Legends/Trivia

Trivia by color

 * Active Volcano and Flash Flood are similar to Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast, respectively.
 * Crimson Manticore and D'Avenant Archer were the first creatures to have the ability to deal damage to attacking or blocking creatures. Later this ability would be seen much more strongly as strictly white.
 * Darkness and Holy Day are the only two cards remaining of a Fog</c> cycle supposed to be printed in Legends, but the blue and red ones were removed in development and it was decided that the Fog itself did not need reprinting at the time.
 * Gauntlets of Chaos</c> and Juxtapose</c> introduced the idea of exchanging permanents. They inspired the creation of Donate</c>.
 * Hyperion Blacksmith</c> and Relic Barrier</c> inspired the creation of Voltaic Key</c>.
 * Land Tax</c> and Untamed Wilds</c> are the first cards to allow a player to search his or her library for land. This type of card, usually in green, has since appeared in almost every block.

White

 * Cleanse</c> inspired the ability of Major Teroh</c>.
 * Clergy of the Holy Nimbus</c> is the first white creature printed with regeneration.
 * Divine Intervention</c> is the only card ever printed with the sole purpose of causing the game to end in a drawn game. It was banned from sanctioned play for a period of years because the DCI wanted to discourage games from ending in a draw. It inspired the creation of Celestial Convergence</c>.
 * Divine Offering</c> was originally to be named "Divine Sacrifice", but it was changed when the term sacrifice was given rules significance.
 * Divine Transformation</c> was designed to have a dramatic effect on the creature it enchants by giving it the largest single power and toughness boost without a drawback. It inspired the Embrace cycle of Auras in Urza's Saga.
 * <c>Elder Land Wurm</c> was designed based on a specific flavor. According to Steve Conard, "once there were multitudes of Elder Dragons in Dominia. After the Elder Dragon War, many were beaten to the ground, stripped of their title, never to fly again.", on Elder Land Wurm flavor.
 * <c>Kismet</c> did not inspire the creation of <c>Root Maze</c> (it evolved from a different but similar idea instead).
 * <c>Moat</c> was called "Chasm" in playtesting and had a cost of and "only flying creatures can damage the caster". It inspired the creation of <c>Teferi's Moat</c>.
 * <c>Petra Sphinx</c> is the first card to ask a player to name a card and rewarded players for having large amounts of information about the game. It inspired the creation of <c>Scrying Glass</c>.
 * <c>Presence of the Master</c> depicts Albert Einstein and is one of only a few cards that depicts a real-world figure in its art. Modern cards purposefully avoid real-world names, symbols, events, and figures.
 * <c>Righteous Avengers</c> is the first of only a handful of creatures with Plainswalk, the rarest of the basic landwalk abilities. Ironically, two cards, <c>Great Wall</c> and <c>Lord Magnus</c>, were also printed in Legends with the ability to negate the Plainswalk ability.
 * <c>Seeker</c> was originally designed to make the creature it enchanted completely unblockable, but was later changed to mirror <c>Fear</c>.
 * <c>Spirit Link</c> depicts a character which was later chosen to be the reference for <c>Jolrael, Empress of Beasts</c>. Jolrael played a big part in the Mirage block, and was made into a card in Prophecy. It inspired the creation of <c>Celestial Convergence</c>.
 * <c>Thunder Spirit</c> likely would have been reprinted at some point if it hadn't been added to the Reserved List on the merits of being a rare card from an early expansion. It inspired the creation of <c>Sky Spirit</c> to serve as its "reprint".

