Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #791: Antiquities, Part 2

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

This is part two of a two-part series on the design of Antiquities, Magic's second-ever expansion, where I talk about how the set got made and then go through the design of every card.

I'm not pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the Drive to Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so last time I started talking all about antiquities, and I got halfway through the set. So today I'm going to talk about the other half of the set, which turns out to be all artifacts and lands, because the set is mostly artifacts, and there's a decent number of lands, too. Okay, so where we left off was Clay Statue. So Clay Statue costs four. It is a 3-1. Now at the time,

artifact creatures didn't have creature types. It's now a golem. So it's two regenerate Clay Statue. So it's 3-1 and you can regenerate it. And if you read the flavor text, you learn that Clay Statue was made by Taunos, which is the apprentice to Urza. Or, on the flavor text, it calls him his assistant.

Anyway, this was... Back in the day, regeneration was in alpha. It showed up in green and red and black. And so, this was the first time, I guess if you're playing white or blue, that you could have a regenerating creature in your deck, uh, which was kind of cool.

Uh, and I think Clay Statue, there's, um, it was a little expensive at four mana, but there were a few decks that used to play them just because they could regenerate, so they were really, early magic, um, it was hard to kill regenerators. Um, I mean, I, that's why maybe we had a lot of spells that hosed regenerators, but, um, actually, it's kind of funny. I guess it wasn't that hard to kill them. All our things... Anyway, I guess Regenerators actually weren't that hard. We hosed them all the time.

Okay, next. Clockwork Avian. So, Clockwork Avian is an artifact creature. It's a bird, although originally just an artifact creature. Zero-four, flying. Clockwork Avian enters the battlefield with four plus-one plus-zero counters on it. At the end of combat, a Clackwork Avian attacked or blocked this combat,

removed a plus-one plus-zero counter from it. X and tap, put an X plus-one plus-zero counters on Clackwork Avian. The ability can't cause the total number of plus-one plus-zero counters on Clackwork Avian to be greater than four. Add to the ability only during your upkeep. So, Clackwork Beast was a card in Alpha

that basically did exactly this, except instead of four counters, it had seven counters, seven plus one plus zero counters, um,

and it didn't have flying. So this was just a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, This is back in a time where we had all sorts of different power toughness alter encounters. So this one's plus one plus zero. Nowadays, we mostly do plus one plus one. But Clockwork would have their toughness locked in and their power would go down over time. So the Clockwork worked. But anyway, this was a flying Clockwork creature. Okay, next.

Colossus of Sardia. Nine for an artifact creature, a Golem. Nine, nine. Trample. Colossus of Sardia. Nine for an artifact creature, a golem, nine, nine. Trample. Colossus of Sardia doesn't untap during your untap step. Nine. Untap Colossus of Sardia. Actually, this build is only during your upkeep. So, anyway, in Alpha,

there was Lord of the Pit, which was a seven, seven, and there was Force of Nature, which was an eight, eight. And those were the two biggest creatures in Magic. Well, the East Coast Playstations said, we're gonna 8-8. And those were the two biggest creatures in Magic. Well, the East Coast Playstations said, we're going to go one bigger. And there's a little game we played for a while where we kept one-upping ourselves. Like there was a 10-10 in, was it an Ice Age?

And then there was, oh, sorry, there was a 10-10 in the Dark and then 11-11 in Ice Age and then a 12-12 in Mirage. Anyway, we kept one-upping ourselves. The funny thing about this is, they were like, okay, we gotta be careful. A 9-9 trampler, that's so dangerous. So they made it such that you had to spend all the mana

every turn. Like, once you could play it, you had to spend all the mana every turn to untap it. Which made the card kind of sucky. But! There's a card in Alpha called Instill Energy, and Instill Energy costs one green mana and lets you untap a creature every turn.

And so the favorite story of Colossus Sardia was at the World Championship in 1995, Sealed was kind of controversial, and so they ended up giving the players a whole bunch of whatever was the core set at the time. I don't know if it was 3rd or 4th edition.

