@Drew Biggah while there is nothing wrong with playing with counterfeits if you cant afford them or not want to spend the money on real ones ( I'm looking for counterfeit dual lands)There is a problem with trying to pass them off as real and rip off an unsuspecting person.
I don't think it's easy to do that. Sure they can, but only with a disproportionately higher amount of work put into it. Changes are the images that fake producers use for printing will always be different from what WOTC uses, so to manually correct anything will just require significantly more work
snowwolfsabertooth You act like more work has stopped people before..? Please.... If people can counterfeit currency, magic cards are a walk in the park.
nono i mean, the number of people who are able to push it up to the next level decreases. Of course it won't eliminate counterfeits. Also, the people who really want to make better counterfeits will always find a way anyways, the video helps us more than it helps them.
This is hands down the best video i have come across in terms of genuine logical accurate comparison. The flick part i was skeptic of but your imaging and PS to bring out the discrepancies is great. That printing the artist name and set after printing rest of card is a clever ass move by wizards. I wouldnt be suprised if there is even one additional secret clue hidden in the print methods. All that said I feel like fake cards are a wonderful wonderful thing for the financial impared, casual player, or anyone who sees 50+ spent on single cards as money not well spent.
FYIas per 6:30 - all colour laser printers have to print the yellow dots by a law passed in the USA about a decade ago. Hence print that has yellow dots is a fake. The dots are a code that tells law agencies the brand of printer, date and time of the print.But it's just not so easy to see unless you really zoom.
Hi! I'm from Brazil. Sorry, but i was confuse about something... When you used the flashlight, the first card was a bit transparent (in that we could see the light a little). Already on the second, it blocked all light, we saw nothing. Which one is the real card? Thanks!
A little advice man, you need to change your cameras colour temperature! Image is waaaay too blue. Also you should use a lamp to brighten up the cards, It seems a little dark. Other than that, great vid, found this extremely helpful!
Dominic Daniels That white balans is bad or good u can tell only with calibrated pro monitor desing to photography, video ect. work. N knowing what light was IRL.
If its with friends thats okay but in tournaments its not cool at all, you spend x amount on your deck to play fair, then this guy spends 10 bucks and has every cards in the game since he has a computer not very fun or fair to us that actually like the game mtg
+Billy Galvin That's my point though. Shouldn't the game be about strategy instead of spending money? Why should someone be at a disadvantage because they can't afford certain cards?
Chris Lawson Then it makes it all pointless thats like kids now a days getting a trophy just because they participated fuck that earn your shit, and also it ruins the game for us mtg players that actually like the game, you know its a business and if they go under then we all lose are game so why would we want that, enjoy the game and play and buy the cards or dont, and that is also half the thrill of mtg is actually getting the cards you want or have always wanted, not trying to be rude it just ruins the game as a whole if that makes any sense
I agree. However the company is built on the model of a 'trading card game', meaning the whole concept and way they make money is by people spending considerable amounts of money for their product. There could have been many ways to build the model to avoid this but it's too late for that. I do believe in just using proxies for expansive card replacements though. Wizards only really makes money from people buying the packs, not from the people trading them around so I know me just putting proxies in cubes and fun decks isn't hurting anyone.
I suggest you check with Villa Zheng ( swzheng99@gmail.com ), i would say he is currently the "best" even if there are some room for improvment on many cards according to what i read... Just send a message to him, he will send you scans and prices. I have not received my cards yet (i paid 1 week ago) but the guy answers very fast and he has a lot of good reviews on reddit and stuff (check BootlegMTG on Reddit for more information) But be careful, if you actually play fake cards to a tournament and the judges figure it out (i would say there is a little chance it happens, even during deck checks they don't check about that because it has to be done very fast to not disturb too much).
"But be careful, if you actually play fake cards to a tournament and the judges figure it out" then what......?? Banned? Kicked out? They make fun of you? I'm curious :P
***** there is nothing in the penalty guide so I guess the judge will disqualify the player and send a report to the dci (the judge himself is not able to decide about suspensions, he can only disqualify and report). I think it will be very hard to get an answer from a dci staff member, as the counterfeits are a big taboo (if they admit they punish it it will bring interest anyway) I can only get answers from judges
irlrp But then any player can just say "Oh, I didn't know, it looked real when I bought it".... Just by a matter of odds, how many cards have been played at every tournament? if a small % of them are fake and nobody's caught anyone with one, they might be letting it slide until someone brings a pure alpha deck
Great video, thank you for all the macro shots and high res scans. Really shows the difference between the real and fake one. But I wonder, how come they did not copy the blue middle layer in the card? Is it so difficult to reproduce?