Blue

 * <c>Acid Rain</c> printed to mirror <c>Tsunami</c> is called a "bad blue card" by Mark Rosewater because it gives blue mass destruction of lands, something it is not supposed to be able to do.
 * <c>Anti-Magic Aura</c> and <c>Spectral Cloak</c> are the first cards to have some form of untargetability. In fact, Spectral Cloak is the first card to use true untargetability. Similar Auras are called "cloaks" and these inspired the creation of others, including <c>Mystic Veil</c>, <c>Robe of Mirrors</c>, <c>Diplomatic Immunity</c>, and <c>Aboshan's Desire</c>.
 * <c>Boomerang</c> is an iconic bounce spell; a spell that returns a permanent to its owner's hand is sometimes called a "boomerang."
 * <c>Brine Hag</c> was simply called "Hag" in playtesting and was a 3/3 with a cost of and "any creature who kills the Hag is reduced to 1/1."
 * <c>Enchantment Alteration</c> inspired the creation of <c>Aura Graft</c>.
 * <c>Field of Dreams</c> was called "Reverse Gravity" in playtesting and caused players to "turn their libraries upside down and draw the card that is showing" and had a cost of . It inspired the creation of <c>Think Tank</c>.
 * <c>Land Equilibrium</c> inspired the creation of <c>Territorial Dispute</c>.
 * <c>Psychic Purge</c> is the first card to punish an opponent for causing discard. It inspired the creation of a few other cards, including <c>Guerrilla Tactics</c>.
 * <c>Puppet Master</c> inspired the creation of <c>Disappear</c>.
 * <c>Recall</c> and <c>Part Water</c> are the first cards to have in the casting cost.
 * <c>Recall</c> was added to the Restricted List in September 1994 because it allowed the recycling of other powerful cards on the Restricted List. It was later removed from this list in April 2003 due to a lack of competitive use, thanks to better ways to perform its effect.
 * <c>Relic Bind</c> was originally worded to allow it to enchant any artifact, creating a two-card instant-win combo with <c>Basalt Monolith</c> at the time. Relic Bind was quickly corrected to allow it to only enchant an opponent's artifact.
 * The quotation in the flavor text is from Job 41:1, not Job 40:25 (although it is Job 40:25 in the original Hebrew text). This error was corrected in Fifth Edition.
 * <c>Time Elemental</c> inspired the creation of <c>Temporal Adept</c>.
 * <c>Venarian Gold</c> inspired the creation of <c>Sleeping Potion</c>.
 * <c>Wall of Wonder</c> follows in the footsteps of <c>Black Vise</c>, <c>The Rack</c>, and <c>Cursed Rack</c>: all of these cards are illustrated by Richard Thomas and include "Stuffy" the tortured doll in the art.
 * <c>Zephyr Falcon</c> and his functional reprint <c>Bay Falcon</c> were the only real monoblue creatures with vigilance until Planar Chaos introduced vigilance as a blue ability as part of its colorshifting theme.

Black

 * <c>All Hallow's Eve</c>'s card type was subject of errata twice. First it was made an enchantment since it remains in play for two turns, later it was changed back to sorcery again with the unique Oracle wording it has now. It was the first mass graveyard recursion card and has inspired many cards, including <c>Living Death</c> and <c>Twilight's Call</c>.
 * <c>Cyclopean Mummy</c> wasn't reprinted in Fifth Edition because a customer survey after Fourth Edition showed it to be the most hated card in that set.
 * <c>Giant Slug</c> was originally called "Slug Bug", then "Smeltonian Slug", and lastly "Slaughter Slug" before achieving its final name.
 * <c>Greed</c> introduced the idea that black should be able to exchange life for cards. It has inspired nearly every black life-for-cards card to follow, including <c>Necropotence</c> and <c>Phyrexian Arena</c>.
 * <c>Hell Swarm</c> is strictly worse than <c>Marsh Gas</c>, which was printed in The Dark immediately following Legends.
 * <c>Hell's Caretaker</c> inspired the creation of <c>Shallow Grave</c>, <c>Corpse Dance</c>, <c>Recurring Nightmare</c>, <c>Victimize</c>, <c>Apprentice Necromancer</c>, <c>Body Snatcher</c>, and <c>Zombify</c>, among others.
 * <c>Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore</c>'s name possibly relates to David Ormsby-Gore, a famous British diplomat with a tragic family life.
 * <c>Syphon Soul</c> is the first card to reference multiple other players, acknowledging multiplayer play for the first time.
 * <c>Takklemaggot</c> inspired the creation of <c>Screams from Within</c>. It also inspired the creation of <c>Curse of the Fire Penguin</c> in Unhinged.
 * <c>Transmutation</c> inspired many cards including <c>Dwarven Thaumaturgist</c> and <c>About Face</c>.
 * <c>Underworld Dreams</c> was once restricted in Vintage because of its interaction with <c>Timetwister</c> and <c>Wheel of Fortune</c>, but has since been reprinted in a Core Set. It inspired the creation of <c>Malignant Growth</c>.

