privately created alternate art cards

[GavinO]

Interesting that they would rule the cards illegal because you can't ID them by picture, when one of the reason for 8E style borders was so that you can ID by text more easily.  One more reason to prefer casual formats ...

[mintcollector]

I have heard that cards as such are allowed by some judges as well.  Bring art mods to an event could be very risky if the head judge says NO.  It would really suck to be DQ'd for something stupid as such.

I guess it falls under the same rule that some judges do allow for card proxies as long as the original can be shown.
 That could be a loophole for people to run these art mods as well.

[motorcitymagic]

Well, as a (the?) resident Rarities judge, I'll pipe in on the topic of whether these cards are legal for play.

Before I comment, here's the current DCI rule related to this - "Cards in your deck may not have writing on their faces other than signatures or artistic modifications. Modifications may not obscure the artwork so as to make the card unrecognizable." These leaves a lot up to the Head Judge's interpretation as to what makes the card unrecognizable; but generally a total artwork replacement is unacceptable.

My take is that if you are playing with a card that is so significantly altered that you cannot tell what it is, you are putting your opponent and judge staff at a disadvantage. Remember, at many tournaments, there are new players attending that are probably of a much lower skill level and one of the primary learning tools is the artwork. The judge staff is also within their rights to expect that they be able to view the state of the game without having to lean in to read your cards. Artwork distinction is especially important if your tournament location is one that frequently sees players using different language versions of the cards.

Although you should never be "DQ'd" from an event if you show up and play with these, you should always be prepared to replace them with un-altered ones if the Head Judge asks you to. Better yet, do yourself a favor and just ask the Head Judge before the tournament begins.

[mintcollector]

What would happen if a player was caught playing with these in an event and the opponent objects to their use?  Is disqualifcation an option, or what happens?  These gray areas are always interesting to me.

[motorcitymagic]

What would happen if a player was caught playing with these in an event and the opponent objects to their use?  Is disqualifcation an option, or what happens?  These gray areas are always interesting to me.

What usually happens is either an opponent complains or a judge is walking by sees it. In general, I would absolutely side with the opponent if they brought up any objection. Typically, the player would be asked to replace them immediately if they were very disruptive, or perhaps after the current game/match. DQ would almost never be an option... unless there was some thought that the altered cards were being used to intentionally cheat (by using them to be intentionally deceptive). I've never had it come to that as related to using modified artwork, but a similar occurence happened when someone was playing with German misprint Walds (Forests with the Plains artwork) in a deck that had both green and white spells. Very suspicious.