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For the last week or so, Mark Rosewater has been doing fun polls to try to determine which set, of the sets that he has led through development, is the public’s favorite set. He has chosen what he believes are the top sixteen sets and created a bracket for them. Each day, he chooses the next pairing in the bracket and asks people to vote in his Twitter feed (@maro254). After twenty-four hours, he adds up the votes and announces the winner. You can see the bracket and where things stand now by going here.
Last week, two horrible mistakes were made: Unhinged lost to Zendikar, and Unglued lost to Future Sight. Neither race was even close, with the Un- sets each picking up only 20% of the vote. It became very clear to me why this happened when I saw the reasons people were voting against the Un- sets. Many people commented during the Unhinged–Zendikar voting that they were voting for Zendikar because it had full-art lands.
Ummm . . .
You’ll note the Unhinged logo in the bottom-right.
The Unhinged full-art lands contain some of the most beautiful art found on any land in Magic history. They are in such demand that they are the first lands to be produced in oversized lithograph form. These images are hanging in homes and offices around the world.
The people voting for Zendikar because of full-art lands made it clear to me why Unhinged (and Unglued) suffered such resounding losses: No one remembers them! Unglued was released in 1998, and Unhinged in 2004. Zendikar and Future Sight were released in 2009 and 2007. Since most Magic players don’t play for more than eight years (according to Mark Rosewater in his Drive to Work podcast series), it is very likely that very few of the voters played with either of the Un- sets when they were released. Since the cards aren’t reprinted, and they are illegal for tournament play, there is no way for newer players to see those cards in a set!
The glory that is the Un- sets should not be lost to those of you who haven’t played with the cards. It falls to me, and others who played and loved the sets, to explain what was so great about the Un- sets. In that light, I give you the Top 10 1/2 Reasons to Love the Un- Sets!
10.5 – The Fraction Theme
This was great in the set and even worked fairly well in regular games. I used City of Ass as City of Brass in our group! The idea was that I would have to take a half a point of mana burn, which was rounded up, so it worked the same as City of Brass. Without mana burn now, City of Ass is an excellent land!
10 – Play with Richard Garfield
Unhinged offers that chance, and all you need is 
! Richard Garfield, Ph.D. is one of the rares in the set. The only other cards in Magic that even come close are Phelddagrif, an anagram for Garfield, Ph.D., and Questing Phelddagrif. Unfortunately, I don’t own Richard Garfield, Ph.D., but if I did, I would play with him every chance I could.
9 – Token Cards
Do a simple Gatherer search for “token,” and look at what comes up. The only token creatures worthy enough to be in Gatherer are the token creatures included in Unglued! Unglued was the first set to include token creatures in the packs. The Squirrel and Sheep tokens are still revered and sought after. I have several Pegasus tokens that sit next to my Sacred Mesa deck, always ready.
Even the Zombie, Soldier, and Goblin tokens are still regularly used. What makes these tokens unique, beyond being beautiful and the first of their kind, is their Magic back. Each of the tokens, when face down, looks like any other Magic card! No other token has a Magic back, and it is unlikely Wizards will ever make token cards with a Magic back ever again. Just another one-of-a-kind for Un- set cards!
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8 – Cards That Become Regular Cards
Barren Glory is an alternate-win-condition card from Future Sight. While it is a dangerous thing to try to win this way, Barren Glory has become fairly common in multiplayer circles as a funny card to try to combo out with. It produces bizarre situations in which opponents are targeting you to draw cards or giving you creatures or some kind of permanent.
This card from Future Sight owes its existence to Unglued’s The Cheese Stands Alone. At the time, there were very few alternate win conditions, and the developers thought the card was too crazy to print in a black-bordered frame. This proves that the Un- sets were far ahead of their time.
7 – James Arnold says Un- Sets Are the Greatest Sets of All Time!
When Magic’s greatest Infographicist describes Unglued and Unhinged as “the greatest sets of all time,” you know he has the stats to back it up.
