[3][4] Portal was Wizards of the Coast's first major attempt at a set that new players could come into the game and understand.

The original 215-card Portal set was released in June 1997 and sold in starter sets consisting of two 35-card decks, one booster pack, a play guide, and a play mat, and also in 16-card booster packs.

No new mechanics were introduced with Portal, but there were several "simplifications" made to the game through things left out of the set.

There was controversy when the set became tournament legal, as some players thought that cards with the horsemanship ability should be errata to have flying instead.

Notable cards in the Portal sets include Imperial Seal, Ravages of War, Rolling Earthquake In a review in the July 1997 issue of InQuest, Jeff Hannes stated that the "cards are clean, simple, and concise", making the set "an outstanding tool for beginners" who may otherwise have trouble with the terse card text of other Magic: The Gathering sets.

[5] He also stated that the set "does an outstanding job...to bring new players into the game at a less-daunting level".