Fifth Edition Magic The Gathering Cards
The Fifth Edition was the seventeenth Magic: The Gathering set and
fifth core set, a revision of the base set released in March of 1997.
It contained 449 cards, counting multiple illustrations of basic lands,
making it the largest card set in the game's history. It was the first
edition of the core set to reprint cards from the first 'Block' of
expansions; Ice Age, Fallen Empires, and Homelands.
Like its predecessors, Revised and Fourth Editions, Fifth Edition
made numerous changes to the game's rules and card mix. The set's
designers stated in The Duelist that they wanted to prune from the base
set cards that were too powerful or too weak. Many overpowered cards
from Limited and Unlimited Editions had survived the past two
rotations, including Channel, Balance, Black Vise, and Mind Twist, all
of which had been restricted (i.e. limited to one per deck) or outright
banned in Standard tournaments. Although they were removed from Fifth,
a few powerful cards still survived, including Dark Ritual and Mana
Vault. Many unpopular cards that the developers (and most players)
considered too weak and narrow in function were also removed, including
the "Laces" (Chaoslace, Deathlace, Lifelace, Purelace, % 26amp;
Thoughtlace), the "Wards" (Black Ward, Blue Ward, Green Ward, Red Ward,
% 26amp; White Ward), and Fortified Area.
Unlike its predecessors, though, Fifth Edition also removed many
cards that Magic's Design and Development team saw as just a little bit
too good, but not quite so powerful as to heavily disrupt tournaments,
including Savannah Lions, Serra Angel, Hypnotic Specter, Sengir
Vampire, Lightning Bolt, and Swords to Plowshares. Many of these cards
were brought back in later sets after the designers had re-evaluated
their impact on play. A few cards that were in Revised but had been cut
from Fourth were brought back as well, including Atog and Shatterstorm.
Fifth Edition also set a new precedent by changing the artwork
and/or flavor text on many cards, especially the five basic lands, each
of which was given four new illustrations to replace its original
three. This was done so that WotC would not have to continue to pay for
the use of many arts done for earlier sets, as originally artists were
paid royalties for their artwork being used, instead of a flat fee as
is done today for new Magic art.
Fifth Edition was the first version of the base set to reprint
cards from the Fallen Empires and Homelands expansion sets; it also
reprinted more cards from those sets than any other version of the base
set has. Because those expansion sets were perceived by many players as
weak, there was and still is some dissatisfaction with the Fifth
Edition card mix. However, many of the reprinted cards were good enough
to be used in tournaments, and at least one Ice Age card (Necropotence)
was later declared "broken," i.e. its mechanics are inherently
overpowered. Boxes of Fifth Edition currently reach about the same
prices on eBay that boxes of more recent sets are retailing for. This
is opposed to boxes of 4th Edition which go for much higher, and to
boxes of Fallen Empires and Homelands which are probably the cheapest
boxes anyone can find to buy that are tournament legal.
Fifth Edition was the first version of the base set to use the
cosmetic changes that were introduced in the Mirage expansion
(including a slightly expanded text box and bolder, more visible
power/toughness numbers) It was also the last version of the base set
to use what are sometimes referred to as the "old rules". The rules
were drastically changed in Sixth Edition, and the term "Sixth Edition
rules" refers to all versions of the rules afterward. Most notably 5th
edition was the last Core Set to feature game concepts like 'fast
effects' and 'interrupts', being replaced by the "stack" in 6th
Edition, and all spells being either Instants or Sorceries.
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