M:TG NOW OFFICIALLY LESS FUN

Darkpact actually got banned in 5-Color Magic, which is the best way to play. It was considered "ante-fucking" and this was very strongly discouraged. Contract was fine, Jeweled Bird was fine (as long as you heavily modified your white-bordered Birds), but effects that just stole shit from the ante were not cool.

Getting three mana of any color for no cost isn't either, yet it remains, in a limited fashion.

I posit, that if Ante had been able to continue, Darkpact (hell any of the ante cards, but especially Darkpact) would have been on the same collectible monetary calibur as Black Lotus.

gather round and grandpa will tell you a story

Back the early days of Magic, my friends and I would go to Tuesday night Magic club at the UIUC in Champaign, Illinois. Some people would play there, but it was mostly for buying, selling, and trading. There was a guy there called Phil, and I'm not going to say the rest of what we called him because it's impolite.

Phil considered himself a big wheeler dealer, selling cards and also scalping action figures. (One night someone was trying to trade him Magic cards for action figures or vice-versa and Phil said, "Nah, those are two different product lines", as though Phil produced anything.) He was a jerk and my friends and I avoided doing any "business" with him.

One evening in early 1995 something odd was happening. Phil was playing Magic. For ante. He was taking any comers, putting up cards of his own, and then he'd look through your deck to see which of your cards he'd accept as your ante. The cards he was putting up were good ones, too -- valuable out of print ones! Knowing Phil was an asshole, we tried to figure out his angle here, but couldn't.

It turns out the set Chronicles was about to be released. Chronicles was a set which contained re-releases of cards from previous sets. But here's the thing; the Chronicles card list had leaked, and Phil had gotten a copy. The cards he was offering were going to be reprinted soon and were going to plummet in value, so he was offering junk in return for whatever he liked of yours. It wasn't until a while later that we found out about the list leak.

Phil: he was an asshole.