I play edh and I saw these world championship cards. they looked awesome because they were super cheap compared to the black-bordered versions but they said not tournament legal. I talked to some people, and they said that it wasn't allowed. EDH Isn't a tournament format so I don't see the big deal. please let me know.
You sleeve your cards in good opaque sleeves? If you don't, then don't bother. These cards have a square cut corner and a non-legal Magic card back different from the tournament cards. That makes them stupidly easy to spot in a deck.
If you sleeve your cards, congrats! You did right! Now you got to go to the second step, get the blessing of your play group. Some play groups don't give a flip (like mine). Almost anything goes, one guy plays flip it or RIP it and many of the losing cards end up in his EDH deck.
Others are a little more discriminating. For instance, they go through the effort, time, and money to sink $5,000 into their deck and you show up with the same deck worth only half that because you used gold borders. Some might not like that.
So... while they're technically not legal for tournament play, nothing says you can't have a talk with your play group and come to some sort of agreement. Just be aware if you are a guest at a different playgroup that you don't run into a gaff with them.
They aren't square cut, they just have a non standard back and a gold border.
I have used a couple of them when I own the real cards, but in other decks (mostly the Grim Monoliths)
I'm not super familiar with all the different cards, but Grim monolith is the main one that I have seen people use, and I think some fetch lands. I would just make sure your not bringing a gun to a knife fight by using some super powerful essentially proxy cards.
There are square cut cards with a gold boarder on the back that do have a normal mtg backside, from two different products (collectors edition and international edition). These are alpha and beta cards, typically including power and dual lands.
Then there are world champ cards that have a gold boarder on the front, but doesn't have a normal mtg backside. That's your force of will/monolith/gaea's cradle/etc. You need opaque sleeves to hide these moreso than the square collectors/international cards.
If you're playing with friends then most ppl don't care, as long as you can't distinguish those cards from the rest of your deck.
If you ever play edh at a constructed event then they most likely will not allow these cards, since they tend to bleed in to proxy rules.
One issue that you will need to figure out with your playgroup is the likelihood of you owning the authentic card at any point. The few metas I play in all allow champ/collectors/international cards only if you plan to actually eventually own the card for that deck, or if you own a copy but don't have duplicates for multiple decks. We wouldn't allow a worlds gaea's cradle if you had zero intent on ever obtaining the real thing.
myself, and the majority of the group i play in, don't care. aside from the back and the border they're a thing that was made by wotc and otherwise looks exactly like the real thing. they're actually the only real proxy type thing none of us have a problem with at all. that's been pretty universal. almost everything else has had someone ***** about them at some point, but the gold border cards has never rankled anyone's ass.
that said i can see where some people might disagree and view it as a proxy but i don't know if that's a fair assessment of them given that they're not fake, and represent the actual card. it's a lot different to show up with a computer print out, or write time twister on a forest. i guess to me they're not much different than an alter.
Just do what I do, claim the gold-bordered is just there as a substitute for the actual one at home as you are worried that the real one would get stolen or damaged. Now if they press you to bring it, then you will have to fall back on making "deck changes" to standby your statement. Especially when considering pro-players have literally lost thousands and tens-of-thousands of dollars worth in cards from random thefts that targeted the older cards, its not unreasonable to have a surrogate cards.
I can understand people aren't happy when someone brings vintage cards and destroys the rest of the pod, but at the same time, it only takes one accidentally spilled drink on the table to potentially ruin a valuable antique card.
One issue that you will need to figure out with your playgroup is the likelihood of you owning the authentic card at any point. The few metas I play in all allow champ/collectors/international cards only if you plan to actually eventually own the card for that deck, or if you own a copy but don't have duplicates for multiple decks. We wouldn't allow a worlds gaea's cradle if you had zero intent on ever obtaining the real thing.
This is the stance my play group has as well, partially because I championed it. It's all too easy now for people to get stylized proxies (foil or otherwise) of super expensive cards like Gaea's Cradle for $4-5 per card. It's one thing to proxy a card because you want to see how it plays out, but let's be real, reserved list cards are only going to get more expensive. If you're not planning on buying or trading up for one now, it's only going to get harder to do so in the future.
