Just remember that MtG stopped giving free DCI textless promos because it was too unclear for players to make out what cards was being played. And now WotC have realized that doesn't matter when you can sell it at a premium.
Great video man, as someone who plays magic mostly online I didn't realize this was a problem as I could just hover over the card but you brought up a very good point, it would be very annoying to have to pick up every unclear card. I am also looking into building an online card game so this commentary was really illuminating. Thank you.
It was cool when there was a handful of different special borders. Every set having like 5-10 different border treatments nukes any specialness of any alternate frame.
I absolutely agree, and remember when they started doing these special treatments in Throne of Eldraine. Zendikar Expeditions and Kaladesh Inventions, those felt special and unique and exciting to open. Once they introduced collector packs, "super-art" variants grew rampant, which has only escalated, and made opening these variants unexciting over time. While the variety of art has all been exceptional, I feel the game has been diluted and cheapened by all the variants/extended art/secret lairs/universes beyond. Once WotC realized we'd pay up the nose for super-art cards, or cards featuring our favorite IPs, then EVERYTHING became like that. We can blame our own spending habits for the tragic state of current Magic.
Actually to me the baldur’s gate mono color cards were okay, cause the background of the image matched the color of the card color identity. But I understand your pain. From a pure owning them to look at perspective, I like a lot of the frames. In terms of gameplay, I’d be happier if everyone just played with regular looking magic cards. To me all these different styles and treatments on a table often feels like if two chess players each came with a set of pieces where each piece looked unique. Imagine if not all the pawns on one side looked the same or if a rook had a unique design that had it looking almost like a mini queen. It would be a nightmare and cause headache to look at while playing. 😮 Information overload is a thing, and most people play games for casual fun. Friend and I did a stupid thing yesterday which probably caused a similar feeling. We hadn’t played MKM at all, not OTJ, and he still had some bulk rares from Doctor WHO lying around. Neither of us had even read any of the cards and did a Winston draft. The sheer amount of reading while drafting was painful to get through. Made me want to build a coreset cube and just play that forever and forget about every other format, frame and text heavy card. lol
Best recent ones are definitely the Wilds of Eldraine Enchanting Tales, beautiful art and perfect use of colour. Personally I adore many of the showcase cards that others hate, but that's because I like collecting them to look at more than I do like playing with them. Some of them look good in decks, and are legible, some (looking at you AFR/ CLB) are relegated to binders for eternity. The ONE cards are another example, love the art, only use them in my one Orzhov Phyrexian deck.
All the frames from the eldraine sets are top tier. The story book style is flavorful and easy to read. The enchanting tales bonus sheet are a 10/10 as well.
I miss when making your deck stand out was maybe paying a little extra for foils or getting someone to alter them. Another interesting thing about the OTG showcase is I swear they promised to never do de ending mana costs after future sight
You are right about the spread between MH 2 showcase frame and the regular card. Up until recently you could get certain cards for up to 50% off when you got that washed out showcase frame. It sucks when you can't read a card which is why Alpha, Beta and Unlimited all had cards which were easily legible on the other side of the table.
I agree this last set frames have been disastrous for commander like being on the other side of the table from the player playing this cards is a real challenge
I hated the case file frames from MKM and i hate the newspaper frames from OTJ even more. Also, they tap into the anime full art/borderless/whatever-the-fuck-they wanna-call-it-next pool way too much.
most of them are ugly as the night and the art itself is getting worse by the day. Notable expectation are the invokations (horrid frame but the artworks are so nice) and the mystical archives are by far the best. They absolutely look like they are pages of an old school iluminated book descriping and teaching the spells to its reader. Heavily forgotten is the fact that those borders should have a more uniform style. Ethernal Format decks and commander decks are getting to the point of looking like fucking trash due to no card frame matching the frame to the card next to it. Back in the past i liked to have foil, full arts and things like that. Now i am part of the plain card master-race eighter depending on deck trying to go with as much old border or new border as possible with somewhat mixing in the extended arts if the deck leans towards new border.
the point is, when looking at these cards upside down from a foot or two away, these cards have a lot less color on them then normal magic cards, which makes it hard to tell what the card is without having to pick it up during the match. this can get very frustrating when players constantly have to pick up cards to see what is on the board and to understand what its being played at the table.
