Arabian Nights Print Layouts. Last Update: 15 April, 2022.

[dragsamou]

LAST UPDATE: 15 April, 2022.

Hi Members

This was posted in one of the private MTG groups on Facebook recently by Charles Klein and Michael Cervenka with the assistance of Dave Howell (Member Snarke), an early days employee of Wizards of the Coast and few other collectors: The print layouts for Arabian Nights.

Google Drive video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ww9Ule ... mNR7pkTFAU

Vimeo video (You will need to log in): https://vimeo.com/697587965?fbclid=IwAR ... Qn8bly9RDE

INTERNAL LINKS

As a reminder, link of member Imancini with misprinted Arabian Nights cards (some of them showing another card) posted in another topic:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fold ... X1TlrVzGKc

Post about: Compilation of Uncut Sheets:
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/v ... f=6&t=9906

Post about: Calculated print sheets based on pack openings:
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/v ... =6&t=10072

Post about: Arabian Nights Miscuts:
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/v ... =15&t=1066

Post about: Looking for print sheet images... for science! (to fix rarities on the Internet):
http://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/v ... f=5&t=9890

EXTERNAL LINKS

The Arabian Nightmare by Dave Howell:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200918072 ... mare.shtml

Crystalkeep Arabian Night Original Card List
https://web.archive.org/web/20201112002 ... ist-an.txt

(A) Versus (B); Posted in Arcana on August 8, 2002
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2002-08-08

TRIVIA

* As this question has been asked a lot of times: Do Arabian Nights uncut sheets exist ?
No pics or uncut sheets are known to exist for the moment. Over 20 years, I try to find some as well as other collectors. As I'm not into rumors, only verified and precised info with evidence, att this point, none have been seen, it doesn't mean they doesn't exist.
There's always a possibility that some people at Carta Mundi own them or that there's uncut sheets still in WotC vault, but this info wasn't share to me or publicly for now.

* Arabian Nights was sold in booster packs of eight cards which included six Commons and two Uncommons. Booster boxes contained 60 booster packs. It was printed in Belgium by Carta Mundi. MSRP was: $1.45.

* Arabian Nights Set size is 78 cards but most collectors consider the 15 variants to be distinct cards, and therefore a full set to be 93 cards.

* Army of Allah, Bird Maiden, Camel, Erg Raiders, Fishliver Oil, Giant Tortoise, Hasran Ogress, Moorish Cavalry, Nafs Asp, Rukh Egg, Piety
, Oubliette, Stone-Throwing Devils, War Elephant, and Wyluli Wolf each have two versions, commonly referred to as Light and Dark.

Light versions have lighter colorless and colored mana symbols, and larger text in the colorless mana symbols. They look similar to mana symbols in other sets. The Light variants are located at the bottom right of the common sheet, it's 6 cards by 6 cards as described in Arabian Nightmare. Dark versions have darker colorless and colored mana symbols, and smaller text in the colorless mana symbols.

Stone-Throwing Devils has no generic mana symbols on the card, but light and dark versions can be differentiated by the black mana symbols in the casting cost, which appear either light grey (Light version) or pinkish-grey (Dark version).

There’s 2 Light Camels and 3 Dark Camels.



LIST OF THE 15 VARIANTS WITH THE PRECISED RARITY

Army of Allah (Light): C1
Army of Allah (Dark): C3
Bird Maiden (Light): C2
Bird Maiden (Dark): C2
Camel (Light): C2
Camel (Dark): C3
Erg Raiders (Light): C2
Erg Raiders (Dark): C3
Fishliver Oil (Light): C1
Fishliver Oil (Dark): C3
Giant Tortoise (Light): C1
Giant Tortoise (Dark): C3
Hasran Ogress (Light): C2
Hasran Ogress (Dark): C3
Moorish Cavalry (Light): C2
Moorish Cavalry (Dark): C3
Nafs Asp (Light): C2
Nafs Asp (Dark): C3
Rukh Egg (Light): C1
Rukh Egg (Dark): C3
Piety (Light): C1
Piety (Dark): C3
Oubliette (Light): C2
Oubliette (Dark): C2
Stone-Throwing Devils (Light): C1
Stone-Throwing Devils (Dark): C3
War Elephant (Light): C1
War Elephant (Dark): C3
Wyluli Wolf (Light): C1
Wyluli Wolf (Dark): C4

All Uncommons in the set have Dark version mana symbols.

* Print dots variants: 5 cards are known (probably more exist and should be added to this list):
Ali from Cairo, Desert, Flying Carpet, Jihad, Library of Alexandria.
2 more were mentioned (To be verified): Desert Nomads, Juzám Djinn.

* A misprinted City in a bottle had a blue hair like Unlimited Badlands for example.



* Five Arabian Nights cards are related to Richard Garfield:
Erhnam Djinn (Green) - "Erhnam" is an anagram of "Herman," Garfield's brother-in-law.
Ifh-Bíff Efreet (Green) - "Ifh-Bíff" was a childhood nickname for Garfield's sister, Elizabeth.
Mijae Djinn (Red) - "Mijae" is an anagram of "Jamie." "Richard Garfield was the best man at his wedding, summer 1993,".
Wyluli Wolf (Green) - An Anagram for his wife's maiden name, Lily Wu.
Ydwen Efreet (Red) - Richard Garfield was best man when "Mijae" married "Ydwen"-- that is, his friend "Jamie" married "Wendy."

I will add more posts and info about Arabian Nights later on, that are on the forum

COMMON SHEET PIC:
11 x 11 - 121 CARDS - 41 COMMONS: 10 C1 - 7 C2 - 10 C3 - 9 C4 - 4 C5 - 1 C11.



