|
[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ] [ Next ]
Set History and Information:
Compiled from information
found on
Wikipedia.
Alpha is known for having very overpowered cards. The
game designers did not expect the game to be as popular as it was, and
thus didn’t spend the proper time to balance cards against each other.
While copies of powerful, rare cards were expected to be few and
controlled by house-rules, players instead started collecting these rare
and powerful cards and putting as many as possible in their decks.
In addition to lacking a standardized wording for card
rules text, Alpha contained numerous misprints as detailed below:
Circle of Protection: Black was mistakenly omitted
from the set.
Volcanic Island was mistakenly omitted from the set.
Cyclopean Tomb had no casting cost, instead of a casting cost of 4.
Orcish Artillery had a casting cost of 1R rather than 1RR.
Orcish Oriflamme had a casting cost of 1R rather than 3R.
Red Elemental Blast was classified as an instant rather than an
interrupt, making half of its ability unplayable under the rules of the
time.
Elvish Archers had their power/toughness printed as 1/2 rather than 2/1.
Cards from Alpha have steeply rounded corners,
reportedly due to dullness of the dies being used to cut the cards at the
time. These dies were sharpened after the production of the Alpha cards
and resulted in less rounded corners for Beta and subsequent sets.
Official tournaments require Alpha cards to be sleeved to prevent unfair
game play. Unless, of course, you have a deck of all Alpha cards… but what
are the chances of that!?
|