1994 Magic: The Gathering Summer Edgar (Blue Hurricane)

In the world of Magic: The Gathering, there are rare cards, and then there are cards that should not exist at all. The Summer Magic "Blue Hurricane" falls squarely into the second category. Born from a botched print run that was recalled and destroyed almost immediately, the Blue Hurricane is arguably the most famous misprint in all of trading card game history. It is a card that Wizards of the Coast tried to erase from existence, and that attempt at destruction is precisely what makes surviving copies worth thousands of dollars today.

If you have never heard the story of Summer Magic (codenamed "Edgar" internally at Wizards), buckle up. This is one of the wildest tales in the history of collectible card games.

The Story Behind Summer Magic

To understand the Blue Hurricane, you first need to understand the mess that created it. In 1993 and 1994, Magic: The Gathering was growing at a pace nobody anticipated. The Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited editions had established the game, and Wizards of the Coast moved to print the Revised Edition as a way to get more cards into circulation while cleaning up some issues from earlier printings.

But Revised had problems of its own. The colors were washed out compared to earlier sets. The card Serendib Efreet, which was supposed to be blue, had been accidentally printed with a green border and the wrong artwork (using the art from Ifh-Biff Efreet instead). Wizards also wanted to remove some imagery deemed too occult, such as the pentagrams on Demonic Tutor and Unholy Strength.

So Wizards commissioned a corrected print run, internally codenamed "Edgar." This was meant to fix all of Revised's mistakes before shipping. The plan was straightforward: correct the colors, fix the mismatched art, remove the problematic imagery, and get the product out the door.

What happened instead was a disaster. While Edgar (which collectors would come to call "Summer Magic" since it was printed in the summer of 1994) did fix some of Revised's problems, it introduced entirely new ones. The colors were overcorrected, making cards appear darker and more saturated than intended. The pentagram on Demonic Tutor was only partially removed (it was taken off the demon's head but left on the chest). And most famously, the sorcery card Hurricane, which is a green card that should have a green border, was printed with a blue border instead.

When Wizards realized the extent of the errors, they recalled the entire print run for destruction. Most of it was successfully destroyed. But a few cases had already shipped, reportedly to a distributor in England, and those cards made it into the wild.

What Makes the Blue Hurricane Special

The Blue Hurricane is a green sorcery card (it costs green mana and deals damage to flying creatures and players) that was accidentally given a blue card frame. In Magic: The Gathering, card frame color indicates the card's color identity, so a blue frame on a green card is about as wrong as it gets. The card looks like it belongs to the blue color (associated with counterspells, card draw, and flying creatures) while actually being a green storm spell.

This misprint was not a one-off manufacturing defect affecting a single card. Every copy of Hurricane in the Summer Magic print run has the blue border. That makes it a systematic production error, the kind of mistake that speaks to the chaotic early days of Magic's production history.

The Blue Hurricane has become the iconic card of the Summer Magic set, surpassing even the corrected Serendib Efreet and the altered Demonic Tutor in terms of collector interest. Its visual distinctiveness (you can spot it instantly, even across a room) and the absurdity of the error have given it an almost mythical status among collectors.

Identifying Summer Magic Cards

Summer Magic cards can be tricky to identify because they share the same card frames and templates as Revised Edition cards. Here are the key distinguishing features:

The Copyright Date. Summer Magic cards display a 1994 copyright date at the bottom, whereas standard Revised cards show 1993. This is the single most reliable way to identify a Summer Magic card.

Color Saturation. Summer Magic cards tend to have noticeably darker, more saturated colors compared to standard Revised. The borders appear deeper and richer, and the artwork colors pop more vibrantly.

The "Tap" Symbol. Summer Magic introduced a turned "T" tap symbol, which was a transitional design choice that didn't persist.

Card Stock. Some collectors report that Summer Magic cards have a slightly different card stock feel compared to regular Revised, though this is subjective and harder to confirm without handling both sets side by side.

For the Blue Hurricane specifically, identification is easy: if your Hurricane from a Revised-era frame has a blue border instead of green and a 1994 copyright date, you are holding one of the rarest cards in Magic history.

Condition and Grading

Given the extreme rarity of Summer Magic cards (and the Blue Hurricane in particular), the grading population is tiny. PSA and BGS have graded very few copies. Here is a general guide to what you might expect at auction:

Grade	Condition	Estimated Value
PSA 10	Gem Mint	$15,000 - $25,000+
PSA 9	Mint	$8,000 - $12,000
PSA 8	NM-MT	$5,000 - $10,000
PSA 7	Near Mint	$4,000 - $7,000
PSA 6	EX-MT	$3,000 - $5,000
PSA 5 and below	Lower grades	$2,000 - $4,000
Ungraded	Raw	$3,000 - $6,500

These figures are approximations based on the limited sales data available. Because so few copies exist, each sale essentially sets its own market. A motivated buyer at the right auction can push prices well above recent comps.

Authentication Tips

Because Summer Magic cards command such high prices, counterfeits and misrepresentations exist. Here is what to watch for:

Verify the Copyright Date. A genuine Summer Magic Hurricane must show "© 1994" at the bottom of the card. Standard Revised cards show "© 1993." This is the first and most important check.