Raw 1: Army of Allah C4 - Flying Men C5 - Hasran Ogress C5 - Hurr Jackal C4 - Metamorphosis C4 - Desert C11 - Piety C4 - Dandân C4
- Hasran Ogress C5 - Desert Nomads C4 - Wyluli Wolf C5.

Raw 2: Giant Tortoise C4 - Cuombajj Witches C4 - Rukh Egg C4 - Nafs Asp C5 - Desert C11 - Moorish Cavalry C5 - Fishliver Oil C4
- Oubliette C4 - Bird Maiden C4 - Sandstorm C4 - War Elephant C4.

Raw 3: Erg Raiders C5- Kird Ape C5 - Ghazbán Ogre C4 - Desert C11 - Camel C5 - Unstable Mutation C4 - Army of Allah C4
- Flying Men C5 - Stone-Throwing Devils C4 - Hurr Jackal C4 - Metamorphosis C4.

Raw 4: Desert Nomads C4 - Wyluli Wolf C5 - Desert C11 - Piety C4 - Dandân C4 - Hasran Ogress C5 - Rukh Egg C4 - Nafs Asp C5
- Moorish Cavalry C5 - Flying Men C5 - Cuombajj Witches C4.

Raw 5: Sandstorm C4 - Desert C11 - War Elephant C4 - Fishliver Oil C4 - Oubliette C4 - Bird Maiden C4 - Ghazbán Ogre C4 - Camel C5
- Unstable Mutation C4 - Erg Raiders C5 - Kird Ape C5.

Raw 6: Desert C11 - Army of Allah C4 - Flying Men C5 - Stone-Throwing Devils C4 - Hurr Jackal C4 - Metamorphosis C4 - Desert C11 - Piety C4
- Dandân C4 - Hasran Ogress C5 - Mountain C1.

Raw 7: Wyluli Wolf C5 - Giant Tortoise C4 - Cuombajj Witches C4 - Rukh Egg C4 - Nafs Asp C5 - Desert C11 - Moorish Cavalry C5 - Fishliver Oil C4
- Oubliette C4 - Bird Maiden C4 - Nafs Asp C5.

Raw 8: Camel C5 - Erg Raiders C5 - Kird Ape C5 - Ghazbán Ogre C4 - Desert C11 - Camel C5 - Unstable Mutation C4 - Army of Allah C4
- Flying Men C5 - Stone-Throwing Devils C4 - Hurr Jackal C4.

Raw 9: Metamorphosis C4 - Desert Nomads C4 - Wyluli Wolf C5 - Desert C11 - Piety C4 - Dandân C4 - Hasran Ogress C5 - Rukh Egg C4 - Nafs Asp C5 - Moorish Cavalry C5 - Giant Tortoise C4.

Raw 10: Cuombajj Witches C4 - Sandstorm C4 - Desert C11 - War Elephant C4 - Fishliver Oil C4 - Oubliette C4 - Bird Maiden C4 - Ghazbán Ogre C4 - Camel C5 - Unstable Mutation C4 - Erg Raiders C5.

Raw 11: Kird Ape C5 - Moorish Cavalry C5 - Giant Tortoise C4 - Stone-Throwing Devils C4 - Desert Nomads C4 - Wyluli Wolf C5- War Elephant C4
- Unstable Mutation C4 - Erg Raiders C5 - Kird Ape C5 - Sandstorm C4.

UNCOMMON SHEET PIC: 11 x 11 - 121 CARDS - 51 UNCOMMONS: 33 U2 - 17 U3 - 1 U4.



Raw 1: Elephant Graveyard U2 - Abu Ja'far U3 - Brass Man U3 - Merchant Ship U3 - Ring of Ma'rûf U2 - El-Hajjâj U2
- Bottle of Suleiman U2 - Island of Wak-Wak U2 - Mijae Djinn U2 - Erhnam Djinn U2 - Brass Man U3.

Raw 2: King Suleiman U2 - Island of Wak-Wak U2 - Old Man of the Sea U2 - Pyramids U2 - Khabál Ghoul U3 - Aladdin's Ring U2
- Ydwen Efreet U2 - Dancing Scimitar U2 - Elephant Graveyard U2 - Ifh-Bíff Efreet U2 - Abu Ja'far U3.

Raw 3: Shahrazad U2 - Island Fish Jasconius U2 - Bazaar of Baghdad U3 - Sorceress Queen U3 - Flying Carpet U3 - Oasis U4
- Aladdin's Lamp U2 - Magnetic Mountain U3 -Bazaar of Baghdad U3 - Drop of Honey U2 - Merchant Ship U3.

Raw 4: Serendib Efreet U2 - Juzám Djinn U2 - Sindbad U3 - Library of Alexandria U3 - Ali Baba U3 - Sandals of Abdallah U3 - Desert Twister U3
- Eye for an Eye U3 - Sindbad U3 - Jandor's Ring U2 - Eye for an Eye U3.

Raw 5: Repentant Blacksmith U2 - Serendib Djinn U2 - Junún Efreet U2 - Aladdin U2 - City of Brass U3 - Cyclone U3 - City in a Bottle U2
- Khabál Ghoul U3 - Pyramids U2 - Guardian Beast U2 - Ring of Ma'rûf U2.

Raw 6: Jihad U2 - Serendib Efreet U2 - Aladdin's Ring U2 - Guardian Beast U2 - Jeweled Bird U3 - Ali from Cairo U2 - Flying Carpet U3
- Singing Tree U2 - Oasis U4 - Sorceress Queen U3 - Ebony Horse U2.

