The Strange Story of Magic: The Gathering's Portal Card Sets! | MTG Double Masters
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
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Portal! A strange bit of Magic history. What happened here? Let me take you on a journey!
Have a question? Post a comment! You can also catch me, Gavin Verhey, on the rest of the internet at:
Twitch: / gavinverhey
Twitter: / gavinverhey
Instagram: / gavinverhey
TikTok: / gavinverhey
Thumbnail background art is Bee Sting from Portal by Phil Foglio.
#magicthegathering #throwback #history
The “flavor text divider line” was a nice portal inclusion that was brought back into Dominaria!
I learned playing MTG with this set. English wasn't my native language and I only just started to learn it in school, so understanding what cards did was a real challenge for me and my brothers. Regular magic sets at the time were way too complicated for us, so we stuck by playing Portal for the first two years or so since we discovered the game.
That's super endearing.
I remember buying Portal packs with cash I earned from mowing lawns and picking weeds in the neighborhood. Fun set. I liked the shield and sword symbols depicted on creature cards for power and toughness
Putting that summertime job money to good use! Love it
@@GoodMorningMagic btw good cards does not equal complex cards
Portal was the first set to use the giant mana symbol on basic lands instead of writing out "[T]: add mana..." I used by buy portal primarily for the basic lands as a way to bling out certain decks.
New headcannon: all the guns from Portal Second Age were lost during the (rolls on a chart of Dominarian Apocalypses) Phyrexian Invasion.
horses can kick...... just spin horsemanship in the next meeting as another form of kicker
The problem with card draw effects is they don't tell you from which library you draw, and the meaning of "draw" can be ambiguous. Do you scribble on a card? If so, which card?
JUDGE!
I've never been a fan of the Sword and Shield in the lower right hand corner, but if we could make Sword and Shield a thing instead of "Power" or "Toughness" written out on a card, that could be fun.
As for Portal, specifically Three Kingdoms, I would LOVE to return to that set, mix in some of those cards from the one and only time Magic made that Global Series set with Mu Yanling and Jiang what's his name, and some new cards, obviously, to make a return to The Plane Of The Three Kingdoms, it could be super hype.
I think the world needs less Chinese fiction
Im happy with power/Toughness written on the card.
Base sword/Base shield sound quite strange to me.
The sword and shield would be great to simplify wording and teach new players. When I teach Magic, my friends often get confused with the order of power/toughness
I always liked the Sword and Shield on the cards.
I would like to see a comeback of the Beginner, Advanced, and Expert labels on packaging.
But they don't do core sets any more. There's only Jump Start. Everything else is expert.
I recall playing Portal as a kid and thinking it was pretty cool.
As an adult, Three Kingdoms is the set that fascinates me the most.
These were the first cards that were ever given to me so they will always hold a special place in my heart. My uncle had no idea that trajectory he was sending me down but goodness am I glad I still have all my reserved list stuff. I hear nightmares all the time about people trading there's a way for nothing 20 years ago.
Mercadian Masques and Portal were my first introductions into Magic. The house we moved into had a treasure chest full of them. The art was otherworldly and immediately captured me. I roughly figured out how to play the game by just staring at the cards. The one glaring detail I had wrong was turn one flooding the field with every land you had in hand.
It would be sweet to see the sword and shield symbols again.
I would love to see Horsemanship return or get some reprints! I think it would be perfect to do a Secret Lair Drop with some of the best Horsemanship legendries in it! That is something I would defiantly buy!
I’d buy that in a heart beat
Your video brings back memories of using portal to teach new players. Portal was a great idea. It would be nice to see older sets like portal released as draft boxes for older players to enjoy old memories and new players to see what playing magic was like in the old days.
Hope to see a proper reprint of Capture of Jingzhou one day!
I also learned MTG with Portal. I still love it. The artwork is amazing and the cards iconic.
Your videos are just getting better! I love these histories!
Always appreciate the history lesson. Glad the mothership also is hesitant about "Destroy All Lands." And thanks for Reprinting so many cards. Now, please keep reprinting them so that they can be obtainable in the future as well.