Probably the soundest advice is building a binder that contains copies of each sample you want. Probably all 5 colours + artifacts + colourless + multi coloured cards represented. Additionally have some foils. Then you can inspect under magnification the known cards vs the card in question. The styling and ‘security’ features changes from time to time. Maybe in some cases, set to set. Naturally the strongest test is the light test. Its hard to get the cardboard just right to be this translucent. And should be shared if all sets had this or only some sets. Surely you could figure out the cardstock but that’s a lot of trail if you don’t steal this secret internally.
I saw the bend test, and still assumed you were working with the Scalding Tarn, and I about cried for a few moments, then realized they weren't actually Scalding Tarns.
Very useful. The stills are great! Any advice for a regular ebay buyer? I agree that the lighting could have been a bit brighter in the side-by-side action shots, but that's just a nit.
You should make the scanned zoom your fist point as it's the easiest. The people who are faking these are scanning them and reprinting them which creates some obvious printing quirks, you just need to learn how CMYK Offset printing works. 1a. In Offset printing Black (K) will print lines solid as it's a single screen. Hence the diamond edges are sharp, the letters full and the border made of the combination of 4 colors instead of 1. 2. White is the paper color so will have no dots inside it. 3. When you're comparing the corners you should be looking at the inside of the border when it meets the image. The black border is of the real one is crisp and straight and the fake is made of dots
I also bought a couple of these, and they just generally look bad. The advertisement doesn't match the product, and it will be immediately obvious to anyone that the cards are fake.
I know this video went up a while ago, but when I used to check IDs one trick was to hold the pinch the ID very close to the corner (1/4 inch approximately) between thumb and middle finder and then flick the card with the the index finger about a dozen times. Fake IDs begin to separate into their individual layers and real ones snap back more like plastic no matter how many times they get flicked. I just tried it on real MTG card and it stays together. I'm curious to test this on a proxy to see how it would work.
The only caveat are special reprint cards, like the Modern Event Deck cards. There are some differences in the set symbol on those special reprint sets where the set symbol is different. Because those cards go through a different manufacturer, they might have different print quality.
Would you happen to have access to a Black Light LED flash light? (It's around 10$ on Amazon). Supposedly all MTG cards turn luminescent under black light. Just wondering if the latest fakes turn luminescent as well.
Fyi you don't actually need to rip the card to see the blue strip. You can take a jewelers loupe to the side edge of the card and see it that way - no destruction required!
Got -6 sight, it's useful with things like these. Also. when reflecting light off the card, look at the black colored texts, real cards have glossier text compared to the background, obviously due them being printed on the card separately from the rest..
Your advice at the end seems a bit mixed to me. Comparing a known to be real copy is fine, light test seems fine too. That said there is something really odd about the artist name and set symbol that can be seen with normal eyes (at least with fakes I have encountered)
i have an Oblivion Sower from the duel deck i bought from Walmart that is much darker and is similar to what you are presenting compared to other sowers from other duel decks not sure if that means anything
"as you can see here the gravedigger has a blue core, and if i rip the fake scalding tarn you will see a black core..." *RIP* "So you can see the bla- oh... this core is blue. Well shit."
Without feeling these cards, if they colour matched to the original, thats bloody close. For an exercise, I made a few PSD copies of cards I had already. Able to measure and trying to match fonts, styles, gradients, etc. It takes a lot of work making this level of detail. Certainly some of the scryfall reference material is excellent and shortcuts this. But when you need at least 300 dpi, it isnt enough to just use scryfall. Whats more challenging is to have the right card stock and able to print similarly to WotC.
Could you please test fakes and real ones using iPhone's camera flash? I don't own any fake cards (hopefully), but the flash light is easily visible if card put on top of it. I wonder how it'd look like on the fake cards.
Amazing video. Great job. I'm very impressed. This will benefit the entire magic community and is the most in depth comparison of real vs fake cards....
he failed to mention you can spot the blue line on the edge of the corner of a real magic card. even though i was expecting him to tear his scalding tarn in half, it would have been unnecessary
If youtube user MTG LION is correct, and new counterfeits from Canada are not only being produced, but also surpass the last Chinese run in quality (on top of allegedly passing every test), that is scary... have you heard anything about this.
I haven't heard that, but unless you make it 100% identical, I can usually feel that something is off. Usually you can get a fake past me the first time if they are sleeved, but that is because I rely on feel at first, but I always double and triple check rares. When I first get cards in that someone wants to trade, I start by sorting out cards by regular common/uncommon cards, foils, rares or any $0.25 and up commons/uncommons, misc, and spotted fake cards. These are usually obvious fakes or cards that didn't feel right. I am also counting up the commons/uncommons. This stage is where almost all the fakes get pulled out if any. Next, I look at the rares. While adding up the values, I am checking for authenticity. The more valuable the card, the closer I examine it. Very rarely have any fakes made it past this point. I make an offer after this stage. I almost never spot fakes at the pricing stage. When I do, it was because it was a sleeved common card that I didn't check closely and didn't get to feel the card. It is when I unsleeve the card that I feel it isn't right. Since I move and reorganize cards regularly, I would get additional chances to spot fakes, but I have not seen any fakes get into my actual inventory. I also tell people how to spot fakes to help reduce the number of fakes in circulation. So far, nobody has said anything about any fake cards in my inventory. Also, when in doubt, bend test. Though the bend test does not work on YuGiOh cards. They will leave a crease even if it is a real card. But like I said, most fakes I spot by feel alone.