Red

 * <c>Ærathi Berserker</c> was printed with the name "rathi Berserker" because the "Æ" symbol did not exist in the card name font used.
 * <c>Beasts of Bogardan</c> was the only Beast until the Tempest expansion was printed.
 * <c>Falling Star</c> is one of only a few cards found on the Vintage banned list for being a "Dexterity card", or a card that requires some physical skill to use well.
 * <c>Firestorm Phoenix</c> inspired the creation of <c>Squee, Goblin Nabob</c>.
 * <c>Glyph of Destruction</c> influenced the ability of <c>Goblin Bomb</c>, causing it to deal 20 damage instead of simply winning the game. Mark Rosewater, who in part developed the Weatherlight expansion, argued that "Magic needs more double-digit numbers on cards."
 * <c>In the Eye of Chaos</c> inspired the creation of <c>Ice Cave</c>.
 * <c>Land's Edge</c> inspired the creation of <c>Seismic Assault</c>.
 * <c>Pyrotechnics</c> inspired the creation of many cards, including <c>Rolling Thunder</c>.
 * <c>Quarum Trench Gnomes</c> is the only non-artifact Gnome.
 * <c>Raging Bull</c> is the only common red creature in Legends with a power greater than zero.

Green

 * <c>Arboria</c> is the only uncommon World enchantment in Legends. It inspired the card <c>Impatience</c> because Arboria rewards players for doing nothing, while Impatience punishes players for doing nothing.
 * <c>Avoid Fate</c> was improved when interrupts were changed to instants, giving it more potential, yet still very narrow, uses.
 * <c>Cat Warriors</c> has the creature type Cat Warrior, which was originally considered to be one type, not two, resulting in it being neither a Cat nor a Warrior.
 * <c>Cocoon</c> inspired the creation of <c>Consuming Ferocity</c>.
 * <c>Concordant Crossroads</c> is the first card with true haste (<c>Instill Energy</c> and <c>Nether Shadow</c> originally only granted or had the ability to attack, not to tap, when they came into play). It inspired the creation of <c>Fervor</c>, <c>Fires of Yavimaya</c>, and <c>Mass Hysteria</c>.
 * <c>Eureka</c> is one of only a few cards to depict a real-world object, in this case Albert Einstein's famous theory of relativity equation E=m*c². This card partly inspired the creation of <c>Dream Halls</c>.
 * <c>Floral Spuzzem</c> was called "Rat King" in playtesting and had "if not blocked the Rat may chomp & destroy an artifact. No damage to opponent". The original printed wording on Floral Spuzzem still implies that the decision to destroy an artifact is made by the Floral Spuzzem itself.
 * <c>Hornet Cobra</c> is strictly worse than both <c>Land Leeches</c> which was printed in The Dark immediately following Legends, and <c>Elvish Archers</c>, which came before it in Beta.
 * <c>Living Plane</c> inspired the creation of <c>Nature's Revolt</c>.
 * <c>Master of the Hunt</c> is the first card to allow more than one token creature to be created in a single turn with mana as the only cost.
 * <c>Rabid Wombat</c> inspired the creation of other creatures that gained a bonus when enchanted, including <c>Fledgling Osprey</c>, <c>Metathran Elite</c>, <c>Rayne, Academy Chancellor</c>, and <c>Thran Golem</c>. It also inspired the creation of <c>Wordmail</c> from Unhinged.
 * <c>Rebirth</c> was the first card with the number "20" in its ability.
 * quotes from Ecclesiastics 3:19, not from Ecclesiastes 3:19 as mentioned on the card. This was corrected in ''Chronicles'.
 * <c>Rust</c> inspired the creation of <c>Interdict</c> and <c>Bind</c>.
 * <c>Storm Seeker</c> inspired the creation of <c>Sudden Impact</c>.
 * <c>Sylvan Library</c> inspired the creation of <c>Rowen</c>, <c>Mirri's Guile</c>, and <c>Abundance</c>.
 * <c>Whirling Dervish</c> was inspired by the ability of the "Pawn" card from the original Chess cycle that didn't make it into the set.
 * <c>Willow Satyr</c> likely inspired the creation of <c>Empress Galina</c>.
 * <c>Winter Blast</c> is the only green card in the game that can tap multiple opposing creatures outside of combat whether they have flying or not.
 * <c>Wood Elemental</c> is often cited as one of the weakest cards ever created. It inspired the creation of <c>Fungus Elemental</c>.

