Showcase cards, Secret Lair promos, Expeditions, Inventions, Invocations, Spellbooks.
Over the last several years, magic players have been exposed to various reimagining of the magic cards that we love. Some have been winners; see Kaladesh Inventions and Showcase cards, while others have been losers; see Amonkhet Invocations.
Each time Wizards of the Coast presents a different style, the community responds in one of two ways, sometimes at the same time. The first is pure elation and praise, while the other is hatred and mocking. It often divides the community.
One of the best examples of this is with the Amonkhet Invocations. Who does not remember “Hazoret the Pervert”? When typography and style take priority over the identity of the game, one must ask: when is it too much? For the Invocations, many felt that it crossed that line of recognizably Magic. It may have even crossed the line of legibility for many players. Another large criticism of this particular promo is the prioritization of the border design over the art, which was shrunk down to fit within the wider borders.
Frames have changed over time and each time there has been backlash of some sort, but the DNA of the game has carried through. With many of these promotional or limited versions of cards, that DNA is starting to become muddled. The secret lairs that have released recently are muddling that DNA and who is to say if it is for the benefit or detriment of the game? A clear example of where the DNA is being skewed is with the “Party Hard, Shred Harder” Secret Lair Drop.
These can be read as what many would consider to be an altar of a traditional Magic card but in all reality, are fully tournament legal printings. Someone who is not keeping on top of Secret Lairs and other promo printings would be very skeptical if their opponent cast one of these bad boys at their Friday Night Magic game. This brings up a very interesting thought experiment too! Can someone sit down to FNM and play a legal deck in any format that is entirely made of cards that look nothing like the standard Magic card?
If you were a player that came back to magic after stepping away for only 2 or so years, there is no doubt that you would need to do a double take and possibly even call over a judge! Secondly, when every single card in a deck does not match your internal image of a card, it becomes much harder to focus on your play. It would no doubt feel similar to playing against an opponent running foreign language cards that you do not see on a regular basis. Constantly asking “which card was that again” or “what is the second ability on that one” does nothing to improve the play experience and will undoubtedly lead to feel bad moments.
This does not begin to even touch on the idea of cards with two different names as seen in Ikoria, Lair Behemoths. In this set, there were promotional versions of several cards that quite literally had a different frame, different art, and even a different name!
There have been recent versions that have had generally positive reception too! These include the Storybook borders from Throne of Eldraine and the new Viking style borders from Kaldheim. Personally, I think this type of border is a perfect balance of the Magic identity that we find familiar as well as experimentation that allows each set to have its own identity.
In the end, it is up to the player to set the bar as to what is too far from the Magic DNA that we adore. There is no doubt that Wizards of the Coast will continue to experiment with the border and promotional versions of cards as it has shown to be a huge seller for both Secret Lair and Collector boosters. If a card breaks the mold too much, there is a high chance that Wizards of the Coast will steer clear of it next time and return to more familiar waters. Community involvement and interaction drives and affects Magic the Gathering in countless ways, including visually. Without our voice, this game may change to become an unrecognizable mess or possibly evolve to an even better version of itself. Only the future will tell!
White Border Gaming 