Pre-Base Set Test Print / Prototype Blastoise

This remains me of the high stakes threads on reddit; either the OP delivers the goods or the OP goes to karma court/banned. The tension is palpable!

Except that would be against the rules

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I feel like we should allow an exception for cards where less than 100 copies exist, but sure

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best bet is uploading it to a free site and linking it in (I think)

Upload them to imgur and drop the links here. I can embed you for them if they don’t automatically.

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Inconclusive.

My guess is this was the personal creation of that specific typesetter and not Nintendo/Gamegreak/Creatures.

I do not believe this is a prototype or test print endorsed by Nintendo/Gamegreak/Creatures unless new credible information comes to light.

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Whoever made it had access to the layout file from the japanese card. That, or they painstakingly measured a japanese card to mm precision. They use the exact same margins and background texture, with the proto texture only pushed a couple mm up, with identical scaling. The card as a whole is a lot more closer to japanese layout than english.

Not tryna prove anything, im a full time graphic designer this stuff interests me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHGJa9f4cSA

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The difference in color balance of the photos make it hard to bind the background to the english base layout. They both use gill sans but thats a common typeface. It’s still the same texture except offset a bit to the left and up, with more contrast and highlights and white than the two others.

Since I don’t know anything about MTG, can someone explain the dot pattern you’re all talking about? I tried to google it, but came across this thread asking if his three variations of patterns are real/fake, so by that I still don’t know if those are all authentic dot patterns or not. I also came across this L-shape of red dots verification to check if a MTG card is real or not. But again, I don’t know anything about MTG, so I don’t know if these sources I quickly googled are the Efour forum kind of sources, or the random top-10 rarest Pokémon card articles containing the Krabby error and fake pictures of the Pokémon Illustrator type of sources… Could someone provide some pictures or links to ELI5 me how the dot patterns layouts are done for MTG cards?

As for the scans provided above, when zooming in I did notice some weird vertical lines like these:

Not sure if this happens more often with MTG cards or not, or if it’s an issue with the scanner used. It just struck me as odd when zooming in.

PS: For anyone interested, I’ve searched on that magiclibrarities website again and came across the German Pokémon cards with MTG back:

As well as some MTG cards with Pokémon backs on an uncut sheet:

Greetz,
Quuador

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Hmm, weird how this one is unlimited but the pictures above on the Magic Library website are all 1st edition. The Arcanine in TCA’s video is also unlimited edition though, so the Magic Library website probably just used stock (1st ed.) German Pokémon cards from somewhere… Ah well.

Btw, cool that you own this card! I’m very glad there isn’t a Pikachu lol… I already have enough multi-K cards to chase right now… Would still love to own a card like this if the price was right. :blush:

Greetz,
Quuador

It looks like it has the correct texture pattern, the outline on the lightning bolt is something WOTC would do. I still need something to show the actual rosettes.

@quuador , we’re looking for the actual color pallet in the ink if you look at the image below the color dots will line up, while in a fake they will be scattered. The picture posted we can’t see this. If the scan was done on a select portion of the card there’s a chance we would get the results needed, right now the dpi was spread too far apart.

If we took the images from the images from the ‘1st edition stamp variations - ‘Let’s Iron It Out!’’ article you can start to see where the color dots align even when we’re not focused on that aspect.

Again those aren’t the best pictures, but it’s a start to what we’re looking for to make sure it’s from a WOTC printing press.


You can also see the boarder on the above picutre that the yellow boarder is different. This is a good way to show if something was not printed from WOTC because the texture is completely different. This is fine for the pokemon boarders as that’s what it’s supposed to be, but if the entire card was that way it would be a fake.

You can see the blastoise above doesn’t show this, which would normally be a sign that it’s a fake. However, we’re not ranking this on the final pokemon layout so I’m letting it slide. It’s cause for concern, but I won’t completely discout the cards plausability for it.

If I see problems with the rosette dots I wouldn’t even give it a chance at being real.

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Those vertical lines are most likely an artifact from the scanner and/or the compression algorithm depending on what file type the image is.

Rosettes in MTG were set specific. In general these rosettes look fine from what we have been provided, but better photos and the green dot check would be much more conclusive.

www.detecting-the-fakes.com/checking-details/checking-rosette-patern/
www.detecting-the-fakes.com/checking-details/green-dot-check/

Give it the bend test :neutral_face:

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If you have Urza Block cards it would be nice to get a close up of the green dot of one of those and the same from the Blastoise.

The above picture is closer to what I wanted, it shows more of the rosettes I was looking for. If @nysyr is correct in that the rosettes were set specific for MTG, I wouldn’t know, having a general close up image of any Urza Block card would help for comparison.

Really just any picture as close as possible would be the best, on a personal level I kind of like where you took the image above, just above the word from. I don’t know if it’s a good sign or bad that the blue dots continue on the border.

Usually, this is a sign that it’s fake because the color dots continue on the border. Pokemon has a different process on their border which makes this impossible. I mentioned it before, where pokemon borders have different textures and printing process.

If you have an Urza Block card and take a close up image at its border I would like to compare it to that. I’m trying to let it slide in my mind that this is supposed to be a test print and that WOTC would be in a different process for the border of their final print of a card, but I’m not sure if that was ever done even in MTG.

Summary:
-a closer image to see the rosettes better, if possible.
-close up of the green dot
-if you have an Urza Block card, a comparison image of its border
-a comparison image of an Urza Block’s rosettes pattern
-a comparison image of an Urza Block card’s green dot

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So they use digital print for most of the card, likely a pantone spot for the yellow and then black ink for the text. If any designer was printing out mockups for any wip, theyd likely just do it digital print as it saves time and money. For a design job like this they would have printed out 4+ different versions along the design process, to get a feel for how readable the text is within the card format, balance of space, etc. No reason to start the whole printing press with 2 extra layers of ink just to get out a couple copies for review. Print designers usually have their own small digital printer for that.

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The video isn’t done yet but there’s the card, received :blush:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSjFBanpsVA

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Classic no update E4 thread #281658675

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Did you buy the card?

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