The fakes would be easier to spot if WOTC had any consistency in its printing.

When counterfeiters make better quality cards than WotC

The even bigger problem here is how often WOTC changes the quality of cards printed across different sets. Literally they are almost all different. Hell I've even personally come across blatant Quality differences between 2 same cards from a same set. Because of this it makes it even harder to simply eye ball or feel differences between real and counterfeit cards. It's actually quite ridiculous. If yall don't have a jewelers loop, get one.

WotC didn't even get the back of the card correct on their proxies. 10/10

The problem is that WOTC's quality control and anti counterfeit protect is just so far behind. Most people don't have the tools or knowledge to check these things, as a result these scammers are making quite a bit of money.

The depth of this analysis is really appreciated. I hope you do more of these. I would love to see a comparison between two of the same authentic cards from different printers. I have two cards from the same set that have glaringly different characteristics.

Great video! Really interesting to see the cards compared in such detail.

been in the printing industry for over 15 years and working on Offset Presses. All of your information is valid. but i will say that sometimes when a Press is running and becomes low on Ink within the fountain. the output will become ether lighter or off color. it is up to the pressman to catch those sheets but a lot of the time it goes though. even cracking open packs i've seen the offset print be off

If this is the quality of a fake, I'll take it. At this point, I honestly don't care enough because of "authenticity from WotC" when they're crooks themselves.

So where can I buy these tournament legal proxies? 🤣

Wow, excellent video! I made a similar one a few months ago (In french), I covered a broader variety of checkpoints. I like yours because you choose less characteristics in favor of extreme detail on each one. Continue your great work!

Higher saturated colors and thickness differences of text does not always mean a card is fake. I opened some collector packs of kamigawa last year and got two borderless otawara. One of them looks as an usual blue colored card. The other one has a more purple looking color and the text on the bottom containing the copyright is thinner. So there are differences in print quality even within the same set.

Some great info! I hadn't seen the difference between the dot angles presented before. That fake is hard to tell without zooming in!

Thank you for taking the time to make this video!!

For offset printing, blues will generally fluctuate towards a purple and away during a print run based upon the flow rates of the water and ink and the amount of coverage of the magenta unit. The difference in blues and the set symbol can easily be attributed to the oscillation of the magenta % on the specific keys that this card is layed out for on the print sheet. This is not a surefire way to detect a fake. Using a jewelers loupe and detecting the screen angle of CMYK is the better way of doing this. As there are a few screen angles printers use and unless a printer burned their offset plates at a specific screen angle that matches the printer that printed the real card, you can detect a legit vs fake if the screen angles of the colors don't match.

Props been playing since 95'. 90% of the time I rely on the light test. I had a foil Karn where you couldn't even see through the card and argued with the seller until eBay stepped in and gave me a refund. I have heard though that there's different types of cardstock. I am aware of how to use a Jeweler's loupe to double verify. But u taught me something new with the hologram wizard security. Good job and thank you!

I still thought it was real after the first video until now. Wow this is extremely concerning

When he first put the two up side by side, made me think about the modern horizons set itself. I opened 9 boxes, most were japanese printer ones with the rare up front, but 2 were the other printer(think it was printed in US). I know it would be expensive to check out two boxes and match up several of the cards to see if there is a difference there.

When something seems off the back is the go to usually. Counterfeiters never pay enough attention to it, we all know exactly what's supposed to look like (and haves piles and piles to compare against), while being full of tiny details to compare.

Cool video, have to point out though that is not at all why it is called Offset Printing. The offset is how the ink goes from plate to impression cylinder to stock not the angles of the halftone which are rarely perfect in any way, all depends on how the camera operator places the screen on the original when capturing the image.

This reminds me of a imperial seal a friend bought for 1/10 of the price off EBay. I was shocked to see it and picked it up and felt the bend was off. From there after unsleeving everything was ‘off’. Checked the back, and sure enough it was missing red dots. Jeweler’s eye only confirmed it.

The only thing you have to check is the chain around Deckmaster it suppose to be small ball rather that a straight line, the fake can't make the dot's

Plot twist. Wizards is behind fakes to drive up sealed product.

Thanks for sharing, really appreciate the detailed breakdown!

Also the there's noticeable grainyness and diagonal lines in the top of the border of the card. Also in the zoom in of the green dot there's no mountain shape I look for

Excellent video unfortunately the market is being saturated by fake card's especially uncommons!