Raw 7: Abu Ja'far U3 - Aladdin's Lamp U2 - Merchant Ship U3 - Brass Man U3 - El-Hajjâj U2 - Jeweled Bird U3 - Mijae Djinn U2
- Sandals of Abdallah U3 - Erhnam Djinn U2 - Ali from Cairo U2 - Diamond Valley U2.

Raw 8: Bazaar of Baghdad U3 - Old Man of the Sea U2 - Khabál Ghoul U3 - Diamond Valley U2 - Jandor's Saddlebags U2 - Ydwen Efreet U2
- City in a Bottle U2 - Ifh-Bíff Efreet U2 - Magnetic Mountain U3 - Singing Tree U2 - King Suleiman U2.

Raw 9: Shahrazad U2 - Island Fish Jasconius U2 - Oasis U4 - Sorceress Queen U3 - Flying Carpet U3 - Magnetic Mountain U3
- Bottle of Suleiman U2 - Jihad U2 - Ebony Horse U2 - Ali Baba U3 - City of Brass U3.

Raw 10: Eye for an Eye U3 - City of Brass U3 - Sindbad U3 - Sandals of Abdallah U3 - Juzám Djinn U2 - Ali Baba U3 - Desert Twister U3
- Dancing Scimitar U2 - Oasis U4 - Jeweled Bird U3 - Desert Twister U3.

Raw 11: Library of Alexandria U3 - Repentant Blacksmith U2 - Serendib Djinn U2 - Junún Efreet U2 - Aladdin U2 - Library of Alexandria U3
- Cyclone U3 - Jandor's Ring U2 - Cyclone U3 - Jandor's Saddlebags U2 - Drop of Honey U2.

EXPLANATIONS ABOUT SOME WHITE DOT CARDS.

Pic provided by member tmmoose.

[l0qii]

Wonderful work finally revealed!! =D> =D> =D>

[lethe]

Very exciting to see this published!

Some comments:

1) I checked the sheets against pack openings from videos I've collected. It's pretty much consistent. (They didn't mentioned using this method in the video, but I guess they're aware of it, so this may or may not be independent verification.)

I have 54 packs in my data set. Only 4 were inconsistent with the common sheet (as best I could tell; maybe I missed their positions anyway):
a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1xB4hhltS4 -- this pack is clearly a bit messed up anyway as the uncommons are not next to each other
b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIVPBUx4zE4 -- packs 2 and 5 from the Silver Showcase (although these were opened off camera, so they could have been mixed up; I didn't check carefully for this)
c) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkCfCEbB700

Some packs are consistent with multiple locations on the sheet, but ignoring these packs, there are still only 18 sheet locations not covered by consistent packs. Some of the unconfirmed locations are due to these ambiguities, but there are also some spots I really don't have in my data set (like the light version of Rukh Egg).

This is all done taking light versus dark into account (at least as well as I could observe it in videos), so this is additional evidence in favor of the light cards being in the lower right quadrant.

I would take all this as a good sign, basically.

For the uncommon sheet, only the pack mentioned in c) above was inconsistent. (Maybe this pack/opening is just nonsense.) This is also a good sign, although this evidence is naturally much weaker.

"Stripe widths" were 3 and 4 (also for uncommons), but there was one pack with a width 5 stripe in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7iZAsvdeq4 ; Stripe width of 5 is pretty normal in general. I only mention it because it may be an anomaly for this particular set.

Many of the openboosters packs are probably from the same box, as there seem to probably be consistencies among them, so maybe some stronger evidence can be built by considering them together, but I haven't tried to do this (yet).

2) It would have been really hard to reconstruct these from loose pack openings. Having only 6 common per pack is pretty tough (and just forget about doing uncommons like this), and all the duplicates make it worse. Also, similar or identical regions that exist in the actual sheet can also cause problems. So, despite the good "coverage" I mentioned above, I don't think I was very close to being able to reconstruct this myself, although I had some bits and pieces correct from my previous attempts. (But, with an actual box opening, I think I could have done the commons and most of the uncommons because of the strength of being able to correlate the packs together.)

3) "Campfire" desert is opened in these two videos:
a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfoosjpP6b0
b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbFO6vbVWUE

Both are consistent with placement in row 6 column 7 (as claimed in the OP video). (I assume this is the same method they used to place the print dot, although I don't know specifically which pack opening(s) they used.) I think video b) also mentioned a Drop of Honey that has a print dot, so that can maybe be placed as well.

4) I don't think I was aware of the light versus dark Camel difference. I guess this was known, but other sources I've seen don't mention it. Is there a good reference for this, or just a subtle difference that experts are aware of?

5) I think there is an error in the transcription of the uncommon sheet. In row 8, City in a Bottle and Ifh-Biff Efreet are switched.

Edit:

6) Many readers may already be aware, but David's Howell's "Arabian Nightmare" article was a good pre-existing source for ARN printing info: https://web.archive.org/web/20200918072 ... mare.shtml

[dragsamou]

4) I don't think I was aware of the light versus dark Camel difference. I guess this was known, but other sources I've seen don't mention it. Is there a good reference for this, or just a subtle difference that experts are aware of?

Hi

I wish I have known myself, as I have sold all my extra Camel from way back in the years. So, now, I need to find the missing version for my collection.
According to cataclysm80 (Tavis King): "Camel appears inside and outside of the light quadrant, just like all the other cards with light/dark versions". There’s 2 Light Camels and 3 Dark Camels". Cards that appear both inside and outside of the light quadrant have two versions:

5) I think there is an error in the transcription of the uncommon sheet. In row 8, City in a Bottle and Ifh-Biff Efreet are switched.?

Thanks. Fixed.

