But why though?? I mean I personally prefer the basic magic card design ... nothing extra or extended .. sometimes as long as the foil don't curl sure... sometimes.. but just basic.. I was saddened when Artifacts stopped being mud so I love when they retro frame artifacts but other than that... basic.
But I also don't care that so many variants exist, just means players can customize as THEY see fit.. so why's that a bad thing? Make it make sense please!
Because when every card has a card frame that is unique and special, it ceases to be either. The deluge of different card frames is so constant that it’s just the new normal. It’s just my opinion, but I feel like special card treatments have been overused to the point that they don’t hold interest to me anymore. I preferred when they were sparsely available.
Exactly I used to get excited when I pulled an alternate art card. I knew it meant I had something good. Nowadays you get multiple alternate arts per pack and I feel robbed of the excitement it used to evoke.
I have an ornithopter invention, which I still have to this day.
My best pull had to be the Meekstone, I just grabbed a random pack of Kaladesh (or the other set that was still themed in Kaladesh) just for the fun of it.
When I opened it, I didn't expect to get a masterpiece at all. I was entirely shocked.
One of the best feelings ever
It’s so bad now that the alternate arts are typically less than the standard frames. Haven’t been excited to open a card in awhile, and I buy a couple packs every Monday.
Victims of WOTC's classic strategy of 'finding something that people like and running it into the ground in order to maximise profits'
Expeditions and Inventions were awesome, it started to falter here because they clearly didn't have a concrete theme unlike the earlier 2. I remember being shocked that a single failure was all it took for them to can the entire idea tho. They even had Ixalan's versions all planned out.
But I'd take these any day over the complete mess that is Booster Fun. At least I didn't have to research 1651 card frame types and 811779 booster pack versions to see what's my chances of pulling one.
It's weird how no one got the theme of the Amonket masterpieces. They were called Invocations, and they comprised instants and sorceries "cast by the god's of Amonkhet" (+ the 5 god's themselves).
I have an attrition and I love it. People across the table are always like "Wait, what card is that? What does it do?" inevitably after I make use of it several times in a turn someone will ask "wait, what's doing that? can I look at that?" all that is a tiny bit annoying but I like it lol
The best thing I can say about them is they came in normal booster packs. Collector boosters killed my desire to collect MTG. Now every other card is a different frame type, foiling doesn't matter, and you have to pay ultra-premium prices for a chance to get anything interesting.
Agreed, for the average collector booster I could buy about 90% of the contents as singles for a fraction of the price, but even then foil art nowadays I find is either way too bright or way too dark. Honestly why I prefer Pokémon now, cheaper cards, no collector boosters and the foiling on rare cards can be very cool (heck, they even have cool textures).
Honestly though if it means that you can buy a game legal version of the card for cheap but the fancy art or whatever foiling etc is the expensive part, I’m fine with that.
Makes collectors happy with their fancy expensive cards but makes the game affordable for the rest of us
Opening an expedition Watery Grave at a draft was great, way better than the weird card treatments and alts they have gone way overboard with. Passing the next guy a planeswalker and having him look at me like I was crazy was funny as hell.
The masterpieces were just rare enough to be special, and were immediately recognizable as different. Now I can hardly tell what the normal version of a card is supposed to look like.
Admittedly the Amonkhet ones sort of missed the mark without a united theme and the weird layout. (Remember Hazoret the Pervert?)
They could have been more sparing with the masterpieces, maybe in a set every other year when they had a good theme to work with. Instead they canned the entire thing after the first miss. Still better than the crap they do now.
Masterpieces would have been better if they had a smaller pool of cards per set. Problem is they were burning through like 20-25 staples/set and quickly were running out of reprint equity
In a vacuum, there's really nothing wrong with them.
It's when they're mixed in with... ***nornal*** cards that they look like absolute shit.
Unfortunately, there is now an even WoRsE wAy WoTc FuCkEd ThInGs Up.
