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Ninth Edition
 
 
 
 
 

Ninth Edition
9e Logo
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description A ‘9’ before a fan of cards
Design Brian Schneider (lead)
Aaron Forsythe[1]
Development Brian Schneider (lead)
Aaron Forsythe
Matt Place
Henry Stern
with contributions from
Paul Barclay
Randy Buehler Jr.
John Carter
Brady Dommermuth
Mark L. Gottlieb
Jonathan Tweet
Release date July 29, 2005
Plane Multiverse
Set size 359 cards
(116 commons, 112 uncommons, 111 rares, 20 basic lands)
Expansion code 9ED[2]
Core sets
Eighth Edition Ninth Edition Tenth Edition
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Saviors of Kamigawa Ninth Edition Salvat 2005

Ninth Edition (9th Edition) is a Magic Core Set that was released on July 29, 2005.

Set details[ | ]

Ninth Edition featured 359 white-bordered cards (116 commons, 112 uncommons, 111 rares, 20 basic lands). The nine cards (starter-level "vanilla" creatures) are exclusive to the Core Game pack. The set featured many popular cards from older expansions.[3] Some of the reprints for the set were decided upon through public voting on the Daily MTG website run by Wizards of the Coast.[4][5][6] Many reprints received new artwork.[7] Ninth Edition was the last Magic set to be printed with white borders.

Marketing[ | ]

Ninth was sold in 15-card-booster packs, 5 different theme decks, a fat pack and a Core Game (which was a 2-Player Starter Set),[8] but not in tournament packs. The boosters featured artwork from Elvish Champion, Serra Angel, Hell's Caretaker, Rathi Dragon and Mahamoti Djinn. The set featured randomly inserted premium black bordered versions of all cards. Ninth Edition was also the second and last set to feature box-toppers in booster boxes. The release card was Force of Nature. The Ninth came with both 24-card Demogame boosters and 10-card sampler packs.

With Ninth Edition, came a change to the fat pack.[9] The fat pack now contained two boxes with card dividers and a mini-poster built into the reverse of the card box wrapper.

Ninth Edition was the first Magic set printed in the Russian language.[10] All Russian language cards from the edition have black borders, while other languages have white borders. A Russian Shivan Dragon promotional card was given out to participants instead of the Force of Nature promo issued everywhere else. The popularity of the Russian set was partially responsible to the change-over from to printing Core Set cards with the more popular black borders permanently.

Mechanics[ | ]

Ninth Edition featured only mechanics present in previous expansions. However, it did modify the list of mechanics considered suitable for Core Sets. Trample and Protection returned after having been removed from 6th Edition onwards.

The set introduced Auras, a new name for what had been known as local enchantments, a card type present since the beginning of Magic. An Aura is just a type of enchantment that's attached to another permanent in play.[11]

Ninth Edition is the first core set to include the artifact subtype Equipment that was introduced in the Mirrodin block. Both equipment (Loxodon Warhammer and Vulshok Morningstar) moved up in rarity when added to Ninth Edition.

Creature types[ | ]

In general, the creature types of older cards were updated only as they were reprinted. In this way, many cards in the Ninth Edition core set were updated to sync them up with the conventions used in the Kamigawa block and the Ravnica: City of Guilds set.[12] Most of the changes revolved around the "race-class" model, wherein most sentient creatures have both a species and a job.[13] Samite Healer, for example, was changed from a Cleric to a Human Cleric,[14] and Raging Goblin changed from Goblin to Goblin Berserker. Every artifact creature that didn't have a type before was given one; Dancing Scimitar was now a Spirit and Ornithopter was a Thopter.[15] A lot of cards with old obscure types were updated to have ones that made a little more sense. Clone was now a Shapeshifter, for instance, and the Lords such as Elvish Champion were given types to match their art.[16][17]

In addition, the creature type of the token created by Rukh Egg's ability was changed from Rukh to Bird. Note that the following creature types were eliminated: Behemoth, Clone, Force, Hell's-Caretaker, Monkey, Nekrataal, Rukh and Will-O'-The-Wisp.

Cycles[ | ]

Ninth Edition has 3 cycles and 3 matched pairs.