And so, an idea. The Prof has Shuffle up and Play. The ONE thing I would like to see more than anything on there, is the 5 members of the Color Council having a game there, each with their own Mono-Color deck. Commander, legacy, modern, whatever. But a 5 man brawl between the Color Council seems like it would be a sight to behold, give the Prof a chance to get some comments about victories for the colors, or their regrets as anecdotes, and kind of get a feeling for the kinds of interactions the committee has with one another, which as a long time player, I am very interested in seeing.
I personally know that one of my favorite videos the Prof did was the interview with the White Mana member of the council.
I know the Prof would never reach out to WOTC about nabbing some of your group for this (as he'd probably consider it being above his station to do so), but I can't see him saying anything like a refusal for the Mothership sending actual goodwill his way.
Hey Gavin! I have some player feedback and I thought I would just post in on your latest video. In theory "the initiative" is a great mechanic that incentivices attacking. However, in practice, I've noticed the complete opposite. People are actually reluctant to attack the player who has the initiative. The mechanic be a bit confusing at first, but that's not the main issue. Not everyone brings those dungeon tokens. And the player with the dungeon deck cant share their Undercity token when he has ventured inside. So people have to go through the hasstle of finding a creative solution, like using their phone, copying the dungeon on a piece of paper,... and people just aren't bothered. So the feedback I would give: use "mechanics with extra cards" to a minimum (i.e. day and night, city's blessing, dungeons, ...).
Seeing the 🗡 and 🛡 again would be cool! Although, for flavor reasons can we have it only on knight cards. Like in a special knight treatment for a return to eldraine!
I actually really like that idea
I loved the idea of Portal, and wouldn't mind seeing something like it again. I still remember when WotC came out to the Taste of Colorado in Denver, and was giving out Portal starter sets to folks for trying the game! Free Magic Cards are always cool.
Portal Series Remastered! Make it happen Gavin!!! :P
Portal was my first introduction to MTG. I absolutely fell in love with the game when I saw Ebon Dragon and have been playing ever since. Still one of my favorite arts in Magic. Bring back the sword and shield on some retro frames!
I unfortunately never knew about Portal except by name. I had already learned to play back in Unlimited, and was well on my way to finding sweet combos from the Tempest block to work in my older decks. I'm a big fan of the old school groaners like Pox. Turn one: Swamp, Dark Ritual, Pox. Needless to say, my friends in an older group form before Two-Headed Giant and Commander usually took me out first. Putting Megrim in my Pox/Specter deck just made it bonkers. I later added Blue to put in Urza's Guilt and Doomsday Specter.
I love the idea of using the sword and shield the symbols for power and toughness. It's super intuitive!
I like the sword and shield symbols to denote power and toughness. A problem I noticed when teaching my parents how to play was trying to figure out how those numbers interacted during combat phases and I think those symbols would've smoothed the process drastically.
First off, great video! I love magic history and I didn't realize how many designs came from the Portal series. Also printing Armageddon in a starter product 3 times... >_>
This is off topic, but why doesn't Invigorating Hot Springs 3rd ability tap instead of having the once per turn restriction? It addresses possible memory issues and doesn't drastically change what the card does.
Portal also introduced the division line between Rules text and flavor text, that appears in new frame design since Dominaria.
love these historical looks back at old sets or cards.
"It was still incredibly hard to come by". I see what you did there Gavin.
I kind of like the idea of using the sword and shield for the power and toughness, but it's understandable why it couldn't continue. And I loved some of that art - I still have the Portal Volcanic Hammer in a box somewhere.
I love the little sword and shield and in general the graphic design of the Portal sets. To me, they are thr most aesthetically pleasing magic cards ever made.
I have fairly fond memories of OG Portal, wish I could have gotten some Portal 3K, many all-time favourites in that set, especially the Legends.
I'm glad Warrior's Oath is getting reprinted, but it does not feel the same without my favorite bit of reminder text. (You don't lose if you've already won.)
a Portal card came up in a search the other day and I noticed the "intercept" wording and found it quite funny.
