Unhinged - Definition and Overview

Unhinged is the name of an English-only expansion to the game Magic: The Gathering. It is a "funny" set, based on humor and is far less serious than traditional Magic expansions.

Background

On 7 August 1998, a humorous expansion known as Unglued was released. Unlike other expansion sets, Unglued was purposely comical and poked fun at the game itself and the players. Many cards featured unique mechanics, deemed too strange or impractical for a "serious" card expansion.

While players enjoyed the set, the fact that the cards had silver borders (and thus were not tournament-legal) caused many serious players to avoid buying large amounts of the cards. The exception to this was Unglued basic land cards, which were tournament-legal and are still highly prized for their unusual layout, which allowed most of the card to be filled with artwork.

Because of the moderate success of the set, designers began work on an Unglued sequel, named Unglued 2: The Obligatory Sequel. However, Wizards of the Coast felt that releasing another 'funny' set, plus the standard 'serious' sets, would go beyond market saturation. Unglued 2 was scrapped.

Since then, many players asked for a sequel to Unglued. However, they were always told that it would not be happening any time soon. On 1 April 2004, Magic designer Mark Rosewater posted an article, announcing the sequel to Unglued, Unhinged (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/203).

Reaction was mixed. A sequel to Unglued seemed too good to be true; combined with the date on which the announcement was posted, the circumstances led many to believe it was merely an April Fool's Day joke.

The next day, Rosewater posted again (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/205), making a poll asking if they believed an Unglued sequel was actually in the works, and if they would enjoy such a sequel.

3 days from then, Rosewater confirmed that, indeed, Unhinged was a reality (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr118).

Defining aspects of the set

• "Donkey" creatures are featured on a number of cards, similar to the way chickens were featured in Unglued. This allows cards which refer to the term 'ass' without offense ("Bad Ass", "Cheap Ass", and so on).
• Fractions can be used where only natural numbers could be used before: casting costs, damage, life totals, mana, power, and toughness can all be affected.
• Gotcha - Cards which can be returned from graveyard to hand, if your opponent laughs, says a specific word, etc.
• Several cards have effects that can apply only to cards with a specific artist, name, or collector's number.
• A card named Super Secret Tech - the first card not to be included in the full spoiler of a card set, it appears only in a foil version.

Full Set Spoiler

A sortable 'spoiler' list for Unhinged can be found at the Wizards Website (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/cardlist/unhinged).