Magic: The Gathering compilation sets


The collectible card game has released compilation sets, reprint sets, and box sets over its history. These are distinct from core sets and expansion sets, the most heavily marketed sources of new cards. With the exception of Chronicles, reprint sets generally do not affect tournament legality in supported formats; for example, cards reprinted in the Modern Masters reprint set, while legal for tournament play, did not necessarily cause the card to be included in the "Standard" environment.
These sets tend to be of two types: sets with a fixed deck buyers receive, and sets sold in randomized booster packs, similar to "normal" expansion sets, but only consisting of reprint cards. Chronicles, Premium Foil Booster, and sets of the Masters brand are printed in randomized boosters; others have a fixed card set.

Chronicles

Chronicles was the first compilation set of Magic: The Gathering, released in July 1995. Unlike many later compilation sets, Chronicles was treated like a normal expansion set, including renewing tournament legality for cards reprinted in it. For tournament play, Chronicles was designated as an extension of the 4th Edition |Fourth Edition base set. Chronicles reprinted cards from Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark. Wizards of the Coast released a similar set called Renaissance into the German, French and Italian markets.

Masters

Masters is a series of Magic: The Gathering compilation sets. The "original" Masters Editions were ' exclusive sets designed to put old cards created before the release of MTGO into circulation. Masters became an official printed series in 2013 with the release of Modern Masters. The series was put on hiatus in 2018 with the release of Ultimate Masters.
The paper Masters series consists of:
  • Modern Masters, released in 2013
  • Modern Masters 2015 Edition
  • Eternal Masters, released in 2016
  • Modern Masters 2017 Edition
  • Iconic Masters, released in 2017
  • Masters 25, released in 2018
  • Ultimate Masters, released in 2018
Booster boxes of the Masters series generally contain only 24 booster packs, compared to a regular expansion containing 36 packs, with the intent that they be used for an 8-player Limited draft. Basic Lands, which are present in most expansion set booster packs, are absent in the Masters sets. Instead, a premium card, which traditionally existed in a common card slot on random basis, is included in every pack.
Modern Masters is a set that consists of reprints of cards which are legal in the format. Modern includes all cards from 8th Edition |Eighth Edition onwards, barring a small number of banned cards. The first Modern Masters was released on June 7, 2013. It has 229 cards ranging from Eighth Edition through Alara Reborn. The set was released in the English language only. The original Modern Masters distribution was highly limited and Wizards of the Coast stated they would not like to release as much as they did with Chronicles. Wizards of the Coast eventually loosened this, and printed considerably more of the 2015 and 2017 editions of Modern Masters. Notable reprints in the original Modern Masters included Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf, and Vendilion Clique.
The second set, Modern Masters 2015 Edition, was released May 22, 2015. It has 249 cards. In addition to the blocks in the original Modern Masters, the 2015 edition features cards from Zendikar block, Scars of Mirrodin block, ', ', and '. The set was released in Japanese and Simplified Chinese in addition to English. Twenty to thirty cards feature new artwork, and a number of new tokens are included. The English booster pack in Modern Masters 2015 Edition used recyclable paper cardboard as packaging material instead of foil packs, the first set doing so in Magic history. It also raised some complaints of easier theft of the cards, however. Notable reprints in Modern Masters 2015 Edition included Bitterblossom, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and Karn Liberated.
Eternal Masters is a Magic compilation set released in June 2016. Similar to the Modern Masters sets, it reprints cards, but from all of Magics history rather than restricting itself to the Modern format, thus aiming itself at casual formats such as Cube as well as the Vintage and Legacy formats.
Modern Masters 2017 Edition was released on March 17, 2017. It was also released in English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. The 2017 edition added Innistrad block, Return to Ravnica block, ', and to the sets eligible for a Modern Masters reprint. Notable reprints in Modern Masters 2017 Edition included Tarmogoyf, Damnation, Liliana of the Veil, Snapcaster Mage, Voice of Resurgence, and the enemy color "fetchlands" such as Scalding Tarn.
Iconic Masters is a Magic compilation set; it was released at Hasbro's HasCon's 25th anniversary celebration of Magic in September 2017, and released to the wider public in November 2017. It is a compilation set with reprinted cards originating throughout the history of Magic, similar to Eternal Masters. The set is generally perceived to have had poor sales due to the two month delayed nature of its wide release, which happened only a few weeks before the release of Unstable |Unstable. Wizards of the Coast would later apologize for setting wrong expectations for the set as well as the strange scheduling after receiving negative feedback about the set.
Masters 25 was released on March 16, 2018. It was themed as a celebration of 25 years of the history of Magic, with cards from every printed set.
Ultimate Masters is scheduled to be released on December 7, 2018 in both English and Japanese. In the official announcement, it was noted that the set will have an unusually high price point, but also unusually high value reprints. Wizards of the Coast has declared this will be the last Masters'' set for some time.

