Set order

Custom Cards forum

Posted on May 19, 2018, 5:29 p.m. by tybonel13

Hello! I am starting a custom set and was wondering if there was any order to the card numbering system in sets. If you don't know what I mean I am referring to the 1 out of 300, 2 out of 300, etc. I would like to know what determines whether a card would be 1st or 2nd or 3rd or whatever to keep my set as accurate as possible.

EdENigma says... #2

I found you an answer from Wizards which explains it more clearly than I would have haha.

"From Del Laugel, Magic Technical Editor:

When I assign collector numbers to a card set, I start by grouping the cards by color. All the white cards are together at the beginning, followed by blue, black, red, and green, and finally multicolored cards. (The 'WUBRG' color order is pretty standard. It mirrors the pentagon of colors on the back of every Magic card that puts 'friendly' colors together.) After the colored cards come artifacts, nonbasic lands, and basic lands. Then I alphabetize the cards within each of these nine groups by their English card names (a card has the same collector number in all languages). Once the cards are in order, I start at the beginning with 1 and number from there. The second number printed on the card is just the total number of cards in the set.

[...]

What if a card falls into multiple categories? Well, until the Mirrodin block introduced artifact lands, that wasn't possible. We decided to bundle the artifact lands with the other nonbasic lands for numbering since most players putting together Constructed decks would expect to find these cards in the land section of their binders."

(https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/ask-wizards-july-2004-2004-07-01)

May 19, 2018 8:22 p.m.

Matt_The_OGRE says... #3

Also, colorless cards go before white in the numbering sequence. Bane of Bala Ged, Karn, Scion of Urza

May 19, 2018 8:31 p.m.

tybonel13 says... #4

Thanks! This was exactly what I was looking for.

May 19, 2018 8:54 p.m.