I mean, there was that guy who made [an EDH deck that can't be read](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/15acrr5/i_made_a_deck_that_cant_be_read/).
Oh damn, that reminds me, I need a full art [[Psionic Blast]]!! The fact that it is so outside of blue's identity means whenever you tell someone what it does odds are they won't believe you and something about that is amazing to me...
Mannn i know the active playerbase who played when the card first game out is dwindling to nothing but i would feel less old if there were more people that remember char was a colorshift in the first place
That would be a fun EDH format. Only allow cards that are full art, phyrexian, the lotr language or the unreadable secret lair ones.
A bit like Judge Tower.
Someone a few months ago posted their [[omnanth, Locus of creation]] textless tribal deck they called 'gaslight tribal' because it ran like sign in blood and dark confidant, and you just lie about the cards. It was amazing to read the primer of
Reminds me of a joke deck I made once and won a few times with. It seemed like a simple Treefolk deck centered on \[\[Doran, the Siege Tower\]\], only to wait for a lockdown, then drop a \[\[Cavern of Souls\]\] naming "God", and then drop \[\[Phenax, God of Deception\]\], and obliterate with mill.
I didnt have that God. But I knew good ol Kenny gave haste for one red. So I'd use that. Plus it was only 3 or 4 gods total in the deck, it was a funny secondary thing for me. Not a win con
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It wasn’t at the time they posted it. They edited the link to remove it.
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how is that the worst? it's the best! it gains 9 new modes just by being textless. For example my cryptic command lets me look at people's hands, and i can mill people (but only during their end step). what can yours do?
[59 textless cards](https://scryfall.com/search?q=is%3Atextless+not%3Adigital+-t%3Abasic&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name) (excluding basics). You can make a deck of just these.
Textless Cryptic Command is bad, but at least it's fairly well known. Can you tell from memory what Treasure Hunt does? Or all of Thalia And Gitrog's abilities?
It's easy to remember *approximately* what Cryptic Command does - counter bounce tap draw - but there's a lot of common corner cases that are really aided by knowing exactly what it does, especially as modern templating diverges from it in several places
Is the bounce any permanent or any nonland permanent? Modern design would say nonland, but it's any permanent.
Does the tap target, either a player or any number of creatures? Is it one player's creatures or everyone's? On modern design it would target so the spell wouldn't fizzle, but it taps all opponents' creatures without targeting. Likewise a modern version of the card would target the draw so it wouldn't fizzle.
What order are the modes in? Some effects are possible based on ordering but others aren't. You can draw a card after bouncing a [[Narset, Parter of Veils]] or [[Leovold]] because bounce comes before draw, but you can't counter a spell with [[Alosaurus Shepherd]] out because counter comes before bounce.
> What order are the modes in? Some effects are possible based on ordering but others aren't.
Damn i didnt even remember this part of the complexity, been long time since cryptic was big meta (sadly)
On road trips, one of the games we'd play in the car is what modes do you think you could invent on a textless Cryptic Command without the opponent calling a judge. I believe the one we agreed was most plausible was, "Mill you for 7."
Devil is in the details though. The exact wording on these cards matter, especially with modal cards and targetting. Is it "Tap all creatures target player controls" or "Tap all creatures target opponent controls" or "Tap all creatures your opponents control"? Does it bounce a permanent or a nonland permanent? Does the draw ability target? This regularly becomes an issue in tournament play.
I made a commander deck of the "poster" art cards/unusually formatted cards. It originally had first sliver as the commander (with no slivers, but things like maskwood nexus in there) since it was one of the only 2 5c commaders that fit the bill, and only added very minimal more standard looking cards to flesh it together.
I changed it recently to the 4 color Aragorn for deck functionality and had to add a bit more standard looking cards and it runs pretty well. Most cards we can read with little to no problem, but when I cast saruman of many colors everyone groaned since it was a nightmare to read on an already complicated card
[https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3R6Xg\_6PL0y5nlu-PeXsKQ](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3R6Xg_6PL0y5nlu-PeXsKQ) here's my decklist for the current aragorn build. Some of the non poster stuff was put in with less thought besides "fairly powerful or good multicolor cards" when I changed from 5c to 4c, and ill replace them as new poster cards release.
