Limited Edition Beta or just Beta for short was the second part, after revisions, of the first print run of the first Magic: The Gathering set. It was released only a few months after Limited Edition Alpha's publication to correct some minor problems in the rules and to make up for the fact that the first run had completely sold out. Clarifications were made to the rulebook, and Richard Garfield's short fiction "Worzel's Tale" was removed to make room. Like Alpha it had no expansion symbol, and the text on the bottom left consisted of only the artist credit. Although many players speak of them as different sets, officially they are the same set.

Set history

Two cards accidentally omitted from Alpha were restored: Circle of Protection: Black and Volcanic Island. A third accidentally omitted art variant for each of the five basic land cards was also restored, bringing the set's card count to 302, multiple illustrations of each card are counted separately, as the game's publisher does to generate the 302 total, while noting that without the separate art the total of the set was 292 actual cards bearing different names. The few cards with printing errors from Alpha were fixed and put into this expansion.

In the past, Beta versions of cards were worth more than their Alpha counterparts. This was mainly due to the fact that the corners of Beta cards are rounded in the same fashion as later expansions, making them more desirable to players. However, multiple years ago opaque card sleeves appeared on the market and it became legal to mix Alpha cards with other Magic cards. This made Alpha practically as desirable as Beta, and even more so because of the smaller printing. Currently, Beta cards usually go for slightly lower prices than their Alpha counterparts, but their value still greatly surpasses any other printings.

Though Beta had a larger print run of 7.3 million cards versus 2.6 million, it sold out as quickly as its predecessor. Because many players believed that the basic set would always be in print, most did not take care of their cards, thinking they could always replace them. Many players now have their cards rated by third party institutions such as the PSA to make them more competitive to sell on the open market. Only five Gem Mint Beta Black Lotus in the world have ever been given the highest PSA rank of 10. One was sold in a private auction for $70,000. This card was sold to the individual who also owns the original canvas artwork of the Black Lotus painted by Christopher Rush.

Sealed booster boxes of Alpha and Beta can be easily distinguished by the fact that Beta boxes have a UPC. Alpha's do not.

Notable cards

• The "Power Nine": Black Lotus ^[1], Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, Mox Emerald, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, and Timetwister. These are widely considered the most powerful cards in Beta, and are among the most powerful in all of Magic. ^[2] All of these cards are now restricted in tournament play; players may only include one copy of each in a deck. ^[3] The color distribution of the Power Nine is heavily skewed; six of the cards are Artifacts, while the other three are Blue cards. An honorable mention goes to Arabian Nights card Library of Alexandria, arguably Magic's most powerful land. ^[2]

• The "Boons": Healing Salve, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, and Giant Growth. This was the first and most famous cycle in Magic. The cards defined the core ability of each color, but they proved to be extremely disparate in power. Of the five, the blue, red and black boons were too powerful, while the white boon was too weak. The green boon, Giant Growth, is most balanced and has appeared in every single base set ^[4] Many modern, balanced variations on these cards have been printed, including Sacred Boon, Mending Hands, Brainstorm, Bog Witch, Concentrate, Cabal Ritual, Incinerate, Shock, Strafe, and Volcanic Hammer.

• Chaos Orb: The first Magic card that required manual dexterity to play effectively. The only other such card not in Unglued or Unhinged was Falling Star, from Legends. These two cards are currently banned in most sanctioned tournament formats. ^[3]

References

External links

• Wizards' official page on Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited

Donate to Wikimedia