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Opinion: Amonkhet Invocations, 5 Reasons Why It's a Good Idea Gone Bad


When I first saw an image of an Amonkhet Invocation card, I thought it was some sort of special preview inserted in a digital magic game, and not the actual final card design. This was not the case. The new radical card design is how the masterpieces of Amonkhet, called invocations, will actual look. Let’s take a glance at their radical card design.

Pretty epic, right? Well, yes and no. The cards are absolutely gorgeous pieces of art. But, many magic players, including myself, have some major issues with their design. Here are 5 reasons why Amonkhet Invocations are a good idea gone bad:

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  1. Font Choice and Symbols in Card Name

    This is one of the biggest gripes I am hearing from other players. The font choice is terrible. The most important part of the font of a trading card is that it is readable and easy to identify. I literally cannot read some of the letters in this font (not to mention there are some random symbols thrown in which aren't actually part of the card name). FYI - I wouldn't be surprised if the random symbols actually meant something, and are a hidden Easter egg meant for you to "decode".

    Normally, I can look at the name of the card and know exactly what it does. It takes me .01 seconds to glance at a Cryptic Command name text and know it is a Cryptic Command. With Invocations, it takes much more time to decipher the card name, and in most cases I have to read the rules text to know what card it is.

    Granted, these cards are not going to be heavily circulated, but still, the name of the card should be easy to read. The "Egyptian spelling" or random symbols don't help at all. If you want to add some secret Easter eggs, put in the flavor text, not the card name. It also doesn’t help that the font isn’t bold. 

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    This could have been easily remedied. We didn’t need to sacrifice readability for flavor. The rules text for the invocations are relatively easy to read, despite being a departure from the typical rules text font. I can clearly see each letter and word without any strain or deciphering. They should have chosen the same font used in the rules text for the name of the card too. This would have made invocations much easier to identify.

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  2. Font Choice on Type Line of Card

    I have almost no idea what is printed on the type line of these cards. It's readable, but takes way more time to read than it should. The fact that random symbols are thrown into the mix in both the name of a spell and the type line is a really bad idea. Throwing in useless symbols just makes it harder for players to know the rules governing the card, and what its types are.

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    This is less of an issue than the name of the card. Even textless cards skip the card types, because we all know Lightning Bolt is an instant and so is Crytpic Command. It still would have better to go with a more readable font and skip the hieroglyphs. If you are going to make it near unreadable, why bother even including it? Just give us more art.

  3. Art

    Ok, so I can’t read the font easily. How do I tell one invocation from the next? Art! Now, I actually like the art used. It looks great. It all fits the Egyptian theme perfectly. But that’s not the problem. The problem is distinctiveness. Art helps me identify what card someone is playing. It helps me tell one card from another, without even looking at the name.

    The problem with the art in Amonkhet Invocations is that it is too similar. Just take a look at some examples below:

    While not exactly the same, the art has too much of a resemblence to one another. When I see a Cryptic Command or textless Cryptic Command, I know immediately it is a Cryptic Command. When I see one of the above cards, the color palette, general geometric design, and art is not distinctive. Yes, I can tell they are different, but they are not distinctive enough for me to easily tell that the card being cast is Vindicate... and not Maelstrom Pulse. If the card name is not clear and visible, and the art does not jump out as unique or different, it's going to unnecessarily slow down the game.

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  4. Color identification

    Rather than having the whole background of a card being one color, the new cards have some bands or pillars on the borders that are colored with the color of the card. It looks flavorful, but makes the color of the card stand out less. It also makes the card busier, which along with random symbols and an unusual font, distract from the card itself. Kaladesh masterpieces pulled off the flavorful border better, mainly because it didn't have all the other design changes that invocations do.

    This also wouldn't matter as much if it wasn't for the issue on the next page.

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  5. Mana Symbols

    The mana symbols of invocations in the top right corner are very lightly colored. This makes it harder to identify which type of mana a card uses. It isn’t a big deal, but each second I spend trying to see which type of mana a card uses is a second I could use playing the game instead. It could also lead to some careless mistakes. Here are the mana symbols for invocations on the left vs the regular card on the right.

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    Not as easy to tell the difference... is it? I saw a little hint of green and red in some mana symbols for invocations, but it is very slight. Being a foil also makes it a bit harder to tell.

  6. In Conclusion

    Despite the above issues, these cards do look very flavorful and fun, and I hope Wizards of the Coast continues to print masterpieces. But, sometimes doing new and exciting things have drawbacks. For example, a textless foil Cryptic Command looks awesome, and is a great way to add some flare to a deck. Some people don’t know what Cryptic Command does, so issues can arise. When an opponent plays a textless Cryptic Command, most players can easily identify that an opponent is casting Cryptic Command, because it has a clear easy to read font, and easy to identify unique art. It is also an iconic card, so most people know what it does.

    A lot of the cards being reprinted here are iconic, but the problem is trying to figure out which iconic card a player actually has. Imagine someone throwing in a deck with 12 textless promo cards. Sure, it might be a pain, but I can easily identify a textless Lightning Bolt from a textless Cryptic Command. On the other hand, it takes quite a bit more cognition to identify the below Vindicate from a Maelstrom Pulse.

    Wizards of the Coast is probably thinking, "Masterpieces are rare, so you are only going to see them played a few times. So we can break the rules of an easy to read font, among other things." That is true to some extent. But many of these cards can and will be played together. Spell Pierce, Pact of Negation, Force of Will, Daze, Stifle, and more, could all be run in the same deck. If you are an opponent to that deck, and haven't memorized invocation art, it is going to slow down that game way more than it should.

    I thought previous masterpieces were near perfect, they were different and looked epic, but they were also easy to identify and read. That being said, these cards are still going to be a blast to pull, and they will still be worth good value. It's just going to be a headache for some to play with or against.

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