I've seen fakes which are made by rubbing the ink off a real card, then peeling the printing film off. The film is stretched and reprinted on, then shrunk again. It's then glued on with some kind of special glue which makes it pass the bend test. It's scary. Literally, the only way to figure out that kind of fake is by putting it under a high resolution magnification thing where you can observe the inking patterns.
Giovanni Beretta Why not? Because you shouldn't support illegal activity that hurts the very game you want to play. if you want to just play with friends, I don't see why you would pay money for worthless cards when you can just print your own for practically free. If you want to play tournaments, these fakes will just get you booted out or banned.
I can get pretty much ANY mtg card in 300 DPI quality. But I always print them with FAKE added to one of the corners (on the front) so no one can ever claim they are real.
Honestly, those fakes are pretty convincing unless you had a side-by-side original to compare it with. I would be fooled, especially if the person was someone I had no reason to doubt.
One funny note, the vendors of these cards link to your videos to demonstrate the quality of their product. Many people think MTG LION could be getting kickbacks from the counterfeiters will all of the free publicity he provides for their product.
I bought a 60-120X microscope and every card I inspected had yellow dots. A lot of them I pulled from packs. Do you think I could be seeing dots your equipment is not picking up on the real cards?
Phil D Are the yellow dots in the rosette pattern? That's normal, and you will see it on both real and fake magic cards. If the yellow dots appear sporadic and random, they are the result of printer stenography. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_steganography
+ppQmaister copyrights belong to wizards of the coast. Cards that havent been printed by them, do not provide a guaranteed quality and do not have any value. There are some scammers out there, that try to sell those fakes and rip off people who simply dont know any better. We are talking about a lot of money here.
+ppQmaister Take a sharpie and a bunch of worthless cards, or print some pictures yourself to put over them. You don't support or buy fakes! Besides I don't see why anyone would want to pay for non authentic cards. It's just fucking dumb on all levels. 1. Proxying is cheaper (note the difference between proxy and fake) 2. You don't ruin the game in the process for the rest of us
IDK what to even say to this there is so many things wrong with it lol if you just want to play get a deck that is legal and play if you want to continue in it then go buy the real cards
I bought a thousand cards for 22 bucks on ebay. I'm here out of paranoia. almost all of the cards are used commons that are super old. I think that is how they can make a profit off it.
“The easiest way to spot a fake is if it doesn’t curl by itself.” Before you know it, everyone will only buy fakes because they are better quality and less expensive and then we will have our own, non-WOTC affiliated tournaments.
Im new to MTG, so i just wanted to ask, what would happpen if you had fake MTG cards in your deck and brought them to a tournament? I know in Pokémon, they wouldn't let you play, but what about MTG?
Tyler Mac You straight up get the boot or are asked to replace them with real ones. Worst case scenario you get banned from tournaments for years by wizards. Do not use, buy or support the fakes! I can't stress this enough.
The only time I would use fakes would be for proxies. Plus, I don't really play MTG that much, I only collect the cards, (I'm more worried about Pokémon cards)
Tyler Mac Just make your own or buy some alternate arts from ebay or whatever if you want proxies. Supporting fakes that try to be the real thing is just hurting the game.
Tyler Mac Technically any copying of copyrighted material is, but in practice if you get or print some for your own personal use no one cares. If they did, then ebay wouldn't allow selling them in the first place. In tournaments any non authentic cards are illegal of course. Problems only arise when you try to pass them as real or profit from it.
From how many people that ask where to buy these, it goes to show just how important reprints are. If anyone wants to know message me, I'll tell you where to buy them. I'd rather flood the market with fakes than have NO real cards.
One thing ive noticed is during khans i bought the abzan starting deck for the cards and some cards form the deck were darker than ones you would pull out of a booster pack, i also had this with m15 and some of there prepackaged decks Has anyone else gotten darker shaded cards in magic products?
Buying them for value is one thing, but playing with them is another. I've seen even better fake cards than these, and you would never, ever catch them using these cards. If you double sleeve your cards, then they are even more difficult to spot. I hope people keep making fake cards to be honest. The cost to play this game has pushed me out 3 times in the last 15 years, and I'm tired of it. You wouldn't ever see me at a modern or legacy event unless I had these cards.
seems like it would make sense to buy these if they save you money. I get how the game is played, but it's basically paper with words either way you look at it. Why pay more for it if you don't have too? You could play magic with index cards and descriptions if you wanted to.
