Mtg Card Back Pen Mark? Quick Answer

Tagged Deck Basics

Shh, don’t tell anyone. But it’s true that mages and psychics sometimes use marked decks. A marked deck is a deck with secret markings on the back of the card that allow you to identify the denomination and suit on the opposite side simply by looking at the back of the card.

There are two main types of marked decks that are commonly manufactured commercially: reading systems and encoded systems. Marked decks with

are what you would expect: hidden somewhere in the back design if you know where to look it will say what the card is. For example, 7S would mean 7 of spades. With these decks, your job is to simply “read” the back of the card and you can identify it instantly. Marked decks with coded

Rely on using other codes or clues to indicate the value and suit of the cards. For example, a face camouflaged on the back of the card might have a dot in the place that corresponds to the card’s number.

A quick way to tell if a deck is a marked deck is to “take it to the cinema” or “riffle test” it. This involves quickly scrolling through the entire deck with your thumb or finger, watching the card backs closely to see if there are any design changes along the way. Depending on the tagging system used, some tagged decks will be more obvious than others.

Now that you know about marked decks, don’t think that all card magic relies on a “marked deck” or some other “trick deck.” Far from it! By far the most card tricks are done with an ordinary deck – any deck. Most card magic relies on sheer sleight of hand, card skill, and a good dose of deception and showmanship. But just like a mechanic has a toolbox of various tools, there are occasions when a marked deck is just the tool a wizard needs. It can certainly be used to perform “miracles” that you simply cannot perform with an ordinary deck.

Don’t even think about using a marked deck for card games, especially if you’re playing for real money! Here’s a word of warning to the wise: A social game will be ruined if you cheat, and you’ll only spoil the experience for yourself and others. It’s even worse in a gamble because it really is a form of stealing – and eventually it will catch up with you and you will be caught. But for card magic, it’s a perfectly legitimate tool because summoning is about creating an illusion, and the viewer knows you’re using hidden secrets to achieve that. Also, a marked deck won’t do wonders on its own – you still need to come up with tricks that are fun to watch. Simply staring at the back of a card and telling someone what the card is doesn’t make it interesting to look at. On the other hand, a well-presented card trick is all about being entertaining, and your audience must never have the idea that you’re using a secret weapon to perform your magic.

To get an idea of ​​what you can do with a marked deck, take a look at this

where magician Jay Sankey shows a very simple routine that you can do. He also explains how to create your own marked deck using a standard biker rear deck.

You can certainly create your own marked deck, as Jay Sankey explains. But the good news is that there are some fantastic marked decks out there. The explosion of the custom playing card market over the past decade also means that some superbly marked decks have been produced in recent years. You must decide whether you want a deck with a read marking system or a coded marking system. You also need to decide on the style of deck that suits your needs as some people want a deck that looks very discreet and looks as much like an ordinary Bicycle Riderback deck as possible, while others want a deck that looks more classy. luxurious or even creative. A lot of this comes down to personal preference, and you need to combine that with whether the marking system is right for you.

In this article, I’ll only cover marked decks

, and I’ll cover some marked decks with encoded

in a separate article. For someone who has never used a marked deck before, one with a reading system is the easiest to use and the best place to start. Still, this is by no means a complete list of all marked decks that use reading systems, as new marked decks and new ideas come out all the time. There are many other great candidates that could be considered top rated decks, so I won’t pretend this is a definitive list of top rated decks of all time. But I’ll cover some of the best, which are some of my own favorites and have personal experience with. Also, an important criterion was that the decks had to be purchasable, so I excluded any flagged decks that you can’t easily get hold of.

Keepers v2 Red

Produced by Ellusionist, the Keepers deck comes in multiple colors including blue and green. Not all of them are marked decks, but these are

certainly is.

The concept of this deck was inspired by the idea of ​​a lighthouse keeper, which is also responsible for the lighthouse design on the card backs.

The card faces immediately give the impression that everything is normal, with the usual artwork we’ve come to expect from a traditional deck. The number cards and pips are all standard.

But there are minor exceptions, the most notable being a custom ace of spades, which features an oversized core of spades adorned with artwork that matches the deck’s lighthouse theme. In addition, there are two original jokers and some minor adjustments to the graphics of the Jack of Clubs and the Queen of Clubs.

The artwork on the card backs was created with the goal of producing a design that has the potential to be as classic as the backs of cyclists. The design is elegant but effective to please the worker mage and depicts the lighthouse our keeper inhabits.

And of course our hidden secret lies in the design. It’s very easy to read and probably won’t stand up to scrutiny, but that makes it ideal for a quick and easy read. As an added bonus, this deck also features a double queen of hearts.

Marked girl back

That

looks like an ordinary Bicycle deck with the popular maiden back design, which is a slight variation from rider backs.

Unlike many other marked decks, the markings are very easy to read so you don’t have to struggle to figure them out or decipher them. Many consider it the best modern marked deck for precisely this reason.

One thing I really like about Marked Maiden Back is that it looks completely like a regular deck, so it doesn’t draw attention. But perhaps more importantly, the markings are very easy to read, so you don’t have to struggle to figure them out or decipher them. There is no real code or system to learn – they say what they are. However, they don’t want a viewer studying the backs because they’re a bit obvious, so I wouldn’t give them out for inspection.

It’s also really handy to have two videos online that explain how these decks work and how to get the most out of them. With instruction from Jon Armstrong and Rick Lax, these also provide some great ideas for tricks you can do with these and other marked decks.

cohort

You come from the great magic brand Ellusionist

who is a companion of them

.

Both are marked decks and use the same design and marking system on the backs of the cards. The only difference between them is the color and thickness of the cards.

The card faces have a somewhat standard look, but since this is a Cartamundi-produced deck, they more closely resemble the style of Cartamundi’s Copag decks than traditional Bicycle courts. The marking system is well integrated into the design and hidden quite cleverly, requiring you to look pretty closely to read it.