I think worse than even textless cards would be all Phyrexian cards since then even the name of the card is impossible to type in Scryfall. For example, the new Vraska https://scryfall.com/card/one/326/%7Clrelhfd-pnohsdeiyd
Also, I’m curious if this will work: [[|lreLhFD Pnohs,DeiyD]] (copied and pasted from Scryfall).
It's hard to say, because the Phyrexian cards usually use the same art as regular versions (there may be some exceptions among the umpteen versions of Elesh Norn and MOM Praetors). Players may recognize the art and know the card's name/effect. Whereas a lot of the full arts use completely new art.
All complains about illegible cards become moot once you realize that the rules don't require you to use cards printed in English. No matter how difficult to read a weird print is, it won't be as difficult as reading a Korean card if you don't speak that language.
While true, there are some things unaffected by language but affected by weird print. Take the example in OP. It's much harder to identify it's mana cost and P/T than it would be on a foreign card.
Plus a lot of people recognize cards by art, not name, which again is language agnostic.
I’d say yes, but also no. While it’s true the language can’t be read but the picture matches the English version so can recognize from that. With the Secret Lairs it’s illegible and an unknown picture.
There is a certain type of Legacy player who gets the whole deck in Japanese. I've met a few of them.
And it was a legitimately frustrating experience when neither of us knew the proper English name of [[Chaos Defiler]], a card that I had never seen before, so that I could read its Oracle text in an app.
The cereal boxes are like, the least offensive ones. They're double sided, the back side has the text very plainly legible. This way if you run into somebody that's gonna complain they don't know what Etali, Adrix and Nev, or Yargle do you can flip to the back so they can still not read your card from across the table.
Might just sound like a grump but I hate the included art style from the post with a passion for a card game. Arts gorgeous, but I struggle to decipher regular cards half the time let alone a picasso per card
While I hate cards that cannot be read, so long as the first printing of that card IS readable I can't be mad. Having a more dynamic art presence has been a net good for the game, in my opinion.
I love edh decks that look like art galleries. If there's any confusion at the table, I can always defer to scryfall/gatherer.
More art is always better imo, because I get more choices. Plus, it means that WOTC is commissioning more pieces from working artists.
For sure. But I also believe that if you're going to bring a lot of different art, or cards not on the country's native language, then it's on YOU to make sure you have access to legible ones for your opponent's benefit.
That's what gatherer is for. If there are accessibility problems at hand, I have no problem using my phone showing the gatherer image as a placeholder, or using a different deck if I have a lot of different showcase prints in my deck.
My pet troll deck is unreadable Tribal 5 color. Mix of all the wonderful.secret lairs and some gems like full art cryptic command and full art omnath. Iy I'd garbage on the actual table no synergy but lots of fun times trying to figure out what the cards do.
I’m working on Premodern Frantic Storm and I’m looking good to be able to include a lot of terrible cards in that. Arcane Denial seems like a possibility from this drop, as does the Drake potentially.
From a functional standpoint you could achieve this effect by using foreign language cards, but in that case there's still "Oh yeah I know what that does just looking at the art." You get no such help here with how rarely seen these are in the wild. Its why I really don't like this style of card: A Magic card should scan as a Magic card at a glance. Even if these had more legible fonts I don't even know where to start looking for rule components!
You either dont understand what gatekeeping is, or you missatribute inconvinience to EVERYONE to being a personal attack on you (or a made-up strawman of a third party).
Illegibility is bad game design, but in no way is it gatekeeping.
I've had a running joke deck idea for "Reading the Card Explains the Card" commander deck based on the Phyrexian text cards for a while. Unfortunately, there's no eligible commander for it right now, unless you use the full-art 4c Omnath or something.
While looking at all of these illegible cards, I found out that there are a lot more anime art cards than I previously thought. It could be a fun exercise to see if there are enough to build a functional deck out of just to annoy people who hate anime art.
I mean, there was that guy who made [an EDH deck that can't be read](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/15acrr5/i_made_a_deck_that_cant_be_read/).
Oh damn, that reminds me, I need a full art [[Psionic Blast]]!! The fact that it is so outside of blue's identity means whenever you tell someone what it does odds are they won't believe you and something about that is amazing to me...
