Grading
Overall 9.5 GEM MINT
Centering 9.5
Corners 9.5
Edges 9.5
Surface 9.5
Reference this fantastic alpha population report table from Joel Mick.
This specific card was originally a PSA 10 that was cracked and submitted to BGS for grading. Although the left right centering is ever so slightly misaligned, it is a beautiful quad example that have all sub grades equal or greater than the overall grade.
Rarity & Collectability
There are 13 of 33 BGS 9.5 Gem Mint copies that are quad or higher and two copies that are BGS 10. Time Walk (part of the Power 9) did not suffer from the same alpha print quality issues that many other cards did so is not especially low population.
Impressions & Artwork
Amy Weber is one of my all time favorite artists and helped set the artistic tone of the budding game. I wonder what Amy Weber was thinking when painting this. A structure that looks like stone henge might represent mystique and a range of history as there were some questions about how an older civilization was able to move the stones in this way.
The skeletons represent death and perhaps them cheating it by phasing through time and space. What a crazy painting by the same artist who painted Dragon Whelp.
I personally love Amy Weber's artwork and signature. This alpha Disenchant survived from my original collection in the 90's showing a beautiful silver signature from Amy. Amy also painted my favorite card to collect as a kid- Dragon Whelp, which I amassed about 70 copies of.
Usage & Gameplay
This card is totally broken. One blue and one colorless to take another turn which effectively gives mana advantage, another card draw, and another attack phase. One thing that I find interesting is how much power creep with creatures there has been, but they will never print another spell like this again for so little mana.
Nostalgia
Once the envy of our local friend group based out of the seedy gated suburb community, Kenny’s parents bought him a copy of Unlimited Time Walk. I imagined him whining to his mom about getting owned by Mastro’s Juzam Djinn so needed a leg up to not be the doormat of the playgroup. This was the first documented instance of pay-to-win in the mid 90’s.
To add insult to injury, Kenny asked me to hold onto the card for him for some unknown reason. Years later he still holds onto the grudge that I never returned the card to him (EV $90 in the mid 90’s, $5000 in 2021). I fucking returned it man, I wouldn’t steal from friends, only from Club Bub*. Your mom brought you to Louie’s house with your SUV and met me outside on the lawn in the summer to pick it up. I wish I had more proof but you’ll just have to give me the benefit of the doubt here.
*Club Bub the local game store by the train tracks in Westmont, IL. Our nerd-boy Stranger Things friend group devised a ruse that was going to distract the local police on duty. Kenny, an overweight loveable kid from an affluent family would feign a sudden heart attack at the local grocery store Jewel-Osco and "call it in" and all of the city's policemen would respond...while the rest of us miscreants broke into the back door to Club Bub at 9pm with a crowbar. We would ransack the place of valuable cards before escaping to Louie's basement to inventory the loot contemplating retirement. We never went through with it because Kenny chickened out.
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