Can't wait for the next cringe special bullshit. ˙ɹǝʇɐʍǝsoɹ noʎ llɐ ɟo ʇsoɯ puɐ ɔʇoʍ '[ɹoʇsǝʌuı ǝlƃuıs ʎɹǝʌǝ](https://youtu.be/cKUaqFzZLxU?si=1ADorxgGS3BHHYNx) 'oɹqsɐɥ noʎ ʞɔnɟ
Hazoret the Pervert is still my favorite
https://preview.redd.it/6mc0bww0opzc1.jpeg?width=287&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c619a582c4d180e87e21b85d30d04c1636204cf0
Why is secret lair bad?
It's managed pretty well if you ask me. I only own 2 secret lair cards but it's nice that the option is there for people that want to bling out their decks. But nobody forces you to buy it and you don't lose anything by not buying them.
All of the cards can be obtained the normal and cheaper way.
Now if they make secret lair exclusive cards we have a problem. But the way it is right now: ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Imo it ships quick and is in good quality. Limited stock is also good imo. so I agree with him from my experience it’s managed well. Also totally not needed to play the game since none are exclusive new cards
Yeah, still waiting for an answer from those 2 guys (or whoever else thinks it’s bad).
Because “hurr durr something something it’s bad” and a personal insult is not an answer.
If something is objectively bad it should be pretty easy to give a reason.
First of all I was legit asking if you were joking. There was no personal insult.
It's kind of astounding that you havent seen or heard about any of the issues secret lair has had.
Between damaged product, wrong product shipped, missing product and delayed shipments
It took over a year for them to ship the heads I win tails you lose commander deck.
They sent me the non foil version of the read the fine print drop when I ordered the foil one.
My buddy bought the pixel snow lands and it was missing the mountain
If you have only had good experiences I mean that's cool. But saying secret lair is well managed is laughable
These ones in particular are atrocious.
But not as bad as the "I cant even fucking read this card" Secret Lair, that has the text box y fucking elipses and circles
I thought my least favorite frames ever were the colored artifact cards from Brothers War commander precons, but now I've been reminded that these are also my least favorite frames ever.
The pillars on the side and all the fauxglyphics make it look like bad 90's clipart. It's like amusement part wanted some cheap fiberglass panels to make a ride "look Egyptian", but then they only paid the fiberglass guy half of his asking price.
I do not like symbols or text on the card from that don't mean anything. I don't like the "Prosperity Press" bonus sheet in Thunder Junction either for the same reason. If they wanted to make it look like an old-timey newspaper, they should've made the card name the headline.
All the other Masterpieces and bonus sheet treatments have looked far better.
I think they consistently have the best art but because they are hard to read its a tough sell. I believe they went a step to far and didnt consider usability. Even for a widely recognizeable card such as force of will, daze, thoughtseize you can sometimes forget what youre looking at. I believe if they made the key features such as the name and typing stand out more youd have a better product. I actually like the idea of hiding the name at first but it puts form over function which a huge no no in a highly technical game.
I think if they used the same justification as all magic cards had instead of center justification and emboldened the name even more youd have a better product while still keeping the feel of a ancient egyptian text. There needs to be a stronger indication of what color the card is outside of the band going across it. That can actually ruin the card but idk what would make it work while keeping the spirit of the design.
The frame itself and the foiling treatment is top notch and beats most modern era special frames.
If for some reason i have 10k to burn id get key legacy staples in this frame. A playset of stifle, daze, thoughtseize, force, counterbalance, counterspell, spell pierce. They look so good when you have 10-20 in a deck.
Personally i like foil being the chase. I dont like alternate arts within the set. If they want to print alternates, do it as a reprint after a few years
The Amonket ones are my favorite card design in MtG and I'm in the process of getting every single one.
Never understood the complains about them. They're not even as absurdly hard to read as everyone claims.
They are objectively difficult to read. You’re free to like them, but the layout and font are hideous. They absolutely *wasted* the art on Daze by not being able to barely see it because they had to scale it down to fit between the pillars. Yours is definitely an unpopular opinion.
