Magic: The Gathering -- Official Encyclopedia, Volume 4: The Complete Card Guide

Volume 4 covers Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy, Classic, Urza's Destiny, Portal: Three Kingdoms, Unglued, and Starter. As always, this volume covers ONLY those expansions released since the previous volume of the encyclopedia. After covering the individual sets, the book gives an overview of 1998 World Championship decks. The book concludes with a "Deckbuilders Indexes" section, as in the earlier volumes of the Magic encyclopedia, but this is now out of date (see Volume 6 or higher).The introductory material (i.e., the section before the expansions are presented) is a bare minimum in this volume: "How to Use this Guide" and "A Visual Guide to Magic Cards". Each expansion covered in Volume 4, as usual, is provided with an introduction, describing any new twists added for that set (including new types of decks that came about as a result), and any noteworthy cards in that set. The introductions provide an informative overview (including descriptions of storylines that were added or updated by the release being described). The entertainment value of the introductions is in inverse proportion to the number of broken cards in the expansion and the severity of the flaws, so with the exception of the deliberately broken Unglued expansion, the introductions in this volume are rather bland. The individual cards for each expansion are listed in alphabetical order; they're shown at about 3/4 actual size. The versions of Magic that included those cards (at the time of printing) are specified, as well as any errata. The card lists' images artwork and flavour text came out well.Having said all that, I would rate this as a mediocre, and even dull volume of the encyclopedia. Consider, if you will, that I have ranted about the encyclopedia's policy of dribbling out a few expansions at a time instead of waiting until they have a substantive amount of material built up. So why have I rated this volume as highly as I have?I'm very fond of the Unglued expansion: that deliberately broken expansion put in for fun, deliberately designed to wind up the rules lawyers, and stuffed with in-jokes about broken cards in previous expansions. "Blacker Lotus", for example, has artwork similar to Black Lotus, and it's even more powerful - but you have to tear up the card to play it, and it's rare. Lots of cards for summoning chickens, squirrels, and clams (Clam-I-Am, Clam Session, and Clambassadors are all cute). The introduction for Unglued points out lots of little things you might miss on your own (e.g., each card has a word down by the copyright; placed in numeric order, the cards spell out a hidden message from the designers).

As is typical with this series, the books are great for collectors looking to complete sets. These books are also useful to anyone who plays regularly and is looking for information on cards that can help them beef up their decks.

Volume 4 contains Urza Saga, Legacy, Classic, Portal-3K, Unglued, Starter as well as Top 1998 World Championship Decks. Wizard of the Coast really should wait until at least Urza Destiny come out before relasing this volume. But this is again a great book with nice picture, information as well as the printing quality is great. Although it might not be the right time to issue it but as a M:tg collector, this is one of the book that should be on your bookshelf (Volume 4).

This book is great 'cause it has pictures of all the magic cards you can think of!

This book contains everything you need to know about every Magic expansion from Unglued up. It is a must have for any serious Magic player. I also recommend that if you have been playing Magic for a while you get volumes 1, 2, and 3.