We Are “Playtest-Friendly”
There should be no financial barrier to casting spells!
Playtest-friendly vs proxy-friendly
Wizards of the Coast is strictly against what a lot of people call “proxies” and they do not recognize the community’s definition of a proxy. They call these “counterfeits.”
We don’t use counterfeits, and we won’t allow counterfeits to be played in The Mystic & The Mage events. A WPN store (an official Magic: The Gathering LGS) can get banned if they are caught allowing even just the existence of “counterfeit” cards in their store — losing their ability to host prerelease events or receive free promo cards and marketing materials for FOREVER.
Even though our events are not sanctioned by Wizards of the Coast (meaning we don’t run them in their official software), many of our events are sponsored by or hosted at local game stores, and getting them banned would not be good for them, or for the community.
However, we strongly believe that part of the “magic” of Magic: The Gathering is accessibility, and no one should have to play at a lower competitive level, adopt a different playstyle or format, or empty their bank account to have access to the specific cards they want to play with.
Therefore, we do allow the use of “playtest cards” and MDFC tokens, and we ask that our players respect this and try to adopt the same language and guidelines with this in mind, especially while playing at our local game stores.
“Playtest cards” are similar to “proxies” in the way that they are not official Magic: The Gathering cards printed by Wizards of the Coast, but they are meant as placeholders for deckbuilding and, well… playtesting!
Playtest cards must be clearly labeled as a “playtest card” or use the word “proxy” on the front or back of the card. When removed from a sleeve, it should not be “passable” as a counterfeit card, and needs to be obvious upon vague inspection that it is not a real, official MTG card.
Playtest cards must be as recognizable as the card that they are representing when on the battlefield — meaning you can’t use your anime waifu as your commander or that cool custom Zelda, Ocarina of Time deck you found on Etsy, because no one will know that your copy of Link, Hero of Time is actually Jodah, the Unifier.
All playtest cards must use recognizable and searchable information, as found on MTG Gatherer:
Card Art
Card Name
Mana Cost
Rules Text, Types, and Power/Toughness
Custom or hand-painted alterations to an existing playtest or official MTG card are allowed, as long as they do not obscure this information, or as long as you provide a print-out copy of the Gatherer text / card information alongside it.
If your playtest card has obscured information due to custom alterations, or is hand-written on an MDFC token, you must bring a sheet of paper with you that includes a copy of the full card or Gatherer information for the card with you, to provide to a Judge upon request.
Your deck must be completely uniform, and some cards can’t stand out more than others. You can mix and match playtest-cards from various vendors with official MTG cards, or even print out a bunch of cards on regular paper and slip them in front of basic lands if you want.
No matter what method of playtesting you prefer, at no point should you, your opponents, or a judge see or feel a noticeable difference between the cards in your deck. This is at any point in the tournament: while your deck is static, during shuffling, in your graveyard or other zones, etc.
For this reason, if you do specifically decide to use cards printed on paper slipped in front of basic lands, you must use this method for every card in your deck to ensure the thickness in your sleeves is the same. You must also use basic lands behind your cards, and not other cards, just to ensure there’s no mix-ups with your decklists!
What’s an MDFC token?
MDFC stands for Modal Double-Faced Card. In sets released with double-faced cards, some of the tokens looked like this.
These are MDFC, or DFC, tokens, and allow you space to write on them. In Prerelease or other Sealed events when you aren’t using sleeves or your sleeves are a little too see-through, they are used to substitute a double-faced card in your deck, while the card it represents is in a hidden zone.
In this situation, they are being used to substitute a card you don’t currently have a copy of with you, for whatever reason.
When using MDFC tokens, we require that you bring a print-out of the front of the card or the Gatherer text for the card with you, to provide to a Judge upon request.
Judges have the final say. If, for any reason, you are unsure about whether or not your playtest cards are distinguished enough, or an alteration is okay to have, or if you’re doing the whole “playtest thing” appropriately within the guidelines provided, please don’t wait until an opponent calls a judge over to ask. We use an honor system and won’t check or investigate anyone’s playtest cards unless it is specifically brought to our attention — and you don’t want that moment to be when a game-changing call has to be made — so get your cards approved before the event if you have any concerns at all.
Send me an email at sam@themysticandthemage.com, or DM me on Facebook or Instagram with any questions or concerns before the event, so that we both know for sure that you’re all good to go!