Portal

Portal

Portal is a starter-level set released on May 1, 1997. It was Wizards of the Coast's first major attempt at a set catering to prospective and newer players. It was designed to provide them a format with simpler rules than a core set or an expansion set.

Portal contains 215 black-bordered cards (55 rare, 55 uncommon, 85 common, and 20 lands).

In an effort to facilitate learning Magic, Portal was markedly aesthetically and mechanically different from previous non-starter-level sets. To simplify game play, Portal featured no instants, enchantments, or artifacts and, subsequently, had a simpler set of rules. Some sorceries could be played outside the normal timing rules for sorceries, and these cards received errata as appropriate. Creature cards printed in Portal featured no creature types, and their type line read "Summon Creature". These cards also received errata.

Portal also featured different terminology from that established in previous sets. These terms included "intercepting" for blocking, "deck" for library, "discard pile" for graveyard, "offense" for power, and "defense" for toughness. Although these new terms were intended to simplify learning Magic, particularly as a stepping stone for more complex sets, they were a source of distress for players if and when they started to use advanced-level and/or expert-level cards, which do not use this terminology. Cards featuring these terms also received errata but are otherwise functionally the same.

To facilitate interpreting cards, the established layout was changed such that the power/toughness parameters printed on creature cards were accompanied by sword and shield symbols to more readily clarify the meaning of these numbers. Furthermore, rules text was in bold type to distinguish it from flavor text. Moreover, a thick line was drawn between rules text and flavor text to reinforce the distinction.

In the beginning, many on the design team were confused about the expectations behind the Portal concept. As a joke, they named it "Harvey", after the invisible rabbit in the famous play and movie. Like the fictional Harvey, Portal at the time was big, invisible, and no one knew what it was. Portal was not a legal set for official tournament play in any organized format until October 20, 2005, when it and other starter-level sets were made sanctioned for Legacy and Vintage formats.