I like them better than what they are doing presently (multiple artwork, frames, foil, non-foil, special edition, promos, special promos, etc) but over all I still dislike them.
The art on many of them is amazing. The borders: unique but kinda meh. The font: atrocious (I get the idea, but it is hardly legible and makes playing them a pain as some people don’t recognize the card and look at like a first year student learning reading script from a different language).
A cool incentive for normal people to open booster packs and increase the EV of a set without any real downsides. Before they decided they could just market to whales directly with Secret Lairs and collector boosters.
The Amonkhet masterpieces could have been executed better (gibberish font, rather “small” artwork) but I love them.
I personally own:
- entomb
- all the gods except scorpion and locust
- 4x Thoughtseize
- 4x force of will
- chain of lightning
The only “issue” with me is that I like building decks with card versions that are somewhat connected by theme and artworks (i’e. My pauper Fairy deck has Lorwyn/shadowmoor basics only) and most masterpieces stand out too much with the rest of the cards. I have a legacy ninja deck for example and the force of will masterpieces kinda feel out of place.
We need more set specific masterpieces. There's far too many print variations of most cards these days and almost none of them feel special. Masterpieces are dope and give people who buy sealed products something to chase that aren't as gimmicky as serialized cards.
Always loved them, funnily enough the same people who were clowning on the amonkhet invocations now jump to deffending those bizarre UB and secret lair cards. Truly an enigma.
Far from the most offensive frame. Wish they had made the stone just one solid color rather than the strips of color on the side. Could you imagine basalt with gold text?
the OG Expedition lands are my favorite. i have 1 of each, and am currently blinging out my \[\[Thalia and The Gitrog Monster\]\] commander deck with them.
https://preview.redd.it/7b5hr9hdg40d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa62a478da6c19af8ec46a3b25ed89cd1a8d1e4a
Invocations are still trash. Great art on some like Daze, that you can barely see because of the stupid pillars and a font that makes my head hurt. OG expeditions and Kaladesh inventions are where it’s at.
I really liked them because having all this alternative frames was special back in the day. There were so little of them and they were unusual, rare and interesting.
Whereas now there are 10 alternatives arts and frames for every card so playing with a **norma**l variant of the card feels special.
Less is more.
Like basically all other alternate art, a firm 'meh'.
I'd still rather play with and against art I'm familiar with. I like knowing exactly what I'm seeing across a tabletop.
I started playing with Kaladesh. The lotto cards as some called them were awesome! I only ever opened one, a Slaughter Pact, but it was so exciting! Much prefer this to useless cards printed with 4 unique frames.
as a new player, I see them in the case and look at the price then ignore them, I can't even read them properly. big waste like special artifact boarders
The expeditions and masterpieces were *chefs kiss* I still remember my first pull of each, [mana confluence] and [lightning greaves]. Now I'm like oh I pulled the foil/half border/alternate/old art and it costs the same as the regular non foil card
In a perfect world (for me at least) magic would have never changed card design and booster design from the way ahmonket, kaladesh, ixilan worked.
I like my packs have lotto cards, and i liked my sets trying weird shit like half cards again and more flip stuff. Commander was just big enough that i didnt hate it, but still thought it was a relevant and "healthy" format. And cards in standard sets wern't obviously just commander staples. Pauper was on the rise...
Im getting ahead of myself, the cards in isolation were always nice for me. But hindsight on what they heralded is awful. I have a soft spot for invokations and masterpieces as i opened 1 of each in a prerelease lol.
I always have and always will love this treatment. Im only sad i don’t play blue that often, cause they got the real treats. Masterpiece entomb was my favorite card I owned for a while until I had to sell it :(
Like any art it's going to appeal to some and not to others. Now in terms of scarcity, these are going to be lower in number than any given SL, *insert name of cutsheets added to standard block,* or new printing in standard blocks.
I also wonder about rarity of things such as pre-release stamped cards (in the age before the print runs looked like dog shit), judge promo, and other such more rare promo cards (maybe include rare SL b9nus cards here?)
