Are altered card art tournament legal?
Asked by Legendinc 13 years ago
I recently found this girl who has done some AMAZING commissioned altered art (including one GLORIOUS version of Lotus Cobra ) and I'm wondering if its like DCI legal to play with.
Anything that affects the weight of the card will be considered illegal for tourney play. Oh, and ite should be readable,
For Example, if a card has a signiture, then ite should be ok.
If It had acrylic paint on it then it wouldn't be legal.
Heck Some judges would even give game losses for having foil cards!
February 8, 2011 4:15 p.m.
will this be considered illegal?
http://ordinaryriches.deviantart.com/art/MtG-Lotus-Cobra-Alter-196683917
or these: http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgbepydffC1qe07gko1_500.png
February 8, 2011 4:16 p.m.
ah then i guess those would be illegal, since they're done in acrylic paint
either way, i'd want them, for the collection.
they're amazingly done and my goal is to get altered art for the cards i own done by my favorite artist, Chippy (who's done cards ranging from Lotus Cobra to Doom Blade to Goblin Wardriver
February 8, 2011 4:22 p.m.
theemptyquiver says... #5
I never cease to be amazed at the creative talent some people have.
BrightGreenLine says... Accepted answer #1
Altered-art cards are generally tricky, and there is no cut-and-dry answer for what makes a card legal. That said, there are at least 2 ways to guarantee a card is not tournament legal, and several more that the Judges at your tournaments will have to rule on:
1) If the card feels noticeably different, especially while shuffling, because the paint has warped the card or stands significantly off. If you sleeve up the modified card and it doesn't sit flat in its sleeve against the rest of your deck, you can be sure it won't be legal.
2) If the card's appearance has been totally modified, leaving no indication of what the card used to be, it's illegal. This one is pretty straight-forward: If you paint over the art, name, mana cost, text box, rules, set symbol, collector's number, and P/T, you're not going to be allowed to play it. What's to say that REALLY was a Wurmcoil Engine underneath all that paint, instead of an Island?
GENERALLY, extended-border cards are legal to most judges. These are cards where the artist simply 'erases' the border by extending the artwork outwards. In that same vein, cards with small frame-breaking modifications (such as a bit of the creature's tentacle dangling over the text box) are legal too; as always, check with the judges at any event before you play them.
In general though, you're safest when the card's original artwork remains largely unmodified or recognizable, as that is the primary means of identifying cards. That's the main reason foreign-language cards are playable in other locations; as long as both players can recognize that is a picture of Jace, The Mind Sculptor, there is no significant advantage to be gained by anyone.
One final bit: The rules on art modifications are generally more lax on non-permanent cards as well, because they only exist at one point in time and nobody is relying on identifying them at a glance to maintain board state. You're more likely to get the OK to play a Galvanic Blast where the guy has been painted to look like Megatron shooting lightsabers than you are to get a pass on Precursor Golem painted to look like Karn.
February 8, 2011 4:11 p.m.