6) Many readers may already be aware, but David's Howell's "Arabian Nightmare" article was a good pre-existing source for ARN printing info:

Thanks. Added in the external links in the first post

[lmancini]

This is nothing short of awesome. I'm flattered by my humble image collection work being mentioned in the very post that announced this. I'm glad to be a member of this community, and I'm glad to be around at the time this was revealed, after so many years.

Now it would be cool to place all the dot variants as well!

Ali from Cairo dot variant is Row 6, by exclusion: the one in Row 7 is this one (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j4rgrO ... sp=sharing) and it doesn't have the white dot which is supposed to be like this (https://static.cardmarket.com/img/122e5 ... N/6823.jpg, see white dot near the right side).

I was honestly not aware of Flying Carpet, Library of Alexandria and Jihad dot variants... Are there visual references for them?

[dragsamou]

Ali from Cairo dot variant is Row 6, by exclusion: the one in Row 7 is this one (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j4rgrO ... sp=sharing) and it doesn't have the white dot which is supposed to be like this (https://static.cardmarket.com/img/122e5 ... N/6823.jpg, see white dot near the right side).

I was honestly not aware of Flying Carpet, Library of Alexandria and Jihad dot variants... Are there visual references for them?

I'm still working on this topic. For Ali from Cairo, I own both version: I have noticed also that, there's a black dot next to the scimitar on the white dot version while, there isn't any on the regular version. I own also the white dot version of Jihad (not the dotless one). (I will add HQ scans later on to show precisely what I talk about).

Yes, there's visual references, as I don't own them, I will add pics (maybe not the best quality) that were found in some MTG FB groups:

TO BE ADDED
Ali from Cairo:

Flying Carpet (Left is with the white dot that you can see inside the white square that I have added on Paint):



TO BE ADDED
Jihad: In between look at the pics added in the first topic.

TO BE ADDED
Library of Alexandria:

[cataclysm80]

Because the white dots on Desert, Desert, Flying Carpet, & Jihad all appear in the same location on the cards and the same location on both sheets, this appears to have been caused by a defect with the machine that created the color separation quadrants.
That would explain why all color layers are affected, and why it's in the same location when the bottom right corner of the color separations are aligned.

Being part of the color separations (which are used to create the printing plates) means that all sheets printed would be affected consistently throughout the print run.

[cataclysm80]

1) I checked the sheets against pack openings from videos I've collected. It's pretty much consistent. (They didn't mentioned using this method in the video, but I guess they're aware of it, so this may or may not be independent verification.)

I can confirm that Charles is aware of the pack collation method, because he's asked me about it several times. He told me that he had saved the pack opening data for many Arabian booster packs. He never seemed to understand how it works though, so maybe that's why it's not used in their video. I recommended that he could learn how it works by watching my YouTube videos. It's much easier to learn if you start with a set that already has known sheet layouts, before trying to tackle a project with unknown sheet layouts.
I also recommended that if he was going to do Arabian Nights, he should start with the commons because it's much easier since there's 6 sequential cards per booster pack instead of 2. He was not at all interested in the commons, and was adamant about learning the Arabian uncommon layout.
When I asked why, he said that he really wanted to understand how all this stuff works, and I repeated that it was much easier to learn by looking at the commons. He was unsatisfied with this answer. It was kind of bizarre. It's like he was turning down opportunities to learn because the cards had lower monetary value.

I have 54 packs in my data set. Only 4 were inconsistent with the common sheet (as best I could tell; maybe I missed their positions anyway):
a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1xB4hhltS4 -- this pack is clearly a bit messed up anyway as the uncommons are not next to each other

As you mentioned, there isn't supposed to be a common in between the uncommons. This pack was opened off camera and may have been tampered with. Intentional or not, something abnormal happened with this pack. The cards revealed should have been in this order...
Flying Men (a good card that's missing here)
Cuombajj Witches
Kird Ape
Hasran Ogress
Rukh Egg
Ghazban Ogre
This is at the top left of the common sheet. (Giant Tortoise would have been 2 cards before the Flying Men in the sequence)

b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIVPBUx4zE4 -- packs 2 and 5 from the Silver Showcase (although these were opened off camera, so they could have been mixed up; I didn't check carefully for this)

As you mentioned, they were opened off camera. I don't think the cards are necessarily placed on the table in the same order that they came out of the pack. I wonder where these packs came from.
The closest sequence that I could see for the contents of Arabian pack 2 is...
Desert Nomads
Fishliver Oil
Naf's Asp
Hurr Jackal (in this pack)
Stone Throwing Devils
War Elephant (in this pack)
Rukh Egg (in this pack)
Hasran Ogress (in this pack)
Giant Tortoise (in this pack)
Desert
Cuombajj Witches
Flying Men (in this pack)
This is also the top left of the common sheet

The closest sequence that I could see for the contents of Arabian pack 5 is the same...
Desert Nomads (in this pack)
Fishliver Oil (in this pack)
Naf's Asp
Hurr Jackal (in this pack)
Stone Throwing Devils
War Elephant (in this pack)
Rukh Egg (in this pack)
Hasran Ogress (in this pack)
Giant Tortoise
Desert
Cuombajj Witches
Flying Men
It's interesting that this is again the top left of the common sheet, with both packs showing Hurr Jackal, War Elephant, without Stone Throwing Devils in between.

c) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkCfCEbB700

This is a very bizarre pack that doesn't match the sheet layout. Most of the cards seem to be from column #9 on the sheet, but you shouldn't be able to jump to column #7 for the light War Elephant at the end.

