One of Magic\u2019s most appealing features is the card art. \u00a0After all, a card\u2019s illustration is bigger than its text box! \u00a0Some people go the extra mile and alter their cards — from adding details to the illustration, to extending the illustration to the edge of the card, to creating \u201ctextless\u201d cards.<\/p>\n
As beautiful as altered cards are, though, altering your cards can sometimes cause problems at tournaments. \u00a0\u00a0The most important rule about alters are that, if a card is altered in any way, the Head Judge always has the final say on whether using it is permitted. \u00a0If the Head Judge decides to disallow your altered cards, you\u2019ll have to replace them. \u00a0As a result, you should always talk to the Head Judge before playing with altered cards. \u00a0Even if one Head Judge allowed your cards in the past, a different one could choose to disallow them. Even if you’re following all of the guidelines here, it’s always a good idea to bring along a set of ‘spare’ unaltered cards just in case the Head Judge disallows!<\/p>\n
What are the official guidelines that judges use to determine whether alters are acceptable? \u00a0First off all, the card\u2019s name and mana cost cannot be obscured or changed. Not too much to say here — if you\u2019ve covered up the name and mana cost, your card won\u2019t be allowed, so make sure this doesn\u2019t happen when you get your cards altered.<\/p>\n
Second, \u00a0the altered art must still be recognizable and cannot contain offensive images. \u00a0This guideline is the one that\u2019s most likely to vary for different judges. \u00a0Does altering a Future Sight Tarmogoyf to look like Darth Vader make it unrecognizable? \u00a0What about changing your Liliana of the Veil so Garruk is hugging her? \u00a0Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n
Third, the altered art cannot contain substantial strategic advice. \u00a0It\u2019s rare for altered cards to come anywhere close to violating this, but every now and then someone decides to do something like underline some of the modes on Cryptic Command. \u00a0Again, different judges may rule these situations differently.<\/p>\n
Fourth, it\u2019s important to ensure that altering your cards doesn\u2019t make them recognizable while they\u2019re in your deck. \u00a0Painting cards can sometimes make them heavy enough to be distinct in your deck, or change the edges of the card so the top of the card looks different from an unaltered one.<\/p>\n
Finally, altered cards have to actually be real Magic cards to begin with, and the altered card has to be the same card as the original. You can\u2019t \u201calter\u201d a Shock so it\u2019s a Lightning Bolt, for example.<\/p>\n
In short: altered cards are great, but be careful with them! \u00a0Always ask the Head Judge before you use them, every time, and remember that the Head Judge of each tournament has the right to decide on the legality of alters for his or her particular tournament.<\/p>\n
Today’s Rules Tip written by Paul Baranay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of Magic\u2019s most appealing features is the card art. \u00a0After all, a card\u2019s illustration is bigger than its text box! \u00a0Some people go the extra mile and alter their cards — from adding details to the illustration, to extending the illustration to the edge of the card, to creating \u201ctextless\u201d cards. As beautiful as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"language":[1196],"class_list":["post-3350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tournamentrules","language-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3350"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4592,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350\/revisions\/4592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3350"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=3350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}