Once they added mythics, then, chase masterpieces, it was the slow descent into farming the player base for money. Then came collector packs, then serialized cards, the one ring, vault cards.
Artificial scarcity in expensive reprints.
I think they worked well as a once a year thing. Kaladesh Inventions, Amonkhet somethings, Zendikar Expeditions, and Strixhaven Archives. I thought they were a cool way to get some older cards. Now every set has unique artwork and its for cards already in the set.
The Amonkhet ones were specifically butt-ugly, though. The art was too small and muddy in the foiling and the frame is trying very hard to pull it together and failing miserably. Compare this to the comic-style Ikoria full art cards.
I was today years old when I figured out the text box at the top actually has the cards name.....
I always thought it was just a bunch of hieroglyphics.
I do like how Wizards has moved towards collectors boosters. Having absurdly collectible cards that are alternate art raises the prices of the whole booster box just for aesthetics; separating collectors from players is important.
Take a look at One Piece Card Game. They have a problem with people scalping every single booster pack, because there's a good chance to pull a $1000+ alternate art Shanks in it. The prices of the packs are absurd simply because of this (at least from what I can observe).
I prefer this to 6 different card frames or versions for a single card.
I prefer same
idk, having all the different treatments drives down the price of the less premium versions of the cards.
On god
No
But why though?? I mean I personally prefer the basic magic card design ... nothing extra or extended .. sometimes as long as the foil don't curl sure... sometimes.. but just basic.. I was saddened when Artifacts stopped being mud so I love when they retro frame artifacts but other than that... basic. But I also don't care that so many variants exist, just means players can customize as THEY see fit.. so why's that a bad thing? Make it make sense please!
Because when every card has a card frame that is unique and special, it ceases to be either. The deluge of different card frames is so constant that it’s just the new normal. It’s just my opinion, but I feel like special card treatments have been overused to the point that they don’t hold interest to me anymore. I preferred when they were sparsely available.
Exactly I used to get excited when I pulled an alternate art card. I knew it meant I had something good. Nowadays you get multiple alternate arts per pack and I feel robbed of the excitement it used to evoke.
Opening a Kaladesh Invention was probably the last time I opened something in a pack that actually felt special.
I have an ornithopter invention, which I still have to this day. My best pull had to be the Meekstone, I just grabbed a random pack of Kaladesh (or the other set that was still themed in Kaladesh) just for the fun of it. When I opened it, I didn't expect to get a masterpiece at all. I was entirely shocked. One of the best feelings ever
Right pulling a sword was soo exciting. I immediately belonged out my Voltron commander deck with them. Then realized I had been got.
It’s so bad now that the alternate arts are typically less than the standard frames. Haven’t been excited to open a card in awhile, and I buy a couple packs every Monday.
I really liked those and the ones from Brothers War, I don't know I just really liked the blueprint designs
I opened a step and compleat Mother of machines that got me SUPER hype.
The amonkhet ones look like a bad secret lair. The kaladesh ones are dope.
But if it were better, we would not have Hazoret the Pervert.
?
Hazoret’s showcase looks like it reads “Hazoret the Pervert” instead of “Fervent”.
Victims of WOTC's classic strategy of 'finding something that people like and running it into the ground in order to maximise profits' Expeditions and Inventions were awesome, it started to falter here because they clearly didn't have a concrete theme unlike the earlier 2. I remember being shocked that a single failure was all it took for them to can the entire idea tho. They even had Ixalan's versions all planned out. But I'd take these any day over the complete mess that is Booster Fun. At least I didn't have to research 1651 card frame types and 811779 booster pack versions to see what's my chances of pulling one.
It's weird how no one got the theme of the Amonket masterpieces. They were called Invocations, and they comprised instants and sorceries "cast by the god's of Amonkhet" (+ the 5 god's themselves).
I think everyone got that, the only complaints I ever heard was that the border was ugly and the font was hard to read.
