Design Philosophy

A collection of cards where Prof's famous quote "Reading the card explains the card" simply ain't true because:

• the card has no text on
• the card text/layout deviates (significantly) from the "default" layout of a "normal" Magic card.
• the card design/text font/colour scheme makes it hard to read or identify key aspects of a card "at a glance" (i.e. what's the mana value, colour identity, power/toughness etc.)
• the card/printing is in a language other than English ("fictional" languages, e.g. Phyrexian, Elvish)
• the card/printing is in a language other than English (i.e. explicitly in a real, but non-English language)$^{1}$

Will this ever become a playable (or even enjoyable) cube? Who knows!

Am I certain though that the card selection will only continue to (rapidly) expand going forward given the myriad of special printings and Secret Lairs? Absolutely!

Does this make me a disgruntled "Magic Boomer"? Maybe!

$^{1}$: By this I mean printings of cards such as Cleopatra, Exiled Pharaoh or Leonardo da Vinci that are explicitly designed/printed in a language other than English, not just any localised version of a card. And yes, if you speak Italian or Greek then of course "reading the card explains the card" so of course this is written with a somewhat simplistic, "English only" perspective in mind for purpose of this cube.

Notes on cards and selection "process"

Of course all of this is subjective, for example I've included all Amonkhet Invocation cards just because they are somewhat "notorious" for being hard(er) to read even though one could argue they are much closer to a "typical Magic card" than many of the Secret Lair cards in this list. Now you could argue I should therefore include other special treatments from regular sets such as the MKM "dossier" cards (e.g. Alquist Proft) or even everything in Innistrad: Double Feature because they are hard(er) to parse "at a glance" with regards to colour identity etc. but I feel like adding large quantities of special treatment cards would "water down" the truly "unreadable" selection of cards in this cube.

Notable categories I've decided not to include for entirely subjective reasons and out of arbitrary personal preference:

• Misprints such as Serra Angel because it seemed hard (work) to come up with a reasonable "line" to distinguish misprints "prolific enough" to warrant inclusion. Yes the Secret Lair printing of Circular Logic sort of breaks this rule, but that card at least also deviates significantly in terms of visuals / card design hence why it's in here.
• Errata'd cards because a) for many modern printings with the "correct" / up to date oracle text exists, and b) it seemed too much effort to figure out which cards that were errata'd don't have a "correct" printing etc. I want this cube more focussed on the "visual approachability" aspects of the sentiment "reading the card explains the card".