Set History
This set, as well as the next sets, Fallen Empires and Homelands, are widely considered by players to be the weakest Magic sets. Unlike all the previous sets, The Dark was created with an overall decrease in the power level and the speed of the game. Initial problems with the Power Nine in Alpha/Beta/Unlimited, the Library of Alexandria and Ali from Cairo in Arabian Nights, as well as Mana Drain and The Abyss in Legends had led Magic designers to more closely consider all the possibilities when creating an individual card. This led to an underpowered set.
The Dark is also the oldest set released to not have a card retail over $100 USD on the secondary market. The most sought after card is Maze of Ith, which retails for $40 USD. Only a few other cards sell for more than $5, and all of the rest can be bought for less than $1.
The Dark was the first Magic expansion that was released in a foreign language. It was published in English and in Italian under the name "L'Oscurita". Despite being the first set that was translated to Italian it is not the oldest set that was translated. After the release of the Italian The Dark Legends was also published in Italian.
Read more about this topic: The Dark (Magic: The Gathering)
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“To Time it never seems that he is brave
To set himself against the peaks of snow
To lay them level with the running wave,
Nor is he overjoyed when they lie low,
But only grave, contemplative and grave.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)