
Antiquities Magic The Gathering Cards
Antiquities was the fifth Magic: The Gathering set and the second
expert level expansion set. It was the first set to have an original
backstory and explore the mythos of the Magic universe (see Magic: The
Gathering storylines). The set 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 Antiquities was an anvil.
Antiquities managed to solve many of the printing errors that had
plagued previous sets, although the expansion symbol was omitted from
Reconstruction. The only major problem noticed by players was the poor
collation of the set; many booster boxes contained several packs with
exactly the same cards in each, making it next-to-impossible for
players in many parts of the country to collect complete sets. To
correct this, Wizards of the Coast introduced a "buyback" program,
allowing players to trade in their excess cards for money. This
backfired on many players who took early advantage of it as Antiquities
cards soon began rising in price on the secondary-sales market. In the
UK at least, the 'buyback' was limited to the uncommon cards; however,
it was possible to exchange these for cards from the previous Arabian
Nights expansion too.