When last you heard from me, I was rambling on about coatings, with a focus on the finishes that we apply to the faces of our cards. In this installment, I would like to speak further about the stuff that is literally at the core of that Magic card in your hand—the paper.
Of course, Magic paper is no ordinary paper. It is playing card board. We use this style of paper (also referred to as stock) because the performance requirements of a playing card are different from your average game piece. While you might not choose to riffle shuffle your favorite Magic deck, you certainly could, as our playing card board is designed to bend and shuffle without creasing or otherwise damaging the stock.
How is this possible? Because most Magic paper is actually two sheets of special paper of a specific thickness and weight that have been laminated together. This construction is what gives the board it's "snap," a term we use collectively to describe the paper's pliability, rigidity, and strength. In the center is a special glue, and in the case of our proprietary Magic stock, that glue center is blue. The primary purpose of this dark colored center is another of those specific playing card requirements—opacity. Even reasonably thick normal papers are somewhat transparent when held to the light, and you certainly don't want to be able to see through your cards during gameplay!
Another often-overlooked element of a good playing card board is the surface coating. Paper coating is different from print coating in that it is applied in layers and calendered (polished) at the mill during manufacturing to achieve a desired surface. The properties we are most interested in this coating are whiteness, gloss, and smoothness.
For Magic, our papers are matte (as we do not want excessive glare) and have an even, smooth surface for printing. This surface works in tandem with our print coatings to achieve a specific look and feel.
That's the technical construction of a Magic card, but I know it's not what many of you came to this article for. I have read a lot of interesting theories, especially since my last article, about how we have changed our Magic stock over time. For the primary stock, I am here to tell you that the specification has not changed. Our primary proprietary Magic playing card board is the exact same specification it has been since 1993. Same thickness (or "caliper"), same basis weight, same core color, same manufacturing process since the beginning. Not to say that there haven't been differences. Paper is a natural product, and because it is made from different natural pulps, no two paper sheets are exactly identical. But improvements in technology and process insure that the sheets being produced today are more consistent than ever.
Another cool fact is that our primary board has been made at the exact same French mill since Magic was born.
In addition to being the birthplace of Magic card stock, This mill is a sustainable facility. It generates its own energy from the waste it produces! Of course, Magic paper is sustainable too. All of the pulps used in our playing card board are 100% FSC certified sustainably harvested.
Despite this history and great advances in process with our long-standing paper, we have continued to look for improvement—that next generation of playing card board.
Two years ago we worked with our partners to develop and qualify an additional Magic stock for our Japanese market. This stock is unique in that it has a different multi-ply construction, which retains all of the technical playing card board characteristics but combines them with added dimensional stability. We were even able to build in some recycled content into the certified pulp for this board.
Although originally exclusive to Japan, we have been working to expand the reach of cards produced on this stock. In fact, all players worldwide will have a chance to check out this paper with the upcoming Battlebond release.
I hope you found this look at playing card stock interesting. When I return next, I will show some of the behind the scenes process of how we take a card from a bunch of digital parts on the computer screen to the printing press.
The probability that they will name a card is 1. Once this is given, there are 52 positions the card could be in so the probability of guessing it by chance is 1/52.
100.2a In constructed play (a way of playing in which each player creates their own deck ahead of time), each deck has a minimum deck size of 60 cards. A constructed deck may contain any number of basic land cards and no more than four of any card with a particular English name other than basic land cards.
Composition. A standard 52-card French-suited deck comprises 13 ranks in each of the four suits: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥) and spades (♠). Each suit includes three court cards (face cards), King, Queen and Jack, with reversible (i.e. double headed) images.
Decks require a minimum of 60 cards, with an optional 15-card sideboard. There is no maximum deck size; however, the player must be able to shuffle the deck unassisted.
If you truly randomise the deck, the chances of the cards ending up in perfect order - spades, then hearts, diamonds and clubs - are around 1 in 10 to the power 68 (or 1 followed by 68 zeros). That's a huge number, roughly equal to the number of atoms in our galaxy. Yet card players report it happening.
An Alpha Black Lotus, graded by CGC Cards, just fetched a jaw-dropping $3 MILLION, making it the highest-priced Magic: The Gathering card ever sold! The transaction went down in a private sale between Adam Cai of Pristine Collectibles and a mystery buyer, shattering previous records.
It's very easy to learn how to play Magic: The Gathering, as you can start with simple pre-made card sets before advancing onto making your own deck. In addition, you can find places to play Magic: The Gathering via the official Wizards of the Coast locator, which tells you what shops are running events.
In a 60-card Magic: The Gathering deck, it's smart to include 24 lands for balanced mana access, following a 40% ratio. Adjust based on deck strategy: more lands for control or ramp decks, fewer for aggressive, low-curve decks. These ratios are slightly different when you're building a 40-card deck, or a draft deck.
From the corner, measure out 3 feet along one edge and mark it. Next, measure 4 feet along the edge adjacent to the first measurement and mark it. Measure the length of the diagonal connecting the two marked points. If it's exactly 5 feet, your corner is square.
Key Takeaway: - Sticking to the minimum deck size of 60 cards in Magic the Gathering (MTG) provides increased consistency and better chances of drawing key cards, minimizing issues like mana flood or mana screw.
In most Magic The Gathering formats, you can have up to four copies of any one card in your deck, except for basic lands, which you can have any number of.
Check out everything you need to learn to play! Commander is the most popular format in Magic: The Gathering. This format challenges players to show off their deck-building, piloting, and even their political skills.
Each player uses their own deck to play the game. In most formats, a deck must have a minimum of 60 cards; there is no maximum deck size, but a player must be able to shuffle their deck without assistance.
This is straightforward to calculate, since there are 5 possibilities for each of the 11,986 unique cards (you can have 0,1,2,3 or 4 of each), so there are 511986≈108378 different decks.
Hence for drawing a card from a deck, each outcome has probability 1/52. The probability of an event is the sum of the probabilities of the outcomes in the event, hence the probability of drawing a spade is 13/52 = 1/4, and the probability of drawing a king is 4/52 = 1/13.
The probability of guessing the suit and rank correctly, the suit correctly but not the rank, and the rank correctly but not the suit are 1/52, 1/4, and 1/13 respectively.
Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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