Magic: The Gathering debuted 30 years ago today at GenCon, so I figured I would offer you all a glimpse back to before then, when Magic was merely an idea in the mind of Richard Garfield and was early in its development.
Obviously, they didn't have the same systems and technology they had today to put playtest cards together, so the cards were photocopies of cut and pasted papers and bits of art from all sorts of sources.
What I find particularly interesting is how early mana costs were rendered: Rather than the system we know today, where a card's cost is rendered in separated out generic and specific costs, instead these playtest cards listed the total cost followed by any specific costs required. Also, activation costs were listed next to the mana cost after a slash (usually). So for example, Dragon's cost is 6RR, but that just means 6 mana, at least two of which must be red mana, and Plague has its B activation listed after its 4BB cost.
I'm by no means an expert on this stuff, but I wanted to share an early bit of magic trivia/nostalgia with you all today.
These Playtest card images are courtesy of The Magic Librarities. Check out the full gallery... there's more information and some weird stuff there, like Counterspell being able to destroy an enchantment!