But anyway, that set had Colossus Asardia and Instill Energy and Channel. Channel lets you spend 2 green mana and then you can convert life into colorless mana. And anyway, one of the players, Ivan Carina, I think was his name, he's from Italy. He ended up making top eight at that event. Got Colossus of Sardia, two and so energies, and a channel.

And multiple games on turn one, or not turn one, I guess on turn early on, he was able to channel out a class of Sardia, put Instill Energy on it, which I think also gave it haste, attack for nine, and then attack for nine every turn with it. Nine, nine trample. But anyway, this definitely was... Big creatures were very exciting to players,

even if they weren't particularly strong. This card, without shenanigans, was not particularly strong. Next, Coral Helm, an artifact that costs 3. 3, discard a card at random. And then target creature gets plus 2, plus 2, and will end your turn. I think this might have been the first card that ever had you discard a card at random. There's a card in Ice Age by the same designers.

There's a powerful card in Ice Age that had the same designers. There's a powerful card in Ice Age that'll have you do it. This card, not so powerful. Corhelm is not that good a card. But, uh, anyway, it's neat when you look at the early sets, they try things that hadn't been done before. I think that's kind of cool. Next, Curse Rack. So, Curse Rack

costs four artifact. As Curse Rack enters the battlefield, choose an opponent. That player's maximum hand size is four. So what it did is it kept people from having more than a certain number of cards. So we'll get to the Rack. The Rack's also in here.

There's a card called Black Vice in Alpha that punishes you for having more than a certain number of cards in your hand. Yeah, punishes you for having more, and then the of cards in your hand. Oh, sorry, black, yeah, punish you for having more, and then the rack, which we'll get to in a second, less. And the curse rack was, you get

punished for having too few cards with the curse rack, so, with the rack. So curse rack kind of helps you play, like, if you play curse rack and the rack together. All three of the cards, by the way, were done by Richard Thomas, artist Richard Thomas, and there's an artist, what we call Stuffy Doll. And the Stuffy Doll shows up in all those.

And then in Time Spiral, we later made a card out of Stuffy Doll. Okay, next, Dragon Engine. Cost three. It's an artifact creature, Construct, one three. For two mana, it gets plus one, plus oh. So this is basically a fire-breathing creature, except in an artifact. Instead of a single red, it costs two mana. The Dragon Engine is actually quite giant in the story of the Brothers War. The dragon engines actually are much

more powerful. I think they wanted them in the story, so they made it something that was simple. But they... It's funny that in the story they represent much bigger creatures in the actual Brothers War. Okay, next up, Felden's Cane. Felden's Cane costs one artifact. Tap Excel Felden's Cane. Felden's Cane costs one artifact.

Tap, exhale Felden's Cane, shuffle your graveyard into your library. So the interesting thing is, there's a card I'll get to that mills cards, and this was an answer to it. So they both let you mill people and gave you an answer to milling, all in one thing. Interestingly, Felden's Cane

was supposed to be Felden's ice cane and it was an anagram of Don Felice who was one of the designers on Mirage and Visions who he's one of the original Alpha Playtop shows and I think they

originally it was going to be a nod to Don but then the art didn't look like it was made of ice so they had to take ice off it. So it ended up... But Don would later... Deleth's Cone, I think, maybe, was... Oh, I see, because Felden's Ice King, the Felden Ice was part of Don Felice. And so they made or made Deleth's Cone,

I think, which was Don Felice. Anyway. Next, Golgothian Silex. Four artifact, one in tap. Each non-token permanent with a name originally printed in the Antiquities expansion is sacrificed by its controllers.

Originally what it did is it destroyed all cards that had an Arabian Knight symbol on it. Meaning if you had a version that didn't have an Arabian Knight symbol it wouldn't be destroyed. But now they have the rule that all cards match their English name, meaning if a card has the same name in English,

all versions are the same in Oracle, we now can't care about expansion symbols. So this just says, well, if it first showed up in Antiquities, it destroys it, which is all the cards from Antiquities, essentially. And this, in the story, by the way, this is the device that

Urza uses to end the war, and it ended up causing the Ice Age, which would come later in Magic. Grapeshot Catapult. Four artifact creature construct, two, three. Grapeshot Catapult deals one damage to target creature with flying.