What’s special about the blue deck is that it features the debut of Cartamundi’s new slimline E7 shaft. You’ll probably find that this is the thinnest deck you’ve ever used, and to me it feels even thinner than a standard bike deck with USPCC’s Thin Crush shaft. Admittedly, since these cards are so thin, they may not stand up to the rigors of heavy use, although that depends on the type of moves you’re doing. Magicians may find that tricks like double raises or suit changes come with an increased risk of bending the cards, and some will find the E7 stock too flimsy. None of this is an issue with the red deck, however, so you may want to base your color choice on your preferred card thickness.

But the cards in both decks are very manageable, feeling super soft right off the bat and bouncing beautifully while feeling snappy and durable. They also use the “True Linen” embossing pattern common to many Cartamundi decks, so they don’t have the look of the traditional air cushion style you’ll find on most USPCC-made decks. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t affect performance or handling much, just looks.

Another advantage of these Cartamundi decks is the excellent pressure registration. USPCC decks are known to have frequent print registration errors, occasionally resulting in misaligned edges. This can be a real problem, especially when a deck is designed with relatively narrow bezels, and quite a few buyers have been let down by a USPCC-produced deck for this reason alone. I haven’t noticed problems like this with Cartamundi decks, and although the Cohort decks I have have very narrow margins, the print is just right.

Elegant deck

Produced in the United States by magic purveyors Vanishing Inc Magic, the

are designed to be a colorful deck for the stylish (= elegant!) wizard.

The Dapper Decks are available in two different colors: Navy Blue or Orange. Both decks look absolutely adorable, with attractive colors and patterns.

The slip boxes feature a custom design with a spade shape that incorporates the unique pattern of the card backs.

I especially love the vibrant color and design of the card backs of this deck. The “Jerry’s Nugget Orange” deck is the most eye-catching of the two with its fiery orange colour. The companion “Navy” deck is basically a matching and identical deck, except that the card backs feature navy as the dominant color.

I also really appreciate how the damask/paisley pattern from the backs of the cards has been incorporated into a single pip on some of the number cards as well. This pattern has also been incorporated into the oversized aces, with spades and clubs using the blue deck suits and hearts and diamonds using the orange deck suits. Including the paisley design from the card backs to the card faces in a subtle way like this one helps make this deck really stand out and adds style and character.

The court cards have traditional designs with some custom elements, but they feature a color scheme that matches the rest of the deck. Of particular note is the color of the red cores, which are slightly orange and complement the color scheme of the overall design.

King & Legacy (Gold Edition)

was designed by Destino and presented by Julio Montoro, a magician, consultant and creator from Spain.

The thematic concept this deck seeks to evoke is the age-old idea that when kings died, they left a legacy that allowed them to live on. Life is about making memories and footprints, and they stay when we’re gone. These playing cards imagine themselves as a legacy from a deceased king, and when we open the doors of this box we sense his presence even though he himself is absent.

The tuck box features a soft white look with delicate lettering and patterns in metallic gold ink and embossed concentric circles that help make a strong first impression. The back of the box features the same design as the card backs, which we’ll see in a moment, while a custom seal completes the overall presentation.

All of the faces are heavily customized, especially the face cards, and that makes this deck instantly unique and special. The court cards are either all red or all black, and the minimalist color scheme helps accentuate the stylish artwork. The pips are also very stylized without being over the top to ensure the deck doesn’t give up all practicality.

I especially love the Aces, each of which has a single giant pip inscribed with a maze design that mimics some of the feel of the card backs. The Ace of Spades is particularly lavish, with a rich metallic gold stripe gracing the edges of the oversized core, along with a banner that reads “King & Legacy”.

The card backs have an ornate and classy design that incorporates all manner of symbols and symbols into the design, and the more you look the more you’ll see, such as musical notes, eyes, flowers and fish, in an overall pattern that looks like a labyrinth.

The secret markers are easy to read, and an additional card that comes with the deck provides a full key to the marker system. They’ll take you literally under 30 seconds to learn and master, though they’re well integrated into the pattern at opposite corners of the card backs, with an italic font style helping with their disguise.

Orbit v7

Chris “Orbit” Brown’s Orbit series is very popular with card lovers, in part because of the circle design on the card backs. So it may surprise you to see that

on this list. A marked deck?

Surprisingly yes, it is. The creator doesn’t even market this as a marked deck, which I think is a mistake on his part. There is a real risk that some people might buy this deck, thinking it’s an ordinary deck that could be used for poker, card games, or magic and it would be a real bummer to discover it after it’s marked . So I wish the publisher had been more transparent about the fact that this is a marked deck unlike the other Orbit decks because buyers have a right to know what they’re getting. But that’s a small complaint because I really like the deck.

The color of the tuck box and card back give an immediate hint of the ’80s feel that this blue and pink version of the Orbit Deck tries to capture. These colors also recur on the map pages.

The style of the court cards has a somewhat standard look, but I appreciate the fact that there are some variations in the usual font and graphics to give this deck its own personality while still looking very familiar. At least three of the court cards are actually based on real people the designer is close to. Two astronaut jokers also bring some humor and color to the faces.

Version 1 of this deck was first released in 2015, and the Orbit decks have proved to be a huge hit in the cardistry world. Thematically, the series is considered a homage to space exploration, with a touch of sci-fi. Many small touches in the deck’s artwork are inspired by various aspects of space travel or details from our planets. The card backs in some versions depict a rocket flying around our space circle, but in version 7 we instead see stellar constellations surrounding our pink epicenter as a beautiful star belt.

I have a few of the previous Orbit decks, and I can see that it was a good move to combine a retro look with a proven design, so version 7 has what it takes to be a popular choice for cardistry. You only have to look at the stars to find the marker system, and it’s actually pretty awesome. Once you know, the markings will be very obvious to you, but I can see that they will completely escape the attention of all but the most observant. It’s very clever and well-made, and while it might not suit a professional card worker, it’s certainly a marked deck that you can have fun with.