I get why selling or trading fake cards is bad, but why would it matter when used as a deck card in a tournament? Unless you are the first owner, you didn't pay WOTC a single cent either to get the card... (unless all MTG card sellers are part of a global network controlled by WOTC... O_O )
Those copies are the garbage results of some dumb rookie a year ago. Would you mind taking a look at a few I made for Proxy usage and comparing them to a real card? Its almost impossible to tell the difference and I bet you cant.... well if I didn't mark every proxy I made with a giant "P" on the back...
Counterfeiters pay attention! Get that shit right next time! Quick note: they've improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years. Soon we'll be able to buy cards so close to real it will be pointless for tournament judges to even examine them, since they'll (1): be so close to the real thing you can't tell, and (2): So many people will be using them, even if you did find them, you'd have to cancel the tournament for lack of players. Oh, the future of Vintage, Legacy and Modern looks bright! (Standard and Limited will be fine, so WoTC and Hasbro won't even give a shit) :-)
Where can I buy these fake-ass cards? I'd like to use them for fun without paying out the ass to own a copy & then fretting over the condition or having to double-sleeve them like the TH-cam guy did his.
These cards look pretty nice. Sleeve them and play them. People against this are just mad because they overpaid for cardboard cards. You paid for the collectables, where I pay cheap to just play for fun.
Damnnn....My fake Beta Black lotus, looks identical on the Light Test to your real one. The print is all of those hexagons or whatever and ends at the print like it should, really great fake I suppose. The copy has a nice shiny reflective state as well, almost perfect service. Even I'm having a hard time knowing if it is fake.
Somewhere in China, a counterfeiter says "thanks dude! Now I know how to fix my process!"
@Drew Biggah while there is nothing wrong with playing with counterfeits if you cant afford them or not want to spend the money on real ones ( I'm looking for counterfeit dual lands)There is a problem with trying to pass them off as real and rip off an unsuspecting person.
Updated title: How to improve new fake Magic the Gathering Cards
"Pulls Black Lotus out of package" Seems legit.
Did anyone else about have a heart attack when he folded them without mentioning he subbed out the real Scalding Tarn?
+Aaron Sirois No. Most of us have already grown up and have girlfriends.
Good job man, not only did you teach people how to spot fakes, but you also taught them how to improve their quality of fakes.
I don't think it's easy to do that. Sure they can, but only with a disproportionately higher amount of work put into it. Changes are the images that fake producers use for printing will always be different from what WOTC uses, so to manually correct anything will just require significantly more work
snowwolfsabertooth You act like more work has stopped people before..? Please.... If people can counterfeit currency, magic cards are a walk in the park.
nono i mean, the number of people who are able to push it up to the next level decreases. Of course it won't eliminate counterfeits. Also, the people who really want to make better counterfeits will always find a way anyways, the video helps us more than it helps them.
This is hands down the best video i have come across in terms of genuine logical accurate comparison. The flick part i was skeptic of but your imaging and PS to bring out the discrepancies is great. That printing the artist name and set after printing rest of card is a clever ass move by wizards. I wouldnt be suprised if there is even one additional secret clue hidden in the print methods. All that said I feel like fake cards are a wonderful wonderful thing for the financial impared, casual player, or anyone who sees 50+ spent on single cards as money not well spent.
FYIas per 6:30 - all colour laser printers have to print the yellow dots by a law passed in the USA about a decade ago. Hence print that has yellow dots is a fake. The dots are a code that tells law agencies the brand of printer, date and time of the print.But it's just not so easy to see unless you really zoom.
Why didn't you rip the real Scaldin Tarn to compare?
He ripped the fake tarn and a gravedigger... rip gravedigger, the irony
sparktoad
hehe it wasnt even intentional
+How to MTG omg... those fakes are getting better and better you can obviously get some high quality stuff already >:/
he didn't rip it cause its real and rare
he said it made him feel horny
Hi! I'm from Brazil. Sorry, but i was confuse about something...
When you used the flashlight, the first card was a bit transparent (in that we could see the light a little). Already on the second, it blocked all light, we saw nothing.
Which one is the real card?
Thanks!
This is an amazingly good video. Thank you for taking it seriously and including so much detail.
A little advice man, you need to change your cameras colour temperature! Image is waaaay too blue. Also you should use a lamp to brighten up the cards, It seems a little dark.
Other than that, great vid, found this extremely helpful!
Dominic Daniels That white balans is bad or good u can tell only with calibrated pro monitor desing to photography, video ect. work. N knowing what light was IRL.