Colorless

 * <c>Alchor's Tomb</c> was originally designed as Alchor's Tome, but somewhere along the line it was misspelled at Tomb. The error was not discovered until after the art of a tomb was commissioned. Alchor was the name of Peter Adkison's main Dungeons & Dragons character, and this card was designed by Steve Conard to pay homage to Adkison. Also, a tome was fitting because Alchor was a powerful magician.
 * <c>Arena of the Ancients</c>, like the "expansion hosing" cards <c>City in a Bottle</c> and <c>Golgothian Sylex</c>, was created as a way to "hose" legendary creatures in case they proved to be too powerful.
 * <c>Mirror Universe</c> introduced exchange of life totals. Until the Sixth Edition rules update, a player only lost the game at the end of a phase, allowing a player to reach zero life during his or her upkeep (perhaps by using a <c>City of Brass</c>) and using the effect of Mirror Universe, killing the opponent. <c>Psychic Transfer</c> and the more recent <c>Soul Conduit</c> are the only other cards to use this type of exchange (excluding Unglued, of course).
 * <c>North Star</c> inspired part of <c>Mycosynth Lattice</c>.
 * <c>Sword of the Ages</c> inspired the creation of <c>Goblin Bombardment</c>.
 * <c>Tolaria</c> is regarded as the weakest of the Legendary lands in its set, but many events in the stories of Magic take place in Tolaria.
 * <c>Triassic Egg</c> was to be named "Jurassic Egg" until the release of the movie Jurassic Park. It inspired the creation of <c>Celestial Convergence</c>. It likely inspired the creation of <c>Summoner's Egg</c>.

Multicolor

 * <c>Dakkon Blackblade</c> inspired the creation of <c>Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer</c> and had a comic written to tell his story by Armada in 1995.
 * <c>Gwendlyn Di Corci</c>'s model was Mr. Wendy of Seattle punk band Sick n Wrong. The cat to the right was Georgie Tirebiter, the feline inspiration for their song of the same name.
 * <c>Hazezon Tamar</c> is notable for its ability to create Sand Warrior creature tokens, making Sand a creature type. This oddity inspired <c>Dune-Brood Nephilim</c> to also produce Sand creature tokens.
 * <c>Jacques le Vert</c> was inspired by the ability of the "Rook" card from the original Chess cycle that didn't make it into the set.
 * <c>Jedit Ojanen</c> had two comics written to tell his story by Armada in 1995.
 * <c>The Lady of the Mountain</c> was inspired by one of Steve Conard's Dungeons & Dragons characters.
 * <c>Livonya Silone</c> is the first of two creatures to have legendary landwalk. The other is <c>Ayumi, the Last Visitor</c>.
 * <c>Marhault Elsdragon</c> was named after a Dungeons & Dragons character in a campaign belonging to designer Robin Herbert.
 * <c>Nebuchadnezzar</c> is the only legendary creature to survive with a real-world name. Others, including Hiawatha, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Lancelot, Circe, Achilles, and Jason, were renamed. It inspired the creation of <c>Cabal Therapy</c>.
 * <c>Ramirez DePietro</c> was named after a Dungeons & Dragons character belonging to designer Robin Herbert.
 * <c>Ramses Overdark</c> was named after a Dungeons & Dragons character in a campaign belonging to Robin Herbert.
 * <c>Rubinia Soulsinger</c> was originally called "Titania", but that name was already used in Antiquities. This and other creatures with the ability to tap to gain control of others inspired the creation of many cards including <c>Coffin Queen</c>.
 * The model for Rubinia Soulsinger was Carol Monahan, the first head of sales at Wizards of the Coast.
 * <c>Stangg</c> inspired the creation of <c>Gemini Engine</c>.
 * <c>Tetsuo Umezawa</c> is the first creature card with the inability to be enchanted (although <c>Tetravus</c> was capable of creating token creatures with an inability to be enchanted as well).

Top power & toughness
Sorted by decreasing combined power and toughness:
 * <c>Cosmic Horror</c> (7/7) has the greatest combined power and toughness among all monocolored creatures in Legends.
 * <c>Akron Legionnaire</c> (8/4) has the greatest combined power and toughness among monocolored white creatures in Legends.
 * <c>Elder Spawn</c> (6/6) has the greatest combined power and toughness among monocolored blue creatures in Legends.
 * <c>Craw Giant</c> (6/4) has the greatest combined power and toughness among monocolored green creatures in Legends. Its name and power/toughness refer to <c>Craw Wurm</c>.
 * <c>Frost Giant</c> (4/4) has the greatest combined power and toughness among monocolored red creatures in Legends. It cost in playtesting, was 5/5 and "creatures of 3 or less toughness will not block the giant."
 * <c>Bronze Horse</c> (4/4) has the greatest combined power and toughness among artifact creatures in Legends.