Recently I was inquiring about the rarest mtg cards in existance. I was reading an article about Blue Hurricane, which I'm sure many of you have heard of before. However, I met someone who claimed an ever rarer card existed, which was part of the Arabian Nights expansion set. It was a basic island.
As many of you may know, their was a full cycle of basic lands created for Arabian Nights. For various reasons, it was decided that these should be cut from the expansion entirely. However, by a mistake, the basic mountain made it onto the final print sheets. And apparently, on less than 2% of all print runs, so did the basic island.
According to this guy, the basic land was illustrated by Mark Poole. It depicted a faerie bridge, and was thus known as the "Bridge Island". Apparently it's extreme rarity has made finding a picture of it almost impossible. However after a great deal of fishing around online, I managed to find a terrible quality picture of what is supposedly a Bridge Island. Here it is:
Have any of you ever heard of the Bridge Island before? Do you have any information to confirm or disprove it's existance? If it's fake then it is quite an elaborate hoax, but if it's real, it could easily be any collector's holy grail. I look forward to hearing your opinions on this matter.
I have heard of that island before, and yea, the artwork looks familiar. But I don't think it's that rare and is not from Arabian Nights but was either printed later, or is a fake. The text is too white. Back then text was grey and harder to read. They didn't go to pure white text like that until 4th I believe.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I have seen the true path. I will not warm myself by the fire—I will become the flame."
—Lim-Dûl, the Necromancer
I have heard of that island before, and yea, the artwork looks familiar. But I don't think it's that rare and is not from Arabian Nights but was either printed later, or is a fake. The text is too white. Back then text was grey and harder to read. They didn't go to pure white text like that until 4th I believe.
Well, if the island really was from Arabian Nights it would be fantstically rare. As none have ever been on the market, I can only imagine the price that one could be auctioned off for. It might even be up their with cards likeProposal :). However if the picture is of an island from Fourth Edition or Revised, then it wouldn't be very rare at all. I'm hoping someone here at MTG: Salvation will be able to ID the picture, but it seems unlikely.
I can't comment on the color of the text overall. The picture quality is fairly poor, so I can't really pass judgement on it. Plus, I don't own many cards from sets that old, with the exception of basic lands and a few commons.
Of course Arabian Nights had a very distinct expansion symbol. Seeing as the person who posted this picture doesn't sound stupid, then he was probably able to either confirm it was an AN island based on the symbol, or else it is a fake. Which do you think is more likely?
So if I were to say "you're a complete douchebag who has his head up his ass so far he's using his own eyeballs as glasses," you'd simply shrug it off?
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.
I do not believe it was a prank. I have it on good authority that the card does actually exist in the quantity of roughly 20.
(Extremely late reply to this thread but was discussing it with friends and they referred to this to show it was fake, I rightly corrected them)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cubes:
360 Powered Cube
400 Common/Uncommon Cube
Edh Decks:
Uril, The Miststalker RGW
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G
Norin, The Wary R
Retired Generals
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa G
Maaga, Traitor To Mortals B
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails W
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs R
Savra, Queen of the Golgari BG
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero RG
Kemba, Kha Regent W
Captain Sisay GW
Darien, King of Kheldor W
Geth, Lord of the Vault B
I do not believe it was a prank. I have it on good authority that the card does actually exist in the quantity of roughly 20.
(Extremely late reply to this thread but was discussing it with friends and they referred to this to show it was fake, I rightly corrected them)
What is that authority, and where is the evidence that these Islands really exist? Right now, the evidence is favor of these cards existing only as a prank on the page of The Duelist. Extraordinary claims, you know...
What is that authority, and where is the evidence that these Islands really exist? Right now, the evidence is favor of these cards existing only as a prank on the page of The Duelist. Extraordinary claims, you know...
I understand that but the authority is word of mouth from a person I trust. In terms of why I trust is because:
1. Known him for over 6 years and owns an LGS that I visit.
2. Part of last group of beta-testers for MTG before release at GEN Con back in 1993.
3. Has original hand signed DCI number #1000
4. Has a picture of one in his hand, and a picture of a closer zoom.
From him I was told that roughly 20 were given out to volunteers way back then and that they were only ever allowed to sell it back to MTG at the cost of $1. That is the story and he explicitly stated it is his favorite story to tell as everyone knows about the Mountain and the April Fools duelist article, but he loves correcting them.
