Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Does look better on a quick glance but still that font and some other design decisions just ruin them.
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Magic: the Gathering |OT10| Aether Revolt - That shit that make your Soul Burn slow
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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I like the foiling but... yeah, nothing to add
How on *earth* did this get through design and signed off? It's appalling! It's looks like a Yu-Gi-Oh gimmick from a decade ago. It's difficult to read, unnecessarily different to normal cards, hides the amazing art and has a frame that looks like it was created by a first year art student.
Seriously, it's five different bad decisions all rolled into one. Getting this many things wrong actually takes some skill!
Seriously, it's five different bad decisions all rolled into one. Getting this many things wrong actually takes some skill!
Maybe that was the contest, design the worst possible looking Wrath of God. Find a way to make a card that has great art and is a good card look horrible.
charlequin
Banned
Based on the timeframe of when Liz Smith (who designed the Kaladesh frames) left and when James Arnold (who, full disclosure, is the husband of an old friend, but who generally does very good work) started, I'm guessing they had the intern cobble these together, lol.
The funniest thing about this to me is that it proves Maro was full of shit about being unable to print old-frame cards, since these aren't even human-readable much less machine-readable.
The funniest thing about this to me is that it proves Maro was full of shit about being unable to print old-frame cards, since these aren't even human-readable much less machine-readable.
SigmasonicX
Member
That's really neat. It's a shame you can barely see the details on the card.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
That's
sure a look
sure a look
Here's a gif of a foil Cryptic Command up close:
https://twitter.com/TrickMTG/status/846851133817569280
Still looks terrible IMO
https://twitter.com/TrickMTG/status/846851133817569280
Still looks terrible IMO
The weird thing to me is that there are so many fundamental usability issues with these (unreadable font, centre-aligned capitalized rules text, unnecessary visual noise in text fields, etc.) that should have been resolved during early design/drafting. It's one thing if they're ugly (no accounting for taste, after all), it's another entirely to create cards that are more difficult to play with than their regular counterparts (similar to the textless promos.) WotC has good artists and designers, so I'm not sure what went wrong here.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
That looks a bit better to me
Forget design, how did this go though marketing without anyone saying anything?!
This is going to sound really stupid but I didn't realise they had capitalised every letter. I just knew I was finding them really hard to read even the normal text but not why.
I mean, come the *fuck* on. You learn that capitalising everything makes it much harder to read at GCSE graphic design.
I mean, come the *fuck* on. You learn that capitalising everything makes it much harder to read at GCSE graphic design.
Remembrance
Member
A full series of Masterpieces in unreadable glyphs wouldn't be a bad idea if you went all the way with it.
But these are somehow meant to be read?
But these are somehow meant to be read?
Hasbro Marketing: "How are these going to make us money?"
WotC: "We've done this previously and been successful by implementing unique designs, a special foiling process, and curating a sought-after list of cards. Sets including these promos have been n% more profitable than sets that do not include them."
Hasbro Marketing: "Okay. Whatever. Good." *goes back to counting money*
Hasbro marketing doesn't care what these look like.
They should care about people being able to read their product though
They care about people buying their product. Yu-gi-oh is ugly as sin, but it sells well. That's all marketing cares about. WotC's designers are the ones who should care about people being able to read their products.
At the end of the day, we're still going to get a line from Hasbro during their quarterly call that Amonkhet is the fastest selling MTG set of all time, blah, blah, blah.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
The name doesn't even make sense. Invocation and it's a bunch of counterspells and some monsters.
Giant Panda
Member
Dear lord Wizards must have very insular groups designing these things, because any feedback would have revealed the terribleness.
I hope that god's wearing a loin cloth.
I bet you they are except for maybe one or two people that are just like "I fucking told you guys."
You have got to be kidding me.
What on earth went wrong during this project to result in cards *this* bad? How did they sign off on a picture of someone's fucking feet? The original worship had fantastic art, this is just awful.
Thanks for making me laugh, I needed that after all this border stuff
darkside31337
Tomodachi wa Mahou
I've been playing magic for over 15 years and hands down these are the ugliest cards I have ever seen. They are total failures. Functionally useless with text being complete nonsense and yet failing aesthetically at the same time in every possible way. I can't believe they gave this the green light
charlequin
Banned
Everything is running pretty hot and cold over there. The competitive balance situation is a tire fire, and this masterpiece issue makes it clear that they're running so many new initiatives at once that they can't keep all of them in good shape. At the same time, there's clearly stuff that's working -- MM2017 is phenomenal, Conspiracy 2 was great, SOI was a really strong large set, etc.
I would pull the banning off that list -- it wasn't a bad idea to ban in that context, it just wasn't enough to fix all the different shitty problems with the format.
I... don't think you understand what a marketing team does
This.
NameGenerated
Who paid you to grab Dr. Pavel?
Meh, I think they look pretty neat. The only thing I don't like are the nonsense characters surrounding the text. All the art is sick.
I think they would be better if they were full art - or at least much thinner frame.
Also I cannot believe that they went with partial hieroglyphics and full caps - very hard to read.
Sad that some of these cards have great art confined in such an inferior frame...
Maybe they'll look better in person.
Also I cannot believe that they went with partial hieroglyphics and full caps - very hard to read.
Sad that some of these cards have great art confined in such an inferior frame...
Maybe they'll look better in person.
Every Time I Die
Banned
The art looks great but the card around the art looks rough. I feel like these would have come across better if they dropped the rules text completely, but regardless these look a lot closer to straight collection pieces rather than cards to play with.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Force of Will looks mediocre but the mind twist art is amazing. So much grandiose art wasted on this set.
Will happily sell away any of these forces I encounter. Can't imagine anyone wanting to play these over the beauty we got last year.
Speaking of which, if they really want to give masterpieces a luxuriant feel, they need to focus more on the art itself. You could put a bunch of this cg mediocrity on limited fodder and I wouldn't bat an eye- shell out the big bucks and get your guays and nielsens to do these. Emphasize a painterly artistic direction to give them a level of class not present on the average card. And for the love of God, masterpieces should afford more room for the art, not less.
Mind twist art is good, at least. Too bad it had to be tarnished by this awful frame.
Speaking of which, if they really want to give masterpieces a luxuriant feel, they need to focus more on the art itself. You could put a bunch of this cg mediocrity on limited fodder and I wouldn't bat an eye- shell out the big bucks and get your guays and nielsens to do these. Emphasize a painterly artistic direction to give them a level of class not present on the average card. And for the love of God, masterpieces should afford more room for the art, not less.
Mind twist art is good, at least. Too bad it had to be tarnished by this awful frame.
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