What card frame do you prefer?

[Maldur Sven Vedukor]

What cardframe style do your prefer?

[Machinus]

How is this even a contest?

[xsockmonkeyx]

duh.

[Firebrothers]

Yeah dude we are legacy players, not very accepting of change.

[Maldur Sven Vedukor]

It's only a poll.

[Anarky87]

I've always liked the pre-8th edition card frame. I don't know how many times I've looked at the newer cards and thought, "Man, this would look really cool if it was in the old frame." But I agree that most Legacy players would choose to have the old frame.

[URABAHN]

I'm leaning towards number C! Don't the Timeshifted Planar Chaos cards have a hot look?

[Moby Dick]

For like 3 years after 8th I've hated the new frames (mostly because they look disgusting mixed with old cards) but the new frames have grown on me and now I think they look pretty good by themselves.

[CynicalSquirrel]

I honestly don't care. I really don't get why people have made such a big issue about something as irrelevant as a card face, and why people still debate it like three years after the fact. As long as the cards are good, I couldn't really care less.

[Bovinious]

people talk about it because the new card faces suck.

[Cait_Sith]

I'm leaning towards number C! Don't the Timeshifted Planar Chaos cards have a hot look?

Yes, they certainly do. I like the new ones better since they work well with some of the art in Time Spiral. I would have preferred Old Style art for Kamigawa and I am sorta ambivalent on the Ravnica New Style. But for TS New Style is the way to go.

[Maldur Sven Vedukor]

The new design is awful. I really like the classic design. I will hope the classic design returns.

[Ta Jugs]

Foil cards look better with the new border.

[Cait_Sith]

The new design is awful. I really like the classic design. I will hope the classic design returns.

I see no reason for them to take the time and energy to change it back.

[mikekelley]

Foil cards look better with the new border.

Yeck, here is where I definatley disagree. I hate the new way that the foils shine.

I do however, think that the PC timeshifts look beautiful. My favorite is the old border, but the cards from fallen empires-alliances look like total shit beyond anything else. The border, ink, art, everything from those sets was just terrible, with only a handful of obvious exceptions.

So, the high quality old border stuff from say, Mirage-onward, look the best, followed by Alpha/Beta, just because they are dark and look great with the ink they used. It's just classic.

I've always hated white bordered cards though. Bleck.

[Ta Jugs]

Nobody likes white bordered cards.

[Obfuscate Freely]

I'm not going to deny having a strong reactionary hatred for the new design when it was debuted. I, like most human beings, have a tendency to fight change. However, since then I have made a point to form a more rational opinion of the new card face, seeing as how I had little choice but to accept it.

...And I still think the post-8th card face is fucking ugly.

The most obvious problem is that the border colors are washed-out and the textures are overdone. Compare the borders of an older red or blue card with a newer one. How about two black cards? The newer borders are simply visually unexciting and much less pleasing to the eye.

...If you can even notice them. The little boxes around the cardname, cardtype, and power/toughness stand out in an obtrusive and distracting way. I understand that this is intended to make the newer cards easier to read, but I feel that the sacrifice to the overall aesthetic is too great. Who ever had trouble reading the old cards, anyway (aside from Ice Cauldron)?

I also disagree that foils look better with the new frames. Yes, the artwork is now foiled, which can be nice (usually they do a disappointing job of it, though. I'm pretty tired of seeing foiled eyes.), but the lack of color in the new frames is really highlighted when they're foiled. If you don't know what I mean, go find an old-style blue foil and look at the border. They really are gorgeous.

Hopefully, the next time Wizards decides to change the card face, they'll do a better job matching the visual appeal of the original cards. Until then, I just wish people would stop playing with cards from the Coldsnap precons. New-faced STPs are goddamned hideous.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Which looks better? Easily the old school frame. That goes without saying. The 8th Edition frame was designed to cut as much of the actual frame away as possible, leaving more room for the art and text boxes.

Which is a better frame? Probably, for that reason, the 8th edition frame. Who the fuck actually wants to look at the frame itself for extended periods of time? It's filler. Real quick, the Mona Lisa is probably the most famous painting in Western Civilization. Without looking it up try to remember what the frame looks like on the damned thing. I never heard anyone wax nostalgic about how awesome the frameart was on Magic cards until they made the switch. I'm sure seven years from now people will bitch about getting rid of the austere elegance of 8th edition design.


I do hate, however, the rounded part of the new frame. I'd hope with the next upgrade we keep the reduced frame size but go back to square edges, which do a lot more for the fantasy feel of the game, giving the cards the appearance of pages.

[aisman132000]

old school no doubt

[Maverick676]

In my opinion it depends on the card. I like the old frame mainly on monocolored cards and artifacts. But in regards to multicolored cards I like the new frame alot better. The rounded look on the boxes looks like crap however.