If any are interested in going to his shop or live in that area I can easily provide location. Considering he lives in the State of WA near Seattle I'm sure people on here can go and verify themselves.
@NumaPompilius;7675974 - Oh I agree with you as I too hate it when he corrects me, I like to think I know just as much but still... T_T. He also has multiple boxes of those MTG poker playing cards and a bunch of random old memorebelia. Those are for sale in his shop so if you want a set XD.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cubes:
360 Powered Cube
400 Common/Uncommon Cube
Edh Decks:
Uril, The Miststalker RGW
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G
Norin, The Wary R
Retired Generals
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa G
Maaga, Traitor To Mortals B
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails W
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs R
Savra, Queen of the Golgari BG
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero RG
Kemba, Kha Regent W
Captain Sisay GW
Darien, King of Kheldor W
Geth, Lord of the Vault B
The misprint foil Lightning Bolt from the Japanese Beatdown Box should be the rarest card in Magic's history that has been printed in bigger numbers than 1 AFAIK.
I understand that but the authority is word of mouth from a person I trust. In terms of why I trust is because:
1. Known him for over 6 years and owns an LGS that I visit.
2. Part of last group of beta-testers for MTG before release at GEN Con back in 1993.
3. Has original hand signed DCI number #1000
4. Has a picture of one in his hand, and a picture of a closer zoom.
From him I was told that roughly 20 were given out to volunteers way back then and that they were only ever allowed to sell it back to MTG at the cost of $1. That is the story and he explicitly stated it is his favorite story to tell as everyone knows about the Mountain and the April Fools duelist article, but he loves correcting them.
If any are interested in going to his shop or live in that area I can easily provide location. Considering he lives in the State of WA near Seattle I'm sure people on here can go and verify themselves.
@NumaPompilius;7675974 - Oh I agree with you as I too hate it when he corrects me, I like to think I know just as much but still... T_T. He also has multiple boxes of those MTG poker playing cards and a bunch of random old memorebelia. Those are for sale in his shop so if you want a set XD.
I'm just going to point out that I've seen (Yawg07 I think) do an altered version of an belta/unlimited basic to look like this. So the fact you've seen a picture of him holding one dosen't necessarily mean it's true. And as far as his story, I would defer to House. "Everyone lies". And while he might not be lieing, it sounds like one. If wotc produced this card there would probably be 121 of them. (1 print sheet).
Silver, was he able to explain why it has new art. The mountain has the same art as a mountain from Alpha. It does not seem to make sense that wizards would have created new art for one type of a land and not another.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 2 DCI Judge
From Denver, but going to college in Illinois. My Cube
I'm just going to point out that I've seen (Yawg07 I think) do an altered version of an belta/unlimited basic to look like this. So the fact you've seen a picture of him holding one dosen't necessarily mean it's true. And as far as his story, I would defer to House. "Everyone lies". And while he might not be lieing, it sounds like one. If wotc produced this card there would probably be 121 of them. (1 print sheet).
Oh yes I understand the skepticism and by all means I will not attempt to push or force my story onto others as true fact (especially not on the internet). It simply is that I live in Seattle and I know many of the former employees (former being original pre 1996), so I will state once more it is "MY" trust I put in him. I will question him some more next time I speak with him regarding the 121 print sheet issue but then again he could simply respond not all of them were given out. The number 20 was pulled from the fact that there were 20 volunteers who recieved 1. Worst comes to worst I will just go and ask Richard Garfield, if he is allowed to speak about that, and see what he states about it.
- Those interested Richard Garfield teaches Game Theory at the University of Washington (his class is a blast). As well as can be seen walking into local game stores to play board games and hang with people.
@ Acid Rain - I never thought to ask him regarding the reason for the art change so I'll pop that question over to him now and see what he says.