How do you not have more subscribers?? This is great content!
For collectible purposes I guess this isn't cool. But just for gameplay purposes, what's the big deal?
+Chris Lawson Oh there's no problem about that. What is a problem is the copyright infrigement that's happening when you sell a fake
If its with friends thats okay but in tournaments its not cool at all, you spend x amount on your deck to play fair, then this guy spends 10 bucks and has every cards in the game since he has a computer not very fun or fair to us that actually like the game mtg
+Billy Galvin That's my point though. Shouldn't the game be about strategy instead of spending money? Why should someone be at a disadvantage because they can't afford certain cards?
Chris Lawson
Then it makes it all pointless thats like kids now a days getting a trophy just because they participated fuck that earn your shit, and also it ruins the game for us mtg players that actually like the game, you know its a business and if they go under then we all lose are game so why would we want that, enjoy the game and play and buy the cards or dont, and that is also half the thrill of mtg is actually getting the cards you want or have always wanted, not trying to be rude it just ruins the game as a whole if that makes any sense
I agree. However the company is built on the model of a 'trading card game', meaning the whole concept and way they make money is by people spending considerable amounts of money for their product.
There could have been many ways to build the model to avoid this but it's too late for that. I do believe in just using proxies for expansive card replacements though. Wizards only really makes money from people buying the packs, not from the people trading them around so I know me just putting proxies in cubes and fun decks isn't hurting anyone.
I need some expensive cards to a tournament soon can i get the link to where you bought them?
I suggest you check with Villa Zheng ( swzheng99@gmail.com ), i would say he is currently the "best" even if there are some room for improvment on many cards according to what i read... Just send a message to him, he will send you scans and prices. I have not received my cards yet (i paid 1 week ago) but the guy answers very fast and he has a lot of good reviews on reddit and stuff (check BootlegMTG on Reddit for more information)
But be careful, if you actually play fake cards to a tournament and the judges figure it out (i would say there is a little chance it happens, even during deck checks they don't check about that because it has to be done very fast to not disturb too much).
"But be careful, if you actually play fake cards to a tournament and the judges figure it out" then what......?? Banned? Kicked out? They make fun of you? I'm curious :P
***** there is nothing in the penalty guide so I guess the judge will disqualify the player and send a report to the dci (the judge himself is not able to decide about suspensions, he can only disqualify and report). I think it will be very hard to get an answer from a dci staff member, as the counterfeits are a big taboo (if they admit they punish it it will bring interest anyway) I can only get answers from judges
irlrp But then any player can just say "Oh, I didn't know, it looked real when I bought it".... Just by a matter of odds, how many cards have been played at every tournament? if a small % of them are fake and nobody's caught anyone with one, they might be letting it slide until someone brings a pure alpha deck
Yeah, as long as you don't trade any of those cards, i'm pretty sure you can stay under the radar
Omg perfect video, you are a master. A part 2 for extra tips will be great
Great video, thank you for all the macro shots and high res scans. Really shows the difference between the real and fake one. But I wonder, how come they did not copy the blue middle layer in the card? Is it so difficult to reproduce?
Probably the soundest advice is building a binder that contains copies of each sample you want. Probably all 5 colours + artifacts + colourless + multi coloured cards represented. Additionally have some foils. Then you can inspect under magnification the known cards vs the card in question.
The styling and ‘security’ features changes from time to time. Maybe in some cases, set to set. Naturally the strongest test is the light test. Its hard to get the cardboard just right to be this translucent. And should be shared if all sets had this or only some sets. Surely you could figure out the cardstock but that’s a lot of trail if you don’t steal this secret internally.
Good analysis, I don't know why people "disliked" the video. I felt you definitely had a thorough investigation with real proof.
I saw the bend test, and still assumed you were working with the Scalding Tarn, and I about cried for a few moments, then realized they weren't actually Scalding Tarns.
EXTREMELY comprehensive! thank you very much for this!
Well done, great video for pointing out how to spot fake magic cards currently.
Very useful. The stills are great! Any advice for a regular ebay buyer? I agree that the lighting could have been a bit brighter in the side-by-side action shots, but that's just a nit.
You should make the scanned zoom your fist point as it's the easiest. The people who are faking these are scanning them and reprinting them which creates some obvious printing quirks, you just need to learn how CMYK Offset printing works.
1a. In Offset printing Black (K) will print lines solid as it's a single screen. Hence the diamond edges are sharp, the letters full and the border made of the combination of 4 colors instead of 1.
2. White is the paper color so will have no dots inside it.
3. When you're comparing the corners you should be looking at the inside of the border when it meets the image. The black border is of the real one is crisp and straight and the fake is made of dots
dang, beat me to it. ordered some to do alot of these same tests. thank you for doing this.