Anthologies

Anthologies was a box set and the second compilation set. It was printed in November 1998 to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Magic. It featured cards from Alpha through Urza's Saga. The print run was unknown.
Unlike Chronicles, but like other box sets such as Battle Royale, the reprinted cards did not count as current product, and thus were only legal in formats which allowed the original cards being reprinted to be used, and were not automatically legal in Standard at the time the product was available.
Anthologies had two decks, Green/White and Black/Red, and was printed with and without expansion symbols. The cards had white borders and standard backs.
The Anthologies cards with identical copies in 5th Edition bear a striking resemblance to those from 5th Edition and can be difficult to differentiate. They can be told apart by looking at the copyright line: 5th Edition cards have "© 1997", whereas the Anthologies reprints have "© 1993-1998", which became the new standard for the copyright line with the release of Exodus.
The reviewer from the online second volume of Pyramid stated that "For latecomers to the game, this is a great way to get a taste of some cards from supplements long ago out of print and snapped up by the collectors."

Battle Royale

Battle Royale was a Magic: The Gathering boxed set, the third compilation set, released in November 1999 as a collection of cards emphasizing the multiplayer aspect of the game. Most of the cards included are ones that can affect multiple opponents. This promotion included cards from all different sets that existed previous to it. The cards still retained their original expansion symbols although they were printed with white borders, which was the standard for reprinted Magic: The Gathering cards of "core sets" until the 2007 release of 10th Edition |Tenth Edition. These are the only sets that are printed with white borders Another interesting aspect is that colored expansions symbols were added to the cards that didn’t have them previously
The set included 160 cards built into four different two-color theme decks which are 40 cards each: Spirit Gale, Chargoyf, The Deluge, and Cinder Heart.

Beatdown

Beatdown is a box set for Magic: The Gathering, and the fourth compilation set. It was not legal in Standard at the time of its release. Beatdown was released as a pair of preconstructed decks combined with accessories, unlike the normal distribution of Magic cards in randomized packs. Alternate art was done for four cards: Sengir Vampire, Erhnam Djinn, Ball Lightning, and Clockwork Beast. The set is white-bordered, and the expansion symbol is a mace. There are no White cards in the set.
The set includes 122 special edition Magic cards divided into two theme decks, Aerodoom and Ground Pounder. The focus of the two decks in the Beatdown box set is to overwhelm your opponent with decks that included some of the more powerful creatures in the game, to that date, such as the aforementioned Erhnam Djinn, Sengir Vampire, Ball Lightning and Clockwork Beast. The Beatdown set was released in October 2000.
Clockwork Avian was misprinted without flying in Beatdown.

