Portal
From MTG Salvation Wiki
| Portal | ||
|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 
| |
| Design Team | Bill Rose (lead) Dan Cervelli Joel Mick with contributions from Mike Elliott Mark Rosewater | |
| Development Team | Bill Rose (lead) Dan Cervelli Joel Mick with contributions from Mike Elliott William Jockusch Mark Rosewater Henry Stern Jonathon Tweet | |
| Release Date | June 1997 | |
| Mechanics | None new | |
| Keywords/ Ability words | None new | |
| Size | 222 (90 Common 50 Uncommon 55 Rare 20 Land 7 Token) | |
| Expansion Code | POR | |
| Sets in Portal Trilogy | ||
| Portal | Portal Second Age | Portal Three Kingdoms |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Fifth Edition | Portal | Weatherlight |
Portal is a starter-level expansion released in 1997. It was designed for teaching Magic to new players and so was made as easy to understand as possible. The set was not legal in any organised format at its release, but was made legal for Vintage and Legacy formats on October 20, 2005, along with its successors Portal Second Age, Portal Three Kingdoms and Starter 1999.[1]
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[edit] Set details
The set is infamous for its odd rules system, which was intended to make the game easy to understand but often led to much confusion when players went from Portal to an advanced or expert level set. It featured no artifacts or enchantments, as they were deemed too complicated. It also had no cards with the term instant (or interrupt, which was still in use at the time), although it did feature sorceries that could only be used at times that they could not normally be played, such as Mystic Denial, which could only be played in response to a creature or sorcery spell, and Assassin's Blade, which could only be played during an opponent's declare attackers step. All such cards have since received errata to make them actual instants. (Note that, under the Portal rules, Mystic Denial could counter Assassin's Blade because it was a sorcery, but under normal Magic rules it cannot because it is an instant.) The set also did not have any creatures with creature types, instead having every creature have a type line reading "Summon Creature". This has also been changed with errata.
The set also used different game terms, such as calling blocking "intercepting," calling the library the "deck" and calling the graveyard the "discard pile." These terms are again meant to simplify the game, but instead were the potentially the biggest source of confusion when a player started using more advanced cards that used the standard terms instead.
Finally, the set tried to improve the layout of the cards to make them simpler to interpret. The power and toughness on creature cards featured sword and shield symbols next to them to make it clear which number was which. The cards also had bold type for rules text, while flavor text was non-bold and separated from the rules text by a thick line in order to make it clear that the two were separate and that the rules text was more important. While these were not as controversial as the other changes, they gave the cards a simplistic look and clearly marked the cards as being for beginners in the eyes of more experienced players.
[edit] Packaging
The Portal boxed set contained two pre-constructed 35-card decks — one white/red/green, the other blue/black/green, and a play guide. All of these pre-built decks are identical. Portal boosters had 15 cards, plus one of ten different strategy cards with deck-building tips. There are 5 strategies described in all, one for each of the five friendly color pairs:
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— Air Superiority
- /
— Card Domination
- /
— Fiery Doom
- /
— Gargantuans
- / — The Horde
Each of these five strategies has two different versions of its strategy card, for a total of ten.
[edit] Notable cards
While Portal was full of vanilla creatures and simple spells, a few of its cards have had some impact on Magic as a whole and on the Core Sets in particular:
- Blaze — a Core Set staple, was first printed in Portal.
- Ebon Dragon — Although it is not a particularly powerful card, its art has made it one of the most popular and valuable cards in the set.
- Exhaustion — was first printed in the set, but has since seen reprint in Urza's Saga and 9th Edition.
- Jungle Lion — is considered one of the stronger cards in the set, its power and mana cost being on a par with Savannah Lions and Jackal Pup. However, it has seen little play since Portal was made tournament-legal.
- Lava Axe — was reprinted multiple times.
- Personal Tutor — was pre-emptively restricted when Portal was legalised in Vintage due to the power of tutor effects in the format. However, the other tutors in the set (Cruel Tutor and Sylvan Tutor) were not.
- Phantom Warrior — has gone on to become a core set staple.
- Raging Goblin — is another iconic red card and core set staple
- Scorching Spear — is arguably one of the worst burn spells ever printed.
- Snapping Drake — was reprinted in Ravnica, where it is often a good pick in Limited.
- Volcanic Hammer — has gone on to be reprinted in three core sets and has appeared in high-tier 'Vore decks.
- Wind Drake — is yet another core set staple.
- Wood Elves — has seen Standard constructed play due to their ability to fetch Shocklands.
[edit] Reprinted cards
The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Portal:
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[edit] Functional reprints
Portal has seven functional reprints:
- Bee Sting is a functional reprint of Unyaro Bee Sting from Mirage.
- Border Guard is a functional reprint of Femeref Scouts from Mirage.
- Cruel Bargain is a functional reprint of Infernal Contract from Mirage.
- Lizard Warrior is a functional reprint of Viashino Warrior from Mirage.
- Pillaging Horde is a functional reprint of Balduvian Horde from Alliances.
- Raging Minotaur is a functional reprint of Talruum Minotaur from Mirage.
- Willow Dryad is a functional reprint of Shanodin Dryads from Fifth Edition.
Since there are no instants in Portal some cards were reprinted as sorceries:
- Fire Tempest is a sorcery version of Inferno from Fifth Edition.
- Last Chance is a sorcery version of Final Fortune from Mirage.
- Sylvan Tutor is a sorcery version of Worldly Tutor from Mirage.
- Warrior's Charge is a sorcery version of Warrior's Honor from Visions.
[edit] References
- ↑ "More About March 1st", by Aaron Forsythe, DailyMTG.com, Friday, March 11, 2005
[edit] External links
- Portal Product Page (old)
- Official Portal Information Product Page — Magic: The Gathering (new)
- "Portal instants", by "Magic Arcana", DailyMTG.com, Thursday, April 15, 2004
- "Portal goodness", by "Magic Arcana", DailyMTG.com, Monday, September 16, 2002
