The set symbol was an instant giveaway, even before you pulled out the real card i noticed it specifically.

I'm going to guess that the fake and real did their jobs. Make money and they're playable.

I like how the fake one looks like it has more detail in the art

I’ll take the fake one

Thanks!

“One looks more saturated the other looks more dull.” “One looks more matte the other looks more low-gloss.” “One looks muted the other looks more vapid.”

fakes are so easy to see because they always print using a 1 pass method. wizards prints using full passes of color then black. thats why their black lines are so sharp. the fakes print it all in one pass, making the entire card carry the same blurry texture even onto the black lines. basically if the black lines look blurry at all, its fake

As someone who doesnt play magic, i kinda forget theres a lack of quality assurance with wizards of the coast (i should know, i got a miscut base set Ninetales holographic), but this is sad if the fakes are better quality than the actual product. Judges can easily accept decks that could be partially faked, jewelers loop the winning decks if this is an actual problem in the Magic community

The problem is that magic card have no real security features. Compare a magic card that is worth 100 $ with a 100 $ bill. If you do you will see that the 100 $ bill has tons of security features which are very difficult to fake. Magic cards are peaces of paper about which no one cares, not even WOTC.

Good eye! The fake card seems to be a "4th gen" counterfeit, made in China. If you can't get your money back, I recommend writing FAKE on the back in Sharpie, so that this doesn't get accidentally mixed up with your authentic cards.

I've seen cards flagged as fake but they were actually legit because of Wizard's crappy printing quality, even within the same set. Don't get me started on foils.

I dont care if the card is fake. They have become so damn expensive that at this point buying a cheap ass copy of the card is a better option. Because none of my friends I play with can tell the difference anyways and none of them really care anyways.

The definitive real vs fake card comparison resource.

I'm a real newbie here. How do you know that these differences are signs of a fake vs variations in printing quality?

Im tryping this when youre showing 5x. Look, digital zoom better speak my natuve language better, because at this point youre a tweaker betting on the set symbols slight color difference and pulling other ghosts out in a strange dance of self-gratification. Edit: ok. Im convinced. Good fakes. I really like the effort that. Goes into good fake cards. Believe it or not, i studied to try and make good fakes for personal amusement only. Not to sell or trade. Its simply fun to try and copy.... Well .. anything perfectly

5:39 Try, if you must 😅

Thank you so much for this video and the others on the subject. I received to counterfeit cards, which appear to be from the same printer as yours. Decent quality fakes, but the microscope sold out mine. The black dot on the back had a completely different pattern too which was more obvious than other tests

To be fair the print quality I have received from actual wotc cards is actual trash. I have proxy’s from websites that look better than the real deal. Its the equivalent of moders fixing broken video games, where the company refuses to make the game any better

WIthin 10 seconds you could tell it was fake because of the sheen on the card, and how unnaturally dim it looks for an mtg card.

This is the reason why I sold all my MtG cards and play Modern using high quality proxies proxies via The League. With $1.000 I can have 5 decks of extremely high quality proxies that can't be spotted even in an offcial tournament setting.

Considering the inconsistencies on WotC printing how can you be so absolute sure that they are not both legit? I mean, If you get a card printed in USA, and the same card, from the same set, printed off-shore, they could be that different from one another and still be legit right?

How strong are your magnifying lenses? 30x? 50x?

I received ba fake Force of Negation from a seller on TCG. It looked real but definitely felt different. They quickly refunded my money and the card was sent back to TCG.

everyone should play recreations. it is, after all, a recreational game. leave the 'real' cards to the gamblers and investment bankers.

the holostamp actually looks like it is doing something in this case.

Investigating the counterfeit exposes the counterfeit.

Just gotta add this in but The actual duck! For 1 why are they fake cards and real cards? For 2 who the actual duck gets out a microscope and checks to this level to verify cards? And why!? Its a good video its informative but this is so much hassle to check if a cards real or not and how is anyone suppost to know if they dont have a magnifying glass?

When the fake is better than the legit card.

I can make fakes that pass this but I can't fake it so the black dots line up under a microscope lenses but 99% of the time this will be fine

Its only a matter of time befoe the proxies are better quality than wotc's

I could instantly see the fake FoN because of the font. I have seen those before with that slightly uncanny font.

is it bad that I could tell instantly before he said anything that the card he was holding was fake based on the shadow of the set symbol?

The proxy is better, good job WOTC!

The easiest thing to see is the fake one is a scan and low quality print (compared to original). When you zoom in you can see what’s effectively jpeg artifacts, which is going to be related to the colour issues. Holo stamp is great. Overall one of the best fake anythings I’ve seen. Edit: Sweet you get into this later, specifically wotc’s printing technique.

MTG IS MADE FOR THE DUMBEST PPL ON THE PLANET TO WASTE THEIR MONEY ON SOMETHING THAT IS WORTH LESS THAN 5 CENTS

you can see already from the printing when close up, its a fage too grainy

The more ways get shown to tell if the cards are fake, the more the counterfeiters will try to improve their cards to match. Not saying you SHOULDN'T post videos of how to ID fakes, but they will eventually replicate the pattern shown at 1:59. This is only a temporary way to spot fakes.

I will regularly open a booster/prize pack after an event and multiple pulls of the same card looking totally different. Red commons can look anywhere from pink to orange in tone. I have a bunch of Phyrexian text full art lands where the saturation is all over the place. Honestly, I don't think you can observe card coloration with the naked and make any claim about authenticity. You need some extra tools.

Question, does the production quality change from print run to print run? or from machine to machine?

"Hey you don't need any tools! You just need an expensive phone" Nice video....

Ironically these types of videos help conterfeiters make better quality fakes

some bro rn is learning what he needs to add to his counterfeit

Quite honestly, it's all the players' own fault that expensive copies are being sold illegally. the players determine the market and the price. If we don't slowly stop asking such crazy prices for a "game card", then we shouldn't be surprised about something like that anymore. I only prox my expensive cards. I don't see the point of paying over €100 for a manacrypt or 400-600 for a dual-land. Everyone should be able to play magic, but that's impossible given the prices. Control your own nose before you get upset about something like that again.

where to buy?

Does the green mana dot on the back look legit?

LOL I've seen more variation in card printing colors from the same case. This is nonsense. You just ripped off some poor guy on ebay.

In my experience the fake cards are higher quality than the "real" cards.

Great video man, very informative... We definitely need videos likes this out there to help prevent scammers...

thanks, this was helpful to verify some of my cards I bought on ebay.

Buy counterfeit cards, people. Fuck WotC.