Wizards of the Coast Employee Cards

Index | 1994 Cards | 1994 Tokens


Back in 1994, when Wizards of the Coast still was a small company and Magic a less sophisticated product, some Wizards of the Coast employees were known to create their own Magic cards and hand them around within the company.
Some of these cards were created by Cindy Vanous. While not being an employee herself, she had good connections to the company (Many of the artists and founders were part of her and husband regular poker game at the time).
She created her cards by using original Magic backsides and glueing her own laser-printed fronts onto them. Very few copies have survived until today.

Two of Cindy Vanous' cards, Painful Hedgehog and Urza's Lawn Ornament, also made an appearance in one of Wizards of the Coast's God Books right after the release of Antiquities.
These God Books were binders which held one of each Magic card ever made. They were used mostly by customer service.
To avoid risking theft of the steadily value-increasing cards, they were later on replaced by the Magic Encyclopedia book series.

Drunken hummingbirds is a birthday card created by Margaret Organ-Kean whp was a freelancer artist for WotC. Only 4 cards were created.

At least one more employee cards called Plot Device is known to exist.

Two tokens are known to exist: Giant Wasp (one of the earliest known attempts to create tokens for MTG - Only 2 are known to exist) and Poison Snake, both were created in 1994. Both are stickers glued on Unlimited or Revised cards.


InQuest #28 magazine and article "101 Magic Facts"


Painful Hedgehog and Urza's Lawn Ornament in a God book.


1994 Cards - Wizards of the Coast Employee Cards
SETNUMCARDNAMEARTISTSOURCEDATEINFO
001 Forest GumpJohn Misc.Internal card created by ???1994-?YES 
002 Drunken hummingbirdsMargaret Organ-KeanBirthday card1995YES 
003 Mishra's BuickCindy VanousInternal card created by Cindy Vanous1994-?YES 
004 Painful HedgehogsCindy VanousInternal card created by Cindy Vanous1994-?YES 
005 Plot DeviceInternal card created by ???Date unknown
006 Urza's Lawn OrnamentCindy VanousInternal card created by Cindy Vanous1994-?YES 
 


1994 Tokens - Wizards of the Coast Employee Cards
SETNUMCARDNAMEARTISTSOURCEDATEINFO
001 NEED TO ADD SCAN
Giant Wasp
Internal card created by ???1994YES 
002 NEED TO ADD SCAN
Poison Snake
Ted TrollmanInternal card created by ???1994YES