Antiquities

Antiquities is the second Magic: The Gathering expansion and was released on March 4, 1994. It is not part of any Block. The set was constructed around an artifact theme and told the story of the Brothers' War between Mishra and Urza.
==Set details==
Antiquities was printed on sheets of 121 cards. The expansion symbol is an anvil, to symbolize the artifact focus of the set. The set's rarity breakdown is: 28 commons (25@C4, 1@C5, 2@C6), 37 Uncommons (4@U2, 29@U3, 2@C1, 2@(U3+C1)), 20 Rares (20@U1).
This strange distribution comes from the lands <c>Mishra's Factory</c>, <c>Strip Mine</c>, <c>Urza's Mine</c>, <c>Urza's Power Plant</c> and <c>Urza's Tower</c> which have four different pieces of art each. <c>Mishra's Factory</c> and <c>Strip Mine</c> have three versions at U1 and one at C1. <c>Urza's Mine</c> and <c>Urza's Power Plant</c> have two versions at C1 and two at C2. <c>Urza's Tower</c> has three versions at C1 and one at C2. This makes it so collectors view Antiquities as a 100-card set.
Every card in Antiquities either is an artifact or mentions artifacts in their rules text, except the lands which produce colorless mana and imply use to cast artifacts. The Antiquities lands have a unique rust-colored text box, which was reused in Fourth Edition and Chronicles.
===Marketing===
Cards were available from mid-March 1994 through late April 1994. Wizards announced the print run to be 15 million cards.Beth Moursund (2002). The Complete Encyclopedia of Magic: The Gathering, Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN-10 1-56025-443-2. Antiquities was sold in booster packs of eight cards, which included six commons and two uncommons. Booster boxes contained 60 booster packs. The packs were not entirely random; players had to buy more than one box to complete the 100-card set. Wizards created the Antiquities Buy-Back program where players could send up to 100 cards back to receive cash back.
===Storyline===
Ancient artifacts of the Thran Empire are discovered on the continent of Terisiare, including many advanced machines of war. Two brothers, Urza and Mishra, discover a stone in the Caves of Koilos; but, when they disturb it, it splits in two—Mightstone and Weakstone—unleashing the evil of Phyrexia on Dominaria. The ancient machines of the Thran are employed in battle once again as the Brothers' War takes place, an epic war between Urza and Mishra for control of both halves of the stone. The war culminates in the Sylex Blast, plunging the world into the Ice Age.
====Storyline sources====
Title 	Author 	Publishing date 	Setting (plane) 	Featuring
A History of Antiquities 	Kathy Ice 	May 1994 	Dominaria 	Ildria Caldos, Farsa Tashiir, Urza, Mishra, Tocasia, Tawnos, Ashnod, Drafna, Hurkyl
Antiquities War #1-4* 	Jerry Prosser 	Nov 1995 - Feb 1996	Dominaria 	Tocasia, Urza, Mishra, Kayla bin-Kroog, Rusko, Tawnos, Ashnod
Urza–Mishra War #1-2* 	Jerry Prosser 	Sep - Oct 1996 	Dominaria 	Kayla bin-Kroog, Urza, Tawnos, Mishra, Harbin, Jarsyl (mentioned), Ashnod, The Archimandrite, Balthus, Hurkyl, Chayum-Icha, !Kath
Song of Time* 	Teri McLaren 	June 1996 	Dominaria 	Mishra, Urza, Cheyne, Javin, Ogwater, Clarla, Riolla
The Brothers' War 	Jeff Grubb 	May 1998 	Dominaria 	Urza, Mishra, Tocasia, Richlau, Rusko, Kayla bin-Kroog, Hajar, Tawnos, Ashnod, Gix, Loran, Feldon, Drafna, Hurkyl, the Archimandrite, Harbin, Sharaman, Jarsyl, Titania (mentioned)
Expeditions to the End of the World (The Colors of Magic)	J. Robert King	February 1999 	Dominaria 	Crucias, Gheiri, Elgia, Nunieve, Biggs
The Thran 	J. Robert King	December 1999 	Dominaria, Phyrexia	Glacian, Rebbec, Yawgmoth, Xod, Gix, Dyfed
*These stories are of pre-revisionist canon.