Imperial Seal and Capture of Jingzhou are redundant effects in commander (you can just play Vampiric Tutor and Time Warp), but because of the nature of commander, decks that want those effects want as many copies as possible. here's hoping that despite the very specific flavor of Capture of Jingzhou, we can get a reprint sometime! need me some extra turn spells that don't exile for non-degenerate reasons (probably)
I just completed my Portal (1) set last weekend. It got me started on magic back in the days 😄
Recently I started teaching my girlfriend Magic, and she struggled with remembering power & toughness. The sword/shield icons would’ve really helped. Although I can see how weird a sword icon would look on a frog or a unicorn tho. 🗡🛡
These Historic pieces of trivia videos are my favorite. I always wondered why 3 Visits and Nature's Lore were so similar!
I remember finding a lone Portal Three Kingdoms booster at my videostore (remember those?) and cracking Lu Meng, Wu General. "Wth is hosemanship?" No reminder text.. Good times. I like the sword and shield and could see that making a comback.
Long time Three Kingdom fan. Love the Dynasty warriors theme and would want nothing more than another kingdoms set, love Horsemanship and the artwork. Please bring this old set back to life. I think the sword and shield would make a cool addition to a future set but hey I'm 🤪 crazy, because I also want things like another white border set to come out.
When I was a new player and was sifting through boxes of Commons and Uncommons that friends and family told me to take whatever I wanted from, I remember seeing a Creature from one of the Portal sets and thinking that it was the coolest thing that I had ever seen simply because it had that sword and shield next to its power and toughness. This otherwise worthless vanilla Creature was just so fascinating to me. And the fact that nobody around me seemed to know why it had those symbols made it all the more fascinating.
While, I don't think that every set needs to have them, I think it would be fun to bring back the sword and shield symbols every now and then just to recreate some of that wonder.
Oh and by the way, thanks for putting Bear Cub in Mystery Booster. That card was unreasonably hard to come by for my Bear tribal Commander deck until that reprint.
I love horsemanship! I even made a commander deck with Keleth, Sunmane familiar just so I could have it use Paladin Class and Riding the Dilu Horse, so that I could have a horse, trained as a horse rider, riding on a horse.
Learning to play with the Portal gift set I got from my parents for Christmas in 1997 literally changed my life, so I'm a fan. My Portal cards are still some of the most treasured pieces of my collection. (And yes, the sword and shield rule.)
Portal is such a cool product line, I love hearing more about it and its nice for imperial seal to finally get a reprint and become more available.
The sword and shield symbols were incredibly helpful for teaching my partner how to play magic. The numbers seem to be a common confusion with new players. If it came back with a better design on all cards going forward, I would welcome it.
I loved the sword and shield reminders and wish they were still used as well as the tombstone for graveyard effects
I learned with Portal second age and it was super helpful way into magic. Still playing 22 years later.
Those story videos are AWESOME!
I started playing with Portal Second Age, my favorite thing about it is probably the overaching flavor text about little goblins who are quickly shrinking in numbers. Also, I remember seeing "summoning sickness" in the card text and just assuming it's some spell's effect we don't have to care until we find it (though to be honest, Haste wasn't keyworded in general at the time).
I like the sword and shield things next to p/t, even though they're not necessary once you spend more than a couple minutes playing, they're nice flair.
I wonder how much of P3K is sought after for its horsemanship mechanic, and how much of that hype would die down if it was errata'd to just be flying.
I first learned of P3K (and the Portal sets in general) during my intention to collect Rabbit cards. Zodiac Rabbit, one of only four Rabbit cards at the time (it's up to 6 now) was only printed in P3K. Due to rarity, it still commands a relatively high price tag for a french vanilla 1/1 common.
Semi related, can't wait to see what y'all do for Year of the Rabbit next lunar new year. Going to windmill slam buy that associated Secret Lair drop.
I like Horsemanship! I’d love to see it again!
I still remember trying to enter a tournament with my "super broken" Sylvan Basilisk Lure deck and being told I couldn't use Sylvan Basilisk :P.
I loved Portal. It's how I got into Magic in 98. Stayed up until 3 AM playing with a friend and the starter box. Later on people would hate on the Portal lands which made me laugh a few years back when lands started having the giant mana symbols.
Absolutely love the sword and shield, loved the little line dividing the flavor text from rules text, love the bolder font in text boxes. I think the portal sets in general were great first attempts at intro sets before nerds learned how to translate "Magic" into normal people language.