So there was a card called Particle Sorcerer that was very popular. This was a top-down flavor. I got a little catapult so Ials one damage to target creature with flying. So there was a card called Particle Sorcerer. It was very popular. This was a top-down flavor. I got a little catapult so I can shoot little flyers. Ivory Tower. This was a powerful card. One. Artifact. At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain X life where X is the number of cards in your hand minus four.

So the idea essentially is if you have five, six, or seven cards in your hand, or eight, if you've drawn a card first, you can... You would draw a or seven cards in your hand, or eight, if you've drawn a card first, you can... You would draw a card with Library of Alexandria. It was the trick. But anyway, this was very powerful. It got restricted.

It was Zach Dolan, who won the very first World Championship. His enemy... His opponent, sorry. His opponent, Bertrand Lestray, said that the one thing he couldn't beat was Ivory Tower plus Library of Alexandria. And the two out of three games, he got both of them out and he won. We did for a long time have a room in Wizards that was called Ivory Tower, where R&D had a lot of meetings.

We then moved some stuff around, so I don't think we have an Ivory Tower anymore. But we did for a long time. Jalem Tome. Three. Two and tap Tome. Three. Two and tap. Draw a card. Discard a card. So Jalem Tome is named after Joel L. Mick, who was one of the early...

He was head designer. He was, I think, the second... Well, Richard O'Kine was head designer, and then for a little time, Glenn Elliott was head designer, and then Joel Mick was head designer, and then Bill Rose and me. But anyway, Jalem is kind of JLM, much like MSC Tome is Michael Scott Elliott, which is Mike Elliott's Tome, and

the one for Michael Davis is Michael Scott, what's, oh, JMD Tome, James Michael Davis. JMD Tome, which was an alpha. So it became a thing to name tomes after designers. Okay, the Might Stone.

This played a big part. So it costs four artifacts. Attack on Creatures gets plus one plus O. There was the Might Stone and the Weak Stone. And, like, the stone cracked in half, and Urza got the Might Stone, and Mishra got the Weak Stone. So they both show up here.

Neither one of them, for how powerful and important they are in the story, they're definitely kind of weak in the set. Next, a classic card. Millstone. Cost two, artifact, two and tap. Target player mills two cards. So this is the first card in Magic that mills cards.

The term milling comes from this card, Millstone. And this was something... Richard, when he made the game, had a win condition that was running out of cards. And there was ways to stall and win because your opponent ran out of cards.

Charlie Coutinho made a deck that, like, slowly exiled every card and then took advantage of that. But anyway, Millstone was very, very popular. Inspired a whole mechanic, basically. I mean, we do milling all the time now. But Millstone was the first card that did milling, and a very popular card.

Next up, Mishra's War Machine. So Mishra's War Machine 7, Artifact Creature, Juggernaut, 5-5, Headbanding. At the beginning of your upkeep, Mishra's War Machine deals 3 damage to you unless you discard a card. If Mishra's War Machine deals damage to you this way, tap it. Interestingly, there's a card called

what is it called? It's Masticore. I liked Mishra's War Machine, but it was just really sucky. It was bad. It wasn't very good. Someone said to me the reason it was bad was that you had to discard a card every upkeep.

A card couldn't be good if you had to discard a card every upkeep. I'm like, challenge accepted. And I made Mastachor. So, Mishra's War Machine is one of those cards I really liked. It just had a little bit too much of a negative to it. Obvious of Undoing. Costs one. Six and tap.

Return target permanent. You both own a control to it. Obelisk of Undoing costs one. Six and tap. Return target permanent. You both own a control to your hand. This is one of the cards that I loved what it was trying to do. I like the idea of figuring why you'd want to bounce your own stuff to your hand, but six, man, holy moly.

That's just a little bit too much. I loved the concept of this card. Next, Omulet. So Omulet is an artifact creature. It costs three. Two, two artifact creature. It's a contract. When Onulet dies, you gain two life. The card was supposed to be called Onulets because

it's an anagram of Solnet, which is something that gained you life when creatures died in Alpha, I believe. But only one creature ended up in the art, so they had to change the name so it was no longer an anagram. But this card saw a little bit of play in some combo decks that needed the life gain.