[clavio]

I think it really depends. Cotw and chalice would look bad in the old frame I think. Overall the old frame looked better, but the new one is not detrimental.

[Nightmare]

I think it really depends. Cotw and chalice would look bad in the old frame I think. Overall the old frame looked better, but the new one is not detrimental.I dunno, man. I miss Brown.

[Jander78]

I actually like the new card faces.

[Maldur Sven Vedukor]

The old card faces look medieval and MAGIC. The new one looks techy.

[MasterBlaster]

I like the old card faces. I started playing after 8th was released and I still think the new ones look like crap.

[Cait_Sith]

The old card faces look medieval and MAGIC. The new one looks techy.

Techy is freakin' awesome. I think it was well timed with Mirrodin, although Kamigawa would have benefited from the Old Style. TS is better with the new style and Ravnica would have been split up by guild. :)

[Nightmare]

I like them both for different reasons, but voted old.

I prefer old face foils. I prefer new face regular cards. I also prefer brown artifacts (as I said before). On the other hand, all new gold cards are ugly. For that matter, so are old gold cards. And Old Gold cigarettes.

[Complete_Jank]

I'm surprised by the munber of people that voted with the new style.

I like the old, but just like I hate some of the old cards, I like some of the new ones.

Some new pictures would look better in the old frames, but some old pictures look better in the new Frames, specially if they are foil!

Example:
(BTW, sorry for linking to another site, but only pics I can find, and I can't access hosting sites from work.)

Old Swamp (http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=29236)

New Swamp (http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=38025)

[Bane of the Living]

I agree with jank. Pictures are cleaner on newer framed cards. They're more defined. They arent so blurry/washed looking. Foils beat the pre 8th by a long long shot. The pre 8th ones warp really bad and have a non-foily pic.

[cdr]

Where's the "Planar Chaos Timeshifted style" option?

[Bardo]

They arent so blurry/washed looking. Foils beat the pre 8th by a long long shot. The pre 8th ones warp really bad and have a non-foily pic.

This is more a function of the Carta Mundi color process than the frame. The foils definitely look better, but: 1) I h8 foiled cards, 2) I don't see why they couldn't apply their new foil process with the old frames. One really has nothing to do with the others. They didn't have to change the frame to change the way the cards are foiled.


I do hate, however, the rounded part of the new frame. I'd hope with the next upgrade we keep the reduced frame size but go back to square edges, which do a lot more for the fantasy feel of the game, giving the cards the appearance of pages.

Right on. The new frame really take the fantasy feel out of the cards.

And just for the sake of aethetics, I don't like the way the new cards look in my decks next to the old card frames.

[nitewolf9]

The newer frames most definitly take the fantasy feel out of the game, which pisses me off. That was such a cool aspect when I started playing, and now it looks more "extreme!" and stupid. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the newer frames give me the sensation of rubbing a 3-day old, inside-out, used diaper all over my eyes. While they are forced open.

[Complete_Jank]

I dunno, man. I miss Brown.

I agree with this. Artifacts are brown, not silver.


Also, the new style when it is a white boardered card is the ugliest thing. It is good for distracting your opponent.

[Aggro_zombies]

Where's the "Planar Chaos Timeshifted style" option?
QFT. If Wizards had used that style for the new frame when they introduced it, I would have been all over it. As it is, iono...some cards look better in the new frame (I never liked the old white or blue frames), but some don't. The post-8th foiling is definitely better, though: hooray for foiled artwork!

[MattH]

I like them both for different reasons, but voted old.

I prefer old face foils. I prefer new face regular cards. I also prefer brown artifacts (as I said before). On the other hand, all new gold cards are ugly. For that matter, so are old gold cards. And Old Gold cigarettes.

How do you feel about Rold Golds?

[parallax]

I was comparing a Brainstorm side-by-side with a Repeal, and I have to say, the Repeal is more visually appealing in every way. Bold colors and strong contrast just draw the eye.

Also, black text on a light background >>>>> white text on a white background.

Post-8th border all the way.

[Pinder]

I'd have to go with the PC timeshifted faces. Man those are pretty.

I didn't really like the new faces at first, but they've grown on me. I can't really say that I like or hate either of them more than the other.

[Cait_Sith]

If they kept the Timeshifted faces for 10th, I would die of happiness and give my vast collection of moxes to the first person who offered a prayer at my grave.

[dahcmai]

I like White cards much better in the new frame. Brown was Artifacts better color to me though.


Though this is kind of funky though. Sorry for my crappy paint skills, but you get the idea.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6083/cotvcd7.jpg

[mikekelley]

Old frames = Tolkien Novel (genius, beauty)
New frames = star wars prequel trilogy (mostly crap with a few good aspects)