0:45 if you look at the border, the inner border - the very first outline of blue, you can see the difference. The fake is grainier. That's just with the naked eye. You might not notice it alone but side by side you can definitely see a difference.

Thats a really good printing. Probably the best quality proxy I have seen.

Loop/Magnifying glasses is really only way to tell. There is too much variance in color to use that as a determiner without looking through the lens. Thanks for sharing those details.

Excellent video my friend. Thanks for sharing!

Great video, I'd love to see you do older cards. The print variation between legitimate cards can exist and it makes it so hard sometimes. And modern changes like stamps and even sometimes cores aren't available to validate. Revised duals would be a interesting video to watch!

Very best explanation i've seen done Thanks!

I wonder if this will have the effect of counterfeiters trying to make them like the real ones, now that they have more information.

Nice. Good to see that Green Dot + Light is still enough. Also I noticed the eye appeal was different too. Thanks for the video. I have been basically using feel+Light test and only needing to check green dot when I'm not sure. And glad to see it still works. I will add that the light test seems to show a very dark red pattern (different core paper) for majority of the BRO cards and a small portion of the ELD cards.

This video was honestly very educational

i have personally.. pull the same card from legit packs.. bought from a card store... and one pack would have a dark set symbol.. and a few weeks later.. another one would have a lighter set symbol

this is insane how theres a security feature that you cant even see

I ALWAYS keep an eye out for the small RED "L" in the green orb with my jewelers loupe.

@DismalDante What microscope do you use to get those amazing;y clear close up shots?

That was way too fun to watch, insta sub from me, keep em going! P.S: Yes, i just decided im about to go play some MTG arena again, hahaha ♥

This was allot of fun to watch!!

I can see the lower quality printing dots even before you zoomed in and explained it. @ 1080p on my screen. Ive been collecting and playing since 95' and have cards from all era's of the game, which makes spotting fakes way easier I guess.

I've gotten prints of the same card the look much different. One had much bolder font. And I've seen color differences between identical prints.

The green dot also has that straight edge that always seems to be forgotten by counterfeiters. Definitely no straight edge on that fake.

Thank you for the video.

10:21 Here the fake shows definite underprinting of high density of color ink, which is a technique common to ink-jet, but not offset printing. This is done in ink-jets to both increase black density, and also to help avoid black bleed. This isn't needed on offset printing.

Thank you for this!

This is probably the best video I've ever seen on the topic of fake cards, thank you so much for sharing!

What digital microscope are you using? I would like to get one if it's not too expensive.

I bought a foil playset of this very card not long ago. 1 of them looked off a bit. I suspected it might be a counterfeit but I'm not an expert. I figured I paid real price for it so im gunna play it like it's a real card. Not sure what else to do. I don't think returning it is an option at this point.

Hi, I was wondering what device you used to get such high quality, close up images. Would love to have a similar tool!

Even after explaining it they still looks exactly the same to me 😂

Sets them both down and forgets which is which*. "I'm just gonna run it"

I've examined common cards and have seen the same inconsistencies. I think a lot of it is Wizard's inconsistent printing

When you said the set symbol was off on colour you can also tell the symbol is a different shape then the real one

Breaking news just in! It was recently found out that the counterfeit printer has been ID'd. Apparently, it is unsurprisingly, Wizards of the Coast themselves. Just another self-own in the corporate world of merchandising. Back to you, Dante.

I bet if you put these on a sleeve and played a tournament no one would want to check your cards to see if they're real or not.

I have the habbit of having a different back for my proxies, so people don't get fooled by it or someone ends up trying to see a proxy of mine

How did you capture such high resolution images of that magnification

Thanks for sharing

So the set symbol looks more gold, the color more saturated, but not badly, and the card is stiffer than the real card. Maybe Wizards should find these guys and get the to make their rare cards FOR them.

The name font was bigger in the fake then the real and everything was slightly more darker.

Great video! Another way you can check the color of the core is by looking at the edge of the card to see the layers of paper and glue. (Although, I've seen REAL Magic cards these days with black cores.)

What digital microscope do you use?

Ask him if he sells more. I'd love to get some. I'll write "fake" on the back I just want proxies that look great.

Even WOTC is selling now proxies so where is the deal with ebay proxies?

Nice! I learned alot! dang fake cards...

would be interesting to compare two real cards

The light test is an obsolete authentication method, there are fakes that will pass it. Only the loupe / microscope method is valid now.

Epic video!!!

