With the exception of Timeshifted cards in Time Spiral, two cards from Unhinged, and some rare promotional cards, the old frame was not reused and older cards that were reissued as reprints in new products or in promotional settings were changed into the new card frame. This was corrected with Ravnica: City of Guilds. Another problem with artifacts was that the symbols for colored mana on artifact cards were gray in the textbox of artifact cards. the textbox of black cards no longer looking like old parchment.Īn early problem with the modern frame was that frames of white and artifact cards were hard to tell apart with a quick glance, which leads to the darkening of the frame of artifact cards with Fifth Dawn. However, critics noted that some individuality of colors was lost with the card frame, e.g. Card names were printed in a more modern font ( Matrix Bold, rather than Goudy Medieval). With Eighth Edition a new card frame was introduced in which the name and cost, types, and expansion symbol, as well as the power/toughness, were given their own boxes to elevate them from the card frame and enhance readability. In 2021, Wizards of the Coast started printing cards with the original frame for Booster Fun and started to refer to it as the retro frame. The Magic brand team was considering a change to the card face as early as 2000.

Though some changes were made over the years, such as color-coding the expansion symbol to reflect the card's rarity or the introduction of a collector's number (both changes introduced with Exodus), the frame stayed unchanged for a long time. Other features such as name, cost type, rarity, and power/toughness for creatures were printed directly onto the frame, which at times, especially in earlier editions, made it hard to read. The top half was dominated by the artwork of the card while the lower half was dominated by the text box. Since its inception, the game had a card frame separated into two halves. All of this means that frames are an important tool allowing the designers to make cards and mechanics that they couldn't have ever made in the past.

Third, they can be splashy, making the cards more appealing for the players. Second, they can convey a lot of flavor to the card, helping sell the theme of the set. They can allow you to do things that might not normally fit on a card by using design elements to convey something that would take a lot of words to communicate, or they could serve as a means to track information that might be a memory issue on a normal card. They have a couple important elements to them.

Tool for design Īs of 2019, R&D has come to see card frames as a resource for design. Several components are capable of expressing story elements. The card face includes the illustration and the text box the card frame is literally everything around the illustration and text box. The card frame or card face is printed onto the front of a Magic card and gives a structural property to the card. 7.5 Card frames for alternate game formats.7.4 Card frames from silver-bordered sets.6.4 Conspiracies and draft ability cards.6 Special card frames for alternate game formats.4.10 Enchantment creatures and enchantment artifacts.

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