With the interest in the upcoming B/R list, I thought a s...

[Mage of Dreams]

With the interest in the upcoming B/R list, I thought a stroll down memory lane might be nice. All comments welcome. Next week I'll add the 95' list. Anyone who can direct me to more info would be greatly appreciated. Also I will be adding comments/quotes from the people involved as I can.

Released in August 1993 at GenCon the original Alpha print run of 2.6 million cards was sold out by in September of the same year. The second  Beta print run of 7.8 million cards was quickly released in October and again sold out by December that same year. It was quite apparent that the small game it’s creator Richard Garfield had envisioned was well received. During this first year M:TG was quite different then the game we play now. Decks were a minimum of 40 cards, there was no limit on the number of a given card, no Banned/Restricted List. The game was played more along the lines of RPG’s where “house rules” were the norm. With the 40 million print run of Unlimited on the horizon, 1993 coming to an end, M:TG began its next growth, Organized Play.

The first year of  Magic the Gathering’s organization was a bit chaotic as the Duelists' Convocation (DC) began the process of structuring the game. The minimum deck size was upped to 60 from 40, the “4 of “ rule was adopted, and the Banned/Restricted List was instituted. This first year cards flew on and off the List almost monthly, with a total of 8 revisions.



Banned and Restricted List
1994

January
Unlimited Released
Arabian Nights sold out
Banned
Contract from Below
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Jeweled Bird
Shahrazad
Restricted
Ali from Cairo
Ancestral Recall

Berserk**Adam Conus--“Combined in a deck with Fork, Berserk was one of the first cards in Magic to be recognized as degenerate. “**Richard Garfield--"Anything which multiplies is potentially abusive. Failure to have a Fog should not warrant 80 damage."**Skaff Elias--"In fact, eventually we stopped making doubling cards. This card probably wasn't broken, given all the other cards that truly were, but it needed to be put on the list once the truly broken stuff was taken care of."

Black Lotus
Braingeyser
Dingus Egg
Gauntlet of Might
Icy Manipulator
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Orcish Oriflamme
Rukh Egg
Sol Ring
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timetwister

February
Removed
Orcish Oriflamme
Rukh Egg

March
Unlimited sold out
Antiquities released
Banned
Time Vault
Restricted
Channel
Copy Artifact
Demonic Tutor
Wheel of Fortune
Regrowth
Removed
Icy Manipulator

April
Revised Released
Antiquities sold out

May
Banned
Bronze Tablet
Restricted
Candelabra of Tawnos
Feldon's Cane
Ivory Tower
Library of Alexandria
Removed
Dingus Egg
Gauntlet of Might

June
Legends released and sold out
Banned
Rebirth
Tempest Efreet
Restricted
Mishra's Workshop

August
The Dark released
Banned
Divine Intervention**Alan Conus--“Draws are traditionally undesirable in competitive events, and Divine Intervention's sole effect is create them. Also, in a tournament setting, a single card should not have such a dramatic influence on the outcome of the game.”
Restricted
Chaos Orb
Falling Star
Mind Twist
Mirror Universe
Recall

Sword of the Ages**Alan Conus--”…simply deals too much damage, especially for an artifact. This allows any deck containing creatures a potentially game-winning blast of damage for which there is little defense.”**Skaff Elias--"This probably should never have been on the list!"[/i]

Underworld Dreams

October
Restricted
Maze of Ith

November
The Dark sold out
Fallen Empires released


So at the close of 1994 we end up with 42 cards on the List.

BANNED---10 Cards
Contract from Below
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Divine Intervention
Jeweled Bird
Shahrazad
Time Vault
Bronze Tablet
Rebirth
Tempest Efreet

RESTRICTED---32 Cards
Ali from Cairo
Ancestral Recall
Berserk
Black Lotus
Braingeyser
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Sol Ring
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timetwister
Channel
Copy Artifact
Demonic Tutor
Wheel of Fortune
Regrowth
Candelabra of Tawnos
Feldon's Cane
Ivory Tower
Library of Alexandria
Maze of Ith
Mishra's Workshop
Chaos Orb
Falling Star
Mind Twist
Mirror Universe
Recall
Sword of the Ages
Underworld Dreams

[rozetta]

This is looking to be the beginnings of a very interesting article. I wonder if you should add some reasons why certain, non-obvious cards were restricted, for those who don't know.

[BuboniC]

lol dingus, and it was because people thought mana should be a good thing, and you shouldnt be awarded for removing it..