I'm always waiting for a pegasus rider in a horizons set that has both flying and horsemanship, just for the fun of it!
love the symbols would be cool to get a new portal set or something in that vein as one of the non standard sets
The sword and shield is nice I feel it's better for teaching from the start, but also it just looks good to me
One last thing from the Portal sets to 'bring back' is the Simplified Chinese alt art basic lands. 🙏
I remember when the first portal set came out and the basic lands were a big hit! Everybody wanted them, but the rest was ignored and seen as “not a real set”. Looking back at it, there were some gems in there 👌
As someone who learned Magic via Portal, it was not a good idea. I had no idea about basic magic concepts for years. I am nostalgic for the set though.
I love the sword and shield next to power and toughness, gives a bit of rpg flavor to creature cards that I feel adds to the feeling of playing a fantasy themed card game. Modern card design seems to be leaning toward a more sleek minimalist approach where the sword and shield add a nice element to what is otherwise just words and numbers
Surprised this video didn't even mention Warrior's Oath, considering it has an almost identical journey to Imperial Seal sans the Judge Promo.
If Introduction sets (like Jumpstart or Game Night) used the sword and shield on common creatures that'd be cool, especially for young players
Bring back the sword and shield! That was my fav part of Portal cards growing up!
LOVE this video. I learned so much.
There are loads of guns in magic. There are guns in Kaladesh, Ixalan and Capenna. Modern Horizons has a flame thrower.
I wouldn't say there are "loads of guns", but there are definitely guns. You missed Onslaught set. Goblin Sharpshooter.
Oh, I'd love to see the sword and shield return! Several players I've taught Magic found it difficult to remember which is which, and these are very clear reminders for them. Also, I started playing with Portal and am a bit nostalgic for them :P
Yeah I remember when I was new to magic around the year 2000/2001 and seeing some portal cards and thinking I loved the sword and shield symbols they used then and still do. It isn't intuitive to know left is power and right is toughness.
I started Mtg on tarkir, I would love to see new sets on the plane of portal 3 kingdoms or Arabian night. That's is also Mtg. A lot of inclusivity and curiosity for others cultures and ideas around the world. I love Horsemanship
I like that you keep poking Armageddon in these sets because - fun fact - Starter 99 was some of my first packs ever and I definitely opened Armageddon in my first two packs of the set haha. The other rare I opened was Dakmor Sorceress.
Loved Portal it was my first magic product. I would love the sword and shield to be on creatures it looks cool, and is helpful for new players
Hahaha, I was just about to say Post Malone likes horsemanship. Then you play the clip!
Campaign for horsemanship on more cards-including keyword matters cards (e.g Odric Lunarch Marshal)
I think portal was the first set to drop the text from basic lands and just use big mana symbols. I still rank them as some of the coolest basic lands.
I always wanted volcanic hammer to be good. It came with magnavore in a precon I got. I had no idea it was a portal card! makes sense why it's so bad.
Is there a version of piracy that works post mana burn changes? Seems like it would be a fun commander effect if people can't just avoid it by tapping out
Evidence of Portal 3 Kingdom's less than stellar sales, I found a starter set for the set in a small Hobby Store in Hong Kong
being from a Warhammer Fantasy battle background, I am actually ok with firearms in fantersy settings as long as they are Renaissance era firearms.Image of the full plate metal knight people love in their fantasy settings, existed IRL because it was body Armour ageist firearms.
So I always found the American aversion to firearms appearing alongside full plate knights very odd.
Partly, it's probably because the wars and events in Europe in that era aren't covered as much here, because most of what I remember learning in school of that era had more to do with exploration and the voyages to discover the world.
A part of it might also be due to the legacy of D&D being a pre-firearms setting at it's base in most incarnations, but honestly I think it's mostly just how we perceive the two things. America has always had guns, but it never really had the armored knights of medieval Europe, and so I think a lot of people here just mentally separate the two things.
Horsemanship was awesome, but don't take it from me, I'm a weirdo who likes Shadow, haha!
I'm actually curious to now know that not all Portal sets had a Chinese theme to them, as that was what I had assumed when going through Three Kingdoms cards. An interesting part of Magic's history!
Haha, I love gaming advertisements from the 90's. They are so weird.
Fun video!!
The sword and shield works well to use less letters, but the design needs an update.