==Themes and Mechanics==
===Creature types===
About half of the creature types used in Antiquities were new, and many of the creatures in this expansion are artifact creatures. Originally, artifact creatures were printed without any creature type, except in special cases (<c>Wall of Spears</c> "counts as a wall," for example). This resulted in the overall limited use of creature types in this expansion. Additionally, with the printing of Antiquities, Magic had exactly 100 creature types.
The following creature types are introduced in this expansion: Archaeologist (later changed to Artificer), Atog, Druid, Gaea's Avenger (later changed to Treefolk), Gremlin (later changed to Ouphe then changed back to Gremlin), Poltergeist (later changed to Spirit), and Sage (later changed to Artificer).
The following creature types are used in this expansion but also appear in previous sets: Bodyguard (later changed to Human), Cleric, Demon, Dwarf, Faerie, Goblin, Orc, Smith (later changed to Human), Treefolk, and Wall. The creature types in Antiquities brought the total number in Magic at the time to exactly 100.
===Counter types===
Doom counters were introduced as a counter type in the set via errata.
==Cycles==
Antiquities itself has no cycles. 
It does, however, contain <c>Atog</c>, which later became the first member of the "atog mega-mega cycle". It also contains <c>Urza's Chalice</c> which follows the theme of the Alpha lucky charms.
===Mega-mega cycle===
Cycle name	 	 	 	 	
Atogs 	 	 	 	 	
Atogs 	is the first card of this mega-mega cycle of creatures. A new number of this cycle would be printed in each of the following three sets (Visions, Weatherlight, and Tempest).	is the first card of this mega-mega cycle of creatures. A new number of this cycle would be printed in each of the following three sets (Visions, Weatherlight, and Tempest).	is the first card of this mega-mega cycle of creatures. A new number of this cycle would be printed in each of the following three sets (Visions, Weatherlight, and Tempest).	is the first card of this mega-mega cycle of creatures. A new number of this cycle would be printed in each of the following three sets (Visions, Weatherlight, and Tempest).	is the first card of this mega-mega cycle of creatures. A new number of this cycle would be printed in each of the following three sets (Visions, Weatherlight, and Tempest).
==Notable cards==
*<c>Mishra's Workshop</c> is a powerful land that produces a large amount of mana that is only useful for casting artifacts. There are plenty of powerful artifacts that a player would be happy to cast two turns sooner thanks to this card.
*<c>Candelabra of Tawnos</c> saw play in early competitive combo decks and resurfaced in competitive Time Spiral decks in Legacy in 2011.
*<c>Millstone</c>: First card to introduce the mechanic of putting cards directly into the graveyard from the library, now commonly referred to as milling after this card.
*<c>Mishra's Factory</c> is arguably the best manland ever printed. It only got better with the Sixth Edition rules change.
*<c>Strip Mine</c> is a very powerful land destruction tool that many decks automatically include a maximum of four of.
*<c>Urza's Tower</c>, <c>Urza's Mine</c>, and <c>Urza's Power Plant</c>, affectionately called the "Urzatron", have seen major competitive use only since 2003 for their ability to produce large amounts of mana quickly in combination.
==Trivia==
*Antiquities is the first expansion to use multiple versions of a card with different artwork (outside of the Core Set's basic lands) and the only expansion to use multiple versions on nonbasic lands.
==Misprints==
*Margaret Organ-Kean's name was misspelled as "Margaret Organ-Keen" on all three cards illustrated by her in this set (, , and ).
*Randy Asplund-Faith's name was misspelled as "Randy Apslund-Faith" on all three cards illustrated by him in this set (, , and ).
*<c>Reconstruction</c> Printed without an expansion symbol.
*<c>Tawnos's Weaponry</c> has two variants. One is missing the gray circle behind the activation cost. Each version is equally rare.
==References==
==External links==
* (old)
* Antiquities product information page (new)
*Antiquities checklist