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The Set That Never Was

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I've always been something of a pop culture buff, and that translates into how I approach Magic as a hobby. There's no piece of information too obscure for me to log away in the deep recesses of my mind to bore somebody with over a beer. A particularly interesting piece of Magic history has been unearthed from the basement of Barry Reich this week. The Misprint Guy has procured piles of paperwork from Spectral Chaos- a set that was never released and ultimately served as the inspiration for Invasion block.


Barry Reich is a long time friend of Richard Garfield, and one of the first people to playtest Magic. Spectral Chaos is a set that Barry designed shortly after the release of Alpha, which included mutli-colored mechanics such as domain and a sixth basic land type until most recently referred to as "Barry's land". Video of The Misprint Guy unveiling some of the paperwork he acquire from Barry can be found here, and the Reddit discussion here. According to the discussion on reddit, a more in-depth look at the actual set will be released in about two weeks time.

I'm excited to see what brilliant design we missed, and what mistakes we avoided by this set never being released.

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Ryan Overturf

Ryan has been playing Magic since Legions and playing competitively since Lorwyn. While he fancies himself a Legacy specialist, you'll always find him with strong opinions on every constructed format.

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