Ah, Ornithopter costs zero. Artifact creature, Thopter, zero two, and it's flying. This card was uber popular. It's not nearly as strong as you might think. I know it's a zero mana creature, but it's always been a fan favorite. It's shown up as strong as you might think. I know it's a zero mana creature. But it's always been a fan favorite. It's shown up a bunch of times.

We always make fun of, like, somehow every world invents the Ornithopter. Primal Clay. Primal Clay costs four. It's an artifact creature, a shapeshifter, star star. As Primal Clay enters the battlefield, it becomes your choice of a 3-3 artifact creature, a 2-2 artifact creature with flying,

or a 1-6 wall artifact creature with defender in addition to its types. I like this card a lot. This card was a lot of fun. I just like the idea that you just have options and choices. And I loved... I used to make the puzzles.

I loved goofing around with this card where it'd be in one state, but you had to somehow get rid of it and then get it back so you could recast it in a different state. This was a really fun card and had a lot of neat interactions. I'm really a big fan of Primal Clay. Next we have Rack-A-Lite. So Rack-A-Lite. So Rack-A-Lite costs 6 mana. It's an artifact.

To prevent the next 1 damage that we dealt to any target this turn, return Rack-A-Lite to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step. So the idea that they were messing around with here is you put it out, you can prevent a whole bunch of damage at once, but then you have to recast it. Some of the...

Because this product was made real fast, there's cards like Racalite where the concept's really cool and it's so, so, so weak. It just really never sees any play. But it's a cool concept. It just was very weak. Next, Rocket Launcher. I played a lot of Rocket Launcher.

Rocket Launcher costs 4 mana for an artifact. 2. Rocket Launcher deals 1 damage to any target. Destroy Rocket Launcher at the end of the next end step. Activate this ability only if you control rocket launcher continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn. So the idea is, uh, you can use this multiple times,

but once you use it, it's going to go away. This is a lot like the, um, rocket launcher I just talked about that does damage. This card was a little bit better. Still, still could have been a little cheaper, but you would play it out, and you could sort of do a lot of damage in one turn. There are some cards you can combo with it

that it got a little bit better, but I played a lot of it. It wasn't that strong a card, but I did play a lot of it. Shapeshifters, next one. Six mana, artifact creature, Shapeshifter. Star, seven minus star. If you want to do some trivia questions, what creature is star, seven minus star?

If Shapeshifter enters the battlefield, choose a number between zero and seven. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may choose a number between zero and seven, so you can keep changing the shape. Shapeshifter's power is equal to the last chosen number, and its toughness is equal to seven minus that number. So the idea is, you can make this a six one, a 5-2, a 4-3, a 3-4,

a 2-5, a 1-6, or a 0-7. Technically, you couldn't make it a 7-0 if you had some way to keep it alive. This card was a lot of fun. There's a lot of cool things you can do with it. This was another card that I made a lot of puzzles with just because you could do weird and wacky things with it, but it was a fun card. And I really was a big fan of Shapeshifters, and cards like this

really only made me further like Shapeshifters. Staff of Zegon. Four Artifact. Three and tap. Target creature gets minus two, minus oh until end of turn. This is an ability we do in blue nowadays, but this was, I think, the first time shrinking, what we call shrinking. I think this is the first

time shrinking showed up. I think this is the first time shrinking showed up. I think this is the first set to do that. Next, Tsuchi. Four, Artifact Creature Construct. When Tsuchi dies, add four colorless mana. It's a 4-4. So it's a 4-4 for four mana. Then when it dies, you get four mana.

This card was a little, when it was printed, mana burn existed. Mana burn was you took damage for every mana that you hadn't spent when the turn or phase ended. When the phase or step ended. And this often would burn you. The idea that it was a negative, like it would die in combat. Do you have ways to spend colorless mana in combat? If not, you would take damage.

So it was meant to be a drawback. Nowadays, since you don't have mana burn, it's all upside. Um, so, it's a pretty good creature. I think Su and Shi are both mean four in different versions of Chinese. Different, like, languages of Chinese, I think. Okay, next. Tablet of Epitier. Uh, it costs one. It's an

artifact. Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from a battlefield, you may pay one if you do gain one life. Uh. This is just soul net for artifacts. Like I said in the last podcast, there's a lot of us... They took a lot of cards that existed that people liked and just made artifact versions. Next, Tauntless's Coffin costs four artifact.