DMC Elites (Forest Green)

As our gateway to the magic within, the Tuck Box is the

is a forest green matte finish and accented with gold foil for a sophisticated look.

DMC stands for the initials of English magician and cardsharp Drummond Money-Coutts, who has been the subject of several magic TV specials. Money-Coutts has teamed up with magic creator Phil Smith to produce a line of decks called DMC Elites and this is considered Version 4. The formula that has made previous DMC Elites decks so successful continues, but for For the first time, the marks are now on all four corners, not just two.

Everything is relatively standard aside from a custom ace of spades and the stylish joker silhouettes, one of which has a card face up, so it’s a great deck that’s well suited to professional use. Two promotional cards provide a brief introduction to Elites decks and instructions on the marking system.

What makes the DMC Elites so highly regarded is that these cards don’t require you to squint to try to spot the semi-hidden or tiny markings. Instead, the marking system on these decks is highly visible and works best when viewed from a distance. And yet, if you don’t know the key, it’s completely untraceable.

Many in the magic world consider these innovative decks to be the best in the business for precisely this reason. Even pros will have trouble finding the markers unless they’ve been let in on the secret!

Final Thoughts

There is frequent debate as to which marked decks are the best on the market and I won’t even try to answer that as it often depends on what your needs are and what environment you are using a marked deck in at first Place. When deciding on a deck marked with a reading system you want to be sure that your eyesight is good enough to easily see the markings and that the text isn’t too small, so this is a big consideration.

If you’re looking for a basic reader deck that doesn’t draw attention, your best bet is this

. The beauty of this deck is how ordinary it looks. Since it looks like a regular Bicycle deck, there’s no reason for viewers to think there’s anything unusual about it. In contrast, a better adjusted deck is at risk of being scrutinized or suspected. My copy of the Marked Maiden Back deck also included free access to two online videos by Jon Armstrong and Rick Lax that provided some wonderful ideas for marked card routines, which was a real bonus.

Another good choice for workers is the

, due to the standard look of the court cards. That

a good choice for similar reasons. Both decks are printed by Cartamundi, so they handle a little differently than a Bicycle deck.

If you are looking for maps that are easy to read from a distance, then this is the

is a clear winner. Some reading decks have well camouflaged markings but you’ll have to squint to read or interpret them, but that’s not a problem at all with the DMC Elites as you can read them from practically across the room. The deck includes an instruction card that tells you everything you need to know to read the markers, but there’s also a great companion book that’s sold separately. Justified

, and from the deck’s creators, DMC and Phil Smith, this 32-page mini-book explains the deck along with instructions for nine different effects you can do with it.

What about decks with coded marking systems? See a follow-up article for more information!

:

.

Last but not least are the DMC Elites, and one could even argue that I’ve saved the best in this category for last. The editor refers to this as an “optical system” due to the unorthodox style of the markings, but I still consider this a reader’s game because you’re still reading the color and the value and there’s no real system to learn.

About the Author: EndersGame is a well-known and highly respected reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, cardistry and card collecting and has reviewed several hundred board games and hundreds of different decks of playing cards. A full list of his game reviews can be found here and his playing card reviews here. He is considered an authority on playing cards and has written extensively on their design, history and function and has many contacts in the playing card and board game industry. You can see his previous articles on playing cards here. In his free time, he also volunteers with the local youth, teaching them the art of card art and card magic.

British English

AUTHORIZE

If a person’s card is marked with , they have done something that causes the authority figure to disapprove of them

Magic: The Gathering is the most popular trading card game in the world.

The cards known as the Power Nine went out of print in 1994, making them extremely rare.

The most coveted card is the Black Lotus.

The Black Lotus alone can cost $27,000 (£20,000) if it’s from the first edition.

Business Insider spoke to Roy Raftery, card game expert and manager of Sneak Attack Games, about a deck of cards called Power Nine.

The Power Nine is a set of extremely rare cards in the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. They have extremely powerful effects that give any player who has them a huge advantage over their opponent.

Roy’s set of Power Nine cards is worth $27,000 (£20,000). The most coveted card, the Black Lotus, can cost $27,000 (£20,000) alone if it’s in perfect condition and from the first edition.

Produced and filmed by David Ibekwe. Special thanks to Sneak Attack Games.

Magic: The Gathering players love breaking open booster packs to see their brand new cards. Each card is a playable game element. So if you get some friends together, you can instantly build decks and combine them in battle. And you can set aside the best ones for your favorite Commander deck.

But what can you do with cards other than play? Are Magic: The Gathering cards worth anything? Can you sell them for cash? The answer is yes!

Basically every single Magic card has a cash value, although most common cards are only worth around $0.05 to $0.10. These cards are considered bulk goods and card dealers will expect to buy them in bulk – bring a box full and they can add up to $5.00 or more! You can visit merchant websites to view their shopping list prices. The most popular card price resource used by players and some dealers is TCGPlayer, where you can view a range of prices for any issue of any card.

The money cards

Very old cards, the best performing cards printed in the 1990s such as Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall can fetch thousands of dollars and vary by condition. Iconic cards that have been printed and reprinted more recently, like Snapcaster Mage or Misty Rainforest, can go over $50.

Among the new cards, Mythic Rares and Rares can be worth $1.00 or more, and the good ones can sell for prices in excess of $50. These are usually flashy legendary creatures like Tiamat or very powerful staples like Questing Beast.

You don’t need to draw Mythic Rare to find cards with real monetary value. Even from the newest sets, powerful uncommons can fetch $3.00 or more. When they become staples for numerous decks, they can soar even higher. Fatal Push is still making a few bucks five years after it first appeared in Aether Revolt and was remade in Double Masters last year.

Strixhaven’s Expressive Iteration is another example of a valuable, uncommon card that has been worth $7.00 or more in the past few months.

