How do you make playtesting cards/proxies?

[Evenpence]

About five years ago, I wanted to playtest for upcoming tournaments with in-real-life opponents (MWS crashes occasionally and no one ever does game two or three seriously, plus tons of people just don't know rules).

I took all the staples that were Vintage-playable and I printed off a bunch of paper with black+white cards just using MS paint. 
If anything needed errata, I would just edit out the text box and write in text using copy and paste from whatever website I was using.
I would then put the little slightly-less-than-card-sized paper magic cards inside a plastic sleeve with a real magic card behind it, shuffle up, and get a friend to help me playtest.

Well, I'm in that same boat again.  I'm just wondering if there's anything you guys do differently, or know any tips/tricks to make things go smoother or look nicer.

I know Brassman does the same thing I do, but he shells out cash for color ink on paper and the whole she-bang.  He might have some secret.

Anyway, yeah, what do you guys do to playtest?  Do you just write names on cards and shuffle up without sleeves, or do you take it further?

[MEATROCKET]

Sharpie + crap cards

[A_Outcast]

I usually just take paper, cut it down to size.  put a line through the middle then write 1 card name/effect in top in one color ink, then write a different card on bottom in a different color ink.  So that way I can playtest 2 different decks at once.  takes some time to get used to realizing what deck your playing with but different color inks makes it kinda easy because you can take 2 colored sheets with you.  just have out the sheet to match the color of the deck your playing.

[Killane]

Sharpie + crap cards

ditto. I find new boarder plains especially good fodder

[Bunbury]

Sharpie + crap cards

That is usually what I do for formats where I don't intend to play with the proxies. If it's an X-proxy tournament, sharpie to a foil basic land adds style points. Especially when you use basics for their respective color moxen (Swamp makes Jet, Mountain makes Ruby, etc)

[Vegeta2711]

Lands + Sharpie = DING!

[i_set_fire]

Sharpie + crap cards

That is usually what I do for formats where I don't intend to play with the proxies. If it's an X-proxy tournament, sharpie to a foil basic land adds style points. Especially when you use basics for their respective color moxen (Swamp makes Jet, Mountain makes Ruby, etc)

thats what i do for moxen.  i call them "moxies"  get it?  mox + proxy 

[LotusHead]

Anyway, yeah, what do you guys do to playtest?  Do you just write names on cards and shuffle up without sleeves, or do you take it further?

For cards that will be tournament neccessary (Time Walk, Moxen, Library), I trade for suitable crap foils (not everyone plays with foils), and I take a sharpie and make them easy to interpret as the cards they are.

For testing cards that I own, but currently have sleeved up in a different deck (like Force of Will or Sphere of Resistance), I don't go all out with foils, but do find crap 3UU or 2 CC cards and sharpie them up.

I also started bringing a stack of Moxen/Staple proxies to tournaments to give to people too lazy to take the full 20 seconds to make a proper proxy.

I hate looking at a Neurok Familiar with MOX RUBY sharpied over it...

[zeus-online]

http://magiccards.info/ and a printer.

[pierce]

i use the back of draft droppings and a sharpie. for lands, i circle the color on the back to illustrate. islands get the blue circled. tundras get the white and blue circled. flooded strands get the white and blue circled, with strand -1 written above

if you cant proxy your deck in less than 5 minutes on the spot from memory, how can you ever win a tournament?

[Zherbus]

I used to get all snazzy with proxies. I'd print them, cut them out, and slide them into sleeves over commons. It got to the point where I'd need to make a whole gauntlet, and I eventually had fun with sharpies. I only had two Ancestral Recalls, but needed about seven. I'd take an instant costing U, and write over it and then draw something entertaining. The best proxies I ever had were back when Erhnam Djinn was insanely popular in what was called type 2. My friend drew stick figures frolicking. My most ridiculous proxy was at a tournament where proxies were allowed. I had all the cards, but I decided to proxy an Island over a mountain. I just drew on it with a blue sharpie so it made 'water' all around the mountain. One time, I actually had to proxy a lava dart since I only had two and didn't have time to go snag one before a tournament.

