Please see part 1 for an overview and statistics on what actually did make it into Master's Edition 4, as well as a theory about what happened to the set.
FACTS:
With the release of Master's Edition 4, there are 828 paper cards not online in any form that are either Vintage legal (816 cards) or were part of normal core or expansion Magic sets, but are banned in Vintage (12 cards) - the Ante, Dexterity, and Sub-Game cards. (Also, there are 4 more cards currently not online, but that will be printed in Urza's Destiny or Mercadian Masques, so they don't really count.)
Here's the breakdown of what's left of the 828 cards, and what I feel are the most notable cards left in each set.
(USER NOTE: It's much easier to look at these cards by opening new tabs, rather than just clicking and opening them and having to arrow back here. Most browsers can do this automatically by holding CTRL when clicking a link.)
65 Alpha/Beta/Unlimited - Camouflage, Chaos Orb, False Orders, Helm of Chatzuk, Lifetap, Power 9, Raging River, Volcanic Eruption
26 Arabian Nights - Abu Jafar, Island Fish Jasconius, Magnetic Mountain, Shahrazad, Sorceress Queen
18 Antiquities - Haunting Wind, Mishra's War Machine, Phyrexian Gremlins, Rocket Launcher, Urza's Avenger
130 Legends - Abomination, Backfire, Blazing Effigy, Clergy of the Holy Nimbus, Dream Coat, Elder Spawn, Gravity Sphere, Imprison, Mana Batteries, Master of the Hunt, Pit Scorpion
55 The Dark - Flood, Marsh Viper, Mind Bomb, Worms of the Earth
42 Fallen Empires - Dwarven Lieutenant, Homarid Shaman, Thrull Wizard
145 Ice Age - Altar of Bone, Baton of Morale, Brand of Ill Omen, Burnt Offering, Crown of the Ages, Oath of Lim-Dul, Soul Barrier, Stench of Evil
62 Homelands - Cemetery Gate, Chain Stasis, Drudge Spell, Irini Sengir, Soraya the Falconer
48 Alliances - Martyrdom, Mystic Compass
76 Portal - Arrogant Vampire, Capricious Sorcerer, Command of Unsummoning, Cruel Bargain, Cruel Tutor, Endless Cockroaches, Fruition, Mercenary Knight, Mobilize, Nature's Ruin, Pillaging Horde, Plant Elemental, Starlit Angel, Temporary Truce, Virtue's Ruin
62 Portal Second Age - Apprentice Sorcerer, Dakmor Sorceress, Norwood Priestess, Ogre Arsonist, Predatory Nightstalker, Salvage
88 Portal Three Kingdoms - Cao Cao, Control of the Court, Diaochan, False Mourning, Fire Bowman, Lady Sun, Marshaling the Troops, Preemptive Strike, Ravaging Horde, Taoist Hermit, Warrior's Oath, Wei Ambush Force, Xun Yu, Yuan Shao, Zhang He, Zhou Yu, Zhuge Jin
Alert Shu Infantry |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Barbarian General |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Barbarian Horde |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Borrowing the East Wind |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Broken Dam |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Burning Fields |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Cao Cao, Lord of Wei |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Cao Ren, Wei Commander |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Champion's Victory |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Control of the Court |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Corrupt Court Official |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Council of Advisors |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Counterintelligence |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Cunning Advisor |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Deception |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Desert Sandstorm |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Diaochan, Artful Beauty |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Empty City Ruse |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Eunuchs' Intrigues |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
False Mourning |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Fire Bowman |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Flanking Troops |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Forest Bear |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Huang Zhong, Shu General |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Imperial Edict |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Independent Troops |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Kongming's Contraptions |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Lady Sun |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Lady Zhurong, Warrior Queen |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Lu Su, Wu Advisor |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Ma Chao, Western Warrior |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Marshaling the Troops |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Mountain Bandit |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Pang Tong, "Young Phoenix" |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Poison Arrow |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Preemptive Strike |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Ravaging Horde |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Renegade Troops |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Return to Battle |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Riding Red Hare |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Sage's Knowledge |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Shu Defender |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Shu Elite Infantry |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Shu Farmer |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Shu Foot Soldiers |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Shu Grain Caravan |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Sima Yi, Wei Field Marshal |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Spring