Arabian Nights Magic The Gathering Cards
Arabian Nights was the fourth Magic: The Gathering set and the first
expert level expansion set, featuring completely new cards. Ali Baba,
djinns, deserts, and King Suleiman joined the Magic world on the plane
of Rabiah with cards inspired by the themes and characters of the
Thousand and One Arabian Nights. The expansion symbol for Arabian
Nights was a scimitar.
Richard Garfield, Magic creator, acted as the sole designer for the
set, and developed it in parallel with other teams working on what
would become Ice Age and Mirage. The set received input from Jim Lin,
Chris Page, and Dave Pettey as well.[1] At that point in Magic's
development, the role of expansions was relatively undefined, and
Garfield intended for Arabian Nights cards to bear a purple and gold
back[2] that would allow players to exclude Arabian Nights from their
games. In his article, "The Making of Arabian Nights",[3] Garfield
cites this as his inspiration to "be more adventurous in creating
mechanics and themes".
Player response against the proposed new back caused Wizards of the
Coast to stay with the original backs, allowing cards from various sets
to be mixed freely in gameplay. To replace the new card back, a
symbolic scimitar was added between the card artwork and card text,
making the first expansion symbol; every expansion set since has
displayed a unique one.
As with preceding sets, interesting errors were revealed when the
set was released. One of them was the so-called "Arabian Mountain".
When the decision was made to have the expansion sets fully playable
with the basic set, Wizards of the Coast decided that there was no need
to include basic land in the print run, so it was removed. However, the
Mountain basic land card accidentally remained. Another error, this
time in printing, caused two different styles of generic mana symbols
to be printed on some cards. Some copies of these cards feature a
regular sized generic mana symbol, other copies have one that is
smaller and darker.
Even when separated from its place as Magic's first expansion,
Arabian Nights was a groundbreaking set in terms of its impact on the
game. In his article "It Happened One Nights", Mark Rosewater detailed
the following innovations or expansions on Alpha mechanics:
- Stealing opponent's card
- Opponent activated abilities
- Lands with abilities
- Coin flips and random resolutions
- Cumulative upkeep
- Cantrips (cards that replace themselves in a player's hand)
- Life Link
- -1/-1 counters
- Removed from game
- Remove from combat
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