@ Everyone else - I simply wanted to get my story out to see if there is anyone else out there who have heard any of the information I was told so I too could corroborate the information.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cubes:
360 Powered Cube
400 Common/Uncommon Cube
Edh Decks:
Uril, The Miststalker RGW
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G
Norin, The Wary R
Retired Generals
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa G
Maaga, Traitor To Mortals B
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails W
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs R
Savra, Queen of the Golgari BG
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero RG
Kemba, Kha Regent W
Captain Sisay GW
Darien, King of Kheldor W
Geth, Lord of the Vault B
@ Silver That would be great. I am just interested in what he has to say. Not saying your story is not true, just something I thought about.
No problem and you can think my story isn't true, until I provide some sort of empirical evidence or document to prove my story that everyone can see or read for themselves my story is just another internet story. I really hate arguments is all, I just assume everyone is opened minded. ^^
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cubes:
360 Powered Cube
400 Common/Uncommon Cube
Edh Decks:
Uril, The Miststalker RGW
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G
Norin, The Wary R
Retired Generals
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa G
Maaga, Traitor To Mortals B
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails W
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs R
Savra, Queen of the Golgari BG
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero RG
Kemba, Kha Regent W
Captain Sisay GW
Darien, King of Kheldor W
Geth, Lord of the Vault B
I am pretty sure this doesn't exist for the following reasons:
I am a collector of obscure Magic rarities and have been since 1994, it is something I know a lot about and I have never even heard of a legit "Islands". I have however seen more than one home-made version of this card, some quite well done.
Wizards, especially in the early days, would not print such a small number of specialty cards. It is prohibitively expensive to do so, also even if they did the number wouldn't be 20, it would be a full sheet of 100. When they did make internal cards to pass around, they were low-budget print-outs like this: http://www.magiclibrarities.net/429-rarities-wizards-of-the-coast-employee-cards-english-cards-images.html. Check out the "Semi-Official" section on magiclibrarities to see similar examples which were given the cut-and-paste treatment and handed out at events as late as 2007 rather than do a separate print run. The only counter-examples to this would be the Garfield cards and the World Champs (1996 and the dragon) where there was a serious reason for the investment or Robot Chicken (very recent). Any gifts would have more likely been free product or promotional materials (mugs, t-shirts, etc).
It is possible that I have just never heard of this rare card. It is vastly more likely, for the reasons listed above, that any "Islands" you have seen is a high quality home-made example that a story has grown up around in the spirit of the original April Fools gag. I own multiple playtest, semi-official, and internal cards. Anything that Wizards would have given out internally at that time would not look like that. Seriously.
I don't think that I'm wrong but it would be pretty cool if I am.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
The textless foil Lightning Bolts were test-prints/misprints which are Judge Gift Program Lightning Bolts without any text. About 20 have been reported to be found, all in Japanese Urza's Destiny booster packs. It is likely that more exist but unlikely that many more will ever surface, a true rarity. There are Urza's Saga test versions of this as well which are identical except they have a number printed in the center of the card.
"Islands" is not a legitimate card, and I have never ever heard of any in existence outside of alters, and I've asked around a fair bit. It's not completely impossible that they actually exist, just extremely unlikely to the point of being purely semantical.
There are likely more textless saga cards than most people think. Same with summer. The rarest legitimate cards in the game outside of cards like the 1996 WC are test prints, specifically from 8e and 5D. I say this as someone who owns all the cards I mentioned above except cards like 1996 WC, so I don't really have any vested interest in bigging any particular card up.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Misprint and Summer Magic Collector.
Now collecting Beebles too!
PM me if you have access to anything that is of interest.
Here's something I found from the forums of Magic Librarities. Though the fact that there is no expansion symbol makes me doubt the correctness of my memory about the card being in Beatdown, because in similar Urza's Saga misprints, the expansion symbol is there. In any case, I'm sure it was a product that was supposed to be in Japanese, but because of this mistake, it wasn't officially published by WotC, but despite that, some copies were spread.
Wern't these being found in UD boxes? I vaguely remember stories about these circulating during the UD pre-release with pictures.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Recently I was inquiring about the rarest mtg cards in existance. I was reading an article about Blue Hurricane, which I'm sure many of you have heard of before. However, I met someone who claimed an ever rarer card existed, which was part of the Arabian Nights expansion set. It was a basic island.
As many of you may know, their was a full cycle of basic lands created for Arabian Nights. For various reasons, it was decided that these should be cut from the expansion entirely. However, by a mistake, the basic mountain made it onto the final print sheets. And apparently, on less than 2% of all print runs, so did the basic island.
