Magic: The Gathering -- Official Encyclopedia: The Complete Card Guide, Volume 5 Review

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Magic: The Gathering -- Official Encyclopedia: The Complete Card Guide, Volume 5 ReviewVolume 5 covers Magic: The Gathering Starter Level Set for 2000, Mercadian Masques, Nemesis, and Prophecy. I wish the powers-that-be would get their act together and collect everything to date into a single volume. Instead, as usual, this volume only deals with expansions released since the previous volume of the encyclopedia.
Before launching into the expansion chapters, the usual introductory material includes a Magic timeline, including the 'for beginners' decks (e.g. Portal), the basic sets, and the expansions. This volume has been padded a little with profiles of 3 of the artists, including some alternate sketches of various cards, e.g. Grim Elf of Vengeance, which was pulled from the Unglued set as *too* grim and vengeful for that expansion.
Each set of cards covered in Volume 5, as usual, is provided with an introduction, describing any new twists added for that set (including new types of decks that came about as a result), and any famous (or infamous) cards in that set. (A blowup of the artwork of Lin Divvi, Defiant Hero appears in a sidebar for Nemesis, "This Rebel's Too Cool for School".) The introductions provide an informative overview (including descriptions of storylines that were added or updated by the release being described). (Volume 1's introductions were more entertaining, due to the much higher number of problem cards in earlier decks.)
The individual cards for each set are listed in alphabetical order; they're shown at about 3/4 actual size. The versions of Magic that included those cards (at the time of printing) are specified, as well as any errata. The card lists' images are enough to hold the attention of even a casual collector, since the flavor text is legible and the artwork is printed well.
After covering the individual sets, the book gives an overview of 1999 World Championship decks. Three pages near the end of the book discuss, respectively, Misprints & Oddities (such as the alpha-version Orcish Oriflamme with a casting cost of 1 rather than 3), Promotional Cards, and Playtest Cards. The book concludes with a "Deckbuilders Indexes" section, as in the earlier volumes of the Magic encyclopedia.
Magic: The Gathering -- Official Encyclopedia: The Complete Card Guide, Volume 5 OverviewIn association with Wizards of the Coast, the creators of Magic: The Gathering, and the Magic experts at Top Deck (Wizards' official trading-card game magazine) Thunder's Mouth Press announces the next volume in the essential reference series Magic: the Gathering-the Official Encyclopedia Volume 5. Magic: the Gathering, Encyclopedia 5 includes full-color reproductions of every new Magic card released since last October. Magic: the Gathering has sold billions of cards all over the world in English and dozens of translations. The huge number of Magic cards makes these encyclopedias must-haves for any serious player. They are invaluable reference guides, collecting all the cards in the latest expansions and including information crucial for collectors as well as history, rules, strategies, and techniques for playing the hottest fantasy game of the 90's - and of the new century.

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