Misprints have been part of Magic: The Gathering for a long time now. Since the very first set, players have been finding cards with the wrong text, the wrong art, and a range of other issues in their booster packs. Recently, however, some players have begun finding completely blank MTG misprint cards in products.
As you can expect, this has left people more than a little confused. A blank card almost looks intentional, unlike the majority of misprints, but it most definitely is not. Thankfully there is actually an explanation behind the presence of these cards in products.
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Shooting Blanks
Let’s take a look at the misprint in question. This card was pulled from an Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander precon by Karlie Rose Aldred, and shown off on the Magic: the Gathering MTG Facebook group. It’s a completely white card, save for the black MTG border and the Rare/Mythic foil stamp in the center. Unsurprisingly, Aldred expressed confusion about the card in their post, asking “Does anyone know what it is?”
In typical Magic community fashion, players had more than a few bright ideas about what this mysterious blank card could be. Ronald Stanbro quipped that it was the “John Cena Universes Beyond card,” while Brandon Ballard suggested it could be “Psychic Paper.” Ulysses Bautista, on the other hand, saw the card as more of a real-life Wild Card: “It’s whatever you want it to be, Wizards chose you to make your own card.”
Others took the post more seriously and were quick to identify the card’s potential value as a rare misprint. Ricky Fox chimed in with “Nice hit. Recommend either the minor or major misprint group, should be able to get a premium there.” Matt McNamee concurred, adding that the card is “Worth $50-$60 in the right circles.” For a price like that, the ‘Real life Wild Card’ idea isn’t so ridiculous after all.
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Factory Error
Clearly, Aldred’s blank card isn’t a new phenomenon, then, given that there was price precedent for it. A dig through Reddit confirms this to be the case. Several other players have also reported blank cards in recent products. Interestingly, it seems to be mainly Commander products that are affected.
Back in January, a user called The_Asa_Spades shared a photo of a similar card, this one pulled from one of the Doctor Who Commander decks. Like Aldred’s, this card was totally white other than the Rare/Mythic stamp, and the border of course. As they note in the original post, this card came from the Masters of Evil precon deck. Interestingly, Gamma626 reported a near-identical misprint from the same deck. Clearly, the Masters of Evil have perfected card-erasing technology.
On a more serious note, what actually are these cards? And why are they showing up so much? The answer lies in the Magic card printing process. As pointed out by many players in the comments of each of these blank card discoveries, Magic cards are printed on large sheets. These sheets typically feature blank cards as placeholders, or separators between batches. When all goes to plan, these cards serve their purpose and end up in the WOTC garbage bins. Sometimes, though, they get slotted into a product by mistake, often in place of an actual card.
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Myriad Misprints
These kinds of factory errors are fairly common in Magic, especially in recent times. In just the last couple of days, similar card sheet issues were reported by players on Reddit. Not fully blank cards this time, but rather the opposite. That is to say, extra copies of cards that were supposed to be there as one-ofs.
For example, thatboredchickster found two copies of Mossfire Valley in their Upgrades Unleashed deck. This is a precon from the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty series, released back in 2022. Trizzytrey626 found themselves in a similar situation. After cracking into their Deep Sea Clue Commander deck, from Murders at Karlov Manor, they found an extra copy of Morska, Undersea Sleuth. To be honest, I think thatboredchickster got the better deal.
While not as egregious or eye-catching as the blank cards we looked at above, these misprints nevertheless have the same roots. Problems with the card sheet can also result in extra copies of cards ending up in products, again at the expense of another card in the deck.
The reason why these errors seem to disproportionately affect Commander products is yet unknown but likely lies in a new printing process that is being used for said products. In any case, keep an eye on every card in the next precon you open. As we’ve learned here today, a blank card can be worth far more, financially and historically, than the real card intended to be in its place.
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