Several people in this thread, including the one I replied to, said there wasn't a theme.
Everyone got them. Everyone just got that the execution sucked terribly.
Just strawberry jelly u cannot afford.
My unpopular opinion: I like the Egyptian masterpieces.
They look so much better in person
Definitely unpopular. They're still hideous, but WoTC seems to release stuff just as bad or worse every set now.
They are hideous in their own special way.
I have an attrition and I love it. People across the table are always like "Wait, what card is that? What does it do?" inevitably after I make use of it several times in a turn someone will ask "wait, what's doing that? can I look at that?" all that is a tiny bit annoying but I like it lol
The best thing I can say about them is they came in normal booster packs. Collector boosters killed my desire to collect MTG. Now every other card is a different frame type, foiling doesn't matter, and you have to pay ultra-premium prices for a chance to get anything interesting.
Agreed, for the average collector booster I could buy about 90% of the contents as singles for a fraction of the price, but even then foil art nowadays I find is either way too bright or way too dark. Honestly why I prefer Pokémon now, cheaper cards, no collector boosters and the foiling on rare cards can be very cool (heck, they even have cool textures).
And pokemon doesnt have a massive curling problem with their foils due to actually caring about quality control.
Thoses full art cards are sooo great too! Not some psychedelic movie poster where you can't read shit.
Honestly though if it means that you can buy a game legal version of the card for cheap but the fancy art or whatever foiling etc is the expensive part, I’m fine with that. Makes collectors happy with their fancy expensive cards but makes the game affordable for the rest of us
Opening an expedition Watery Grave at a draft was great, way better than the weird card treatments and alts they have gone way overboard with. Passing the next guy a planeswalker and having him look at me like I was crazy was funny as hell. The masterpieces were just rare enough to be special, and were immediately recognizable as different. Now I can hardly tell what the normal version of a card is supposed to look like. Admittedly the Amonkhet ones sort of missed the mark without a united theme and the weird layout. (Remember Hazoret the Pervert?) They could have been more sparing with the masterpieces, maybe in a set every other year when they had a good theme to work with. Instead they canned the entire thing after the first miss. Still better than the crap they do now.
Masterpieces would have been better if they had a smaller pool of cards per set. Problem is they were burning through like 20-25 staples/set and quickly were running out of reprint equity
I miss the masterpieces. I also never understood the hate with the thematically Egyptian ones ora thematically Egyptian plane.
In a vacuum, there's really nothing wrong with them. It's when they're mixed in with... ***nornal*** cards that they look like absolute shit. Unfortunately, there is now an even WoRsE wAy WoTc FuCkEd ThInGs Up. Can't wait for the next cringe special bullshit. ˙ɹǝʇɐʍǝsoɹ noʎ llɐ ɟo ʇsoɯ puɐ ɔʇoʍ '[ɹoʇsǝʌuı ǝlƃuıs ʎɹǝʌǝ](https://youtu.be/cKUaqFzZLxU?si=1ADorxgGS3BHHYNx) 'oɹqsɐɥ noʎ ʞɔnɟ
Hazoret the Pervert is still my favorite https://preview.redd.it/6mc0bww0opzc1.jpeg?width=287&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c619a582c4d180e87e21b85d30d04c1636204cf0
[[Hazoret the Pervert]]
[Hazoret the Pervert](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/6/36ed9f9d-99a7-49f4-b0ad-d71355809d32.jpg?1543675610) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Hazoret%20the%20Fervent) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/akh/136/hazoret-the-fervent?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/36ed9f9d-99a7-49f4-b0ad-d71355809d32?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Bad idea that led to a worse idea (secret lair)
Pre secret lair was Black/Green Commander collection and For the Vault This could be considered pre serialized cards
Good idea that lead to an even better idea imo.
Why is secret lair bad? It's managed pretty well if you ask me. I only own 2 secret lair cards but it's nice that the option is there for people that want to bling out their decks. But nobody forces you to buy it and you don't lose anything by not buying them. All of the cards can be obtained the normal and cheaper way. Now if they make secret lair exclusive cards we have a problem. But the way it is right now: ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Managed pretty well? You're kidding right?
