Border Jumping - A Design Review of Core M15's New Card Frame

Border Jumping - A Design Review of Core M15's New Card Frame 

Welcome gamers and geeks from all corners and backgrounds! Today, lets take a look at the recently released new Modern card frame update for Magic: the Gathering that was announced this January and premiered with this summer's release of this season's M15 Core. While this topic has been touched on other sites since the announcement of the change, some to the chagrin of the author writing their article, I'm going to take a more in depth look at the elements that stand out, my opinion on why WOTC made the change, and what it means to gameplay both in the current season and speculating on the future of the game - if at all.

1.21 jiggawatts²! My "insurance cards" from my M15 Game Day deck,
both versions were featured in the build. 

First and foremost what stands out in this major change to the Wizards cornerstone; the font. Wizards last changed the font to create Magic's "Modern" border in 2003 with the release of the 8th Edition Core Set, so we were over due for an update with the game's 20 year history. Originally when the game released, the cards were titled using Goudy Medieval in the header while MPlantin was used in the text box. The problems with Goudy were done away with by the many updates to the previous-Modern, which utilized Matrix Bold for all of the title text in every core and expansion moving forward to date, including several updates along the way. Now, Wizards debuts their own proprietary font developed in-house for use specifically with the Magic brand, "Beleren." Adapted as an updated appearance from Matrix Bold, this font looks sharp, literally! Ligatures and extensions on the letters have been created in sharp lines and angles with little flourish, creating an almost neo-mystical feel that has been missing from gameplay until now. Aside from the much needed update, this is the first step against counterfeiting WOTC is taking to protect their product (and subsequently, the Magic community) moving forward. I really cannot stress the importance of the moves taken by Wizards here to guard against the counterfeit market. While I myself have not been burned by purchasing a bad card, I know plenty that have, and this has been a HUGE issue ever since the secondary market has existed. (Especially in recent years since the Matrix font family went to the free market) Counterfeiting literally steals money from the uninformed consumer that didn't know better. There are cards already printed that are worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars; and if you don't know how to spot a fake card...well, there's a reason the phrase "there's a sucker born every minute" exists. By using a proprietary font that cannot be bought or found on the market currently, (yes, admittedly I have gone searching for said font for my own personal, non-counterfeit purposes, and while I’ve come close it just doesn’t quite hit the mark) Wizards protects the high-value property in the first way to ID a fake. Moving forward, this new font safeguards against would-be counterfeit cards entering the market, plus it looks certified badass!

Planeswalker Jace Beleren lends his namesake to the
newly designed proprietary font that is being
utilized on the new card frame moving forward.

Moving on to the rare and mythic rare cards, we find our second update in the redesign; the foil stamp. While Wizards has been utilizing foil alternate printing for chase cards since Urza's Legacy released in February 1999. (Or if you wanna be technical, the prerelease foil promo of Lightning Dragon for Urza's Saga, Oct '98.) These two rarities obviously carry a higher value for trades and sales, so it makes sense that they should be extra-protected from those looking to exploit and steal from within the community, right? Stamp these high value puppies with a little bit of holographic foil in the center at the bottom of the card and you can be pretty sure you're holding the real deal. While posing no real change to the gameplay itself, this little bit of flash can be a nice touch to winning; just as you tap that rare/mythic rare to deal the final blow, the foil catches a reflection off the lights above, and adding insult to injury blinds your opponent! Maybe not, but we can dream.

"Take a look at my FOIL (Foil)…You can call me Queen Bee!"
(Note the new stamp in the bottom center of the card on the right) 

Probably the biggest update all around is the card frame as a whole. While still retaining the black edge border the cards have enjoyed continually since the release of Ravnica: City of Guilds in October 2005, (cards released in the 9th Edition Core Set that July had a white edge border) this new card frame features a few new updates of itself. First, the border and frame are thinner than the previous modern. But why? Essentially it comes down to esthetics and real estate; they needed to continue to have the easiest way to be able to identify the color of a card, while they wanted to place more emphasis on the cards' art and text. To create this emphasis while keeping identity intact meant reducing the colored framing and the edge border width, allowing the art and text box to be made larger. Second, the base of the border rounds "behind" the text box. Again, this is not only an esthetic choice which adds a new design element to the cards as a whole, but also increases real estate at the base of the cards; allowing Wizards to add a second line to the text here and even increase the font size for legibility. This way, instead of a long line of tiny text that stretches from corner to corner of the card frame, we can now easily see the card collector number (along with the addition of the single letter M/R/U/C rarity ID) over the three-letter set code, two-letter language and the illustrator's name all in the card's lower left corner, and the copyright info in the lower right corner. Also worthy of note is the addition of a “designer credit” that is featured inside the text box for cards that the developers at WOTC reached out abroad to create. (Such as with Waste Not “Designed by the Magic community” or the hilarious and offbeat Hot Soup “Designed by James Ernest”) These last detail updates don’t really affect gameplay as it does the collector, aside from the better separation offered the Power/Toughness pane – which now gets to stand out against the black edge border instead of the similarly colored shade of the card frame it was once contained within.

There's starving imps in Dominaria who don't have any soup, so don't spill it!

These three update groups make some pretty big strides in updating the look of the cards overall as well as gameplay; but why did Wizards do it, and why now? As I mentioned above, the border was overdue for an update from the previous update (which also could have been considered overdue at the time, given that that post-8^th ed. border had been in development for three years by the time it was released). With this in mind the "when" was important as well, so when better to introduce a new border than with the new Core release? Though it’s true the Planeswalker card type was introduced during the Lorwyn expansion October 2007, it makes more sense to debut a set of redesign elements at the release of the Core which generally sees more new players coming in than at the expansion releases. (Never mind that I started playing when Ice Age released…and now I just dated myself!) Also, as previously stated are the anti-counterfeiting measures taken for all cards and especially the higher value/rarity cards. Now, what does this do to the future of the game, right? While a good question, mum’s been the word from WOTC on any changes to the current landscape of the game. What we should keep in mind is, while following the debut of what came to be known as the Modern frame in 2003, and the new formats of play being created for competitive players differentiating what would be seen in the formats; these formats weren’t created essentially because of the new frame, but rather because of the change in power levels of the cards and certain mechanics – or more so, cards that stated obsolete rules. The Modern format merely allows a player to build a deck using any card that’s been printed so long as it has been printed with a Modern (post 8^th ed.) card frame, a good example here is Swords to Plowshares which recently saw a modern printing with Conspiracy; short of printings in preconstructed collectors product, this card hasn’t been run in any set release since June 1995’s Ice Age. Standard won't likely change anymore than it already does with each release, and the end of rotation that comes every play year following the Core Game Day - just before the first release of the new expansion block comes out.

Come, son of Jor-El! Kneel before-- wait, that's not right…
But these improvements are!

So there we have it in a very large nutshell. Ultimately, while often received with friction from the audience, design changes are inevitable and necessary for the evolution and continued development of the game. People will whine and complain to their heart’s content until they get used to the change or move on. For my money, since these changes do very little to change gameplay I’ll be one that sticks around – hell, I’ve been around this long anyway! – and I’ll enjoy hearing the comments, remarks, and conversations spurred while everyone adapts in the mean time. Thanks to Gatherer and WOTC for the images, paired up and edited by yours truly.

Next week I’ll be switching gears to another topic of high geekery; reviewing the new printed releases of the books for Dungeons & Dragons: 5th Edition. Until then, shuffle well and trade fairly my friends.

-Opaque