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| Masters Edition IV | ||||
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Four quarter-circles forming an hourglass
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| Released | 10 January 2011 | |||
| Size | 269 cards (105 rare, 72 uncommon, 80 common, 12 basic land)[1] | |||
| Designers | Erik Lauer (lead)[2] | |||
| Developers | Tom LaPille (lead)[2] | |||
| Exp. code | ME4 | |||
Masters Edition IV is a Magic: The Gathering expansion, exclusive for Magic: The Gathering Online, that was released on January 10, 2011. It is the ninth compilation set, and consists of 269 cards: 105 rares, 72 uncommons, 80 commons, and 12 special lands. Like all Masters Editions sets, the cards were originally released before Mirage or in the Portal sets. This set contains more online reprints than previous Masters Editions, but still brings many cards to Magic Online for the first time.
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Masters Edition IV is the fourth expansion exclusively released for Magic Online. The set was designed to bring previously unreleased cards to Magic Online. Starting with Mirage sets have been retroactively released, but many of the cards even older were previously completely unavailable online. Its predecessors, Masters Edition, Masters Edition II, and Masters Edition III were released in 2007, 2008, and 2009.
Like Masters Edition II and III, Masters Edition IV was designed to bring specific cards to the Magic Online environment. The fourth installment of the series consists mainly of cards from Beta, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and the Portal sets.[3] While Beta, Arabian Nights, and Antiquities reflect the era Masters Edition IV cards should mostly be from, the Portal and Starter cards in the set were necessary to create an enjoyable limited environment. Otherwise the number of creatues with an acceptable power level would have been too small.[4] The mechanics employed in Masters Editon IV focus on artifacts. Finally all Masters Editions since Masters Edition II have a minor tribal theme. Birds, Zombies, Goblins, and Elephants are the tribes used in Masters Edition IV.[3]
The cards in Masters Edition IV are all available in regular and premium foil versions. As all of the cards were originally released before the foiling process was introduced to Magic and most have not been reprinted since, these cards are available as premium foils for the first time and exclusively for Magic Online.
Some of the cards in Masters Edition IV have been available on Magic Online for some time. In most cases they are available with a different illustration or due to a special release (e.g. From the Vault: Exiled). The most prominent exception to this are the original dual lands, which had been previously printed across two sets, but here are reprinted in their entirety.
Masters Edition IV has a large amount of powerful and/or iconic cards. Balance, Channel, Demonic Tutor, Fastbond, Library of Alexandria, Mana Vault, Regrowth, Sol Ring, Strip Mine, Time Vault, and Wheel of Fortune are all currently restricted in Vintage. Mishra's Workshop is banned from Legacy and a cornerstone of Vintage play. Finally Maze of Ith, Sinkhole, Swords to Plowshares, and the original dual lands are all powerful and iconic cards from the game's past.
Most modern Magic sets have one basic land in each booster pack. In Masters Edition IV the basic land is replaced by either a Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, or Urza's Tower. There are four alternative versions of each of the three cards, each with one of the four original illustrations from Antiquities