Fun Fact Fridays: The Name of Magic

Everyone who plays Magic is familiar with the full name "Magic: The Gathering" and also what the back of a Magic card looks like.

What people don't know is that the subtitle "The Gathering" was supposed to be only for the first set (Alpha/Beta). While "Magic" wasn't the first name planned (that was "Mana Clash"), the subtitle was planned to be different for each set. Like this:

Additionally, the card backs would be different for each expansion. Like what was planned for Arabian Nights:

Obviously, this didn't happen. As a result to the planned change, basic lands were going to be found in every expansion (in 1993, card sleeves were unheard of and mixing cards could mark your deck so each set was meant to be played by itself), and Arabian Nights was going to the first set for this to happen.

Instead of changing the card backs, they made it all part of one game and decided not to split up the game among the expansions. The basic lands were removed from Arabian Nights except one land was missed: a single Mountain.

This is the rarest basic land and it sells on Star City Games for $50 near mint. This easily makes it the second most expensive basic Mountain including foil versions of Zendikar and Unhinged lands. The only lands more expensive than this one are the GURU lands.