of Eternal Peace |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Stone Catapult |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Straw Soldiers |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Taoist Hermit |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Taoist Mystic |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Taunting Challenge |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Trained Cheetah |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Trained Jackal |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Virtuous Charge |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Warrior's Oath |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wei Ambush Force |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wei Assassins |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wei Scout |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wielding the Green Dragon |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wu Admiral |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wu Infantry |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wu Light Cavalry |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wu Scout |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Wu Spy |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Xun Yu, Wei Advisor |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Yellow Scarves Cavalry |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Yellow Scarves General |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Yellow Scarves Troops |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Yuan Shao, the Indecisive |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Yuan Shao's Infantry |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zhang He, Wei General |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zhang Liao, Hero of Hefei |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zhao Zilong, Tiger General |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zhou Yu, Chief Commander |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zhuge Jin, Wu Strategist |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Dog |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Goat |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Horse |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Ox |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Pig |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Rabbit |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Rat |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Rooster |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Snake |
C |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zodiac Tiger |
U |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
Zuo Ci, the Mocking Sage |
R |
Portal 3 Kingdoms |
8 Starter - Goblin Settler
3 Promo
These are your 828 cards not online - this is all that there will ever be.
There are 4 Cards more not yet online, but they are guaranteed to come online in Urza's Destiny - Prophecy. Technically, right now these 4 cards are not online, making 832 total not online, but I discount them because this will soon be rectified.
Of these 828 cards, I would preemptively exclude only two groups of cards from ever making it online:
The 9 Ante cards
The 3 Expansion Symbol cards
There's just no way that we will ever see these online, as they don't work within the framework of MTGO at all. Also, they're both really, really bad ideas from a modern Magic perspective.
OPINIONS:
I feel that every other card, even those other three banned cards, have at least a small chance to come online. So 816 is the primary number, though I realize some of those have miniscule odds of ever making it online. For reference, other people who do this sometimes exclude some of these groups from the possible online cardpool:
-The 3 other banned cards (Chaos Orb, Fallen Star, Shahrazad)
-The 3 "Name/Art Problem" cards (Army of Allah, Invoke Prejudice, Jihad)
-The cards not online that mention Horsemanship
-The cards not online that mention Snow
-The cards not online that mention Cumulative Upkeep
-The cards that are going to be difficult programming challenges (Camouflage, Equinox, Raging River, maybe a few others)
I don't exclude these, but thought I would mention them. I would have thought Word of Command was low odds to make it online, but its here, so you never know. In particular, some people assume the other banned cards and the Name/Art Problem cards will never see the light of day, and go with 810 as the number missing we could possibly get. That's perfectly valid, but I'm the hopeful sort.
Here are some notes on a few cards. Not a comprehensive list of the best cards not online, just a few that struck my writing nerve.
False Orders
Imagine you had an instant that says target creature is unblockable. In Red, that's pretty good for one mana. Now, imagine it also says that your opponent's best creature can't block. That's a pretty awesome deal for 1 red mana. Now imagine that it's sort of a split card, and you can make your creature unblockable, plus you have the option of making their best creature unblockable OR killing a creature of theirs with toughness less than the power of another attacker. Now imagine you can do all this AFTER you see what blocks they make.
People seriously underestimate this card. In Pauper, it could totally wreck house, because your creature always will get through, no matter how many blockers they have (unless they have enough to double block everything without making any bad trades). I imagine Pauper Goblins and other Pauper Aggro might want to seriously look at this card.
Some people say that it's a programming problem card, but they already have 90% of its ability programmed on Balduvian Warlord. I'm sure they can handle this one.
