As a game with over 30 years of collective history, it’s no surprise that Magic: The Gathering has some obscure trivia lurking in its annals. From abandoned initiatives like ‘You Make the Card,’ to the hyper-exclusive Heroes of the Realm cards, there’s plenty for the curious fan to excavate. This week, one of the most deeply-buried pieces in the archive has resurfaced, as MTG players discussed the infamous ‘Summer Magic’ set from 1994.
This is a set that few players, even the deeply enfranchised, have heard of. It’s arguably not even a set at all, but rather a proposed solution to a problem that was ultimately never meant to see the light of day. The set is also, to this day, the subject of much controversy and gossip. It’s the kind of fascinating relic that could only exist in a game as old as Magic, and it’s a truly engrossing rabbit hole to delve into. If all the Summer Magic talk recently has you confused, read on for some valuable context.
What Is The MTG Summer Magic Set?
The story of MTG Summer Magic begins in 1994, during the production of Revised. This was the fourth iteration of a core set for Magic, following Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited the previous year. It was largely composed of cards from the original set, but with a few Arabian Nights and Antiquities cards sprinkled in. It was also produced at a time when printing methods were a lot less reliable than they are today. As a result, many cards featured substantial printing errors.
Most egregious among these was Serendib Efreet, which was printed with a green border rather than the intended blue. It also used the wrong artwork, featuring that of Ifh-Biff Efreet from Arabian Nights instead. This major misprint aside, there were also concerns that the colors on Revised in general were too washed out. To top it all off, Magic was fully embroiled in the “Satanic Panic” of the ’90s at the time. This meant there was pressure to remove the pentagram imagery that featured on several early cards, most notably Unholy Strength.
These issues led Wizards to create a second print run of Revised, which would correct them. This run would feature enhanced colors, correct artist attribution, and no pentagrams. It would also feature the year of print at the bottom of each card: a first for the game overall.
This set was code-named “Edgar” internally, but it eventually came to be known as “Summer Magic” because it was released in the summer of 1994. When it came time to release Revised to the public, the initial print run used Summer Magic cards. This was only true for booster packs, mind you: for one reason or another, no Summer Magic starter decks were printed, which was unusual for the time.
Swings And Roundabouts
Unfortunately, Summer Magic didn’t prove to be the total fix that the Revised MTG set needed. For every step forward it represented, there was another step or two back.
The bolder colors, for example, were a mixed bag. In some cases, they improved upon the originals, but in others, they proved too dark to realistically see. This was most prevalent among the black cards in the set, like Terror and Sorceress Queen.
While it fixed some of the Revised problems, Summer Magic also included a number of new errors. Several cards, like Plateau and Serendib Efreet, featured the wrong artist credit. They did get the border color right on Efreet this time, but the same can’t be said for Hurricane. This green spell was printed with a blue border, which actually fits perfectly with the card name and art. This may be the reason why this version is absurdly expensive, sitting at around $7,500 right now.
This revised version of Revised also failed to fully address the pentagram issue. For the most part, these were scrubbed clean, but one remained on the artwork of Demonic Tutor. All in all, Summer Magic was a bit of a failure as a fix. Noting all of these flaws, Wizards actually recalled all of the initial Revised print run, ostensibly for destruction. Because of this, there was actually a major shortage of Revised product in 1994, until packs of the original print run were sent out to fill the gap.
Of course, we wouldn’t be talking about Summer Magic today if that were the end of the story. While the product was entirely recalled, some boxes managed to slip through Wizards’ nets. While it’s unclear exactly how it happened, these cards got out, and into players’ hands.
A Three-Decade Controversy
“Whenever I hear Summer Magic talked about, it always seems like it is in negative light. Why?”
Putrid-Calendar-1335, via r/mtgfinance
The upshot of this is that Summer Magic is one of the rarest products in the history of MTG. Cards from the set are worth far more than their regular Revised counterparts. Heck, in many cases, they’re even worth more than the Alpha/Beta versions.
This makes cards from the set highly sought after, which in turn feeds into the controversy around it. This comes up as a point of discussion every so often, and this week it was raised by Putrid-Calendar-1335. It’s worth noting before we proceed that everything from this point on is based on speculation; there’s very little concrete evidence on any aspect of Summer Magic, and that goes double for the following.
The main issue players seem to have with Summer Magic is that they believe the market for the cards is being unfairly manipulated to artificially raise the prices. Since so little product made it out into the world, and in such specific circumstances, it’s very possible that it ended up in the hands of just a few people.
Looking at Ebay sales for the set, however, does contradict this theory somewhat. Even in the last month alone there have been sales from nine different sellers, which is pretty reasonable for such a rare set. It’s certainly possible that individuals are operating several of these accounts each, but the opposite is more likely.
Whether there’s truth to it or not, Summer Magic is a fascinating product to look into. These are cards that very few of us will ever own, yet they make the game richer just by existing in it at all.
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