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I have investigated a lot but I'm still not sure if I can use an altered art card in a tournament. I know that the golden rule is: The head judge will determine if the altered card is legal or not. But I don't want to paint my card if it will obviously be rejected.

To be more specific I want to make a border extension of my commander. The tournaments in which I am interested are mainly FNM and local shop little tournaments.

If someone doesn't know what border extension is, here is an example:

border extension

Here, Iona, Skithiryx and Thundermaw Hellkite have a pure border extension with no further modifications.

I have read a related post in this site but it doesn't clarify if this can be done or not because for one side it says:

If the card is legal then the card has black or white borders

and then it says:

Artistic modifications are acceptable in sanctioned tournaments, provided that the modifications do not make the card art unrecognizable, contain substantial strategic advice, or contain offensive images. Artistic modifications also may not obstruct or change the mana cost or name of the card.

Moreover I've read that if I use sleeves the card is most likely to be accepted by the judge. Considering that Commander is a more casual format and the commander(or general) almost never go into the deck I would like some help to decide if I do this art extension or not. Maybe one judge can point me in the right direction.

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Renato Sanhueza
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  • I'm not sure you're reading that other post correctly. The black/white border restriction is part of the list of base attributes of tournament-legal cards, meant to exclude silver-bordered cards. The artistic modifications go on top of that; they're okay if they don't make it unrecognizable, cover up the mana cost, etc. Painting the border of a black-bordered card doesn't turn it into an Un-card, any more than it turns a genuine card into a non-genuine one. – Cascabel May 19 '16 at 19:59
  • It seems like you have already answered your own question. You quoted the relevant rules, and you even did some research about what is most likely to be accepted by a judge. – Rainbolt May 19 '16 at 20:05
  • Also isn't commander by definition not sanctioned and thus not actually subject to the tournament rules? – Cascabel May 19 '16 at 20:07
  • It usually is, but stores can run sanctioned fnm commander – Michael Snook May 19 '16 at 20:11
  • Generally yes, as long as the card is recognizable, but the Head Judge has the final say, and has the right to say "no". – aaron May 19 '16 at 20:25
  • Perhaps a clearer version of my first comment: Iona is a black-bordered card, even if you paint over the border. The printing itself is black-bordered, indicating it's in a not terribly old tournament-legal set, and you don't need to be able to see the border to know that any more than you need to see the set symbol to know something's in Standard. Similarly, Elvish Impersonators is a silver-bordered card, even if you paint the border black. (And that's why I think this is a dup - the actual thing that matters here is what you've quoted from the previous answer.) – Cascabel May 20 '16 at 01:05
  • @Jefromi the quote about the black border rule is just one factor to consider and there are others. For example another factor can be: if you paint border of a card then it may be recognizable when it is in the top of your deck. But maybe if you use sleeves you can't recognize it. For this reason I think this question was marked prematurely as a duplicate and a judge can be very helpfull in this situation. – Renato Sanhueza May 20 '16 at 01:43
  • @RenatoSanhueza if you can tell what a card is for any reason (whether from an alteration or some thing else) it is a marked card and is illegal to use in tournaments. Note that if you can tell what a card is without sleeves but can't with them it is legal to use only if you use sleeves. – diego May 20 '16 at 12:44
  • @diego Thanks for the info. (I still think it would be better to answer the entire question in the answer section than to answer partially in the comment section like everyone is doing) – Renato Sanhueza May 20 '16 at 17:50
  • @RenatoSanhueza All of your question about the actual art alteration seem to be answered by the linked duplicate. Your one about marked cards isn't in your original question so that could be worth an answer if it were actually asked. – diego May 20 '16 at 17:56
  • @diego My original question was to determine if the border extension I proposed is legal or not in tournament. Then I just added my research to show my effort in answering the question(it is not a complete answer). It hasn't any sense to make a question for something that I already know. I was hoping that someone that know about this topic could give me a full answer. Maybe next time I will not add information of my previous research to avoid this confusion. – Renato Sanhueza May 20 '16 at 18:13
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    @RenatoSanhueza What part of your question isn't answered by the other question's answer? Or what is still unclear, it is the part about needing black or white borders that these alterations sometimes cover up? – diego May 20 '16 at 18:19
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – diego May 20 '16 at 18:22
  • @diego I just told you one and you answered me in the comments. There are more. if I tell you all factors then ultimately I would be answering my question myself. – Renato Sanhueza May 20 '16 at 18:26
  • @RenatoSanhueza Please use the chat room I set up for further comments, the comments here are already getting rather long. – diego May 20 '16 at 18:29

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The image of the cards you sent are a perfect example of acceptable altering for tournament play. As far as commander games go, you can sometimes get away with not even having a legal copy of your commander and instead playing with an oversized version of the card. Commander is very lenient and you can usually get away with altering cards so that they don't have any rules text. So long as there is some way to identify that the card is what it is, people will be accepting of it.

Altered art mostly just falls in the category of DBAD. Don't draw porn on your cards, don't draw children being decapitated, don't try to alter your Misdirection to look like a Force of Will.

Misdirecting Misdirection

Andrew
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