The problem I have is I thought I had got fakes, but then I realized I had an unopened box of Ikoria, so I opened it and they were all exactly like the cards I thought were fake. But also my commander precon deck reprints all look fake compared to my old cards. And the red dots on the backs are missing. It's crazy how hard it is to actually tell. Oh also my ikoria cards failed the light test. But I got the booster box from LGS in 2020. So they should all be real

what are some things we can use if we don't have a jeweler's loupe?

where did you get the fake from? i’m interested

Good video. This card is fake but the variations in color are natural even among the same set or the same card, telling people who don't know better that it's an indicator of a fake card is dangerous. Compare the corners, the way they are cut, that's a huge tell. Also the fact that the black isn't printed on top as a solid black line in some areas. You can see these things with the naked eye but if you want to be sure just check the 4 red dots with a cheap 60x jeweler's loupe, it's only a few dollars and you won't have any doubts.

Oh thats a paint brush symbol next to the artists name.... I thought it was something else for a moment....

those are actually very high-quality fakes. normally the green dot has tons of red dots in it on fakes and the black boarder around the green dot isn't solid black

To be honest at this point since i only play with friend at home i wouldn't mind to buy one of these for 5$ instead of 70$ xD

Counterfeit Dealers be like: "WRITE THAT DOWN! WRITE THAT DOWN!"

It looks like the print resolution on the fake card is way worse than the legit one. I don't know if it's just your camera picking it up, or if you can see it with just your eyes, (I hope the latter because that is still a frighteningly good counterfeit), but yeah, the fake card looks like it's got "splotchy" print dots.

Hell what's the seller on those fakes I wouldn't mind finding out what equipment they use to make proxies with I have issues buying proxies and they don't shuffle right

If you have Saul Goodman an Exacto knife, glue sticks, a printing shop and a couple hours he could make a better looking fake card.

The loupe doesn’t lie . what card you compare it to does not matter . only people who don’t know how to tell if a card is real Would think that it does

The proxy has way too rounded corners, an ever so slightly bigger chin on the boarder, way too centered, the stamp shows too much of the pattern for the amount of light, the text on the bottom is minutely larger, different brush symbols on artist stamp, bolder letters, slight color differences. What I'm trying to say is, if it looks too high quality, it's probably a proxy lol.

Convicted on all points.

I don’t want to ever get a fake card online . BUT , if this is hard to tell and the fake is that good i’m just thinking when I used to play standard at my local LGS if I had that card, there’s no way anybody would ever ever notice and it would make no difference.just to play

And wotc inconsistency in the quality of their product is why I’ve stopped buying single copies of expensive cards and just buy proxies now

Try buying a pack that is from Belgium and an American pack(you can buy them in north america, just check under the flap of the pack). Then try to compare the two. Also, why didn't you just rip it to see if the inside has the print ink line?

Holograpgic symbol at the bottom is a dead give away

Please do the same comparison with one card printed in the US and one in Europe. I heard that the quality of the european cards is better.

What about the rounded corners on the fake one?

whats microscope you use?

The proxies are mostly used by casual cEDH players. It's easy to tell based on the font on the bottom, it's really unfortunate that some people will try to take advantage and try to pass them off as real. I just like them cause I wanna play cEDH decks at home but can't afford crazy expensive cards. I guess it's one of those things where you just have to hope people won't try to pass them off as real in tournaments and stuff like that, but some people will always try to get away with that stuff.

So I recently just got into magic, is it illegal to use a “fake card” in magic? If it looks this similar and such, will it be a problem using it?

Man you had to use a microscope to figure out... this fake cards are getting better and better...

How can someone tell if you're playing it in a sleeve?

How is it fake? It has that shiny stamp at the bottom????

I would be very careful to point at colors or feel as indication of being fake. There are a lot of variations on the glossy or matte surface and even recent cards are extremely slippy. This seems much more common on Belgium printings AFAIK. The colors themselves vary A LOT and more between printers. US printing seems more towards the yellow and muted colors, though it varies as years go by. Belgium printers are much much more saturated and whites are more neutral overall. These differences are very noticeable on green and black cards. On black, US has a more brownish grey frame that is rather noticeable. Corners also vary a lot between printings and locations, so I wouldn't look at that. I would also compare with regular printings of different languages. Some people have said that what you see on blacks is that fakes aren't printed with a pure black, final layer, but black is a composite color. Hence, why the ghosting shows up and black lines are uneven.

Where to buy!? :0

Switches the cards back and forth turns them upside down immediately I go that one on the right of the fake

Did you ask the seller where they got this card from? I am always interested in that response.