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Arabian Nights was the fourth The Gathering The Gathering sets and the first to feature completely new cards, the first "expansion" set. Ali Baba, djinns, deserts, and King Suleiman joined the Magic world with cards inspired by the themes and characters of the Thousand and One Arabian Nights. It was the only Magic set based on a real-life place, until the release of the Japan-based Champions of Kamigawa in 2004. The expansion symbol for Arabian Nights was a scimitar.
Set history
Being the first expansion set of Magic, the set's designer Richard Garfield (who is also the original designer of the game) was worried that unlike other games where expansion sets and rules are agreed to be used by all players before a game is played, the cards from any expansion sets could be put into a deck without the consent of all players, and so a different back was designed for the cards in the Arabian Nights set to make it obvious to all players. Player outcry caused Wizards of the Coast to stay with the original backs, allowing cards from various sets to be mixed freely in gameplay. This decision may well have been one of the reasons for Magic's longevity. Instead, a symbolic scimitar was added between the card artwork and card text, making the first expansion symbol; every expansion set has 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-size generic mana symbol, other copies have one that is smaller and darker.
Notable cards
- Bazaar of Baghdad: This powerful land card has the ability to both draw and discard cards for free, every turn. Although activating Bazaar results in a net loss of one card, over the years more and more mechanics have been printed to ameliorate, or take advantage of the drawback: Squee, Crucible, Madness, Worldgorger, Welder, Dredge, Uba Mask, etc.
- City of Brass: The first land to provide mana of all colors, it became the benchmark for such lands for a long time to come. After Arabian Nights, it was reprinted in The Gathering) and then in the base sets starting from The Gathering) until it was removed in The Gathering).
- Desert Nomads: The first creature with a non-basic landwalk — Desertwalk, to be precise.
- Juzám Djinn: This was considered for a long time to be one of the best creatures in the game, though it has been out-classed in recent years. It is still the most expensive black card to purchase. On a non-Magic note, Juzám (an affectionate nickname) is a prominent character in many InQuest Gamer comic stories.
- Library of Alexandria: A land that adds one colorless mana or allows a player to draw a card provided he has seven in his hand. This allowed for such degenerate card drawing that it was eventually restricted. It is sometimes viewed as the tenth card in the Power Nine.
- Ring of Ma'rûf : Allows players to fetch cards not in their decks and add them to the game; in effect, it let players ransack their collections to find the right card for the task at hand. It inspired the five Wish cards in The Gathering), which had a large impact on competitive play.
- Shahrazad: Possibly the most unusual card ever created, but still fitting with the theme of the set (emulating the "frame story" format of the Arabian Nights tales), Shahrazad caused players to start a second game of Magic "inside" the first, which had to be played to completion before returning to the main game. The card was banned for a long time due to fears of it leading to stalemates, but is presently unrestricted in the Vintage and Legacy formats. Due to her weird flavor, a version of Shahrazad called Enter the Dungeon was created for Unhinged.
External links
"Arabian Nights (Magic: The Gathering)"