The trading card game Magic: The Gathering has released a large number of sets since it was

first published by Wizards of the Coast. After the 1993 release of Limited Edition, also known as
Alpha and Beta, roughly 3-4 major sets have been released per year, in addition to various spin-
off products.

Magic has made three types of sets since Alpha and Beta: base/core sets, expansion sets, and
compilation sets.[1] Expansion sets are the most numerous and prevalent type of expansion; they
primarily consist of new cards, with few or no reprints, and either explore a new setting, or
advance the plot in an existing setting. Base sets, later renamed core sets, are the successors to
the original Limited Edition and are meant to provide a baseline Magic experience; they tended
to consist either largely or entirely of reprints. Compilation sets also exist entirely of reprints,
and tend to be made as either a special themed product, or as a way to increase supply of cards
with small printings. Examples of compilation sets with randomized boosters include Chronicles
and Modern Masters. There also exist compilation products with a pre-selected and fixed card
pool, such as the Duel Decks and From The Vault series. Theme decks serve a similar function;
however, they are always attached to a specific set or block, while compilations are free to pick
and choose cards from any set.

All expansion sets, and all editions of the base set from Sixth Edition onward, are identified by
an expansion symbol printed on the right side of cards, below the art and above the text box.
From Exodus onward, the expansion symbols are also color-coded to denote rarity: black for
common and basic land cards, silver for uncommon, and gold for rare. Beginning with the
Shards of Alara set, a red-orange expansion symbol denotes a new rarity: "Mythic Rare" (the
Time Spiral set featured an additional purple coloration for "timeshifted" cards[2]). For the early
expansion sets (from Arabian Nights to Alliances), the rarities of cards were often much more
complicated than the breakdown into common, uncommon, and rare suggests. Cards in
compilations are assigned partially arbitrary rarity by Wizards, with some cards assigned rare
status and some assigned mythic rare in a given set.

Base/core set editions

After the second version (Beta) of the first set, which contained two cards mistakenly excluded
from the first version (Alpha), all subsequent base sets through 10th Edition consisted of cards
that had been printed before in either the original base set or an expansion set. Alpha through
Fifth Edition did not have set symbols printed on the actual cards, though those sets were
retroactively given set symbols in Wizards of the Coast's official Gatherer[3] database of Magic
cards.

Set Pre- Size[3][5]

Set Set
symbol relea Releas
Set symbo code[4 Total Myt
Bas
descripti se e date Comm Uncom Rar ic
l[3] ][3] Card
on mon e
hic
La
Other
on[3] date s Rare
nd
Limite
August
d 295 11
None LEA none 5, [I] 74 95 — 10 —
Edition 6
1993[6]
Alpha
Limite
Octobe
d 302 11
None LEB none r [I] 75 95 — 15 —
Edition 7
1993[7]
Beta
Unlimi Decem
302 11
ted None 2ED none ber [I] 75 95 — 15 —
7
Edition 1993[6]
Revise
d April 12
None 3ED none 306 75 95 — 15 —
Edition 1994[8] 1
[II]

Fourth April 12
None 4ED none 378 121 121 — 15 —
Edition 1995[9] 1
None / March
Fifth Roman- 24, 13
5ED none 449 165 132 — 20 —
Edition numeral 1997[10 2
five[III] ]

A April
Classic
Roman- 28, 11
Sixth 6ED none 350 110 110 — 20 —
numeral 1999[10 0
Edition ]
six
April
Sevent A serif
11, 11
h numeral 7ED none 350 110 110 — 20 —
2001[10 0
Edition seven ]

The
number
eight July
Eighth superimp 28, 11 7[IV
8ED none 357 110 110 — 20
Edition osed over 2003[11 0 ]
]
three
fanned
cards
The
Ninth July 11 9[IV
number 9ED none 359 110 110 — 20 ]
Edition 29, 0
nine
 superimp 2005[12
]
osed over
three
fanned
cards
A July
Tenth Roman- 13, 12
10E none 383 121 121 — 20 —
Edition numeral 2007[13 1
]
ten
July July
Magic 11, 17,
"M10" M10 249 101 60 53 15 20 —
2010 2009[ 2009[15
14] ]

July July
Magic 10, 16,
"M11" M11 249 101 60 53 15 20 —
2011 2010[ 2010[16
16] ]

