Doing some research on card backs… It’s crazy how important and immutable they are, there’s all these weird things on the Magic the Gathering card backs that Wizards of the Coast wish they could change, but can’t. Check this out: When Magic was first designed, Wizards of the Coast had plans for a series of trading card games. To group these games together, they were all given the name “Deckmaster”. Magic, Jihad (renamed Vampire: the Eternal Struggle) and Netrunner, for example, were all Deckmaster games. Wizards of the Coast eventually abandoned this method of grouping their trading card games, but the Magic card back is locked so the Deckmaster logo remains. There are the markings of a ballpoint pen over the ‘T’ and ‘R’ in Deckmaster which accidentally were introduced to the logo before the printing. Since the card back cannot change, it features some imperfections as the logo is the older, blue version while everywhere else the logo has been updated for yellow with red trim. After the blue version was locked on the card back, the brand team realized that blue was a poor choice for packaging and advertising. One more detail on the back of the card that has changed everywhere but remains the same on the back of the card is the trademark of the logo. Everywhere else the logo is used it now has a registered trademark (an ®) rather than a simple trademark (a ™). At the time of the original printing, the logo didn’t yet have a registered trademark. Man. Gosh. You have to make deck backs when you’re so early in the process but then you have to live with them forever. It’s such a big deal.

Doing some research on card backs… It’s crazy how important and immutable they are, there’s all these weird things on the Magic the Gathering card backs that Wizards of the Coast wish they could change, but can’t. Check this out:

  • When Magic was first designed, Wizards of the Coast had plans for a series of trading card games. To group these games together, they were all given the name “Deckmaster”. Magic, Jihad (renamed Vampire: the Eternal Struggle) and Netrunner, for example, were all Deckmaster games. Wizards of the Coast eventually abandoned this method of grouping their trading card games, but the Magic card back is locked so the Deckmaster logo remains.
  • There are the markings of a ballpoint pen over the ‘T’ and ‘R’ in Deckmaster which accidentally were introduced to the logo before the printing.
  • Since the card back cannot change, it features some imperfections as the logo is the older, blue version while everywhere else the logo has been updated for yellow with red trim. After the blue version was locked on the card back, the brand team realized that blue was a poor choice for packaging and advertising.
  • One more detail on the back of the card that has changed everywhere but remains the same on the back of the card is the trademark of the logo. Everywhere else the logo is used it now has a registered trademark (an ®) rather than a simple trademark (a ™). At the time of the original printing, the logo didn’t yet have a registered trademark.

Man. Gosh. You have to make deck backs when you’re so early in the process but then you have to live with them forever. It’s such a big deal.