With Magic's runaway success, many of the printings of these early sets were too small to satisfy the rapidly growing fanbase.
[3][4][5][6] Richard Garfield, Magic creator, acted as the sole designer for the set, and developed it in parallel with other teams working on what would become Ice Age and Mirage.
In his article, "The Making of Arabian Nights", Garfield cites this as his inspiration to "be more adventurous in creating mechanics and themes".
[10] Even when separated from its place as Magic's first expansion, Arabian Nights was a groundbreaking set in terms of its impact on the game.
Personally fascinated with the One Thousand and One Nights mythos, and inspired by the recent Sandman comic by Neil Gaiman, "Ramadan",[17] he decided that it fit the game well and chose to employ it for Magic.
In 1995–96 two comic books (A Time to Gather and And Then There Was One) were produced by Armada to give the set its own storyline, taking place on the plane of Rabiah the Infinite.
[26] The set was created by the group of students at the University of Pennsylvania that had helped Richard Garfield design the original game.
To correct this, Wizards of the Coast introduced a "buyback" program, allowing players to trade in their excess cards for money.
After several years at Tocasia's camp where the brothers made several inventions and discoveries, they explore the Caves of Koilos, a place filled with Thran artifacts.
In the aftermath of the conflict, the blast triggered by the Golgothian Sylex upsets the climate of Dominaria leading to an Ice Age.
Also the card Tawnos's Weaponry, a U2, exists in two versions, one barely noticeably missing the circle behind the activation cost of the ability.
The set was designed by Wizards of the Coast co-founder Steve Conard and friend Robin Herbert in Canada before the game was initially released.
The story takes place in the southern regions of Terisiare well after the Ice Age, and sometime before Weatherlight as the first Airships are built by Johan who tried to conquer the entire continent.
In the aftermath of the Brothers' War, a series of conflicts ends up causing most of the inhabitants of the continent of Terisiare to revert to a more primitive state.
During this time, several leaders and notable heroes rise up, such as Vervamon the Elder (who was later burned at the stake), Maeveen O'Donahough, Barl the Artificer, Mairisil the Pretender, and Lord Ith (who was held captive by Mairsil).
After the destruction of large amounts of the continent Terisiare during the Brothers' War, most nations turn heavily to religion and magic to help them cope with the coming ice age caused by the detonation of the Golgothian Sylex, creating a climate change similar to that of a nuclear winter.
Mairsil is obsessed with finding a gateway to Phyrexia, and when a young mage named Jodah arrives, he tries to manipulate the boy to take him there.
Eventually, Jodah frees Lord Ith as Mairsil begins to lose his power, caused by the weakening of the land by the coming ice age.
"[45] The set's large printing meant the individual price of each card on the secondary market was comparatively inexpensive, fueling perceptions of a weak power level.
Each of the major cultures on Sarpadia is confronted with internal threats caused by the cooling weather: the dwarves are attacked by orcs and goblins; the Vodalian merfolk face the homarid menace; the elves of the forest struggle to contain the fungus-like Thallid; the proud soldiers of Icatia confront opposition from religious zealots; and the dark Order of the Ebon Hand fights a thrull revolt.
Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark quickly sold out in the hobby-gaming market, so both new and existing players had extremely limited access to cards from those sets at the time.
[53] Wizards of the Coast's development team for Chronicles excluded powerful, abusive cards that were the frequent sources of player complaints, such as Mana Drain, The Abyss, Nether Void, Moat, and Maze of Ith, while including cards that they determined had a high "coolness factor" and would drive sales with the predominantly casual player base for Magic at the time, such as the Elder Dragon Legends, The Wretched, Sol'Kanar the Swamp King, Dakkon Blackblade, and the three "Urza's Lands" from Antiquities.
[55] Wizards of the Coast released a similar set called Renaissance into German, French and Italian markets.
[58] Due to complaints from them, Wizards of the Coast enacted the "Reserve List": a guarantee that a certain percentage of rares from each set would never be reprinted.
[59] Magic designer Mark Rosewater has said that he wishes the Reserve List had never been created, but Wizards of the Coast has elected to honor it because they didn't want to set a precedent that they broke their own promises.
While a stand-alone set as far as its storyline, it was considered to be part of the Ice Age block for tournament legality purposes until the announcement of Coldsnap in October 2005.
Homelands begins 600 years earlier, during a war between the Tolgath, planeswalkers who desire knowledge, and the Ancients, wizards who are prepared to be cruel to defend 'their' mysteries.
A Tolgath planeswalker named Ravi used an artifact called the Apocalypse Chime, given to her by her master, to destroy all life and mana on Ulgrotha.
Additionally, the Magic balance team of the time de-powered much of the set, helping lead to the reputed low power level of the cards.
When the first Pro Tour was held shortly after the release of the set, Wizards included a rule mandating that each deck had to have five cards from each legal expansion.