Text Errors by Color: Artifacts

Japanese Cursed Scroll
This is probably the most famous Artifact text error. The Japanese Cursed Scroll has an activation cost of 2, instead of (the correct) 3 colorless.

Spanish Mana Vault
This is perhaps the worst card ever printed in Magic. This card doesn't untap during your untap phase, does one damage to you if it is tapped, and can only be untapped for 4 colorless spent during your upkeep. Never once on this card does it say that it can be tapped for mana! This crucial line of text was omitted.

Korean BB Avian
The Korean BB Clockwork Avian is superior to any other printing. You can tap it to repair it and put up to SEVEN counters on it, instead of four.

Inferior Avian
The Beatdown box set had a lot of cool cards in it, but Clockwork Avian was not one of them. This version doesn't fly!

French Mask of Tutoring
The French IA Jester's Mask has a funny mistake in the text box, inadvertantly making it a very powerful card. Instead of saying you can target an opponent, it says you can target any PLAYER to give them a new hand of 7 cards! You could target yourself and tutor for 7!

German Bell of Mana
The German BB Kormus Bell (Revised) has an error in the text translation. The last sentence *should* say 'you may now tap lands for mana or to attack.' Instead, this printing says 'You may now tap Kormus Bell for mana or to attack'!

Portuguese Clockwork Mixup
Two Portuguese Homelands artifacts share similar text...a little too similar. Clockwork Swarm says 'Cannot be blocked by walls. Clockwork STEED comes into play with 4 +1/0 counters...' the rest of Clockwork Swarm's text is identical to Clockwork Steed.

Spanish Aperture
The Spanish Tempest Temporal Aperture has a very minor typo: There's an extra zero in the last line, next to the X, that shouldn't be there.

English Omissions
Two recent English printings of Artifacs omit vital text, either by accident or oversight. The first is Wall of Junk - nowhere on this card is there anything to officially make this card a wall - it is an artifact creature. Another is Cold Storage - nowhere on the card does it explain what happens to a card on Cold Storage! Massive errata was issued for this card. Two other English omissions worth noting: Bottle of Suleiman and Nevinyrral's Disk lack a tap symbol in Revised, since they were 'Mono' artifacts in Unlimited, and nobody caught the mistake in the transition to Revised.

What Type is this?
These two artifacts have a problem in their card type. The German Tin-Wing Chimera has 'Tin Wing Chimera' as it's card type, and the Chinese Beast of Burden simply has 'Artifact' as it's card type. Both should be, of course, Artifact Creatures.
Erring Unerring Sling It's wonderfully ironic that the French unerring sling has an error! It can target non-flying creatures, not flying creatures!

German Wagon
The German Prophecy Keldon Battle Wagon has a minor translation error, destroying the card at the end of the turn instead of the end of combat.

Japanese artifact dot
Two Japanese cards were printed with a filled black dot, similar to the German Karplusan Forest. They are both from Masques - Iron Lance and Kyren Toymaker.

Supergate
The Japanese version of the Onslaught card Cryptic Gateway is made better by a minor translation error. Instead of sharing a creature type with "Each" creature tapped, it just has to share a type with 'creatures tapped this way'.
Talisman of Confusion
The Japanese version Talisman of Impulse gives you green and WHITE, not Green and RED!!!
Nice Icy!
French Icy Manipulator from Mirrodin has a curious mistake - it taps OR UNTAPS!!!
Pentav...
Italian Mirrodin Pentavus was printed with the last line of text cut off! The last line says (roughly translated) "1 Sacrifice a pentavite: Put a"

Murmurs of crap
Portuguese Mirrodin Tower of Murmurs makes the player dump 2 cards, not 4. That's a bad millstone!

Mirror Golem of Mirrors
Portuguese Mirror Golem says it imprints "target artifact card", and thus is confusing.
Viridian Enchantment
Portuguese Mirrodin Viridian Longbow says that "Enchanted creature gains..." instead of equipped.

Angel oops
A similar thing happened on about half of the Portuguese Angel's feather in Darksteel. Half of them are missing half of the first line of text!

Bad Claw
German Darksteel Talon of pain only gets a counter with combat damage.
Bad Masticore
The Chinese Fifth Dawn Razormane Masticore was mistranslated to say that you have to discard 2 cards during your upkeep, not one.
Bag Bomb
French 8th Rod of Ruin is quite a rod...it does 3 damage instead of 1!
Enchanting Blade
Italian O-Naginata was printed with a common translation mistake - it says that "enchanted" creature gets +3/+0, not equipped creature.

Text Errors by Color: Land

French Lava Tubes
French IA Lava Tubes was printed with the wrong mana symbol in it's text box. It should give Red and Black mana, but instead it gives Red and Green.

