Editor’s introduction: Our sixth chapter from Keith Adams, aka TheMisprint Guy, Magic Oddica talks about the Squared Cornered Cards. Don’t get me wrong, we ain’t talking about Collectors or International Edition. We are talking about cards that got cut the wrong way. Why? Keep reading after the bump.
TheMisprintGuy Magic Oddica – Chapter VI: Square Cornered Cards.
Those of us familiar with Magic cards know that a few years back Wizards of the Coast reprinted their Beta set in special Collector’s Editions. To set them apart, these cards had gold borders on the reverse, and also had square corners. Even though this was the first time they intentionally made them using square corners, there are plenty of cards that mistakenly were printed like this.
During the cutting process, a Magic card is typically cut with more rounded corners, giving it that playing card feel. This is very practical when it comes to shuffling. However, on occasion a card is not cut properly, resulting in square corners. In this case one, two, or all four corners are left untouched, giving it more of a baseball card feel.
While somewhat rare, square cornered cards are still one of the most common misprints found in the Magic community. It can run in streaks, resulting in several cards like this- or sometimes it just happens randomly. The oldest set I have seen so far is Revised, and from that set forward I have seen at least half the sets be afflicted with this issue.
Due to the fact that Wizards has intentionally made square cornered cards in special occasions, it is stated in their official tournament rules that they are not tournament legal. Reason being only to cover unofficial cards like International or Collectors Edition, but these misprinted square cornered cards are not tournament legal because of this. This is fine, however, because depending on how you shuffle they can be easily damaged. One afternoon of playing can easily result in ruining your strange & interesting misprints.
As always, I have some interesting examples to show you in this video. Foil, nonfoil, and several variations. Even a card where only the foil layer is square cornered, but the rest of the card is not!