Alpha (Magic: The Gathering) - Set History

Set History

Originally the game should have had the name "Magic", but the name was too generic to be trademarked and was thus changed to "Magic: The Gathering". The additional benefit was that each Magic expansion would have a different subtitle, such as "Magic: Arabian Nights" or "Magic: Ice Age". When it was decided that the backs of Magic should be identical regardless of the expansion, the name "Magic: The Gathering" would appear prominently on the back of every Magic card. "Magic: The Gathering" thus became the name of the entire game instead of "The Gathering" only being the subtitle referring to the first release.

As the names Alpha and Beta distinguish different print runs of the same set, Alpha and Beta contain the same cards. In the Alpha print run the cards Circle of Protection: Black and Volcanic Island were omitted by accident, though. Also a new illustration for each of the basic lands was included in the Beta print run. Finally a couple of mistakes on Alpha cards were corrected in Beta. Alpha cards are easily distinguishable from Beta cards as unlike all succeeding sets, cards from Alpha have steeply rounded corners. This was reportedly caused by the dullness of the dies being used to cut the cards. The dies were supposedly sharpened after the Alpha cards were produced and this resulted in the less rounded corners found on the Beta cards and all subsequent sets. This is, however, inaccurate. If it were true, variation in corners would be seen between sets, which is not the case. Official tournaments require Alpha cards to have opaque sleeves to prevent unfair gameplay, as the corners are different from all the printings that followed.

Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited are known for having extremely powerful cards. The popularity of the game was not anticipated during development, so the powerful cards were left in the set. The original thinking was that "players... wouldn't be able to acquire many of the power rares, because supply would keep them actually rare."

The Alpha rulebook contains a fantasy tale called "Worzel's Story" by Richard Garfield which was removed for the Beta release. Alpha deck boxes also lack a UPC on the bottom.