Special editions achieve premium prices

For the biggest hits among the new cards, look for foil versions of full-bleed alternate art or special Showcase cards. These can appear in packs if you’re lucky, and can sometimes be worth upwards of $100!

This full art foil version of Misty Rainforest from Zendikar Expeditions can fetch over $300. It was one of the first series of premium alternate versions of iconic cards, so its high price reflects its historical value.

Sometimes exclusive versions of cards printed in languages ​​other than English can also be very valuable, like this Japanese Demonic Tutor from Strixhaven’s mystical archives.

If you open such a card, keep it in a safe place immediately!

Magic Academy is a column designed to help new players get up to speed by teaching them more about the game and showing the resources available on the web to learn more. The column is written linearly, like a book, so each lesson builds on what you’ve learned in previous articles. So if you’re new to the column, you can either start at the beginning or just check the previous articles to see where you want to start. To view the column table of contents or learn more, just go to the Magic Academy welcome page.

This column is written for players who can squeeze through at least one game of Magic. If you’re completely new to the game and don’t know how to play at all, we recommend starting with playmagic.com and then coming back to Magic Academy. Once you know the basics of progressing through a game, let’s go from there!

hello again friends Last week’s article was a foretaste of the type of topics we will be covering in the weeks and months to come. This week, however, we’re going to take a step back and give you an in-depth look at all the information available to you on a Magic card. All of the information packed onto that little piece of cardboard can be a little overwhelming at first, especially for some of the more complicated cards out there, but a little explanation of the important parts should get you started.

Surname

We begin our cardboard journey at the top left. Perhaps the most important part of any card is its name. These simple words are meant to evoke many images in your mind beyond card art and perhaps give you a clue as to what the card is doing. Because of this, the R&D creative team tends to avoid the Bob the Giant calling cards, going for the more impressive Hammerfist Giant or Bloodfire Colossus instead. It’s important to remember card names, as certain spells (like Cranial Extraction or Meddling Mage) actually require a name in order to play them. It’s also important to remember them because your friends will give you weird looks if you try to tell them that you “threw that thing at his whatsamajig but he countered it with a canoodle” and that’s why Did you lose.

mana cost

To the right of the top line we see the so-called mana cost. This is a series of numbers and symbols used to represent what types of mana you must generate in order to cast spells. Let’s take another look at this Bloodfire Colossus.

To cast this beast, you must generate two red mana plus six generic mana. When it comes to “generic mana” it means you can use mana of any color for that part.

With that in mind, this is a good place to introduce the idea of ​​converted mana cost, or CMC. Converted mana cost is simply the total of all of a card’s mana costs, regardless of what type of mana it is. To find out the Colossus’ CMC, you would take 2 red ones and add them to the generic 6 for a total of 8. Just add all the mana needed and get a grand total. Just no?

When it comes to mana in print, it’s common to use letters to clarify what symbols we’re talking about when we’re not able to use just the symbols. I’ve included a quick translation key below for those of you who are just getting involved in the community.

W = White = W (Comes from the Plains baseland)

U = Blue = U = (Comes from Island base country)

B = Black = B = (Comes from Swamp Baseland)

R = Red = R = (comes from mountain baseland)

G = Green – G = (Comes from Grundland Forest)

It takes a bit of getting used to for newer readers that “U” means blue mana. Historically, this came about because Wizards R&D used B for black and L for land, so U became short for blue, and it has stayed that way ever since.

Finally, note that “mana cost” was originally called “cast cost” until the release of the Sixth Edition core set, which brought with it a number of important rule and terminology changes. So you might hear or read the term casting cost instead, especially among more experienced players, but now you know that it’s just a mana cost.

Enter line

This area shows you what type of card you are dealing with. There are six basic card types: lands, creatures, enchantments, artifacts, instants, and sorceries. This line can also contain more specific information. For example, when we talk about a creature card, this tells you what kind of creature you’re dealing with (goblin, dragon, etc.).

This line gets more advanced as we get into it now, but the good news is that for the level you’re at, in most cases the info you need is right here on the map while you’re making your way through a game of Magic. If you have a card that says all your goblins get a bonus, and that card says it’s a goblin on the type line, you know you’re good to go. (As we get more into the rules, we’ll revisit this line and talk about things like subtypes and supertypes and other issues.)

extension icon

On the right side of the type line is the expansion symbol, a piece of information that tells you in which set that particular card was printed. It also tells you how rare the card is. Gold represents rare, silver represents uncommon, and a black expansion symbol means it’s a common card.

So based on that, you know that our Colossus friend here is from the Ninth Edition core set (the icon) and that it’s a rare card (the gold color). searchable map database gatherer. To learn more about Magic’s different sets, click on the word “Products” in the navigation bar on the right side of the page. That takes you to the Magic Products page, which lists every set ever printed in order, including their name and expansion symbol. From there, click on any of the sets and it will bring you all sorts of detailed information about that particular set. This is actually one of the busiest sections on the site after the articles, so it’s a great section to know about as you learn more about the game.

