Pleasant Paper Rectangles

TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee

I’m a big fan of cards, both the games you can play with them and in the abstract as graphically designed objects. This purpose if this thread is to share cards, trading or otherwise, that appeal to you for whatever reason. Here’s a few I like:

Odric, Lunarch Marshall has a wonderful Chase Stone painting for its art and a truly ridiculous text box to both the Magic player and non-Magic player alike:

I’ve always been a fan of the art style of a classic 52 card deck. You don’t really see this style much in modern illustration, yet in this one form it has persistently stuck around (this one’s in the public domain, too!)

I haven’t played Yu-Gi-Oh! in ages, but I always liked this stone fellow. I think stone creatures are an under explored design space. Stone weapons, too!:

What are some of your favorites, and why?

exodus

oh man, I hope @ferricide comes back in here for this one. I have a bunch of old faves but I’m not sure I could remember them now. I might be able to dig out my On The Edge set somewhere. That game was a personal favorite because I was really into cyberpunk in 1995 when it came out, and it just hit the right mood.

I have also discovered you can just go and buy new boxes from the distributor even today.

Wooben

Any netrunner appreciators? Definitely the ‘funniest card’ winner.

For those unfamiliar with the game, essentially you can put this card face down behind a ton of defences, making the other player think it’s an objective you are going to use to win, but then if they manage to break through all your defences to stop you, instead they are killed instantly and you win anyway.

穴

Wooben I like netrunner! I have never played the original, but I played Android: Netrunner for a while around the time it came out, sadly I haven’t played it in like 6 years.
I still have the Android core set and recently I’ve been tempted to convince a friend to re-learn the rules with me so we can play it, though it would be kind of sad to get into a game that has been discontinued considering the ridioulous prices the expansions go for on ebay.

I have never gotten into any tcg but I am quite fond of some board games cards. Sticking with richard garfield here, I like the ghost cat and mice of the skip and reverse cards in his uno-like game ghooost!

also, this card from dustbiters the recent card game by Willem Nijman formerly of Vlambeer is pretty good imo

I’ve been meaning to start a board game thread in here for like a month because I need some recent-ish boardgame recommendations, I’ve been meaning to buy more board games but all of the ones I like are from discontinued games from like 2010-2016 and they are kind of hard to get/expensive now.

GigaSlime

I played Yu-Gi-Oh! in middle school, and one time when a friend and I were talking about our cards on the bus, a high schooler popped up from the seat behind us and said “You talkin’ about Yu-Gi-Oh? Listen, this is the only card you’ll ever need” and he pulled this out of his wallet:

hellomrkearns

穴 dude in the truck looks like Dogs Bower

Very much in alignment with that other thread, I like those Yuka Morii Pokémon cards.

exodus

100% that is dogs bower.

rejj

I’ve always liked the original basic lands from MtG

Forest

Island

Mountain

Plains

Swamp

In general, I strongly prefer the art from older sets in MtG, where I suppose really I mean anything before around the year 2000. The card art felt more like Art, by a collection of different Artists, all showcasing their varied styles. I haven’t played MtG for a rather long time, but whenever I see a card these days they all look the same. The art is created adhering to some master Style Guide – which I suppose makes sense from a brand point of view, but dang it is .. boring? At least less-interesting.
eg,

TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee

rejj Those Mark Poole islands are all timers for sure

I’ve realized this is a good place to show off particular artists who regularly work on cards. I love that MTG credits the artist on every card!

Here’s a few from one my favorites, Johannes Voss:

Wonderful energy at this satyr party:

Wonderful composition and colors here:

This vampire painting with blood is already spooky until you take a closer look and realize that this illustration is from the perspective of the currently being painted victim!!! Spooky!

And of course this incredibly chill basic Plains

DaveedNoo

I opened up a pack of MTG cards for the first time in a few years last month and found this which was a pleasant surprise compared to some of the grotesque cards

rejj lands are so good

TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee dog cards are good too

Also this card followed me around forever. I probably still have it as a bookmark somewhere

esper

you’re all lucky i’m gonna be stuck editing for like 16 hours today or i would spam this thread so hard

◉◉maru

I have at home this lovely card playing set which is dating back from the promotion of the original Shin Megami Tensei in 1992. It’s fairly common and cheap to get even today, as far as I can see, so they probably produced many (or no one cares). Most of the cards include each enemy’s original illustration, basic stats and alignment.

This Art of Fighting-branded trump set doesn’t show as much care (only the Joker card is customized) but it’s a pretty fun item to own if only because it was manufactured by Nintendo for SNK.

穴

My favorite Magic The Gathering card is Red, Orange, Tan and Purple, (1954) by Mark Rothko