July July
Magic 9, 15,
"M12" M12 249 101 60 53 15 20 —
2012 2011[ 2011[17
17] ]

July July
Magic 7, 13,
"M13" M13 249 101 60 53 15 20 —
2013 2012[ 2012[18
18] ]

July July
Magic 13, 19,
"M14" M14 249 101 60 53 15 20 —
2014 2013[ 2013[19
19] ]

July July
Magic 12, 18, 15[I
"M15" M15 269 101 80[21] 53 15 20
2015 2014[ 2014[20 V]
20] ]

Planeswal
ker
July July
Magic symbol
11, 17, 16[I
Origin breaking ORI 272 101 80 55 16 20
2015[ 2015[22 V]
s through 22] ]
the
horizon
 July
Core July
13,
Set "M19" M19 7, 280 111 80 53 16 20 —
2018[23
2019 2018 ]

July
Core July
12,
Set "M20" M20 5, 321 152 86 65 16 20 —
2019[24
2020 2019 ]

Core June July 3,

Set "M21" M21 26, 2020[25 274 111 80 53 15 15 —
]
2021 2020

Expansion sets
Expansion sets from Ice Age to Rivals of Ixalan (with the exception of Homelands) came in
groups called "blocks". Blocks were cohesive products: they usually centered around one plane,
followed a particular storyline, and contained cards and mechanics that supported both. Blocks
generally consisted of one large "stand-alone" expansion set of 250-380 cards, followed by one
or two small expansion sets of 141-200 cards which continue the themes introduced in the large
set. Like the base set, stand-alone expansion sets contain basic land cards; other expansion sets
do not. Beginning with Alliances, expansion sets were given codenames while in development;
the code names of the expansions of a block usually fit together to form a phrase or common
theme.[26] Ice Age, Homelands, and Alliances were retroactively declared a block at some point,
despite Homelands not being connected to the other two in any way. In 2006, WotC retroactively
dropped Homelands from the Ice Age cycle and added Coldsnap to it. With the Zendikar cycle in
2009, the traditional large-small-small block structure began to be varied, with some blocks
including a second large set later in the cycle. Starting with the Battle for Zendikar block in
2015, the default structure of a block was changed to large-small, with two blocks released per
year and each block consisting of only two sets.[27]

Ice Age and Alliances were the first two sets to have a well-defined relationship, but the idea of
calling connected sets a "block" or "cycle" did not exist at the time of printing. Also beginning
with Alliances in June 1996, expansion sets were released in a regular pattern: the base sets were
released in October with the small expansion sets being released in February and June. With the
exceptions of Stronghold, a 1998 set released in March rather than February, and Scourge, a
2003 set which was released in May rather than June, this pattern of months was never broken,
over a 10-year period, until 2006, when Dissension was also released a month early in May
instead of June, because of the July release of Coldsnap. The third set in a block has since been
released in late April or early May. From 2005-2015, there was a fourth release date each year in
mid-July, usually reserved for base sets. Other summer releases included Coldsnap and
Eventide.[XXVI]
Fallen Empires was an experimental expansion in which most cards have three or four different
pieces of artwork. You could see them as 121 common cards, by art, or 36 cards by the text. It
was also a major expansion in the idea of tribes, especially Goblins and Merfolk.

Most early expansion sets did not have exact release dates; they were just shipped out within the
space of a week, and retailers could start selling them as soon as the sets were received. By the
time of Alliances in 1996, however, release dates were set as Mondays (the earliest set with an
exact Monday release date might possibly have preceded Alliances, but Alliances is the earliest
set with a cited and confirmed Monday release date). Beginning with Mirrodin in 2003, the
release dates were changed from Monday to Friday. All sets beginning with Homelands[VI] also
have a pre-release date, on which cards are sold in limited quantities in pre-release tournaments.
These tournaments were formerly always held two weeks before the release date, but since
Shards of Alara they are now held one week before the release date.

Premium cards have been inserted into booster packs since Urza's Legacy. Originally 1 premium
card was inserted for every 100 cards. The ratio was changed to 1 in 70 cards with the Torment
expansion. Beginning with Tenth Edition the rate was increased to 1 in 56 cards.[28] This later
changed to 1 in 45 cards with "Core Set 2020"