Nice video tho
Need to see more nightstalkers!
There's like a few of the PTK cards that I'd REALLY love to see reprinted, like Sun Quan, Xiahou Dun, or Diaochan. Like I think they're cool but also they're wayyyy too hard to get and that makes me sad cause I want to give all my ninjas horses to be harder to block. And like Lu Xun and Hua Tuo both got reprinted in some commander precons and it's crazy how much cheaper they are to the non-reprinted one.
Please reprint Sun Quan and Xiahou Dun at least!
A friend of mine bought half a boosterbox of Portal Three Kingdom boosters for 1 Gulden (about 50 eurocents) a piece at a toy store back in the days when the set rotated out.
We laughed at him back then… those cards where weird and useless… 😭😭😭
I hope one day Zodiac Dragon gets reprinted! Really great in my purphoros bronze blooded deck
I understand the Armageddon hate but the Wildfire hate? That cards awesome.
Let me start off by saying that I am a foil dragon collector.
If there is a prerelease foil version of a dragon, I have to acquire it. If there are foil copies of dragons that aren't rare and don't appear in prerelease promo version, I have to acquire it. Why? Because of a mini game I created about 10 years ago called Dragon Warfare. It revolves around playing with every single dragon ever created in Magic using a shared library for all players, as well as a shared graveyard, land piles that you get your lands from, which is determined by rolling a bunch of dice during each of your turns.
It should go without saying that the library of all dragons is getting quite large, and the CLB set REALLY jumped the dragon count up a significant amount. That being said, I wish I can say that I really am playing with every single dragon in history, one is Shichifukujin Dragon, a dragon that only exists as a one-of in the world, so that doesn't bother me much, but the other one?
Zodiac Dragon.
(By the way, why does the oracle text say "When Zodiac Dragon is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may return it to your hand." instead of just saying "dies"?
Anyway, if there is ever one card I could pick that would answer the question you posed at the end of this video, this would be it. Please print Zodiac Dragon again, in foil, if possible. Thank you so much.
I keep thinking about perhaps one day if I can somehow get to go to a Commandfest sometime and meet some WotC employees that I could show them my Dragon Warfare game, that maybe there might be some interest in making a specialized product that would cater to dragon lovers like me. I want to share this game variant with proper people who would appreciate unique ideas, but if there was a way to fast-track this process and get people to enjoy some dragon craziness, even if the idea never goes anywhere, it would make my year.
I always liked the sword and shield, too!
I am one of the people that LOVE horsemanship!
Admittedly, because it's almost literally unblockable, but it has some flavour to it by being being on horses.
Speaking of which, I'd love to have a Centaur with Horsemanship. Even just horsemanship, it doesn't have to be a flashy card.
Iconography has its place in MTG, many people would be down to see a sword and shield for power and toughness or more visual indicators for other game states.
Bring back Armageddon.
I loved horsemanship, I bought cards for my soldier deck back in the early 2000’s to go with shadow and just hit people over and over 😂
Please reprint Riding the Dilu Horse. Gavin, I'm beggin ya.
The sword and shield would definitely be helpful for new players. I taught my wife how to play a couple of years ago, we average several games a week, and she still needs the combat reminder insert to keep straight how combat is going to turn out.
i think raid and landfall would make great mechanics for a beginner set they help you see the flow of the game; kicker or other mechanics that give you options would make a player think is it better to do this now or later
personally, I want you to mix all 3 portal sets and starter 99 together and build a new set that will 100% have more depth because horsemanship and flying... It would be a spicey remastered set
Gavin, we beg you for the return of Nightstalkers as a creature type.
my first mtg cards were portal 2
I love the look of the sword and shield, but it’s definitely for a different era of Magic lol, maybe you guys could rework it!!
The decision to retroactively allow cards from these sets to be legal in other formats was really annoying. Those of us players who were enfranchised at the time of their printing were told they would not ever be legal in tournaments. Therefore, of course we ignored them. Only to discover later that they would be acceptable in a number of formats.
As someone who works in a cafe that sells hotcakes yes, yes they do
wow mystic denial got straight up errataed to be instant (and very bad cancel)
this actually has immediate rules relevance, because the erratum means it can't counter your opponent's copy of the same card.