What is Summer Magic (Edgar) in Magic: The Gathering?

Summer Magic, catalogued as set SUM and known internally as Edgar, is an extremely rare corrective print run of Revised Edition produced by Wizards of the Coast in 1994. It was printed to fix quality issues with Revised but introduced new errors — including a blue-bordered Hurricane — and was recalled almost immediately, leaving only a small number of copies in circulation.

Why is Summer Magic so rare and valuable?

Summer Magic was recalled by Wizards of the Coast shortly after distribution began, meaning only the copies that had already shipped to retailers and players survived. That fixed, very small supply — combined with the set's historical significance and famous misprints like the blue-bordered Hurricane — makes surviving cards extremely valuable to collectors.

What is the blue-bordered Hurricane from Summer Magic?

Hurricane is a green spell that should have a green card border. In the Summer Magic print run, it was mistakenly printed with a blue border — one of the most dramatic misprints in Magic's history. A blue-bordered Hurricane is one of the most identifiable and sought-after cards from the set, and genuine copies can sell for many thousands of dollars.

How do I identify a Summer Magic card?

Summer Magic cards are visually distinct from standard Revised cards by their deeper, more saturated colours — the corrective printing overcorrected Revised's washed-out palette. The most reliable single identifier is the blue-bordered Hurricane. Authenticating Summer Magic cards for high-value transactions typically requires professional grading from a service like PSA or BGS.

Are Summer Magic cards legal in any MTG format?

Summer Magic cards are versions of their Revised Edition counterparts, so they function the same in rules terms. However, their extreme rarity means you are essentially never going to encounter them in competitive play. They are prized as collector items rather than tournament cards.

What set code is Summer Magic?

Summer Magic uses the set code SUM. It is also widely referred to as Edgar after its internal Wizards of the Coast codename, which stuck in the collector community because the set was never formally marketed under a public name before being recalled.

Summer Magic / Edgar (SUM): The Rarest MTG Set Ever

Some sets define a format. Some define an era. Summer Magic - catalogued under the set code SUM and known to collectors as Edgar - defines something rarer still: a cautionary tale printed on cardboard, then almost immediately recalled.

Released in the summer of 1994, Summer Magic was a limited corrective print run of what would become the Revised Edition (also called Revised, or 3rd Edition). Wizards of the Coast produced it to fix several printing errors that had crept into Revised, but the correction created new problems severe enough that the entire run was pulled from distribution almost immediately. Almost - because enough product made it onto shelves and into booster boxes that a small number of copies survived, and those survivors are now among the most coveted and expensive cards in the game's history.

If you've never heard of Summer Magic before, don't worry. Most players haven't. That obscurity is part of the point.

What is Summer Magic / Edgar?

Summer Magic is an extremely rare, corrective print run of Revised Edition, produced by Wizards of the Coast in 1994. It is not a standalone expansion - it draws its card list from Revised, containing the same core set cards of that era. The set carries the internal codename Edgar, which is how collectors often refer to it today.

The set code is SUM, and the total card count mirrors Revised at 306 cards, though sources sometimes cite minor variations. It was printed to address quality control issues with Revised Edition, including washed-out colours and other visual inaccuracies - ironically, the corrective run introduced its own problems severe enough to trigger a recall.

Format check: Summer Magic cards are not legal in any sanctioned competitive format by virtue of their rarity and reprinted-card status. Their status in Vintage and Legacy - formats that otherwise permit the oldest Magic cards - is effectively moot; they function as versions of their Revised counterparts, but you are extremely unlikely to encounter one at a tournament table.

Why does the name "Edgar" exist?

Internal Wizards codenames for sets during Magic's early years were often just placeholder names. Edgar was the working codename for this print run, and because so few people ever saw official documentation for it, the codename stuck among the collector community as the primary way to distinguish these cards from standard Revised copies.

What makes Summer Magic cards visually distinct?

