WotC Card Frame Poll

[Machinus]

At the end of Forsythe's article he is polling people to see what their favorite frame is.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/af167

I think they realize they shouldn't have hired an art director who does his job hopped up. Maybe all this screwing around with the frames totally sucks? I wonder what effect this poll could have. Regardless, vote!

[Bardo]

Actually, their new FS frames are my favorite to date; they're not very "fantasty"-y, but they look fantastic.

[KrzyMoose]

I do like the new FS frames; they're really cool-looking on their own.

However, it's going to look like two different games when you're holding, say, an Ice Age Swords to Plowshares and a Lucent Liminid.

I say the old frames are still best.

[erictehfatz0r]

Yeah, I wonder what Future-shifted cards would look like in the same grip as regular cards. How the hell would that even work? Mana costs on both sides of the cards....

*Head Asplodes*

[Matt]

My favorite look was the "4th edition" style that ran from Fallen Empires through Alliances. I liked how the lands were purple-tinged.

[Illissius]

The futureshifted frames do look very cool, albeit not so much on the first couple of cards they revealed with them, which is why I've taken a while to come around. That said, while they're very nice as a one time treat in Future Sight, I wouldn't want them as the main frames in the game, because (as many times mentioned) they look more like science fiction than fantasy. I voted for the old frames; the post-Mirrodin frames might be more functional, but they're also less flavorful, and personally I was never missing the functionality in the first place. (There's exceptions, of course; silver framed artifacts look rather a lot better than brown, and I think Gifts Ungiven looks absolutely awesome with the new frame -- because of the art -- and I don't know how it would have with the old ones). I'm not sure where to put the Planar Chaos frames; they're a variant on the old style, not much better nor much worse, so nostalgia and entrenchedness win. (Which implies that had they been the mainstay of Magic for many years and the old frames of our reality been introduced with Planar Chaos instead, my opinion would likely be equal and opposite).

[jro]

I just hope they don't go changing the frames again real soon.  I prefer the new-style frames over any other by far, basically just for functional reasons.  Easy to read type is tech.  The future-shifted ones seem pretty terrible just on a functional level.  They added a totally redundant symbol in the upper left, and move the mana cost such that you can't look at your hand and quickly see the names and costs.  As someone who plays with foreign cards a lot, I think the mana cost helps to identify the card when you see it in your hand. 

[Bardo]

Let me revise my answer slightly. For aesthetic consistency, I think the old frames are best and wish they were never changed in the first place. Even without the consistency issue, I still think the new frames just lack that "fantasy" feel even if you're not nostalgic for the "good old days." But if they just started with the FS frames from the beginning, I would vote for them. I mean, look how amazing this land looks:



It's really gorgeous and doesn't look too science-fiction-y at all, in my opinion.

[Zherbus]

I think the new frame looks like one of those thousands of CCG's that failed. It's a nice design, but it's not M:TG.

[Harlequin]

I prefer the older card frames myself.  The Mirrodin card frames were ... ok ... I don't like the silver-grey they chose for artifacts.  How can you play "Mono-brown" with grey cards? They are also too close in color to white cards.

What I liked about the old frames is that each color had its own style.  The green cards had a wood text pannel, black had an old paper or parchment scroll, etc.  Artifacts had that prismatic, kylidoscope pannel.  So great!

The -worst- frame are the color-shifted cards from Planar chaos.  ughh... Hold a Simian Spirit Guide up in between any 4th ed red card, and any Yugioh card...... and see if you can hold back that tear.

The full art cards are neat.  I like them as collector cards... but in the same way I like artist-mod cards.  Just because they are differant.

The newest future shifted cards I don't like that much.  They are nice to look at and all, but I feel like they are a messy hybrid between full art and cards from WOW:TGC. 

My hopes for the future is that they stop making new card frames.  I would absolutly love if they printed some mirodin+ artifacts in the old artifact frames.  Like 3sphere, chalice, simulacrum, orb of dreams.  The could call it "past shift."  I would take a whiteboarder 4th-ed framed trinisphere over a foil mirrodin any day of the week.

[zeus-online]

Pre mirrodin card frames, definetly.

And these new Future sight frames are awfull, i hate 'em! hope no cards with that frame will be playable in Vintage/Legacy. They're just that BAD!

/Zeus

[freakish777]

I like the art for River of Tears, a lot. 

Screw frames, just give me more picturesque landscapes for land art.

[Ephraim]

I voted in favour of the Planar Chaos timeshifted frames.  High colour-saturation with white text along with flavourful text box backgrounds all paired up with the clean, high-functionality style of the 8th Edition frame makes me very happy.

[Machinus]

I think the future frames are chaotic and ugly. So far I haven't seen anything that compares to the old school frames.

[Moxlotus]

I think the new frame looks like one of those thousands of CCG's that failed. It's a nice design, but it's not M:TG.

This is exactly how I feel.  It doesn't feel fantasy to me at all.  I like the old frames the best.  I don't mind the color shifted frames from PC.  I still don't like the post 8th frames (or the pokemon frames as I call them), but those are still better than the future shifted ones.

[The Atog Lord]

I hate the ugly 8th-ed frames.
The Future Timeshifted frames are nice, but not something I think I'd want in every set. They seem too chaotic. I like the simplicify of the original frames.
It will be a great day when Wizards realizes they've made a terrible mistake and reverts back to the real Magic frames.

