Template:Infobox expansion
Unhinged is a booster-only, tournament-prohibited Magic set, released in November 20, 2004. It was the follow-up to Unglued, and as such isn't to be considered an expansion of the official game. [1] [2] Only the Unhinged basic lands are tournament legal. [3]
Set details
Unhinged included 135 silver-bordered cards and 5 black-bordered cards (the basic lands), all of which had foil versions which occur in a similar rate to "normal" Magic Sets. [4] The set boasts many jokes, and has even set a precedent or two of its own for tournament-worthy Magic. Many cards are references to previous cards. The set is only available in English due to the difficulty of translating it. The expansion symbol for this set is a horseshoe. [5]
Unhinged features a sixth color: pink. Water Gun Balloon Game can create a pink permanent and for abilities that let you produce mana of any color, you can choose {P} pink. However, there is no Unhinged (Basic) Land card that can produce pink mana. In addition, Avatar of Me can be whatever the color of your eyes is, allowing brown and hazel mana.
Foil cards from Unhinged had extra jokes thrown in on the foil layer. One card, called Super Secret Tech, only exists as a foil rare card and technically affects the foil card concept as a whole. Its rarity is supposedly ten times more common than that of other Unhinged foil rare cards.
Marketing
Unhinged was announced on April 1, 2004, deliberately creating confusion if it was an April fool's joke. [6] [7] Unhinged was the first set printed with the "13+" age rating as it was the first set to come out after the "age grading" policy was implemented on all of Wizards of the Coast games (not just Magic). The five black bordered basic lands have no text box; the art covers the entire card. The release card for Unhinged was Ass Whuppin'. The Unhinged Arena League featured five alternate art promo cards. [8].
A booster contains 15 cards: 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 10 commons and 1 basic land. The boosters feature art from Richard Garfield, Ph.D., Mana Screw and Gleemax.
Design and lay out
- Some of the foil versions instrumentalize the foil layer itself for additional visual effects.
- Some Foil versions of the cards have a special picture in the text box, similar to the expansion symbol promo cards normally have there, or other specials (e.g. Farewell to Arms, which shows a hand in the text box, or Gleemax, where you can see slightly letters on the picture)
- Like in Unglued, the pictures in the Art Box are rising over the border. [9]
- Many Unhinged cards show familiar Legends or similar things on the Artwork, such as Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Visara the Dreadful, Phage the Untouchable, Kamahl, Pit Fighter, Erhnam Djinn or Vizzerdrix.
Hidden message
Much like Unglued before it, each card in the Unhinged set -including Super Secret Tech- has a single word printed on the bottom of the card after the artist's name and card number. When all cards are placed in the proper order with other cards in the series they spell out a "secret message" detailing cards that allegedly did not make it into the set. Placing all the Unhinged cards in reverse alphabetical order will cause the following message to appear:
"Here are some more cards that didn't make it: Moronic Tutor; Lint Golem; Wave of Incontinence; I'm Quitting Magic; Bob from Accounting; Castrate; Mishra's Bling Bling; Dead Bunny Isle; Circle of Protection: Pants; Time Fart; Sliver and Onions; Kobold Ass Master; Thanks, Barn; Mild Mongrel; Robo-Samurai; Obligatory Angel; Chump-Blocking Orphan; Wrath of Dog; Celery Stalker; Hugs-a-lot Demon; Assticore; Codpiece of the Chosen; Hurl; What the Cluck?!; Nachomancer; Scrubotomy; Arcbound Noah; Darksteel Spork; Look at Me, I'm Accounts Receivable; Hydro Djinn; Bad Stone Rain Variant; S.O.B.F.M.; Pinko Kami; Purple Nurple; Form of Uncle Istvan; Them's Fightin' Wards; Spleen of Ramos; Fifteenth Pick; Squizzle, Goblin Nabizzle; Zombie Cheerleading Squad; Two-Way Myr; Bone Flute 2: Electric Boogaloo; Magic Offline; Nutclamp; Bwahahahaaa!; Dragon Ass; Phyrexian Sno-Cone Machine; Chimney Pimp; R.T.F.C.; Greased Weasel; Flame War; We Don't Need No Stinkin' Merfolk; Ting!; and Disrobing Scepter (again!)."
Themes and mechanics
- Gotcha — If a card with this ability word is sitting in your graveyard and your opponent does the one thing the card says not to do (some are verbal, some are physical, some are mental, etc.), you may say “Gotcha!” and return the card to your hand. [10] [11]
- "...." Matters — All sorts of things have mechanical impact that have never ever mattered before. "Artist matters" gets the most attention.
- Fractions Cards with Power/Toughness which doesn't use whole numbers (Little Girl, Fraction Jackson)
- Donkeys [12] [13] [14] and Monkeys
- Mini Games — This is a cycle of cards that allow you to get a good effect at a cheap price. All you got to do is win a little game (not Magic).
Cycles
Unhinged has four cycles:
- Common Gotcha: five commons with the Keyword Gotcha. Cardpecker, Number Crunch, Stop That, Touch and Go and Laughing Hyena.
- Uncommon Gotcha: five uncommons with the Keyword Gotcha (triggered upon saying a word in the card's title), whose flavor text combines to form a limerick. Creature Guy, Save Life, Deal Damage, Spell Counter and Kill! Destroy!.
- Donkeys: Cheap Ass, Smart Ass, Bad Ass, Dumb Ass and Fat Ass.
- Mini Games: five uncommons that put the players in a Mini Game and have a Effect 'whenever you Win or Lose'. Head to Head (Seven Questions), Mouth to Mouth (Breath-holding contest), Eye to Eye (Staring contest), Face to Face (Rock, Paper, Scissors) and Side to Side (Arm-wrestle).
Spoofs
Several Unhinged Cards are references to "real", tournament-legal, cards, to familiar card concepts or to the Wizards of the Coast. [15] [16]
Unhinged Creature types
Unglued creature types were eliminated from the Comprehensive Rules list during the Grand Creature Type Update. They included:
- Child (Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil, Little Girl)
- Designer (Richard Garfield, Ph.D.)
- Donkey (Bad Ass)
- Expansion-Symbol (Symbol Status)
- Gamer (Collector Protector, Johnny, Combo Player)
- Penguin (Curse of the Fire Penguin)
- Mime (Goblin Mime)
- Mummy (Working Stiff)
- Paratrooper (Orcish Paratroopers)
- Ship (Toy Boat)
- Pink Giant Teddy Bear tokens (Water Gun Balloon Game)
- Waiter (Mons's Goblin Waiters)
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 15, 2004). "Un and Games". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 30, 2010). "Thank You Sir, May I Have Another". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (November 15, 2004). "Unhinged Basic Lands". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 8, 2004). "The Un Starts Now". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (August 24, 2004). "Unhinged logo and symbol". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (April 1, 2004). "Ach! Hans, run! It's Unhinged!". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (April 5, 2004). "Unhinged or No?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (December 08, 2005). "Unhinged Arena Promos". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Brian Dumas (November 29, 2004). "Behind the Scenes of Unhinged". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 15, 2004). "Unhinged FAQTIWDAWCC (Frequently Asked Questions That If We Didn't Answer Would Cause Chaos)". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Aaron Forsythe (November 19, 2004). "The Spoken Word". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (November 11, 2004). "Unhinged Logo Concepts". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (November 17, 2004). "Tijuana Nights". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (December 01, 2004). "Mark Rosewater Makes an Ass of Himself". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 22, 2004). "Having Un". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 29, 2004). "Mining the Past". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Magic Arcana (November 28, 2006). "Blast from the Past". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
External links
Template:Special sets