Power Nine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may not meet the general notability guideline. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged or deleted. (March 2009)

In Magic: The Gathering, the Power Nine are nine rare cards that were printed early in the game's history and consist of Black Lotus,^[1] Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, Mox Emerald, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, and Timetwister.^[2] They are considered to be amongst the most powerful cards in the game. All nine cards were rare cards printed only in the Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited sets, meaning they were only printed for a short period from late 1993 to early 1994.^[3] Currently, all the Power Nine cards are restricted in the Vintage tournament format^[4] and banned in Legacy, the only formats where they would be legal otherwise.^[5]

Contents 1 Black Lotus 2 Moxen 3 Ancestral Recall 4 Timetwister 5 Time Walk 6 Variants of power cards 6.1 Black Lotus 6.2 Moxes 6.3 Ancestral Recall 6.4 Time Walk 6.5 Timetwister 6.6 Parodies 6.7 Alternate Art 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Black Lotus

Black Lotus is often used to represent or promote the game.^{[citation needed]} With the exception of certain special cards printed outside normal sets (such as 1996 World Champion), Black Lotus is the most valuable Magic card, especially its Alpha and Beta versions.^[6] The illustration on Black Lotus was painted by Christopher Rush, who was at the time a Wizards of the Coast employee. The Black Lotus illustration is a depiction of a black lotus flower over a foliage backdrop.

Former Pro and Magic writer Zvi Mowshowitz has declared Black Lotus as the best artifact of all time, claiming every deck in the history of the game is better with a Black Lotus in it.^[7]

[edit] Moxen

The five Mox cards —Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet and Mox Emerald (colloquially "Moxen")— are Artifacts, that are similar to the five Basic lands in that they add one mana of a specific colour to their owner's mana pool. In most situations the Mox cards are better than Basic lands because a player can play as many of these as they desire while a player can only play one Basic land per turn.^[7] All five Mox cards have been illustrated by Dan Frazier. In each artwork a different piece of Jewelry is depicted.

[edit] Ancestral Recall

Ancestral Recall allows the player to use one card to draw three more at an extremely low mana cost.^[8] It originated as part of a set of five cards called "Boons", one of each color, which gave three of something (e.g. mana, life, damage) for the cost of one mana. Ancestral Recall remains the only one of these cards to not have been reprinted since the Unlimited set.

[edit] Timetwister

Timetwister holds great power due to its ability to get a hand of fresh cards with the possibility of drawing cards that used to be in that players graveyard.^[8]

[edit] Time Walk

In Time Walk's early play test version it had the text "Target player loses next turn." While the intent of the game designers was that the opposing player would skip a turn, many new players saw the card and believed that the targeted player would lose the entire game (i.e.: "Target player loses [during his/her] next turn" instead of the intended "Target player loses [the ability to take his/her] next turn"). However, the wording was changed prior to the release of Alpha.^[9]

[edit] Variants of power cards

The fame of the cards has been alluded to and lampooned in subsequent printings of Magic: the Gathering.

[edit] Black Lotus

The first attempt to design a fixed Black Lotus was Lion's Eye Diamond from the Mirage edition. Lion's Eye Diamond was designed to be unplayable due to causing the player to discard his or her hand but still ended up being powerful.^[7] The card was eventually restricted in Vintage.^[4] The Tempest expansion set called Lotus Petal is identical to Black Lotus except that it only produces one mana instead of three and also ended up restricted in Vintage.^[4] In the Mirrodin set, the Gilded Lotus imitates the Black Lotus's ability by producing the same amount of mana without being sacrificed, but at a much higher cost to play. Lotus Bloom, printed in the expansion set Time Spiral, has Black Lotus's ability but incorporates a three turn delay. And Lotus Vale, from Weatherlight, was a land that permitted repeated use of the Black Lotus's ability, but required that two lands be sacrificed when played.

[edit] Moxes

Mirrodin features a Chrome Mox while Stronghold is the home of Mox Diamond, both of which ended up being fairly powerful but still balanced.^[7]

[edit] Ancestral Recall

In Ice Age appeared Brainstorm. Though the caster of Brainstorm has to put two cards back on top of his or her library after drawing three, Brainstorm is still considered a powerful card and is restricted in Vintage. The most recent fixed Ancestral Recall is Ancestral Vision.

[edit] Time Walk

Time Walk has several descendants, the most straightforward of which is Time Warp from Tempest, doing exactly the same thing as Time Walk at the cost of "3UU". Also Beacon of Tomorrows gets the caster an extra turn with the additional benefit of getting shuffled back into the library, but at an even higher cost. Later, Walk the Aeons of the Time Spiral expansion was released. It allows a player to take an extra turn for the cost of "4UU", but can be bought back by sacrificing three islands. Most recently printed is Savor the Moment; it costs only one more than Time Walk (it costs 1UU) but you have to skip your next untap step, severely curtailing its usefulness.

[edit] Timetwister

The Urza's Saga card Time Spiral untaps enough lands to pay for itself (although its converted mana cost of 6 keeps it unplayable in the early turns) and removes itself from the game. It too is banned in the Legacy format but is not restricted in Vintage.^[5]

Diminishing Returns has a similar effect to Timetwister for just one blue mana more, but as an additional cost forces the caster to remove 10 cards of his or her library from the game. The Betrayers of Kamigawa card Sway of the Stars adds the effect of setting of each player's life total to 7, but costs 10 mana. Mirrodin's version, Temporal Cascade can duplicate Timetwister via the Entwine mechanic, but costs 9 mana if used this way.

