In the early years of MTG there were several cards printed that just simply were unfair, or unnecessary under today’s standards. This list will chronicle and cover those 12 special cards!

Darkpact – 1993

Many of these cards are banned because ante is not used anymore in games of Magic. This card allowed you to blindly swap the top card of your library with any anted card. I shudder to think of how many Lotuses were lost to a blind swap. Then again, I wonder how many were obtained for a land or Mons’s Goblin Raiders or something!

Tempest Efreet – 1994

If one were playing for ante this card would be amazing in any deck. It blindly trades itself but for a decent price: 10 life lost by an opponent or a discarded card that you get to keep! (isn’t that stealing?)

Chaos Orb – 1993

The most famous of the banned cards, this card doesn’t mention anywhere that it can not be ripped into little pieces first! It also does not say that the opponent can’t stack all their card on the corner of the table, or even build a card tower out of them before its ability resolves! So much advantage has been taken of this card that it has had a spoof printed in the Unglued set and it is banned for obvious good reason. None the less, it was so popular in its prime, a fresh one sells for around 100 dollars!

Shahzarad – 1993

I’m not sure what they were thinking with this one… My first impression of this card is that it’s the most obnoxious card ever printed. Start a new game, for 2 mana? Then there is a possibility of having a sub game within your sub game. Yea. Not really worth it. This card should have been banned before it was printed, and while it offers a unique (I guess) approach to the game, it is such a hastle that 99 of of 100 players vote no. Shahzarad should read ‘ WW - Remove the fun, strategy, and half the game from the game ‘. Ick

Demonic Attorney & Contract from Below – 1993

Both of these cards are banned again because of the ante rule. It just doesn’t exist anymore! These are some now disappointing rares to get for players opening old packs in search of the power 9.

Amulet of Quoz – 1995

I am immediately turned away from this card because of its mana cost and .5 type face. If you see one you should do the same, because it is irrelevant to the game today. Yes, it is one of only a couple cards that can tap to have an opponent lose the game, but the ante ability destroys all possibility of this card seeing play.

Rebirth – 1994

Many years ago when I began playing I owned an Italian version of this card (more than one actually). Being very young and stupid, and without the wonders of just being able to look something up on the Internet, we played this card as ‘Target player gains 20 Life’ because ‘20′ was about the only thing we could decipher in its italian text box. Hey it was green, cost a lot, looked cool, why not? yea… unfortunately shortly after, an english version popped up and what was once my best card became a divider in my box.

Falling Star – 1994

Much like its counterpart, Chaos Orb, Falling Star didn’t last long in any format of the game. With a weird flavor and an ability that not only was very strange, but kind of sucked, falling star faded very quickly from the magic radar. It cant even be used as pygmy giant fodder in an Unhinged game! What a useless rare.

Bronze Tablet – 1995

I don’t think I’ve ever read this whole card. Sounds to me like a bad version of Amulet of Quoz with a little Efreet mixed in. Whatever it is it costs a total of 10 mana, and is banned in all formats.

Jeweled Bird – 1993

A crafty card it you’ve got your Mox or Lotus stuck in the ante pile. This card is kinda like an ante muligan. It would be awesome to rely on in games, but you could lose it every time you use it! Ah… ante. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t run any good cards in a deck that played for ante… then again I don’t think I’d play for ante at all. They should just ban all the ante cards to prevent fights and people leaving the game bitter. oh wait…

As of 2009 these cards are the only cards banned in the Vintage Format.