Magic: The Gathering - Why Is The Prodigal Sorcerer Card Called Tim?

Summary

• Magic: The Gathering history includes many small jokes and nicknames for cards that have lasted over 30 years.
• Prodigal Sorcerer, nicknamed "Tim," has a funny origin inspired by a wizard in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• "Tim" inspired other cards with similar abilities, becoming a subgenre of cards in the Magic: The Gathering world.

Magic: The Gathering has been around for more than 30 years now, and with anything that exists for that long, there are bound to be little inside jokes, references, and throwbacks that will develop over time.

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Perhaps one of the stranger ones that has persisted over the years are nicknames for various cards. You’ve got Mom, Sad Robot, Tron, and curiously, a card that’s known simply as Tim. So what’s the story behind Prodigal Sorcerer and its rather unimpressive nickname of Tim? Let’s find out together.

What Is Prodigal Sorcerer?

A Classic Magic Card

A card as old as Magic: The Gathering, Prodigal Sorcerer comes from the very first set Wizards of the Coast ever released, Limited Edition Alpha, more commonly known as Alpha. A blue creature, Prodigal Sorcerer looks nothing like how you would expect a blue Wizard would look like in today’s version of Magic.

Creature — Human Wizard

{T}: Prodigal Sorcerer deals 1 damage to any target.

For three mana you get a 1/1 Wizard, which has since been updated to Human Wizard, that can tap to deal one damage to any target. While the effect is fairly Wizard-y, it's not a blue effect much nowadays. Instead, you’d find that ability on red Wizards, and perhaps black, though much less often.

So, Where Does Prodigal Sorcerer’s Nickname Come From?

I Don’t See It But Someone Did

Most of the time, the nicknames cards get make sense. Mom, for example, stands for Mother of Rune, since she’s a mother and she protects your other cards. The Tron lands are three individual cards that when they come together, become much stronger and produce a ton of mana, much like the evil-fighting robot Voltron.

Tim on the other hand, is a little harder to put together.

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According to Prodigal Sorcerer’s legend the card’s illustration, done by Douglas Shuler, resembles the character ‘Tim the Enchanter’, a wizard and antagonist of 1975’s Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That character was played by John Cleese, and he had a penchant for blowing things up in a gout of flame, not too dissimilarly from Prodigal Sorcerer’s ability to deal damage to whatever you choose.

I don’t personally see the resemblance, but I guess it's silly enough to let slide.

This thirty-year-old joke came around full circle with the announcement of the Monty Python Secret Lair drop. This Universes Beyond drop is two different collections and was incredibly limited, selling out within hours. The first drop, Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Vol 1 included a reskinned version of Prodigal Sorcerer, renamed into the character Tim the Enchanter, and depicts him raining fire on King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

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Even the flavor text is a throwback to the bit, with it being a direct quote from the film. “There are some who call me…Tim.” Comedy gold thirty years in the making.

Tim’s Legacy In Magic

And A Surprise Appearance In Another Classic TCG

Funnily enough, Tim has gone on to inspire a whole subgenre of cards that all share similar abilities. Practically any card that can tap to deal one damage, also called pingers, can be referred to as “Tims”. You’ve got Thornwind Faeries, or Flying Tim, Rod of Ruin, also known as Tim on a Stick, and Rootwater Hunter, sometimes called Swim Tim.

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Prodigal Sorcerer was reprinted regularly in every Core Set up until the release of Seventh Edition, where he took a break for a bit, only to be upstaged by a timeshifted version called Prodigal Pyromancer with the release of Planar Chaos. This version of the Sorcerer was colorshifted into red, where the effect generally remains to this day.

As a little bit of trivia, the original World of Warcraft Trading Card Game had its own version of Prodigal Sorcerer, with the designers going as far as naming him Tim, making his cost the same at three, and giving him a similar ability to deal a single damage to something else.

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