Helm of Chatzuk
Baton of Morale
Super cheap banding for any creature makes combat really difficult for your opponents' blockers and attackers. Load them up into a deck with some a) Trample, b) Vigilance, and c) High Toughness, and you'll rule the combat step. Severely test your opponent's math skills in every combat! I'd love to throw one of these in an Commander deck based around creatures. They're way better than they look. Helm of Chatzuk looks like you're wearing Cthulu's gall bladder on your head, so that's not hard. Who exactly would want to "team-up" with a guy wearing a helmet like this? I'm not really seeing it.
Sorceress Queen
I cannot believe that we still don't have Sorceress Queen online. I used to run 4 of her in my old school black decks. This was supposed to be the set with Arabian Nights... did you forget about her? Is she coming back in M12? (Not that I'll be happy until I have her original awesome artwork.) Let me be sure I understand here: you deliberately gave us Minion of Tevesh Szat as a black rare creature that kinda kills things instead of Sorceress Queen? Somebody made that conscious decision? On purpose?
If she's not coming back in M12 (that's the only excuse) you might as well let monkeys loose with copies of the 828 cards not online and in a month's time, decide the 200 with the most feces on them become the next Master's Edition set. Because they'll do pretty much as well.
Mishra's War Machine
Urza's Avenger
Two of the signature creatures from Antiquities, the other basis for ME4, and you leave them out because... they have banding? C'mon, is the having of banding so horrendous a sin that they can never see the light of day? These were both pretty popular creatures back in the day - the War Machine is the original bad Masticore, and Urza's Avenger is the original bad Akroma, Angel of Wrath. The banding rules work fine. Really, these weren't better choices than Rakalite or Obelisk of Undoing? You did put every single other Antiquities rare we needed in this set, but left out popular ones over some kind of theological difference like this? I think 1-2 cards at rare with banding, especially in a set with approximately 200 rares, would have been fine.
Flood
Flood will find a home somewhere. If Merfolk Seastalkers can dominate limited formats, and costs 4 times as much, has an activation costing 1.5 times as much, and is a killable 3-or-less toughness creature, then this will find a home in some griefer's deck in some format. You can start tapping attackers on turn 2 instead of turn 5! That's quite a savings.
Pit Scorpion
Marsh Viper
GIVE US THE OTHER POISON CREATURES! I don't know why you won't. Are they good? Hell no. Back in the day, sure, Marsh Viper was the best way to win with Poison. Now, the worst of the Infect creatures is better than he is. He wouldn't harm anything, I promise. But at least then we would have them all online and be done with it. Hey, maybe someone wants to make a Blue/Green Poison deck with Psionic Gift and Hermetic Study and Steady Progress. Marsh Viper is the card for that deck. Why do you hate them so? You'd think, with Leeches being in ME4, the very least they could do is put in one single actual Poison creature, but no. We got
Mind Bomb
Besides Mark Tedin's creepy awesome alternate-WW2 art, this card is actually useful. Are there decks like dredge/reanimator that want to discard cards ASAP? Check. Bonus of damage for your opponent? (Because your opponent will never, ever choose to discard unless he's got a Basking Rootwalla in hand.) Check. For one mana? Check. Pitch to Force of Will, even? Check. I'm not saying it's better than Careful Study. But it doesn't suck, especially as Blue has few ways to hit planeswalker loyalty directly. This is a good one for 1 mana.
Cemetery Gate
You gave us Pestilence. Now, could we please have the other part of the old school combo? I think black Pauper decks might appreciate that. Right now, there are zero black cards in Pauper that can keep Pestilence alive forever. Gate turn 3, Pestilence turn 4 is game over for many, many decks. Plus - it's a "creature" that's actually just a wrought-iron gate and some piles of stones and ohmygod magic flavor breaks down horribly if you think about it. As the only mono-black creature with pro black, he needs to get online soon-ish, like in ME4. Oh, wait.
P.S. The artwork without the zombie guy, please.
