Tripling cards were nearly introduced in 2012, had it not been for cold feet.
In 2020, the first tripling card in Magic: the Gathering history came out. Tripling, which deals three times the damage, healing, or other factors, was long considered too powerful. So when Fiery Emancipation came out in Core Set 2021, needless to say it became a very wanted card. Even today, with multiple reprints and other tripling cards, it is still a relatively expensive card.
However, had it not been for a last minute change, the first tripling card would have come out all the way back in 2012 in Dark Ascension. The card was known as Wellspring of Healing, and would have been a five-mana white enchantment that would have tripled the amount of life you gain each time you gain life. For any white or lifelink heavy decks, this would have been a pretty good card to have and would have made for some severely high life totals if played right.
But those at Wizards of the Coast saw it as just too powerful, and late in production replaced it with Archangel's Light. Granted, 2 life for every card in your graveyard is still pretty good, it would have just not been tripling good. It is unknown if the card had any art, as Magic often reuses art made for deleted cards, but it is known that it was pulled late enough that Archangel's Light had to be plugged as the number one card as a result.
Mark Rosewater recently spoke about this decision in a recent tumblr post, saying, in part, that "That was our first attempt at a tripling card. I love doubling, so I had to try tripling."
While tripling cards are still pretty rare nowadays, it is possible that, with an extra eight years of having such cards, they could have been more of common Magic card by now.
Dominant tripling cards nearly became a thing a bit early.