Some packs are consistent with multiple locations on the sheet, but ignoring these packs, there are still only 18 sheet locations not covered by consistent packs. Some of the unconfirmed locations are due to these ambiguities, but there are also some spots I really don't have in my data set (like the light version of Rukh Egg).

This is all done taking light versus dark into account (at least as well as I could observe it in videos), so this is additional evidence in favor of the light cards being in the lower right quadrant.

I would take all this as a good sign, basically.

Thank you for taking the time to look over the data. How many pack openings did you look at in total?
I've looked at several Arabian pack opening over the past few years, and they matched this sheet layout (which was provided to me by someone else who had previously solved it).
However, I've seen some very strange things with Antiquities pack openings, and that also used the 6 common & 2 uncommon arrangement.

For the uncommon sheet, only the pack mentioned in c) above was inconsistent. (Maybe this pack/opening is just nonsense.) This is also a good sign, although this evidence is naturally much weaker.

I agree, these two uncommons don't belong together. This seems more likely to be a repack than anything done by the factory.

"Stripe widths" were 3 and 4 (also for uncommons), but there was one pack with a width 5 stripe in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7iZAsvdeq4 ; Stripe width of 5 is pretty normal in general. I only mention it because it may be an anomaly for this particular set.

Many of the openboosters packs are probably from the same box, as there seem to probably be consistencies among them, so maybe some stronger evidence can be built by considering them together, but I haven't tried to do this (yet).

It would be interesting to find out the complete pattern that was used for Arabian Nights. It would require at least a full box opening.

3) "Campfire" desert is opened in these two videos:
a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfoosjpP6b0
b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbFO6vbVWUE

Both are consistent with placement in row 6 column 7 (as claimed in the OP video). (I assume this is the same method they used to place the print dot, although I don't know specifically which pack opening(s) they used.) I think video b) also mentioned a Drop of Honey that has a print dot, so that can maybe be placed as well.

4) I don't think I was aware of the light versus dark Camel difference. I guess this was known, but other sources I've seen don't mention it. Is there a good reference for this, or just a subtle difference that experts are aware of?

Someone else previously solved the Arabian Nights sheet layouts. They decided not to share the layouts with the public, but a few new details about Arabian Nights did emerge years ago as a result of their work.
1. The official WotC Arabian Nights checklist says that Moorish Cavalry is C4 & C1. Once you have the sheet layout, you can see that it's actually C3 & C2. I included this updated information in the Facebook Complete Sets Group when I created that group roughly 3 years ago. Having the sheet layout is the only way to discover this information.
2. I posted a picture of the sheet location of the Campfire Desert on Facebook years ago when I saw Heath Smith open one in a video. I was excited to figure out the location of the Campfire Desert, and used the sheet Arabian sheet layout I had as reference. At the time, I was expecting the person who provided me with these sheet layouts to make them public soon, and leaking the sheet location of a single card of low value seemed like a fun teaser.
I would guess that Michael and Charles simply took the sheet location of the Campfire Desert from the photo I posted on Facebook, because they didn't mention referencing any pack opening data in their video.
About a week ago, someone else discovered that there's a second Campfire Desert on the same row of the sheet, and that the corresponding sheet positions of the uncommon sheet (Flying Carpet & Jihad) have an identical white dot. I had noticed the white dot on Flying Carpet years ago, but never considered it that it might be related to the Campfire Desert.
3. The other information which came from the Arabian Nights sheet being solved years ago, is information about Camel having two versions. Someone independently discovered that Arabian Nights had two versions of the white mana symbol. They brought the information to me, and I used the sheet layout that I had to determine which version of the white mana symbol was from the Light Quadrant, and how many light/dark versions of the card were on the sheet. I then publicly released this information into the Facebook Complete Sets Group for collectors to use.

Michael and Charles publicly revealing the sheet layouts shows that the above information is true, while also confirming that I must have had the sheet layouts in order to provide this information.

[dragsamou]

3) "Campfire" desert is opened in these two videos:
a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfoosjpP6b0
b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbFO6vbVWUE

Both are consistent with placement in row 6 column 7 (as claimed in the OP video). (I assume this is the same method they used to place the print dot, although I don't know specifically which pack opening(s) they used.) I think video b) also mentioned a Drop of Honey that has a print dot, so that can maybe be placed as well.

4) I don't think I was aware of the light versus dark Camel difference. I guess this was known, but other sources I've seen don't mention it. Is there a good reference for this, or just a subtle difference that experts are aware of?

Someone else previously solved the Arabian Nights sheet layouts. They decided not to share the layouts with the public, but a few new details about Arabian Nights did emerge years ago as a result of their work.
1. The official WotC Arabian Nights checklist says that Moorish Cavalry is C4 & C1. Once you have the sheet layout, you can see that it's actually C3 & C2. I included this updated information in the Facebook Complete Sets Group when I created that group roughly 3 years ago. Having the sheet layout is the only way to discover this information.
2. I posted a picture of the sheet location of the Campfire Desert on Facebook years ago when I saw Heath Smith open one in a video. I was excited to figure out the location of the Campfire Desert, and used the sheet Arabian sheet layout I had as reference. At the time, I was expecting the person who provided me with these sheet layouts to make them public soon, and leaking the sheet location of a single card of low value seemed like a fun teaser.
I would guess that Michael and Charles simply took the sheet location of the Campfire Desert from the photo I posted on Facebook, because they didn't mention referencing any pack opening data in their video.
About a week ago, someone else discovered that there's a second Campfire Desert on the same row of the sheet, and that the corresponding sheet positions of the uncommon sheet (Flying Carpet & Jihad) have an identical white dot. I had noticed the white dot on Flying Carpet years ago, but never considered it that it might be related to the Campfire Desert.
3. The other information which came from the Arabian Nights sheet being solved years ago, is information about Camel having two versions. Someone independently discovered that Arabian Nights had two versions of the white mana symbol. They brought the information to me, and I used the sheet layout that I had to determine which version of the white mana symbol was from the Light Quadrant, and how many light/dark versions of the card were on the sheet. I then publicly released this information into the Facebook Complete Sets Group for collectors to use.

