Time Spiral rare. Several of the legendary creatures shown in Time Spiral got demotions of a sort, showing up as legendary creatures when they used to be Planeswalkers (be it from time displacement or other issues). Dralnu managed to do the opposite by getting promoted from regular creature to legendary. Dralnu first appeared as the figure in Lord of the Undead, but as explained in Brady Dommermuth’s article “The Legends of Time Spiral” the Creative team felt he was cool enough to deserve his own legendary card when Time Spiral offered the chance.
Time Spiral rare. Though it was a relatively short-lived practice, Wizards employees used to go to conventions dressed up in costumes of various Magic characters like Prodigal Sorcerer, Lim-Dul the Necromancer, and even Bird Maiden. The costumes don’t get much use anymore, but some of them can still be seen in this promotional video shot for the Ice Age expansion.
Time Spiral rare. Once Endrek Sahr was considered for a card, there were two things known about him: He’s the creator of the Thrulls, and he was killed by the Thrulls. Designing a topdown card that could accommodate both sides of that coin would have been tough in most colors, but fortunately for R&D black is the color that specializes in gaining resources in return for risk, so combining both traits of this legend came together quite nicely.
Time Spiral rare. Saffi has only appeared one other place in Magic???s history, the famed flavor text of the original Lhurgoyf (and every version since then). Her companion, Hans, has also appeared in the flavor text for Revenant and in the name of the Unhinged card “Ach! Hans, Run!” but only Saffi of the pair has appeared as a legend on her own card so far.
Time Spiral rare. Mangara is a character from the Mirage storyline, where he (yes, he’s male) was ambushed by Kaervek and Jolrael and captured within the Amber Prison. His card’s ability was loosely inspired by Amber Prison, with the idea that he can take something back, but he has to go back with it. (Note that, thanks to the timeshifted cards, Kaervek, Mangara, and Jolrael all get to appear in the set, plus planeswalker Teferi.)
Time Spiral common. Time Spiral was a chance to bring back older abilities from the color pie that aren’t out of flavor but have just fallen out of use over time. Since the very beginning black had the occasional ability to tap and lock down permanents, starting with Paralyze in Alpha (creatures), Phyrexian Gremlins in Antiquities (artifacts), and then Mole Worms in Ice Age (lands).
Unhinged uncommon. This was a top-down design where the designers knew they wanted a card with this name that, like Sex Appeal from Unglued, offered some bonus for females. Rather than just make it do nothing for guys however, the designers decided to give at least the opportunity for bonus. (Quick trivia note: why does the knight have flying? Check out the Pegasus parked at the meter in the background!)
Prophecy rare. A key element of the color pie is that certain abilities are very unlikely to show up in certain colors. But that doesn’t have to mean never. R&D looks for chances to stretch that from time to time by bleeding off-color abilities in combination with some effect that makes the bleed more appropriate to that color. In this case you have red reanimation that doesn’t feel completely out of flavor thanks to the card’s random nature.
Mirage rare. First printed prior to the Sixth Edition rule change that would eliminate interrupts as a spell type, this card was accidentally printed without the clause that the ability could be used as an interrupt. As written, the card wouldn’t have had an ability that worked, so Wizards had to issue a special errata for the card before it had even been released. In a screwy fluke of timing, once Six Edition was printed and interrupts were removed, the card’s original wording now worked perfectly fine, so it was printed the same word-for-word in every core set after that.
Ice Age common. This card’s art features a portrait of a former Magic distributor. Artist Douglas Shuler auctioned off the chance to be in the art of a Magic card for charity. The deal was that the winner of the auction would get a portrait on the next Magic commission Shuler got that would work well with a human subject.