Finally, some bonus info if you’re keen on racking up some extra credit in this area: As long-time players already know, colored expansion symbols weren’t always used. For anything earlier than the Exodus expansion set, all expansion icons are black, regardless of rarity. (Also, prior to Sixth Edition, core sets had no expansion icon at all.)

text box

capabilities

The big box below the picture is the box that contains the important information about what the card actually does. Some cards (mostly creatures) have no information at all (not counting italics, which we’ll get to in a moment) in this area, meaning they don’t have any special abilities. This type of card is often referred to as “vanilla”. However, most spells in Magic have important information about what the card is actually doing in the text box. Take our friend Anaba Shaman. Its ability is that once it’s been in play for a turn and has overcome its summoning disease, it can tap to deal 1 damage to target creature or player. (“Tap” is turning the card sideways and is denoted by this curved arrow icon.) To do this, you need to spend a red mana. Simple, cool and useful. Many creatures do far more complicated things, while most card types are defined almost entirely by their ability text. Need more examples? Alright, click on Shock, Wrath of God, Icy Manipulator, Curiosity and Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree for an example of each type of spell card and their ability text.

flavor text

On most cards, below the ability text, you’ll see a section of italicized text that tells a little story or gives you a quote that might relate to the card. That’s what we call flavor text. Flavor text is an opportunity to fill you in on the game’s lore by telling you a small snippet, or story, about the card and how it fits into the world of Magic. Or maybe it’s a chance to inject some humor. Flavor text doesn’t impact gameplay and is occasionally omitted entirely when ability text takes up too much space, but it’s another element that adds depth to Magic play. The R&D creative team works hard to create a meaningful world that goes beyond just playing the cards, and there’s even a category of players who love Magic cards more for their artistry and flavor than their actual nature effect in the game. To learn more about the flavorful side of Magic, check out Matt Cavotta’s Taste the Magic column for an exclusive weekly look at the fruits of the Magic creative team and the worlds they create to make those cards be able to live.

artist info

Just below the text box on the left is the name of the artist who made the art on the card. Magic’s art has always been one of its most distinctive features and has only gotten better since the game launched in 1993. Given the incredible level it’s at now, Magic offers some of the coolest fantasy imagery out there.

collector number

In very small text just above the bottom of the card, you’ll typically see a trademark symbol, along with some dates, the words Wizards of the Coast, and then some more numbers and/or letters. Most of it is just copyright information, but the information to the right of this line is what’s called the collector’s number, which tells you where the card goes in the set if you choose to organize your collection that way. Much to my wife’s chagrin, I tend to organize my collection using the “put the cards in whatever box that happens to be nearby” method, which is not recommended.

strength/toughness

This is the creature-spell-only portion of a card that tells you the general size of the creature in question. The numbers in question are in the lower right corner of the card, like the 13/13 listed on our friend right there. The number on the left is the power, used to describe the creature’s offensive abilities in combat. The higher the number on the left, the more faces the creature can inflict on an ignorant and often unwilling opponent.

The number on the right is the creature’s toughness. Toughness is how much damage a creature can take before going down for the count. A toughness of one is roughly the same as Glass Joe’s chin from Punch Out, while a toughness of six is ​​quite similar to Rocky, although the toughness can actually rise into the stratosphere. In fact, Krosan Cloudscraper is the largest actual creature card ever printed for tournament play, an avalanche of Boom Boom arriving at 13/13.

As of this writing, Coldsnap’s cards have recently been revealed, including a card that can create a token that weighs a staggering 20/20, making it larger than George Foreman and all his children combined. Wizards has actually printed a special card that could be used for the token being given away for free at this weekend’s Coldsnap release events.

card edge

While each card back is consistent, the card edge on the front changes depending on which set the card is from. The slightly simplified story is that cards in the Core Set (Unlimited through 9th Edition) all have white borders, while cards from one of Magic’s many expansion sets have black borders. (Magic also has some cards with gold borders, but we’ll cover this special case and other border issues in a future article.)

Magic also has two special sets that have been printed that aren’t tournament legal. Often referred to as “Un” sets, Unglued and Unhinged are sets of cards issued for the casual player, with an emphasis on humor. Unglued and Unhinged cards have silver borders and are not allowed in tournament play.

deconstruction

I’ve used relatively simple examples so far, but let’s take the plunge and show you and deconstruct a very cool map with lots of information on what we learned today. Ready?

look at the guy Okay, so we know the name is in the top left, so we know this card is called Troll Asket. Its cast cost is shown in the top right, which is 1 GG, meaning it takes two green mana and one generic mana to put it into play. It’s also what we’d call a “three-mana creature” because its converted mana cost is… you guessed it, three.

If we look at the type line we can see that he is a creature and his specific creature type is “Troll Shaman”. He’s also a rarity from Mirrodin (although fans recently voted him into the tenth edition, so you’ll be seeing him for a while).

Next comes the ability text, which tells you that the troll has two important traits. First, he can’t be the target of spells and abilities your opponents control, meaning he’s pretty hard for your opponent to deal with. Most removal spells are targeted, but should your opponent want to attack Mr. Troll, he’ll just hold up his hand and call out, “No, sir!” You’re welcome to do this if you throw him, but I recommend using it sparingly , as it can become annoying over time.

The troll’s other important ability is that it can regenerate provided you pay 1G each time. What this means is that if the troll takes fatal damage from something (such as combat or your opponent casting Pyroclasm), the troll will stay alive as long as you pump two mana into it. This makes the troll a huge torment for opponents, being virtually unkillable. You know Jason from the Friday the 13th movies? Troll Asket is like him. Except green ones. There’s serious voodoo going on here, because this shaman just doesn’t want to die.

On the next line, you’ll get the flavor text in italics, telling us: It’s no coincidence that the oldest trolls are also the angriest. I believe my father was the first person to pass such wisdom on to me, although I think he may have made a comment about his third wife at the time.

On the bottom left you can see that the invaluable Puddnhead did the art for the troll (art that is generally considered great by most gamers), and on the bottom right you can see the overall fatness of the troll meddling on 3/2. (Slang warning: A creature’s size is often referred to in terms of how “fat” that creature is!) This is a bit too small to be a true Fattie (4/4 or better is required to be in Big and Tall store shopping). ), but considering the troll’s defensive abilities coupled with the fact that it still has three powers for three mana, it’s a mighty good creature.

Finally, you get the tiny little text just above the border that says “135/306” means the troll is map number 135 of the 306 maps in Mirrodin.

That’s all the time I have for this week kids, but join me next time when I try to share some sage advice on building your very first Constructed deck.