You may choose not to untap Tauntless's Coffin during your untap step. Three untap, exile target creature and all auras attached to it. Note the number and kind of counters that were on that creature. When Tauntless's Coffin leaves the battlefield

or becomes untapped, return the exiled card to the battlefield under its owner's control. Tap with the noted number and kind of counters on it. If you do, return the other exiled cards

to the battlefield under the owner's control attached to that permanent. So, this was a really cool card and it was the first kind of one. There were cards that exiled, but I think this is the first card that exiled things temporarily

and brought them back. And the idea of this card, not only to exile, but any aura that was on it or counter that was on it, it was trying to keep all those things on you. Later on, after this set, Mirage would introduce Phasing

that messed around that space where it sort of kept them together. This one had to sort of spell it out, which is not... It makes it quite wordy. But this was a fun card. I did a lot of cool stuff with this card. I really enjoyed Taunus' Coffin. And once again, Taunus was the apprentice to Urza.

In the story, he realizes that Urza's going to do something disastrous. He touches him in this coffin to protect himself. And then he survives the blast of the Psylocke. So, anyway, he was tucked away in his coffin. Next, Taunus's Wand. So it costs four mana, artifact, two in tap, target creature with power two or less, can't be blocked this turn. There's a card in alpha called Dwarven Warriors. This was just an artifact version of Dwarven Warriors. Once again,

because it's an artifact, it was worse, so you had to pay two mana, where like Dwarves, you can just tap. Now given, you couldn't destroy it with creature removal, so it was better in that way. Taunus's Weaponry, two, artifact. You may choose not to untap Taunus's Weaponry during your untap step. Two untap, target creature gets plus one, plus one

for as long as Taunus's Weaponry remains tapped. This is basically the sword. Like, when we finally made a sword, made equipment, this is basically a sword. Interestingly, Ashnod's, her version of this does plus 2, minus 2, where Tauntus is just plus 1, plus 1.

But this is another example of the proto-equipment. Okay, Tetravis, another popular card. 6, artifact creature construct. It's a 1, 1, flying. Tetravis enters the battlefield with 3 plus 1, plus 1 counters on it, so it starts with a 4, 4. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove any number's a 1-1 flying. Tetravis enters the battlefield with three plus one plus one counters on it, so it starts as a 4-4.

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove any number of plus one plus one counters from Tetravis. If you do, create that many 1-1 colorless Tetra-fied artifact creature tokens. They each have flying in. This creature can't be enchanted. Not sure why that writer's on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile any number of tokens created with Tetravis

if you do put that many plus one plus one counters on Tetravis. So the idea was the little counters on him could come off and become one-one flying creatures or could stay on him. I don't know why they had that weird Rider-Rack can't be enchanted. There was something they were worried about, but I'm not sure what it was. And anyway, this was another pretty popular card.

Tetravis saw a lot of play. But even more popular... I'll get to it in a second. Next is the Rack. The Rack costs one mana artifact. As the Rack enters the battlefield, choose an opponent. At the beginning of the chosen player's upkeep, the Rack deals X damage to that player, where X is

3 minus the number of cards in their hand. This is the mirror of the Black Vise that was in Alpha. Black Vise did, if they had 4 or more cards to damage, this is 3 or less. Or it might have been five or more. So I guess at four you don't suffer the

vice or the rack. But this is the mirror of the rack. The rack was played a lot in discard decks because you would force them to discard and then the rack would be the way you won because it would punish them for not having a lot of cards in your hand. If their hand's empty, for example, it does three damage a turn. Triskelion! Another very popular creature type,

artifact creature. Artifact creature construct, 1-1, costs six. Triskelion enters the battlefield with three possible encounters on it. Remove a possible encounter from Triskelion, it deals one damage to any target. So for six mana, you get a 4-4, but you can ping things for free.