Cycle name {W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Lucky charms Angel's Feather Kraken's Eye Demon's Horn Dragon's Claw Wurm's Tooth
Each artifact costing {2} and hosting an ability that allows its controller to gain life whenever a spell of the appropriate color is played. (Reprinted from Darksteel)
Cycle name {W}{U} {U}{B} {B}{R} {R}{G} {G}{W}
Allied pain lands Adarkar Wastes Underground River Sulfurous Springs Karplusan Forest Brushland
Rare dual lands with "{T}: Add {C}. {T}: Add M or N. [This] deals 1 damage to you." M and N are allied colors of mana. These lands are called pain lands because their use for colored mana is "painful," referring to the damage they do to you.[18]
Cycle name {W}{B} {U}{R} {B}{G} {R}{W} {G}{U}
Enemy pain lands Caves of Koilos Shivan Reef Llanowar Wastes Battlefield Forge Yavimaya Coast
Rare dual lands with "{T}: Add {C}. {T}: Add M or N. [This] deals 1 damage to you." M and N are enemy colors of mana.[19]

Pairs[ | ]

Matched Pairs Description
Baleful Stare
({U})
Withering Gaze
({U})
Sorceries costing {2}{U} and allow their controllers to draw cards equal to the number of cards of a specific enemy color and land cards of a specific basic land type associated with an enemy color.[20]
Circle of Protection: Black
({W})
Circle of Protection: Red
({W})
Uncommon white enchantments with a mana cost of {1}{W} and the ability to prevent the all damage from a source of the given color for {1}. Both are enemy colors of white.[21]
Execute
({B})
Slay
({B})
Uncommon black instants costing two colorless and one black which destroy a white and green creature, respectively, which cannot be regenerated.

Cards added to Ninth Edition[ | ]

Main article: Ninth Edition/Changes

Theme decks[ | ]

The preconstructed theme decks are:[22]

Theme
deck name
Colors Included
{W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Army of Justice W
Lofty Heights U
Dead Again B
World Aflame R
Custom Creatures G

Core set changes[ | ]

Main article: Ninth Edition/Changes
Notable changes
  • Birds of Paradise had been in every core set since Alpha up until Ninth Edition, leaving Standard for the first time in the game's history. Birds of Paradise would return to Standard with Ravnica: City of Guilds.
  • Stone Rain had seen print in every core set up until Ninth Edition.
  • Walls were not printed in Ninth Edition as they seemed out of flavor, but they did return in 10th Edition.

External links[ | ]

References[ | ]

  1. Aaron Forsythe (September 09, 2005). "Strike a Chord". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  2. Wizards of the Coast (August 02, 2004). "Ask Wizards - August, 2004". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  3. Magic Arcana (March 08, 2006). "The Core Set: A Tour of the Planes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  4. Randy Buehler (June 11, 2004). "Here We Go Again". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  5. Magicthegathering.com Staff (June 13, 2004). "Selecting Ninth Edition". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. Magicthegathering.com Staff (September 20, 2004). "Selecting Ninth Edition Wrap-up". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  7. Magic Arcana (August 23, 2005). "Re-illustrated, Re-imagined". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  8. Magic Arcana (February 23, 2005). "Ninth Edition Core Game". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. Magic Arcana (July 27, 2005). "A Fatter Fat Pack". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  10. Magic Arcana (May 02, 2005). "Russian Magic cards?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  11. Mark Gottlieb (July 29, 2005). "Aura Hygiene". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  12. Aaron Forsythe (August 05, 2005). "Ninth Time's a Charm: Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  13. Scott Johns (June 27, 2005). "Countdown to Ninth Edition". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  14. Aaron Forsythe (July 16, 2004). "Classifying Samite Healer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  15. Scott Johns (July 04, 2005). "Countdown to Ninth Edition 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  16. Scott Johns (July 11, 2005). "Countdown to Ninth Edition 3". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  17. Scott Johns (July 18, 2005). "Countdown to Ninth Edition 4". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  18. Aaron Forsythe (July 15, 2005). "A Rainbow of Pain". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  19. Aaron Forsythe (July 15, 2005). "A Rainbow of Pain". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  20. Magic Arcana (July 25, 2005). "Those Withering and Baleful Eyes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  21. Trick Jarrett (March 14, 2014). "Circle of Pi". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  22. Wizards of the Coast (August 18, 2008). "Ninth Edition Theme Decks". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
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