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Legends was the seventh The Gathering set and the third expansion set, released in June 1994. It was the first expansion set to be sold in packs of 15 (previous expansions had been sold in packs of 8). The set, like The Gathering), was created by the group of students at the University of Pennsylvania that had helped Richard Garfield design the original game. The expansion symbol for Legends was the capital of a column.
Legends was the first set to introduce new mechanics to the game. It introduced Legendary cards (only one of each Legendary card could be in play at a time), Enchant Worlds (only one Enchant World could be in play at one time), and multicolor cards, which featured a golden border. New keyworded mechanics included Rampage, which made a creature more powerful as more creatures blocked it, and Bands with other, a minor expansion to the Banding rule that only existed in this set (excluding the parodic Old Fogey from Unhinged). Each pack of cards contained a rules card explaining the new mechanics and keywords.
There was one notable printing error with Legends: Each booster box contained only half of the uncommon cards in the set. This along with the limited number of cards available made collecting the entire 310-card set very difficult.
On a collector's note, Legends was the last set printed chronologically to have any card in it sell for over $100 USD on the secondary open market. Many cards in The Gathering)/ The Gathering) retail for over $100 due to their extreme rarity. Obviously all the Power Nine as printed in The Gathering) fall under this category, however the Unlimited dual lands drop in price considerably as compared to their black bordered originals. The Gathering) had power cards like Library of Alexandria, Bazaar of Bagdad, and Juzaam Djinn. The Gathering) had Mishra's Workshop, a staple of certain types of Vintage decks. The next two expansions, The Gathering) and The Gathering), are significantly underpowered and underpriced compared to Legends. Few cards since the printing of Legends sell for over $25 USD on the open market when the set is released to print except for the occasional foil rare.
Notable cards
Legends is known for its wildly erratic card design and as a rule, most of its cards are either wildly under- or overpowered. Upon a close inspection of Legends, it is much easier to kill creatures in this set than it is to cast them. Cards limiting creatures such as The Abyss, broken counterspells like Mana Drain, and the overcasted nature of all of the Legends printed in this set made it very hard to play in what we would now call Constructed formats. Many players contest that as a very loose general rule, "if it's a Legend from Legends; it sucks".
- Mana Drain: A powerful blue card that allowed a player to counter a spell and add that spell's mana to their mana pool on their turn, for the same price as a regular Counterspell. This was a very powerful effect and led to its restriction. Mana Drain is currently a format-defining card in Vintage and is banned in Legacy.
- Chains of Mephistopheles: A cheap enchantment that severely punishes players who cast draw spells. A powerful defensive measure in Type One prison decks. Noteworthy also for being very confusing rules interactions. Thematically reprinted in Uba Mask from Champions of Kamigawa.
- The Abyss: One of the most powerful forms of global creature removal ever printed. It was once so popular players would put extra Enchant Worlds or play creatureless decks to thwart it. It was parodied in Unhinged and led to the printing of Call to the Grave.
- Craw Giant: A popular creature; it was the most well-known creature with Rampage. It was reprinted in The Gathering) and The Gathering) before Rampage was retired.
- Divine Intervention: The only card that forces the game to end in a tie.
- Elder Dragon Legends: This cycle of five powerful three-color Dragons proved to be popular enough that they were reprinted in Chronicles, which ended up permanently reducing the value of the originals. The five cards are Arcades Sabboth, Chromium, Nicol Bolas, Palladia-Mors, and Vaevictis Asmadi.
- Falling Star: A flip card that was similar to The Gathering) Chaos Orb. The two cards shared the fate of being universally banned in tournaments.
- Mirror Universe: Another powerful artifact that allowed a player to switch life totals with an opponent. Under The Gathering) rules, falling to 0 life or below was not instant death, so many players built degenerate decks designed to dump all of their life during their upkeep, then activate the Mirror Universe (of course, under the current rules, this does not work anymore). This proved powerful enough that the card needed restriction, which has since been revoked. In fact, a card with the same effect with a bonus of switching any number of players' life totals, Reverse the Sands, was printed in Champions of Kamigawa expansion.
- Land Tax: A powerful white card that allowed players to strip their decks of land and make their card draws better. Though it was reprinted in The Gathering), its power became such that it was eventually restricted. It is currently banned in Legacy.
- Sol'kanar the Swamp King: Many people consider this to be the best creature in the set due to its fairly aggressive cost and useful abilities, much like the cycle of Elder Dragon Legends this card's value was significantly decreased when it was reprinted in Chronicles.
- Underworld Dreams: A popular black card that dealt damage whenever a player drew a card. Combined with card-drawing effects like Wheel of Fortune, the card was powerful enough to be restricted. However, it would eventually be unrestricted and reprinted in The Gathering) and The Gathering). The original remains rather costly on the secondary market.
- Dakkon Blackblade: A popular Legend that, when released, was considered very powerful, but has since waned much in both popularity and power.
External links
"Legends (Magic: The Gathering)"