Island Sanctuary

Island Sanctuary was originally released as an uncommon enchantment in the 1993 Limited Edition Alpha set for Magic: The Gathering. Designed by Richard Garfield, the card was intended to provide white decks with a defensive utility mechanism, allowing players to skip their draw step in exchange for immunity from non-flying creature attacks. Its inclusion in the International Collectors' Edition, produced in 1993 for the European market, was intended to showcase the game's original art and mechanics to a broader international audience.

The card features artwork by Quinton Hoover, a pivotal early contributor whose distinct, flowing illustrative style defined much of the game's early visual identity. While the mechanics of the card have been considered niche or situational by competitive players throughout the game's history, the International Collectors' Edition version remains a distinctive artifact. Because these cards were printed with square corners and a gold-bordered back to differentiate them from tournament-legal cards, they are prized by collectors primarily for their historical preservation of Hoover's original vision rather than their functional utility.