That being said, I'm not trying to be a jerk about it, but the card's power level and what it can do to a game has to be respected. Of the 15 decks I've built over the past decade, I have 6-7 that have green in them. I own a single copy of cradle and am not proxying it in any other deck, despite how easy it would be to do so. The gold-bordered cradle in this example is at least a step in the right direction, being a legit wotc product and it having the same recognizable image to mark what it is from across a table.
One player in my group actually went out and bought one after trying to use the $4 foil cradle, because we had that conversation. It's not right to proxy all of the most expensive cards that are out there because you want the best version of something but never plan to obtain them. It's disrespectful to those who have spent their time, money and effort to obtain those cards because you either:
A. had some chinese company print counterfeits
or
B. decided that a slip of paper with pen/sharpie would be sufficient for long term play
You sleeve your cards in good opaque sleeves? If you don't, then don't bother. These cards have a square cut corner and a non-legal Magic card back different from the tournament cards. That makes them stupidly easy to spot in a deck.
If you sleeve your cards, congrats! You did right! Now you got to go to the second step, get the blessing of your play group. Some play groups don't give a flip (like mine). Almost anything goes, one guy plays flip it or RIP it and many of the losing cards end up in his EDH deck.
Others are a little more discriminating. For instance, they go through the effort, time, and money to sink $5,000 into their deck and you show up with the same deck worth only half that because you used gold borders. Some might not like that.
So... while they're technically not legal for tournament play, nothing says you can't have a talk with your play group and come to some sort of agreement. Just be aware if you are a guest at a different playgroup that you don't run into a gaff with them.
I have used a couple of them when I own the real cards, but in other decks (mostly the Grim Monoliths)
I'm not super familiar with all the different cards, but Grim monolith is the main one that I have seen people use, and I think some fetch lands. I would just make sure your not bringing a gun to a knife fight by using some super powerful essentially proxy cards.
Then there are world champ cards that have a gold boarder on the front, but doesn't have a normal mtg backside. That's your force of will/monolith/gaea's cradle/etc. You need opaque sleeves to hide these moreso than the square collectors/international cards.
If you're playing with friends then most ppl don't care, as long as you can't distinguish those cards from the rest of your deck.
If you ever play edh at a constructed event then they most likely will not allow these cards, since they tend to bleed in to proxy rules.
One issue that you will need to figure out with your playgroup is the likelihood of you owning the authentic card at any point. The few metas I play in all allow champ/collectors/international cards only if you plan to actually eventually own the card for that deck, or if you own a copy but don't have duplicates for multiple decks. We wouldn't allow a worlds gaea's cradle if you had zero intent on ever obtaining the real thing.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
that said i can see where some people might disagree and view it as a proxy but i don't know if that's a fair assessment of them given that they're not fake, and represent the actual card. it's a lot different to show up with a computer print out, or write time twister on a forest. i guess to me they're not much different than an alter.
I can understand people aren't happy when someone brings vintage cards and destroys the rest of the pod, but at the same time, it only takes one accidentally spilled drink on the table to potentially ruin a valuable antique card.
This is the stance my play group has as well, partially because I championed it. It's all too easy now for people to get stylized proxies (foil or otherwise) of super expensive cards like Gaea's Cradle for $4-5 per card. It's one thing to proxy a card because you want to see how it plays out, but let's be real, reserved list cards are only going to get more expensive. If you're not planning on buying or trading up for one now, it's only going to get harder to do so in the future.
That being said, I'm not trying to be a jerk about it, but the card's power level and what it can do to a game has to be respected. Of the 15 decks I've built over the past decade, I have 6-7 that have green in them. I own a single copy of cradle and am not proxying it in any other deck, despite how easy it would be to do so. The gold-bordered cradle in this example is at least a step in the right direction, being a legit wotc product and it having the same recognizable image to mark what it is from across a table.
One player in my group actually went out and bought one after trying to use the $4 foil cradle, because we had that conversation. It's not right to proxy all of the most expensive cards that are out there because you want the best version of something but never plan to obtain them. It's disrespectful to those who have spent their time, money and effort to obtain those cards because you either:
A. had some chinese company print counterfeits
or
B. decided that a slip of paper with pen/sharpie would be sufficient for long term play