For the Amiga and PC demoscene group, see The Black Lotus

The Black Lotus

The Black Lotus is a well-known card from the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. It was only included in the Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited sets of the game, meaning it was only printed for a short period from late 1993 to early 1994. With the exception of special, near-unique cards such as Splendid Genesis and Fraternal Exaltation, the Black Lotus is the most expensive and valuable (in monetary terms) Magic card. The card, especially the Alpha and Beta variants, is often valued in the thousands of United States dollars.

Value and impact on Magic: the Gathering

Prices for a single Beta Black Lotus have steadily climbed from about $200 in 1995 to over $2000 in 2005. Alpha variants are less sought after because the more rounded corners of that set are only allowed in Magic tournaments if played inside card sleeves with opaque backs. White-bordered Unlimited variants are worth about half as much as their black-bordered Beta counterparts both because the Unlimited printing was larger and because, while Beta is considered part of the first edition, Unlimited is not.

Black Lotus' high price results in part from its rarity, but also because it is widely considered to be the most powerful card in the game. It costs nothing to play and delivers three mana of any color. This gives a player using it a very strong advantage early in a game.

Some of its notoriety comes from its part in one of the most famous and devastating combinations in the game, a "first-turn kill" called "Channelball". This combination relies on "Channel", which turns life into mana, and "Fireball", which turns mana into damage to any target. The Black Lotus provides the extra mana needed to cast both spells on the first turn. While this is the most well-known example, a number of other first-turn kill strategies exist, all of which are facilitated by drawing a Black Lotus (although most don't actually require it).

"Channelball" led to an abusive and often invincible playing style that was the impetus for a host of new rules and restrictions for the game. In official tournament play, cards such as Black Lotus have been "restricted" to one per deck in formats that allow them at all. Different types of tournaments were created allowing only cards easily found by all players. The first of these new tournament types, called "Type 2", quickly became much more popular than "Type 1" (now officially called "Vintage") tournaments which continued to allow a single Black Lotus. Type 2 is now know as "Standard" and continues to be the most popular constructed tournament type.

The fame of the card has been alluded to and lampooned in subsequent printings of Magic: the Gathering (in fact, every card with the word "lotus" in its name is based on Black Lotus). For example, a card from the Tempest expansion set called "Lotus Petal" is identical to Black Lotus except that it only produces one mana instead of three. Although it was designed to be a more reasonable variant of Black Lotus, it eventually landed on the restricted list as well. However, due to the common rarity level of Lotus Petal, it is not particularly valuable. The "Blacker Lotus" was a satirical card in the light-hearted Unglued set which produced four mana although it required the user to tear up the card before use, so it could (normally) only be used once. Mox Lotus, from the Unhinged parody set, provides infinite mana, but costs fifteen to play. In the Mirrodin set, the Guilded Lotus also imitates Black Lotus's effect but with the mana cost of 5 colorless.

The Power Nine

Ownership of a Black Lotus and several other powerful cards is considered essential to win Vintage (Type 1) tournaments. A commonly-cited list of early and powerful Magic cards is the "Power Nine". All of these cards are restricted in Vintage and banned in all other tournaments. They include: Black Lotus, Mox Sapphire, Mox Ruby, Mox Jet, Mox Emerald, Mox Pearl, Timetwister, Time Walk, and Ancestral Recall. These nine cards are "broken" (excessively overpowered) by contemporary standards of Magic: the Gathering because they offer disproportionate power like extra turns, cards, and mana for little cost and almost no drawback. Notably, all were printed in the very first Magic set, when designers, expecting only a modest success, thought that no one area or player would have more than a few of these powerful rare cards at a time.

The Power Nine were on the first Magic: the Gathering "reserved list" unveiled by Wizards of the Coast in 1996. Reserved cards were never to be reprinted because of concerns that additional printings would collapse the secondary market. The reserved list has gone through several revisions, notably in 2002 when many cards were removed from the list, thus becoming available for reprint. However, the Power Nine remain fixed on the list due in part to their high prices, but also because of their "unbalanced" power in the game.

Like the Black Lotus, other Power Nine cards were in the original sets and only printed from late 1993 to early 1994. All are worth at least several hundred dollars today, but none as much as the Black Lotus.

Artwork

The illustration on Black Lotus was painted by Christopher Rush. At the time Rush was a Wizards of the Coast employee rather than a freelance artist. He created many of the original card designs. The Black Lotus illustration is a depiction of a black lotus flower over a foliage backdrop.

Since then, Rush has made a similar, but distinct alternate art for the card, given to the winner of the 2003 Type 1 Championship.

Proxies and fakes

The Black Lotus, along with several other rare cards, is often copied due to its rarity. Most of these copies are benign, and meant for use by players who cannot afford to buy a real one. These are called "proxies", and are not allowed in tournament play. However, some copies are attempts at actual forgeries. Collectors and players are advised to carefully inspect such cards when purchasing them.

External links

• "Black Lotus" - Card image and rules text from Wizards of the Coast
• "Blacker Lotus" - Card image and rules text from Wizards of the Coast
• "All-time MVPs: Black Lotus" - Strategy-specific Wizards of the Coast article on Black Lotus
• "The Power Nine" - Images of all Power Nine cards
• Vintage (Type 1) restricted list