And this card saw a lot of play. I made a lot of decks with it. One of the fun things to do with it is you use the counters and then you get back to your hand and you can recast and stuff like that, or you can flicker and do cool stuff. Okay, next, Urza's Avenger. Cost 6. It's an artifact creature.

Shapeshifter. Zero colon. Urza's Avenger gets minus 1, minus 1. It's a 4-4 creature. And gains your choice of Banding, Flying, First Strike, or Trample to end of turn. And then it has lots of reminder tricks telling you what

all those things are. So this was a really cool card. The idea that you could sort of shrink it but to gain abilities. So it could have one ability to be a 3-3 or two abilities to be a 2-2

or three abilities to be a 1-1. It was neat. It's a really cool card. This was one of the... Like I said, there's a lot of stuff that the designers of the set did where they were mirroring

popular cards that preexisted. But there's cards like this that really were templates that we... Urza Avengers has inspired a lot of cards of messing in this space. And this was the first card

that really did that. Okay, next, we get to the Urza cards. Oh, well, Urza's Avenger was the first Urza's card. But Urza's Chalice costs one mana. Whenever a player casts an artifact spell, you may pay one if you do gain one life.

So this was, we have what we call the Lucky Charms. This is the artifact version of the Lucky Charms, where when you play to call, you gain a life. Here, when you play an artifact, you gain a life. Urza's Mitre, three artifact. Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it wasn't sacrificed, you may pay 3 if you do draw a card. So this card rewards you, or allows you to draw cards whenever an artifact dies.

So you have to pay 3 to get it, I think. Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it wasn't sacrificed... Oh, I see. You can't... If you use the artifact for sacrifice, you can't also get off of it. But when things die, it allows you to draw. Next, Wall of Spears.

So Wall of Spears costs three mana. It was a 2-3 with Defender as a wall. And it had First Strike. And this card definitely showed up in some early metagames where it was a good answer to, like, Mishra's Factories, I think. Next is the Weak Stone. So it costs four mana. Attackishra's factories, I think. Next is the weak stone. So it goes with the... So it costs 4 mana. Attack creatures get minus 1, minus 0. So

the other one made all attacking creatures stronger. This one made all attacking creatures weaker. Both of them affected all attacking creatures, not just your attacking creatures or your opponent's attacking creatures. Neither one really was good enough to play, which is a little bit sad, since, like I said, in the story, they're very potent. Yoshin Soldier. I'll talk about the story, they're very potent. Yoishin Soldier,

talking about answers to Mishra's Factory, Yoishin Soldier, or actually, not just Mishra's Factory, there are these 2-1 Pump Knights that people play, sorry,

I'm getting ahead of myself. Yoishin Soldier costs 3, Artifact Creature Soldier, it's a 1-4 with Vigilance. Fallen Empire has this card called Pump Knights that were 2-mana, 2-1s,

that you could activate to pump their power or give them First Strike, and they were very good, and Yoishin Soldier was a great answer their power or give them first strike, and they were very good. And Yoshi's Soldier was a great answer to them. And Yoshi's Soldier saw a bunch of play. I think Urza made those. Okay, now we get to the lands.

First up, Urza's Factory. So it's a land. It taps her Kulis. One in colon. Misha's Factory becomes a 2-2 Assembly Worker artifact creature until end of turn. It's still a land. Tap. Target Assembly Worker creature gets plus oneer artifact creature until end of turn. It's still a land. Tap. Target Assembly Worker creature gets plus one, plus one until end of turn. Ah, Mistress Factory. These were so much fun.

I played a lot of Mistress Factory as did most people playing at the time. They were very potent. They gave you mana, but you then could turn into creatures so they were a wing condition. You could tap them to make each other bigger. And one of the fun things, for those who don't know this, if you have a Mishra's Factory

and they attack with a 2-2 creature, you can activate your Mishra's Factory, block it, then tap to give itself plus one, plus one, so it's a 3-3. So anyway, a little Mishra's Factory.

So Mishra's Factory, there were four versions of it. There were four seasons. So there were Summer, Spring, Fall, and Winter. I think the Winter's summer, spring, fall, and winter. I think the winter one, three of them were common and one of them was uncommon. So the winter one showed up a lot less.