I'm new at MtG and only play Arena, There're lands with very ambiguous colors with some Kanji on it. I can't read Kanji so I don't know what kind of lands they were even until now.
Anyone who studied art even as a minor or 1-2 fun classes in university or something can definitely say that art is anything but subjective. Also card frames aren't art pieces they are part of the design of an interactive game element which definitely asks for a good readable structure. So like any other designer with a little bit of common sense would quote here: Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. You can't just print unreadble designs and called it subjective. (Obviously in practice you can but that would make people call you out on it.)
@@strike429 I love when actually educated people comment on stuff like this. Have you seen the LOTR poster art cards? They are beautiful but unreadable, which perfectly illustrates the issue here lol
@@xeper9458 I didnt know about em since magic is like my second card game first being ygo, but holy hell are they plable or collectible? If I can play them in sanctioned events it's actually a crime that they got past the rnd stage. Ps. Game Designer
Just remember that MtG stopped giving free DCI textless promos because it was too unclear for players to make out what cards was being played.
And now WotC have realized that doesn't matter when you can sell it at a premium.
It’s about choice.
Great video man, as someone who plays magic mostly online I didn't realize this was a problem as I could just hover over the card but you brought up a very good point, it would be very annoying to have to pick up every unclear card. I am also looking into building an online card game so this commentary was really illuminating. Thank you.
What's with the haters in the comments? It's bizarre to get this much harassment for such a normal take. "Cards should be legible." Cue bullying
Lmao people saying "L take" is now harassment? Grow a fucking spine.
It was cool when there was a handful of different special borders. Every set having like 5-10 different border treatments nukes any specialness of any alternate frame.
I absolutely agree, and remember when they started doing these special treatments in Throne of Eldraine. Zendikar Expeditions and Kaladesh Inventions, those felt special and unique and exciting to open. Once they introduced collector packs, "super-art" variants grew rampant, which has only escalated, and made opening these variants unexciting over time. While the variety of art has all been exceptional, I feel the game has been diluted and cheapened by all the variants/extended art/secret lairs/universes beyond. Once WotC realized we'd pay up the nose for super-art cards, or cards featuring our favorite IPs, then EVERYTHING became like that. We can blame our own spending habits for the tragic state of current Magic.
Actually to me the baldur’s gate mono color cards were okay, cause the background of the image matched the color of the card color identity.
But I understand your pain. From a pure owning them to look at perspective, I like a lot of the frames. In terms of gameplay, I’d be happier if everyone just played with regular looking magic cards.
To me all these different styles and treatments on a table often feels like if two chess players each came with a set of pieces where each piece looked unique. Imagine if not all the pawns on one side looked the same or if a rook had a unique design that had it looking almost like a mini queen. It would be a nightmare and cause headache to look at while playing. 😮 Information overload is a thing, and most people play games for casual fun.
Friend and I did a stupid thing yesterday which probably caused a similar feeling. We hadn’t played MKM at all, not OTJ, and he still had some bulk rares from Doctor WHO lying around. Neither of us had even read any of the cards and did a Winston draft. The sheer amount of reading while drafting was painful to get through.
Made me want to build a coreset cube and just play that forever and forget about every other format, frame and text heavy card. lol
Best recent ones are definitely the Wilds of Eldraine Enchanting Tales, beautiful art and perfect use of colour. Personally I adore many of the showcase cards that others hate, but that's because I like collecting them to look at more than I do like playing with them. Some of them look good in decks, and are legible, some (looking at you AFR/ CLB) are relegated to binders for eternity. The ONE cards are another example, love the art, only use them in my one Orzhov Phyrexian deck.