Identifying a Summer Magic card is genuinely tricky, and getting it wrong in either direction - mistaking a Revised card for a Summer card, or vice versa - can mean the difference of thousands of dollars.

A few key visual markers collectors look for:

Deeper, richer colours - the corrective printing overcorrected Revised's washed-out palette, resulting in noticeably more saturated card faces.
A darker overall appearance - Summer Magic cards often look slightly more vivid or even slightly darker than their Revised equivalents when held side by side.
The Hurricane error - the most famous individual printing mistake in the set. Summer Magic's Hurricane was printed with a blue border instead of the green border it should carry as a green card. A blue-bordered Hurricane is one of the most recognisable indicators that a card may be from this print run, and it is the single most sought-after card in the set.
Copyright date - Summer Magic cards carry a 1994 copyright date, which they share with some other printings of the era, so this alone isn't conclusive.

Rules note: The cards themselves function identically to their Revised counterparts in terms of game rules. The value and interest is entirely collector-driven, not gameplay-driven.

The Hurricane: Summer Magic's most famous misprint

Of all the quirks Summer Magic produced, the blue-bordered Hurricane is the one that has genuinely entered Magic mythology.

Hurricane is a green spell - it deals damage to all creatures with flying and to each player. It has always had a green border. In the Summer Magic print run, it was mistakenly given a blue border, making it visually look like a blue card on a card back that shows a uniform Magic border. It is a genuinely jarring thing to see if you know what you're looking at.

This single error is, in my opinion, the most visually dramatic misprint in the game's history. It's not subtle. A blue Hurricane is one of those objects that makes even seasoned collectors do a double-take, because everything about it looks wrong in a way that is immediately obvious once you know the card.

Copies of the blue-bordered Hurricane command extraordinary prices on the secondary market - we're talking a card that can fetch many thousands of dollars, depending on condition.

Why was Summer Magic recalled?

The recall happened because the corrective print run created at least as many problems as it solved. The most significant issues were:

The colour corrections overshot, producing cards that looked noticeably different from other Revised cards, which would create inconsistency at the table.
Individual errors, like the Hurricane misprint, slipped through quality control.
Wizards made the decision that pulling the print run was preferable to introducing a visually inconsistent wave of product into the market.

The recall was swift, but not complete. Some boxes and packs had already shipped and been sold. Those that survived the recall - in the hands of distributors, retailers, or players who had already cracked packs - became the entire extant supply of Summer Magic cards. That limited survival is the foundation of everything that makes this set remarkable to collectors.

Set legacy and collector significance

Summer Magic / Edgar occupies a unique space in Magic's history - it is arguably the rarest set the game has ever produced, in the sense that it was commercially distributed (however briefly) and then recalled, leaving a fixed and very small pool of cards in circulation.

This is distinct from other rare Magic objects like the Alpha Black Lotus or the Power Nine, which were rare because of limited print runs but were never recalled. Summer Magic's rarity comes from an accident of manufacturing and a swift corporate decision.

For collectors, the appeal is clear: these are among the hardest-to-find cards in the game's thirty-year history, and the blue-bordered Hurricane is a one-of-a-kind printing error on a card that should never have looked that way. Condition, authenticity verification, and provenance matter enormously when buying or selling these cards - grading by a recognised service like PSA or BGS is essentially required for serious transactions.

For historians of the game, Summer Magic is a window into an era when Wizards of the Coast was still a small company feeling its way through the logistics of a suddenly enormous phenomenon. Magic had exploded in popularity far faster than anyone anticipated, and the production pressures of 1993 and 1994 created exactly the kind of quality control gaps that Summer Magic represents.

I think what makes Summer Magic genuinely interesting - beyond the collector dollar amounts - is what it says about that early period. This was a company trying to keep up with demand, printing corrections to fix errors, and then having to recall those corrections because they also had errors. It is, in its own way, a very human story about a very strange and wonderful game finding its footing. ✨