Framing the Future

As I said in a previous post, Magic has had three main card frames in its lifetime:

Frame 1 (1993-2003)            Frame 2 (2003-2014)            Frame 3 (2014-present)

Note that each has a run of about 10 years. We're coming up to that time again . . . so what does the future hold? The 2007 set, Future Sight, produced a futuristic frame that (mercifully) we haven't seen since (example below), so I don't think it is that. The answer, instead, may be in recent variants.

As I said in the aforementioned post, in 2019, Wizards made a major announcement about new frame treatments- more variants would be coming. And come they have! Each set since has featured a variety of variants- too many, in my opinion- but I'll focus on the two mainstays: extended art and borderless cards.

Extended art and borderless frames are the two treatments that have consistently been seen as variants in new releases. In Double Masters 2022, the borderless cards have swelled in number (78!) and feature astounding alternate art. I hope this is a sign of things to come.

Part of Magic's draw is the card art. These extended/borderless options bring the art to the fore without sacrificing readability of the card attributes and mechanics. I'm rooting for borderless to be the next primary frame, but that may be an unwise business decision (as these are chase cards today), so perhaps a more realistic hope is for extended art to take over. We shall see.