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The portal booster pack contains 15 cards total. Released in 1997, Portal is an unaffiliated set. The set contains 221 black-bordered cards (55 rare, 50 uncommon, 96 common, and 20 lands).
Portal is the eighteenth Magic the Gathering set and first starter level set, released on May 1, 1997. Depending on the language, the set contains between 221 and 228 cards.
Portal was WOTC's first major attempt at a set that new players could come into the game and understand. Back before the major rules changes brought forth by 6th Edition, Magic rules were more complicated; today, they are simplified with the addition of the stack.
As of October 2005, all cards in the Portal block are legal in Vintage and Legacy tournaments.
No new mechanics were introduced with Portal, but there were several "simplifications" made to the game through things left out of the set. Instants did not exist within the set (instead, every "one-shot" spell was a sorcery; however, some sorceries could be played at particular times uncommon to sorceries but normal for instants). Most of these cards have since received errata making them Instants. All rules text was in boldface. All flavor text and reminder (italicized) text was not boldface. To separate rules text and flavor text, the cards utilized a line with a slight bulge on both top and bottom; this makes the line look like a very elongated diamond. Although they do now via errata text, in their original printings Portal cards had no creature type. |