According to this guy, the basic land was illustrated by Mark Poole. It depicted a faerie bridge, and was thus known as the "Bridge Island". Apparently it's extreme rarity has made finding a picture of it almost impossible. However after a great deal of fishing around online, I managed to find a terrible quality picture of what is supposedly a Bridge Island. Here it is:
http://twitpic.com/nijn7
Have any of you ever heard of the Bridge Island before? Do you have any information to confirm or disprove it's existance? If it's fake then it is quite an elaborate hoax, but if it's real, it could easily be any collector's holy grail. I look forward to hearing your opinions on this matter.
—Lim-Dûl, the Necromancer
Well, if the island really was from Arabian Nights it would be fantstically rare. As none have ever been on the market, I can only imagine the price that one could be auctioned off for. It might even be up their with cards likeProposal :). However if the picture is of an island from Fourth Edition or Revised, then it wouldn't be very rare at all. I'm hoping someone here at MTG: Salvation will be able to ID the picture, but it seems unlikely.
I can't comment on the color of the text overall. The picture quality is fairly poor, so I can't really pass judgement on it. Plus, I don't own many cards from sets that old, with the exception of basic lands and a few commons.
Of course Arabian Nights had a very distinct expansion symbol. Seeing as the person who posted this picture doesn't sound stupid, then he was probably able to either confirm it was an AN island based on the symbol, or else it is a fake. Which do you think is more likely?
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/rarities-duelist-fantasy-other.html
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/rarities-duelist-fantasy.html
Absolutely correct (note the name is Islands and not Island). Here's a bigger picture of it:
Ahah! I knew I had seen it somewhere before...
—Lim-Dûl, the Necromancer
Shhhh, that just means its not a basic land, and has a misprinted type line...
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.
Haha that is priceless!!! I can't wait to show him that
Just a quick question though: can you link me the article that confirmed it was a prank?
(Extremely late reply to this thread but was discussing it with friends and they referred to this to show it was fake, I rightly corrected them)
360 Powered Cube
400 Common/Uncommon Cube
Edh Decks:
Uril, The Miststalker RGW
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G
Norin, The Wary R
Retired Generals
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa G
Maaga, Traitor To Mortals B
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails W
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs R
Savra, Queen of the Golgari BG
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero RG
Kemba, Kha Regent W
Captain Sisay GW
Darien, King of Kheldor W
Geth, Lord of the Vault B
What is that authority, and where is the evidence that these Islands really exist? Right now, the evidence is favor of these cards existing only as a prank on the page of The Duelist. Extraordinary claims, you know...
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/352-rarities-garfield-event-cards-english-cards-index.html
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/353-rarities-unique-cards-english-cards-index.html
I understand that but the authority is word of mouth from a person I trust. In terms of why I trust is because:
1. Known him for over 6 years and owns an LGS that I visit.
2. Part of last group of beta-testers for MTG before release at GEN Con back in 1993.
3. Has original hand signed DCI number #1000
4. Has a picture of one in his hand, and a picture of a closer zoom.
From him I was told that roughly 20 were given out to volunteers way back then and that they were only ever allowed to sell it back to MTG at the cost of $1. That is the story and he explicitly stated it is his favorite story to tell as everyone knows about the Mountain and the April Fools duelist article, but he loves correcting them.
If any are interested in going to his shop or live in that area I can easily provide location. Considering he lives in the State of WA near Seattle I'm sure people on here can go and verify themselves.
@NumaPompilius;7675974 - Oh I agree with you as I too hate it when he corrects me, I like to think I know just as much but still... T_T. He also has multiple boxes of those MTG poker playing cards and a bunch of random old memorebelia. Those are for sale in his shop so if you want a set XD.
360 Powered Cube
400 Common/Uncommon Cube
Edh Decks:
Uril, The Miststalker RGW
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G
Norin, The Wary R
Retired Generals
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa G
Maaga, Traitor To Mortals B
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails W
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs R
Savra, Queen of the Golgari BG
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero RG
Kemba, Kha Regent W
Captain Sisay GW
Darien, King of Kheldor W
Geth, Lord of the Vault B
Would love to see a picture of that.
