Boons

The boons are a cycle of five cards that originally appeared in the Alpha printing of Magic, each with an effect relating to the number three (3), and one in each color.

In color wheel order by color,

• White: Healing Salve
• Blue: Ancestral Recall
• Black: Dark Ritual
• Red: Lightning Bolt
• Green: Giant Growth

The power level of the cards in this cycle varied wildly, as has Wizard's willingness to reprint them. Ancestral Recall is part of the Power Nine, the most broken and monetarily expensive cards in the game, while Healing Salve and similar effects are generally considered to be unplayable.

As of Magic 2011, Giant Growth and Lightning Bolt (which was replaced with Incinerate and Shock for awhile) are still the only ones in print, the others having been banned or replaced with more "balanced" versions, or, in the case of Healing Salve, because it asked for a choice (gain or prevent). The concept of boons has been revisited many times; most notably, in various standalone expansions, each color will get a card in a cycle that has themes reminiscent of the original Alpha boons, although there continues be debate over the relative value of these effects.

Contributors

GeoMike, Loot Niptil, Maestrogrande, Magic Mage, Nex3, Oracle of Truth, RMS Oceanic, SorryGuy, VestDan, Yoshi348