The boons are a cycle of five cards that originally appeared in the Alpha printing of Magic, each with an effect relating to the number three (3), and one in each color.
In color wheel order by color,
- White: Healing Salve
- Blue: Ancestral Recall
- Black: Dark Ritual
- Red: Lightning Bolt
- Green: Giant Growth
The power level of the cards in this cycle varied wildly, as has Wizard's willingness to reprint them. Ancestral Recall is part of the Power Nine, the most broken and monetarily expensive cards in the game, while Healing Salve and similar effects are generally considered to be unplayable.
Only two of the boons have been reprinted in a core set since 8th Edition: Giant Growth (last printed in Magic 2014) and Lightning Bolt (last printed in Magic 2011). The latter has been replaced by Incinerate and Shock in a number of core sets. The other three cards have not been reprinted: Ancestral Recall is now banned in most formats for being too powerful, Healing Salve is seen as too weak, and Dark Ritual is seen as no longer being in black's wedge of the color pie and for being too powerful.
The concept of boons has been revisited many times; most notably, in various standalone expansions, each color will get a card in a cycle that has themes reminiscent of the original Alpha boons, although there continues be debate over the relative value of these effects.