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!:
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](https://www.atlas-games.com/ontheedge/) from the distributor even today.
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.
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:
@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!
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.
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,
[upl-image-preview url="https://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?type=card&multiverseid=488474"]
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!
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
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.
I really wanted my own deck of cards at some point and was super picky about it. I ended with this one. It is simplistic but the little birds and the colours were perfect
I am also no magic player but I recently bought 2 pack of the LOTR cards and loved the art on them. Currently can't send my favourite ones though as I am not at home
if you think about it, there‘s kind of trading cards / promo cards for everything that mattered. We’re the last generation that knows the joy of cards before the internet.
I hadn‘t seen this thread before, so I clicked on it just now thinking that this was where we all share our business cards. I don’t have a business card! Though yesterday I saw an old man use both hands to give another old man his business card and I felt some latent envy.
If Japanese culture has taught me one thing, it’s that business cards are heavily underrated. The design and info provided tell you a lot about the person and especially the company they work at (on top of the obvious information they are meant to provide).
Also a hell of a life saver when you can’t remember for sure if and when you have met people, if you take care to file them chronologically and/or to add some notes on them.
I think my favorite owned one is a business card of Hideo Baba’s brief [Studio Istolia](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/studio-istolia-closes-down) stint, snooped at TGS 2017.
@chazumaru I have something like five of iga's nonsense Konami emails which is fun. If you want to mail Kojima specifically in September of 2004 I have you covered
