Magic the Gathering Errors, Misprints, and Mess Ups
Nobody’s perfect. These are some mishaps by the printers of Magic. These errors range from subtle to obvious and secret to widely known.
Thousands and thousands of Magic The Gathering cards have been printed over time. Very few blatant errors have been discovered in the English printings of the cards. These are the only errors I could find in my many years of playing the game. Enjoy!…
(all pictures from magiccards.info)
Imprison – Legends – 1994
The text box on this card has an error. The little circle that is supposed to be behind the “1″ is above it instead! This is a little trivial error that did not affect the game what so ever, and by the time the error was caught, it wasn’t even worth correcting it. All of the printed Imprisons look like this.
The Efreet Disaster – 1993
Both of the above Efreets were apparently set to be reprinted in revised, only Revised got Ifh-Biffs picture and border and Serendib’s ability, mana cost, and power is some sick combination of the cards. The revised card counts as a Serendib Efreet. oops.
Extinguish – Portal, Second Age – 1998
Another oops involving a mana cost, further variations of this card were corrected to have the mana cost returned to a normal look.
Elvish Archers – 1993
Originally this was one bummer of a rare in the alpha set. It was further discovered that there was a printing error… All further versions of this card are a 2/1 first striker… still kind of a bummer of a rare… I DO like the flavor text on this card. Looks like The movie “300″ was taking a leaf out of MTG’s book!
Wall of Junk – 1998
Although the oracle on this card has been changed to “Creature- Wall”, nowhere on the card is it actually listed or refered to as a wall! oops.
Unsummon – 1993
One of the most obvious misprints on any card, see if you can find it. How to you “CARD” an enchantment? A big typo on the Alpha version was corrected on all other versions of the card.
AErathi Berserker – 1994
Another widely known error, this cards name is missing a letter. Most likely because the computer was unable to identify the letter “AE” in the name slot, this card has remained uncorrected in all forms.
Johtull Wurm – 1995
Besides Mole Worms, I am unaware of any other “Worms” in Magic. This Wurm is referred to as a “Worm” instead of a “Wurm” in its text box in its Ice Age version. It was corrected in 5th Edition.
Cyclopean Tomb – 1993
One of the most confusing errors in the game, the first Cyclopean Tomb was printed without a mana cost. Players were confused to whether this card was free or not! The problem was corrected in Beta and the mana cost was revised to the “4″ it was supposed to be.
Balduvian Shaman – 1995
A long borring card that I came across only because it was the first word that caught my eye. Isn’t “Permanantly” spelled “Permanently”?
Any others that you know of? please leave a comment!!
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Dude, i was gonna do a similar article, but you have beat me to it. you should have put the wall of bones thing on here
The archers flavor text is paraphrased quote from actual historical dialog. Thats were both wotc and 300 toke it from
I have an Orcish Spy that was misprinted with a blue border instead of a black one.
what about the Alpha Orcish Oriflamme that was printed with the casting cost of 2 instead of 4
These are a few other cards I know of that had well known misprints:
“heer der geplagten Skelette” (drudge skeletons) was printed with a basic land swamp picture. Also “Wald” (Forest) was printed with a basic land plains picture on it. Both of these cards were printed from the German 4th edition series.
Also, “Ángel de Serra” (Serra Angel) From the Spanish 4th Edition was printed with a picture of Time Elemental.
In the Revised ‘Edgar’ set that was only shipped to England “Hurricane” was printed on a blue border instead of a green one.
In Alpha Edition, Orcish Oriflamme was printed with a mana cost of 1 colorless and 1 red mana instead of 3 colorless mana and 1 red mana. Additionally, Orcish Artillery cost 1 colorless mana and 1 red man instead of 1 colorless mana and 2 red mana. Both of these mistakes were later corrected in the following editions.
These are a few other cards I know of that had well known misprints:
\”heer der geplagten Skelette\” (drudge skeletons) was printed with a basic land swamp picture. Also \”Wald\” (Forest) was printed with a basic land plains picture on it. Both of these cards were printed from the German 4th edition series.
Also, \”Ángel de Serra\” (Serra Angel) From the Spanish 4th Edition was printed with a picture of Time Elemental.
In the Revised ‘Edgar’ set that was only shipped to England \”Hurricane\” was printed on a blue border instead of a green one.
In Alpha Edition, Orcish Oriflamme was printed with a mana cost of 1 colorless and 1 red mana instead of 3 colorless mana and 1 red mana. Additionally, Orcish Artillery cost 1 colorless mana and 1 red man instead of 1 colorless mana and 2 red mana. Both of these mistakes were later corrected in the following editions.
hese are a few other cards I know of that had well known misprints:
“heer der geplagten Skelette” (drudge skeletons) was printed with a basic land swamp picture. Also “Wald” (Forest) was printed with a basic land plains picture on it. Both of these cards were printed from the German 4th edition series.
Also, “Ángel de Serra” (Serra Angel) From the Spanish 4th Edition was printed with a picture of Time Elemental.
In the Revised ‘Edgar’ set that was only shipped to England “Hurricane” was printed on a blue border instead of a green one.
In Alpha Edition, Orcish Oriflamme was printed with a mana cost of 1 colorless and 1 red mana instead of 3 colorless mana and 1 red mana. Additionally, Orcish Artillery cost 1 colorless mana and 1 red man instead of 1 colorless mana and 2 red mana. Both of these mistakes were later corrected in the following editions.
I just bought the new eldrazi sets, about 8 packs, and in about every other one I got a ulamogs crusher card..well one of the 4 that I have is REALLY brighter than the others, like almost a white instead of a tanish brown hue
i have a card that is entirely black on the front. the back is the normal magic back, but the front is just all black. i haven\’t been able to find anything about this card. i got it out of a scourge or onslaught booster years ago. anyone know what this is?
french thopter foundry is misprinted, it goes : tap : sac an artifact put a 1/1 into play
spanish meloku is misprinted, it goes : 1, return a land to hand : put a 2/2 illusion with flying into play
alls i know is walking atlas is misprinted. its type is “creature–construct.” guess wizards forgot the “artifact” supertype.
i have a black-bordered white-faced card with the normal magic backing.. i cant really find much on it except that they’re not that common.. im actually looking to sell it if anybody would like to have it for a collection.. my email is yoritomo.emu@gmail.com if you would like to talk a price..
I pulled a mythic rare card with the top borded messed up…it looks like it was stamped or not cut properly any idea what this is worth if anything?
Ya I pulled the same with a forrest land shawn. The top border is all rigid, is yours bumpy too?
Supposedly the design on the back of every magic card is a misprint… on the word deckmaster there was (supposedly) a bit of an ink spill when it was designed and was simply never corrected
