article

In The Gathering, the Power Nine are nine rare cards that were printed early in the game's history and are widely regarded as overpowered. However, in games where they are legal, they play an important role in the competitive tournament atmosphere. All nine cards were rares printed only in the The Gathering), The Gathering), and The Gathering) sets, meaning they were only printed for a short period from late 1993 to early 1994.

The Power Nine

Black Lotus

Cost: 0
Type: Artifact
Text with errata: T, Sacrifice Black Lotus: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.

Arguably the best known card in the Power Nine, and for that matter all of Magic. With the exception of special, near-unique cards such as Splendid Genesis and Fraternal Exaltation, the Black Lotus is the most expensive and valuable (in monetary terms) Magic card aside from Summer Magic's misprinted Blue Hurricane. It has unparalleled power in terms of mana acceleration, temporarily putting the owner 3 turns ahead in mana development. This advantage, combined with other efficient and powerful cards, allows its user to get so far ahead that victory can become inevitable. Former Pro and Magic Writer Zvi Mowshowitz has authoritatively declared Black Lotus as the best Artifact of all time*. As further testament to Black Lotus's power level, he also stated that every deck in the history of the game is better with a Black Lotus in it, a statement that is true for no other card.

The card, especially its Alpha and Beta variants, is often valued in the thousands of United States dollars. The illustration on Black Lotus was painted by Christopher Rush, who at the time was a Wizards of the Coast employee rather than a freelance artist. The Black Lotus illustration is a depiction of a black lotus flower over a foliage backdrop. Since then, Rush has made a similar, but distinct alternate art for the card, given to the winner of the 2003 Type 1 Championship held at GenCon.

However, there exist evidence contrary to the common perception of the card's power: the Black Lotus is only allowed to be used in the Type 1 tournament format where many cheap creature/artifact elimination spells are available. As such, using the Black Lotus to summon a big creature early would actually be detrimental card advantage wise. The opponent would have eliminated 2 cards (the Black Lotus and the creature) with his 1 card. Nevertheless, Black Lotus remains relentlessly essential and powerful in degenerative Type 1 "combo" decks, and Zvi Mowshowitz has argued that Black Lotus is so absurdly powerful that a card that did exactly one-third of Black Lotus's effect (Lotus Petal, printed in a much later set, added only one mana of any color to your mana pool) was still deemed too powerful and was banned. Ultimately, cards like Black Lotus are not about card advantage, but simply being able to win with much greater expediency.

Ancestral Recall

Cost: U
Type: Instant
Text with errata: Target player draws three cards.

Drawing cards is the heart of the game; the player who has the most options has the best chance of winning. Ancestral Recall allows the player to use this one card to draw three more, for a price considered extremely cheap by modern Magic standards. For comparison, the card "Brilliant Plan" from the set Portal - Three Kingdoms has virtually the same effect as Ancestral Recall, but is a Sorcery instead of an Instant (meaning that it can be played only during your turn) and costs 4U, five times as much as Ancestral Recall.

Ancestral Recall is commonly regarded among tournament players as the most powerful card ever printed. The reason being Card Advantage - a concept vital to higher level game play. Card Advantage view every action as a trade between the player and his opponent. Typically, player trade card for card (using a creature elimination spell to remove a creature card). For its extreme low cost of 1 blue mana, Ancestral Recall allows a player to gain the mathematical advantage of 2 card (3 minus 1) and at the speed of an instant. No other card has come to surpass this kind of power.

Timetwister

Cost: 2U
Type: Sorcery
Text with errata: Each player shuffles his or her hand and graveyard into his or her library and then draws seven cards. (Then put Timetwister into its owner's graveyard.)

Depending on the circumstances, Timetwister can be a more potent drawing card than Ancestral Recall, allowing all players to renew their hands completely and get back cards already played. Its drawback is that one's opponents also have the potential to benefit from the same effects; however, they also may lose valuable cards currently in their hands, whereas the player of Timetwister can prepare to use his or her other cards before casting Timetwister. For many decks, Timetwister acts like restarting the game, and gives the casting player the sizable advantage of going first with their new hand.