Man, whoever pioneered the whole Vintage proxy movement should get a huge pat on the back. He must have been one hell of a guy.

[Juggernaut GO]

Man, whoever pioneered the whole Vintage proxy movement should get a huge pat on the back. He must have been one hell of a guy.

I C WUT U DID THAR.


But yeah, super old school 5 proxy, good times.

[zeus-online]

I used to get all snazzy with proxies. I'd print them, cut them out, and slide them into sleeves over commons. It got to the point where I'd need to make a whole gauntlet, and I eventually had fun with sharpies. I only had two Ancestral Recalls, but needed about seven. I'd take an instant costing U, and write over it and then draw something entertaining. The best proxies I ever had were back when Erhnam Djinn was insanely popular in what was called type 2. My friend drew stick figures frolicking. My most ridiculous proxy was at a tournament where proxies were allowed. I had all the cards, but I decided to proxy an Island over a mountain. I just drew on it with a blue sharpie so it made 'water' all around the mountain. One time, I actually had to proxy a lava dart since I only had two and didn't have time to go snag one before a tournament.

Man, whoever pioneered the whole Vintage proxy movement should get a huge pat on the back. He must have been one hell of a guy.

Are you going to start playing vintage again? I've noticed that you've posted a bit more often then usual (which simply means, twice in a month i guess)

Your old favorit is back too. (Aka. The deck/Keeper/5C control)

[Troy_Costisick]

I use a sharpie + 4th edition plains

[Evenpence]

Right now, I'm using gatherer and printing cards out (full color nonetheless) at 106% scale.  The reason I'm not using magiccards.info is because they don't print out at the correct card size in paint.  I've found the easiest way to cut out cards is to copy/paste into paint, line them up in a set of 9 per page and only leave a line of white in between all the cards.  If you want to cut the sliver of white off one of the cards, you can, but they look fine with it there -- like it's had a little bit of play when you stick it in overtop a common in a black or white sleeve.

They seem to fit really well, although they are a bit short length-wise (width is fine).  I'm making a gauntlet atm so I'm printing off like 9 lotuses / 9 of each mox, 9 ancestrals, etc.  I printed out three full pages of Underground seas and two pages of deltas + one page of every other blue fetchland.

It makes it a lot easier to get people to playtest with you who aren't familiar with T1.  And, it creates a ton of interest in the format when I'm at local cardshop and playing what appears to be from a fairly close distance of full power.  I print everything alpha and have black sleeves so it looks like a real card until you actually pick it up and inspect it.

I still have a bit to go, but total I'll be spending about 40 bucks on ink fees and about 30-40 on sleeves.  IMO it's really not that bad for the high quality proxies you get.  I'll be able to re-use the sleeves at tournaments and whatnot anyway.  Sharpie on a common sure beats it for cost, but instantly recognizing cards when you're playtesting + getting people interested in Vintage is worth it, I think.

[JDawg13]

I've got a registered version of Workstation, so I use its proxy printing feature.  Even with just the trial version you can still do it, it just limits you to one page at a time I think.  If you've got Workstation with the high-quality pictures, it makes some pretty good proxies.  It sure beats Sharpie on a Plains for recognizability, but it can be a bit of a pain to cut up all the pages if you're proxying full decks or large chunks of them for testing purposes.

[TopSecret]

Index cards plus a pen/sharpie.

[Grand Inquisitor]

essentialmagic.com + word.doc + color printer + full size paper cutter + commons + sleeves

Index cards plus a pen/sharpie.

I really disagree with stuff like this.  My test group has found a noticeable difference in quality of testing relative to quality of the gauntlet.  Basically the further from tournament conditions you get, the worse you play.  This includes things like having the image of the card, having sleeved decks, proper shuffling, and even so far as having some sort of monetary stake on the games.  All of these things (and especially having competent pilots) contribute to better testing.

The idea of trying to play something like storm or ichorid with index cards full of illegible bulky black text makes me kinda nauseous.