Chain Stasis
I never hear people talk about this card. But it's a one-card infinite mana engine. Pair with any creature than can make 4 mana (one blue) to go infinite. Its nearest competitor is Staff of Domination, and that's fine company indeed. But it can't be disenchanted, comes online with much less initial payout, only requires 4 mana per activation instead of 5 to go infinite, and is useful by itself in early turns to tap attackers, especially ones like Ball Lightning. It's not better than the staff, as the staff can do all kinds of other things, but it's not a bad backup. I think the thing that keeps it out of the spotlight is the one blue mana required every cycle, which is a bit harder than 2 extra colorless that staff requires. Still, Bloom Tender and this could be BFFs.
Mystic Compass
Spreading Seas has proven how powerful color-screwing an opponent can be. Now, you can do something similar to screw over Blue players, too! It's not great, but it's like a half-power Rishadan Port on a stick. Don't forget, it also turns their manlands into junk. And I guess it can help you with color-fixing, too, which probably was its crappy intended purpose. If you print it common, Pauper could find a home for this messing with people's Ravnica Bounce lands.
Arrogant Vampire
Irini Sengir
Nalathni Dragon
Starlit Angel
There's only 2 Vampires, 1 Dragon and 1 Angel left offline. Can we just complete these creature types and be done with it? Please? So people stop bugging me about them? "Are you going to write about the creature types I collect, soon? You should do an article about them. Please? I collect Unicorns and Imps." 4 cards to go, and you'll complete like 2/3rds of the Duel Decks creature types.
Nature's Ruin
Virtue's Ruin
Along with Sorceress Queen, the omission of these two cards is so glaring that I almost want to hope that they're coming back in M12 or Scars block or somewhere. I mean, these cards both show up in actual sideboards. In actual Legacy events. With actual prizes on the line. Made of actual coated paper stock. How did you miss these? Speaking of it, I would really love to see these reprinted soon with a mirrored pair of white versions - Purity's Triumph, 2W, Destroy all Black Creatures, and Order's Triumph, 2W, Destroy all Red creatures. How sweet would that be? Then white wouldn't have this weird hole where black is way better at mass destroying its enemies than white is, despite white being the premiere color of both mass destruction and hating on your enemies.
Taoist Hermit
I know people who are dying to add this to their Uril Commander decks. It's kind of amazing Magic has never done another generic 2/2 with troll shroud, though some would say Sacred Wolf fills that need more than adequately. By the way, troll shroud should be called "Tao Shroud", as this guy was the first creature ever printed to have this ability. He's a good candidate for reprinting with a new name in some future set, too. Heck, they even stole Troll Ascetic's "I'm a solitary monk" flavor directly from this guy.
Wei Ambush Force
Pauper Suicide Black can always use more options for 2-mana, 3 power guys. I'm not saying he'll make it, but give the kid a shot? There are no other swampy guys with this ability and stats online, and very few black 2 mana 3 power guys at all. I'm not promising he'll make it all the way to the championship, but let the kid fight, ya know? You remember what it was like to be a lowly 1/1 from a heavily disadvantaged set? Let him take a run at it the title, eh?
BONUS QUIZ SECTION: With the release of Master's Edition 4, there will be exactly 12 cards that ARE online, but were never included in any draftable set in any version. Can you name them?
---scroll down after you've thought about it---
1. Promo-only card (1 card)
2. Coldsnap Theme Decks (9 cards)
3. 8th Edition Core Game (2 cards)
They may never appear online again, so get them while the getting's good! Of course, it's 3 vanilla creatures plus 9 bad Ice Age / Alliances stuff that even Master's Edition 2 wouldn't reprint, but hey. Someday in the far future, uber-collectors who want one of everything in Legacy/Vintage will need them.
DOUBLE BONUS QUIZ: Name the one and only card that is online and has never been in a draftable set, but will be coming online in a draftable set soon?
---Enough scrolling, already!---
And that's that! See you next week-ish for the final part, an analysis of all the various options that WotC has for getting 1) the Power 9, and 2) everything else online, finally.