From the Vault

From the Vault is a series of limited-edition Magic: The Gathering boxed sets. Each set consists mostly of cards released in previous Magic: The Gathering expansions, but in foil and sometimes with new artwork. Some From the Vault decks contain a pre-release of a card due to be released in the next Magic: The Gathering expansion. Typically, the boxed set also contains a 20-sided spin-down life counter die in addition to the cards. Because From the Vault releases are not normal expansion sets, the tournament-legality of the cards depends on the most recent normal expansion they were printed in.
In February 2018, it was announced that the From the Vault series would be cancelled and spiritually succeeded by the Signature Spellbook series. The following is a list of all the From the Vault sets:
Premium Deck Series was a set of preconstructed 60-card Magic: The Gathering decks. All cards were foil and were reprints of cards first printed in other Magic sets. All of the cards are black bordered and tournament legal in their original formats.
There have been three Premium Deck Series printed:
In July 2012 at San Diego Comic-Con, Wizards of the Coast announced that the Premium Deck Series would be discontinued after Graveborn.

Duel Decks

Duel Decks are a series of boxed sets for Magic: The Gathering, each consisting of a pair of 60-card decks built around a rivalry between two forces, often planeswalkers or creature type "tribes". Typically, each deck contains a mythic rare, several rares, and a number of cards with alternate art. Most cards are reprints of cards from ; however, some duel decks contain pre-release cards from unreleased future sets.
Release dateCodeNametbcurmnotes
2007-11-16EVGElves vs. Goblins38Green elves vs. red goblins.
2008-11-07DD2Jace vs. Chandra362Blue Jace Beleren vs. red Chandra Nalaar.
2009-04-10DDCDivine vs. Demonic382White angels vs. black demons.
2009-10-20DDDGarruk vs. Liliana362Green Garruk Wildspeaker vs. black Liliana Vess.
2010-03-19DDEPhyrexia vs. The Coalition102Black Phyrexia vs. five-color coalition.
2010-09-03DDFElspeth vs. Tezzeret102White Elspeth, Knight-Errant vs. blue-artifact Tezzeret the Seeker, 2 Scars of Mirrodin previews.
2011-04-01DDGKnights vs. Dragons102White-green knights vs red dragons.
2011-09-02DDHAjani vs. Nicol Bolas102White-green-red Ajani Vengeant vs. blue-black-red Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.
2012-03-30DDIVenser vs. Koth102Blue-white Venser, the Sojourner vs. red Koth of the Hammer.
2012-09-07DDJIzzet vs. Golgari373833102Red-blue Ravnica's Izzet League vs. black-green Ravnica's Golgari Swarm, 6 Return to Ravnica pre-releases.
2013-03-15DDKSorin vs. Tibalt413235102Black-white Sorin, Lord of Innistrad vs. red-black Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded.
2013-09-06DDLHeroes vs. Monsters413532102White-red humans and auras vs. green-red large trampling creatures, 6 Theros pre-releases.
2014-03-14DDMJace vs. Vraska3414225102Blue Jace, Architect of Thought vs. black-green Vraska the Unseen.
2014-09-05DDNSpeed vs. Cunning2394227102Red-white-black Zurgo Helmsmasher vs. red-white-blue Arcanis the Omnipotent, 6 Khans of Tarkir pre-releases.
2014-12-05DD3Anthology35286A reprint of the first four releases.
2015-02-27DDOElspeth vs. Kiora2445014102White Elspeth, Sun's Champion vs. green-blue Kiora, the Crashing Wave.
2015-08-28DDPZendikar vs. Eldrazi1039102Green-white Zendikar vs. black-red Eldrazi, 6 Battle for Zendikar pre-releases.
2016-02-26DDQBlessed vs. CursedWhite-blue Blessed vs.black-blue Cursed, 6 Shadows over Innistrad pre-releases.
2016-09-02DDRNissa vs. Ob NixilisGreen Nissa, Voice of Zendikar vs. Black Ob Nixilis, Reignited
2017-03-31DDSMind vs. MightBlue-red mages vs. green-red warriors
2017-11-10DDTMerfolk vs. GoblinsBlue merfolks vs. red goblins
2018-04-06DDUElves vs. InventorsGreen elves vs. red-blue inventors

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