German IA Karplusan Forest
This card has a unique error: The third tap symbol is completely colored in with black ink. The Tap arrow is floating in a big black dot.

Spanish Glacial Chasm
For a long time, I had this listed as a misprint...but it turns out that the version I was traded simply had the upkeep erased with a pencil eraser - it's a fake!
Japanese Mirage Grasslands
There are two versions of this card in Japanese Mirage. One version has the last line of text completely cut off from the card!!!! I'm not sure if two versions were printed simultaneously, or if there was a correction made. I'm also not entirely sure what words are missing, but it is plain to see on these cards that something is really wrong.
German Legacy Colorless lands
Two of the German Legacy lands are missing the color of creature that they create - the Tower and Conclave should be white and blue. The Encampment has it's color, but has a naming error, and the Village and Pool are correct.
Spanish Peat Farm
This is the most dramatic recent misprint. The Spanish Peat Bog is printed with the text of remote farm! You can see from the picture that it says 'Remote farm comes into play tapped...etc.' in Spanish in the text box, and even gives you white mana.

Spanish Port Point
Even a Spanish Magic player might miss the error on this card, but once it has been pointed out it's quite glaring: There is no period in the rules text. Spanish "Crash" from MM also has this omission.

Incredible Edge
The German card "Rath's Edge" is widely considered to be a poor card. You must tap 5 lands and sacrifice one just to do one damage. However, the German Rath's Edge is quite incredible: If tapped for mana, it gives TWO colorless, not one! Pair this with the Japanese Cursed Scroll, and you have quite a combo...

Spanish Legacy Lands typo
Spanish Legacy 'man-lands' have a small typo - they all say '...entre en juego girado' (comes into play tapped), but should say '...entra en juego girado'.

German Thran Quarry
(Updated 8-23-03) I mistranslated the error on this card when I first posted about it. It is actually BETTER than the English version, because you bury it at the end of YOUR turn if you have no creatures - if they all die during your opponent's turn, you get to keep the Quarry for another turn!

Another rumored land error that I do not have (but would love to trade for!) is Korean BB City of Brass. In the name it is called "City of Yellow Metal", but in the text box it says "If City of Blue Metal becomes tapped..." Anyone have one to trade?

Text Errors by Color: Black

German Infinite Imp
The German White Border Nettling Imp is missing his Tap Symbol! You can nettle as many times a turn as you like with him.

German Ebony Charms...
A strange thing happened with the German MI Ebony Charm: It's first printing accidentally included the text from an early playtest version, which was more powerful than the correct version. The first version has three abilities: Each player loses 3 life, remove 3 cards from any graveyard, and target creature gains first strike until the end of the turn. The firs and third ability were corrected in a later printing. How can you tell if you have the correct version? It says so right on the card!!!

German IA Norritt
This card has an oddity that is unique as far as I know: The first line of text is a smaller DPI than the second.

Italian BB Assasin
This guy has a translation error in his text box, making him much stronger. He says 'Destroy a creature that *HAS BEEN* tapped.'

German Cursed Land
The German WB Cursed Land mistakenly says that it is the land which deals one damage to it's controller during upkeep. Oh well, I guess that makes ROP Land better?

Portuguese Abandon Hope
Portuguese Tempest Abandon Hope has an odd typo: It says 'Discard X cards. Look at Opponent's hand and choose *3* cards, he or she discards..." The "3", of course, should be an "X".

Spanish Phyrexian Denouncer
This card simply has a typo: The word "heasta" should be "hasta".

Spanish Bog Imp
The flavor text on this Spanish card is not in Italics, so it looks like ability text. This error actually occurs on a number of Spanish 6th cards, including Air Elemental and Trained Armadon. I do not know how many others might have this mistake.

Chinese Bodysnatcher
I have it on good authority that this card says you can discard a card (not just a creature card) when this version comes into play.

Grounded Reaper
Dread Reaper, a powerful portal card, is less powerful in Chinese - it is missing flying.

German super-horror
This bad card was excellent in Germany, until it was pointed out that the phrase "each player may put a creature from their graveyard into play" was mistranslated from "each opponent may..."

Horrible Horror
Cosmic horror isn't good, but the Chinese BB printing is worse than others - it lacks First Strike.

Unmask yourself
The Spanish printing of the Masques rare 'unmask' is worded in such a way that you could discard a card yourself. Roughly translated, the second part of the card says "Look at target opponent's hand and choose a card other than a land. That PLAYER discards this card". It should be 'opponent'. The Portuguese version lets you discard a black CREATURE card as the alternate cost.

Great Wurm
The Spanish Mirage Barbed-back Wurm is great, even against non-green creatures! That's because it's missing the word 'green' in the text box, so you can give target blocking creature (not target green creature blocking it) -1/-1 for B.