Michael and Charles publicly revealing the sheet layouts shows that the above information is true, while also confirming that I must have had the sheet layouts in order to provide this information.

When I added this, I didn't take into consideration the 15 variants (Light/Dark) or white dots version. Moorish Cavalry is labeled as a C5:
COMMON SHEET PIC: 11 x 11 - 121 CARDS - 41 COMMONS: 10 C1 - 7 C2 - 10 C3 - 9 C4 - 4 C5 - 1 C11.

It would be great to add more precision including the Variants and the White dots, now that the sheets have been posted, but I have no idea where to place them or know if someone knows precisely their location on the sheets and this info been triple checked and verified.

Facebook is a great tool for research, but with 450+ MTG groups, it's a real hassle as well to find info, not mentioning that in big groups spotting a topic can be a nightmare, as so many posts are approved per day, also post can be deleted. On my part, I'm in very few groups, and my main purpose is to gather MTG info related to research and history for the different sections or subsections of the website.

When you talk about the Official Arabian Night sheets, I presume that it's related to the Crystalkeep list:

Arabian Nights had a total of two print sheets - Common and Uncommons. Here are the breakdowns of each of the print sheets (Courtesy of http://www.crystalkeep.com) - That link is no longer working but there's this one: https://web.archive.org/web/20210315060 ... /index.php

COMMON:

WHITE

Army of Allah (a)
Brian Snoddy
C3

Army of Allah (b)
Brian Snoddy
C1

Camel
Sandra Everingham
C5

Moorish Cavalry (a)
Dameon Willich
C4

Moorish Cavalry (b)
Dameon Willich
C1

Piety (a)
Mark Poole
C3

Piety (b)
Mark Poole
C1

War Elephant (a)
Kristen Bishop
C3

War Elephant (b)
Kristen Bishop
C1

BLUE

Dandan
Drew Tucker
C4

Fishliver Oil (a)
Anson Maddocks
C3

Fishliver Oil (b)
Anson Maddocks
C1

Flying Men
Christopher Rush
C5

Giant Tortoise (a)
Kaja Foglio
C3

Giant Tortoise (b)
Kaja Foglio
C1

Unstable Mutation
Douglas Shuler
C5

BLACK

Cuombajj Witches
Kaja Foglio
C4

Erg Raiders (a)
Dameon Willich
C3

Erg Raiders (b)
Dameon Willich
C2

Hasran Ogress (a)
Dan Frazier
C3

Hasran Ogress (b)
Dan Frazier
C2

Oubliette (a)
Douglas Shuler
C2

Oubliette (b)
Douglas Shuler
C2

Stone-Throwing Devils (a)
Ken Meyer, Jr.
C3

Stone-Throwing Devils (b)
Ken Meyer, Jr.
C1

RED

Bird Maiden (a)
Kaja Foglio
C2

Bird Maiden (b)
Kaja Foglio
C2

Desert Nomads
Christopher Rush
C4

Hurr Jackal
Drew Tucker
C4

Kird Ape
Ken Meyer, Jr.
C5

Rukh Egg (a)
Christopher Rush
C3

Rukh Egg (b)
Christopher Rush
C1

GREEN

Ghazban Ogre
Jesper Myrfors
C4

Metamorphosis
Christopher Rush
C4

Nafs Asp (a)
Christopher Rush
C3

Nafs Asp (b)
Christopher Rush
C2

Sandstorm
Brian Snoddy
C4

Wyluli Wolf (a)
Susan Van Camp
C4

Wyluli Wolf (b)
Susan Van Camp
C1

LAND

Desert
Jesper Myrfors
C11

Mountain
Douglas Shuler
C1

Total: 121 Cards


UNCOMMON:

WHITE

Abu Ja'far
Ken Meyer, Jr.
U3

Eye for an Eye
Mark Poole
U3

Jihad
Brian Snoddy
U2

King Suleiman
Mark Poole
U2

Repentant Blacksmith
Drew Tucker
U2

Shahrazad
Kaja Foglio
U2

BLUE

Island Fish Jasconius
Jesper Myrfors
U2

Merchant Ship
Tom Wanerstrand
U3

Old Man of the Sea
Susan Van Camp
U2

Serendib Djinn
Anson Maddocks
U2

Serendib Efreet
Anson Maddocks
U2

Sindbad
Julie Baroh
U3

BLACK

El-Hajjaj
Dameon Willich
U2

Guardian Beast
Ken Meyer, Jr.
U2

Junun Efreet
Christopher Rush
U2

Juzam Djinn
Mark Tedin
U2

Khabal Ghoul
Douglas Shuler
U3

Sorceress Queen
Kaja Foglio
U3

RED

Aladdin
Julie Baroh
U2

Ali Baba
Julie Baroh
U3

Ali from Cairo
Mark Poole
U2

Magnetic Mountain
Susan Van Camp
U3

Mijae Djinn
Susan Van Camp
U2

Ydwen Efreet
Drew Tucker
U2

GREEN

Cyclone
Mark Tedin
U3

Desert Twister
Susan Van Camp
U3

Drop of Honey
Anson Maddocks
U2

Erhnam Djinn
Ken Meyer, Jr.
U2

Ifh-Biff Efreet
Jesper Myrfors
U2

Singing Tree
Rob Alexander
U2

ARTIFACTS

Aladdin's Lamp
Mark Tedin
U2

Aladdin's Ring
Dan Frazier
U2

Bottle of Suleiman
Jesper Myrfors
U2

Brass Man
Christopher Rush
U3

City in a Bottle
Drew Tucker
U2

Dancing Scimitar
Anson Maddocks
U2

Ebony Horse
Dameon Willich
U2

Flying Carpet
Mark Tedin
U3

Jandor's Ring
Dan Frazier
U2

Jandor's Saddlebags
Dameon Willich
U2

Jeweled Bird
Amy Weber
U3

Pyramids
Amy Weber
U2

Ring of Ma'ruf
Dan Frazier
U2

Sandals of Abdallah
Dan Frazier
U3

LAND

Bazaar of Baghdad
Jeff A. Menges
U3

City of Brass
Mark Tedin
U3

Diamond Valley
Brian Snoddy
U2

Elephant Graveyard
Rob Alexander
U2

Island of Wak-Wak
Douglas Shuler
U2

Library of Alexandria
Mark Poole
U3

Oasis
Brian Snoddy
U4

Total: 121 cards

Do we know precisely were the 15 Light/Dark variants cards are on the sheets, and this info verified by multiple sources so that I can create a very precised list to include their precised Rarity ? List added in the first topic, to be completed

Regarding the White dots, my question is that apparently 2 "Campfire" Desert are on the Common sheet at some specific known location. But when talking about Ali from Cairo U2, Flying Carpet U3, Jihad U2, Library of Alexandria U3 are the white dots version automatically on All the sheets, like you have an Ali from Cairo dotless and white dot on the sheet or Only few sheets were affected ?

An extra pic about the white dots was added in the first topic

[cataclysm80]

Facebook is a great tool for research, but with 450+ MTG groups, it's a real hassle as well to find info, not mentioning that in big groups spotting a topic can be a nightmare, as so many posts are approved per day, also post can be deleted. On my part, I'm in very few groups, and my main purpose is to gather MTG info related to research and history for the different sections or subsections of the website.

The best place for this particular information is this Arabian Nights reference post in The Complete Sets Group.
It's a relatively small group at 4400 members, and is also a private group, which I know you appreciate.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/255811745 ... 540805206/

At least two people in the group are trying to find all the variants, and others are starting to search since the sheet layouts were released.
Research on this topic hasn't been able to advance much while the sheet layouts were private. I didn't spend much time on it because I couldn't share the sheet location results with anyone.

It's usually pretty easy to find the sheet location of a card if you can find a pack opening video that contains the card. I've done this for other variant cards.

[cataclysm80]

When you talk about the Official Arabian Night sheets, I presume that it's related to the Crystalkeep list:

It's the WotC downloadable set checklists.
There was one with card names, and another called a "spoiler list" which includes rules text.
These used to be available on the WotC website, and Crystal Keep also had them available.

It's weird to see your list in WUBRG order, which wasn't introduced until years later, but yes it seems related.
The old WotC lists are in the original BUGRW order (alphabetical by color name)

[cataclysm80]

Do we know precisely were the 15 Light/Dark variants cards are on the sheets, and this info verified by multiple sources so that I can create a very precised list to include their precised Rarity ? List added in the first topic, to be completed

Yes, the Light Quadrant is at the bottom right of the common sheet, it's 6 cards by 6 cards as described in Arabian Nightmare.
It may be worth taking a closer look at Dan Dan, or any other cards which are inside and outside the light quadrant.

Regarding the White dots, my question is that apparently 2 "Campfire" Desert are on the Common sheet at some specific known location. But when talking about Ali from Cairo U2, Flying Carpet U3, Jihad U2, Library of Alexandria U3 are the white dots version automatically on All the sheets, like you have an Ali from Cairo dotless and white dot on the sheet or Only few sheets were affected

Good question.
The two Deserts, Flying Carpet, and Jihad are on row 6, and all sheets should be affected.
Peter should know where Ali is, I don't recall.

Anything that's caused by the color separations or printing plates should be on all sheets.

A printer hickey is caused by temporary debris on the press, and usually affects a single layer of color.

[dragsamou]

The best place for this particular information is this Arabian Nights reference post in The Complete Sets Group.
It's a relatively small group at 4400 members, and is also a private group, which I know you appreciate.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/255811745 ... 40805206//

About your link: This is what I get:
The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.

It's the WotC downloadable set checklists.
There was one with card names, and another called a "spoiler list" which includes rules text.
These used to be available on the WotC website, and Crystal Keep also had them available.

Unfortunately Crystalkeep is not working for me for themoment (not the first time I can't access

It's weird to see your list in WUBRG order, which wasn't introduced until years later, but yes it seems related.
The old WotC lists are in the original BUGRW order (alphabetical by color name)

The list was not ordered this way, I just change it this morning, should I put it back the way it was originally ?

Yes, the Light Quadrant is at the bottom right of the common sheet, it's 6 cards by 6 cards as described in Arabian Nightmare.
It may be worth taking a closer look at Dan Dan, or any other cards which are inside and outside the light quadrant.

Thanks. Adding the cropped pic 6 x 6 in the very first topic.

Now the question is why those 10 cards: Metamorphosis, Desert x2, Dandân x2, Flying Men, Hurr Jackal, Ghazbán Ogre Kird Ape, Sandstorm doesn't have a known Light/Dark variants like the others ? Desert Nomads is the only one having a colorless mana out of the 10, maybe, the difference is to be seen into the color mana ? Mountain shouldsn't be concerned as it's a C1.