6 – Cheatyface
Becoming this aware during your regular tournament matches will not only make you less susceptible to Magic cheaters in your games but will also make you more aware of the game state at all times and less likely to miss a trigger. Cheatyface makes you better at Magic.
Also, as a public service, I’ll let you know, Cheatyface costs . I thought it cost for years!
5 – Booster Tutor
The board position did not look good for George. He was facing lethal creature damage on the board on Josh’s next turn. His cards in hand offered nothing that would help him. He drew for the turn and stared at Booster Tutor. He paid for and cast Booster Tutor on his first main phase. He wasn’t sure what he might find, so he decided to give himself as many options as possible to use whatever he found.
George’s options were another pack of Unhinged and Avacyn Restored. Hoping for some of the overpowered cards in Avacyn Restored to save him, he paid me for the booster and cracked it open. The only card of any value in the booster was Alchemist's Apprentice. George played it and sacrificed it to draw another card. The second Booster Tutor appeared! George played that and handed over the money for another pack of Avacyn Restored. The second pack included Cavern of Souls! Admittedly, he still lost that game, but he got a Cavern of Souls!
4 – More Ass than Any Other Set
Unhinged made every joke related to the word “ass” they could think of that would be somehow Magic-related. Permanent destruction (Ass-Whupin'), land (City of Ass), a cycle of donkeys in every color (Bad Ass, Cheap Ass, Smart Ass, Fat Ass, and Dumb Ass), and even a Donkey Lord (Assquatch) are all part of Unhinged. I encourage everyone to get their piece of Ass.
3 – Physical Dexterity Cards
Many of your opponents will scoff at these cards, not realizing just how these distractions can be. So many opponents become fixated on the physicality involved that they lose their focus on the game. This leads to easy wins and great opportunities for embarrassing pictures!
2 – Chickens
Chickens are my favorite creature type. It isn’t even close. Unglued has several chickens, including a Chicken Egg and a Chicken lord (Chicken a la King). The die-rolling theme and the opportunity to stand up and cluck like a chicken (Mesa Chicken) both make the Chicken theme deck a blast to play.
The 2001 Magic Invitational (an all-star tournament of the top sixteen pros in the world that has since been discontinued) included a section in which sixteen theme decks were chosen for the players to use over three rounds. I had run a contest (with part 1, part 2, and part 3) while writing at StarCityGames, asking for help building my Chicken deck. I was happy to see the deck that the readers and I came up with was chosen to be one of the decks! I still don’t know if Scott Johns enjoyed the deck.
"Chicken Deck of the People a.k.a. Choking the Chicken"
- Creatures (23)
- 1 Elvish Farmer
- 1 Orcish Farmer
- 1 Shu Soldier-Farmers
- 1 Zodiac Rooster
- 3 Poultrygeist
- 4 Chicken a la King
- 4 Chicken Egg
- 4 Free-Range Chicken
- 4 Mesa Chicken
- Spells (11)
- 4 Swords to Plowshares
- 1 Wing Snare
- 2 Hurricane
- 3 Fowl Play
- 1 Triassic Egg
- Lands (26)
- 2 Savannah
- 2 Scrubland
- 2 Tropical Island
- 3 Plateau
- 3 Remote Farm
- 3 Tinder Farm
- 3 Underground Sea
- 4 Tundra
- 4 Volcanic Island
1 – Lands
The lands from each of these sets are beautiful, full-art masterpieces. The Un- sets were the first and only full-art lands until the Zendikar lands. The lands alone make the Un- sets among the best sets of all time. I loved the style of the Unglued lands so much that I asked Eric Klug to modify a Badlands to look like one of the Unglued basic lands.
And there you have it. No knock on Zendikar (who brought us the casual-play-wrecking Eldrazi) or Future Sight (where even Squire was a future-shifted rare), but neither set compares to the Un- sets. I’m sure you’ll agree that the uniqueness of the Un- sets, the wacky fun, and stunning lands makes these sets amongst the best Rosewater (and Magic generally) have ever produced.
Bruce Richard
