Magic: The Gathering – Antiquities

4/5 House rule to update the land system to Duel Masters, Marvel Champions, etc... rules for a more streamlined strategic experience = less luck.

An uneven expansion, filled with over-power staples and weak dreck. Not bad, but not a classic either.

After Arabian Nights WotC started experimenting with the game. Shaky steps were taken towards making artifacts more important. This development made sense as obviously wizards (players) need some powerful magical artifacts. Unfortunately the artifacts here mostly were not so powerful, but there are anyway a lot of cool cards included.

Early hit-and-miss artifact-themed expansion. A bunch of cards have gone on to be classics, but if you look at the set as a whole it seems half of it is made of weak situational countermeasures or even weaker situational utility. Even at this point you have to wonder how much of a design and development process existed that some of this utter crap could see print. Yes, I have won a game with a Firebreathing Ornithopter.

See MTG

The good old days.

Sold

Bought the complete set online in 1999. Paid $250.00. No longer have any unopened packs. Other than Chronicles, this is the earliest complete set I own.

Second expansion to Magic, not very powerful (except for Mishra's Workshop), but quite interesting cards back then.