Portal Playtest Cards
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 2:53 am
While searching for interesting items to add to my Global Sets, I've stumbled onto some Portal Playtest Cards from a couple playtesters.
I plan to keep the cards that fit my Global Sets, and sell off the rest to recoup my costs, but before any of them head off to new homes, I wanted to document them here for future reference. I've also researched some additional info on these cards from other sources, and will include that here also. Maybe someday we'll know what the complete set looks like.
For anyone who isn't aware, Playtest cards are what the Research & Development team uses to test how new cards interact with each other during set development. This helps to discover problems with the cards, and also helps to make the set balanced. Playtest cards are the first version of a card, before it gets printed and becomes a regular real card. Some playtest cards never make it beyond this testing stage.
Changes are made to the cards throughout playtesting, and it's normal for a set to have a few generations of playtesting.
Playtest cards have been made a few different ways over the years. During the mid 1990's, Wizards of the Coast Research & Development found it convenient to print the new card info onto stickers, and adhere those onto regular Magic cards for playtesting. They used this process for many many years, and may still be using it today. Playtest cards were created differently prior to this. The first generation of Portal Playtest cards are the only Playtest cards that I've seen with half sized stickers. I suspect that these are the very first attempt at using stickers for Playtest cards.
During the time these cards were made, official WotC checklists were organized in Black, Blue, Green, Red, White, (BUGRW) order. This is alphabetical order, which is the way the computer organized them.
I will list the cards in that order here, separated by generation.
(White, Blue, Black, Red, Green (WUBRG) order was used for Mirage & Visions, and then on 1998 and later Magic sets. This is clockwise order of the mana symbols on the card back, starting at the top.)
Now that we're through the introductions, On to the good stuff...
Each card has a 4 digit identification code.
The first digit indicates the card rarity.
c=Common
n=Uncommon
r=Rare
The second digit indicates the card color.
b=Black
u=Blue
g=Green
r=Red
w=White
The last two digits indicate the card number. Each color and each rarity is numbered separately.
For example: Commons are numbered 1 through 17 in each color, while Uncommons are numbered 1 through 13 in each color
(Note: Mark Rosewater has mentioned that in general, sets frequently had 18 Commons in each color. This means that we may also be missing the 18th card in each color here, but I won't add it to the lists until we have some evidence that it exists.)
In addition to organizing these Playtest cards by generation, I will organize them by color, rarity, and card number.
This will allow us to see how many Playtest cards we are missing. Hopefully more will be found in the future, and we can fill in some of the blank spaces.
I used a bright light behind each card, to look through the card and see what regular card it was. I will also include here, what regular card the Playtest sticker has been attached to. This will provide some insight into when the playtesting occurred for each generation.
While a new set is being designed, it doesn't yet have an official name. Instead, it has a Codename.
Codenames began with Alliances as an internal office prank. Someone discovered that if you gave a computer folder the same name as a sound file, the computer would play the sound file whenever the folder was opened. Alliances was given the codename Quack, and whenever anyone in the office opened the computer files to work on the set, the whole office would hear the audible Quack sound file.
The first generation of Portal playtesting was created before Alliances or codenames. A few cards from the first generation of Portal playtesting were added to Alliances playtesting and actually got printed there before / instead of in Portal.
Portal received its codename for the second generation of playtesting. The Codename for Portal was Harvey.
Harvey is abbreviated as HA on the second generation and third generation Playtest cards. It does not appear on the first generation Playtest cards.
During the first generation of Portal Playtesting, members of the design team were confused about the expectations behind the Portal concept. The Codename Harvey comes from a 1944 play (1950 movie starring James Stewart), in which Harvey is a big invisible rabbit, and no one knows what he is.
The first and second generations of playtesting were done internally by the Research & Development team, as is typical.
However, because this set was designed for teaching beginners, they really needed some feedback from people who had never played the game.
The third generation of playtesting was advertised locally in Renton Washington where WotC was located. Kids who had never played could sign up, and be provided with 5 prebuilt decks and some instructions. These 5 decks were assembled by R&D, and based on the Portal tip card deck suggestions. For Example: Everyone received a Blue & White "Air Power" deck, but these "Air Power" decks were not identical to each other. Every "Air Power" deck was a little different, containing some different Blue & White cards. It was the same way for the other four decks. No one received a full set of Portal Playtest cards, they only got their 5 decks. This means that if you were playing your "Air Power" deck against someone else's "Air Power" deck, both players would see some new cards that they weren't familiar with.
A note on rarity: All Playtest cards are pretty rare. Most of them are lost to the years, having been thrown away or destroyed long ago.
One of the playtesters told me that they believed at least 100 kids received 5 decks each. From what I've seen, I only have one copy of most of these cards. There are also several cards that I have two copies of. There are a few cards that I have several copies of, sometimes more than 4 copies.