Most importantly, Timetwister is valuable in degenerative "combo" decks. Using some other means, such as a Xanthid Swarm, to prevent the opposing player from playing any cards for the rest of the turn (thus negative the possibility of the opponent drawing countermagic to anything that the active player plays), the active player play out his entire hand, then use Timetwister to get seven new cards to continue his or her "combo." A successfully resolved Timetwister against an opponent in the right deck generally seals the outcome of the game.

Timetwister holds great power especially in the Type 1 (Vintage) format due to a lesser noticed ability to resurrect restricted power cards from the graveyard. This was also the primary reason why other cards with similar powers (Regrowth, Ywagmoth's Will, etc) were restricted or banned.

Time Walk

Cost: 1U
Type: Sorcery
Text with errata: Take an extra turn after this one.

As with the other Power Nine, the power of Time Walk greatly exceeds its cost, especially in the early game. If multiple Time Walks are cast in a row (generally only possible with some method of graveyard recursion, as Time Walks are restricted in the one format within which they are legal), the advantage it allows a player in development of cards and mana is often decisive. In fact, in powerful, degenerative Type 1 decks, one casting of Time Walk is generally enough to decide the outcome of the game. A toned-down remake of this card, Time Warp, appeared in The Gathering), at the much higher cost of 3UU.

One infamous story surrounding this card comes from its early play test version, which had the text "Target player loses next turn." While the intent of the game designers was that the opposing player would skip a turn, many new players saw the card and believed that the targeted player would lose the entire game. Luckily, Wizards of the Coast was able to change the wording in time for The Gathering) release.

The Moxen


Cost: 0
Type: Artifact
Text with errata: T: Add W/U/B/R/G to your mana pool.

The five Mox cards are notable in that they are almost strictly better than land as a mana source. In fact, in the days before their restriction to one card per deck, its wasn't uncommon for players to forego running basic land cards altogether in exchange for four sets of "Jewelry," the reason being that they do not have the "play only one per turn" restriction that land cards have. Even after their restriction, running all five Mox is considered a staple for The Gathering) Decks. The Moxen are the standard by which most mana-producing artifacts are created and judged. Blue is the only color that has spells in the power nine, (Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, and TimeTwister) so the Mox Sapphire is the most desirable and expensive of all the moxen. Blue can sometimes be relatively weak in newer sets and formats, such as Standard and Extended, but is the staple of all Vintage decks. After this, Black and Red mana are usually needed the most, making Mox Jet and Mox Ruby a good second tier of moxen. After this the moxen's usefulness resides primarily in their ability to produce mana which can be used for generic costs, rather than their ability to produce green or white mana, due to those colors' relative weakness in Vintage. Therefore while the Mox Emerald and Mox Pearl are still highly valuable, they are the 3rd tier among moxen and may be up to $100 cheaper than Mox Sapphire.

Power Nine as collectors' cards

The Power Nine are priced very highly, fetching hundreds of dollars per copy. Cards in mint condition, which are often demanded by serious collectors, fetch significantly higher prices. Prices for a single Beta Black Lotus have steadily climbed from about $200 in 1995 to over $2000 in 2005, with a top condition one going for as much as $10,000. White-bordered Unlimited variants are worth about half as much as their black-bordered Beta counterparts both because the Unlimited printing was larger and because, while Beta is considered part of the first edition, Unlimited is not. Black bordered cards are also generally preferred over white bordered by collectors since they show damage/scuff marks around the edges and therefore are more difficult to pass off as mint condition, as well as for aesthetic and prestige reasons. Power Nine cards are often considered prized jewels of a collection because of their age, expense, and significance in Magic: The Gathering's history.