You should still do a test video, just try to find more ways to detect counterfeits. Maybe a black or UV light test? a water test? Be creative.
Sweet, I'm going to go bend my ancestral recall now to make sure it's real
+Justin Jangles rip it in half after and be like "yup. was real"
he has to make sure its blue on the inside to be real hope he did that lol
I like the break in the middle of the video for some card flicking asmr XD
I also bought a couple of these, and they just generally look bad. The advertisement doesn't match the product, and it will be immediately obvious to anyone that the cards are fake.
LOL. The flick sound test.
great video man, yours is one of the best at showing what to spot and how..
I know this video went up a while ago, but when I used to check IDs one trick was to hold the pinch the ID very close to the corner (1/4 inch approximately) between thumb and middle finder and then flick the card with the the index finger about a dozen times. Fake IDs begin to separate into their individual layers and real ones snap back more like plastic no matter how many times they get flicked. I just tried it on real MTG card and it stays together. I'm curious to test this on a proxy to see how it would work.
The only caveat are special reprint cards, like the Modern Event Deck cards. There are some differences in the set symbol on those special reprint sets where the set symbol is different. Because those cards go through a different manufacturer, they might have different print quality.
I won many sanctioned tournaments with completely fake decks and still do. It feels amazing.
Were did you get your fake cards? I don't play seriously and wanna save some moneys
Would you happen to have access to a Black Light LED flash light? (It's around 10$ on Amazon).
Supposedly all MTG cards turn luminescent under black light. Just wondering if the latest fakes turn luminescent as well.
Where did you buy these from? I simply wanna use them as proxies for my lgs.
Fyi you don't actually need to rip the card to see the blue strip. You can take a jewelers loupe to the side edge of the card and see it that way - no destruction required!
Got -6 sight, it's useful with things like these. Also. when reflecting light off the card, look at the black colored texts, real cards have glossier text compared to the background, obviously due them being printed on the card separately from the rest..
Is there a specific jeweler loupe you would recommend for this card?
In the tear or rip test, i may or may not have shed a tear😓
Your advice at the end seems a bit mixed to me. Comparing a known to be real copy is fine, light test seems fine too. That said there is something really odd about the artist name and set symbol that can be seen with normal eyes (at least with fakes I have encountered)
i have an Oblivion Sower from the duel deck i bought from Walmart that is much darker and is similar to what you are presenting compared to other sowers from other duel decks not sure if that means anything
"as you can see here the gravedigger has a blue core, and if i rip the fake scalding tarn you will see a black core..."
*RIP*
"So you can see the bla- oh... this core is blue. Well shit."
I'd love to see a judge ripping a card at a tournament :D
where did you buy these from, might get some for playing at home
Looks like the link to the scans are no longer available. Do you have a mirror? Thanks.
Do they feel real? Pretty sure you could sell that black lotus for a lot (though it would be immoral)
+mudturtlevision And illegal
i feel sorry for that real card that got ripped :(
Without feeling these cards, if they colour matched to the original, thats bloody close.
For an exercise, I made a few PSD copies of cards I had already. Able to measure and trying to match fonts, styles, gradients, etc. It takes a lot of work making this level of detail.
Certainly some of the scryfall reference material is excellent and shortcuts this. But when you need at least 300 dpi, it isnt enough to just use scryfall. Whats more challenging is to have the right card stock and able to print similarly to WotC.
Could you please test fakes and real ones using iPhone's camera flash? I don't own any fake cards (hopefully), but the flash light is easily visible if card put on top of it. I wonder how it'd look like on the fake cards.
What do you do if you only have a 600dpi scanner?
Amazing video. Great job. I'm very impressed. This will benefit the entire magic community and is the most in depth comparison of real vs fake cards....
I teared my Black Lotus, it was real, I'm happy
Where can I get some? I plan on getting a few as a means of comparison when I (or someone I know) trys to trade for the real deal.
at the bgining im like BLACK LOTUS!!!! oh ya i forgot the title of the video
+Minecraft S.A.S. then i was like EMRAKUL!!!!!
he failed to mention you can spot the blue line on the edge of the corner of a real magic card. even though i was expecting him to tear his scalding tarn in half, it would have been unnecessary
If youtube user MTG LION is correct, and new counterfeits from Canada are not only being produced, but also surpass the last Chinese run in quality (on top of allegedly passing every test), that is scary... have you heard anything about this.
I haven't heard that, but unless you make it 100% identical, I can usually feel that something is off. Usually you can get a fake past me the first time if they are sleeved, but that is because I rely on feel at first, but I always double and triple check rares.
When I first get cards in that someone wants to trade, I start by sorting out cards by regular common/uncommon cards, foils, rares or any $0.25 and up commons/uncommons, misc, and spotted fake cards. These are usually obvious fakes or cards that didn't feel right. I am also counting up the commons/uncommons. This stage is where almost all the fakes get pulled out if any.
