They’re functionally the same, but their art usually goes through an update. Some cards in MTG get reprinted in later sets.
Mystical Archive changes the rarity of their originals, but they don’t change their legality. Each Strixhaven draft and set booster includes one Mystical Archive card, and collector boosters have at least three of them. There are a total of 63 Mystical Archive cards that are reprints from the most famous instants and sorceries in MTG history. Similar to my example for Opt, we recently saw the release of Strixhaven, which has a set of “Mystical Archive” cards. They’re also dubbed “futureshifted,” as the set itself had some hints about where the game would go in the future, such as references to unexplored planes. Time Spiral has 121 cards with this rarity, Planar Chaos has 45, and Future Sight has 81. Timeshifted cards consist of various cards that have been reprinted in one of the sets in the block. These were featured in the Time Spiral block. For example, around 1 in every 144 boosters contained a Masterpiece for Kaladesh but for Amonkhet, it was 1:129. Amonkhet Invocations was the same, except it was inserted in the Amonkhet block boosters.īoth of these special sets belong to the Masterpiece Series. Kaladesh Inventions was released in 2016 with 54 foil artifact cards randomly scattered in the Kaladesh block packs. These usually belong to a special set, like Kaladesh Inventions and Amonkhet Invocations. Like I already mentioned, there are some other rarities. When you get a mythic rare, you’re somewhat more likely to find the one you want from a pack as there aren’t too many mythics in each set. They’re very valuable even if you don’t use them in your decks. That said, you should definitely put them in a sleeve whenever you find one. They have a 1/8 chance to replace rare in any pack, so you won’t get a lot of them. These are the most difficult to come by but are often game-changing. The Ur-Dragon | Illustration by Jaime Jones Sometimes they’re very straightforward, such as a board wipe like Planar Cleansing, and sometimes they’re a bit more tricky but still very useful, like Snapcaster Mage. Rare cards are marked with a golden symbol and are often quite powerful. This is where MTG cards truly start to shine. Planar Cleansing | Illustration by Michael Komarck