Invasion uncommon. Putting together Invasion, the designers knew they wanted color to matter. At first, only blue had the ability to change things to any color of your choice. White and black could turn other things white or black, but nothing else had the ability to choose multiple colors yet. Because the theme was so central to the block they knew they wanted more than just blue to have the ability. Someone pointed out that chameleons (clearly creatures of nature) could change color, and that was that.
Unhinged common. The name, effect, and flavor text on this card were all references to McDonald’s, but between when the card was designed and when the set was printed, the restaurant pulled the super size option from its menu.
Urza’s Legacy uncommon. Urza’s Legacy featured a four-card cycle of “carrier” creatures designed to show a progression of illness. Going up by casting cost, they can each sacrifice themselves to inflict an increasingly large effect. Each of the first three also have names that escalate, and even their flavor text lines up with the order of the cards in the progression.
Portal: Second Age uncommon. The Portal beginner’s sets were simplified with the idea of easing new players into the complexities of Magic. Because of that, the sets included only sorceries and creatures. However, a few cards were written to allow use at a time that would feel more like an instant-speed card or ability. To do this, the cards always had to include specific directions like this one, saying specifically when they could be used. Another example is Deep Wood, which is basically a Fog, and included the direction: “Play Deep Wood only after you’re attacked, before you declare blockers.”
Odyssey common.Like our friend the Apprentice Necromancer, the Overeager Apprentice is an apprentice because he doesn’t have the skill to pull off his trick without killing himself in the process. This time around though, there was room for flavor text to reinforce this wizard’s dilemma.
Urza’s Destiny rare. Like Voidmage Apprentice, this card was also given the title “apprentice” for humorous reasons. In this case, the joke was that this particular wizard isn’t good enough at his spell to pull it off without falling over dead in the process. It’s too bad this guy’s reminder text turned out to be so long, as this seems like a great chance for some fun flavor text.
Legions common. This card was named as a humorous reference to Kai Budde’s Invitational card Voidmage Prodigy. The apprentice is also a blue morph creature with the ability to counterspell, but since it can only counter a spell once it was given the apprentice moniker to reinforce that it wasn’t as skilled as the prodigy.
Dissension rare. Lyzolda originally gave a minor bonus for sacrificing any creature, then gave added bonuses if the creature was black or red. The card was later reworked to match the gold cards from each of the other guilds, which reward on-color cards and give an even greater benefit for cards that have both guild colors.
Dissension rare. This was the card printed in honor of Terry Soh’s victory at the 2005 Magic Invitational. At first there was concern that the smile might seem out of place, but after trying versions with blood spatter and other ways of making the figure more menacing, it was decided that having this guy smile while getting ready to commit that particular act is plenty menacing all on its own.
