stoneman vintage review
I recently ordered a set of blue core vintage proxies from the most highly recommended supplier, stone_man (fire_man on DHGate). I heard about him on /tg/, where people commented that his proxies were the highest quality. They are not.
- The black-bordered beta cards are obviously fake, without a second glance. Particularly bad are the scrubland and bayou, which are comically off-color; and underground sea has a green line along its border.
- Time Vault's top border is cut off.
- Zendikar fetches are grainy, although passable.
- Guru lands are HORRIBLE, particularly the forest, which appears to be done with a scanner at kinkos.
- Every card's back is slightly off color: the central brown is too ruddish, and the red border around "Magic" is too dark and not sharp enough.
- the alliances symbol on Force of Will is very grainy
- all cards are slightly TOO BIG and the corners dont match up with regular cards (see images: one card doesnt match the others)
The better proxies are: revised demonic tutor, all legends and antiquities cards, all tempest, mirage, visions, and urza's block cards.
As for feel and appearance, the above "good" proxies have a near-perfect finish (no glossiness problems). They feel a little stiff, perhaps, but pass the bend test.
They all fail the light test. The light shines through better than white-core cards, but is obviously more opaque than real cards and would not stand up to scrutiny side by side with a real card.
I hope this helps anyone interested in protecting themselves from fakes.
here are some images
Posted Jul 11, 2015, 1:59 AM UTC · edited
Alright, just got a chance to see these cards first hand and I concur with everything InGross mentioned in the OP.
A couple things I'd add is that for the Arabian Nights cards (Juzam, Bazaar, LoA) the scimitar set symbol is too large, and encroaches on the rules text box, so that's a dead giveaway.
Also, the Maze of Ith I saw was cut off at the top. Again, to reiterate the info in the OP, side-by-side, no one will be fooled by these cards. Across the table, most will pass scrutiny, except for most of the "beta" Duals. The Plateau was bonkers bad (behind the rules text, the alternating white/red color field was green/red), and Underground Sea's name was too far to the left, breaking the border.
Overall, if you need to proxy out a powered cube or finish off a deck to play at proxy-allowed Vintage events, these aren't that bad!
ninja edit: oh and one more thing I noticed, they actually smell like Magic cards. If that means anything haha