The Proxy Vault: Power 9
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miinor_threat
6 August 2010
25544 views
The Proxy Vault: Power 9
6 August 2010
25544 views
The Proxy Vault: Power 9
After the dual-land article I received several requests to proxy the big bad 9. So here they are.
Last time I was complaining about the price of old school duals. Here are the prices for the power 9 as listed on Starcitygames.com:
Mox Emerald: 450 (1 in stock) Mox Jet: 500 (out of stock) Mox Pearl: 450 (out of stock) Mox Ruby: 450 (out of stock) Mox Sapphire: 550 (1 in stock) Time Twister: 500 (out of stock) Time Walk: 500 (out of stock) Ancestral Recall: 550 (1 in stock) Black Lotus: 1,250 (out of stock)
(All prices for N/NM Unlimited, which is far less expeez that Alpha or Beta)
These prices make dual lands look like they come from a grocery store vending machine. They are obscene. Not to mention the fact that even at those bank breaking prices they are largely unavailable, the Power 9 are prime candidates for getting mocked up.
Finding the art for these was easier than it normally is. Every year since 2004 (I believe) an oversize, alternate art power 9 card was given to the winner of a major vintage tournament hosted by Wizards. I was able to find official, commissioned art for 8 of the power 9 that had never actually been reprinted. I formatted them, slapped on a fresh coat of flavor text and sent them out the door.
Here they are, the power 9:
 | ##Mox Emerald |
 | ##Mox Jet |
 | ##Mox Pearl |
 | ##Mox Ruby |
 | ##Mox Sapphire |
 | ##Black Lotus Is there any deck in MTG that would not be immediately better with Black Lotus or 2 in it? It's hard to think of one. |
 | ##Ancestral Recall The story of the design behind Ancestral Recall is actually kind of interesting. The concept was that every color would have an instant that produced 3 of something for 1 mana, the 3 somethings to be thematic and consistent with the color. White got Healing Salve, which has always been pretty useless and was quickly forgotten. Green got Giant Growth, which was THE combat trick staple for years, only recently has it been eclipsed by cards like Colossal Might and Vines of Vastwood. Black got Dark Ritual, which is still amazing in black legacy decks. Plays like first turn: "Dark Ritual, Hypnotic Specter, go." have been outrageous for years. We all know our good friend Lightning Bolt, who is fast, flexible, powerful direct damage. And finally, Ancestral Recall, which Richard Garfield must not have realized was way more than 3 somethings, because it is in fact 3 cards worth of lots of somethings. |
 | ##Timetwister Sorry Time Reversal, you just aren't as ridiculously busted as your big brother Timetwister. |
 | ##Time Walk Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to find a good picture of a time skeleton? Really. Hard. Time Walk and Walk the Aeons set the time skeleton bar plenty high. |
 | ##Bonus BS Vintage Mana Artifact: Mana Vault I found killer art for a Mana Vault remix, so I thought I would have to throw it in with the power 9. |
That's all for now from the Proxy Vault. If you guys want to see another series of expensive/hard to find cards, start making requests and I will try to put some kind of a list together.
Until next time.
nammertime says... #2
I got Mark Tedin to make the cube on Mana Vault into Spongebob (and another one into a Rubix cube - yea I know, not as original), so I'll be using those instead, haha.
August 6, 2010 4:28 p.m.
Awesome work, dude! The flavor text on black lotus is perfect!
August 6, 2010 8:04 p.m.
I suggest getting the classic shifted update on the MSE and then getting the classic shifted extended art update. We use the same pictures for our cube but the extended picture makes it look so much cooler.
August 7, 2010 midnight
KrazyCaley says... #5
Hey, Dave, you ever notice how all the non-artifacts in the power 9 are blue?
August 7, 2010 2:34 a.m.
nammertime says... #6
I've always thought that Timetwister just fed off the other two cards' glory. I'm not going to say something crazy like it's just good and not super broken, but I feel like there are other cards that could fit in the 9th spot slot, like say, Demonic Tutor .
Feel free to disagree with me, but to me, the fact that you could tutor for any card or combo piece or whatnot for a measly 2 mana makes it incredibly useful, and I don't know a black deck (or any deck that plays black or could splash black) that wouldn't play one copy of Demonic Tutor.
However, when you reprint stuff, it loses value, and since Vintage people play the other two blue P9 cards, they pretty much have to include Timetwister to get some major deck-cycling/combo shenanigans going on... it makes Demonic Tutor (or any other powerful enabler in different colors) lose some luster.
August 7, 2010 2:46 a.m.
Blue AND artifacts all. Go figure all the expensive cards can go in my decks, artifacts rule :)
November 1, 2010 4:56 p.m.
Which one couldn't you find art work for? (P.S.-- You make the tap symbol on MSE by doing [Tap] )
February 28, 2012 6:56 p.m.
Awesome cards, I had no idea that they had reprinted them, the new art is great.
@nammertime The reason it was included is exactly that, it's power is given by the power of the other 8, and so in TheDeck mirrors, timing when you cast your Timetwister was the be all and end all of the match. If you managed to cast all your other cards, and have a great board setup and then resolve a timetwister you would be so far ahead.
In an environment with Library of Alexandria, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall and moxen (and to a lesser extent Regrowth) Timetwister allowed you a second run of those cards, while making all the mana accelerators essentially cantrips.
Also it was not like they were voted in by some official body, they were just a collection of cards that were frequently included regardless of what the deck was due to their power, so the inclusion of them was more or less a statement about the metagame at the time and not a strict list of the most powerful cards..
September 16, 2012 6:08 p.m.
Hi there, can anyone please provide the MSE file sets for the posted P9 and Dual Lands? I have no idea where to get them. Using screenshots will be not much helpful :)
nammertime says... #1
Wow, these are AWESOME.
August 6, 2010 4:27 p.m.