Also, this card got reprinted in a basic set and the only, I forget which one they used. They used the summer or spring, I think. So anyway, only one art was used in that. So anyway, some of the alternate arts are a little harder to come by, although Cosmetic Reflectors was in a core the alternate arts are a little harder to come by. Although, because Mishra's Factor was in a core set, it's not as hard to get by

as other Antiquities cards. Next up, Mishra's Workshop. It's a land. Tap, add three colorless mana. Spend this mana only to cast artifacts.

This card, there are vintage decks built around it. Mishra's Workshop is a super powerful card. It's one of those cards we always talk about, like, is it something we're supposed to restrict? Because it's super powerful,

but it also supports, does a lot of work of supporting certain decks. And we used to have a room in Wizards called Mishra's Workshop where we did a lot of work, which was fun. But anyway, that's a super powerful card. Then we get to Stripmine.

So Stripmine is Tapstercullis. Tap, sacrifice it, destroy target land. This was mega powerful. I would spend many years trying to make better Stripmines that were still too good. Like Wasteland was me trying to make a fixed Stripmine that was still too good.

This card was not fun. It got banned. It really... Oh, I have bad memories of strip mine. I mean, it was very powerful. Also, it had four pieces of art just like Misha's Workshop did. Not Misha's Workshop.

Misha's Factory did. One of them was uncommon and three of them were common. Okay, now we get to the Urzatron, which were the final three cards in the set. Okay, so Urza's Mind was a land. Tap, add Cullis. If you control an Urza's Power Plant and Urza's Tower,

add two Cullis instead. Urza's Power Plant said the same thing. Tap for Cullis. If you control Urza's Mind and Urza's Tower, add two colorless instead. And Urza's Tower said tap for colorless. If you control Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, add three mana instead. So if you had

an Urza's Mine, an Urza's Power Plant, and an Urza's Tower together, they tap for seven mana. There's a card in Time Spiral that's an Urza card that it's making reference to this, and then for 7

mana, it lets you do something. There's also a card in Time Spiral, by the way, that's that is an assembly worker, that's a 2-2 creature that can tap, which is making reference to Misha's Factory. This was called the Urzatron. This 3-land cycle is quite powerful, Misha's factory. This was called the Urzitron.

This three-land cycle is quite powerful and has definitely shown up in many formats. Oh, the one thing I forgot, by the way, for those who are care about... Tonerous Weaponry, the thing that was plus one, plus one, the pseudo

equipment, there were two versions of it. We printed one that had the gray behind the 2 in the cost, and I think there was one where the gray wasn't there. It was a misprint. So if you're really into collecting, there's a hundred different versions of cards including the alternate art, but if you are

an uber collector, there's 101 because there's two different versions of Taunus' weaponry. That problem happened in Arabian Nights in a much larger volume. There's like 14 cards in Arabian Nights that the mana symbol is different between two versions of the card. It only happened once here. I'm not sure why it happened on Taunus' weaponry,

but my guess is it appeared multiple times on the sheet and one of them just misprinted how they printed it. That's my guess how that happened. But anyway, that, my friends, in two podcasts is Antiquities. I really, really liked Antiquities. Like I said, first set to really have a mechanical theme.

First set to do milling and do a lot of things that happened for the first time here. It was a really fun set. It was very flavorful. It really encouraged all sorts of decks. There were a lot of powerful cards in this set, some of which got restricted. But anyway, Antiquities, looking back, like I said, this was

Magic's second ever expansion. I think it did a great job of really being a fun set. When it came out, by the way, it got... There were people that did not like Antiquities. I loved Antiquities, but I did a lot of defending it. There was a period in time where people thought it was the worst magic set.

But I think part of that was they really didn't recognize some of the power in the set. There were some very powerful cards in the set. I think with history looking back, people can go, oh, wow, yeah, there's a lot of very powerful things. But at the time, people didn't recognize that. And so there were people who picked on it.

But I defended it. I always liked Antiquities. So anyway, guys, I can see my desk. So we all know what that means. This means it's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So I hope you guys liked my two-podcast stroll through antiquities. But anyway, guys, it's time for me to go.

So I'll see you all next time. Bye-bye.