Check the Blue Border. The blue frame on a genuine Summer Magic Hurricane is a production-level print characteristic, not something applied after the fact. The blue should be consistent across the entire frame, matching the quality and sheen of legitimately blue-framed cards in the same set.

Card Back Color. Summer Magic cards have slightly different back coloring compared to standard Revised. The back tends to appear slightly more saturated, though this can vary.

Third-Party Authentication. Given the value involved, always insist on PSA or BGS authentication when purchasing. An ungraded copy should still come with provenance or a credible story of origin. The Summer Magic community is small and interconnected, and most high-value copies have documented ownership histories.

Beware Altered Cards. Some unscrupulous sellers have attempted to alter standard Revised cards to resemble Summer Magic prints. Close inspection under magnification will typically reveal differences in ink layering or color application on altered cards.

Market Value and Auction History

The Blue Hurricane's market history reads like a fever chart. Sales have been sporadic (you cannot exactly shop for these on a weekly basis), but the data points we have are striking.

A copy sold through Kid Icarus for $4,550 in July 2020. Another listing from a collector auction closed at $5,451, which surprised some observers who expected it to go higher. A PSA 8 copy was listed at $10,000 on various marketplaces, reflecting the seller's confidence in the card's continued appreciation.

In February 2019, a well-known Summer Magic collector sold an ungraded Blue Hurricane for $6,500, surpassing his own estimate of $4,200. This sale demonstrated that strong demand exists even for raw, ungraded copies, something unusual in a market that typically rewards slabbed cards.

The broader Summer Magic market has been climbing steadily. Even common cards from the set (basic lands, for example) sell for $300 to $500, simply because of the set's rarity and the story behind it. Uncommons and rares command significantly more, and the Blue Hurricane sits at the very top of the pyramid.

Summer Magic Beyond the Blue Hurricane

While the Blue Hurricane is the star of the Summer Magic set, the entire print run is collectible. Understanding the broader context helps explain why even common Summer Magic cards sell for hundreds of dollars.

The complete Summer Magic set mirrors the Revised Edition card list, containing 306 cards across all five colors plus artifacts and lands. Because the entire run was recalled, every card in the set is rare by default. Basic lands, which normally sell for pennies, command $300 to $500 in Summer Magic versions. Uncommon cards typically sell for $500 to $1,500, and rares range from $1,000 to well over $10,000 depending on the specific card.

The Summer Magic dual lands are particularly desirable. Cards like Underground Sea, Volcanic Island, and Tropical Island from Summer Magic represent the intersection of two collecting niches (Summer Magic collectors and dual land collectors), driving prices into the stratosphere. The Blue Hurricane, however, remains the most famous card in the set because of its visual distinctiveness and the story it tells about early Magic production.

The community of Summer Magic collectors is small but passionate. Online forums like the Magic Librarities have dedicated threads tracking known copies, recording sales, and sharing research about the set. Some collectors have spent years building comprehensive Summer Magic collections, documenting the provenance of individual cards and maintaining census-like records of known examples.

This tight-knit collector community means that major Summer Magic sales tend to be events. When a Blue Hurricane or a Summer dual land appears at auction, word spreads quickly, and competition can be fierce. The relatively thin market means that a single motivated buyer can significantly move the price of any given card.

How Summer Magic Cards Survived

The story of how Summer Magic cards entered circulation is itself a piece of Magic lore. When Wizards of the Coast ordered the recall and destruction of the Edgar print run, the process was not perfectly executed. A number of cases (estimates vary, but a commonly cited figure is around 40 sealed cases) were shipped to a distributor in England before the recall order was communicated. These cases were opened, the packs were sold, and the cards entered the secondary market.

Additional copies may have escaped through other channels. Stories circulate about cards being salvaged from the destruction process or retained by Wizards employees, though these accounts are harder to verify. What is certain is that the total number of surviving Summer Magic cards is a tiny fraction of the original print run, and each card that surfaces adds to the set's mystique.

For the Blue Hurricane specifically, the number of known copies is extremely small. While no official census exists, collectors and dealers familiar with the Summer Magic market estimate that perhaps a few dozen copies are accounted for, with the possibility of additional unknown copies in long-held collections that have not yet surfaced.

The Collector's Perspective

Owning a Blue Hurricane is less about financial investment and more about holding a piece of Magic's history. This card represents the growing pains of a game that was exploding in popularity faster than its creators could manage. It is a physical artifact of the moment when Wizards of the Coast was still figuring out how to mass-produce a trading card game, complete with all the mistakes and happy accidents that process entailed.

For set collectors working on Summer Magic, the Blue Hurricane is the crown jewel. For misprint collectors, it is the holy grail. And for Magic historians, it is a tangible reminder that the game we know today was built on a foundation of experimentation, errors, and course corrections.

If you ever get the chance to hold one in your hands, take a moment to appreciate the absurdity of it all: a green spell in a blue frame, from a set that was never supposed to exist, that survived a destruction order to become one of the most valuable cards in the game.

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