Notable Cards
- The "Power Nine": Black Lotus, Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, Mox Emerald, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, and Timetwister. These are widely considered the most powerful cards in Alpha, and are among the most powerful in all of Magic. All of these cards are now restricted in tournament play; players may only include one copy of each in a deck. The color distribution of the Power Nine is heavily skewed; six of the cards are Artifacts, while the other three are Blue cards. See also Power Nine.
- The Dual Lands: Tundra, Underground Sea, Badlands, Taiga, Savannah, Scrubland, Bayou, Tropical Island and Plateau, Volcanic Island being absent. These lands provide two colors of mana with the benefit of possessing two basic land types, an uncommon trait on non-basic lands. All future dual lands would be printed with restrictions. They are now a defining part of the Legacy and Vintage formats, due in particular to their ability to be searched for by the various Fetchlands released many years later.
- The "Boons": Healing Salve, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, and Giant Growth. This was the first and most famous cycle in Magic. All of them provided an effect in the number three. The cards defined the core ability of each color, but they proved to be extremely disparate in power. Of the five, the blue, black and red boons were considered to be too powerful, while the white boon too weak. The green boon, Giant Growth, was considered most balanced and has appeared in every core set until the printing of Magic 2012. Many modern variations on the other cards have been printed, including Mending Hands, Concentrate, Cabal Ritual, and Shock. It is also worth noting that Healing Salve has been reprinted several times, and that Lightning Bolt was reprinted in Magic 2010 and Magic 2011.
- Chaos Orb: The first Magic card that required manual dexterity to play effectively. The only other such card not in Unglued or Unhinged was Falling Star, from Legends. These two cards are currently banned in all sanctioned tournament formats.
Read more about this topic: Alpha (Magic: The Gathering)
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