[lethe]

I can confirm that Charles is aware of the pack collation method, because he's asked me about it several times. He told me that he had saved the pack opening data for many Arabian booster packs. He never seemed to understand how it works though, so maybe that's why it's not used in their video.

Charles had actually emailed me as well. I did tell him that I didn't think I had enough data to finish the common sheet (which he was less interested in), and that I thought the uncommons were intractable without box openings being recorded, but maybe I wasn't clear that collation could be useful in conjunction with other methods. (I didn't see any sign of misunderstanding, but I guess we didn't exchange that many messages.)

How many pack openings did you look at in total?

54 packs. (Probably there would be a few new ones if I look again. It's been a while since I went trawling for Arabian Nights videos.)

It would be interesting to find out the complete pattern that was used for Arabian Nights. It would require at least a full box opening.

The pattern of stripes in general is something I've been interested in, but I have multiple box openings of some other sets and have never really detected a pattern.

1. The official WotC Arabian Nights checklist says that Moorish Cavalry is C4 & C1. Once you have the sheet layout, you can see that it's actually C3 & C2. I included this updated information in the Facebook Complete Sets Group when I created that group roughly 3 years ago. Having the sheet layout is the only way to discover this information.

I had missed this, thanks for pointing it out.

These used to be available on the WotC website, and Crystal Keep also had them available.

Unfortunately Crystalkeep is not working for me for themoment (not the first time I can't access

This references to the counts for all the light versus dark cards is still available for Wizards (although not the full counts for all cards): https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2002-08-08

Now the question is why those 10 cards: Metamorphosis, Desert x2, Dandân x2, Flying Men, Hurr Jackal, Ghazbán Ogre Kird Ape, Sandstorm doesn't have a known Light/Dark variants like the others ? Desert Nomads is the only one having a colorless mana out of the 10, maybe, the difference is to be seen into the color mana ? Mountain shouldsn't be concerned as it's a C1.[/b]

I was also wondering about this. The list I see for possible light/dark variants would be Desert, Dandân, Unstable Mutation, Flying Men, Hurr Jackal, Ghazbán Ogre, Sandstorm, Kird Ape (not Desert Nomads).

I guess as the only known difference for this region is the mana symbols, and the colorless, black (via Stone-Throwing Devils), and now white (via Camel) are known to be different. I guess it may have been possible to predict the possibility of the Camel variation by carefully comparing white cards that were already known to have light/dark differences (Army of Allah, Moorish Cavalry, Piety, War Elephant) as the difference in the white mana symbol ought to appear between those as well.

Could this strategy be used for the green, red, and blue mana symbols as well? (Desert is the only of the cards that has no mana symbol of any kind.) Instead of looking for copies of e.g. Dandân with different mana symbols but not knowing whether any card is actual from the light quadrant or not, try comparing the blue mana symbol of light and dark Giant Tortoise. If there is a difference in the blue mana symbol for Giant Tortoise, then probably there is for Dandân as well (and if not, probably not).

Separate comment I had about the video, but forgot about when reading my previous post (and somewhat of a wild tangent):

I knew about the quadrants for early print sheets (via "Arabian Nightmare"), but I was a little surprised to see that the model for the placement of the sheets was so particular.

I think it is interesting to compare the the English versus Italian Legends sheets. For all three (common, uncommon, rare) sheets, the Italian sheet is the result of taking the English sheet and moving the 5 rightmost columns to the left of the sheet. Possibly this could be explained by the quadrants being assembled in a different arrangement. This would imply that for the English sheet the width-5 quadrants were on the right (which is the wrong arrangement according to the Arabian Nights video). (If that was wrong, it would help explain why it was "corrected" for Italian Legends.)

But there's also another angle to this. If you look at the English Legends rare sheet, there is also a pretty clear quadrant-aligned color pattern -- cards in the upper left quadrant are almost all white and colorless, the upper right is almost all black and gold, the lower left is almost all blue and green, and the lower right is almost all red and gold. But, this pattern is aligned as though the 6x6 quadrant really is in the bottom right, where it is "supposed" to be. So another explanation is maybe that all the sheets did indeed have the 6x6 quadrant in the bottom right, but when the Italian sheets were being created, the person who did it was following the English sheet but accidentally thought that the 6x6 quadrant was in the bottom left, and then the printer swapped them back to put the 6x6 in the bottom right as they were supposed to be (but in doing so messed up the intended sheet layouts).

Of course, all this is wildly speculative.

(If left and right quadrants had been swapped for Arabian Nights, collation would have detected it, so that at least is not a concern.)

[Cardbreaker]

Great info here. I've been independently working on this project from a different direction for several years. It appears any given card is different from other copies of the same card in different locations on the sheet. Many variations arise from the fact that the set symbol was added by Carta Mundi after the films were already produced, and their spacing when adding the symbol wasn't as precise as it needed to be, resulting in a compounding error as they went across/down the sheets. Many have other recurring dots, marks, or missing dots. I think I am about 12 cards short of owning "full sheets" of both uncommons and commons, but as I learned today, there are still more nuances than I thought (looking at you, campfire Desert). I'll post the results of my hours of peering through a loupe in a separate reply.

re: Camel - I independently discovered the light/dark differences while trying to figure out exactly what cards were in the light quadrant. All light version white cards have extra black dots inside the circle around the white mana symbol. The dark versions do not. The difference is generally only discernible under a loupe. Combined with other print marks on the cards, I found 2 light and 3 dark Camel, as well as 2 light and 3 dark Moorish Cavalry. Having found this, I inspected all the blue, red, and green C4 and C5 with no known light versions, but was unable to find any similar tells. Comparing known URG light/dark cards yielded similar results - no easy to spot differences.