Jihad

Released in December 1993 as part of Magic: The Gathering's first expansion, Arabian Nights, Jihad stands as a significant relic from the game's nascent period. Designed by Richard Garfield and illustrated by Anson Maddocks, the card was produced during a time when Wizards of the Coast was still experimenting with the mechanical breadth of the game. It belongs to a set famously inspired by the collection of folk tales known as One Thousand and One Nights, which prioritized thematic flavor and top-down design over the strictly balanced competitive structures that defined later sets.

The card's design features an aggressive white-aligned enchantment that reflects the high-stakes, flavor-driven mechanics of the early 1990s. Anson Maddocks, a foundational artist for the game, provided the visual direction, capturing the intensity of the card's namesake through stylized and evocative imagery. While it was received with curiosity by early players, the card remains a subject of discussion among historians and collectors due to its specific cultural framing and the evolving approach Wizards of the Coast has taken toward sensitive terminology in subsequent decades.