Birds of Paradise

From MTG Salvation Wiki

Birds of Paradise, sometimes called "BoP," is a classic mana accelerator that was printed in every core set from Alpha to Eighth Edition. The card was not included in 9th Edition due to its inclusion in the expert level set, Ravnica, the next fall. Birds of Paradise returned to the core set in 10th Edition. It cost one mana and, by tapping for a mana the next turn, provides three mana on the second turn. Decks such as Fires, a red-green deck based around the centrepiece, Fires of Yavimaya, have long used to accelerate their game plan while also fixing mana.

[edit] Backstory

During Alpha design the original artwork submitted for Tropical Island featured a prominent bird in the foreground. Rather than reject the art outright, Richard Garfield designed Birds of Paradise to fit the art and included it in the set. Though cheap flying creatures were not included in green's portion of the Color Pie, the rarity and popularity of the card allowed its inclusion in nearly every core set.

None of the card's artworks have depicted an actual Bird of Paradise, a large songbird native to south-east Asia and certain Pacific islands. See for reference: (Paradisaea apoda).