5th Edition
From MTG Salvation Wiki
| Image:5th Editionlogo.jpg | ||
|---|---|---|
| Symbol | (none) | |
| Design Team | ||
| Development Team | ||
| Release Date | March 1997 | |
| Mechanics | ||
| Keywords/ Ability words | ||
| Size | 449 (165 Common 132 Uncommon 132 Rare 20 Land) | |
| Expansion Code | 5ED | |
| Sets in Advanced level | ||
| 4th Edition | 5th Edition | 6th Edition |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Visions | 5th Edition | Portal |
Fifth Edition (5th Edition) is a Core Set that was released in the spring of 1997 and is the biggest Core Set ever printed.
Contents |
[edit] Set details
Fifth Edition contains a total of 429 cards, not including the basic lands, compared to the 363 of Fourth Edition. Of these, only 235 appeared in Fourth Edition. The rest are cards from earlier sets which have been rotated in. The largest rotations come from Ice Age, but they also include cards from Arabian Nights, Antiquities, The Dark, Legends, Fallen Empires and Homelands, as well as a few returnees from Revised that were taken out of Fourth Edition. Fifth Edition is the first core set with cards having new artwork than in previous appearances, 220 cards.
In designing Fifth Edition, over a hundred of the cards from Fourth Edition were removed. Quite a few of these removals were for game balance reasons. Many spells had long been recognized as being undercosted in comparison to others of similar power. Some of these, such as Strip Mine, Channel, and Mind Twist, were already banned from the Standard tournament environment for being too powerful, so everyone expected them to leave. Others, such as the Serra Angel, had been predicted for removal in every revision of the basic set. But some, such as Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt, had been staples of deck construction for so long that most players took them for granted.
Not all the "powerful" cards were removed, however. Several spells were widely predicted to be departing. Armageddon and Wrath of God, for example, were thought by a lot of players to be both overpowered and out of character for white; their retention came as a surprise to many. Similarly, many players expected the Black Knight and White Knight would be leaving. Also, some very powerful cards were rotated in from earlier sets, causing surprise and (in some cases) uproar among players who thought they wouldn't have to deal with them in the Standard environment any more.
A number of cards which were scorned by players as too weak were also removed, to make additional room for more popular cards. These included the five color-changing "lace" spells, as well as Cyclopean Mummy and the Wall of Wood (which returned in 10th Edition).
The rotations weren't the only changes in Fifth Edition. Many of the spells received facelifts in the form of new artwork, new flavor text, or both, and the rules text on all the cards was revised for clarity and consistency with the Fifth Edition rules. For the flavor text, the Wizards bowed to popular demand and included more quotes from classical Earth literature rather than sticking exclusively with the Dominarian sources used in the expansion sets.
Simplified Chinese Fifth Edition was printed with a "V" symbol on each card. Simplified Chinese was the only language of the ten in which the set was printed to feature an expansion symbol. It was released in 1998, about halfway between the releases of Fifth and Sixth Editions in English, and the expansion symbols were color-coded for rarity just like they are in all recent sets.[1]
[edit] Cycles
Fifth Edition has five cycles:
- Circles of protection: Each of these common white enchantments has a mana cost of
and the ability to prevent the all damage from a source of a given color for — Circle of Protection: White, Circle of Protection: Blue, Circle of Protection: Black, Circle of Protection: Red, and Circle of Protection: Green.
- Fallen Empire Sac lands: Uncommon lands illustrated by Mark Poole that share the text "[This] comes into play tapped.
: Add C to your mana pool. , sacrifice [this]: Add CC to your mana pool.", where C is the respective color of the land — Ruins of Trokair, Svyelunite Temple, Ebon Stronghold, Dwarven Ruins, and Havenwood Battleground.
- Fallen Empires Storage Lands: Rare lands illustrated by Pat Morrissey that share the text "[This] comes into play tapped. You may choose not to untap [this] during your untap step. At the beginning of your upkeep, if [this] is tapped, put a storage counter on it. , remove any number of storage counters from [this]: Add C to your mana pool for each storage counter removed this way." — Icatian Store, Sand Silos, Bottomless Vault, Dwarven Hold, and Hollow Trees.
- Lucky charms: Each of these uncommon artifacts has a triggered ability that allows the controller pay to gain 1 life when a spell of a given color resolves — Ivory Cup, Crystal Rod, Throne of Bone, Iron Star, and Wooden Sphere.
- Painlands: Rare lands with ": add 1 to your mana pool. : Add C or D to your mana pool. [This] deals 1 damage to you." C and D are allied colors of mana. These lands are called painlands because their use for colored mana is "painful," referring to the damage they do to you. — Adarkar Wastes, Brushland, Underground River, Sulfurous Springs, and Karplusan Forest.
[edit] Cards Added to 5th Edition
[edit] Changes in rarity
[edit] Cards removed from 4th Edition
[edit] Misprints
- 50% of the cards Shivan Dragon, Ironclaw Curse, Game of Chaos, Inferno and Manabarbs were printed with a Portuguese Copyright date.
[edit] References
- ↑ "Fifth Edition symbol", by "Magic Arcana", DailyMTG.com, Thursday, December 12, 2002