Clipped Vamp
Italian Mirage Ravenous Vampire was printed without flying.

Happy Tears
The German Uncommon Defiling tears is GREAT for your team in German- it gives the enchanted creature +1/+1 instead of +1/-1.

Do, and SOMETIMES Die
The German Invasion "Do or Die" is missing the line - "These creatures cannot regenerate".

Russian Pre-Release flub
I have heard from several people that WOTC flubbed their first card printed in Russian. According to several of you, the pre-release card from Torment was printed so that when the Champion leaves play, the 6 life is gained by either "any player" or "target player" (instead of THAT player), so technically you could take the life from your opponent and give it back to yourself! Russian Laquatus Translation: Here's an exact translation from "Avenger":

Laquatus's Warrior

When Laquatus's Warrior comes into play target player loses 6 life. When Laquatus's Warrior leaves play target player gains 6 life. B: Regenerate Laquatus's Warrior

Type Hunter
S-Chinese Onslaught Headhunter appears to have no creature type! Upon closer examination, you can see that the blank ink was printed, but the white ink was never laid into place, so it appears that he has no type.

Silent Slip-up
Portuguese Onslaught Silent Specter was printed without flying.
Black Promise
Spanish Mirrodin Promise of Power forgets to specify that the Demon Token is BLACK.
Wasted Square
This very odd misprint was donated to the site by a German chap named Stefan Aust who says he saw a friend open it from a pack. I'd love to hear from someone else with a T-Chinese Torment FOIL Waste Away to confirm that they're all like this!!!

Text Errors by Color: Blue

Alpha Unsummon
This card has one of the most unusual typos ever printed on a magic card: Enchantments on creature are CARD ed. CARD ed? Big typo.

Chinese Portal Storm Crow
This card is missing something pretty important for a crow: Flying!

Sergovian Leviathan
The English and Italian Legends printing of this card have an error in the flavor text: There is no Job 20:45! It was corrected by 4th edition.

Japanese Rootwater Diver
I am told that this card mistakenly says that you can bring a creature card from the graveyard, instead of an artifact card.

Japanese BB Apprentice Wizard
The '3' colorless mana should have a gray mana circle around it - it doesn't.

Chinese BB Time Elemental
The Chinese BB Time Elemtental has a tiny typo: An extra comma in the activation cost. I know it's nit-picking! It's a legitimate error, though.

SP Zephid's Embrace
This card is missing a very important math symbol...can you see where the + should be?

Confusuing Chill
The Spanish 6th edition card has a rather confusing translation error - it says red spells cost two colorless, "or more".

German Propaganda
This card simply says 'Creatures cannot attack unless their controller pays 2', making it rather lame for a blue player with creatures to cast (should be creatures cannot attack YOU..."

Acumulated Errors
WOTC has been getting better and better at catching errors in their cards, but for some reason there was a problem on TWO versions of Acumulated Knowlege in Nemesis: The Spanish version has a rather tiny typo: There is a space between the a and l in the word "al" in the text box. The Chinese version has a rather LARGE error: The rules text is printed twice on the card! Chinese players thought this was a pretty incredible card-drawing spell until they discovered that it was a mistake.

Balduvian Shame
This card has been in my collection for years, but it was only recently pointed out to me that the very first word in the text box - "permanantly", is spelled incorrectly!

Undying Owl
Simplified Chinese Portal has a major problem with '...Owl' (equivalent to Spire Owl). It has flying, but instead of saying "when ... Owl comes into play, draw 4 cards...etc", it says "When Undying beast is put into your graveyard from play, put Undying Beast on top of your library." Whoops!

Teferi's Lame Response
The German printing of Teferis' response is missing a crucial line of text - the one telling you to draw!

Metathran's Lame Transport
Another German Invasion oops...Metathran transport can be blocked ONLY by blue creatures (should be 'can NOT be blocked by blue creatures'). This makes his special ability pretty lame!

Unstable card type
Spanish 5th edition Unstable Mutation is called "Mutacion inestable'. It's spell type is 'Mutacion inestable' - see the problem? Should be an Enchant Creature card.

Flymarid Card type
This Japanese card has a very minor error - it is "Summon Flymarid" not Summon Beast

Looter Wizard
This is a very strange one - a very small number of English Odyssy Cephalid looters were printed with the card type "Cephalid Wizard" instead of just "Cephalid". It is unknown exacly how many exist, but some theorize that these were opened at some pre-releases or in some initial printings of preconstructed decks. Either way, the mistake was quickly corrected and now they are fairly rare!

Magus of the flip
Korean Magus of the unseen (from 5th) has a very tiny error - the blue and colorless mana symbols are flipped in the activation cost.

Lost in Space
A small error, but the Spanish "Lost in Thought" from JD doesn't have a space between "Encantar" and "Criatura" in the card type.