Next, I look at the rares. While adding up the values, I am checking for authenticity. The more valuable the card, the closer I examine it. Very rarely have any fakes made it past this point. I make an offer after this stage.
I almost never spot fakes at the pricing stage. When I do, it was because it was a sleeved common card that I didn't check closely and didn't get to feel the card. It is when I unsleeve the card that I feel it isn't right.
Since I move and reorganize cards regularly, I would get additional chances to spot fakes, but I have not seen any fakes get into my actual inventory. I also tell people how to spot fakes to help reduce the number of fakes in circulation.
So far, nobody has said anything about any fake cards in my inventory. Also, when in doubt, bend test. Though the bend test does not work on YuGiOh cards. They will leave a crease even if it is a real card. But like I said, most fakes I spot by feel alone.
I've seen fakes which are made by rubbing the ink off a real card, then peeling the printing film off. The film is stretched and reprinted on, then shrunk again. It's then glued on with some kind of special glue which makes it pass the bend test. It's scary. Literally, the only way to figure out that kind of fake is by putting it under a high resolution magnification thing where you can observe the inking patterns.
MrDavoder You can weigh them then.
Do the fake cards smell like the original ones when freshly opened?
They smell like rice.
Thank you for making the video, it was very helpful
Best video yet. Thanks
so what they are fake? whos going to ask for that tests? put them in the shield and play
lmao right?
Real ones can be resold for thousands, fakes are worthless. You want to throw your money away? Go ahead.
If you buy a real one, or get one in a booster, ok. but if you just want one to really play, i dont see why not.
Giovanni Beretta
Why not? Because you shouldn't support illegal activity that hurts the very game you want to play.
if you want to just play with friends, I don't see why you would pay money for worthless cards when you can just print your own for practically free. If you want to play tournaments, these fakes will just get you booted out or banned.
I can get pretty much ANY mtg card in 300 DPI quality. But I always print them with FAKE added to one of the corners (on the front) so no one can ever claim they are real.
Honestly, those fakes are pretty convincing unless you had a side-by-side original to compare it with. I would be fooled, especially if the person was someone I had no reason to doubt.
nearly vommed upon seeing my favorite zombie card being torn...
One funny note, the vendors of these cards link to your videos to demonstrate the quality of their product. Many people think MTG LION could be getting kickbacks from the counterfeiters will all of the free publicity he provides for their product.
wow, incredible and thorough video
I bought a 60-120X microscope and every card I inspected had yellow dots. A lot of them I pulled from packs. Do you think I could be seeing dots your equipment is not picking up on the real cards?
Phil D Are the yellow dots in the rosette pattern? That's normal, and you will see it on both real and fake magic cards. If the yellow dots appear sporadic and random, they are the result of printer stenography. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_steganography
Okay that explains a lot. Yes, they are a part of the rosette pattern.
i imagine myself doing all this at the shop just to be sure they aren't fake ..
With all the printing techniques now I bet it is getting harder to spot fakes. Or maybe not.
PLOT TWIST! He accidentally ripped the real tarn.
8:28 I was all like "Oh no, r.i.p. scolding tarn.." pun unintended.
I dont play that magic, and have hard time figuring why does it mater if card is fake or not.
+ppQmaister copyrights belong to wizards of the coast. Cards that havent been printed by them, do not provide a guaranteed quality and do not have any value. There are some scammers out there, that try to sell those fakes and rip off people who simply dont know any better. We are talking about a lot of money here.
Raimund Keller But if i just want to play?
+ppQmaister
Take a sharpie and a bunch of worthless cards, or print some pictures yourself to put over them. You don't support or buy fakes! Besides I don't see why anyone would want to pay for non authentic cards. It's just fucking dumb on all levels.
1. Proxying is cheaper (note the difference between proxy and fake)
2. You don't ruin the game in the process for the rest of us
IDK what to even say to this there is so many things wrong with it lol if you just want to play get a deck that is legal and play if you want to continue in it then go buy the real cards
I bought a thousand cards for 22 bucks on ebay. I'm here out of paranoia. almost all of the cards are used commons that are super old. I think that is how they can make a profit off it.
high quality video, thank you
good vid. thanks for making!
“The easiest way to spot a fake is if it doesn’t curl by itself.”
Before you know it, everyone will only buy fakes because they are better quality and less expensive and then we will have our own, non-WOTC affiliated tournaments.
Im new to MTG, so i just wanted to ask, what would happpen if you had fake MTG cards in your deck and brought them to a tournament? I know in Pokémon, they wouldn't let you play, but what about MTG?
Tyler Mac
You straight up get the boot or are asked to replace them with real ones. Worst case scenario you get banned from tournaments for years by wizards.