Power Nine on the Wizards reserved list

The Power Nine were on the first Magic: the Gathering "reserved list" unveiled by Wizards of the Coast in 1996. Reserved cards were never to be reprinted because of concerns that additional printings would collapse the The Gathering#Secondary market. The reserved list has gone through several revisions, notably in 2002 when many cards were removed from the list, thus becoming available for reprint. However, the Power Nine remain fixed on the list due to their "unbalanced" power in the game and rising value in the secondary market.

Fake cards and proxies

The Black Lotus, along with several other rare cards, is often copied due to its rarity. Most of these copies are benign, and meant for use by players who cannot afford to buy a real one. These are called "proxies", and are only allowed at independent non-sanctioned tournaments, at the organizer's discretion. However, some Power Nine copies are attempts at actual forgery. Collectors and players are advised to carefully inspect Power Nine cards when purchasing them. Experienced dealers can usually spot forgeries with the naked eye, due to many tell-tale printing idiosyncrasies that were left on the original runs. Under magnification, an original card printed by Carta Mundi of Belgium for Wizards of the Coast, can be satisfactorily determined real, or a forgery printed up on an inkjet or colour laser printer, fake.

It is important for all player to help rid the community of the many fakes floating around. To familiarize yourself with the finer points of determining if a Power 9 card is a fake please visit the following indepth guide CLICK HERE

Power Nine as game pieces

The Power Nine are a mainstay of the The Gathering) (aka Type 1) tournament atmosphere. They empower highly explosive plays that often lead to victory for the player who draws them. Early combo decks led to an abusive and often invincible playing style that was the impetus for a host of new rules and restrictions for the game. In official tournament play, cards such as the Power Nine have been "restricted" to one per deck in The Gathering) (Type 1), the only format that allows them at all. Different types of tournaments were created allowing only cards easily found by all players. The first of these new tournament types, called "Standard" (aka Type 2), quickly became much more popular than Vintage because of the lower cost of entry. In spite of the fact that eight of these cards will always be considered Vintage tournament staples, in recent times there has been question as to whether Timetwister really belongs in the same category as the rest of the Power Nine. While certainly worthy of restriction (as with nearly every card printed with the unfortunate phrase "Draw seven cards"), it is often the only one of the Power Nine that is not automatically included in a Vintage deck. Most players agree that it will continue to be associated with the rest of the Power Nine simply by default.

Contemporary "power" cards

The fame of the cards has been alluded to and lampooned in subsequent printings of Magic: the Gathering (in fact, every card with the word "lotus" in its name is based on Black Lotus). For example, a card from the The Gathering) The Gathering sets called "Lotus Petal" is identical to Black Lotus except that it only produces one mana instead of three. Although it was designed to be a more reasonable variant of Black Lotus, it eventually landed on the restricted list as well. The "Blacker Lotus" was a satirical card in the light-hearted Unglued set which produced four mana, although it required the user to tear up the card after use, so it could (normally) only be used once. Mox Lotus, from the Unhinged parody set, provides infinite mana, but costs fifteen to play. In the Mirrodin set, the Gilded Lotus imitates the Black Lotus's ability by producing the same amount of mana without being sacrificed, but at a higher cost to play, which is considered an acceptable level of power by today's standards. Mirrodin also features a "Chrome Mox", and Stronghold was the home of "Mox Diamond".

Power Ten?

The term Power Nine was originally coined based on the cards in the group representing a substantial jump in price over any other card in the game. However, with slowly dwindling supply (due to loss and accidental destruction), no reasonable expectations of reprints, and an increasing demand, the market has changed, putting 3 more cards on nearly the same price plateau as the Power 9: Mishra's Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad, and Library of Alexandria (Most frequently accepted as the 10th piece of power). All are worth at least $150 on the secondary market. It has also been argued that Sol Ring rivals the power level of the Power 9, but because of its much lower rarity (it was an uncommon instead of a rare and was printed in one additional edition) does not fetch the same price.

Players sometimes refer to the "Power 10", with their favorite of these cards inferred as the 10th power card.

External links

Magic: The Gathering

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Power Nine".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world