All the frames from the eldraine sets are top tier. The story book style is flavorful and easy to read. The enchanting tales bonus sheet are a 10/10 as well.
I miss when making your deck stand out was maybe paying a little extra for foils or getting someone to alter them. Another interesting thing about the OTG showcase is I swear they promised to never do de ending mana costs after future sight
I agree with most, but the baldurs gate cards are very clearly a color, its the entire background of the art buddy 😂
You are right about the spread between MH 2 showcase frame and the regular card. Up until recently you could get certain cards for up to 50% off when you got that washed out showcase frame.
It sucks when you can't read a card which is why Alpha, Beta and Unlimited all had cards which were easily legible on the other side of the table.
At this rate we wont ne able to tell MTG apart from Weiss and One Piece
I agree this last set frames have been disastrous for commander like being on the other side of the table from the player playing this cards is a real challenge
shoutout to the full art lands from LTR for being awful
Crazy I’ve never known a player that reads the cards regardless.
I hated the case file frames from MKM and i hate the newspaper frames from OTJ even more.
Also, they tap into the anime full art/borderless/whatever-the-fuck-they wanna-call-it-next pool way too much.
"Magic is a board game" - Blobby
most of them are ugly as the night and the art itself is getting worse by the day. Notable expectation are the invokations (horrid frame but the artworks are so nice) and the mystical archives are by far the best. They absolutely look like they are pages of an old school iluminated book descriping and teaching the spells to its reader.
Heavily forgotten is the fact that those borders should have a more uniform style. Ethernal Format decks and commander decks are getting to the point of looking like fucking trash due to no card frame matching the frame to the card next to it.
Back in the past i liked to have foil, full arts and things like that. Now i am part of the plain card master-race eighter depending on deck trying to go with as much old border or new border as possible with somewhat mixing in the extended arts if the deck leans towards new border.
I think the frames are cool and i like them. I hope wotc continues
"It's not colorful."
Looks at cards
Colors
the point is, when looking at these cards upside down from a foot or two away, these cards have a lot less color on them then normal magic cards, which makes it hard to tell what the card is without having to pick it up during the match. this can get very frustrating when players constantly have to pick up cards to see what is on the board and to understand what its being played at the table.
showcase prints are not so special anymore. lol
Are you new to magic? You know how long magic has had gold borders for multicolor cards?
Alternative frames are pure AIDs
"well its gold so thats ok...BUT THIS OTHER GOLD CARD IS RIGHT OUT!" 1:21
Did you seriously just complain about the readability of basic lands because they have dark art?
Yeah he did. Why are you surprised? They do all look like swamps at a glance
Have you seen the basic lands from the special bundle all All will be one? Those ones are all swamps
I'm new at MtG and only play Arena,
There're lands with very ambiguous colors with some Kanji on it. I can't read Kanji so I don't know what kind of lands they were even until now.
@@mbrusyda9437 Don't get distracted by that just locate the mana symbol wherever it is on the card
@@xeper9458 there's none, at least none that I can see within a glance.. or 3
Art is subjective.....get over it ppl
Anyone who studied art even as a minor or 1-2 fun classes in university or something can definitely say that art is anything but subjective. Also card frames aren't art pieces they are part of the design of an interactive game element which definitely asks for a good readable structure. So like any other designer with a little bit of common sense would quote here: Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. You can't just print unreadble designs and called it subjective. (Obviously in practice you can but that would make people call you out on it.)
@@strike429 I love when actually educated people comment on stuff like this. Have you seen the LOTR poster art cards? They are beautiful but unreadable, which perfectly illustrates the issue here lol
@@xeper9458 I didnt know about em since magic is like my second card game first being ygo, but holy hell are they plable or collectible? If I can play them in sanctioned events it's actually a crime that they got past the rnd stage.
Ps. Game Designer
@@strike429 Yeah they certainly are playable. Have a look at them and you'll see exactly what I mean
thank the gods you aren't on the creative team for mtg
more aweful takes huh? lmao
Great input, very constructive