[Crater Hellion]

whoa whoa. it was that losing a land is punishing enough, and you shouldn't get punished more. same thing? ok.

is this the whole piece?

[z28camaro]

It would be nice to add the reasons that some cards were restricted/banned and a look at how people abused these cards in decks.  There are some cards on the list that, as I see, were just rediculiously put on the list.  Yet I have no idea why.  The article looks good, it would help us bone up on our history a bit.  

Z

[Charlie Yu]

Here is a site with B/R history until 2002:
http://magic.flaminio.com/banned.html
There's no T2 restricted list which was enforced during 1995-96

[blue_negator]

Quote (z28camaro @ Nov. 23 2003,14:37)It would be nice to add the reasons that some cards were restricted/banned and a look at how people abused these cards in decks.  There are some cards on the list that, as I see, were just rediculiously put on the list.  Yet I have no idea why.  The article looks good, it would help us bone up on our history a bit.  

Z

which specific cards are you wondering about?  Here's a few that I thought were interesting

Orcish oriflamme - the original printing had an error that made it less to cast i believe

Rukh egg - people use to discard this from their hand and get a 4/4 flyer

ali cairo - this was before people understood what creature elimination was

Time vault -this was before the errata and their were just too many combos that were broken at the time

Mirror universe -  i think this one was too good before errata?

Candlelabra - too much pre errata goodness

One thing I wanted to mention was that Mind Twist was the ONLY card ever to be banned due to it's sheer power alone.  Not because it was part of a broken combo, ante card, or dexterity card, but simply because it was too powerful.

[z28camaro]

Feldon's Cane, Gauntlet of Might, and Sword of the Ages came to mind.  I never understood why these cards were restricted.  

I also thought Channel was banned due to its sheer power; I may be mistaken though.

Z

[cobar]

Quote (blue_negator @ Nov. 25 2003,12:25)

Quote (z28camaro @ Nov. 23 2003,14:37)It would be nice to add the reasons that some cards were restricted/banned and a look at how people abused these cards in decks.  There are some cards on the list that, as I see, were just rediculiously put on the list.  Yet I have no idea why.  The article looks good, it would help us bone up on our history a bit.  

Z

which specific cards are you wondering about?  Here's a few that I thought were interesting

Orcish oriflamme - the original printing had an error that made it less to cast i believe

Rukh egg - people use to discard this from their hand and get a 4/4 flyer

ali cairo - this was before people understood what creature elimination was

Time vault -this was before the errata and their were just too many combos that were broken at the time

Mirror universe -  i think this one was too good before errata?

Candlelabra - too much pre errata goodness

One thing I wanted to mention was that Mind Twist was the ONLY card ever to be banned due to it's sheer power alone.  Not because it was part of a broken combo, ante card, or dexterity card, but simply because it was too powerful.

It sounds like you're speculating rather than being certain.  While it's quite hard to find information from that far back, there are articles that go into the reasoning behind a few of those cards.

As other's have said it would be interesting to build a more flavorful article with decklists and the players who broke the cards and so on.  The B/R list has a lot of potential in terms of directions you can go with it.  You might start with talking with some of the Wizards folk who were in charge of B/R back in the day.  I'm not sure who made the decisions, but Skaff Elias, Richard Garfield, Mark Rosewater and other might have insights.

[skycreatoR]

I might have a idea of a few of the cards;

Orcish Oriflamme were a mere 2cc card at 1R, which was far to powerfull back in alpha

Mirror Universe / Lich combination..

Time Vault, because of the Animate Artifact / Instill Energy / Vault combo..

Yet, it is funny restrictions they had back then 8]

[Mage of Dreams]

Thanks for the intrest guys!!, No the article is not complete. I will be adding to it weekly, editing as I flesh out some details ect. Info from pre '96 is sketchy at best. I have lots of d/l files I'm going thru to get quotes and actual reasons from the people involved in the decisions.

As I'm only home 2 days a week usually progress might be a little slow but the project will continue. Your feedback is helpful in guiding the direction of intrest, so keep it up and check back for updates(usually sat or sun)

[defector]

I believe channel was restricted because it fuled two turn one kills, both requiring the lotus though.  One with fireball, the other with brain geyser/black vise.  Channelball was the predominat one.  I don't know why its still on the list to be honest.

[Crater Hellion]

Although it seems silly for it to be restricted, we would break if it unrestricted. Think about it.. there are people who advocate the restriction of dark ritual, and channel basically says GG: add 19 to your mana pool.