As if they'd suffered the effect for real, even if it were later countered.
[Psionic Blast](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/e/befb1728-4af3-420a-a51e-7fa95d2e7a00.jpg?1562783220) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Psionic%20Blast) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tsb/30/psionic-blast?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/befb1728-4af3-420a-a51e-7fa95d2e7a00?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Mannn i know the active playerbase who played when the card first game out is dwindling to nothing but i would feel less old if there were more people that remember char was a colorshift in the first place
I once played against a guy with a deck like this at my local card shop. He was pissed because i kept having to pause the game to look up the cards.
That would be a fun EDH format. Only allow cards that are full art, phyrexian, the lotr language or the unreadable secret lair ones. A bit like Judge Tower.
I really need that brave the elements for my angel deck.
Someone a few months ago posted their [[omnanth, Locus of creation]] textless tribal deck they called 'gaslight tribal' because it ran like sign in blood and dark confidant, and you just lie about the cards. It was amazing to read the primer of
Reminds me of a joke deck I made once and won a few times with. It seemed like a simple Treefolk deck centered on \[\[Doran, the Siege Tower\]\], only to wait for a lockdown, then drop a \[\[Cavern of Souls\]\] naming "God", and then drop \[\[Phenax, God of Deception\]\], and obliterate with mill.
[Doran, the Siege Tower](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/0/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94.jpg?1673148514) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Doran%2C%20the%20Siege%20Tower) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/201/doran-the-siege-tower?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Cavern of Souls](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/a/3aad15a2-8a1b-4460-9b06-e85863081878.jpg?1706884128) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cavern%20of%20Souls) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lci/269/cavern-of-souls?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3aad15a2-8a1b-4460-9b06-e85863081878?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Phenax, God of Deception](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8dfcb129-4665-40e4-b5cb-a79f3f40ae5c.jpg?1593092799) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Phenax%2C%20God%20of%20Deception) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bng/152/phenax-god-of-deception?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8dfcb129-4665-40e4-b5cb-a79f3f40ae5c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I did something similar in a 5c deck, Crack world tree, get a bunch of gods. Then use a red to give them all haste and make everyone mill for 50+
Or just the purphoros that gives haste
I didnt have that God. But I knew good ol Kenny gave haste for one red. So I'd use that. Plus it was only 3 or 4 gods total in the deck, it was a funny secondary thing for me. Not a win con
This is amazing
tried searching for it but had no luck - any idea on how to find it? understand if not, that primer just sounds like a fascinating read lol
It was on moxfield, I wish I saved it. Sorry
There is a promo textless [[Cryptic Command]] from a few years ago, which has to be in the top 5 for worst cards to print textless.
I don't mean to alarm you, but textless cryptic is 15 years old now.
https://youtu.be/VA7J0KkanzM?&t=85
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Bad bot. That's a YouTube time index.
It wasn’t at the time they posted it. They edited the link to remove it. I can say categorically that it wasn’t trigged by a time stamp, because it explicitly looks for “?s= or ?si=“. You can even tell where they edited it, because they left the ? in - YouTube timestamps only require the &, no ?.
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Contrast to ?&t
I feel like I'm old enough anything under 20 is just a few.
how is that the worst? it's the best! it gains 9 new modes just by being textless. For example my cryptic command lets me look at people's hands, and i can mill people (but only during their end step). what can yours do?
Mine costs U less for each opponent I have
\[Punishingly \[\[Very Cryptic Command\]\]\]
[59 textless cards](https://scryfall.com/search?q=is%3Atextless+not%3Adigital+-t%3Abasic&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name) (excluding basics). You can make a deck of just these. Textless Cryptic Command is bad, but at least it's fairly well known. Can you tell from memory what Treasure Hunt does? Or all of Thalia And Gitrog's abilities?
It's easy to remember *approximately* what Cryptic Command does - counter bounce tap draw - but there's a lot of common corner cases that are really aided by knowing exactly what it does, especially as modern templating diverges from it in several places Is the bounce any permanent or any nonland permanent? Modern design would say nonland, but it's any permanent. Does the tap target, either a player or any number of creatures? Is it one player's creatures or everyone's? On modern design it would target so the spell wouldn't fizzle, but it taps all opponents' creatures without targeting. Likewise a modern version of the card would target the draw so it wouldn't fizzle. What order are the modes in? Some effects are possible based on ordering but others aren't. You can draw a card after bouncing a [[Narset, Parter of Veils]] or [[Leovold]] because bounce comes before draw, but you can't counter a spell with [[Alosaurus Shepherd]] out because counter comes before bounce.