Japanese Keeper
Keeper of the Nine Gales is no Tradewind Rider, but the Japanese version is even worse - it doesn't fly!

Inept Adept
Portuguese COK Graceful Adept was printed with its rules text in ENGLISH!

Spanish Bomb
Everyone knows Meloku is good in limited, but Spanish COK players thought WOTC had gone crazy - it created 2/2 tokens, not 1/1! Thanks to Dilligaf for reporting this one!
Moyjin of the crappy crap
The blue COK Moyjin in Portuguese is missing the paragraph that says what happens if you remove the divinity counter! D'oh!
Thunderheads -wy
A small portion of English Foil Thunderheads were printed with the letters 'y' and 'w' missing from their italics text (flavor and reminder text). They seem to be pretty rare, with only 10-20% exhibiting this error. It is possible that only the product made available at the pre-releases had this error, and it was later corrected.

Text Errors by Color: White

Infinite Authority
This powerful English Legend has a silly typo: The word 'Creature' is spelled 'Creaeture' in the 5th instance.

Portuguese Elite Javelineer
Portuguese players thought this card was just aweful: If he ATTACKS, he can deal 1 damage to an attacking creature! It should be BLOCKS!

German WB Castle
This version of Castle has a translation error, giving ALL untapped creatures +0/+2 (not just yours).

Spanish COP:Artifacts
The Spanish 5th edition version of this enchantment is superior: It incorrectly lists the activation cost of 1 colorless (it should be 2).

Japanese Warmth
This Tempest card was printed with a numbering mistake: You get 3 life for each red spell, not 2.

Japanese Amrou KithkinRETRACTION
A couple of players who know Japanese have pointed out that this card says 'Cannot be blocked by creatures power 3 or more', which is essentially the same as 'greater than 2 (english)'. This is not an error.

Korean WB COP's
ALL White Bordered COP's have identical text - that of COP Black! Shown here are Red and Blue. I still need White, Black, and Green. Anyone have any to sell or trade?

German RN Piety
This card has a VERY minor error. It quotes verse 24:51 from the Koran. It should be Verse 24:52.

German Angelic Renewal
This Tempest card has a minor translating error, mixing verb tenses and making it confusing for German Players. Here is an exact translation, with much thanks to starr Kaplan, Tolarian Grammarian:

Card reads (exact translation): Whenever any creature go [sic] to your graveyard from play, you may sacrifice Angelic Renewal and put that creature directly into play.

The first part is ambiguous in that the verb form doesn't match its subject in number. "...landen" is plural, so the verb implies that the ability described in the second clause applies to ALL creatures put in the graveyard from play that turn.

However, the second clause, which actually CONVEYS the ability, specifies "diese Kreatur" (singular), thus allowing only one target per Angelic Renewal.

Korean Lancers En-Kor
This version of the Lancer is missing Trample. And it wasn't that great to begin with...

Korean WB Mesa Falcon
Flightless birds are nothing new to Magic (can you say Whipporwill?), but this one is an error! The Korean Mesa Falcon can't fly (just ignore the picture).

SP Shimmering
The reminder text on Spanish Shimmering Barrier for cycling is in normal text, not italics.

Broken Lightbringer
Lawbringer and Lightbringer are two rebels who have made playing white weenie much more viable by providing a means to remove red and black creatures from the game quickly. Thanks to a translation error on German Lightbringer, this card is even more amazing! It can remove target black CARD from the game, not creature!!!!

Master Apprentice
The German Sunscape apprentice from Invasion is much better than its English brethren - it can put any target creature on top of it's owner's library - it's missing "you control"!

German Bruiser
Sir Sidar?!
I have recently discovered an apparent discrepancy between printings of Mirage's Sidar Jabari: The European versions seem to count him as a Knight, but the Asian and English ones do not. I would welcome any info anyone has on non-english printings! It appears that there is a similar problem with Shaku, Endbringer counting as a Vampire in Europe - I would love to trade for any foreign copies of this card.

Ant Castle
This is a funny one - in Japanese 5th, Castle is printed as card type "Summon Ants"!!!!

Card Hunting Mage
The German planeshift Sunscape Battlemage has as it's blue kicker - draw two TARGET cards."

The Missing Lynx
Simplified Chinese Apocalypse Spectral Lynx is missing the ability - Protection from Green.

The Point of Vengeance
Several Spanish cards are printed without a period at the end of sentences of rules text, but this Spanish Portal Two Vengeance is the only card I've seen with TWO periods.

Aven Soulgazer
The Japanese version of this card was printed with the wrong profession - Soldier instead of Cleric.

Double Wrath
The Chinese BB Wrath of God has the card type printed twice. I still need one!

Foxy fox
Portuguese Kitsune Mystic has the creature line of the flipped legend in English!

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