Altered Cards

[Machahiko]

Hi,

Do you know any rules regarding altered cards, when they are legal and when they are not legal? Just got a few altered cards and I just can't bother to get another copy of Maze of Ith for example.

I thought about just asking in advance from every tournament, but I'm just interested and keen on learning about why they should not be used and so on.

I do understand that the cards might be harder to recognize but I think the real reason is that the layer of paint is considered to affect shuffling of the deck somehow making it more likely to draw the altered cards?

[cdr]

Tournament Rules 3.3:
... Artistic modifications are acceptable, provided that the modifications do not make the card unrecognizable or contain substantial strategic advice.

3.10:
Players are responsible for ensuring that their cards and/or card sleeves are not marked during the course of the tournament. A card or sleeve is considered marked if it bears something that makes it possible to identify the card without seeing its face...

So altered cards have to be recognizable as the original card (primarily, the art must be recognizable as the original art), can't contain substantial strategic information, and can't be marked.

It's completely up to the discretion of the head judge of a particular tournament whether to allow altered cards based on the above criteria. If a HJ disallows a card, you have to find another copy or not play with it in that tournament.

Some HJs will be ok with modifications to say, make a set of Force of Wills look like the Ninja Turtles, and some may not consider them sufficiently recognizable. Some will be ok with art extended out to the card border, and some will not because the paint may be visible from the edge of the card making it marked.

[Julian23]

From my experience, what you never should do is paint over the name and casting cost of a card. It's up to the head judge in the end but I think like 99% of judges would disallow cards that don't bear a card name.

[cdr]

Those judges are a little silly IMO; it's not like there aren't foreign cards or cards with misprinted casting costs.

But it should in some way at least be apparent that the original card is underneath and that you're not trying to pass of a card as something else.

I am likely one of the more liberal judges on alters, though - as are most eternal judges, interestingly.

[Julian23]

I've always been wondering, how to ensure that a card is actually what it appears to be. I mean, even besides the power9, many cards are worth >100$ so people could make a shitload of money by faking cards. I assume it would be way easier to produce than counterfeit money. When will China catch on to this? ;-)

[cdr]

There's been fake cards from China and SE asia for years; Chinese ones actually tend to be fake booster packs so the cards are random, low quality, easy to spot, and don't tend to make their way out of China. Some of the ones out of the Philippines and such actually focus on fake P9 etc and are much harder to spot.

[rufus]

This leaves me wondering about the viability of making flip proxies out of checklist proxies...

[Julian23]

@cdr: do you know if WotC has taken any action against this practice? Never heared anything about it thus far.

[cdr]

This leaves me wondering about the viability of making flip proxies out of checklist proxies...

Double-face checklists are legal Magic cards; you could certainly alter them with the art of whatever they're standing in for (so long as the checklist was still recognizable, of course).


@cdr: do you know if WotC has taken any action against this practice? Never heared anything about it thus far.

I'm sure they're aware - people report "proxy" sellers and fakes - but they never say anything publicly about actions they take AFAIK.