Ebony and ivory
October 28th 2011 23:31
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
-- Thomas Paine
As I was reading about the Twitter user “hobbesq” and his all-white-bordered Commander deck, it occurred to me that there are probably people out there who have never seen a white-bordered Magic card. The last core set to use white borders was 2005’s Ninth Edition, before they were abolished in the first stage of Magic’s redesign.
White borders are a convention of collectible card games dating back to the 1990s. They historically signified an “unlimited edition,” a set not bounded to a specific number of copies or a chronological print run. Ironically, there are few true unlimited editions in the industry now: for example, new Magic sets are generally printed until the release of the next set, but they all use black borders now. This is almost entirely a response to demand: Magic players have been known to walk into a store and demand much-rarer (much less likely to be in stock) original versions of Eighth or Ninth Edition re-issues just because they’re black-bordered.
I never understood the obsession with black-bordered cards. Perhaps it’s a holdover from the fact that Alpha and Beta were black-bordered. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that dirt is visible on white borders but not black ones (why aren’t you playing with your cards in sleeves?). Either way, they don’t automatically correlate with better art, or with more valuable versions. If you insist on black borders, you probably won’t be playing Legacy, as black-bordered dual lands are almost impossible to find these days. Before the Tenth Edition, this obsession was an offshoot of conspicuous consumption in Magic, and a bludgeon used to make new players or people who liked the Seventh Edition’s graphic novel-style art feel inadequate. In a sense, I wish that core sets still used white borders: the “pimp” movement would absolutely hate using white-bordered M10 mythics, but that would also remove an opportunity for the abuse that too often goes with Magic-related congregation.
Liked this post? Follow me on Twitter! Hated it? Follow me anyway. It'll give you plenty of stuff to get angry about.
-- Thomas Paine
As I was reading about the Twitter user “hobbesq” and his all-white-bordered Commander deck, it occurred to me that there are probably people out there who have never seen a white-bordered Magic card. The last core set to use white borders was 2005’s Ninth Edition, before they were abolished in the first stage of Magic’s redesign.
White borders are a convention of collectible card games dating back to the 1990s. They historically signified an “unlimited edition,” a set not bounded to a specific number of copies or a chronological print run. Ironically, there are few true unlimited editions in the industry now: for example, new Magic sets are generally printed until the release of the next set, but they all use black borders now. This is almost entirely a response to demand: Magic players have been known to walk into a store and demand much-rarer (much less likely to be in stock) original versions of Eighth or Ninth Edition re-issues just because they’re black-bordered.
Looks pretty cool, right? Someone once mocked me for playing with these at FNM.
I never understood the obsession with black-bordered cards. Perhaps it’s a holdover from the fact that Alpha and Beta were black-bordered. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that dirt is visible on white borders but not black ones (why aren’t you playing with your cards in sleeves?). Either way, they don’t automatically correlate with better art, or with more valuable versions. If you insist on black borders, you probably won’t be playing Legacy, as black-bordered dual lands are almost impossible to find these days. Before the Tenth Edition, this obsession was an offshoot of conspicuous consumption in Magic, and a bludgeon used to make new players or people who liked the Seventh Edition’s graphic novel-style art feel inadequate. In a sense, I wish that core sets still used white borders: the “pimp” movement would absolutely hate using white-bordered M10 mythics, but that would also remove an opportunity for the abuse that too often goes with Magic-related congregation.
Liked this post? Follow me on Twitter! Hated it? Follow me anyway. It'll give you plenty of stuff to get angry about.
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