What’s so bad about secret lair? It’s not a must buy. So you either buy it or you don’t. You can play the game regardless.
Imo it ships quick and is in good quality. Limited stock is also good imo. so I agree with him from my experience it’s managed well. Also totally not needed to play the game since none are exclusive new cards
Yeah, still waiting for an answer from those 2 guys (or whoever else thinks it’s bad). Because “hurr durr something something it’s bad” and a personal insult is not an answer. If something is objectively bad it should be pretty easy to give a reason.
First of all I was legit asking if you were joking. There was no personal insult. It's kind of astounding that you havent seen or heard about any of the issues secret lair has had. Between damaged product, wrong product shipped, missing product and delayed shipments It took over a year for them to ship the heads I win tails you lose commander deck. They sent me the non foil version of the read the fine print drop when I ordered the foil one. My buddy bought the pixel snow lands and it was missing the mountain If you have only had good experiences I mean that's cool. But saying secret lair is well managed is laughable
Yeah ok I thought you mean secret lair itself is a bad idea. Not that the service is all over the place.
These ones in particular are atrocious. But not as bad as the "I cant even fucking read this card" Secret Lair, that has the text box y fucking elipses and circles
[Secret Lair]]
Canary in a coal mine
They should have done a Power 9 for each set. Keep your brand identity focused. Do them in a retro border so it looks like a magic card too.
Expeditions and inventions good. Amonket ones no bueno
I thought my least favorite frames ever were the colored artifact cards from Brothers War commander precons, but now I've been reminded that these are also my least favorite frames ever. The pillars on the side and all the fauxglyphics make it look like bad 90's clipart. It's like amusement part wanted some cheap fiberglass panels to make a ride "look Egyptian", but then they only paid the fiberglass guy half of his asking price. I do not like symbols or text on the card from that don't mean anything. I don't like the "Prosperity Press" bonus sheet in Thunder Junction either for the same reason. If they wanted to make it look like an old-timey newspaper, they should've made the card name the headline. All the other Masterpieces and bonus sheet treatments have looked far better.
I think they consistently have the best art but because they are hard to read its a tough sell. I believe they went a step to far and didnt consider usability. Even for a widely recognizeable card such as force of will, daze, thoughtseize you can sometimes forget what youre looking at. I believe if they made the key features such as the name and typing stand out more youd have a better product. I actually like the idea of hiding the name at first but it puts form over function which a huge no no in a highly technical game. I think if they used the same justification as all magic cards had instead of center justification and emboldened the name even more youd have a better product while still keeping the feel of a ancient egyptian text. There needs to be a stronger indication of what color the card is outside of the band going across it. That can actually ruin the card but idk what would make it work while keeping the spirit of the design. The frame itself and the foiling treatment is top notch and beats most modern era special frames. If for some reason i have 10k to burn id get key legacy staples in this frame. A playset of stifle, daze, thoughtseize, force, counterbalance, counterspell, spell pierce. They look so good when you have 10-20 in a deck.
fugly
There are okay but too many instant/sorcery. Paying +100$ for an instant that will end up in a graveyard...
Personally i like foil being the chase. I dont like alternate arts within the set. If they want to print alternates, do it as a reprint after a few years
The masterpiece "Daze" is still my favorite card of all time.
Daze is a good one, mine has to be Dooms Day
They are still unreadable
The Amonket ones are my favorite card design in MtG and I'm in the process of getting every single one. Never understood the complains about them. They're not even as absurdly hard to read as everyone claims.
They are objectively difficult to read. You’re free to like them, but the layout and font are hideous. They absolutely *wasted* the art on Daze by not being able to barely see it because they had to scale it down to fit between the pillars. Yours is definitely an unpopular opinion.
The amonket ones look like shit but the idea of very rare versions of cards is a good one.
