazine InQuest. But as later coin-flipping cards like Krark’s Thumb, Chance Encounter and Karplusan Minotaur were printed, the ability of Mana Clash to force a ton of coin flips for just one mana became a powerful tool in these heavily specialised decks.
#4 - TRISKELION (ANTIQUITIES)
Unlike Mana Clash, the engine of death known as Triskelion was not dismissed as useless even in the high-powered context of Antiquities. At the time, six mana was not a prohibitive amount to pay for a creature, and the absolute control a player had over how to distribute Triskelion’s damage made it about as valuable as the average rare. Respectable enough, but certainly not worth as much attention as, say Urza’s Avenger!
It was the release of Mirrodin in 2003 which gave Triskelion a new lease on life. An artifact-themed set taking inspiration from Antiquities, the set didn’t just reprint Triski with slick modern artwork. Mirrodin added a huge list of ways to improve the construct’s firepower by moving around +1/+1 counters between artifacts - and best of all, a combo with Mephidross Vampire to deal infinite damage to any creature target(s)! With ultra-tutor Tooth and Nail in the same set to immediately lock the combo in, Triskelion had a great time as a constructed menace. Nowadays it remains a combo kill option in the popular Commander format, alongside even-more-lethal combo enabler, Mikaeus the Unhallowed.
#3 - THE RACK (REVISED)
The Rack is a truly remarkable bit of Magic design. As a card it is far more complex and strategically demanding than something like Birds of Paradise or Lightning Bolt, and yet The Rack has maintained a similar longevity to these iconic staples and remains a relevant threat to this very day in the infamous “8-Rack” style decks!
Even in the first 12 months of Magic people had a wary respect for The Rack and its sinister but irreplaceable Richard Thomas artwork. But they figured out that its opposite-effect sister card, Black Vise, was a more powerful option. Or so they thought!
The Rack had its breakout performance in the 1995 World Championship, a hotly contested tournament between the first generation of elite Magic players. The top four featured multiple Black Vise decks, but Swiss ace Alexander Blumke obliterated them with his Rack Control list. Blumke supported The Rack with discard spells like Hypnotic Specter, Hymn to Tourach and Mind Twist, while also having the option to discard his own Sengir Vampires and bring them back cheaply with Dance of the Dead. The Rack vs Vise debate has never been raised again!
#2 - SYLVAN LIBRARY (LEGENDS)
Legends turns out to have a lot of cards which later revealed hidden potential - it’s such a weird, disorganized list of designs that it would have been difficult to evaluate them all. It’s also worth remembering that the policy of Wizards in the early days was to conceal information about which cards existed in which sets; a holdover from Richard Garfield’s first vision of Magic as a sort of scavenger hunt, rather than a competitive discipline.
Given all those excuses, it is maybe understandable why even the “experts” at InQuest magazine listed eternal powerhouse Sylvan Library as one of the least valuable rares in Legends. Boy oh boy. Even in ‘94 the Library was an incredible engine; drawing multiple extra cards per turn for no mana was always gamewinning. It was listed as 50 cents more valuable than Wood Elemental - a famous candidate for “worst card of all time”.
And of course, the Library has become even more powerful since then! Being able to trigger a shuffle on queue with “fetchlands” lets you permanently dismiss any Library draws you put back, and effects like Abundance or Dredge which replace drawing cards allows you to reap the benefits of the Library and little to no cost of life.
#1 - KARAKAS (LEGENDS)
It was going to be difficult to deny perhaps the strongest non-blue draw spell in Magic from getting the top “underappreciated in its day” spot, but there’s one more card in Legends that does it.
Originally part of a cycle with such unassuming fellows as Hammerheim, Karakas’s status has grown along with Magic’s use of the legendary supertype as a balancing tool for game-breaking creatures. It’s no accident that nowadays a large share of the most powerful creatures are legends, including Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Urza, Lord High Artificer, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, Griselbrand, and Leovold, Emissary of Trest. Karakas is an untapped colored source, with no drawbacks, which deals with the lot of them for the equivalent of one mana.
Some of its most prominent targets - Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Marit Lage tokens - are extremely punishing and difficult to answer in any other way, let alone by a card as easy to use as Karakas. Throw in that you can also Karakas your own legendary creatures to save them from death or exile, and the only surprise in this land’s illustrious career is how it didn’t pick up some respect sooner (it bounces 55 creatures in Legends alone!).
All of these cards (and more!) could be contained in mint-fresh condition within the treasure trove that is #MTG94BOX. More trivia and fun information will be arriving throughout the leadup to its public offering on May 13. Sign up now on mythicmarkets.com to be ready.