Antiquities/Trivia

Antiquities

Trivia

* Argothian Treefolk has the greatest combined power and toughness among green creatures in *Antiquities*.
* Artifact Ward is the first card to use protection from artifacts and is similar to the "Wards" found in the *Unlimited*, or second, edition.
* Ashnod's Battle Gear and Tawnos's Weaponry inspired the creation of Equipment.
* Ashnod's Transmogrant's effect was later mirrored by the effect granted by Transmogrifying Licid.
* Atog has the greatest combined power and toughness among red creatures in *Antiquities*; the other three red creatures in *Antiquities* are 1/1. At the time of its reprinting in the *Revised* edition, Atog was the most common card in print. As a result of its relatively limited uses, especially without common artifacts in *Revised*, it was generally disliked by many, and hated by some, at that time. The name is an anagram of *goat*, an animal that has a reputation for eating just about anything.
* Circle of Protection: Artifacts is similar to the "Circles of Protection" found in *Unlimited*. Circle of Protection: Artifacts is slightly different because its activation cost is  instead of .
* Citanul Druid; citanul is the word "lunatic" spelled backwards.
* Clockwork Avian functions similarly to *Unlimited'*s Clockwork Beast and is directly related to this card, which was popular at this time.
* Colossus of Sardia had the greatest combined power and toughness among all creatures until Leviathan in *The Dark* expansion.
* Cursed Rack, with art by Richard Thomas, features the same yellow, tortured doll in its art as is found on Black Vise and The Rack.
* Feldon's Cane originally was named "Feldon's Ice Cone", which was an anagram for "Don Felice Cone". When the word "Ice" was removed due to the artwork which by mistake depicted a cane, the anagram no longer worked.
* Golgothian Sylex is one of three "expansion hoser" cards printed. The other two are City in a Bottle and Apocalypse Chime.
	+ Named after Golgotha, the hill where Jesus was crucified. A sylex is an antique bowl. The word has many spellings.
* Ivory Tower is the exact opposite of Black Vise, both of which were popular and powerful cards at the time, and were restricted as a result.
* Jalum Tome is named after Joel Mick, whose initials are JLM, or "jalum" when pronounced.
* Martyrs of Korlis has the greatest combined power and toughness among white creatures in *Antiquities*.
* Millstone is notable for almost single-handedly making it a viable strategy to win by forcing your opponent to draw from an empty library, or "deck" him or her. This card coined the term to "mill," meaning to move a card from the top of a library into its owner's graveyard.
* Mishra's Factory was printed with four different artworks by Kaja & Phil Foglio, each depicting the same factory in each of the four seasons. This card later inspired the creation of Blinkmoth Nexus.
* Mishra's War Machine has an upkeep cost of discarding a card, which is a drawback so harsh it made this a bad card. This drawback inspired the creation of Masticore, as its creators felt challenged to make a card that was worth playing with such a harsh drawback.
* Mishra's Workshop is the first card to restrict how the mana it produces can be used. Mishra's Workshop is the only land printed in *Antiquities* that has only one art associated with it.
* Onulet was originally intended to be named "Onulets," which is an anagram of Soul Net, but the art has only one creature in it, so the name was changed to the singluar. The reference reflects the ability printed on this card.
* Ornithopter is the first creature to cost , demonstrating that the cost of a card from your hand is worth something by itself.
* Sage of Lat-Nam is the only blue creature in *Antiquities*.
* Su-Chi: "Su" and "chi" are the Mandarin and Taiwanese words for "four". It's a 4/4 creature that costs four mana to summon, and if it goes to the graveyard you get four mana.
* Strip Mine was printed in order to provide a universal answer to Library of Alexandria, which proved quickly to be a very powerful card. Strip Mine has four different versions, each with a different artwork by Daniel Gelon.
* Tablet of Epityr is a "Soul Net for artifacts." The name comes from an anagram of *pyrite* (fool's gold).
* Tawnos's Coffin, like Oubliette before it, used Phasing to "hide" a creature from play, while it retained its counters, Auras, and later Equipment. This was later changed to exile.
	+ Tawnos is an anagram of "Watson", as in Sherlock Holmes's sidekick. Tawnos is the henchman of Urza.
* Tetravus produces Tetravite tokens that cannot be enchanted. This is because its designers thought that the fate of the Aura could be confusing, since the Tetravite could be seen as returning to the Tetravus as a +1/+1 counter. It inspired the creation of Pentavus.
* The Rack is another permutation of Black Vise, punishing the opponent for having too few cards in hand instead of too many. Its art by Richard Thomas features the same yellow, tortured doll in its art as is found on Black Vise and Cursed Rack.
* Titania's Song's effect continues until the end of the turn when it is destroyed because early rules were not clear as to what would happen if an animated artifact stopped being a creature during combat.
* Urza's Chalice is similar to the "lucky charms" found in *Unlimited*.
* Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant and Urza's Tower, collectively known as the "Urzatron," each have four different versions with different artwork by a single artist in this expansion.
* Yawgmoth Demon has the greatest combined power and toughness among black creatures in *Antiquities*.
* Yotian Soldier: The designers thought of this 1/4 creature as a toy soldier, and so they reversed "toy".

## References

1. ↑ ***a*** ***b*** ***c*** ***d*** Words of Magic, by Allen Varney
2. ↑ Magic Arcana (June 25, 2002). "oNul etS". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
3. ↑ Monty Ashley (May 13, 2010). "Soul Nets". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
4. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 9, 2023). "Trivial Pursuit: What's in a Name?". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
5. ↑ Magic Arcana (February 21, 2005). "Phasing to the Rescue?". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.