[Machinus]

It will be a great day when Wizards realizes they've made a terrible mistake and reverts back to the real Magic frames.

[Mr. Nightmare]

It will be a great day when Wizards realizes they've made a terrible mistake and reverts back to the real Magic frames.

As much as I agree with this, I don't think I want them to go back to EXACTLY those frames.  I'd love to see the art box as large as it is for the 8th frame, and the clarity of text be maintained as well, while not looking stupid.  I think the PC frames were an excellent compromise.

[zeus-online]

It will be a great day when Wizards realizes they've made a terrible mistake and reverts back to the real Magic frames.

Quoted for truth.

[Royal Ass.]

It's not JUST the old frames that I loved.  It was the quasi-old English script they used that gave the cards that antique and mystic feel.  Also the language "Summon...." produced a certain connotation which is difficult to describe.  I was annoyed when they changed the text to say "Creature - XXXXX."  That just seems so sterile.  There is a certain "feel" of the game that the new card frames fail to grasp.  The pendulum has swong too far in the direction of ease of use and "playability" and too far away from the intagibles such as the organic lore or mythical nostalgia the origianal card designs envoked.  I was a 6th grader when I started playing during Revised and I had no difficulty interpreting what was on the cards, depite their supposed poor layout.  The new card frames do nothing for me. 

[Matt]

For my money, 7th edition/ON block looked way worse than 8th.

[The Atog Lord]

These sets both had really, really awful art. Onslaught block had weird gel-like things for Wizards and The Hulk for Elves. 7th Ed had weird one-eyed badly drawn Paladins. The art was awful, but that's not the fault of the frames.

[zeus-online]

I think urza's block and Masques block was the top of magic art to date.

/Zeus

[Disburden]

I actually think the art in the recent block is pretty good.  Look at the land above for example. As a painter and artist I really appreciate how Magic art has evolved over the years. Magus of the Future, the new jailer card, Pact of negation, all have awesome art for example.

[Machinus]

Forsythe published the results of the card frame poll. The trashy 8th edition frames came in last, even behind even the comically disorganized future-shifted frames! Maybe someone will listen to my suggestion that the card-frame-management portion of the art direction has gone a little too heavy on the peyotei and weed. Reefers and Doobies, anyone?

Which is your favorite style of card frame?

Future Sight future-shifted frames                       11082   34.4%
Old frames / Time Spiral "timeshifted" frames      10071   31.2%
Planar Chaos color-shifted frames                         6418   19.9%
Normal (post-Eighth Edition) frames                       4681   14.5%
Total                                                                 32252   100.0%

Even though they held this poll right after PC and FS came out, thus inflating the votes for the newer frames immensely due to novelty and hype, the old frames still came in at a solid 31%, about even with the winner.

[Moxlotus]

I'm saddened that the FS frames came in first, but very happy that the old frames came were right behind them.

[zeus-online]

I'm really surprised, i hardly think i know a person who likes them.

And i've even heard complaints based on how they play out (You can't hold your cards to see the mana cost as easily as you could with the old frames)

/Zeus

[UR]

And i've even heard complaints based on how they play out (You can't hold your cards to see the mana cost as easily as you could with the old frames)

And what is more important they suck in Sealed because you can't see the mana symbols when trying to work out a manabase during deck construction (at least, I organize my cards by mana cost, but I see a lot of people do that).

And seriously... I haven't met anybody who thought they looked good, let alone better than the old ones. So if I was the opposition party in an African country I'd call the election fixed .

[zeus-online]

Let me revise my answer slightly. For aesthetic consistency, I think the old frames are best and wish they were never changed in the first place. Even without the consistency issue, I still think the new frames just lack that "fantasy" feel even if you're not nostalgic for the "good old days." But if they just started with the FS frames from the beginning, I would vote for them. I mean, look how amazing this land looks:



It's really gorgeous and doesn't look too science-fiction-y at all, in my opinion.

Now that i get a closer look at the card, i must say that the ART is rather pretty, but the first 10 times i saw the card i was just thinking "Man this frame sucks"... I'm really having problems looking past the god-ugly frames :/

/Zeus

[Necrologia]

Like everyone else here, my favorite frames are the originals. In particular, most beta cards. They're so dark, and the individual color's themes are very obvious. The white text box is clearly made of lace, the blue is water, the red is rock, etc. Over time, the text box themes were slowly made less noticable.

My only complaint with beta cards is the grey text in card names, resulting in terrible contrast. Thankfully, any card from beta that sees play today is iconic enough that most players can tell what it is by the art.

8th frames are just terrible. They don't look like Magic, etc, etc.

The future shifted frames have too much going on in them, and look even less like real magic cards. I think my biggest issue is the oval shaped art that goes behind the text box for some reason. The art there isn't noticable, all it does is clutter up the card. The icons in the upper left are also redundant and ugly. The art is often nice, the frames are terribad.

Planeshifted frames are a decent compromise between the good frames and the 8th frames. They still have the ease of reading that wotc wanted for the 8th frames, but the colors maintain some of the identity and flavor of the original frames. I'd love it for wizards to go back to the original, but since the odds of that happening are slim, I could settle for these frames.