Magic Alpha Ancestral Recall

A common that became a rare

Ancestral Recall began life under another name, 'Ancestral Memories,' and in the game's Gamma design phase it was a common card. So was Time Walk. Richard Garfield later said blue 'was easily the most powerful magic, having two extremely insidious common spells,' and both were made rare before publication.

It belongs to a five-card cycle known as the Boons, one for each color, each built on the number three: Healing Salve, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt and Giant Growth. They were the first and most famous cycle in Magic. They also proved wildly uneven in power, and the blue Boon was considered the strongest. It was the only one printed as a rare.

Limited Edition went on general release on August 5, 1993. Its first press run, Alpha, totaled 2.6 million cards and sold out quickly; the usual estimate is about 1,100 copies of each Alpha rare. A second run, Beta, followed in October, and the white-bordered Unlimited edition in December 1993 was the card's last tournament-legal printing.

Three cards for one mana

Ancestral Recall is a blue instant. For one blue mana, its caster draws three cards, or forces an opponent to draw three, which can push that player toward running out of cards. Players normally draw one card a turn, so the spell sharply speeds up a player's supply of cards in hand at almost no cost.

It is one of the Power Nine, alongside Black Lotus, Time Walk, Timetwister and the five Moxen, and it is frequently cited as blue's most powerful card. Later designers kept trying to make a fair version: Inspiration in Sixth Edition drew two cards for four mana, and Library of Lat-Nam in Alliances was meant as a costlier substitute. Brainstorm, Ancestral Vision and Visions of Beyond are other attempts. Ancestral Recall itself is banned in every format except Vintage, where a deck may hold one copy.

The art is by Mark Poole, and it is one of his best-known pieces. Wizards placed the card on its Reserved List in 1996, a promise never to reprint it, after collectors objected to reprints of other early cards.

Power and its problems

Wizards of the Coast, a young Seattle company, launched Magic in August 1993, and the game sold out at Gen Con in Milwaukee despite the shipment arriving a day late. By October Wizards had sold out its supply of 10 million cards.

The designers had assumed the power rares would stay scarce enough not to dominate. They were wrong. By 1995 tournaments were dominated by decks using the Power Nine, whose prices had risen beyond the reach of most players, and Wizards' organized-play staff worried about a 'two-tier field of haves and have-nots.' Their answer was the Pro Tour, played with cards everyone could get. The Power Nine had already been dropped from the core set starting with Revised.

From a Beta deck to the auction block

Top-graded Alpha copies have reached five figures across grading services. One graded BGS 9.5 sold for $27,103.00 in March 2021 and another BGS 9.5 for $50,000.00 in September 2021. In CGC's grading, an Alpha copy graded CGC 9.5 Gem Mint was offered at a February 2022 auction with an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.

On June 30, 2024, an Alpha Ancestral Recall graded CGC 9.5 realized $15,600 at auction, which CGC described as the highest CGC-certified example of the card to sell on that auction platform. Lower grades trade below that: Alpha copies in CGC 8 sold for $9,250.00 in April 2024 and $11,408.00 in February 2026.

The best story belongs to a CGC Pristine 10. On an episode of the TV show Pawn Stars, a customer sold a sealed Beta starter deck for $25,000, with a 50/50 split promised if a Black Lotus turned up. There was no Lotus, but there was a flawless Ancestral Recall. Grading revealed it was an Alpha card: leftover Alpha rare sheets had been used early in Beta's production run. Graded CGC Pristine 10, it sold for $38,500 in an auction that ended December 7, 2023.

How to identify it

An Alpha Ancestral Recall has the black border of the first two printings and Alpha's steeply rounded corners; Beta corners are tighter, matching every later card. Like all Limited Edition cards, it has no expansion symbol, copyright date or trademark symbol, only the artist credit at the bottom left. Unlimited copies have white borders.

Because leftover Alpha sheets went into early Beta product, an Alpha card can come out of a sealed Beta deck or pack. The corners, not the packaging, decide which printing a card is.

This entry is the CGC 9.5 grade, Gem Mint on CGC's scale, one step below Pristine 10.

The numbers

Set

Limited Edition Alpha, 295 cards; 2.6 million printed

Alpha rares

About 1,100 copies of each

Card

Blue instant, cost one blue mana; draw three cards or target player draws three

Cycle

One of the five Boons; the only one printed at rare

Tournament status

Banned everywhere except Vintage, where it is restricted to one copy

Timeline

1. 1993

   In the Gamma design phase Ancestral Recall, then called Ancestral Memories, is a common; it is made rare before release.

2. Aug 5, 1993

   Magic: The Gathering goes on general release with the Alpha print run.

3. Oct 1993

   The Beta run follows; some leftover Alpha rare sheets go into early Beta product.

4. Dec 1, 1993

   The white-bordered Unlimited edition, the card's last tournament-legal printing, is released.

5. Mar 1996

   Wizards establishes the Reserved List, including the Power Nine.

6. Mar 17, 2021

   An Alpha copy graded BGS 9.5 sells for $27,103.00.

7. Sep 14, 2021

   Another BGS 9.5 Alpha copy sells for $50,000.00.

8. Feb 26, 2022

   An Alpha CGC 9.5 copy is offered at auction with an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.

9. Dec 7, 2023

   The Pawn Stars Alpha Ancestral Recall, graded CGC Pristine 10, sells for $38,500 at an auction ending this day.

10. Jun 30, 2024

    An Alpha CGC 9.5 realizes $15,600 at auction.

11. Feb 16, 2026

    An Alpha CGC 8 copy sells for $11,408.00.

The world in 1993

• Jan 20, 1993

  Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd president.

• Feb 26, 1993

  A van bomb explodes beneath the World Trade Center's North Tower.

• Jun 11, 1993

  Jurassic Park opens in theaters.

• Jun 20, 1993

  The Chicago Bulls win their third straight NBA championship.

• Aug 1, 1993

  The Great Flood of 1993 on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers reaches its peak.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Magic Alpha Ancestral Recall is number 57 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (81 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Ancestral Recall was originally a common called Ancestral Memories.
• Garfield called blue 'easily the most powerful magic' for having both Ancestral Recall and Time Walk as commons in playtesting.
• An Alpha Ancestral Recall was found in a sealed Beta starter deck opened on Pawn Stars, because leftover Alpha sheets went into early Beta product.
• All five Boons, the cycle Ancestral Recall belongs to, were built around the number three.
• Wizards spent years printing 'fixed' versions, from Brainstorm to Visions of Beyond.