Tournament Alternate Art

Asked by MacromonarchXXX 5 years ago

I recently made a Rat Colony deck. I own every card in the deck completely unaltered. I have a copy of every rat card that is Alt arted into a skaven and all my basic lands alt arted. (Skaven mtg deck, haha). If I attended a tournament, would I be allowed to use my alt arts as long as I have the real cards on hand to verify and prove that i own the actual cards?

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1

It depends on exactly how the cards are altered, and it's ultimately up to the head judge's discretion. You need to make it a point to ask the head judge for their opinion before the event starts. In general, an altered card:

• Must be an actual Magic card (i.e. you can't alter a Rat token or a blank piece of cardstock into a Ravenous Rats)
• Must actually be the card the alter says it is (i.e. you can't alter a Gonti, Lord of Luxury into a Ratcatcher)
• Can't obscure the name, mana cost, or rules text, or otherwise make the card unrecognizeable
• Can't cause the card to become marked (i.e. paint that makes the alter noticeably thicker and/or heavier than other cards in the deck)

It isn't required that you bring unaltered copies of the cards to prove that you own them, but they'll be good to have on hand if the judge disapproves of any of your alters and asks you to replace them.

August 23, 2018 11:14 p.m.

Gidgetimer says... #2

To further expand the third point about making the cards unrecognizable the tournament rules say "Artistic modifications are acceptable in sanctioned tournaments, provided that the modifications do not make the card art unrecognizable." So by a dogmatic reading of the rules art extensions and small additions are fine, complete art swaps are not. It is dependent on the REL and the head judge if they will enforce this rule as written.

August 24, 2018 12:43 a.m.

Neotrup says... #3

Often having the rules text obscured is acceptable, as most players will know the card by name and if they don't they can call a judge for oracle text. Still, you're more likely to get judge approval if you're not obscuring the text. You don't need to have the unaltered versions on hand if the judge approves, but having them on hand is useful in cast they don't approve.

Also, always check with the judge beforehand, don't wait for the tournament to start to find out they want you to play the unaltered cards.

August 24, 2018 1:03 a.m.

Sarkhan420 says... #4

if you've found a satisfactory answer, please select it so this can be moved to the "answered" section

August 28, 2018 10:52 a.m.