Additional reading:

First, I introduce you to a neophyte’s best friend: The Saturday School Archives and Ask the Judge. Both columns have extensive – nay, massive – column catalogs in which they explain and answer specific questions about the rules. Thankfully, you don’t have to read every single issue if you want to stay up to date as they also have searchable rulebases so you can just type in the card you have a question about and let the computer do all the hard work done searching and spitting out answers.

Also, for those looking for rules in a fully interactive environment, I would suggest that you check out both the Rules FAQ section and the Rules Questions and Answers section of our forums. They’re crammed with useful information and seem to have more than a few people willing to help players in need. Finally, magicthegatering.com’s Magic Rules Center has an entire rules section that links to just about every rules resource you can think of and then some.

If you have extra time and want to apply some of what you’ve learned today, I recommend Josh Bennett’s excellent article “Introducing the Pit Fighter Legends” where he not only coined the term “facesmashery,” but where he also showcases some of the best writing skills in Magic for all to see.

You can also check out one of our wonderful experts’ map previews to see how they convert all the information you see on the map into an analysis of how those maps will affect the game itself. Each time a new set approaches, magicthegathering.com authors have a couple of weeks to preview and show off the new cards before you can see them elsewhere. I think you’ll find that the way the preview articles analyze the new cards reflects a lot of what you learned today. If you are interested in such things, would I recommend starting here, here, here, here and here?

Beginner’s Guide to Evaluating Magic the Gathering Cards By James Tann | 2015-03-31

Introduction A week ago, Axel gave a friend a large box of old maps. Your 8 year old has just started doing magic so we thought giving him a big box of old cards would make a great gift for him. When she came to collect the cards we started talking about magic and the topic of value came up. Mary couldn’t believe there were £30 cards you could open from now widely available packs, let alone the £1000s fetched by some of the rarest older cards from high-end collectors.

PSA 10 Graded Alpha Black Lotus, value approx. £60,000

From this conversation it occurred to Axel and I that we have often seen children who do not know the value of their cards and their parents have even less idea. Personally, I’ve been collecting, trading, and playing magic since 1994. I have a good idea of ​​the value of most cards, but that’s built up over the years. It can be a daunting task when you see the sheer volume of cards a person can acquire. That’s why we wanted to help by writing a simple article to explain how to identify and rate magic cards. This explanation is meant to be a good guide, not a full explanation of each card and its value. There will be some exceptions to the guide, but for our purposes this covers almost everyone the article is aimed at.

About 50,000 cards. What I would call the high end of a normal collection.

Spell Card Rarity So where to start? First of all, I think a quick explanation about the cards is needed. Magic is a trading card game with artificial rarity on the cards. This means that when printing the cards, they make some cards rarer than others to increase their value both in-game and financially. The most common way to buy cards is a “booster pack”. With a few exceptions, these are random 15-card packs that contain: 1 Basic Land, these are so common they’re worthless.

10 common cards, almost all of them so common they are worthless.

3 unusual cards, average value of 10p each.

1 Rare or Mythic Rare card. This is most likely valuable.

Sometimes 1 foil card (the shiny ones), a good chance of being valuable. As you can see, we can ignore most cards and focus on the rare, mytic rare, and holographic cards. To determine if a card is rare or mythic rare, let’s look at the expansion set icon. Almost all cards have an expansion set icon to help you identify them.

Position of the expansion icon

The color of this icon tells you what rarity the card is; Common = Black, Uncommon = Silver, Rare = Gold, Mythic = Orange Red / Bronze. Foil cards still have the colored icon from the non-foil version’s rarity. But all foil cards have a good chance of being valuable, so treat them all as rare.

Color of expansion set icons

If you are having trouble determining a card’s rarity this way, there is a very helpful website that has almost every version of every magic card ever printed http://magiccards.info. It can tell you the rarity of a card very quickly. If after searching for a card the picture does not match what you see, it is very likely because there are different editions with different graphics. There are links to show you each edition of the map on the left side of the site.

Pricing the Cards After we have identified the most likely cards that are worth money, we need to price them. There are many different places where you can see the value of a magic card, and they can vary greatly. I put them in 2 camps, Magic Dealers & Community. The magic dealers make their living selling tickets, there are a lot of them and their prices will be high. They’re a good tool for quickly checking the value of a card, but it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get the same amount yourself. We’ll be more interested in the community side of pricing. Your best tool to see a realistic price for a card is Magic Card Market, a major European trading site. I caution against buying and selling on this site unless you know what you are doing, but it’s great for getting a very current price on each card. There’s also a very helpful Facebook group that I’m a member of that can help you rate cards and set up trades. This is where it helps if you start thinking of cards as stocks and shares. Each card can and will go up and down in value, sometimes in incredibly volatile ways. Each card can become popular for a new deck used in competitions. This will always increase the price. But the deck that has gone out of fashion will lose value in its cards. Cards are also reprinted in new sets, this affects the price of the older edition of that card. My main point here is to make you realize that just because a card is worth a lot one day doesn’t mean it will be in the near future. If you have a valuable card and don’t need to use it or keep it, you can consider selling it or trading it for other cards that you will use. Just make sure you know the value of your cards before selling or trading.

Ethics in Trading Magic is a competitive game and trading was part of the original game. I think a lot of players got lost in trading and see it as competition so it’s okay to rip people off; this is referred to as “trading for value”. You can find players who are very nice people but trade cards from you at a very bad exchange rate and don’t see it as wrong. I see it as a fault in the community, you shouldn’t let that discourage you from playing or getting involved in the community, but be aware that cards are valuable and you could be ripped off if you don’t know what they are worth. When trading, don’t be afraid to look up the value of the cards on the spot. This is a common practice and there are many internet enabled devices around you. Just go to a price page and check if the trade is balanced. If you are unsure, do not trade.

A deckmaster is a monster that represents the player in a deckmaster duel. It appears exclusively in the Virtual World Arc of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime in which it is used in all duels that take place in Noah’s Virtual World.