I plan to keep the cards that fit my Global Sets, and sell off the rest to recoup my costs, but before any of them head off to new homes, I wanted to document them here for future reference. I've also researched some additional info on these cards from other sources, and will include that here also. Maybe someday we'll know what the complete set looks like.
For anyone who isn't aware, Playtest cards are what the Research & Development team uses to test how new cards interact with each other during set development. This helps to discover problems with the cards, and also helps to make the set balanced. Playtest cards are the first version of a card, before it gets printed and becomes a regular real card. Some playtest cards never make it beyond this testing stage.
Changes are made to the cards throughout playtesting, and it's normal for a set to have a few generations of playtesting.
Playtest cards have been made a few different ways over the years. During the mid 1990's, Wizards of the Coast Research & Development found it convenient to print the new card info onto stickers, and adhere those onto regular Magic cards for playtesting. They used this process for many many years, and may still be using it today. Playtest cards were created differently prior to this. The first generation of Portal Playtest cards are the only Playtest cards that I've seen with half sized stickers. I suspect that these are the very first attempt at using stickers for Playtest cards.
During the time these cards were made, official WotC checklists were organized in Black, Blue, Green, Red, White, (BUGRW) order. This is alphabetical order, which is the way the computer organized them.
I will list the cards in that order here, separated by generation.
(White, Blue, Black, Red, Green (WUBRG) order was used for Mirage & Visions, and then on 1998 and later Magic sets. This is clockwise order of the mana symbols on the card back, starting at the top.)
Now that we're through the introductions, On to the good stuff...
Each card has a 4 digit identification code.
The first digit indicates the card rarity.
c=Common
n=Uncommon
r=Rare
The second digit indicates the card color.
b=Black
u=Blue
g=Green
r=Red
w=White
The last two digits indicate the card number. Each color and each rarity is numbered separately.
For example: Commons are numbered 1 through 17 in each color, while Uncommons are numbered 1 through 13 in each color
(Note: Mark Rosewater has mentioned that in general, sets frequently had 18 Commons in each color. This means that we may also be missing the 18th card in each color here, but I won't add it to the lists until we have some evidence that it exists.)
In addition to organizing these Playtest cards by generation, I will organize them by color, rarity, and card number.
This will allow us to see how many Playtest cards we are missing. Hopefully more will be found in the future, and we can fill in some of the blank spaces.
I used a bright light behind each card, to look through the card and see what regular card it was. I will also include here, what regular card the Playtest sticker has been attached to. This will provide some insight into when the playtesting occurred for each generation.
While a new set is being designed, it doesn't yet have an official name. Instead, it has a Codename.
Codenames began with Alliances as an internal office prank. Someone discovered that if you gave a computer folder the same name as a sound file, the computer would play the sound file whenever the folder was opened. Alliances was given the codename Quack, and whenever anyone in the office opened the computer files to work on the set, the whole office would hear the audible Quack sound file.
The first generation of Portal playtesting was created before Alliances or codenames. A few cards from the first generation of Portal playtesting were added to Alliances playtesting and actually got printed there before / instead of in Portal.
Portal received its codename for the second generation of playtesting. The Codename for Portal was Harvey.
Harvey is abbreviated as HA on the second generation and third generation Playtest cards. It does not appear on the first generation Playtest cards.
During the first generation of Portal Playtesting, members of the design team were confused about the expectations behind the Portal concept. The Codename Harvey comes from a 1944 play (1950 movie starring James Stewart), in which Harvey is a big invisible rabbit, and no one knows what he is.
The first and second generations of playtesting were done internally by the Research & Development team, as is typical.
However, because this set was designed for teaching beginners, they really needed some feedback from people who had never played the game.
The third generation of playtesting was advertised locally in Renton Washington where WotC was located. Kids who had never played could sign up, and be provided with 5 prebuilt decks and some instructions. These 5 decks were assembled by R&D, and based on the Portal tip card deck suggestions. For Example: Everyone received a Blue & White "Air Power" deck, but these "Air Power" decks were not identical to each other. Every "Air Power" deck was a little different, containing some different Blue & White cards. It was the same way for the other four decks. No one received a full set of Portal Playtest cards, they only got their 5 decks. This means that if you were playing your "Air Power" deck against someone else's "Air Power" deck, both players would see some new cards that they weren't familiar with.
A note on rarity: All Playtest cards are pretty rare. Most of them are lost to the years, having been thrown away or destroyed long ago.
One of the playtesters told me that they believed at least 100 kids received 5 decks each. From what I've seen, I only have one copy of most of these cards. There are also several cards that I have two copies of. There are a few cards that I have several copies of, sometimes more than 4 copies.