Magic the Gathering and the Power 9 Part 1
Whether you were a 90s kid or a fan card games, you may have fond memories of and current strong positive feelings for Magic the Gathering (MTG). Considered the first playable trading card game, produced by the card company Wizards of the Coast, MTG was launched towards the end of the junk wax era in 1993. To provide some background, the creators of MTG drew heavily from role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. However the game and rules differ significantly.
Since its debut in 1993, Magic has remained extremely popular with over a billion dollars in reported revenue in 2023 By Wizards of the Coast. With that in mind, I wanted to take a look back at the early days of Magic the Gather to discuss a group of Magic cards known as the Power 9. Along with these being some of the most powerful cards in the game, they are also some of the most rare and valuable trading cards in the world across all sports and entertainment.
For references, The Power 9 consist of the following cards, Time Twinster, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, the five Mox (Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, Jet, and Pearl), and probably the most well known and valuable of them all, the Black Lotus. A couple of important notes about all the Power 9 cards is that they were limited in releases to the first three Magic sets, Alpha, Beta, Unlimited. This was an intentional decision by Wizards of the Coast to preserve their collectible value. Also, owing to how powerful the cards are in game play, they are banned for the majority of tournaments or if allowed are done so in limited quantities.
Lastly, even though they were restricted in tournament play, many people did use them for their designed purpose so finding pristine cards without wear and tear from game play is incredibly challenging. In this article I’ll be focusing on the history and value of the three blue cards in The Power 9: Timetwinster, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk.
Timetwister
Timetwister is probably the quirkiest of the Power 9 which admittedly all are pretty quirky. When playing the card as it says, both players essentially have to take all the cards in their hand and including those out of play in the graveyard, shuffle them together and they draw a fresh set of seven cards. Not quite a restart of the game, it’s probably the closesting card to doing that in game play. In my younger days, I was not as fond of the artwork on the card by the talented Mark Tedian, however my opinion and appreciation of the card has changed.
Tedian masterfully blends the colors, shades, and contours to capture the witch's hands and the look of fear on the warrior's face as he begins to dissolve. In terms of value, the most recent sale of an Unlimited Timetwister card checked at $3000-$3500 raw and a Beta selling for $5,000. If you’re looking to buy at the very top of the market a PSA 10 Alpha Timetwister sold for $86,000 in 2023
Time Walk
Time walk has one of the more interesting backstories attached to its history. Before its release in 1993 MTG underwent play testing. While going head to head in a game with Richard Garfield, one of the creators, his opponent told him that he was about to play a card to win the game. It was Time Walk as the original text on the card said, “player loses next turn”. The intention of the card was to only skip a turn, so the wording was changed to its current iteration for clarity as seen above. The card also has the distinction of being the only one of the Power 9 to be illustrated by a female artist, Amy Weber. The card’s illustration is very cool as it seems to draw inspiration from artist Salvidor Dali’s Persistence of Time as skeletons with clocks on their faces walk along a landscape at twilight. The card also contains elements that give it an almost cubist feel with its various colorful shapes and structures against the dark background. For collectors or those lucky enough to own a Time Walk, the most recent sale of a PSA 10 Alpha was $63,000 at auction in 2023 per 130point. An Unlimited PSA 10 sold as recently as May of 2025 went for $8,400
Ancestral Recall
The last of the three Blue Power 9 cards, Ancestral Recall is one of the most powerful cards in Magic. The card allows a player to draw 3 cards or force his opponent to draw three cards circumventing the one card draw from the deck per turn rule. Playing this card essentially speeds the game up by allowing the player to accelerate resource development at a relatively low cost. Initially during early phases of game development, both Ancestral Recall and Time Walk were going to be common cards, however, creator Richard Garfield realized how powerful they could be during game play. Thus, both cards were made rare before the game was released.
In my opinion, the illustration on the better and more unique ones amongst the Power Painted by Mark Poole, the card features an Aztec temple in the background with what appears to be an Aztec priest with a white aura around his body as he touches his head. I always appreciated the details on the man’s face even though I thought as a kid he was having the same reaction I had when I got an ice cream headache. In terms of value, an Ancestral Recall Unlimited PSA 10 sold at auction for $8,100. An Alpha PSA 10 has not sold at auction since 2023. The final sale price of that card was $37,200 per 130 point.