[zeus-online]

Right now, I'm using gatherer and printing cards out (full color nonetheless) at 106% scale.  The reason I'm not using magiccards.info is because they don't print out at the correct card size in paint.  I've found the easiest way to cut out cards is to copy/paste into paint, line them up in a set of 9 per page and only leave a line of white in between all the cards.  If you want to cut the sliver of white off one of the cards, you can, but they look fine with it there -- like it's had a little bit of play when you stick it in overtop a common in a black or white sleeve.

They seem to fit really well, although they are a bit short length-wise (width is fine).  I'm making a gauntlet atm so I'm printing off like 9 lotuses / 9 of each mox, 9 ancestrals, etc.  I printed out three full pages of Underground seas and two pages of deltas + one page of every other blue fetchland.

It makes it a lot easier to get people to playtest with you who aren't familiar with T1.  And, it creates a ton of interest in the format when I'm at local cardshop and playing what appears to be from a fairly close distance of full power.  I print everything alpha and have black sleeves so it looks like a real card until you actually pick it up and inspect it.

I still have a bit to go, but total I'll be spending about 40 bucks on ink fees and about 30-40 on sleeves.  IMO it's really not that bad for the high quality proxies you get.  I'll be able to re-use the sleeves at tournaments and whatnot anyway.  Sharpie on a common sure beats it for cost, but instantly recognizing cards when you're playtesting + getting people interested in Vintage is worth it, I think.

Just use the search function for whatever you need, click on it, scroll down use the "print proxies" option, and they'll fit. I use it instead of gatherer exactly 'cause they fit.

[Will]

For playtesting I use a sharpie on the back of crap cards which is pretty much reusable as long as you are neat.  The way that this works is for the first time you proxy on a card you write the name above the Magic logo, the second just below, and the third at the bottom below the pentagon.  When I'm making proxies to play in a tournament I peel a crap foil and using sharpies make a real proxy which is a skill I have honed a lot in the past 2-3 years. 

[TopSecret]

Index cards plus a pen/sharpie.

I really disagree with stuff like this.

Yeah, it's not for everyone.

It does, however, take less time to construct and alter a deck than the alternative of making more visually accurate proxies, which is a plus.

[Evenpence]

Index cards plus a pen/sharpie.

I really disagree with stuff like this.

Yeah, it's not for everyone.

It does, however, take less time to construct and alter a deck than the alternative of making more visually accurate proxies, which is a plus.

You know, I actually did the index thing a lot a few years ago.  I'm printing out full-color proxies right now, I've gotta say that it really doesn't cost that much to make 6ish decks for a gauntlet, I've maybe spent 40 bucks total. 

Obviously if you're strapped on cash it's a big deal, but putting my more expensive cards down and riffle shuffling the hell out of these "minty beta moxes" makes my heart feel good when I play magic.

I will admit though, it takes a hell of a long time to cut the suckers out perfectly.

[Therubecube]

I had a box of like a thousand Bea Forests.  And whenever we needed a proxy I used to use printer and rubber cement.  Anyways, we were drunk, I proxied Forest, using rubber cement, on a Mox Emerald.  So now my Emerald has cement on it.  And it's rubbery.

[InfectedMushroom]

I had a box of like a thousand Bea Forests.  And whenever we needed a proxy I used to use printer and rubber cement.  Anyways, we were drunk, I proxied Forest, using rubber cement, on a Mox Emerald.  So now my Emerald has cement on it.  And it's rubbery.

^^ I'm waiting on the report from the BABJ

[Cruel Ultimatum]

Write the name of the card on the back of draft rejects, I assume that whoever I am testing against already knows the casting cost, power toughness, rules text. And if they don't its probobly not worth testing with them. JK but not really. This may be why I didn't know sphinx of the steelwind had first strike or exactly what the casting cost was until 2 weeks ago

[Motion2Dismiss]

I print high-res color on semi-gloss photo paper, then use a roller thing to glue it to a shitty common.  I also go over the paper's edge with a Sharpie first.  t's more expensive, but I'm a visual person, so it's worth it.