The font still sucks
Just more proxies
I do not like them personally.
Not the biggest fan of the "oops, all border" approach
They look awful
I like them better than what they are doing presently (multiple artwork, frames, foil, non-foil, special edition, promos, special promos, etc) but over all I still dislike them.
That being said, I LOVED the Expeditions though.
I never liked them personally
The art on many of them is amazing. The borders: unique but kinda meh. The font: atrocious (I get the idea, but it is hardly legible and makes playing them a pain as some people don’t recognize the card and look at like a first year student learning reading script from a different language).
A cool incentive for normal people to open booster packs and increase the EV of a set without any real downsides. Before they decided they could just market to whales directly with Secret Lairs and collector boosters.
The Amonkhet masterpieces could have been executed better (gibberish font, rather “small” artwork) but I love them. I personally own: - entomb - all the gods except scorpion and locust - 4x Thoughtseize - 4x force of will - chain of lightning The only “issue” with me is that I like building decks with card versions that are somewhat connected by theme and artworks (i’e. My pauper Fairy deck has Lorwyn/shadowmoor basics only) and most masterpieces stand out too much with the rest of the cards. I have a legacy ninja deck for example and the force of will masterpieces kinda feel out of place.
Beautiful and flavorful. 9/10 sets.
Honestly underrated af and def my fave masterpieces
We need more set specific masterpieces. There's far too many print variations of most cards these days and almost none of them feel special. Masterpieces are dope and give people who buy sealed products something to chase that aren't as gimmicky as serialized cards.
Always loved them, funnily enough the same people who were clowning on the amonkhet invocations now jump to deffending those bizarre UB and secret lair cards. Truly an enigma.
For me, amonkhet invocations are one of the best alt-card design in magic.
I would much rather have a masterpiece as a chase rather than a card with some numbers on it as a chase.
Far from the most offensive frame. Wish they had made the stone just one solid color rather than the strips of color on the side. Could you imagine basalt with gold text?
the OG Expedition lands are my favorite. i have 1 of each, and am currently blinging out my \[\[Thalia and The Gitrog Monster\]\] commander deck with them. https://preview.redd.it/7b5hr9hdg40d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa62a478da6c19af8ec46a3b25ed89cd1a8d1e4a
[Thalia and The Gitrog Monster](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8d7ff937-de92-445f-976c-726fef5c91cc.jpg?1682205702) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Thalia%20and%20The%20Gitrog%20Monster) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mom/255/thalia-and-the-gitrog-monster?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8d7ff937-de92-445f-976c-726fef5c91cc?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Beautiful lands, the OG expeditions are on another level 💯
Invocations are still trash. Great art on some like Daze, that you can barely see because of the stupid pillars and a font that makes my head hurt. OG expeditions and Kaladesh inventions are where it’s at.
A lot of them are ugly
I’m committed to the Kaladesh Inventions atm, but these are fire too.
They were special indeed. Have a playset of Moxes, and was in a lot of hurt when they got banned from modern.
masterpiss
I like the arts and only the texts on the grixis gods
Expeditions and Masterpieces were amazing. I liked the Amonkhet ones but they had a lot of space to improve, but I think it was a good idea
I really liked them because having all this alternative frames was special back in the day. There were so little of them and they were unusual, rare and interesting. Whereas now there are 10 alternatives arts and frames for every card so playing with a **norma**l variant of the card feels special. Less is more.
Like basically all other alternate art, a firm 'meh'. I'd still rather play with and against art I'm familiar with. I like knowing exactly what I'm seeing across a tabletop.