14 Comments
Perhaps you should have also had a special note about Cruel Bargain as it's a key card in the Legacy deck Spanish Inquisition. Sure, it's not a tier 1 deck, but leaving it out of MED4 is really dumbfounding.
I thought about mentioning it, but to be honest I don't know the deck very well. I could definitely see Cruel Bargain getting some actual Legacy play along with the two Ruins. I mean, it doubles your ability to Draw 4 in black for Dark Ritual mana! That seems good.
I looked up the decklist... interesting... Green/Black Charbelcher & Storm double combo. I like how it uses Culling the Weak along with Phyrexian Walker and Shield Sphere for a 3rd black ritual. Definitely the kind of deck I'd play, and yeah, I wish Cruel Bargain was online. It could have been an "actual rare" instead of Sinkhole, Gloom, or Deathgrip.
Yeah, it's not a very common deck, but still, I really can't believe they left it out. =/ So weird. I can't help wonder if it was accidental or intentional, and I'm not really sure which is worse.
Braingeyser, Fork, and Sedge Troll have all been online as promos only, never released in a drafted set online or in paper (or maybe people were drafting Revised, what do I know?), but will soon be drafted like crazy in ME4.
Yeah some of us drafted revised...very little of it. Mostly it was something we called Mini-Masters which was opening one pack and making a 30 card deck out of it + lands. Fun times but not so good with revised. 4th was better. And believe it or not Chronicles was even better.
By "coming online in a draftable set soon" I meant coming online after Master's Edition 4. Though that's not what I actually said. :)
If you're interested, the complete list of cards that Master's Edition 4 is going to put into a draftable set for the first time (and are already online in some form) is:
Balance
Blue Elemental Blast
Braingeyser
Channel
Demonic Tutor
Ebon Dragon
Fork
Maze of Ith
Sedge Troll
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Temple Acolyte
Thunder Dragon
Basically, every "good" card, leaving us with the 3 Vanillas and the 9 Ice Age cards.
aorry to be nitpicky, but
Spirit of the Night and Ishan's Shade are also mono-black creatures with protection from black
at first Ishan's Shade is named Ihsan's Shade and has protection from white.
And really there are only 3 creatures with pro black (and among them only 1 is common):
Minion of Leshrac
Cemetery Gate
Spirit of the Night
Always check your articles, interesting thoughts and a funny read! Hope to see more soon :-)
People never seem to mention them, but I think the following cards need to come online eventually:
Nettling Imp
Norritt
Siren's Call
Festival
I had my share of fun killing opponents' creatures with the imps back in the day. The new "must attack if able" cards are way different since they don't kill creatures that don't attack. If you have a deck with Royal Assassins, Nettling Imps, and Icy Manipulators, you can use any two of those three to kill a creature every turn. I had a fun deck that used those plus Magus of the Unseen, Sage of Lat-Nam, Xenic Poltergeist, Ashnod's Transmogrant, and I forget what else. If I built it today I'd probably try Neurok Transmuter and Stronghold Assassin. It has plenty of weaknesses, but it was a fun deck to build.
I would be the alluded to (wants to own every card ever made) online player, admittedly. However, that aside, there are a bunch left out that bug the heck out of me. My hope is that they are saving things intentionally to add to P9 stuff for a ME5. My biggies missing (other than the P9) are mainly black at this point. Stone-Throwing Devils, and Shahrazad being my biggest dissapointments. I understand shahrazad being left out, as the Barbary Apes may have trouble coding it, and the fact that it's banned (tho for a terrible reason, which has no parallel online, as rented hallspace limits is not really a problem online).
At least we got Gate to Phyrexia, so my silly Pre-Ice Age Mono-Black deck can kill artifacts. Amazing that to date that card is still unique in black.
I totally agree with Nettling Imp, and Sorceress Queen also, they totally should have been in there.
Also, tho off topic, I'm still a little salty about the RARE slotted Sinkhole.
Hey I play some pre ice age decks in the casual room sometimes... find me online and we can duel it out 1995 style!
how come a tournament staple such as sandals of abdallah is excluded, unbelievable
Rofl.