At the start of a Duel, each Duelist chooses a card from their Deck (either their Main Deck or Fusion Deck) as their Deck Master. The player’s deckmaster begins the duel in view, but not on the field. Deck Masters provide a Deck Master ability, with that ability based on the card chosen as Deck Master.

A player can Special Summon their Deckmaster to their side of the field at any time, but if a player’s Deckmaster is destroyed, they lose the duel. When a player’s Deckmaster that leaves the field is used to Summon another monster (e.g. when it is used as a Fusion Material, is Tributed by a card effect that Summons another monster, or by using a Card like “A Deal with the Dark Lord (allows to meet activation conditions), the replacement monster becomes the player’s new Deckmaster. If multiple players’ Deckmasters are used to Summon a single monster in this way, the Summoned monster becomes the Deckmaster of all players whose Deckmasters were used for its Summoning.

If a Fusion Monster was Fusion Summoned using a Deckmaster as a Fusion Material, the Fusion Summoned (now a Deckmaster itself) can attack in the same turn. (According to the Battle City rules, of which the Virtual World arc uses a variant, Fusion Monsters cannot normally attack on the turn they are Summoned.)

List of deckmasters[ edit ]

Trivia [edit]

Today’s column should be about something else. But as I sat down to write it, I realized you all wanted to hear me talk about the new card frames. I will.

Let me start today’s column by saying that your voices have not fallen on deaf ears. Some of you are very upset about this change. Others are confused as to why the change is taking place. Many of you have questions that you would like answered.

I thought I’d organize this column by answering the most common questions I’ve received via email and read on various websites and bulletin boards. My goal today is to answer these questions and give you a better understanding of our thought processes.

Question #1: Why? Why? For the love of God, why?!!

To answer that question, I first need to explain how we view Magic here at Wizards of the Coast. We think of Magic as a classic game like Monopoly® or SCRABBLE®. We make our decisions with the assumption that in forty years, we’ll be celebrating Magic’s fiftieth birthday. And fifty years later the hundredth. This means that we are seeing changes in a very big picture.

The other important point I must emphasize is that we don’t see Magic now and in the future the way Richard Garfield envisioned the game when he first created it. This is in no way a strike against Richard. I think Magic is the best game ever made. No one is more responsible for this than Richard. But who knew what Magic would become? Richard designed a “little game” to be played between role-playing sessions. He reckoned people would pay twenty to fifty dollars for it. Balancing a rare card like Black Lotus or Ancestral Recall in that at most one would exist between the entire playgroup.

In short, there’s a disconnect between where Magic came from and where we believe Magic should be. In order to get from A to B, we have to change trains at some point. You have to understand that this transition has been ongoing since Magic’s inception. Just as Magic’s metagame is ever-changing, so has the game itself. Many aspects that players take for granted were not there when the game started. Here’s just a quick list of some of the things that have been added (or changed) to Magic since the Alpha release:

Sixty card deck limits and the four card limit

Prohibited and Restricted Lists

Constructed formats (including Standard, Extended, and Block Constructed) other than Type 1

Limited Formats (including Booster Draft, Rochester Draft, and Sealed Deck)

Annual blocks (incl. block mechanics)

Card rarity indicators, card numbering, and slides

The biggest change came many years ago. There are two main forces in the Magic game, flavor and function. Flavor strives to make the game as rich as possible. Function strives to make the game as smooth as possible. taste makes things cool; function is fun. Flavor envelops you in the metaphor of the world. Function makes the game the best it can be.

The problem is that every now and then the two heads bump. When taste clashes with function, who should win? When the game was first created, the answer was flavor. Alpha was clearly designed to be as tasty as possible. Often for the sake of the game. But as the game grew in popularity, the research and development made an important discovery. Taste was important, but not as important as function. The game essentially had to come first.

The earliest implementation was when Standard was first announced. Yes, giving players access to every map is more tasteful, but the gameplay suffers. Next, R&D starts looking at how they designed. Adding an extra line to each card is more tasteful, but it added game complexity without a huge payoff. Having many, many creature types was more tasteful, but it made creature types less important in the game. Shaping the rules so that each card could do what was coolest individually, but at the expense of an unwieldy rulebook.

At every fork in the road, research and development has taken the path of functionality. That doesn’t mean we don’t want flavor. We do it. Taste is important. But we don’t push flavor for the sake of the game. So why did we change the map frames? To make them more functional. To continue the development of the game that has been ongoing since the game was created.

This of course leads us to the next question:

Question #2: What was wrong with the old frames? (aka Why fix it if it ain’t broke?)

There were a number of issues. let me go through them. (These are in no particular order.)

The Font – The original font for Magic card titles is called Goudy Medieval. It was chosen because it had a very imaginative feel to it. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to read from a distance. Additionally, when we had to use lowercase letters, they bumped into the bevel above the art box. By the way, the font for the rules text has not changed on the new cards.

Another thing I think is important is that advanced players recognize the cards by art. It’s the less experienced players who need to be able to read the card titles. The reason most serious gamers don’t have a problem reading the old font is because they don’t actually read it.

The Lettering – Since Jesper Myrfors, the game’s original art director, wanted the frame to be fully connected, he decided to use white lettering for all text that isn’t in the actual “text box”. Light writing on a dark background is more difficult to read than dark writing on a light background. Also, white text on a white card frame was particularly difficult to read from a distance.

The Textures – Some of the textures used for the original card frames don’t blend as naturally with the flavor of their color as you would expect. For example, consider a white card. The background is a lace doily. What does a doily have to do with the taste of white? I have no idea.

Power/Toughness – A creature’s power and toughness is a very important statistic. Richard Garfield’s biggest problem with the old map frames was that they didn’t focus enough on this important part of the map.

Frame Distribution – A Magic card image has a finite “landholding.” There is only so much space that we can use to place the map’s elements. The old map frames took up more space than we thought was necessary to convey the color of the map. This space came at the expense of the other aspects.

