Cards ??: Recycled Gold

This time we have a slightly problematic batch of cards to deal with. The Food Chain pictured on the top row came from alias Prote from mtgsuomi earlier this week. The rest of the cards are from alias Jamu from the same site.

Prote got the Food Chain from the collection of a friend of his who had quit magic a long time ago. Among cards that were mostly in good condition he found one Food Chain that wasn't exactly in mint condition. His friend had gotten it in as a throw-in in a trade back when the card was practically a worthless junk rare. This individual card later saw play in a Goblin Food Chain deck in Type 1 but for the past ten years or so it has been tumbling in a desk drawer among other cards.

The Food Chain has a creased fold line across the middle and a curve created probably by pressing it with a thumb on one edge. Both instances of damage look irreversible, but the damage is still subtle enough that I will probably not add it to Wear 'n' Tear even though I wouldn't be comfortable playing it in a tournament nor selling or trading it. It is pretty high on the list of cards that almost made it and might be reconsidered at a later date.

The Angelic Page from Jamu is a very similar case to the Food Chain, but its bends are even more subtle. The rest of his cards are a bit more interesting though, since they aren't really real magic cards. They are the remnants of a 1998 Brian Selden World Championship deck, which was printed with gold borders and the nonstandard back you can see on the top row, so the cards have never been legal in any sort of official play. The deck had been tumbling in another deck drawer roughly since it was first printed and the remaining cards are indeed in a very worn state.

I have been thinking for a long about the inclusion of gold and silver bordered cards and I am still unsure about what to do with them, but I will set these aside for now at least. Every card in the deck is already illegal for tournament play, so these wouldn't technically change anything, but I feel it might be more dramatic if each card in Wear 'n' Tear has had at least some value as a sanctioned magic card before their demise. Feedback on what should be included and what should be excluded is welcome as always.

So far the pile of cards that haven't quite been practically mint enough contains about 25 or so unique cards plus some duplicates, which is a disturbingly large number, so some of them may get another chance at a later date, since it feels bad to reject this many contributions.

Wear 'n' Tear

	Cards	W	U	R	B	G
Nonland	37	4	11	4	13	7
Land	12	1	3	2	3	3
Total	49