I'm just going to point out that I've seen (Yawg07 I think) do an altered version of an belta/unlimited basic to look like this. So the fact you've seen a picture of him holding one dosen't necessarily mean it's true. And as far as his story, I would defer to House. "Everyone lies". And while he might not be lieing, it sounds like one. If wotc produced this card there would probably be 121 of them. (1 print sheet).
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
From Denver, but going to college in Illinois.
My Cube
Oh yes I understand the skepticism and by all means I will not attempt to push or force my story onto others as true fact (especially not on the internet). It simply is that I live in Seattle and I know many of the former employees (former being original pre 1996), so I will state once more it is "MY" trust I put in him. I will question him some more next time I speak with him regarding the 121 print sheet issue but then again he could simply respond not all of them were given out. The number 20 was pulled from the fact that there were 20 volunteers who recieved 1. Worst comes to worst I will just go and ask Richard Garfield, if he is allowed to speak about that, and see what he states about it.
- Those interested Richard Garfield teaches Game Theory at the University of Washington (his class is a blast). As well as can be seen walking into local game stores to play board games and hang with people.
@ Acid Rain - I never thought to ask him regarding the reason for the art change so I'll pop that question over to him now and see what he says.
@ Everyone else - I simply wanted to get my story out to see if there is anyone else out there who have heard any of the information I was told so I too could corroborate the information.
360 Powered Cube
400 Common/Uncommon Cube
Edh Decks:
Uril, The Miststalker RGW
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G
Norin, The Wary R
Retired Generals
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa G
Maaga, Traitor To Mortals B
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails W
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs R
Savra, Queen of the Golgari BG
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero RG
Kemba, Kha Regent W
Captain Sisay GW
Darien, King of Kheldor W
Geth, Lord of the Vault B
From Denver, but going to college in Illinois.
My Cube
No problem and you can think my story isn't true, until I provide some sort of empirical evidence or document to prove my story that everyone can see or read for themselves my story is just another internet story. I really hate arguments is all, I just assume everyone is opened minded. ^^
360 Powered Cube
400 Common/Uncommon Cube
Edh Decks:
Uril, The Miststalker RGW
Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer G
Norin, The Wary R
Retired Generals
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa G
Maaga, Traitor To Mortals B
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails W
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs R
Savra, Queen of the Golgari BG
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero RG
Kemba, Kha Regent W
Captain Sisay GW
Darien, King of Kheldor W
Geth, Lord of the Vault B
I am a collector of obscure Magic rarities and have been since 1994, it is something I know a lot about and I have never even heard of a legit "Islands". I have however seen more than one home-made version of this card, some quite well done.
Wizards, especially in the early days, would not print such a small number of specialty cards. It is prohibitively expensive to do so, also even if they did the number wouldn't be 20, it would be a full sheet of 100. When they did make internal cards to pass around, they were low-budget print-outs like this: http://www.magiclibrarities.net/429-rarities-wizards-of-the-coast-employee-cards-english-cards-images.html. Check out the "Semi-Official" section on magiclibrarities to see similar examples which were given the cut-and-paste treatment and handed out at events as late as 2007 rather than do a separate print run. The only counter-examples to this would be the Garfield cards and the World Champs (1996 and the dragon) where there was a serious reason for the investment or Robot Chicken (very recent). Any gifts would have more likely been free product or promotional materials (mugs, t-shirts, etc).
It is possible that I have just never heard of this rare card. It is vastly more likely, for the reasons listed above, that any "Islands" you have seen is a high quality home-made example that a story has grown up around in the spirit of the original April Fools gag. I own multiple playtest, semi-official, and internal cards. Anything that Wizards would have given out internally at that time would not look like that. Seriously.
I don't think that I'm wrong but it would be pretty cool if I am.
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
There are likely more textless saga cards than most people think. Same with summer. The rarest legitimate cards in the game outside of cards like the 1996 WC are test prints, specifically from 8e and 5D. I say this as someone who owns all the cards I mentioned above except cards like 1996 WC, so I don't really have any vested interest in bigging any particular card up.
Now collecting Beebles too!
PM me if you have access to anything that is of interest.
Wern't these being found in UD boxes? I vaguely remember stories about these circulating during the UD pre-release with pictures.