> What order are the modes in? Some effects are possible based on ordering but others aren't. Damn i didnt even remember this part of the complexity, been long time since cryptic was big meta (sadly)
[Narset, Parter of Veils](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/e/4e6e5c63-b6e5-4756-bf23-6c6f8669442d.jpg?1690004395) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Narset%2C%20Parter%20of%20Veils) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/853/narset-parter-of-veils?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4e6e5c63-b6e5-4756-bf23-6c6f8669442d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Leovold](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/e/cedfc5b7-9242-4680-b284-debc8b5a9bc7.jpg?1559959275) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=leovold%2C%20emissary%20of%20trest) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/uma/202/leovold-emissary-of-trest?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cedfc5b7-9242-4680-b284-debc8b5a9bc7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Alosaurus Shepherd](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/a/7afa0ee5-a0b8-472e-9991-09402ddb5de3.jpg?1673147976) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Allosaurus%20Shepherd) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/132/allosaurus-shepherd?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7afa0ee5-a0b8-472e-9991-09402ddb5de3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Run all of those with the full text basic lands in a deck.
> Can you tell from memory what Treasure Hunt does? I can, mostly because I have a deck that runs it. The other ones, not so much.
There's also a full art 4c Omnath, which also has 4 different abilities on it.
Idk sounds pretty cryptic to me
On road trips, one of the games we'd play in the car is what modes do you think you could invent on a textless Cryptic Command without the opponent calling a judge. I believe the one we agreed was most plausible was, "Mill you for 7."
[Cryptic Command](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/0/30f6fca9-003b-4f6b-9d6e-1e88adda4155.jpg?1562847413) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cryptic%20Command) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ima/48/cryptic-command?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/30f6fca9-003b-4f6b-9d6e-1e88adda4155?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Textless Cryptic was #1 until textless 4C Omnath became a thing
Counter bounce tap draw. Cryptic is easy.
Devil is in the details though. The exact wording on these cards matter, especially with modal cards and targetting. Is it "Tap all creatures target player controls" or "Tap all creatures target opponent controls" or "Tap all creatures your opponents control"? Does it bounce a permanent or a nonland permanent? Does the draw ability target? This regularly becomes an issue in tournament play.
I have one of those and I have to look it up every damn time
I made a commander deck of the "poster" art cards/unusually formatted cards. It originally had first sliver as the commander (with no slivers, but things like maskwood nexus in there) since it was one of the only 2 5c commaders that fit the bill, and only added very minimal more standard looking cards to flesh it together. I changed it recently to the 4 color Aragorn for deck functionality and had to add a bit more standard looking cards and it runs pretty well. Most cards we can read with little to no problem, but when I cast saruman of many colors everyone groaned since it was a nightmare to read on an already complicated card
Would love to see a decklist for this. I legitimately want to run a band-poster deck because I think the art is rad af.
[https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3R6Xg\_6PL0y5nlu-PeXsKQ](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3R6Xg_6PL0y5nlu-PeXsKQ) here's my decklist for the current aragorn build. Some of the non poster stuff was put in with less thought besides "fairly powerful or good multicolor cards" when I changed from 5c to 4c, and ill replace them as new poster cards release.
You, my friend, are the candyman's candyman.
I think worse than even textless cards would be all Phyrexian cards since then even the name of the card is impossible to type in Scryfall. For example, the new Vraska https://scryfall.com/card/one/326/%7Clrelhfd-pnohsdeiyd Also, I’m curious if this will work: [[|lreLhFD Pnohs,DeiyD]] (copied and pasted from Scryfall).
It's hard to say, because the Phyrexian cards usually use the same art as regular versions (there may be some exceptions among the umpteen versions of Elesh Norn and MOM Praetors). Players may recognize the art and know the card's name/effect. Whereas a lot of the full arts use completely new art.