Do not use, buy or support the fakes! I can't stress this enough.
The only time I would use fakes would be for proxies. Plus, I don't really play MTG that much, I only collect the cards, (I'm more worried about Pokémon cards)
Tyler Mac
Just make your own or buy some alternate arts from ebay or whatever if you want proxies. Supporting fakes that try to be the real thing is just hurting the game.
Are alternate arts legal?
Tyler Mac
Technically any copying of copyrighted material is, but in practice if you get or print some for your own personal use no one cares. If they did, then ebay wouldn't allow selling them in the first place. In tournaments any non authentic cards are illegal of course.
Problems only arise when you try to pass them as real or profit from it.
NOOOOO, U killed the Gravediger. RIP in peperonis [*]
From how many people that ask where to buy these, it goes to show just how important reprints are. If anyone wants to know message me, I'll tell you where to buy them. I'd rather flood the market with fakes than have NO real cards.
please share your knowledge great king
Can you pm me the site?
PM
Since I have no idea how the fuck to use google negatives shitty interface I'll just post here. Aliexpress.com type in MTG, have fun.
Hi Sir, can I do a rip test on your black lotus? Thanks. :P
One thing ive noticed is during khans i bought the abzan starting deck for the cards and some cards form the deck were darker than ones you would pull out of a booster pack, i also had this with m15 and some of there prepackaged decks
Has anyone else gotten darker shaded cards in magic products?
this video is outdated
hey, from who did you ordered ?
Buying them for value is one thing, but playing with them is another. I've seen even better fake cards than these, and you would never, ever catch them using these cards. If you double sleeve your cards, then they are even more difficult to spot. I hope people keep making fake cards to be honest. The cost to play this game has pushed me out 3 times in the last 15 years, and I'm tired of it. You wouldn't ever see me at a modern or legacy event unless I had these cards.
When sleeved, they are indistinguishable from real cards while playing.
"It's pretty obvious, which one is real, so let's advance to the ripping test ... ... Ooopss" :D
once reported a french person who was selling fake cards on the internet to wizards. they didnt care at all. thats sad
Very helpful. Thank you! I _am_ going to skip the bending test on my Time Vault, though. I prefer non-destructive methods for expensive stuff. ;-)
seems like it would make sense to buy these if they save you money. I get how the game is played, but it's basically paper with words either way you look at it. Why pay more for it if you don't have too? You could play magic with index cards and descriptions if you wanted to.
I get why selling or trading fake cards is bad, but why would it matter when used as a deck card in a tournament? Unless you are the first owner, you didn't pay WOTC a single cent either to get the card... (unless all MTG card sellers are part of a global network controlled by WOTC... O_O )
Those copies are the garbage results of some dumb rookie a year ago. Would you mind taking a look at a few I made for Proxy usage and comparing them to a real card? Its almost impossible to tell the difference and I bet you cant.... well if I didn't mark every proxy I made with a giant "P" on the back...
Counterfeiters pay attention! Get that shit right next time!
Quick note: they've improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years. Soon we'll be able to buy cards so close to real it will be pointless for tournament judges to even examine them, since they'll (1): be so close to the real thing you can't tell, and (2): So many people will be using them, even if you did find them, you'd have to cancel the tournament for lack of players.
Oh, the future of Vintage, Legacy and Modern looks bright! (Standard and Limited will be fine, so WoTC and Hasbro won't even give a shit)
:-)
Where can I buy these fake-ass cards? I'd like to use them for fun without paying out the ass to own a copy & then fretting over the condition or having to double-sleeve them like the TH-cam guy did his.
this will come in handy when i get magic cards from other people
Nice, respect my dude
Thank you, excellent video
i was like "NOO!!! dont rip the real scalding tarn!!!"
OMFG This sounds so much like ASMR
Plottwist: It wasent fake and you just lost a black lotus
The rip test was painful too watch... I cri evrytim :'(
These cards look pretty nice. Sleeve them and play them. People against this are just mad because they overpaid for cardboard cards. You paid for the collectables, where I pay cheap to just play for fun.
at ending im like yea just rip in half a BLACK LOTUS because it might be fake
me chinese, me thank you for making my job better.
Damnnn....My fake Beta Black lotus, looks identical on the Light Test to your real one. The print is all of those hexagons or whatever and ends at the print like it should, really great fake I suppose. The copy has a nice shiny reflective state as well, almost perfect service. Even I'm having a hard time knowing if it is fake.
It hurted when you ripped the card. I know it is a common but stil
I feel what you said. I had to walk away for a bit. Fake or real, I hate when ppl rip cards.
Jannes Kruidenier Ripping crap cards is the bomb
+Kalman Kovacs finally someone agrees with me
Flip it or rip it baby