Alchor's Tomb: The Card That Was Originally A Tome

Illus. Jesper Myfors

Magic: The Gathering mistakes rarely get anybody mad, but, when they do (and that person is the boss of the company), things can get interesting.

For that, we need to go back to 1994 when the third Magic expansion, Legends, came out. That expansion, the creators at Magic wanted to pay tribute to Wizards of the Coast founder and then-CEO Peter Adkinson. As it turned out, he played Dungeons and Dragons as a wizard named Alchor. So naturally, they incorporated that character into the planned card.

Their idea was that since a tome was an artifact for a wizard, they would name it 'Alchor's Tome'. They commissioned artist Jesper Myrfors and called it a day, just needing that to complete it. However, by the time the art came in, they noticed something unusual. It wasn't a tome in the art. It was a tomb.

As it turned out, the artist had misheard them and made it a tomb, and not a tome as planned. It was understandable, as the letters were only a few away and, to the right ear, the words sounded almost the same. So when it was said, he didn't question it and illustrated it as commissioned.

When it came it, there was no time to get another piece of art, so they changed the name of the card instead. As such, Alchor's Tome became Alchor's Tomb.

Everyone seemed to be amused by the change. Well, everyone but Adkinson. His response to the card? "This is how you honor my character, by killing him?".

That being said, he later became pretty cool with how it turned out, and despite chances to fix it, Magic hasn't really done that, and the tomeless tomb is still just that.