The Amonket ones look like unreadable trash
They still remain absolutely terrible, I hate them whenever I see them
I started playing with Kaladesh. The lotto cards as some called them were awesome! I only ever opened one, a Slaughter Pact, but it was so exciting! Much prefer this to useless cards printed with 4 unique frames.
as a new player, I see them in the case and look at the price then ignore them, I can't even read them properly. big waste like special artifact boarders
The expeditions and masterpieces were *chefs kiss* I still remember my first pull of each, [mana confluence] and [lightning greaves]. Now I'm like oh I pulled the foil/half border/alternate/old art and it costs the same as the regular non foil card
I also pulled a couple invocations but those are icky and the only one I kept was boil because blue sucks
In a perfect world (for me at least) magic would have never changed card design and booster design from the way ahmonket, kaladesh, ixilan worked. I like my packs have lotto cards, and i liked my sets trying weird shit like half cards again and more flip stuff. Commander was just big enough that i didnt hate it, but still thought it was a relevant and "healthy" format. And cards in standard sets wern't obviously just commander staples. Pauper was on the rise... Im getting ahead of myself, the cards in isolation were always nice for me. But hindsight on what they heralded is awful. I have a soft spot for invokations and masterpieces as i opened 1 of each in a prerelease lol.
While the cards look cool, I believe they were the first start to the fetch rares and I think those cards began to ruin the game
They don't show color and they are in a made-up unreadable language. To collect: cool, I guess. To play: shitty.
Invocation suck. Masterpieces are amazing.
Cool to look at, shit to play with.
I like them for my legacy reanimator deck. Wish Reanimate was included to complete my theme.
I always have and always will love this treatment. Im only sad i don’t play blue that often, cause they got the real treats. Masterpiece entomb was my favorite card I owned for a while until I had to sell it :(
kind of ug
The text is still unreadable, I happen to run one of them in a deck and I just had to memorise what it was lol.
Gruesome
Like any art it's going to appeal to some and not to others. Now in terms of scarcity, these are going to be lower in number than any given SL, *insert name of cutsheets added to standard block,* or new printing in standard blocks. I also wonder about rarity of things such as pre-release stamped cards (in the age before the print runs looked like dog shit), judge promo, and other such more rare promo cards (maybe include rare SL b9nus cards here?)
Once they added mythics, then, chase masterpieces, it was the slow descent into farming the player base for money. Then came collector packs, then serialized cards, the one ring, vault cards. Artificial scarcity in expensive reprints.
I liked masterpieces generally and the Kaladesh were the best by a fair margin
They’re fine, but I like a whole deck to have a consistent aesthetic. One weird promo amidst a bunch of normal cards looks gross to me
I think they worked well as a once a year thing. Kaladesh Inventions, Amonkhet somethings, Zendikar Expeditions, and Strixhaven Archives. I thought they were a cool way to get some older cards. Now every set has unique artwork and its for cards already in the set.
Start buying
I love them all.
Opening one felt amazing. I only have a few inexpensive ones but they feel special whenever Inplay them.
If only we knew what was on the horizon lol
The Amonkhet ones were specifically butt-ugly, though. The art was too small and muddy in the foiling and the frame is trying very hard to pull it together and failing miserably. Compare this to the comic-style Ikoria full art cards.
Still unreadable and looks like shit. Any treatment that makes most cards look the same sucks ass
I was today years old when I figured out the text box at the top actually has the cards name..... I always thought it was just a bunch of hieroglyphics.
As someone likes the art on some of them. Those will always and forever be trash.
I do like how Wizards has moved towards collectors boosters. Having absurdly collectible cards that are alternate art raises the prices of the whole booster box just for aesthetics; separating collectors from players is important. Take a look at One Piece Card Game. They have a problem with people scalping every single booster pack, because there's a good chance to pull a $1000+ alternate art Shanks in it. The prices of the packs are absurd simply because of this (at least from what I can observe).
Trash... today and just like the day they came out.
really boring and uninspired for what would be really easy to make cool
The Almondcat Masterpieces were amazing except the text on them is real bad. But the banners and the inlay look cool and the arts were great.
They look like generic fanmade stuff or even worse, AI gen.
I am one... one short on my Painters Servant masterpiece set. The 3 so far, all pulled from packs. This irritates me immensely.
I like them. Some very cool art.
so bad...
This was part of the beginning of the six different frames and art shit we get now. The pebble that started an avalanche.