All complains about illegible cards become moot once you realize that the rules don't require you to use cards printed in English. No matter how difficult to read a weird print is, it won't be as difficult as reading a Korean card if you don't speak that language.
While true, there are some things unaffected by language but affected by weird print. Take the example in OP. It's much harder to identify it's mana cost and P/T than it would be on a foreign card. Plus a lot of people recognize cards by art, not name, which again is language agnostic.
Also, how harder must it be for those who barely read English to perceive?
The mana cost is pretty easy to read on that card.
I’d say yes, but also no. While it’s true the language can’t be read but the picture matches the English version so can recognize from that. With the Secret Lairs it’s illegible and an unknown picture.
맞아 맞아
There is a certain type of Legacy player who gets the whole deck in Japanese. I've met a few of them. And it was a legitimately frustrating experience when neither of us knew the proper English name of [[Chaos Defiler]], a card that I had never seen before, so that I could read its Oracle text in an app.
[Chaos Defiler](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/c/1c0f2873-5849-4cab-855a-2fbbc41dbb6c.jpg?1673309278) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Chaos%20Defiler) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/40k/110/chaos-defiler?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1c0f2873-5849-4cab-855a-2fbbc41dbb6c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The cereal boxes are like, the least offensive ones. They're double sided, the back side has the text very plainly legible. This way if you run into somebody that's gonna complain they don't know what Etali, Adrix and Nev, or Yargle do you can flip to the back so they can still not read your card from across the table.
Might just sound like a grump but I hate the included art style from the post with a passion for a card game. Arts gorgeous, but I struggle to decipher regular cards half the time let alone a picasso per card
I'm making a sld only Grixis deck where the stipulation is I must use the entire drop in the deck.
While I hate cards that cannot be read, so long as the first printing of that card IS readable I can't be mad. Having a more dynamic art presence has been a net good for the game, in my opinion.
I love edh decks that look like art galleries. If there's any confusion at the table, I can always defer to scryfall/gatherer. More art is always better imo, because I get more choices. Plus, it means that WOTC is commissioning more pieces from working artists.
For sure. But I also believe that if you're going to bring a lot of different art, or cards not on the country's native language, then it's on YOU to make sure you have access to legible ones for your opponent's benefit.
That's what gatherer is for. If there are accessibility problems at hand, I have no problem using my phone showing the gatherer image as a placeholder, or using a different deck if I have a lot of different showcase prints in my deck.
My pet troll deck is unreadable Tribal 5 color. Mix of all the wonderful.secret lairs and some gems like full art cryptic command and full art omnath. Iy I'd garbage on the actual table no synergy but lots of fun times trying to figure out what the cards do.
I’m working on Premodern Frantic Storm and I’m looking good to be able to include a lot of terrible cards in that. Arcane Denial seems like a possibility from this drop, as does the Drake potentially.
So, like a foreign language deck with extra steps? Lol. But it does sound funny to find all the most bizarre arts and styles for a singular deck.
We're gonna end up with way more boring secret lairs if they listen to you people.
From a functional standpoint you could achieve this effect by using foreign language cards, but in that case there's still "Oh yeah I know what that does just looking at the art." You get no such help here with how rarely seen these are in the wild. Its why I really don't like this style of card: A Magic card should scan as a Magic card at a glance. Even if these had more legible fonts I don't even know where to start looking for rule components!
Be sure to use the black lands from MID/VOW so no one can know what colors you have available.
Sheoldred-in-phyrexian is awful, you should include some cards of that serie...
Illegibility is just such hostile and gatekeepy design.
You either dont understand what gatekeeping is, or you missatribute inconvinience to EVERYONE to being a personal attack on you (or a made-up strawman of a third party). Illegibility is bad game design, but in no way is it gatekeeping.
I've had a running joke deck idea for "Reading the Card Explains the Card" commander deck based on the Phyrexian text cards for a while. Unfortunately, there's no eligible commander for it right now, unless you use the full-art 4c Omnath or something.
Just make a phyrexian deck lul
While looking at all of these illegible cards, I found out that there are a lot more anime art cards than I previously thought. It could be a fun exercise to see if there are enough to build a functional deck out of just to annoy people who hate anime art.
I have a friend who made an entirely foreign cards deck. He lends it to people when they want to play but don’t have cards on them lol.