[edit] Parodies

The Blacker Lotus was a satirical card in the parody Unglued set which produced four mana, although it required the user to tear up the card after use, so it could only be used once. Jack-in-the-Mox also from Unglued works like a regular mox but produces a random color of mana determined by a die roll. Mox Lotus, from the Unhinged parody set, provides infinite mana, but costs fifteen to play.

[edit] Alternate Art

Since 2003 the winner of the Vintage Championship received an oversized unique, alternate art power nine card. These prize cards were considerably larger than actual cards, that can be used in play. The following cards have been given to the winners:

• 2003: Black Lotus to Carl Winter (Artwork by Christopher Rush)^[10][11]
• 2004: Timetwister^[10] to Mark Biller (Artwork by Mark Tedin)
• 2005: Ancestral Recall to Roland Chang (Artwork by Mark Poole)^[12]
• 2006: Mox Pearl^[13] to Travis Spero (Artwork by Volkan Baga)^[14]
• 2007: Mox Jet to Stephen Menendian (Artwork by Volkan Baga)^[15]
• 2008: Mox Ruby to Paul Mastriano (Artwork by Volkan Baga)^[16]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "The Power Nine" — Images of all Power Nine cards
• The Gatherer Card Database — This database has detailed information on all other cards mentioned in this article

v • d • e Magic: The Gathering   Gameplay & History Gameplay Rules · Tempo · Card advantage · Formats · Deck types · Magic Online · Power Nine Magic Staff Randy Buehler · Mike Flores · Richard Garfield · Mark Rosewater Related Companies, Products, & Services Wizards of the Coast · Magicthegathering.com · Video games · The Sideboard · The Duelist · Scrye   Sets Core editions Alpha · Beta · Unlimited · Revised · Fourth · Fifth · Sixth · Seventh · Eighth · Ninth · Tenth · 2010 Block expansions Ice Age Ice Age · Alliances · Coldsnap Mirage Mirage · Visions · Weatherlight Tempest Tempest · Stronghold · Exodus Urza Urza's Saga · Urza's Legacy · Urza's Destiny Masques Mercadian Masques · Nemesis · Prophecy Invasion Invasion · Planeshift · Apocalypse Odyssey Odyssey · Torment · Judgment Onslaught Onslaught · Legions · Scourge Mirrodin Mirrodin · Darksteel · Fifth Dawn Kamigawa Champions of Kamigawa · Betrayers of Kamigawa · Saviors of Kamigawa Ravnica Ravnica: City of Guilds · Guildpact · Dissension Time Spiral Time Spiral · Planar Chaos · Future Sight Lorwyn Shadowmoor Lorwyn · Morningtide Shadowmoor · Eventide Shards of Alara Shards of Alara · Conflux · Alara Reborn Zendikar Zendikar · Long · Prosper Lights Lights · Camera · Action Shake Shake · Rattle · Roll Miscellaneous Early expansions Arabian Nights · Antiquities · Legends · The Dark · Fallen Empires · Homelands Un- Unglued · Unhinged Entry level Portal · Portal Second Age · Portal Three Kingdoms · Starter · Starter 2000 Duel Decks Elves vs. Goblins · Jace vs. Chandra · Divine vs. Demonic · Garruk vs. Liliana From the Vault Dragons · Exiled Other Preconstructed decks · Chronicles · Renaissance · Anthologies · Battle Royale · Beatdown · Deckmasters · Masters Edition · Masters Edition II · Planechase   Art & Storyline Storyline General plot information · Planeswalker · The Brothers' War · Planeswalker (novel) Characters, Species and Planes Gerrard Capashen · Jodah · Volrath · Yawgmoth · Dominaria · Kamigawa · Mercadia · Phyrexia · Rabiah the Infinite · Rath · Ravnica · Serra's Realm · Shandalar · Thran Artists John Avon · Brom · John Coulthart · Tony DiTerlizzi · Mike Dringenberg · Kaja Foglio · Phil Foglio · Donato Giancola · Rebecca Guay · John Howe · Todd Lockwood · Lubov · Keith Parkinson · Mark Poole · Quinton Hoover · Ron Spencer · Bryan Talbot · Matt Cavotta · Gary Ruddell · Nick Percival · Kev Walker   Tournaments & Players Organization The DCI · Friday Night Magic · Grand Prix · Pro Tour · World Championship · Nationals · Grand Prix events · Pro Tour events · Hall of Fame American pro players Randy Buehler · Alan Comer · Rob Dougherty · Jon Finkel · Darwin Kastle · Mike Long · Bob Maher · Zvi Mowshowitz · Ben Rubin · Luis Scott-Vargas  · Brian Selden · Mike Turian · David Williams · Gary Wise Asian pro players Tsuyoshi Fujita · Katsuhiro Mori · Shuhei Nakamura · Tomoharu Saitou · Kenji Tsumura European pro players Dirk Baberowski · Manuel Bevand  · Marco Blume · Noah Boeken · Kai Budde · Nicolai Herzog · Tommi Hovi · Raphaël Lévy · Antti Malin · Gabriel Nassif · Olle Råde · Olivier Ruel · Jens Thorén · Jelger Wiegersma