Art Focus – Jeremy Cranford, Magic’s current art director, summed up his biggest problem with the old cards with a metaphor. He compared the frame of a map to the frame of a work of art. A good frame focuses the viewer on the art, not the frame. The old Magic card frames drew too much attention to themselves and not enough art.

This of course leads to:

Question #3: Why are the new frames better?

Let’s address the issues from the last section.

The Font – The new title font was chosen remotely for its readability. Is it less “medieval” than the ancient script? Yes. Is it easier to read? Yes. Taste butted heads with function, and we chose function.

The lettering – Darker lettering on a light background is easier to read. When you put an old and a new Magic card side by side, the difference is striking. The new boxes around the name, card type, and strength/toughness are necessary as most of the frame is dark in color so cards can be easily identified. In order to use dark fonts, we had to separate the light background from the dark background. So the boxes.

The Textures – When revising the textures of the map, the design team took great care to match the textures with the flavors of the colors. It’s hard to see on the online scans, but the level of detail (such as the leaf in the background of the green frame) is very elegant.

Power/Toughness – The Power and Tenacity now have a much larger focus than before. It also has its own box. Part of this is the contrast of having dark letters on a light background.

Frame Distribution – The map frame is smaller. But the art box is bigger. The rules text box is larger. There is more space for names and card types. This change will have actual game applications. There are cards that we couldn’t print before that now fit in the text boxes. Longer names and combinations of creature types are now available. And the art? Well, read on.

Art Focus – Arguably the biggest aesthetic change to the new card frames is that the focus is now more on art. For starters, the art box is larger, but more importantly, the card frames now draw the eye to the art. That’s why I don’t share the view that the new versions are less “fantasy” than the old ones. I think the fantasy focus is just different. The old frames added fantasy elements to the whole map. The new frames instead put the focus on the one map element that I believe is most effective in capturing the flavor of fantasy: the art.

Question #4 – Why weren’t the players asked for their opinion?

One of the most common complaints seems to stem from the fact that so many players were feeling “out of the loop”. I take this as a compliment for MagicTheGathering.com making players feel “in the loop”. I’m quite touched that features like You Make the Card and Selecting Eighth Edition have been so well received. I’m honored that we were able to find more ways to involve you all in the game. And we plan to do even more in the future. But let me be very clear: we cannot, and in my opinion should not, make every decision public. Let’s take the theme of card frames as an example.

Group mentality – One of the problems with polling the public is that people react differently in a group than as individuals. People tend to absorb information before responding. Groups simply react. Change in particular always has a strong reaction, rarely a positive one. Let’s look at two big changes in Magic’s past: the introduction of Standard and the introduction of the Sixth Edition rules. In both cases the group reaction was quick and loud. “We hate it!” “It ruins the game!” “I finish!”

In each case, we made a change that would fundamentally change how Magic was played. I don’t think the violent reaction was misplaced. But I don’t think important decisions should be made in this atmosphere.

Looking back, I think most players would agree that both items were a positive addition to the game. Over time, the individual’s calmness overtook the group’s knee-jerk response. I believe that will also be the case with the card frames. In short, the reason we never ask the audience, “Shall we make this change?” is that the answer will almost always be no. And while change is scary, it is often necessary.

Focus – In order to survey the public, focus must be created. We want the public to communicate with each other and create discussions with each other and with us. To do this, we have to stick to one topic at a time. For Edition 8, we felt it would be more convenient and rewarding to allow players to select maps rather than prompting for the new map image.

Complexity – While R&D on the web requires a lot of rib work, we are trained professionals. It is our task to examine these questions in more detail than most of you would like. There are many issues that I think you would rather let R&D decide than the public.

Timeliness – We have to make our decisions more than a year in advance. Often this means the public doesn’t have much of the data we need to make the decision. While this is less true for map frames than for some other subjects, you all should have been asked without knowing some of the ramifications of the choices.

Artistic Vision – The creative process does not work well through the committee. The best outcome is to find a creative person with vision and let him make all the decisions to enable unity of decisions. That’s what we did with the card frames.

Surprise – One of the great parts of Magic is the discovery process. In order for you to make all the important decisions, we’d have to ruin the surprise. We don’t want that.

Before I move on to the next question, I want to emphasize that just because we didn’t ask the public, it doesn’t mean we didn’t seek input from Magic players. Wizards is a big company. Many of our employees (some who have absolutely nothing to do with Magic) play Magic. We’ve tried to get input from Magic players within the company. In addition, R&D recreated the cards for the FFL (the Future Future League – our internal playtesting league) so we could get several months of data on how they actually played.

This of course leads to the next question:

Question #5 – Can we do something about it?

To be honest, no. We are past the point where we can change the decision. That doesn’t mean we don’t want feedback, but it does mean players shouldn’t focus on changing the decision. It is too late.

Question #6 – Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?

We felt that six months was enough time for players to digest the change before hitting the actual maps. As we had no plans to change the decision based on the initial reaction (which we expected to be negative), we saw no need to announce the change earlier. We also wanted to kick off the year with an introduction to the 10th anniversary celebrations, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce the new card faces.

Question #7 – Don’t you care what the players think?

Of course we will take care of it. We care very much. But R&D’s job is to make decisions based on what we think is best for the game, and therefore for the players, in the long run. So far we have a very good track record. I believe Magic is the healthiest thing in gaming history.

This boils down to trust. Look back at the past decisions we’ve made. How many of them turned out to be the right ones? I believe the vast majority. So please, I understand that some of you are unhappy at this time. I hear some of you think we made a mistake. All I ask is that you give the card frames a chance. Trust R&D to share your concerns to keep Magic the best game possible.

Please trust us. I think we deserve it.

Join me next week as I examine what is white about the world.

Until then, may you give something new a chance.

Markus Rosenwasser